Ep. 83: The Unchecked Conservative Ideology of US Media's 'Fact-Check' Verticals
Added 2019-07-17 14:47:06 +0000 UTC"Three Pinocchios!" rates The Washington Post. "Pants On Fire!" declares PolitiFact. “True, but misleading,” assess The New York Times.
In a media environment overwhelmed with information, misinformation, disinformation and so-called “fake news,” a cottage industry has emerged to “fact-check” the content coming across our screens. Prestige, corporate media outlets tell us if a viral meme, a politician’s statement or a pundit's controversial claims is indeed “factually correct.”
But who fact-checks the fact-checkers? And what do mainstream media’s particular hyper-literal, decontextualized approach to “facts” and “truth” say about how the press views its role as ideological gate keeper?
We are joined by writer Andrew Hart.
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Guest
Andrew Hart is a writer whose work has appeared in Deadspin, Gawker, Jacobin and The Outline.
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Show Notes
Glenn Kessler sucks and that’s a fact
Andrew Hart | July 2, 2019 | The Outline
CEOs Get Paid a Lot? NYT Says ‘Well, Actually…’ to This ‘True but Misleading’ Fact
Adam Johnson | February 8, 2018 | FAIR
The Fact-Checkers Are Clueless
Matt Bruenig | August 20, 2018 | Jacobin
PolitiFact Is Right That Ted Cruz Is Wrong, But Still Botches Iran Deal Facts
Nima Shirazi | September 25, 2015 | FAIR
Follow-Up on PolitiFact, Where Iran Deal Facts Only Sort Of Matter
Nima Shirazi | October 27, 2015 | Wide Asleep In America
News media hesitate to use ‘lie’ for Trump’s misstatements
David Bauder | August 29, 2018 | AP
The raging controversy over whether to call Trump’s lies “lies,” explained
Matthew Yglesias | May 30, 2018 | Vox
Stephanie Grace | January/February 2018 | Brown Alumni Magazine
Here’s How the First Fact-Checkers Were Able to Do Their Jobs Before the Internet
Merril Fabry | August 24, 2017 | TIME
The Diffusion of Fact-checking: Understanding the growth of a journalistic innovation [PDF]
Lucas Graves, Brendan Nyhan & Jason Reifler | April 22, 2015 | American Press Institute
Alan Brinkley | May 23, 2014 | Vanity Fair
Newsweek ditched its fact-checkers in 1996, then made a major error
Craig Silverman | August 21, 2012 | Poynter
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
"True, but misleading". I guess the longer-term goal of the phrase is to mollify people's sense of worry about real bad events and indictments of society, i.e. the children in the camps or people having to overwork just to stay alive for another week. It's essentially "yeah, well, if you really think about it, it's not that bad, not that big an issue, stop worrying" etc. It's super disingenuous.
Tom Kelly
2019-08-03 21:49:30 +0000 UTC
