Mark Stencel teaches journalism at Duke, where he also is co-director of the university's Reporters' Lab. He also is executive director of JournalList and founder of Assignment: Future LLC. He previously held senior positions at The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly and NPR, and was a reporter for The News & Observer in North Carolina.
A Reporters' Lab review of local fact-checking finds only a small percentage of politicians and other public officials are held accountable for the accuracy of the claims they make.
Politicians in 29 states get little scrutiny for what they say, while local fact-checkers in other places struggle to keep pace with campaign misinformation.
