Abstract
This chapter is about recent political fact-checking. The chapter provides an accounting of all of the major political fact-checking initiatives undertaken in the United States between 2003 and 2018. The chapter observes that the rise of these fact-checking organizations appears in waves, driven by national elections in the United States. The most extensive coverage is given to PolitiFact, one of the leading fact-checking organizations. Examples are given of evaluations made by PolitiFact to claims made by politicians, and to pushback from various political groups and to charges of bias, which we see are largely unfouded. Some of the other fact-checking operations that are considered here are the Washington Post FactChecker and The Weekly Standard FactChecker. A number of university-based research efforts to deal with the issue of fake news are considered, including the University of Santa Clara’s Trust Project, the University of Missouri’s Trusting News project, the CUNY News Integrity Initiative, and the Data & Society Research Institute’s Media Manipulation Initiative. Two recent trends are discussed: one is the creation of for-profit businesses to deal with fake news, such as NewsGuard by the well-known journalists Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz and the startup Our.News; the other trend is the use of technology to address the issue of fake news, such as the use of machine learning by Deepnews.ai, and the use of crowdsourcing by WikiTribune (created by Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales).
Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues.
– Hannah Arendt (Arendt (1971), quoted in Graves (2016))
The fact is that President Trump lies not only prolifically and shamelessly, but in a different way than previous presidents and national politicians. They may spin the truth, bend it, or break it, but they pay homage to it and regard it as a boundary. Trump’s approach is entirely different. It was no coincidence that one of his first actions after taking the oath of office was to … put the press and public on notice that he intended to bully his staff, bully the media, and bully the truth.
– Jonathan Rauch (Rauch 2018)
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Notes
- 1.
A trend already identified by American journalists in their industry as early as 2007, Silverman (2007).
- 2.
- 3.
While the existing political fact-checking organizations were diligent during the 2012 presidential election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, there were few new political fact-checking organizations created in preparation for that election.
- 4.
Silverman , Regret The Error, 275–279.
- 5.
Here is a brief history of Internews , pulled from its webpage (https://www.internews.org/our-history, accessed 18 December 2018). In 1982, Internews won an Emmy Award for linking by satellite the U.S. Congress with Deputies in the Supreme Soviet. The goal was to bridge the East-West divide using television. In 1990, they moved away from international television programming and began to support non-governmental media in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In 1993, Internews teams up with the Jerusalem Film Institute to train for news production and election coverage for Palestinian television. In 1994, Internews established bulletin board and email systems, called the Balkan Media Network, to enable independent media networks and individuals to have contact with the outside world while under assault from the Yugoslav National Army. In 1997, Internews began coverage of the UN tribunal for Rwanda. The following year, Internews began to train and support independent radio stations in Indonesia. In 2001, it initiated the Global Internet Policy Initiative. In 2002, Internews began to help create local, professional media in Afghanistan and provide coverage of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In 2004, Internews created an Earth Journalism Network to help developing countries to cover environmental issues; and in 2009, it established awards for journalistic coverage of climate change. In 2011, Internews provides support to free media in the Middle East, during the Arab Spring uprising. In 2013 it increases its work on Internet freedom and digital security. In 2014, Internews creates programs to grow the independent media in the South Sudan and Somalia. In 2015, Internews established a program to ensure that women’s voices could be hear around the world.
- 6.
- 7.
https://www.FactCheck.org/about/our-mission/, accessed 29 June 2018.
- 8.
Kessler 2013. For further information about the rating system, see the transcript of an interview of Kessler conducted by Brian Lamb for C-SPAN on December 22, 2011, https://www.c-span.org/video/?303324-1/qa-glenn-kessler
- 9.
As illustration of these comments, see for example, “Washington Post Caught Red Handed Peddling Anti-Trump Fake News,” editorial, Investor’s Business Daily, September 18, 2018, https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/washington-post-fake-news-passports-media-bias/ (accessed 20 December 2018); or “110 Examples of Post Misreporting,” eyeonthepost.org, covering reporting during the period May to October 2002., http://www.eyeonthepost.org/110examples.html (accessed 20 December 2018). As for whether the Post is liberal and how liberal, the website Media Bias/Fact Check evaluated the Washington Post and determined it has a left-center bias (which is more moderate than their ratings of left bias or extreme left bias) and that it rates High in factual reporting on account of its use of proper sources. (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/washington-post/, accessed 20 December 2018).
- 10.
“Articles relating to: Washington Post fact checker ”, Accuracy in Media, https://www.aim.org/tag/washington-post-fact-checker/ (accessed 20 December 2018).
- 11.
Much of the basic organizational information in this and the next several paragraphs is taken from the Wikipedia article about PolitiFact (accessed the week of June 25, 2018). Additional information is taken from Graves (2016).
- 12.
- 13.
politifact.com, accessed 27 June 2018.
- 14.
PolitiFact maintains a spreadsheet of political claims, known as “the buffet”, that are candidates for evaluation by the Truth-O-Meter. The process of finding political claims to add to the spreadsheet is known inside PolitiFact as “stocking the buffet” and as “trawling for shrimp”. See Graves (2016).
- 15.
‘Compromise’ means to PolitiFact : “Promises earn this rating when they accomplish substantially less than the official’s original statement but when there is still a significant accomplishment that is consistent with the goal of his original promise.“
- 16.
