Fact Checking After Truth

Abstract

The rise of “fake news” (misinformation presented in the format of news reports) and a claimed breakdown in a social consensus behind the reliability of experts and mainstream reporting as information sources (leading to a “post-truth” society) have raised hard choices for journalistic fact-checkers. Should they focus on nuanced evaluations of specific claims by politicians, or shift to debunking misinformation more generally? An analysis of fact-checking reports at the Washington Post around the 2016 and 2020 elections suggests little change in practice, in contrast to the 2014 Ukrainian initiative Stop Fake which attempted to debunk fake reporting.