Jesus, how much do they need to do this.... but they fucking won't.

Journalism is failing democracy.

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Fact-checking should be done to all politicians--including Trump.

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Tags for this video have been changed from 'Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Fact Checking, Debates' to 'Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Fact Checking, Debates, Nerdwriter' - edited by eric3579

It's happening hardcore over here. It seems like sometime in the last 5 years, all the stops came out and it's become utterly shameless. They will say or do anything, and if they are wrong or found to be acting improperly they print a very small retraction - but the damage is already done. And other media outlets report on the false report!

Recently the Labour leader here has been repeatedly smeared by anti Semitism. They say his supporters are anti-Semites, that he doesn't express enough outrage in condemning anti-Semitism. The guy is famed for his tolerance and acceptance, says in almost every speech he gives that he wants to challenge any and all xenophobia, is the biggest cheerleader for women and minorities, has appointed the most diverse shadow cabinet in history, issued a full independent investigation into racism and abuse....... He does all of this, but now the stories are "claims of anti-Semitism appears to follow the Labour leader around" -- they are now reporting that they have reported false claims of anti-Semitism!

He doesn't even defend himself - he asks people instead to stop instrumentalising minorities to score political points. So then they claim he's not taking their false claims seriously enough and therefore not taking anti-Semitism seriously and the smear cycle goes on.

The worst thing about all of this is how complicit his opponents are in the game.... fair enough if you don't like him, it's ok to rubbish his policies. But this media misrepresentation is destroying a democracy that was already on its knees. And politicians, guardians of our society, manipulate and utilise this poisonous shit to get their way!

This year has completely turned me off politics again. To see what these people will to do an honest man has broken my spirit, but to that 70 year old bloke's credit, it hasn't broken his.

I understand and agree that asking anyone to fact-check in real-time is a tall order. Sure, we might expect it of properly prepared professionals, but even then knowing every possible relevant citation is nigh impossible.

But if you're a major news network running a debate, with a horde of staff at your disposal, I would love to see a debate that at least calls out the bullshit in near-real-time.

"We're going to fact check that within the next 5 minutes, are you sure that's your answer?"
(5 minutes later)
"It turns out your statements on your attitude toward the Iraq war were rather inaccurate according to these specific citations: ..."

Matt Lauer needs to burn in the flames in infamy for that---and he needs to be joined by his entire production staff. Everything Donald got away with was predictable.

Confronting him--and having Donald go to 11 or walk out of the interview---would have been better TV AND better journalism---that's the pity of it.