checker and the growth of social media and its ability to spread wrong information means a whole market now exists for professional fact checkers. but the industry has taken a bit of a knock, in the us at least, because donald trump s claim that covid originated in a wuhan laboratory has gone from conspiracy theory to now being taken to seriously. politifact, the us fact checkers, gave the claim the category pants on fire last year. well, now they ve archived that assessment and added an editors note. the washington post has also updated articles that were initially dismissive, but these corrections haven t come about because of new evidence. instead, they have come about because president biden has admitted that it is a possibility. so, has fact checking itself become politicised? the stakes are high, of course. just last week, biden said that covid misinformation on facebook was killing people. lots to unpack here,
of social media and its ability to spread wrong information means a whole market now exists for professional fact checkers. but the industry has taken a bit of a knock, in the us at least, because donald trump s claim that covid originated in a wuhan laboratory has gone from conspiracy theory to now being taken to seriously. politifact, the us fact checkers, gave the claim the category pants on fire last year. well, now they ve archived that assessment and added an editors note. the washington post has also updated articles that were initially dismissive, but these corrections haven t come about because of new evidence. instead, they have come about because president biden has admitted that it is a possibility. so, has fact checking itself become politicised? the stakes are high, of course. just last week, biden said that covid misinformation on facebook was killing people. lots to unpack here, so let s talk to claire milne,
politifact, the us fact checkers, gave the claim the category pants on fire last year. well, now they ve archived that assessment and added an editors note. the washington post has also updated articles that were initially dismissive, but these corrections haven t come about because of new evidence. instead, they have come about because president biden has admitted that it is a possibility. so, has fact checking itself become politicised? the stakes are high, of course. just last week, biden said that covid misinformation on facebook was killing people. lots to unpack here, so let s talk to claire milne, she is the acting editor of full fact, and ian birrell is the contributing editor of the mail on sunday and also a very experienced freelance journalist. he recently founded a piece of his work that mentioned the lab leak theory was being suppressed by facebook. claire, let s go to you first, and just set out the basics for us. what is it that full fact does?
state somewhere. he admitted to his crime? he did. and he spent like 13 years in prison? that is correct. and how often registered sex offenders get out of prison all the time. it s just we don t always hear about it. i m curious, i can only assume that this child whom he violated may be matched the description that has been given out for kids that were warned, is that fair? i think that is a fair assessment. has he said anything about sometimes sexual predators getting out of prison, look i could control myself but i can t. as has he done any of that? not to my knowledge. i haven t had any contact or corrections haven t informed me of anything like that. i know that he is taking treatment being a sex offender. last i knew they planned on