Sometimes the best way to make a point is to mock the point–at least that’s Stephen Colbert’s philosophy. Take the decision by ABC News to add fact-checking to its Sunday talk show, “This Week.”
The program announced earlier this month that it’s hired the team from PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times, to apply their “Truth-o-Meter” ratings to what the Sunday guests have to say. The results are posted on both PolitiFact and ABC’s This Week page. “We hope to post a couple of Truth-O-Meter items each Sunday,” says PolitiFact editor Bill Adair, “plus one or two more on Monday or Tuesday. Our output will depend on how many facts we hear during the show.”
Colbert’s take? “What were they thinking?”
In his own snarky way, Colbert makes an excellent point. Isn’t it the host’s job to keep the guests honest? Absolutely, it is. The good ones do. They do tons of homework so they’re prepared to challenge their guests on the basic facts. The late Tim Russert of NBC News was a master at this, but even he couldn’t catch every misstatement.
I love the idea of fact-checking news programs but it seems to me that it shouldn’t have to take long to give a thumbs up or down on some of the claims made these programs. Surely no one needed more than a few minutes to disprove McCain’s statement that he never considered himself a maverick.
If ESPN can do stat-checking in almost real time on Pardon the Interruption, why can’t a news program do something similar? If the Sunlight Foundation (motto: transparency in government) can provide background online during the health care debate, why can’t a Sunday morning talk show do the same?
Here’s my proposal: Hire a political junkie to keep tabs on guests’ statements of ‘fact.’ Offer a running tally online during the program. If you catch a guest in a flat-out lie while he or she is still on the set, put it up on a graphic and demand a response. And every week, before signing off, spend a few minutes on the air holding guests accountable. That might produce more of what Colbert calls “truthiness” from future guests. And it could help rebuild viewers’ trust in any news organization willing to take a public stand against spin and misinformation.
(Hat tip to Carrie Brown-Smith of the University of Memphis for pointing me to the Colbert clip.)
