[AndyJackson]

I was completely unaware of the existence of this organization. Seth Goldman has brought them world-wide attention and destroyed their reputation all in one ill-conceived hit-piece. The next time I see something from them I will giggle first, assume that the opposite of the headline is true and read it later. Claiming to apply standards of scholarship, they instead apply all of the doctrines of the best liberal journalistic tradition.

From the FactCheck mission statement:

Our Mission

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

[syriacus]

Our Mission:
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters

My guess is that most voters only hear it quickly mentioned by "journalists" --- as a "nonpartisan" source, of course.

FactCheck's value lies in the way that it is very easily used as a source (weapon) in an argument.

Happily for lazy and/or deceptive journalists, FactCheck is ready-to-deploy when needed.

It is sort of like a bullet in a six-shooter. Better yet...

A FactCheck document is like a packaged children's meal, that "journalists" can pick up at a drive-thru window to keep rowdy kids quiet.

Gabler isn't much of a journalist if he relies on, what amounts to, secondary sources for his facts.

It's so sad that the name Annenberg would be used in connection with a service that distorts the very truthfulness it pretends to champion.

I was unaware of FactCheck, until a replier to an old thread of mine tried to use FactCheck to refute me.

I guess the replier thought I would bow down to the FactCheck "god."