Commentary Before the COVID lockdowns, social media companies had started contracting with new third-parties organizations called fact-checkers to assist in “content creation.” Getting a pass meant the post or story was amplified but getting dinged for inaccuracy meant that the post would be throttled or deleted. For a while we believed it but certain revelations…

Five-time Emmy award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson said she has seen an increased effort to manipulate the public to appreciate censorship and disapprove of journalism. One of the strategies that has been employed is the use of third-party fact-checkers, she said. “Nearly every mode of information has been co-opted, if it can be co-opted by some…

Commentary A few days ago, I got an email from a fact-checker at PolitiFact. His name is Bill McCarthy. He said he was checking a quotation from me taken from my appearance on the “Ingraham Angle” on Fox News.  We had an exchange of emails that gives a very interesting window into the otherwise obscure…

PolitiFact has quietly retracted a Sept. 2020 fact check that labeled a Hong Kong virologist’s claim that COVID-19 originated in a lab as inaccurate and a “debunked conspiracy theory.” “The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous,” now-archived fact check previously said. “We rate it Pants on Fire!” In an updated editor’s note published Monday, PolitiFact explained…