Investigative Issues: The Troubling Fact Is That Media Fact-Checkers Tend to Lean ← Left By Sharyl Attkisson

[Geee]

Real Clear Politics

A growing response to today’s chaotic information landscape sounds inviting and elegantly simple: appoint experts to “fact-check” news stories, blogs, speeches, studies, opinions, and political ads. Information they deem to be false is corrected or even removed from public view, in the name of the public good.

 

Since Donald Trump’s election these “fact-checkers” have gained increased prominence. Pressure has mounted for news outfits and big tech companies – including Google, Facebook, and Twitter – to police political discourse. At the same time, many people, notably conservatives, are demanding that the tech giants back off such perceived censorship. Tensions on both sides were on display last week as a House Judiciary subcommittee grilled top Silicon Valley executives. 

That discord is likely to persist because in large part the fact-checking solution is illusory. Many such efforts fail because they amount to a circular feedback loop of verification. The fact-checkers are like-minded journalists or often liberal Silicon Valley gatekeepers, who frequently rely on partisan news sources and political activists to control narratives on a wide variety of issues and controversies. This small group of players exerts an oversized influence, using fact checks to shape and censor information.

Twitter recently sparked controversy by taking the unprecedented step of adding a disapproving “fact-checking label” to some of President Trump’s tweets. The social media site publicly explained that Trump’s May 26 posts contained what its fact-checkers deemed to be “potentially misleading information about voting processes.”

[Valin]

@Geee

OK, is Anyone in anyway surprised, or shocked about this?

It has come to the point where I read a story about (say) Trump Covid19 (just to name 2), I know they are at best spinning it and Much more likely outright lying. Lying in commission or (just as importantly) Omission.

Welcome to the Post Modern world, where Everything is Subjective....And An Opinion.

There was some stories I read back at the start of GWOT, about why there are so many conspiracies in the Arab world, They're believed because No One believes the Press there. Are we headed that way?

I get more Real News from people like Tim Pool and and places like Rantburg than I do from MSNBC/CNN.

 

[Geee]

WaPo ‘Fact-Checker’ Field Tests a New Excuse for Biden to Not Debate

[Valin]