Opinion

The Correction Cycle, or: How I Learned to Stop Fact-Checking and Read the Actual Data

Rex Dunmore says the correction mechanism was not broken. It was just pointed at the wrong part of the room.

I spent twenty-two years in television learning to say false things were complicated when they were false, and complicated things were false when the segment needed a clean close.

Then I started reading the actual data. This is a terrible habit for a former anchor. It ruins pacing. It ruins confidence. It also ruins several claims I had been making with excellent posture.

"Some of what he said was just ahead of schedule. I find this annoying." Rex Dunmore

The correction cycle has a rhythm: confident claim, louder defense, quiet revision, smaller headline, institutional amnesia. I know this rhythm because I played percussion in it.

I am not saying Trump was always right. I am saying we made being wrong about him too comfortable, and comfort is where television goes to retire.