POLITICO Our Era’s Defining Battle: Facts vs. Misinformation Not every piece of misinformation is consequential, says Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Here’s how to know which ones are. POLITICO illustration Link Copied Zack Stanton is digital editor of Politico Magazine. Viewed from one angle, the defining battle of our time isn’t necessarily left vs. right or Democrat vs. Republican or even democracy vs. fascism; it’s facts vs. misinformation. In some ways, that struggle is more elemental to a functioning society than any of the others. If every basic fact is disputed or called into doubt, we lack a common, agreed-upon reality. We become unable to deliberate or compromise or make informed decisions. Liberal democracy itself becomes an unsustainable enterprise.