A new study says all of the political fact checking you hear about today might not be as objective as you’d think.
The study, which was done in Europe, finds the fact checkers are just as subject to bias as the news they evaluate is. Political scientist Joseph Uscinski at the University of Miami isn't surprised.
“The reason I’m not surprised is because fact checkers are human. We all have our own biases and we can’t just shut them off when we go into work,” Uscinski explained.
Uscinski says the study didn't tell him anything he hasn't been talking about for at least four years. The problem is they aren't just checking facts.
“They check predictions, opinions and rhetoric. Because of that they wind up brining in their own biases,” Uscinski stated.
Another problem the new study found is that fact checkers are also competing with each other for page views and ratings, which also leads to some of the bias we are seeing today.