Analysis: Fact-checking faces new falsehoods, AI and an uncertain funding model

Fact-checking has changed political journalism by making it more common for reporters to directly identify unsupported claims, writes Angie Drobnic Holan for Poynter. But the field now confronts a more chaotic information environment, with conspiracy theories and fabricated media competing for attention alongside policy disputes.

Holan argues that AI can accelerate both the creation of falsehoods and the work of identifying and explaining them. Human judgment remains essential to assess context, intent and significance, she writes.

Her analysis also examines the financial vulnerability exposed by dependence on technology-platform funding. She encourages fact-checkers to define their audiences, diversify revenue and show the underlying evidence clearly, treating verification as a public service rather than a promise to eliminate political lying.

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