Early 21st century America has been noted for a trend: increasingly, fact-based journalism is under fire from partisans who demonize and try to discredit reporting and reporters who dare to run material that doesn’t advance their party’s agenda or vigorously challenges their party’s attack lines.
And now this is heading towards its most (il)logical conclusion: fact CHECKING has now been blasted by none other than Republican political maven Karl Rove who says you can’t trust the fact checkiing organziations.
PREDICTION: This theme will now be picked up by friendly talk radio show hosts and friendly new media in particular. Because if a fact checking organization lists how a charge or assertion is inaccurate or full of baloney by demonizing and discrediting the organization it allows new license. Not only are the longtime info gate keepers the press under fire as biased partisans with agendas but the fact checkers are said to be sloppy or in league with certain candidates.
SECOND PREDICTION: A fact checking organization will be blasted but then cited to as credible if it defends Mr. Rove’s side. This is the same attitude displayed by partisans who talk about how the methodology of a polling organization is flawed — unless the poll shows their side ahead and then the methodology is just fine.
Life would be easier if the new and old media from now on rely on that reliable beacon of fact accuracy, Karl Rove. But idn’t John McCain himself believe that Rove himself wasn’t factual with some of the material spread about McCain in South Carolina in 2000? Should those charges just have been allowed to stay out there and not be checked by fact-based journalists and fact checking organizations?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.