Opinion: Post-Trump, the need for fact checking isn't going away - CNN - 0 views
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This week, we ask the question: What comes next for America and disinformation? The past four years have seen an alarming erosion in the public trust in news, coupled with a spread of conspiracy theories, junk science and outright falsehoods by none other than the President of the United States. With a new president elected, how does Joe Biden help steer the country back toward facts, science and truth? SE Cupp talks to CNN Senior Political Analyst John Avlon about all this and more in our CNN Digital video discussion, but first Avlon tackles the future of fact checking in a CNN Opinion op-ed.
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That's because the disinformation ecosystem is still proliferating via social media and the hyper-partisan fragmentation of society. Trump is a symptom rather than its root cause. There is every reason to hope that the presence of a president who does not lie all the time will not exacerbate our divides on a daily basis. But it would be dangerously naïve to believe that the underlying infrastructure of hate news and fake news will be solved with a new president.
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Let's start by recognizing reality. Fact checking Democrats this election cycle has offered a far less target rich environment. This is not because either party has a monopoly on virtue or vice, but because Democrats' falsehoods during their presidential debates have been comparatively pedestrian -- likely to focus on competing claims about calculating the 10-year cost of Medicare for All, or who wrote-what-gun control bill, or how many manufacturing jobs have been lost, or when a candidate really started supporting a raise in the minimum wage.
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