We need fact crusaders
October 30, 2023 1:47 PM Subscribe
Fact-checking can be nuanced, and every misstatement is not an intentional lie. But many of the lies we see today are obvious. Journalists need to call them out prominently, not just in the 14th paragraph of a story. People read headlines. So journalists must put corrections in headlines. Instead of writing a story headlined “Trump says UAW talks don't matter because EV shift will kill jobs,” news outlets should write stories headlined “Trump lies about electric vehicles during speech to auto workers.” This type of headline would not be a cheap shot. Trump’s September speech to non-unionized auto workers was stuffed with lies. From the October 30, 2023 issue of Stop the Presses newsletter by Mark Jacob, former metro editor of the Chicago Tribune and former Sunday editor of the Chicago Sun-Times.
As the right wing keeps pushing disinformation, journalists keep fact-checking.
They dissect quotes. They consult experts. They cite statistics.
But it’s not enough. We need fact-crusading, not just fact-checking. Yes, fact-crusading.
News media must hold the facts in such high regard that the enemies of truth become their adversaries – to be called out and confronted, not just corrected.
As the right wing keeps pushing disinformation, journalists keep fact-checking.
They dissect quotes. They consult experts. They cite statistics.
But it’s not enough. We need fact-crusading, not just fact-checking. Yes, fact-crusading.
News media must hold the facts in such high regard that the enemies of truth become their adversaries – to be called out and confronted, not just corrected.
The folks who need to see this aren't interested though.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 3:52 PM on October 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 3:52 PM on October 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
I think it would be neat if there was a fact-checking 101 on the "make a metafilter post" page.
posted by aniola at 3:55 PM on October 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by aniola at 3:55 PM on October 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
I was thrilled to see someone give concrete examples of the kind of headlines we should be seeing. Even if it is unlikely to happen, I think the whole essay is worth a read.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:58 PM on October 30, 2023 [17 favorites]
posted by Bella Donna at 3:58 PM on October 30, 2023 [17 favorites]
I agree that the media should do a better job of calling out lies for what they are but I wonder what effect it would actually have. In the post Jacob already notes that 58% of Republicans have no trust in mass media. Is a headline from a news source they don't trust clearly calling someone they like a liar going to convince them of anything besides that they were right not to trust the media in the first place? Or maybe it'll be able to stop people before they are too far gone down their rabbit holes. Is that the hope?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:13 PM on October 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:13 PM on October 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
In the post Jacob already notes that 58% of Republicans have no trust in mass media. Is a headline from a news source they don't trust clearly calling someone they like a liar going to convince them of anything besides that they were right not to trust the media in the first place?
They're not for them. They're for everyone else.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:52 PM on October 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
They're not for them. They're for everyone else.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:52 PM on October 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
I just assume if a republican is speaking it’s lying.
Saves a massive amount of time and effort.
posted by chronkite at 5:49 PM on October 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Saves a massive amount of time and effort.
posted by chronkite at 5:49 PM on October 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
FYI, CNN has already been doing this for a couple years now. They routinely have "Trump lies ..." headlines on their homepage now.
I just wish they'd started using the L word in 2015.
posted by intermod at 6:06 PM on October 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
I just wish they'd started using the L word in 2015.
posted by intermod at 6:06 PM on October 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
The folks who need to see this aren't interested though.
and
In the post Jacob already notes that 58% of Republicans have no trust in mass media. Is a headline from a news source they don't trust clearly calling someone they like a liar going to convince them of anything besides that they were right not to trust the media in the first place?
Unless they are paying more careful attention, people are influenced by headlines that they see, though. It may be part of their daily environment and catch them when they’re not specifically thinking about or noticing the source; or may get forwarded on social media as a tweet or something otherwise clipped from it’s original source. But even folks who are skeptical of a given source are susceptible to having their broad impressions or intuition skewed by repetition. Eg. folks who read tabloids for ironic humor, and will say when asked that they believe tabloids to be junk and that they don’t trust anything they read in them, will end up over time having their baseline of things they accept as true shifted in the direction of what the tabloid is pushing. Maybe ending up being more credulous about the possibility of contact with extraterrestrial life having already happened but kept secret by the military, or just more likely to believe that the military is hiding secrets about some things that are more dramatic than the mundane everyday sort of cya that people do when they make mistakes. Or they may know quite well that historical architectural accomplishments were built by humans and not ancient aliens, but end up with a vague sense that how non-white ancient peoples built things is somehow in doubt or unknown.
This can lead to people’s politics shifting: for example, having a world view in which non-white people’s aren’t thought to be capable of feats of mathematics or engineering on par with modern Western/European accomplishments consistently reinforced them leaves people more susceptible to arguments in favor of racist policies, or unsupportive of progressive policies due to doubting their potential efficacy. Then you get people who’ll say, “well I support these progressive values, but I just don’t see how we could feasibly accomplish them” and so in practice end up voting for someone more centrist or center-conservative than they otherwise would have. And when this happens to enough people, the Overton window can shift enough to have real world consequences, even though it’s a subtle shift in each individual.
