Columbia Journalism Review

At the  DeWitt Wallace Center’s News Measures Research Project, we set out to document the extent to which communities have access to robust local journalism and determine whether certain types of communities are more at risk than others. We studied 100 US communities and found:

[Commentary] PolitiFact was among the first news sites dedicated to fact-checking, along with Snopes and FactCheck.org. The meter was innovative because it summarized our conclusions in handy ratings. But I’ve evolved. It’s been 11 years since we launched PolitiFact, and I think it’s time to move beyond my beloved meter. I am heading a project at Duke University that is developing ways to automate fact-checking—including new ways to present the conclusions. I think the Truth-O-Meter’s ratings (which now range from True to Pants on Fire) are still effective for many readers.

[Commentary] We need to move away from the arguments that the country should care about laid-off reporters or that the suits should be held to account. This can’t be about us. It has to be about why the country should care if local news goes away, which is the trajectory we now find ourselves on. What are the effects on a democracy if local news is no longer in the picture? How is my life as a New Yorker going to be worse now that the Daily News has been so terribly hobbled? If you’re in journalism and you can’t muster an answer to that question, you need to move on.