Zebra Fact Check

Zebra Fact Check developed as a project of Bryan W. White, a 2007 graduate of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

After co-founding the PolitiFact Bias blog with the good Jeff D and hearing from our critics that it’s easy to criticize the shortcomings of fact checkers, we (Bryan) decided to accept the implicit challenge and develop better fact-checking methods.

We started with a rating system based on concrete findings, including commission of fallacies. Then we committed to radical transparency, expanding on a practice W. Gardner Selby sometimes used while at PolitiFact Texas. Readers get to judge whether we used leading questions or slanted our use of interviewees’ responses. We placed primary value on charitable and normal human interpretation when considering claims to fact check.

Following this path was an easy choice, for our goal was always to improve journalistic fact-checking. The focus of Zebra Fact Check changed when former PolitiFact editor Bill Adair and the Poynter Institute created the International Fact-Checking Network. When the IFCN quickly took on a role in establishing accountability for fact-checkers, Zebra Fact Check resolved to help in that effort. We made policy recommendations and started testing the IFCN’s accountability system.

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