Does Fact Checking Help?

I just wrote a three page article on things that were true, untrue, half true and blatant lies based on information primarily from PolitiFact.org and a bit from truthout.org. Then I tossed it.

Now I definitely believe that when we hear all the garbage spewed forth on TV and elsewhere in political ads, we do need to check out whether they are true or not. That is why we have website like those I mentioned above. But I wonder how much affect they have. How many people read them? How many folk they are just another form of bias?

Perhaps we should all just listen to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert each evening to get at what is going on. They seem to me to be the least biased reporters on the air and they are comedians.

In spite of fact checkers and regular Newspapers and TV which give some news along with hype and entertainment, none of this seems to affect the ad producers at all.

The lobbyists and the PAC machines blithely go ahead spreading misinformation and negativism potent enough for the populace to think of mass suicide. They know they control most of government and they want to keep the common person addled, so they don’t have a clue as to how to stop these huge political machines.

But for some odd reason there are those of us who regularly go to the fact checking sites and seek out as much first hand information and truth we can find. Some of us write blogs about it thinking we might have a tiny influence by debunking or supporting those that seem to tell the truth the most.

However, every now and then you run into somebody that seems trustworthy, thinks clearly, and speaks truth with eloquence. I’m thinking Elizabeth Warren. I hope she wins her election we need her and a bunch like her.