Finding Truth on the Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: September 16, 2004 7:18:19 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Finding Truth on the Internet
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

Finding Truth on the Internet 
By Louise Witt

Story location: 
<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64967,00.html>

02:00 AM Sep. 16, 2004 PT

When Miles O'Brien, a CNN anchor, wanted to know the facts behind an 
anti-John Kerry ad attacking the presidential candidate's congressional 
testimony on the Vietnam War more than 30 years ago, he turned to an 
unconventional source: FactCheck.org.

 O'Brien invited Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org, to appear 
on his news show. O'Brien told viewers last month that Jackson's 
website acts as a "truth meter" that sorts through the mudslinging.


 Jackson told O'Brien that the ad was misleading. Kerry was right when 
he testified that American soldiers had committed atrocities in 
Vietnam.

 FactCheck.org doesn't claim to dispense the truth. Instead, the 
internet-based service, funded by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of 
the University of Pennsylvania, analyzes the accuracy of political 
advertising on both sides of the ideological aisle. Sen. Kerry's 
website has referenced FactCheck.org's articles and so has President 
Bush's. Kerry's even linked to FactCheck.org from its homepage.

 "One of our best days was when both the Bush and the Kerry campaigns 
quoted our articles in news releases as proof that the other side was 
lying," said Jackson, who pioneered CNN's so-called ad watch reports 
during the 1992 presidential election. "Of course, they were different 
articles, criticizing different issues."

 FactCheck.org's original mission was to provide a service to small and 
medium-size news organizations that didn't have the resources to check 
the facts presented in political ads. However, its reach went much 
further. Many mainstream media outlets rely on the group's research in 
their own political coverage. Anthony Silva, a reporter for WBZ news 
radio in Boston, calls Jackson for his take on campaign ads. And Mark 
Matthews, a political reporter for KGO-TV in San Francisco, regularly 
cites FactCheck.org's analysis in his political reports.

 "It's important for journalists to look at what's being said in 
political ads and to analyze who's sticking to the discernible facts 
and who isn't," said Matthews, an investigative reporter. "It's our 
responsibility as journalists to look at what's being said and to tell 
our readers the context of what's being said. We have to tell them what 
is accurate or not accurate. FactCheck.org does a good job."

 Jackson isn't surprised larger news outlets use FactCheck.org's 
research, but he was taken aback by the public response to the site. 
The site has more than 35,000 subscribers to its electronic newsletter 
that debunks campaign ads, special-interest ads and even political 
rumors on the internet.

 One piece of cybergossip suggested that Teresa Heinz Kerry's charities 
support radical groups, some of which have links to terrorists. In its 
articles, FactCheck.org provides links to the original sources, so 
readers can review its investigations.

 "Certainly the reach isn't as broad as TV by any stretch of the 
imagination," Jackson said. "But it shows a hunger for what we try to 
be: a nonpartisan, non-ideological resource that tries to sort things 
out in (an) understandable fashion. We try to call them like we see 
them."

 FactCheck.org fills a journalistic void. Major media outlets tend to 
report on the strategy behind campaign commercials rather than 
analyzing the content for veracity. Even though Jackson pioneered ad 
watches for CNN, the cable network let him go last year.

 "I've seen the press generally put less emphasis on ad watches and 
fact-check-type stories," Jackson said. "Political coverage is too much 
weighed toward covering the sport of politics: who's ahead, who's 
behind."

 Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy 
Center, who hired Jackson to head FactCheck.org, said the media tends 
to give both sides of the story without providing analysis. "He 
said/she said journalism tends to do that, and this is especially true 
when you're talking about advertising," she said.

 Jamieson said it's difficult for journalists who cover the campaigns 
to decipher whether the assertions in the ads are correct. "A lot of 
journalists who cover campaigns aren't policy experts," she said. "It 
takes time to find the journalist who follows the policies and checks 
the facts. Under deadline, it's difficult to do."

 Thomas E. Patterson, a professor at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the 
Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government 
at Harvard University, says the internet lets the media outsource their 
research.

 "I don't want to say that journalists are lazy," he said. "But if 
there are alternative and quicker sources available and they have some 
confidence in them, then they'll make use of them. What's happened is 
that journalists are reacting to web-based resources. There's no reason 
for them to reinvent the wheel."

 Jamieson said she would like to devote more resources to 
FactCheck.org, so it could check the accuracy of political rumors 
circulating on the web. Along with Jackson, the group has two younger 
researchers. "With a much larger staff, I'd love to look at mass 
circulation on e-mail," she said. "They look as though they are 
reasonable arguments when you get them from a friend and you're likely 
to believe them."

 Until the election, FactCheck.org will cover the political ads. It 
will also provide analysis of the presidential debates. After that, 
Jamieson is not sure whether the Annenberg Center will continue to fund 
FactCheck.org.

 "Our service was to provide a service to reporters," Jamieson said. "I 
was surprised that the internet-savvy public has linked in. We're 
delighted. Our goal was not to become a news organization, but provide 
the resources to the press to do more of this."

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