...and a robber button is?

April 7, 2005 2:14 AM

"Before, during and after the upcoming [United Kingdom] general election campaign, Channel 4 FactCheck will provide the most reliable analysis of what the political parties and their leaders are saying. The site will scrutinise interviews, speeches and manifesto pledges - informing public debate by creating a popular resource for an information-hungry electorate." A UK cousin to FactCheck.org.
posted by nthdegx (7 comments total)

This is a superb resource, although the archives aren't in any particular order, it seems.

It's a great pity that Channel 4 saw fit to make this a partisan news accessory, because Channel 4 news is provided by ITN who also, of course, provide the news for ITV (channel 3) and a vast multitude of commercial radio stations and all university radio broadcasters. Had 4 worked with and farmed it out under the banner of the larger company, this could have been much more widely advertised and recognised.

I haven't seen any moves from the BBC on this front either. They used to be at the front of the queue when it came to projects which accused all political parties equally, although after the Hutton enquiry/pileon they do seem to have been defanged slightly.

I vote for FactCheck if they'd let me.
posted by NinjaPirate at 3:19 AM on April 7, 2005

One issue might be that, in my mind at least, Channel 4 news is viewed as the superior news-element at ITN. ITN, generally, I regard as slightly inferior to BBC News (I detest the "find out after the break cliff-hangers", which appear with increasing frequency), whereas Channel 4 news is UK TV news at its very best. That is to say, if they let you know Channel 4 news and not ITN at large are checking the facts, you can take their findings all the more seriously.
posted by nthdegx at 3:26 AM on April 7, 2005

factcheck.org proper is more concerned with appearing to be balanced than actually checking facts.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:50 AM on April 7, 2005

It's the only hour-long news programme on UK terrestrial TV, it explains the details of stories concisely, interviews cogent figures and even occasionally seem to be rushing some points in order to get the breadth of information into the time.
It's nice to have the news presented as though we were capable of understanding it rather than ITV's Daily Mail approach: beat you over the head with a newsflash and a simple picture until you numbly agree with them.

I'm probably far too biased in it's favour, but it's not really my fault, it's Jon Snow being so damnably English. He's like Jeremy Paxman's dad - he wants answers, but over a cup of tea. It's now the only news I watch on TV because I get so exasperated with the other channels, except for when the BBC have the cute brunette at the side explaining some animated diagram... which I never get around to looking at.
Men! Sheesh.
posted by NinjaPirate at 4:18 AM on April 7, 2005

One more reason to like Jon Snow: he, like so many other journalists, was offered a salary from MI5 to "help them out", he turned it down.
posted by gsb at 4:56 AM on April 7, 2005

If you're looking at gsb's MI5 link, be warned that the guy who runs the site seems like a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

From the main page: "Since June 1990 the British security service MI5 has waged a campaign of harassment against a UK citizen, through the broadcast and print media, verbal abuse at work, and molestation in public and during travel. "

Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
posted by quiet at 5:13 AM on April 7, 2005

page title = genius
posted by iso_bars at 8:20 AM on April 7, 2005