Thomas D. Williams — Report: Supposedly Impartial ‘Fact-Checkers’ Driven by Political Prejudices

A new study on the recent fact-checking trend to separate “fake news” from real reporting found that in the majority of cases, the fact-checkers are just as subject to bias as the news they evaluate.

The report underscored the importance of subjective judgments in the process of fact-checking, amply borne out by numerous examples where fact-checking organizations betray significant political and cultural biases in their assessments.

The results of the study, executed by Daniele Scalea of the Machiavelli Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Rome, were presented Wednesday at the Italian Parliament Wednesday during an academic conference on the topic of fake news and journalism.

Many of the errors proceed from broadening the scope of fact-checking to include statements that express opinion, analysis or prediction.

Since fact-checkers do not limit themselves to appraising objectively verifiable assertions, the study revealed, they pronounce judgments not only about facts, but also about what attacks are fair, what arguments are reasonable, what forecasts are probable, and what language is appropriate.

In the majority of cases, the report continues, fact-checkers weigh the validity of arguments, rather than checking facts. This exercise involves significant space for human error and entails a good dose of subjective opinion, despite the pretension of impartial analysis....

As Joseph Uscinski noted in a 2013 essay, fact-checking “is actually just a veiled continuation of politics by means of journalism.”...

Breitbart News
Report: Supposedly Impartial ‘Fact-Checkers’ Driven by Political Prejudices
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

Chris Dillow — Murdoch's common error

A cognitive bias known as the outgroup homogeneity effect.

Stumbling and Mumbling
Murdoch's common error
Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle

Is Economics, As Well As Most Other Policy Management Theory, Tragically, Comically Overrated?

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

Ya think? :(




Is there a recipe cookbook for cultural and economic policy evolution? :)

Just Do The Little Things That Make It Harder For All Citizens, Everywhere, To Work At Cross-Purposes?

Ian Millhiser — Eric Holder: I Had To Tell My Son How To Protect Himself From The Police Because He Is Black

Indeed, despite a career spent in the most elite reaches of the legal profession, Holder still fears that his son will someday find himself in danger from the police, simply because he is black. As he told the NAACP, “[m]y father [sat] down with me to have a conversation – which is no doubt familiar to many of you – about how as a young black man I should interact with the police.” He continued that Trayvon Martin’s death “caused me to sit down to have a conversation with my own 15 year old son, like my dad did with me.”

“This was a father-son tradition I hoped would not need to be handed down.” Holder added. “But as a father who loves his son and who is more knowing in the ways of the world, I had to do this to protect my boy.”

Think Progress
Eric Holder: I Had To Tell My Son How To Protect Himself From The Police Because He Is Black
Ian Millhiser