Quickies: "Fact Checkers"

The "fact checker" has become a visible, though questionably significant, feature of contemporary journalism. Several major media institutions now employ "fact checkers" whose nominal duty it is to assess the veracity of claims made by...well, anyone but their own employers. In a stunning, up-to-the-minute twist on the notion of "facts," these "fact checkers" are frequently employed to give the lie to persons who've made completely factual, easily confirmable statements.

The foundation of this practice is the belief, in many editorial rooms, that the public will accept the statements of officially designated "fact checkers" as authoritative beyond contradiction, amendation, or reproach. The purpose is, of course, political: to provide a tailwind for favored candidates and policies.

These "fact checking" aggressions are founded on a conception of authority that the media don't possess. They don't determine "the truth." They don't even determine "the facts." They emit streams of print, electromagnetic waves, and pixels that make certain claims. Those claims are not inherently authoritative; they're merely widely believed...though, happily, not so widely as was once the case.

If a New York Times reporter and I, having observed the same event, report it completely differently, does his employer confer superior authority upon him ab initio? I can't see it, given the many deceptions perpetrated upon the public by that organ in years past. Were the Times capable of citing a decades-long, blemish-free record of always reporting important developments accurately and comprehensively, its claim of authority would at least be worthy of something other than ridicule. As matters stand, I would have the better claim.

When deciding whether to award the mantle of authority to an individual, we go by what we know of his conduct and statements in the past. The standard for conferring authority upon a media institution should be the same. This is the key insight Americans must reach. We appear to be reaching it, more of us every day.