Anatomy of an anti-vax fact-check: Consider the Source, Check the Site, Confirm the Content. Who made the claim, who published it, where’s the evidence?
Author: Barrett Golding
Former executive producer of the NPR-distributed, Peabody Award-winning Hearing Voices series, Reynolds Journalism Institute and United States Artists fellow, and WordPress dev (repos at GitHub).
Mainstream media spreads fake news
Mainstream media contributes significantly to the infectious spread of conspiracy fantasies. But it could hold the cure.
Social media’s malgorithms spread lies and hate. The platforms are unwilling and probably unable to change.
Vax vs. Vote
A side-by-side, state-by-state comparison showing vaccination rates closely correlated with Biden-vote percentages.
The United States of Conspiracy
Americans will believe almost anything. Two decades of polling prove that. No matter how insane the claim, at least 10% and up to 40% of people will say it’s true.
Mainstream media funds fake news
When debunkers link to fake-news stories, they do more harm than good. There’s a right way and wrong way to cite unreliable sources. Most publishers use the latter.
Congress’ COVID-Positive Party
Do partisan beliefs and behaviors affect COVID-19 infection rates? Maybe, at least among members of the U.S. Congress.
This last of a three-parter compares the PolitiFact credibility of groups making political claims. The most truthful: comedians. The least: social media.
PolitiFact: All the Presidents’ Peeps
Part two of the series, that turns PolitiFact-checks into credibility scores, calculates the truth ratings of people in the past three presidential administrations.
PolitiFact: Voters Face Facts
Using PolitiFact-checks, we can compare the credibility of candidates and determine, from past elections, if voters tend to pick the more truthful candidate. (They do.)