Fact-checking organizations
Fact Check was Ballotpedia's fact-checking project that ran from October 2015 through October 2018. These pages have been archived.
Numerous media organizations throughout the United States engage in fact check journalism. In this article, we profile three organizations dedicated solely to fact-checking: FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and The Washington Post Fact Checker. The summaries below highlight these organizations' origins, output and funding. To learn more about them, see their individual profile pages.
FactCheck.org
| FactCheck.org | |
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| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Philadelphia, Pa. |
| Top official: | Eugene Kiely, Director |
| Founder(s): | Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson |
| Year founded: | 2003 |
| Website: | Official website |
- See also: FactCheck.org and The Annenberg Public Policy Center
FactCheck.org is a political fact-checking website that was founded in 2003 by former Associated Press and CNN reporter Brooks Jackson and academic Kathleen Hall Jamieson. It is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Originally intended as a temporary project for the 2004 presidential election, FactCheck.org's popularity increased significantly after Vice President Dick Cheney (R) referenced the site in a vice presidential debate. Following the 2004 election, FactCheck.org became a permanent project of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.[1]
FactCheck.org produces approximately 250 fact check stories annually. The organization publishes its stories online and encourages print publications to freely republish them.
Until 2010, Factcheck.org was supported entirely through the Annenberg Foundation and the Flora Family Foundation. In 2010, the organization started accepting support from individuals and regularly publishing a list of donors giving $1,000 or more in a year.[2]
PolitiFact
| PolitiFact | |
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| Basic facts | |
| Location: | St. Petersburg, Fl. |
| Top official: | Angie Drobnic Holan, Editor |
| Founder(s): | Bill Adair and Matthew Waite |
| Year founded: | 2007 |
| Website: | Official website |
- See also: PolitiFact and The Poynter Institute
PolitiFact is a political fact-checking website that was founded in 2007. It is a project of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper and is based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Times is owned by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational institution also based in St. Petersburg. On its website, PolitiFact says that it "is an independent fact-checking journalism website aimed at bringing you the truth in politics."[3]
Bill Adair, a former Tampa Bay Times Washington bureau chief, and news technologist Matthew Waite founded PolitiFact with backing from the newspaper. PolitiFact grew quickly in popularity, winning a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2009 and starting its first state franchises in 2010. PolitiFact reported running five state operations in 2010 and nine in 2011.[4][5]
With its stories, PolitiFact provides a rating system graphic called the "Truth-O-Meter." It publishes more fact checks than both other top fact-checking organizations, totaling about 360 "Truth-O-Meter" items in 2014.
PolitiFact receives funding from its parent newspaper and ads appearing on the PolitiFact website. PolitiFact accepts some funding from foundations. Grants from the Collins Center for Public Policy, CraigsList Charitable Fund and Knight Foundation helped fund PolitiFact Florida. PolitiFact's PunditFact project has received funds from craigconnects, the Ford Foundation and the Democracy Fund. PolitiFact used Kickstarter to solicit public funding for its live coverage of the 2015 State of the Union address and Republican response.[6]
The Washington Post Fact Checker
| The Washington Post Fact Checker | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Top official: | Glenn Kessler, columnist |
| Founder(s): | Michael Dobbs |
| Year founded: | 2007 |
| Website: | Official website |
- See also: The Washington Post Fact Checker
The Washington Post Fact Checker started in 2007 as a temporary project aimed at fact-checking the 2008 presidential campaign.
Veteran reporter Michael Dobbs wrote for the Fact Checker during its first temporary run. Dobbs started the Fact Checker's use of its "Pinocchios" rating scale in September 2007. Statements ruled misleading by the Fact Checker receive one to four "Pinocchios," with more misleading claims receiving the most Pinocchios.
When The Washington Post brought back the Fact Checker as a permanent feature in 2010, Glenn Kessler, another veteran reporter, got the job. Under Kessler, the Fact Checker expanded its mission to general political fact-checking. It also started rating whether candidates had flip-flopped on an issue, marking those events with an upside-down "Pinocchio" image.[7]
Fact Checker stories are published on the Web and in a Fact Checker column in the Sunday print edition of The Washington Post.
As part of The Washington Post newspaper, the Fact Checker receives its funding through ad and subscription revenue.
The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com.[8]
See also
- FactCheck.org
- PolitiFact
- The Washington Post Fact Checker
- The Annenberg Public Policy Center
- The Poynter Institute
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Graves, L. (2013) Deciding What’s True: Fact-Checking Journalism and the New Ecology of News (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest (UMI 3549415), p. 132
- ↑ FactCheck.org, "About Us," accessed September 14, 2015
- ↑ PolitiFact.com, "Home," accessed September 15, 2015
- ↑ TampaBay.com, "Background: PolitiFact team," accessed September 15, 2015
- ↑ National Press Foundation, "Just the Facts: An Interview with Bill Adair, Founder and Editor of PolitiFact," October 3, 2011
- ↑ PolitiFact, "Who is PolitiFact? Who pays for Politifact?" October 6, 2011
- ↑ The Washington Post Fact Checker, "About the Fact Checker," September 11, 2013
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Washington Post closes sale to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos," accessed September 11, 2015
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