ABC’s ‘This Week’ Introduces Online Fact-Checking

The New York Times

ABC’s Sunday morning public affairs program, “This Week,” is adding an online feature that its political guests may not appreciate: fact checking.

The program is promoting an arrangement with the Web site PolitiFact.com whereby its editors apply its “Truth-O-Meter”–true, half true, false, “pants on fire!”–to the administration officials and lawmakers who are interviewed.

The fact checking, which started Sunday, stands in stark contrast to the he-said, she-said nature of most television chatfests, even though PolitiFact’s work takes place well after the facts and possible falsehoods are first uttered on TV. More…