First 2016 presidential debate draws biggest NPR audience in history
The 2016 presidential campaign has often been cited as evidence of a “post-fact era” by political pundits and enraged supporters on both sides.
This theory is meant to call out the continued support for two candidates that have spouted many lies.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has often been chided for her previous false statements about the classification of top secret emails she sent on her personal account. Meanwhile, Republican candidate Donald Trump was named the “King of Whoppers” by FactCheck.org in 2015 and whose campaign statements were deemed PolitiFact’s 2015 “Lie of the Year.”
Many wondered if the truth simply does not matter anymore.
But Monday night, NPR’s coverage of the debate proved this theory wrong.
The organization employed 20 journalists to fact-check statements made by both candidates during the debate in real time. It was considered an experiment to see how the audience would respond.
Well, take that “post fact era:” NPR drew its biggest audience in history during its coverage of the debate. What’s more, about 6 million people broke the organization’s online traffic history by reading the transcript later, according to Poynter.
Clearly the experiment worked, proving that at least a portion of voters still care about the facts of what candidates say.
Fact-checking is a relatively new section of journalism that reflects the same tools journalists have always had, but displayed in a more straightforward way.
It reflect the press’s responsibility as the “Fourth Estate” to inform voters to aid in the functioning of the American democracy.
As a journalist, it’s encouraging to see voters still care about the truth over rhetoric, even if this was limited to one news organization.
Even self-made fact check memes are starting to take off this campaign season, proving you don’t need to be a journalist to investigate.
To join the millions of others who have read NPR’s transcript, click here.
To watch the entire debate as originally broadcast by NBC News, see the video below.
