Bill Adair, co-founder of PolitiFact, recently posted an article on Nieman Lab addressing his predictions for 2024, expressing his frustration over the perceived inadequacy of fact-checking practices. The traditional method of publishing fact checks online has proved ineffective, according to him, and the notion of “informing democracy” is no longer functioning as it should.
Adair is particularly concerned about the general skepticism towards political fact-checking among the Republican demographic, suggesting a failure in correcting this misalignment.
As first noticed and suggested by NewsBusters, the fact that more conservative ideas are still prevalent prompts a sense of alarm in Adair. This sentiment was met with strong criticism by former New York Times political analyst Nate Silver who responded by labeling the situation as “Yikes on every level” across multiple platforms.
To Silver, the notion of fact-checkers acting more like “marketers” and abandoning the humble goal of “informing democracy” to instead pair up with social media companies and suppress so-called misinformation is more than a cause for concern.
Furthermore, Silver questioned the approach of ramping up the same marketing efforts for fact-checkers that have been decreasing in trust for years. In a tweet, he expressed his skepticism, stating “IDK how they go from acknowledging that people trust fact checking less and less to being like ‘yes we need to triple down on everything we’ve been doing for the past 8 years.'”
It’s important to note that fact-checkers are often accused of demonstrating bias in their work.
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