Hume on Border Security: ‘In This Current Atmosphere, Fact Checking Has Become a Branch of Opinion Journalism’

EXCERPT:

HUME: "What could be a more legitimate form of journalism, than checking the facts of what politicians say? It’s totally proper and necessary, vital even. The problem is, though, in this current atmosphere, fact checking has become a branch of opinion journalism. For example, in the speech last night, the President spoke of a crisis at the border. A number of the fact checks that were critical to the speech disputed the fact that there was a crisis at the border. Let’s start with this, Tucker. Whether there’s a crisis at the border or not is not a matter of fact. It is a matter of opinion. One man’s crisis is another man’s problem. So when you start out trying to fact check opinion, you’re obviously off on the wrong foot. In some instances, I saw facts checked as being a problem that were true. For example, there was a statistic, 266,000 people arrested who had come across the border and The Washington Post announced that that was a true statistic. But it was misleading. Well, there again we are. Whether something is misleading or not is not a simple matter of fact, it is a matter of opinion. But the impassion, the ambition of journalists today that get in on the opinion game is so strong, that they’re coming in through all the doors, including the fact check door."