News/Commentary

Brian Stelter: Firing fact-checkers is like firing your fire department

January 14, 2025 | | Print Article

A doozy of an analogy shared by Brian Stelter had the CNN chief media analyst artfully confronted over his “fact-checking” cope.

Mixed expectations marked the dawn of a new day in the social media sphere as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a transition away from so-called fact-checkers to an X-style Community Notes system. Amid the gnashing of teeth from the pundit class and leftists writ large, Stelter set the tee to get knocked out of the park as he parroted a comparison of Orwellian truth ministers to firefighters.

In sharing a report from CNN that wove the Los Angeles wildfire tragedy with arguments for arbiters over free speech, Stelter cited fact-checking outlet Lead Stories co-founder Alan Duke who said, “Cutting fact checkers from social platforms is like disbanding your fire department.”

Image via X

Within the article that had all the hallmarks of “mostly peaceful protests,” an example of the importance of fact-checkers was given in rejecting the post of an Instagram user who shared a video of a television being removed from a home as the fires raged with the caption, “Fires and looting. A regular Democrat run city.”

The “fact-checked” post noted that the chosen video actually showed people helping save the owner’s belongings, but did not bother to make note of the at least 28 individuals arrested on looting-related charges since the wildfires began a week earlier.

The shameless juxtaposition of the heroes working to contain the tragedy that has resulted in the confirmed deaths of at least 24 people while displacing thousands with corporate media figures, who have been routinely called out over word games vying to protect a narrative that often resulted in outright censorship, did not go unchecked on X.

Among those slamming Stelter for highlighting the argument was Texas Scorecard publisher Michael Quinn Sullivan who stated simply, “Says an arsonist masquerading as a firefighter…”

Similarly, other users added to the analogy to help shred it with comments like, “Well, when the firefighters start picking and choosing which fires they want to put out vs. which ones they want to ignore, you’re better off just going and getting your own bucket.”

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The CNN case for “fact-checkers” came on the heels of a piece from the New York Times that followed Zuckerberg’s announcement “to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression to our platforms,” with the headline, “Meta fact-checkers were the problem. Fact-checkers rule that false.”

Reactions that summed up the inanity included: “This actually does an effective job revealing the problem with the fact-checking industry (perhaps by accident),” and “Fact checkers checking themselves and finding no lies is literally the same as government investigating themselves and finding no wrong.”

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Kevin Haggerty
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