FactCheck.org announced that it has received a third year of funding from the Stanton Foundation to support SciCheck, its fact-checking feature that focuses on false and misleading claims about science.
The $150,000 in funding for 2017 will not only support SciCheck but FactCheck.org’s fellowship program for undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania.
The mission of FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, is to serve as a “nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘consumer advocate’ for voters” and “reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.” Its SciCheck feature was launched in 2015 with funding from the Stanton Foundation, which was founded by the late CBS president Frank Stanton.
“We are happy to have SciCheck back another year and grateful for Stanton’s support,” said Eugene Kiely, director of FactCheck.org. “It is especially important in 2017, which promises to be a busy year in Washington. It’s the first time since 2010 that one party controls both the White House and Congress, and we expect that there will be major policy debates on climate change, fracking, renewable energy and other issues that SciCheck has been writing about for two years.”
SciCheck articles have covered topics such as Zika virus, climate change, the effectiveness of torture as an interrogation method, and marijuana research. Its fact-checking articles have received more than five million page views on FactCheck.org and been republished online by other news organizations, including Scientific American, MSN.com, USA Today, the websites of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, and Undark, a project of the Knight Science Journalism Project at MIT.
Among SciCheck’s most recent posts are:
- Sanders and Pruitt Rumble Over Earthquakes
- Trump on Torture, Again
- Tillerson on Climate Change
- FactChecking Science in 2016
To read more about FactCheck.org and SciCheck, click here.
