Post Classifieds

The importance of fact checkers in politics

By Angelik Edmonds
On December 4, 2012

An excerpt from a blog post
following the presidential election.


Thank God that President Obama was re-elected for a second term.
The debates had a more substantial influence than the ads on undecided voters. The advertising hoax revealed that many of the published ads had organization sponsors that required no accountability.
Once this was discovered, I, like many Americans, lost faith in the accuracy of the ads.
The first ad that tricked me was the ad saying that Obama removed the work requirement from the Welfare to Work Act.
I was confused which led me to investigate the legal specifics of the act.    
Upon further investigation, I learned that the opposite was true.
Obama had increased the requirement for welfare recipients; he did not eliminate them.
Fact checkers played a critical role in the campaign. Fact checkers completed the extensive work required to make accurate statements about legislation and statistics.
I found them to be extremely helpful in analyzing the amount of weight I rationed to particular arguments.

For example, former President Bill Clinton's speech noted a handful of statistics contrasting Republican and Democratic victories.
During the speech, I was excited to see that Clinton had some comparative research; however, I was skeptical that the Republicans would destroy his arguments on a technicality.
I was pleased to learn that fact checkers approved some of his statistics in some capacity the next morning.
The outcome of the election is an amazing feat for Black history.
 


Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

More thenewsargus News Articles

Recent thenewsargus News Articles

Discuss This Article

GET TOP STORIES DELIVERED WEEKLY

Class of 2019, what are your plans after graduation?

FOLLOW OUR NEWSPAPER

Log In

or Create an account

Employers & Housing Providers

Employers can list job opportunities for students

Post a Job

Housing Providers can list available housing

Post Housing

Log In

Forgot your password?

Your new password has been sent to your email!

Logout Successful!

Please Select Your College/University:

You just missed it! This listing has been filled.

Post your own housing listing on Uloop and have students reach out to you!

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format