Email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser ([link removed]) .
[link removed]
[link removed]
The Case for Facts
Illustration by Christoph Niemann.

By Angie Drobnic Holan
Picture a world where evidence doesn't matter, where the loudest voices win, and where calling out falsehoods is seen as an act of bias. Welcome to 2025.
Donald Trump — the most fact-checked presidential candidate in history, because he’s spoken the most falsehoods — won the White House again. The social media company Meta, which owns Facebook, ended its third-party fact-checking program, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming that fact-checkers are biased. Partisan podcasters and viral video snippets command attention, while the business models for longform journalism struggle. Public trust in news in the United States is at an all-time low ([link removed]) , with growing news avoidance and declining page views.


If history has its eyes on journalism, it feels like a death stare. I know, because I've spent my career on journalism's fact-checking front lines — first as a journalist with PolitiFact since its founding in 2007, then as its editor-in-chief through three presidential administrations. Today, as director of the International Fact-Checking Network, I work with journalists around the world to promote high standards of accuracy.
I’ve been hearing more disillusionment lately, with fact-checking specifically and nonpartisan journalism in general: It’s not strong enough, it’s not confrontational enough, it just doesn’t “work.”
But fact-checking does work — just differently from how its critics suppose. The same is true of any type of fact-centered independent journalism.


Here’s how it does not work: Fact-checking can’t prevent individual politicians from winning or losing elections. It doesn’t knock on doors or get out the vote. It’s not persuasive to people who vote based on their cultural values or their pocketbooks. It doesn’t do the work that opposition parties and political movements are supposed to.
What fact-checking does do, and what it does well, is resist false narratives and prevent them from becoming entrenched. It holds the line on reality for history’s sake. It builds evidence-based records that can withstand political pressures. That’s why the politicians who seek to create their own realities are fighting so hard against fact-checking, and why they are now strong-arming tech companies and social media platforms into aiding them.
In my years of fact-checking, I've seen how this methodical gathering of evidence is journalism’s strongest defense against those who would invent and falsify claims for their own ends. Journalists working under repressive governments around the world understand this instinctively: Fact-checking isn't just about correcting the record; it's about preserving reality itself.


This rigorous fidelity to facts — to gathering evidence before reaching conclusions — is the true meaning of objectivity in journalism. It's not about being neutral or passive, but about being relentlessly committed to uncovering what's true and accurate. When democracy is under threat, this disciplined approach to truth-seeking becomes more crucial than ever. It's what distinguishes journalism from content production or social media commentary. We follow the evidence wherever it leads, even when it challenges our own assumptions.
Remembering journalism’s history
As I've thought about how to maintain rigorous fact-checking in today’s charged environment, I keep coming back to journalists who've faced even tougher times. No one inspires me more than Ida B. Wells. In an era when false narratives justified horrific violence, Wells showed how meticulous fact-gathering could expose lies and challenge power.


A self-described crusader against lynching in the post-Civil War era, Wells approached her reporting by vigorously checking the facts of newspapers and law enforcement that were explicitly white supremacist. Her 1892 pamphlet ([link removed]) “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases” showed the injustice of lynching by digging deep into the particulars of case after case throughout the South.
Her reporting focused on false claims of Black men raping white women. More often than not, she found, these were cases of consensual interracial relationships that became known and that then triggered mob violence. Wells analyzed the dynamics of Southern whites trying to maintain political power after losing the Civil War, and she looked at how Black communities were torn over whether to challenge white power or accommodate themselves to it. She included factual points that didn’t perfectly support her arguments as a way to show she had fully and fairly considered the views of her opponents. Her moral arguments often centered on universal standards concerning the rule of law and civil rights that she argued should apply to all citizens.
Wells also argued that journalists’ first duty was to place true facts before the public. “The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press,” she wrote… Continue reading IFCN director Angie Drobnic Holan’s full story in Nieman Reports ([link removed]) , where it was originally published.



** Defending the facts: How do journalists counter attacks on factual reporting
------------------------------------------------------------

On Tuesday, Holan led a 42-minute discussion with NPR’s Eric Deggans and Politico senior managing editor Anita Kumar on the challenges facing factual journalism. They examined how polarization, declining trust, and misinformation shape public perception of the press—and how journalists can push back.
The conversation was part of Poynter’s National Advisory Board meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida, where industry leaders gathered to discuss ways to strengthen journalism’s role in democracy.
Watch the full discussion here ([link removed]) .



** Mental health webinars for fact-checking journalists
------------------------------------------------------------

(Chop5)
Fact-checkers need work skills of accuracy, precision and thoroughness, but they also must have high levels of emotional resilience. Constant online harassment, exposure to traumatic content and high-stress working conditions take a toll on those working in the field. To help ease the strain, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter is launching a webinar series on mental health and resilience.
Offered through IFCN’s Mental Health Fund, the series runs from February to June 2025 and pairs expert-led training with private, peer-facilitated discussions on burnout prevention, crisis response and resilience building. Led by The Self-Investigation, the sessions let participants choose the topics that best meet their needs. IFCN verified signatories should look for the registration details sent via email next week.
Organizations that experience a significant instance of harassment can also apply for up to $5,000 to cover professional counseling, employee assistance programs, wellness resources and other support. The Mental Health Fund runs alongside IFCN’s Business Continuity Fund, which provides up to $20,000 to fact-checking organizations facing emergencies such as military conflict, civil unrest, natural disasters and government repression. Read more about IFCN grant funds here ([link removed]) .
Quick hits
(Paddy Uglow)
* Clara Jiménez Cruz, chair of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network, warns ([link removed]) that scrapping Meta’s third-party fact-checkers — who flagged 31 million posts in 2024 — could fuel rampant disinformation and threaten democracy.
* Meta will replace third-party fact-checking with Community Notes globally starting in 2026, says Joel Kaplan ([link removed]) , the company’s chief global affairs officer.
* A German court orders ([link removed]) X to share election misinformation data.
* Scarlett Johansson calls for a deepfake ban ([link removed]) after an AI video goes viral.
* Polish fact-checking organization Pravda partnered with Code for Africa, a civic technology hub that investigates influence operations, to launch TruthAfrica ([link removed]) . The project aims to uncover how false narratives shape societies across multiple countries.
* VERA Files will train ([link removed]) Philippine state media in fact-checking.

Have ideas or suggestions for the next issue of Factually? Email us at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Angie Drobnic Holan
Director, IFCN
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Enock Nyariki
Communications Manager, IFCN
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

ADVERTISE ([link removed]) // DONATE ([link removed]) // LEARN ([link removed]) // JOBS ([link removed])
Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here. ([link removed])
[link removed] [link removed] [link removed] [link removed] mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feedback%20for%20Poynter
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
© All rights reserved Poynter Institute 2025
801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
If you don't want to receive email updates from Poynter, we understand.
You can change your subscription preferences ([link removed]) or unsubscribe from all Poynter emails ([link removed]) .