If journalism professor and PolitiFact founder Bill Adair meant to increase faith in the fact-checking industry with his appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, he failed miserably. Adair told host Jon Stewart on Monday that the reason why Republicans get fact-checked more is because “lying... has just become a culture” in conservative circles.
Holding up a copy of Adair’s book, Stewart declared, “You’ve taken criticism because you fact-check more people on the right, or you say they lie more... I mean, it’s in here; there’s a statistical analysis.”
Adair replied, “What I did for the book was look at fact-checks by PolitiFact and by the Washington Post fact-checker and then talk to -- I think the most revealing thing was when I talked to Republican politicians and said, ‘Why does your party lie more?’ And it was really revealing.”
Stewart then interrupted because he found the premise to be humorous, “Wait, you just said, ‘Why do you guys lie more?’ And they’re like, ‘Good question, Bill. There’s something deeply wrong with us.’”
Adair was then forced to admit he didn’t really talk to Republicans, “Yeah, well, these are, for the most part, people who have left the Republican Party and who will acknowledge this truth, but, you know, they have a partisan media that not only looks the other way when they lie, but echoes their lies, and often has a business model built upon their lies, and so, you begin with that. Then, you have a culture in the Republican Party that many people told me goes back to—many people put it with Newt Gingrich as sort of the turning point.”
According to Adair, Gingrich “changed the culture of the Republican Party and changed it into sort of an anything goes. ‘Hey, if we’re going to win, let's, you know, you can change the facts.’”
Stewart suggested that it was more likely caused by Richard Nixon and Roger Ailes, and Adair didn’t disagree, “And, you know, combine all those things, and you have a recipe for lying and support for lying that has just become a culture.”
That’s a funny thing to say after the VP debate where PolitiFact hacked up a JD Vance quote to rate him mostly false when the rest of his quote said what PolitiFact’s rebuttal claimed he omitted while refusing to give Tim Walz a false rating for his Tiananmen Square tall tale.
Earlier in the interview, Adair claimed, “The whole idea is to answer people's curiosity... If you hear a politician make a statement, and you wonder, ‘Is that true?’ Those are the things that PolitiFact checks. I mean, and ultimately, that's what journalism is all about. To answer people's curiosity. If they are wondering what is true and what's not, that is what PolitiFact fact-checks.”
Really? Are people really wondering if Donald Trump is dead?
Still, Adair later chimed in on the fact-checkers relationship with big tech companies, “I think humans will be needed to create fact-checks. We hear what is wrong, we need to research it. We need to respond to it. But yes, AI can be used to spread it more efficiently, to broader audiences.”
He hyped, “Two things we have done with our team at Duke is to, we work with a tech company to create a standard so that fact-checkers could label their fact checks. It's called ‘claim review,’ and it allows them, when they publish something, to put this tag on so that tech companies, search engines, social media platforms can find—“
Stewart interrupted to clarify, “Like a good housekeeping seal, to some extent of—” to which Adair argued, “it is really like a street sign that says, 'This is a fact-check on person, on this claim.' And claim review helps find that fact-check, if you're Google, so, Google can then say, “Oh, here's a fact-check” and could use it in powerful ways. So, that's one way.”
Seeing possibilities, Stewart hoped, “And keeps the information from being, let's say, laundered throughout the internet, which is often times what happens. People lose attribution.”
Adair hedged, “Potentially. I can't speak for Google, but that is something they could do.”
But what is a Googler to do when they see a fact-check label that itself isn’t true?
Here is a transcript for the October 7 show:
COMEDY CENTRAL The Daily Show
10/7/2024
11:20 PM ET
JON STEWART: And the idea is, it's sort of a repository of fact-checkers for political speech. How did you decide what would be included in what you would decide to check?
BILL ADAIR: Sure. So, the whole idea is to answer people's curiosity.
STEWART: Right.
ADAIR: If you hear a politician make a statement, and you wonder, "Is that true?" Those are the things that PolitiFact checks. I mean, and ultimately, that's what journalism is all about. To answer people's curiosity. If they are wondering what is true and what's not, that is what PolitiFact fact-checks.
…
11:24 PM ET
ADAIR: I think humans will be needed to create fact-checks. We hear what is wrong, we need to research it.
STEWART: Right.
ADAIR: We need to respond to it. But yes, AI can be used to spread it more efficiently, to broader audiences.
STEWART: And to be more responsive.
ADAIR: So, two ways that we've done that at Duke. We worked –
STEWART: Duke?
ADAIR: Duke University?
STEWART: I have heard it's a safety school. I have heard very, very poor things.
ADAIR: [Laughs] So, two things we have done with our team at Duke is to, we work with a tech company to create a standard so that fact-checkers could label their fact checks. It's called “claim review,” and it allows them, when they publish something, to put this tag on so that tech companies, search engines, social media platforms can find –
STEWART: Like a good housekeeping seal, to some extent of—
ADAIR: It is really like a street sign that says, "This is a fact-check on person, on this claim." And claim review helps find that fact-check, if you're Google—
STEWART: I see.
ADAIR: So, Google can then say, “Oh, here's a fact-check” and could use it in powerful ways. So, that's one way.
STEWART: And keeps the information from being, let's say, laundered throughout the internet, which is often times what happens. People lose attribution.
ADAIR: Potentially. I can't speak for Google, but that is something they could do.
…
11:35 PM ET
STEWART: You’ve taken criticism because you fact-check more people on the right, or you say they lie more.
ADAIR: Yes.
STEWART: And better.
ADAIR: Right. They're very good at it.
STEWART: Yes, but you’ve done it, I mean, it’s in here; there’s a statistical analysis.
ADAIR: Yes. What I did for the book was look at fact-checks by PolitiFact and by the Washington Post fact-checker and then talk to — I think the most revealing thing was when I talked to Republican politicians and said, “Why does your party lie more?” And it was really revealing.
STEWART: Wait, you just said, “Why do you guys lie more?” And they’re like, “Good question, Bill. There’s something deeply wrong with us.”
ADAIR: Yeah, well, these are, for the most part, people who have left the Republican Party and who will acknowledge this truth, but, you know, they have a partisan media that not only looks the other way when they lie, but echoes their lies, and often has a business model built upon their lies, and so, you begin with that. Then, you have a culture in the Republican Party that many people told me goes back to — many people put it with Newt Gingrich as sort of the turning point.
STEWART: Really?
ADAIR: That Newt Gingrich, sort of, changed the culture of the Republican Party and changed it into sort of an anything goes. “Hey, if we’re going to win, let's, you know, you can change the facts.”
STEWART: By any means necessary.
ADAIR: Yes.
STEWART: Right.
ADAIR: And that culture took hold. Now, some people dated earlier.
STEWART: I’d go to Nixon on that and Roger Ailes.
ADAIR: I was just going say, and Roger Ailes.
STEWART: And maybe money isn't even the point. Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News, very famously said during Watergate, “I’m going to create an apparatus so that what the left did to Nixon,” they viewed any sort of press as the left, what they did to Nixon, “you can never again do to another Republican candidate or president,” and quite frankly, I think has been successful.
ADAIR: And, you know, combine all those things —
STEWART: Yeah.
ADAIR: — and you have a recipe for lying and support for lying that has just become a culture.
