'Fact-checking' opinions?

 Just the News:

The fact-checking industry, empowered by the vast resources of social media giants, is under sustained scrutiny amid a possible legal battle among the British Medical Journal, Facebook owner Meta and a contractor it pays to flag purported COVID-19 misinformation.

Facebook stopped some readers from sharing a BMJ investigation of "data integrity" issues in a Pfizer COVID vaccine trial, BMJ editors wrote in an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in November. It also slapped "missing context" labels on posts that went through, warning users they could be penalized for sharing the article.

Contractor Lead Stories seemed more interested, however, in promoting guilt by association and policing political views than checking the facts, the journal's editors wrote in a blistering New Statesman op-ed last week.

The disputes have major implications for the public's ability to follow ongoing scientific debates around COVID, especially on masks, vaccines and other treatments. 

Facebook throttled a Reason article questioning a school mask study cited repeatedly by the CDC on the word of a different fact-checker, Science Feedback, which later admitted to falsely attributing claims. 

Asked about rumors that it was contemplating litigation against Meta or Lead Stories, BMJ spokesperson Emma Dickinson wrote in an email: "The BMJ is considering all available options." A defamation lawsuit would be easier in the U.K., which unlike the U.S. favors plaintiffs.

Facebook didn't respond to queries, but Lead Stories editor Alan Duke told Just the News the organization is "very confident about our fact-checking work and stand by everything we've written," including two followup articles in response to the BMJ allegations. "We've been very transparent."

...

I have a low regard for the "fact check" community in general.  They tend to come across with a "voice from God certainty" which is not always accurate.  They are mostly just giving the leftist view of things, and they should be more honest about that and not pretend that it is the only way to view things. 

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