(Note: We’re off on vacation, to return Jan. 3. Meanwhile, catch us on “The Journal Editorial Report” this weekend discussing the Electoral College and Harry Reid’s legacy. Note special time: Saturday 1 p.m. ET, Fox News Channel, with a repeat showing Sunday 3 p.m. ET.)



The postelection “fake news” panic has borne fruit: “The Facebook feed is about to get fact-checked,” reports Advertising Age: “The social network on Thursday said it will implement new measures to combat the so-called fake news and lies spreading via its platform.”

The report is explicit about the political agenda underlying the decision:

Facebook has been under intense scrutiny ever since Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, an upset that some say was at least partly fueled by a mess of misinformation on social media services including Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. . . .

Facebook is deputizing reputable, third-party fact-checking sites to label posts as “disputed,” a warning that will appear prominently in the Facebook feed and pop up when someone tries to share the post. The fact-check organizations include Snopes, FactCheck.org and Politifact, which are part of Poynter’s International Fact Checking Network.

According to Harvard’s Nieman Lab, ABC News and the Associated Press are also part of the effort.

Not everyone would agree with the characterization of these “fact-checking sites” as “reputable.” In particular, PolitiFact—a project of the Tampa Bay Times, with state affiliates associated with other newspapers—has a checkered history. Its work is frequently shoddy and partisan.

In 2013, as this column noted, the site named as its “Lie of the Year” President Obama’s promise “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” It’s hard to dispute that, but PolitiFact’s earlier write-ups had. In 2009 and again in 2012, it rated the claim “half true,” and before the 2008 election flatly “true.”