What do you guys think about "fact-checking" websites like Politfact?
Personally, I don't think there is anything "empirical" or "objective" on Politifact that individuals couldn't look up on their own. It is a dangerous mentality when someone is convinced that they only need to turn to a third party to provide the "truth" about (cherry picked and limited) topics instead of drawing their own conclusions.
Good thing we have to internet to fact check the "fact checkers".
Free market regulation. Sometimes it works, other times you need to regulate the regulators as well :)
I think such websites are very interesting since they contrast the type of 'information' people use to try and manage the lives of others with the kind of information you use to make decisions about your own life. They're also interesting in that they call into question just what the hell it is so many of us think we 'know,' how we 'know' it, and why we think we're right.
I just hate calling it a "fact checker" simply because it claims to be a neural referee. The circle continues. The problem isn't that they go around trying to find the truth behind these issues-- of course we need discourse in these matters--the problem is that they claim neutrality when they do it. At least blogs and opinion pieces aren't underhanded about serving up their political agendas in the form of so-called fact. The people writing the Truth-o-meter aren't neutral arbiters, they're simply journalists who were interested enough in politics to make it their living. Just like the NYTimes or the WSJ (who have both been slipping in credibility thanks to the rise of the internet and individuals having access to independent sources).
If you want truth, find a 'fact' or an assertion and take it to a blog and have other people scrutinize and criticize it, don't go to an end-all source that claims the unattainable paramount of truth.