PolitiFact, part of Poynter’s globally renowned fact-checking unit, partners with 13 local news organizations to vigorously fact-check politicians at the state level
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 25, 2020) — The Poynter Institute, a global nonprofit dedicated to excellence in journalism, announces today an exclusive new partnership between its fact-checking news organization, PolitiFact, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“The Inquirer partnered with PolitiFact to bring an added layer of transparency and trust to our political coverage in this pivotal election year,” said Stan Wischnowski, Inquirer senior vice president and executive editor. “The timing couldn’t be better: Given the critical importance of this election and the high level of political rhetoric swirling around, audiences are looking for a timely, sophisticated and proven approach to fact-checking.”
As the official PolitiFact partner in Pennsylvania, The Inquirer will use PolitiFact’s trademark methodology and collaborate with PolitiFact editors. Together, the two organizations will produce fact-checks that hold local politicians accountable and provide trustworthy, accurate information to citizens. The articles and Truth-O-Meter ratings will be published by The Inquirer and on PolitiFact’s newly enhanced website. Jessica Calefati, who distinguished herself as a member of The Inquirer’s investigative team after joining in 2018 from CALmatters, started her new role as PolitiFact’s Pennsylvania reporter in March.
“The Philadelphia Inquirer’s reputation and tenacity make it the ideal partner for PolitiFact in Pennsylvania,” said Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact executive director. “Our partnership will bolster both organizations’ reporting capacity leading up to the 2020 election but will go beyond this year as well. Accountability journalism is just as important for candidates as it is for elected officials.”
PolitiFact is the largest political fact-checking news organization in the United States and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. National PolitiFact reporters are based in St. Petersburg and Washington D.C., while local partnerships expand PolitiFact reporting into 13 states, including swing states like Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
This recent expansion in state partnerships comes on the heels of another that began late last year. PolitiFact’s exclusive Iowa partner is with the University of Iowa’s student newspaper, The Daily Iowan. PolitiFact editor Angie Holan oversees that relationship, which produced fact-checks leading into the Iowa caucuses.
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st-century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at conferences and organizations around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, offers the world’s largest online journalism curriculum, with hundreds of interactive courses and tens of thousands of registered international users. The Institute’s website produces 24-hour coverage about media, ethics, technology and the business of news. Poynter is the home of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact, the International Fact-Checking Network and MediaWise, a digital information literacy project for young people. The world’s top journalists and media innovators come to Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians and broadcasters. This work builds public awareness about journalism, media, the First Amendment and discourse that serves democracy and the public good.
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