It’s come to this. Facebook has been so bullied over the “fake news” narrative since the election that they’re actively appointing a panel of censors to police speech on Facebook:
To combat fake news, Facebook has partnered with a shortlist of media organizations … that are part of an international fact-checking network led by Poynter, a nonprofit school for journalism located in St. Petersburg, Florida. … Of the 42 news organizations that have committed to Poynter’s fact-checking code of ethics, Facebook is starting out with the following four: Snopes, Factcheck.org, ABC News, and PolitiFact.
In fairness, Facebook says it’s giving these organizations a mandate only to deal with clear “hoaxes,” and they are expressly not to litigate partisan disputes. (Whether or not partisan disputes will get redefined as hoaxes at some point in the future is an obvious concern.) To the uninitiated, these may even seem like reputable news organizations. Conservatives concerned about media bias would likely—and rightly, to some extent—be wary of all of these outlets. But one of these outlets deserves singling out to explain what a horrifying idea this is: Poynter’s very own PolitiFact, which might well be the most biased news organization in America.
The entire media fact-checking enterprise is suspect, and I’ve written at length why this is the case. In sum, it’s basically a way for a bunch of reporters with no particular expertise to render pseudo-scientific judgments on statements from public figures that are obviously argumentative or otherwise unverifiable. Then there’s the matter of them weighing in with thundering certitude—pants on fire!—on complex policy debates they frequently misunderstand.
