| Matt Taibbi has written a great piece about the rise and rise of fact-checking. He writes that as trust in media has dropped precipitously in the last few years, “many organizations have chosen to trumpet fact-checking programs as a way of advertising their dedication to “truth.” Time magazine also wrote about how checking has shifted. Once a way of saving a publication from embarrassment by removing errors “before a piece [went] live”, the new political fact-checking “usually devotes its attention to careful analysis of an error someone else has made.” Taibbi warns about the limitations of fact-checking and says the public is largely misinformed about the process. The Time article agrees, saying that fact-checking today creates a myth of objectivity. Fact-checking leads the reader into a belief that he is “being informed by an agency above human frailty or human interest.” With a little more snark, Taibbi writes “Good checkers are there to help perpetuate the illusion of competence.” We are not ignorant of the devil’s schemes, nor the desire of men to wrap themselves in the fig leaves of a more palatable truth. Mad Christians don’t need to fear being corrected, as we rest wholly on God’s strong and unchanging Word. It is able to bring us to repentance and also make us wise, for salvation through Christ Jesus. |
