Very, very good article I recommend it to everyone, read it all.

re: #1 Destro

And as the article states the fact checkers have themselves become a joke with their Pinocchios and pants-on-fire ratings. We have seen that and discussed it here. When they issue a rating of “half-true” to something that is obviously objectively false because they torture themselves to find some tiny nuance they can use to avoid flatly calling a spade a spade. They are so scared of partisan attacks and losing subscribers that they have for the most part become useless.

Besides which without the trust of the public in their product they effectively are useless, and for many they have already lost that trust. Hell even Snopes is doing it now, so now one is basically back to fending for oneself. Sorting through the ever growing mounds of partisan rubbish on the internet in an attempt to verify facts can sometimes be daunting. For someone lacking good reading comprehension skills and and at least average intelligence it may be impossible.

Where do those people turn when there are no trustworthy arbiters of truth anymore? Because less face it half the population of this country is of below “average” intelligence and they are never going to be able to find their way through the minefield of the internet alone.