The CEO of Snopes himself ended up in a scandal last year https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/12/22/the-dai.... Who can we trust to fact-check those claims? Who's fact-checking the fact-checkers?
The CEO of Snopes himself ended up in a scandal last year https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/12/22/the-dai.... Who can we trust to fact-check those claims? Who's fact-checking the fact-checkers?
In my personal experience, when fact checking political fact checking, three out of the four claims I investigated turned out to be highly misleading. Usually it was by the person doing the fact checking leveraging the fact that people wouldn't have full context.
I'll give an example. Unemployment. Someone will say un-employment is higher then the statistic suggests, because the way the statistic is tracked has people who are unemployed for a long period removed from the listing. They will then give an estimate of the real statistic. The fact checking will say that this is a pants on fire lie, then cite the unemployment statistic. They will not address the central claim about how that statistic is recorded.
In my estimation, these sites are largely propaganda. Or maybe I'm being too bold in saying that. I know there is research that suggests that people are literally less able to read statistics and think factually in the presence of their political opposition. If given charts to read, charts that disagree with political positions are more likely to be misread then those that don't. There might be more at play then an attempt at influence leverage on the part of the fact checkers.
Either way, I'm inclined not to set the prior the current iteration of fact checking websites are an example of striving for truth and so deserve special value when updating what I believe.
However, I tend to find that non-political and not hotly debated topics don't seem to have this problem of being frequently wrong. So when things aren't highly political, I probably will allow the use of fact checking, because if I'm striving for truth that is expedient.
Care to share your results? If it's really 3/4 it should be very easy for you to provide many examples.
Those who claim that most fact checkers are completely biased, will also claim that most mainstream media is "fake news", that <opposition ideology> is responsible for most social ills, that <person's ideology> is the eternal victim, and so forth.
Recognizing that the truth is not on your political side requires both honesty and clarity of thought, which the average political ideologue is functionally incapable of.
"I don't think fact checking websites should present themselves as the only source of truth" is separate and reasonable argument to make.
"I don't think fact-checking websites should get involved with controversies because it gets ugly" is a rationalization of ignorance.
Yes, fact-checkers who lack credibility are terrible. We shouldn't listen to organizations that repeatedly mishandle or mishandle delicate subject matters.
But the fact checkers who do do their research, who have a track record of being mostly correct in their appraisals, should we just condemn them to ignominy? Should we give up on knowing right from wrong, truth and untruth just because it's hard? Because it's difficult?
Of course not.
If we agree that the truth behind important subjects are worth knowing and worth spreading, then it follows that we need to support those who can spread it. Running away from critical thinking is no solution.
If the truth isn't on your side, attack the very concept of truth.
I'll remember this line. I'll also add that the purpose of "fake news" is not to make one take one side over another: it's to inhibit one's ability to discern between the sides.
Fake News aims to cloud the debate, because that's the only way one side can win; if the people who can object and stop it are unable to tell up from down, and more meaningfully, right from wrong.
The fact that a debate exists is not proof that a legitimate debate should exist.
To use MartinCron’s example. “What is the shape of the earth?” is a high quality question as opposed to “What’s past the horizon?” “What keeps the sky and ground separated?” or “If I’m standing on the ground, what is the ground standing on?”
Questions that are difficult to answer are debated by many, but not all questions that are debated by many are difficult to answer. For example- Earth is not flat.
I wish more websites would at least attempt to validate the info they're flinging around.
I am a huge Obama supporter, but I can see why people who don't like him interpret the video as him encouraging illegal voting. I think the wording made things pretty ambiguous yet Snopes gave a definitive answer that I think ignored the confusing statement.
I understand why people were upset, because the interviewer is clearly hinting at undocumented people voting, but Obama objectively does not encourage it. He uses the word "citizen" several times, and does not acknowledge the interviewer's weird definition of citizen.
I think one of the important parts of the interview (for the controversy) is:
"So if I vote, will immigration know where I live? Will they come for my family and deport us?
OBAMA: Not true. And the reason is, first of all, when you vote, you are a citizen yourself."
When the interviewer says "deport us", it sounds like the 'me' here is not a citizen, so Obama should not have said 'not true' as a response to this.
Also, Obama says "when you vote, you are a citizen yourself" which sounds like voting -> citizen which is obviously nonsense but could be interpreted to go along with the interviewer's weird definition of citizen.
I think conservatives view this as Obama helping to create a viral video that will be interpreted by illegals as encouraging them to vote. Since it wouldn't be proper for him to tell illegals to vote directly, his awkward words let him send that message while allowing him to claim he was misinterpreted. i.e. if Obama wanted to do this, how would he do it differently than he did? (And he did say other things of substance as well so his supporters will claim that's all he was trying to say.)