The media, fact checking? Imagine that.
Who woulda thunk it: Fact-checking is popular!
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?
The AP, for instance, definitively knocked down claims that Elena Kagan is an “ivory tower peacenik.” It called out GOP Senators for their bogus “judicial experience” assault.
The AP also did an extensive investigation into Obama’s handling of the Gulf spill, and concluded it “shows little resemblance to Katrina.” As Steve Benen noted in lauding this effort, the AP definitively debunked a key media narrative as “baseless.”
“What we tend to forget in journalism is that we got in the business to check facts,” Fournier says. “Not just to tell people what Obama said and what Gingrich said. It is groundless to say that Kagan is anti-military. So why not call it groundless? This is badly needed when people are being flooded with information.”</em>
Doubt this will matter much to those who in live in the comforting bliss of Truthiness, i.e. the right wing in this country, but for the rest of us, the salient beings, we say it’s about time.
