• FiveOP
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    3 months ago

    This bot comment adds nothing of value and only wastes page space, which is actually an improvement over the bot’s typical function. MBFC is a threat to media literacy on Lemmy.

    Fact-checking is an essential tool in fighting the waves of fake news polluting the public discourse. But if that fact-checking is partisan, then it only acerbates the problem of people divided on the basics of a shared reality.

    This is why a consortium of fact-checking institutions have joined together to form the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), and laid out a code of principles. You can find a list of signatories as well as vetted organizations on their website.

    MBFC is not a signatory to the IFCN code of principles. As a partisan organization, it violates the standards that journalists have recognized as essential to restoring trust in the veracity of the news. Partisan fact-checking sites are worse than no fact-checking at all. Just like how the proliferation of fake news undermines the authority of journalism, the growing popularity of a fact-checking site by a political hack like MBFC’s man behind the curtain, Dave M. Van Zandt, undermines the authority of non-partisan fact-checking institutions in the public consciousness.

    • @duffman
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      03 months ago

      “Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC News) adheres to the International Fact-Checking Network Fact-checkers’ Code of Principles. The Poynter Institute developed these principles to promote excellence and standardization in Fact-Checking.”

      Seems like they are on board with those principals. Also, explain how it’s partisan please.

      • FiveOP
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        03 months ago

        Membership in the IFCN provides a method for member organizations to be held accountable to the IFCN code.

        Would you trust an organization that claims to follow a code, but has either been denied and had their membership rescinded for violations of that code, or has chosen to avoid being held accountable in the first place?