In December 2003, then-FactCheck.org Director Brooks Jackson published the first articles on our website.
At the time, Brooks was the only journalist on staff, and he had one assistant. Today, we have nine full-time journalists and four undergraduate fellows from the University of Pennsylvania, where we are based.
In our early years, our focus was solely on fact-checking politicians and what was said about them. Vice President Dick Cheney famously – and incorrectly — referred to us as FactCheck.com, instead of .org, in his 2004 debate with John Edwards. Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, had some fun with that (as you can see in our video below).
Over the years, our work has grown to include debunking misinformation spread on social media and, in a project we call SciCheck, fact-checking false and misleading claims about health and science. In 2021, we started to publish our SciCheck articles in Spanish.
One thing that hasn’t changed is our mission. We have always been nonpartisan — holding politicians of both parties accountable for what they say. We have always aimed to increase public knowledge and understanding by applying the best practices of journalism and scholarship.
In short, we have been here for you — to give you the information and tools you need to separate fact from fiction. And you have always been there for us. We would not be publishing 20 years later without people who want to know the facts, even if the facts don’t agree with their political beliefs.
In the video below, which was produced by SciCheck Staff Writer Catalina Jaramillo, we look back at some noteworthy televised mentions of our work over the past two decades — including citations from politicians, such as Sens. John Kerry and John McCain, and comedians Bill Maher, John Oliver and Stewart. We hope you enjoy it.