Making Whores and Charlatans Look Honest

As I repeatedly warn BFD readers, “Always assume a ‘fact-checker’ is trying to bullshit you”. That’s because “fact-checkers” are in reality almost always Confirmation Bias Machines whose purpose is to mislead and to reinforce biased narratives.

The ABC and its partnership with RMIT FactLab is a case in point. Time and again, they post “fact-checks” that are little better than egregious lies. Their most common tactic is to straw-man their target, and “fact-check” something they never said. A close second is quietly admitting that the target is right, but quibbling on a footling, largely irrelevant detail.

When it suits them, too, they leave out extremely devilish, if inconvenient details. Consider this self-serving bit of taradiddle.

RMIT FactLab has partnered with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to fight the spread of misinformation through independent third-party fact-checking.

RMIT FactLab is a research hub at RMIT University dedicated to debunking misinformation online and developing critical awareness about its origins and spread. The hub also conducts original research into the digital news ecosystem […]

RMIT FactLab Director Russell Skelton said the partnership with Meta will see it debunking social media posts relating to Australia and the Asia Pacific region to help address viral misinformation.

“We see this as a really important public service.’

RMIT

Aw, isn’t that sweet and selfless of them? They’re doing it purely out of the goodness of their little hearts.

There’s just one teensy, bitsy detail they apparently forgot to mention.

An agreement between META (Facebook) and RMIT University (RMIT FactLab), obtained via a case information request, reveals that “fact-checkers” in Australia are paid $800 (USD) per “fact-check.” This payment structure is based on a strict monthly quota of 50 “fact-checks,” totalling $40,000 (USD) per month and allowing for a maximum earning capacity of $480,000 (USD) per year.

I guess you could say they really are public servants: they trouser thousands of dollars a week, grubbily serving the powerful.

Where their website details their funding, RMIT FactLab asserts that they are “funded by RMIT University and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation”. “Filthy lucre from the Zuck’s billions-deep pockets” is mentioned nowhere.

Although touting their independence and transparency, at no point does RMIT make clear the commercial nature of their relationship with META (Facebook). In fact in the funding section, there is no mention made that they can be paid up per fact-check by META themselves.

This is even though the organisation asks for donations from the public to help with its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation via “fact-checking” […]

It is not clear whether ABC is also in a commercial relationship with META.

If they’re being paid tens of thousands per month to meet a contractual quota, it seems strange to call it anything else.

In the past other “fact-checking” organisations have disclosed the nature of their relationship with META.

Some organisations have also disclosed that they have refused to be paid for their “fact-checking” work.

Real Rukshan

So, the question remains: is RMIT FactLab really performing an “important public service”? Or are they just in it for the money?

To paraphrase Robert Heinlein, is a paid “fact-checker” just an incompetent whore?