TRUTH CHECKING THE NEWS

A new study finds that television stations are doing more "fact-checking journalism" than ever before. Almost 40 percent of stations responding to a survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center said they aired adwatch-type stories in the last election cycle, compared to less than 6 percent who did so a decade earlier.

You don't have to be a huge station to do this well. WISC-TV in Madison, Wisc., has been airing Reality Check reports since 2002. Managing editor Colin Benedict said it started as a basic "ad watch" but expanded after the election to fact checking political statements as well. "Viewer response has been overwhelmingly positive," he says. "Every time we do one we get a hundred emails saying thank you for doing this. It puts us in a great position; we're providing a service viewers want."

Benedict shared some of the lessons the station has learned about truth checking during a panel discussion at the National Press Club.

• Make it digestible. Pick and choose what you'll examine. Keep it simple.
  
  
• Follow the money. Tell people who paid for the ad; that often explains why it was on the air.
  
  
• Give viewers tools. Instead of just reporting on ads after the fact, tell viewers what to watch out before hand. In August 2006, the station shared four “tricks of the trade” candidates use to influence voters.
  
  
• Sort out complex topics. The station has done stories explaining Medicare Part B, tax rankings and gas prices under the Reality Check banner.
  
  
• Ask for more from viewers. WISC asks people to email ideas for future Reality Checks.
  
  
• Be prepared to become the story. Candidates like the coverage so much they’ve used WISC analyses in political ads to attack their opponents. What do you do when that happens? "We covered it and mentioned that we also found that candidate’s ads 'misleading.'

Political reporter Mark Matthews of KGO-TV in San Francisco started doing ad watches once a week in 2004. He said the station's own research found that 60% of viewers surveyed said factchecking political claims would make them more likely to watch local news; in fact, they ranked it third most compelling of 16 potential reasons to watch.

According to study author Bob Papper of Hofstra University, most stations have similar stories. Nearly half of the news directors surveyed reported positive viewer reaction, including 13 percent who said reaction was strongly positive. Less than three percent reported any negative reaction at all. "That's surprising, because you usually hear from people who don’t like what you're doing," Papper said.

Two-thirds of the news directors said running adwatches improved the reputation of station in community, and a third said it increased viewership. Over half the news directors in top 25 markets say adwatches increase viewership, and because they have minute by minute ratings, Papper said, this is not a guess.

If you want to start doing this at your station, we've posted some fact-checking resources here.