The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter : PolitiFact’s methodology for independent fact-checking, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/feb/12/principles-truth-o-meter-politifacts-methodology-i/, accessed 27 June 2018).
- 17.
- 18.
“The Democracy Fund invests in social entrepreneurs working to ensure that our political system is responsive to the priorities of the American public and has the capacity to meet the greatest challenges facing our country.” (“American Press Institute announces major project to improve fact-checking journalism”, news release, American Press Institute, February 6, 2014, https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/news-releases/american-press-institute-announces-major-project-improve-fact-checking-journalism/ (accessed 20 December 2018).)
- 19.
American Press Institute 2014. Also see https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/category/fact-checking-project/
- 20.
Elizabeth (2017). Their claims are based on American Press Institute’s Metrics for News.
- 21.
See, for example, Reingold (2013).
- 22.
https://betternews.org/topic/fact-checking/ (accessed 20 December 2018).
- 23.
In 2018, the University of Missouri journalism school took in the University of Georgia journalism school as a partner on the Trusting News initiative. (“Trusting News Project Expands Research and Training Through Partnership with University of Georgia,” RJI Online, October 11, 2018, https://www.rjionline.org/stories/trusting-news-project-expands-research-and-training-through-university-of-g
- 24.
Gallup Poll as reported in Mayer (2017).
- 25.
- 26.
- 27.
“Trusting News Project Receives $100,000 from Knight Foundation ” RJI Online, September 25, 2017, https://www.rjionline.org/stories/trusting-news-project-receives-100000-grant-from-knight-foundation. Other funding came from the Democracy Fund and from the university’s journalism institute.
- 28.
Mayer and Walsh, August 16, 2018.
- 29.
danah boyd , letter from the president, https://datasociety.net/pubs/ar/DS_Report-on-Activities_2014-2015.pdf
- 30.
- 31.
2014–15 annual report, https://datasociety.net/pubs/ar/DS_Report-on-Activities_2014-2015.pdf
- 32.
- 33.
- 34.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
“Sally Lehrman ”, Markulla Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, https://www.scu.edu/ethics/about-the-center/people/sally-lehrman/
- 37.
“Who We Are,” The Trust Project , https://thetrustproject.org/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top, accessed 3 January 2019).
- 38.
“What are the Trust Indicators?” https://thetrustproject.org/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top
- 39.
For a discussion of the Trust Indicators and how they came about, see Lehrman (2017).
- 40.
- 41.
Fact Check, The Weekly Standard, https://www.weeklystandard.com/fact-check (accessed 4 January 2019). Media Bias/Fact Check gave The Weekly Standard (not its fact-checking operation) the overall rating of Right Bias, and stated: “These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy.” (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/weekly-standard/, accessed 4 January 2019).
- 42.
News Integrity Initiative , https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/centers/tow-knight-center-entrepreneurial-journalism/news-integrity-initiative/ (accessed 3 January 2019).
- 43.
Advisory Council, https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/centers/tow-knight-center-entrepreneurial-journalism/news-integrity-initiative/advisory-council/ (accessed 3 January 2019).
- 44.
Founders, https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/centers/tow-knight-center-entrepreneurial-journalism/news-integrity-initiative/#founders (accessed 3 January 2017).
- 45.
What We Fund, https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/centers/tow-knight-center-entrepreneurial-journalism/news-integrity-initiative/what-we-fund/ (accessed 3 January 2019).
- 46.
Knight Foundation , Facebook and Craig Newmark provide funding to launch Duke Tech & Check Cooperative ,” September 25, 2017, https://reporterslab.org/duke-tech-and-check-cooperative-funding-announcement/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top (accessed 3 January 2019).
- 47.
“How It Works”, NewsGuard , https://www.newsguardtech.com/how-it-works/ (accessed 3 January 2019).
- 48.
“How It Works”.
- 49.
See Farhi (2018).
- 50.
FAQ, our.news , updates September 19, 2018, https://our.news/faq/ (accessed 3 January 2018).
- 51.
Wales , quoted in Whigham (2017).
- 52.
- 53.
https://jsk.stanford.edu/fellows/class-of-2017/frederic-filloux/ (accessed 4 January 2019).
- 54.
https://www.deepnews.ai/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top (accessed 4 January 2018).
- 55.
“The platform is based on a combination of two models.
“– The first model involves two sets of “signals” to assess the quality of journalistic work: Quantifiable Signals and Subjective Signals. Quantifiable Signals are collected automatically. These signals include the structure and patterns of the HTML page, advertising density, use of visual elements, bylines, word count, readability of the text, information density (number of quotes and named entities). Subjective Signals are based on criteria used by editors (and intuitively by readers) to assess the quality of a story: writing style, thoroughness, balance & fairness, timeliness, etc. (This set will be used only in the building phase of the model).
“– The second model is based on deep learning techniques, like “text-embedding” in which texts from large volumes of data (millions of articles) are converted into numerical values to be fed into a neural network. This neural net returns probabilities of scoring.” ( https://www.deepnews.ai/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top, accessed 4 January 2019).
- 56.
https://www.deepnews.ai/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top (accessed 4 January 2019).
- 57.
https://www.deepnews.ai/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top (accessed 4 January 2018).
- 58.
https://www.deepnews.ai/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top (accessed 4 January 2019).
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Aspray, W., Cortada, J.W. (2019). Recent Political Fact-Checking. In: From Urban Legends to Political Fact-Checking. History of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22952-8_5
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