Fact checking has become competitive and the State of the Union address is a good example of two major fact checkers squaring off with little time to do a rather lengthy fact check. Fact checking wasn’t as popular in 2000 as it is today. Judging for accuracy of statements and the hard evidence supporting claims by politicians and corporations has become a full time job at Politifact (Politifact #SOTU analysis ) and at Nate Silver’s Fivethirtyeight (538's #SOTU analysis .)
Politifact also looked at the GOP rebuttal by Joni Ernst after the President's speech. You can judge the results for yourself. You might wonder if one of the elements used to judge fact checkers is the readability of their fact checking reviews. I’d rate the fivethirtyeight review more readable and interpretable than the Politifact review. Keep in mind that fivethirtyeight has considerably more resources than Politifact. Nevertheless both reviews provide readers with good footing to step back and reflect on the President’s speech.
While fact checking has grown significantly over the last decade and millions tuned in to the State of the Union speech last night, the question remains, how many Americans don't even know fact checks exist or don’t care? How many don’t understand how to weigh facts even if they have access to fact checks? Providing fact checks that are accurate is the most obvious measure on which we can rate fact checkers. But fact checks also need to be readable and improve Americans' understanding. This measure is more elusive but will become common as the inequality gap of 'understanding' becomes more of a focus. Increasing emphasis on this measure of utility gives some fact checkers an edge in their efforts to capture our attention and reduce the clutter in Americans' personal echo chambers of emotion and opinion.
A friend who was clearly too busy to fact check made the claim that we can’t trust the fact checkers since they’re just another source of opinion. This person like so many Americans has a job and family that demand so much time that there is little left for civic engagement – part of the price paid when wages don’t keep up with demands for productivity.
It fair to say though that fact checking benefits from competition among the fact checkers. Americans’ hunger for truth and understanding of contemporary events in the political arena, science and culture has created a consumer pool that fact checkers are competing for. In order to successfully compete for consumers’ attention, their fact checking must be accurate, well substantiated and readable. I’d have to agree that last night’s competition gave fivethirtyeight the edge because their output was more readable but there was still value in Politifact’s accurate reporting of what was actually said.
If you’re not content with these two major fact checkers, you might like VOX, a recent contender with a good record of accuracy with a pinch of flare. See VOX for their take. For fun they added a Obama State of the Union Bingo card VOX Bingo a feature also offered by Obama’s action arm, Organizing for Action (OFA.)