Sunday, January 11, 2015

SaintPetersBlog: Reporters Are More Expensive Than Hookers

Noted Florida blogger Peter Schorsch wrote a great post regarding PolitiFact's deeply flawed Kickstarter campaign. Schorcsh brings up a few excellent points we missed in our critique, but here's our favorite:
Seriously, $15,000 for PolitiFact to do its job? Not some sort of in-depth, special investigation, but to cover a political event readers probably expected them to cover.

Don’t get me started on the argument that “fact-checking” major speeches like the State of the Union was what journalists once did without special “Pants On Fire Meters,” much less Kickstarter campaigns.
Schorsch is rightfully skeptical about the $15,000 figure. How much are they going to pay Aaron Sharockman to Google old PolitiFact articles?

Head over to SaintPetersBlog to read Schorsch's brief but excellent post.


Bryan adds:

I think Schorsch was too tough on the hapless liberal bloggers at PolitiFact. It's no secret that most newspaper organizations are losing gobs of money, and the Tampa Bay Times certainly qualifies on that score. The exciting announcement of the Kickstarter project was just positive spin on a sad state of affairs.

Schorsch hits the mark in pointing out that checking the State of the Union speech ought to fall within the basic duties of a political fact checking organization.  But the hooker comparison, while hilarious, is overly harsh.

On this one I'd leaven the snark with a little sympathy.

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