Media Bias/Fact Check

A "fact checker" that announces it is "dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices"... #2 on a list of Zero Hedge's Top 9 “fakest ‘fake-news’ checkers.”

The MBFC take on Wikispooks as of December 2019

 https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/   
Started: November 2015
Founder: Dave Van Zandt

In its own words:
"Dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices"
Constitutes: “fact checker”

Main focus: fake news, bias, media

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is a "fact checker" which scores websites on "conspiracy level", "pseudo-sci level" and "left- or right wing bias", and by quality of factual reporting. MBFC has browser extensions for both Firefox and Chrome.

Official narrative

MBFC reports that it was started by Dave Van Zandt in 2015 and has some volunteers who perform source research, writing and assist in fact checking. Van Zandt has a small internet footprint.

Endorsement

The Atlantic Council have used data from MBFC. Researchers at the University of Michigan used MBFC to create the "Iffy Quotient", which draws data from Media Bias/Fact Check and NewsWhip to track "fake news" on social media. The site was also used by a research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in initial training of an AI to do "fact checking" and detect the bias of a website.

Criticism

An image from the critical report by the Palmer Report

Various sites have criticised MFBC. The Palmer Report published an article in April 2017 entitled Scam site “Media Bias Fact Check” caught cribbing its ratings from Wikipedia.

The Poynter Institute, itself recommended by MFBC, wrote that "Media Bias/Fact Check is a widely cited source for news stories and even studies about misinformation, despite the fact that its method is in no way scientific."

The site was #2 on a list of Zero Hedge's Top 9 “fakest ‘fake-news’ checkers.”

Trusted websites

MBFC's most trusted fact checking websites, as of December 2019, were FactCheck.org, FactChecker, Flack Check, Hoax-Slayer, Open Secrets, PolitiFact, Poynter Institute, Snopes, Sunlight Foundation and Truth or Fiction.

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