The Magazine

A Hip Check, Not a Fact Check, 'Bull Cheese' & More

From The Scrapbook.

Aug 30, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 47 • By THE SCRAPBOOK
Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts

A Hip Check, Not a Fact Check

There is a widespread misapprehension that news organizations are never more evenhanded and punctilious than when they label one of their stories a “Fact Check.” To the contrary, with a handful of honorable exceptions, few articles are as one-sided, biased, and overtly editorializing as those labeled “Fact Check.” 

It is precisely when news organizations are itching to take sides that they resort to a “fact check” story—a format that, ironically, liberates them from the usual constraints of conveying both sides of a dispute and frees them to accuse politicians and others they dislike of deception and dishonesty. 

As we noted on this page last fall, it was not a disinterested devotion to the truth that led the Associated Press to assign 11 reporters to “fact check” Sarah Palin’s book Going Rogue—a level of scrutiny never before applied to a politician’s memoir. And by the way, don’t waste your time looking for AP’s “fact check” of either of Barack Obama’s memoirs.

Last week, the AP was at it again, with a ludicrously biased “fact check” of the Ground Zero mosque story. Here’s the lede: 

A New York imam and his proposed mosque near ground zero are being demonized by political candidates—mostly Republicans—despite the fact that Islam is already very much a part of the World Trade Center neighborhood. And that Muslims pray inside the Pentagon, too, less than 80 feet from where terrorists attacked.

To read more, you must be a Weekly Standard Subscriber

We're Sorry,

the rest of this article is available only to subscribers.

You have two options:

Subscribing today will provide you with immediate, complete access to the current issue, as well as to all back issues on the site. Each week you will be able to read articles from the newest issue even before print copies are mailed!

Privacy Policy

Recent Blog Posts

Tea Party

Could the New Obamacare Mandate Reinvigorate the Tea Party?

Euro symbol.svg .png

Don't Just Blame the Bankers

Barack Obama

‘No Precedent for the Government Ordering Private Companies to Offer a Product for Free’

Mitt Romney

Romney Wins Maine Caucuses

The Weekly Standard Archives

Browse 15 Years of the Weekly Standard

Old covers