AP rediscovers fact-checking

Politics and religion
1

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/05/who_woulda_thunk_it_fact-check.html

Has anyone else noticed that the Associated Press has been doing some strong fact-checking work lately, aggressively debunking all kinds of nonsense, in an authoritative way, without any of the usual he-said-she-said crap that often mars political reporting?
I asked AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier about this, and he told me something fascinating, if not all together unexpected: Their fact-checking efforts are almost uniformly the most clicked and most linked pieces they produce.
Journalistic fact-checking with authority, it turns out, is popular. Who woulda thunk it?

So it’s not just us high-falutin’ intellectual dickwads who don’t like the dumbass “he-said-she-said-you-decide” form of lazy reporting.

2

But they’re still doing it because it’s the profitable thing to do, not because it’s the right thing to do.

3

So? The important thing is they are doing it.

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Most forum members see this as a positive change, but some question whether the Associated Press is acting in good faith.

“They’re still doing it because it’s the profitable thing to do, not because it’s the right thing to do,” tiohn said.

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I’m just happy that it’s profitable. It’s nice to have profit encouraging desirable behavior for a change.

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I should add that I am very happy that this is the case and that it is profitable. I am just slightly irritated that the move is motivated purely by profit, but a good end is still a good end.

7

There can only be one Narrator, sir.

8

We could have used some of this eight years ago.