Craigslist Founder Wants to Bring Fact Checking Back

Throughout the media industry, fact checking departments have been decimated by budget cuts, and it shows. Inaccuracies in news media are becoming increasingly common, and short of the financial windfalls needed to hire back professional fact checkers, there are no easy answers. But Craig Newmark has a few ideas.

The Craigslist founder outlined his ideas in a private email, which Jim Romenesko published with permission. They include “a network of networks of factcheckers” like those at politifact.com, factcheck.org, and sunlightFoundation.com, and a “widget or truth goggle” that could reference a database for previously fact checked information.

Both sound like valuable tools for any news organization, but can anything really compare to having paid fact checkers on staff? What do you think, dear readers? Will a widget bring accuracy back to the news media? And do you have any suggestions of your own?