US America's fact fight fades - Professional fact-checking went mainstream during the first Trump administration, but it's since become politicized.

America's fact fight fades
Axios (archive.ph)
By Sara Fischer
2025-04-22 09:00:08GMT


Data: Stanford Cable TV News Analyzer; Note: Coverage includes just the time taken to say the words and does not include related discussion; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

America's obsession with countering mis- and disinformation has withered as society grows skeptical of institutions once trusted with facts.

Why it matters: Professional fact-checking went mainstream during the first Trump administration, but it's since become politicized.

• Americans are less enthusiastic about policing information today than they were two years ago, and the trend is bipartisan, per Pew Research Center.

State of play: Institutions once seen as critical to providing facts about history and current events, such as public schools and news media, are experiencing record-low trust levels, in addition to financial challenges.

• A February YouGov poll found that U.S. citizens are far more likely to trust information coming from the Trump administration "a great deal" or "a fair amount" (44%) than they are the news media (28%).
• In 2017, that gap was much smaller, with 43% of Americans saying they trusted the Trump administration "a great deal" or "a fair amount" on facts, compared to 38% for the news media.

By the numbers: Mentions of the terms "misinformation" and "disinformation" across the country's three biggest cable news networks, MSNBC, Fox News and CNN, have declined considerably since the pandemic, according to data from Stanford's Cable TV News Analyzer.

• The politicization of fact-checking has contributed to a decline in the number of fact-checking sites globally over the past year, according to data from Duke Reporters' Lab. The number of global fact-checking sites increased 140% from 2016 to 2022, before starting to level off in 2023.

Between the lines: Government bodies once focused on combating mis -and disinformation are being gutted by the Trump administration.

• The State Department's Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference hub is being eliminated, State Secretary Marco Rubio confirmed last week. The office was responsible for tracking and countering foreign disinformation campaigns.
• Meanwhile, the National Science Foundation has canceled research grants related to misinformation and disinformation.

Reality check: Even Democrats, who have for years pushed tech companies to take action against falsehoods, have begun to lose their truth-seeking appetite amid broader political battles.

• In a new Pew Research Center survey, 58% of Democrats say they support government restrictions on false information online, down from 70% two years prior.

The big picture: Facing less progressive pressure, tech platforms have largely replaced fact-checking with community policing.

• TikTok last week said it would test a new feature called Footnotes that lets users add context to videos. The feature is reminiscent of Community Notes on X, which was also adopted by Meta to police speech.
• Meta ended its fact-checking program this year. The company reportedly told teams responsible for ranking content to not penalize misinformation, per Platformer.
• Google in January told the European Union it will not add fact checks to search results and YouTube videos or use them in ranking and removing content, despite the requirements of a new EU law.

What to watch: Research shows the rise of AI-driven content is contributing to more mis- and disinformation online, but American appetite for fact-checking doesn't appear to be growing in tandem.

 

[deleuzeon]

It turns out that lying about everything from race to sex to the flu is a bad strategy when people can get information from literally anywhere other than the TV.

 

[JohnnyG]

"Fake & gay terms we invented 5 minutes ago to enable industrial-scale censorship turned out to be an inorganic fad that went away once the people threw us out of power and cut off our infinite government funding."

 

[Sneed's Feed n Seed]

After the "It's totally not a lab leak, guys" fiasco it's hard to believe them at all. Then they double down on condescension instead of actual transparency.

On the other hand most people are pretty stupid and people will simultaneously say "nothing happened" AND "it's a lab leak" so thank god I can still sneed.

 

[MichaelFrenchhasAutism]

WHO WILL FACT CHECK THE FACT CHECKERS!?

 

[clipartfan92]

In a new Pew Research Center survey, 58% of Democrats say they support government restrictions on false information online, down from 70% two years prior.

Here's the survey data:
Questionaire PDF (archive.org)
Topline PDF (archive.org)

Imagine wanting the government to control what you see and read.

 

[Vriljami]

 

[Hitman One]

If they had actually checked facts instead of flashing shit like "fact check: president Biden IS NOT SENILE" on the screen while Sleepy Joe's reanimated corpse nuked the demonrat's campaign on live television, they might have got on a bit better.

 

[The Punished Mitch]

I just can't imagine why trust in mainstream news media is declining.

 

[Cryborg 1987]

Fact checking is for morons too lazy to do their own research.

 

[deleuzeon]

If the had actually checked facts instead of flashing shit like "fact check: president Biden IS NOT SENILE" on the screen while Sleepy Joe's reanimated corpse nuked the demonrat's campaign on live television, they might have got on a bit better.

It's long been said that democrat voters have goldfish brain, but it's also long been accepted as a fact by their media sources, as this clearly showed.

 

[Kiska]

"America's fact fight fades"... And why that's a good thing!

Fixed the title.

 

[Lovely Kin]

I barely knew anyone who believed in these things. Not a big loss.

 

[UnidentifiedFlyingOrchid]

I already pre-rebunked the malinformation and memetically dispersed it via unregulated shitposting.

 

[TowinKarz]

We never needed, nor asked for, the establishment to fact-check us.

The fact they just declared they were going to do it, and naturally? Gave us all failing grades if we didn't agree with their "expert" interpretation of our lives? Was the most transparent propaganda push since Baghdad Bob insisted there were no US troops in Iraq while the Marines waved at the camera in the background.

 

[SITHRAK!]

I just can't imagine why trust in mainstream news media is declining.

(WaPo above)



The mainstream media wonders why their schtick is starting to fail… and they’re panicking.

Fact checking is for morons too lazy to do their own research.

Better see if that’s what Snopes says, argues the liberal.

 

[qoop]

"America's fact fight fades"... And why that's a good thing!

Fixed the title.

Very nice.

 

[DoomsdayElite]

Amazing. "Why doesn't anyone trust fact-checking?" Article proceeds to demonstrate why, perfectly.

 

[Snekposter]

(WaPo above)

I don't think WaPo will ever beat calling the head of ISIS an "austere religious scholar" in his obituary, but they came damn close with that one.

 

[That Guy Who Likes The Chili]

"but it's since become politicized."
There was a point when fact checking was neutral and biased?