Skip to main content

A Busy Year for Fact-Checkers

Duke professor Bill Adair’s research focuses on fact-checking and new forms of journalism

adair_web_V.png
Bill Adair, Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke, interviews President Barack Obama during his time as Washington bureau chief for the Tampa Bay Times. Photo courtesy of Bill Adair.

Name: Bill Adair

Position: Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy; Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy

Years at Duke: 3

What I do at Duke: I teach “News as a Moral Battleground,” which is our ethics class. I also teach a class I created called “The Future of News,” which is a look at the disruption of the news business because of the internet and the tremendous promise of the digital age to create new forms of journalism. I’ve also taught a class called “Washington in a New Media Age,” which looks at how the new media and the legacy media tries to cover Washington and how people in Washington try to manipulate the media. That draws on a lot of my experience covering the White House, covering Congress, and starting PolitiFact. I also direct the Duke Reporters’ Lab, which is a research center where we do projects either exploring the future of news or researching or promoting fact-checking. As director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, my goal is to help our students understand the role of the media in holding government accountable and to help people in government understand what the media is doing. I oversee our curriculum and our programming.

If I had $5 million, I would: replace our 14-year-old minivan, a Honda Odyssey, and invest in more political fact-checking. The challenge for political fact-checking is that it’s usually not a profitable business, so it needs support from either legacy media organizations or foundations.

My first ever job: When I was 11 years old, I was a paper boy delivering The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Arizona. I used to get up every morning at 4 a.m., and I had a big route by the standards of those days, and it was hilly. It taught me responsibility and it really started my love of news, because I would get to see the papers before anyone else.

My dream job: This is pretty darn close. I do have considerable resources here that I can use for research and teaching, and I have tremendous freedom in pursuing different things I think are important. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to work with faculty in other disciplines, which helps me look at my own work in a different way.

The best advice I ever received: It is the mantra of the Tampa Bay Times editor, who is a good friend and who I worked most closely with on PolitiFact, Neil Brown. Neil’s mantra is “Go narrow, go deep.” Pick one thing and examine it in tremendous depth, and from that, greater truths will emerge.

What I love about Duke: After 30 years in journalism, this was the perfect next chapter in my career. It allows me to take what I have learned and share some of it with students and also continue to explore what the future of journalism can be like. I have found Duke is an amazing place, and the Duke students are engaged, skeptical and they’re good writers.

When I’m not at work, I like to: Ride my bike. We live in Duke Forest so I love riding the Al Buehler Trail. My son and I also go to a lot of movies together.

Something most people don’t know about me: I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. I do go to as many Springsteen concerts as I can. (Favorite song: Jungleland)

An interesting/memorable day at work for me: The day we won the NCAA men’s basketball national championship in April. I was at the Washington Duke Inn with a lot of alums and students. That was just amazing.

A pet peeve: People who are closed-minded. I think it’s important to be open to new ideas, and different kinds of people.