I posted an article on these pages a little over a little over a year ago entitled, How Google, IBM and Others Can Help Hold Feet to the Fire. Tired of all the distortions, half-truths and actual
falsehoods infecting our politics today, I suggested that real time (or near real time) fact checking should be established for political debates. If IBM's Watson computer can win at Jeopardy!, why can't we get an indication of veracity while the debate is still in progress? Waiting for the analysis after the fact can be hazardous. Our brains tend to cling to information even after it's been refuted, not to mention all the viewers who tune-out before the corrections can be reported.
What's worse is that purposeful inaccuracies are now an expectation. I was angered when Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, announced recently on MSNBC's Morning Joe that, "Distortion is in the eye of the beholder." What? I understand all about perception and reality but Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
had it right when he said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not to his own
facts."
At least there seems to be one point of agreement among the political parties:
This election is the most important in a generation. So, here is a non-partisan effort to bring the Commission on
Presidential Debates, the political parties, the networks and technology
firms together to "hold feet to the fire" and institute real or near
real time fact checking into these crucial debates. Here is my petition:
"I
call on you to support an initiative to bring real or near real time
fact checking to the presidential and vice presidential debates.
As
our technology and the number of media channels have increased, so too
has the distribution of false or misleading information. It is time that
we reverse this phenomenon.
Currently, the news media and
political fact checking organizations provide analyses after the debates
have concluded. Unfortunately, as important as this function is, it may
be too late. Misinformation is difficult to retract and, harder still,
to erase from one’s memory. Furthermore, far fewer people stay tuned for
the analyses or read the follow up news articles the next day.
During
the course of the debates, all of the statements should be verified
through the vast holdings of credible, objective knowledge. In addition,
out-of-context remarks or assertions would be reviewed and addressed.
No opinion sites, blogs or political party sources would be part of the
fact checking database – only transcripts, proceedings and testimony;
almanacs and atlases; laws, regulations and policy statements; credible
survey data, and non-partisan news articles, journals and research
reports.
Ideas include a box on the screen that displays a
true/not true or green/red or similar indicator of validity. And, before
the candidates shake hands and leave the stage, there should be a final
segment where they are confronted with any false or misleading claims
and are asked to address the issues right then and there.
Thank you."
Click here to go to the petition. Please sign and share with others.
Between blog posts, I invite you to follow me @pauloestreicher.
Monday, October 1, 2012
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