Fact-checking politicians increases sharply world-wide

Fact-checking journalism, which won a 2009 Pulitzer for PolitiFact, has had dramatic growth around the world in the past decade.

So much expansion that the first global fact-checking summit will be held in June in London.

It’s the Snopes version of applying “true” or “false” to what politicians and government officials say, from the U.S. presidential elections to claims-spouters on every continent.

PolitiFact’s Pulitzer followed its fact-checking on Barrack Obama and John McCain during the 2008 presidential race.

Bill Adair, a Duke faculty member who was a founder of PolitiFact at the Tampa Bay Times, identified 59 fact-checking groups globally, including more than 15 in the United States.

To read the AFP global news agency article, click on http://news.yahoo.com/fact-checking-journalism-gains-momentum-022651257.html