Holding public officials accountable (e.g., Dan Rather) has been touted as one of accomplishments of bloggers. I was listening to public radio this morning and heard an interview with one of the core group from factcheck.org. This individual discussed “spin” and our tendency to be taken in. The example I remember concerned a famous Republican ad in the Bush-Kerry presidential election. You probably remember the ad – it contained a pack of running wolves and a statement that after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Kerry had voted to decrease funding for the intelligence community. What the ad failed to make clear was that the “attack” was the bombing in the 1980s and Kerry had voted on several occasions to increase funding since. So, the information, but not the intended message was truthful. The emotional component (the wolves) and personal beliefs tend to lead to the “interpretation” intended by those sponsoring the ad.
FactCheck focuses on political issues and is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. I see they also have a book – “unSpun”.
FactCheckEd (a division I assume) offers educational resources for secondary school.