It would be cool to use that effect for good (that is, to shift people’s views in the more progressive direction).
posted by eviemath at 6:32 PM on October 30, 2023 [15 favorites]
and
In the post Jacob already notes that 58% of Republicans have no trust in mass media. Is a headline from a news source they don't trust clearly calling someone they like a liar going to convince them of anything besides that they were right not to trust the media in the first place?
Unless they are paying more careful attention, people are influenced by headlines that they see, though. It may be part of their daily environment and catch them when they’re not specifically thinking about or noticing the source; or may get forwarded on social media as a tweet or something otherwise clipped from it’s original source. But even folks who are skeptical of a given source are susceptible to having their broad impressions or intuition skewed by repetition. Eg. folks who read tabloids for ironic humor, and will say when asked that they believe tabloids to be junk and that they don’t trust anything they read in them, will end up over time having their baseline of things they accept as true shifted in the direction of what the tabloid is pushing. Maybe ending up being more credulous about the possibility of contact with extraterrestrial life having already happened but kept secret by the military, or just more likely to believe that the military is hiding secrets about some things that are more dramatic than the mundane everyday sort of cya that people do when they make mistakes. Or they may know quite well that historical architectural accomplishments were built by humans and not ancient aliens, but end up with a vague sense that how non-white ancient peoples built things is somehow in doubt or unknown.
This can lead to people’s politics shifting: for example, having a world view in which non-white people’s aren’t thought to be capable of feats of mathematics or engineering on par with modern Western/European accomplishments consistently reinforced them leaves people more susceptible to arguments in favor of racist policies, or unsupportive of progressive policies due to doubting their potential efficacy. Then you get people who’ll say, “well I support these progressive values, but I just don’t see how we could feasibly accomplish them” and so in practice end up voting for someone more centrist or center-conservative than they otherwise would have. And when this happens to enough people, the Overton window can shift enough to have real world consequences, even though it’s a subtle shift in each individual.
It would be cool to use that effect for good (that is, to shift people’s views in the more progressive direction).
posted by eviemath at 6:32 PM on October 30, 2023 [15 favorites]
We need more trust and we need the expectation that you can trust news headlines -- trust in reporting is core competency of fair and accurate news reporting. That trust needs to extend to public life, you engage with politics because you trust it will impact your day-to-day life using institutions and change them to meet needs you and your community have. When voters are put off because they don't trust the democratic process, low turnout cedes elections to people who will do anything for power.
We also need think tanks and policy fora/forums to disclose the source of their funding to prevent rent-a-press release outfits from skewing the Overton Window. Historically the list includes lies about things like the safety of lead paint, the safety of cigarettes, the possibility of human-caused climate change, that you should expect politicians to make promises they can't keep or that it's OK for politicians to lie in speeches and manifestos making promises they have no ability or intention to keep.
Good luck to us all!
posted by k3ninho at 2:58 AM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
We also need think tanks and policy fora/forums to disclose the source of their funding to prevent rent-a-press release outfits from skewing the Overton Window. Historically the list includes lies about things like the safety of lead paint, the safety of cigarettes, the possibility of human-caused climate change, that you should expect politicians to make promises they can't keep or that it's OK for politicians to lie in speeches and manifestos making promises they have no ability or intention to keep.
Good luck to us all!
posted by k3ninho at 2:58 AM on October 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
My high school journalism teacher, back in the 1980, told his class that when a source lies to you, that's your story. It means there's a truth that the source wants to conceal, and the journalist should dig for and expose that truth.
The so-called "liberal media" has almost completely abandoned that approach in favor of a lazy "balanced" model in which lies and truth are given equal footing.
But journalists should remember that a lie is an admission that the truth does not favor one's position.
posted by Gelatin at 4:08 AM on October 31, 2023 [18 favorites]
The so-called "liberal media" has almost completely abandoned that approach in favor of a lazy "balanced" model in which lies and truth are given equal footing.
But journalists should remember that a lie is an admission that the truth does not favor one's position.
posted by Gelatin at 4:08 AM on October 31, 2023 [18 favorites]
Dashy flagged a New Yorker fact-check story in the Sara Lippincott thread.
posted by BobTheScientist at 6:17 AM on October 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 6:17 AM on October 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
I agree with the sentiment. I would have appreciated the author explain what happened when he himself did (or didn't) do that when he was an editor. Was he overridden by board members or investors or some other higher power? How should current editors deal with the same pressures?
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 11:09 AM on November 1, 2023
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 11:09 AM on November 1, 2023
As a former professional factchecker: argh! This is not what factchecking is! Factchecking is one of the last steps in a piece getting ready for publication; the factchecker goes through and checks the writer's work, as a second pair of eyes.
Writers aren't their own factcheckers. Headline writers aren't factcheckers. The writer verifying the information from a second source aren't factchecking. Newspapers don't have factcheckers because journalists are expected to get their facts straight all on their own, and newspaper editors aren't supposed to mess up those facts in the editorial process.
Or maybe I give up and accept that the world, and the word, has changed.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:39 AM on November 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Writers aren't their own factcheckers. Headline writers aren't factcheckers. The writer verifying the information from a second source aren't factchecking. Newspapers don't have factcheckers because journalists are expected to get their facts straight all on their own, and newspaper editors aren't supposed to mess up those facts in the editorial process.
Or maybe I give up and accept that the world, and the word, has changed.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:39 AM on November 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
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