Who woulda thunk it: Fact-checking is popular!

Has anyone else noticed that the Associated Press has been doing some strong fact-checking work lately, aggressively debunking all kinds of nonsense, in an authoritative way, without any of the usual he-said-she-said crap that often mars political reporting?

I asked AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier about this, and he told me something fascinating, if not all together unexpected: Their fact-checking efforts are almost uniformly the most clicked and most linked pieces they produce.

Journalistic fact-checking with authority, it turns out, is popular. Who woulda thunk it?

The AP, and Fournier in particular, have taken no shortage of lumps from the left, with some still accusing him of being in the tank for Republicans. That said, it's a fact that the AP has lately done some very aggressive work in knocking down some of the most pernicious misinformation out there, much of it coming from the right.

The AP, for instance, definitively knocked down claims that Elena Kagan is an "ivory tower peacenik." It called out GOP Senators for their bogus "judicial experience" assault.

The AP also did an extensive investigation into Obama's handling of the Gulf spill, and concluded it "shows little resemblance to Katrina." As Steve Benen noted in lauding this effort, the AP definitively debunked a key media narrative as "baseless."

"What we tend to forget in journalism is that we got in the business to check facts," Fournier says. "Not just to tell people what Obama said and what Gingrich said. It is groundless to say that Kagan is anti-military. So why not call it groundless? This is badly needed when people are being flooded with information."



"The ones that get the most traction are the fact checks," he added.

The AP directs plenty of fact-checking at Obama and Dems, too. The news org recently conculded some GOP attacks on financial reg reform were supportable. It accused Obama of skimping in a recent nuke speech. And it whacked him for supporting reconciliation when he'd previously criticized the tactic.

When I asked Fournier if he was willing to say which side tends to dissemble more, he demurred. "Misleading the public is a bipartisan habit," he insisted. Maybe, but there's no question their most aggressive stuff has been directed at the right.

Fournier says these pieces require real newsroom resources, often taking up more than one staffer for more than a day. But it's also good business. With so much information available at any given time, people seek out efforts to cut through the noise and to take a stand with authority.

Turns out it's a pretty good way to get rewarded with clicks.

