I can’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, but at some point, fact-checking ceased to be about checking facts. Feels like it was over the past decade or so, or at least that’s when it became extra stupid.
The second job I had after college was as a dining department intern at a magazine. Probably the biggest part of my job was fact-checking stuff. I’d make phone calls, send emails … all to verify even the most mundane of details. Sometimes it could get really tedious, but I did it because it was my job.
But then you’ve got outfits like PolitiFact or the Washington Post Fact Checker, who literally have the word “fact” in their name yet don’t seem to care nearly as much about actual facts as they do about facilitating and defending particular narratives.
You’ve also got Newsweek, which is quickly rising in the ranks to join PolitiFact and WaPo in the elite class of “fact checkers” who dispense with facts that are true but inconvenient. Recently, Newsweek offered up this fact-check regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story:
Recommended
The entire body of that fact-check could consist of just one word: “Yes.” But that would have been too easy for Newsweek. Would’ve been too honest.
“Needs context.” Really? Really???
oh COME ON pic.twitter.com/40e0biUmvB
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 15, 2022
"led to the conclusion by some"???
just .. i mean just play along with me here for a second: who was doing the leading?
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 15, 2022
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 15, 2022
Weak sauce, Newsweek.
“Needs context” just means “This has inconvenient facts that don’t follow our narrative. We need to add the proper spin before too many people believe it.”
— Janine Curran (@janinereturns) December 15, 2022
They know what they’re doing. They’re propagandists.
— Thomas Parker (@TheThomasParker) December 15, 2022
They totally are. And they have absolutely no shame about it.
Corporate media is irredeemable trash.
— Jeff (@JeffAthwart) December 15, 2022
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