More than 200 years ago, a Massachusetts congressman noted that “falsehoods would fly from Maine to Georgia while truth is pulling her boots on.” The country was smaller then, and Twitter nearly two centuries in the future.
The truth can be labor-intensive to dig up—and when it is unearthed, it is often avoided like kale. Falsehoods, especially those that bolster our preconceived notions, are clickbait—shared and rewarded in the online marketplace, with crippling consequences for self-government
Herein lies a harsh reality of online news and Internet economics—and a major reason behind the RealClearFoundation (RCF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working in partnership with RealClearPolitics. True investigative journalism, an essential component of democracy, is expensive. Deeply sourced, fact-based investigations can take weeks—even months—to produce.
