Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Media Studies
• Communication

Background:

• Claims of partisan bias in fact-checking organizations persist, particularly against Republicans.
• Systematic evidence regarding political bias in the fact-checking industry remains limited.
• The impartiality of fact-checking is crucial for the validity of research relying on fact-check data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether fact-checking efforts exhibit systematic bias towards or against specific political parties.
• To determine if factors beyond partisanship influence the frequency of fact-checks for politicians.
• To assess the potential for bias in fact-check-derived measurements.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data on the frequency of fact-checks for members of Congress between 2018 and 2021.
• Development of measures to control for variables such as politician partisanship, prominence, and linked news source quality.
• Statistical examination of the relationship between these factors and the likelihood of being fact-checked.

Main Results:

• Republican and Democratic elected officials are fact-checked with comparable frequency.
• Politician prominence is a significant predictor of fact-checking frequency.
• Partisanship was not found to be a significant predictor of how often politicians are fact-checked.

Conclusions:

• The selection process employed by fact-checking groups does not appear to introduce partisan bias.
• Fact-check-derived measures are unlikely to be systematically skewed due to partisan selection bias.
• Findings challenge the narrative of widespread political bias within the fact-checking enterprise.