PolitiFact, one of the fact-checking outlets with the ability to censor your Facebook posts, and PBS, the news channel subsidized by your tax dollars, announced in a joint statement on Friday on their respective websites that they are teaming up for the remainder of the 2024 election cycle, formalizing their June 27 Debate segment..
The statement involved plenty of mutual back-patting, “As the rise of misinformation and disinformation continues, fact-based and impartial journalism is more important than ever during this historic election. Together, PBS News and PolitiFact share a mission of equipping their audiences with the information they need to discern fact from fiction and hold elected officials accountable.”
It further reports “PolitiFact’s fact-checking reporting and research will appear across PBS News programming and digital platforms during major political events such as the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention and all upcoming presidential and vice presidential debates. The news organizations will also explore opportunities to co-produce content.”
PolitiFact editor-in-chief Katie Sanders gushed, “We’re excited to have PBS News as a national television and online partner. Their engaged audience is a natural fit for PolitiFact’s thoroughly researched reports and fact-checking. Working with a trusted brand like PBS News will expand the reach of our work at a time when voters are seeking out factual information to help them make decisions.”
Meanwhile, senior executive producer of NewsHour Productions and WETA senior vice president Sara Just played the democracy card, “Trust and accuracy are the coin of the realm in journalism. Efforts to erode that trust and cast doubt on media accuracy does profound damage to our democracy and we in the media are duty bound to protect and build that trust up.”
She added, “By working with PolitiFact, PBS News broadcasts and our online journalism will provide transparency to the audience to appreciate how facts are assessed and evaluated by journalists, especially during our heated election season. I’m delighted that our partners at PolitiFact will help PBS News platforms reinforce the reasons to have faith in the news we provide in the public interest.”
While Just tries to claim that doubting media accuracy is dangerous to democracy, the truth is just the opposite.
In the 2024 election cycle alone, PolitiFact has given Nikki Haley a “half-true” rating for a completely true statement about China, picked a fight with Ron DeSantis for admiring Calvin Coolidge, shown double standards in how it labels nuanced topics, slapped “false” labels on Babylon Bee jokes about Pete Buttigieg, shown a heavy anti-GOP selection bias, taken left-wing positions on culture war issues, and routinely defends Democrats’ abortion radicalism with non-sequiturs about how rare late-term abortions are.
Perhaps Sanders was right. PBS and PoltiFact are a “natural fit.”
