A passage from my March 18 Commentary piece (“GOP senators simply cited Constitution”) about the “Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and 46 cosigners has been “fact checked” by an organization called PolitiFact and judged to be “mostly false” (“PolitiFact: Did Ted Kennedy secretly work to undercut the president?,” April 12).
Who are the “fact checkers” and why should we pay any attention to them? The fact is, most of what goes under the name of “fact checking” today is far from objective. As one friend of mine commented, “fact checkers” are less like referees than fans who don’t like the call. Conservative writers are far more likely to be “fact checked” than liberals. How often have we seen the serial mendacity of our current president and his minions subjected to the same sort of tendentious and ideological strictures that characterize the current racket of “fact checking?”