SAN DIEGO, CA – The media typically keeps organizations in check, but the tables have turned with a new web site allowing users to report journalists for bias and inaccuracies.
SpinSpotter unveiled its web site Tuesday at the DEMOfall 2008
conference. Using the site, readers will be able to load news stories and tear them apart for bias, news spins, misuse of sources or factual errors. Then, members of SpinSpotter will be able to view the marked-up stories and rate each other's markings.
SpinSpotter members aren't simply making judgment calls, either. They'd report bias and other journalistic malpractices to the Journalism
Advisory Board for approval.
At its demonstration, SpinSpotter CEO John Atcheson cited statistics claiming 66 percent of Americans believe journalists are one-sided, while only 9 percent of journalists are concerned about their reputations. He said his web site promotes higher accuracy to prevent readers from consuming unsubstantiated facts, unnamed sources and so on.
