Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism Paperback – September 6, 2016 by Lucas Graves (Columbia University Press)

Fact-checking has entered the everyday lexicon in the United States, primarily due to political campaigning, whereby many individuals and groups are “stress testing” claims and promises being made for terminological inexactitude (lies, mistruths and plain errors in other words). Add in the power of the Internet, growing political polarisation and mistrust of the media and you can see why fact-checking is becoming an ever-present activity. This book looks at the world of fact-checking, who is doing it and why!

It is not just a case of interpretation and genuine errors being made in the rush to publish. Some media outlets and their contributors may be partisan or even been sold a pup by a source with a vested interest. What about statements and information from government? They should be neutral but in the rush to polish public perception and get their narrative clearly stated there is a risk that facts may be moveable, interpretable fixtures. Candidates, of course, deliver their statements on oath, don’t they…

The author looked behind the scenes at several media outlets, examining how they conducted their activities and considered how individual components in the machine functioned. How facts are managed, massaged and checked are also considered, looking at the whole situation from different sides. It is far from clear, one-sided and idealistic; a claim that can often be placed both on media organisations and on the fact-checkers.

Fact-checking should not be under-appreciated. In this ever-connected, hyper-speed world any incorrect facts, whether present by accident or intention, can be spread around the world in seconds. Social media storms can blow up and reputations be damaged. Once the genie is out of the bottle, putting it back in again can be difficult. Even if corrections are made, who remembers the small three-line expression of regret, compared to the front page main story that set the world alight with rank indignation, shock and alarm! Then “misremembering” something can be dangerous, since old memories can be dredged up, refreshed and corrected by fact-checkers.

Yet is all fact-checking based on an altruistic purpose? Many use it as a means to hold politicians to account for what they say and do. Yet is every politician held to the same level of scrutiny or is there an arms race with both sides of the political divide having their own fact-checkers. In the “good old days” the media was the fact-checker, yet did they deserve to have that power and did they really do a good job with what they had? In this book the activities of FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and the Washington Post’s Fact Checker are subjected to close scrutiny, although much of the book’s general findings and observations can be equally relevant to others.

It was a fascinating, engaging and informative read. If you are not inside the media or political “bubble” there is still a lot of great material awaiting your reading pleasure. For those who are inside, maybe it can be a bit too close for comfort or a bit too much of an eye-opener, for often those who are too close to a subject fail to really note what is going on under their noses.