The media's role in covering the race for the White House was discussed Tuesday night at Northern Illinois University. It's part of a series of speeches from national expertsin the final weeks of the presidential race. Tuesday night's speaker was the managing editor for NPR'S digital news. Mark Stencelsays fact checking ads from the campaign trail has really evolved over the past 25 years.
"It used to be something you had to hunt out and look for, hope that your local paper had it, or that your local station had it. Now, I can go and not only keep up with fact checking of the presidential race, but all of these local fact checking sites that are sprouting up, they're covering senate races, governor races, congressional races all over the country" Stencel said after last night's speech.
Stencel says a lot of the growth presents challenges. That includes making sure the increasing amount of fact checking isn't perceived as biased reporting. But he calls it an amazing trend for the industry and that it's only for the good, if it's done well.
The next lecture in the presidential speaker series will be held October 18th. It will feature Emery University’s Alan Abramowitz, who will deliver a presentation titled “Predicting the 2012 Presidential Election”