Why Meta did the right thing by unfriending fact checking

Recently, Mark Zuckerberg set the cat among the pigeons when he said that Meta would be swapping fact-checking for X-themed “Community Notes,” noting that “fact-checkers were too politically biased” and “destroyed more trust than they created.” It was reminiscent of Jeff Bezos’ op-ed in The Washington Post, arguing that people didn’t trust the media anymore and that reality was an “undefeated champion,” while explaining WaPo’s decision not to endorse any presidential candidate. While Zuckerberg’s and Bezos’s decisions are surely driven by less-than-altruistic reasons, both fact-checking and legacy media find themselves in a quagmire with fewer believers.