Fact Checking the Fact Checkers: Verification Web Sites, Partisanship and Sourcing
Kenneth S. Rogerson · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2013
People are calling for the increased verification of the explosion of online information. What can we believe? One response to this call has been “fact checkers,” some of which are organizations and others run by individuals. How are these online verifiers set up? What are the mechanisms they use to fact-check others’ claims? Are they nonpartisan or unbiased in their analysis? Do they even claim to be? This paper analyzes some English language fact-checking websites in Canada, Great Britain and the United States, seeking to answer these questions. We create a typology of fact-checking web sites and propose criteria by which they might be evaluated. We then explore how each set of online verifiers addressed issues in each country’s elections. Preliminary conclusions are: Even the most visible fact-checking sites represent themselves in ways that might be considered partisan and they may not be justifying well the positions they take.