Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans.

ABSTRACT: Does the fact-checking enterprise focus its attention on one party? If Republican or Democratic politicians were systematically more likely to have their statements evaluated, that would call into question both the impartiality of the fact-checking enterprise and the results of the many papers that rely on fact-checks to drive other measurements. Despite frequent claims that fact-checking organizations are biased against Republicans, there is little systematic evidence regarding political bias in this industry. We address these gaps using data on how often each member of Congress was fact-checked from 2018 to 2021. We construct measures to account for multiple factors theorized to influence fact-checking, including a member's partisanship, prominence, and the quality of the news sites they

SUBMITTER: Greene KT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11732390 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature