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Bill Adair

@billadair.com
557 followers 47 following 55 posts

Professor at Duke; founder of PolitiFact; author of Beyond the Big Lie; fan of facts. billadair.com

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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 10/07/2026
Some great news: Sarah Krueger is going to be the new managing editor for the 9th Street Journal, our student written site that covers Durham. 9thstreetjournal.org/2026/07/10/s...
9thstreetjournal.org
Sarah Krueger named new 9th Street managing editor - 9th Street Journal
Longtime WRAL reporter Sarah Krueger replaces Alison Jones as the new managing editor of The 9th Street Journal
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 27/03/2026
RDU airport is encouraging passengers to give gift cards to TSA screeners www.rdu.com/tsasupport/
rdu.com
Supporting TSA Employees at RDU - Raleigh-Durham International Airport
Supporting TSA Employees at RDU Transportation Security Administration employees at RDU play a critical role in keeping our airport safe and our community connected. Right now, these federal workers a...
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 28/01/2026
A reminder that there are no boundaries in media. Everyone can offer everything.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 02/01/2026
Helpful transparency in reporting
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 21/11/2025
With rumors flying about ICE sightings, our reporter Gabrielle Lazor went searching in the North Hills Hilton. 9thstreetjournal.org/2025/11/21/s...
9thstreetjournal.org
Searching for ICE at a Raleigh Hilton - 9th Street Journal
Rumors about ICE sightings are filling Reddit. We checked out one about agents staying in the Hilton in North Hills.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 16/11/2025
Some fascinating detective work here by DF Lovett on the edits to Jeffrey Epstein's Wikipedia page. open.substack.com/pub/edithist...
open.substack.com
Did Jeffrey Epstein edit his own Wikipedia article?
I think there's a good chance he did, in 2007 at least.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 16/10/2025
Tremendous story by Duke alum @billmccarthy.bsky.social showing how White House stitched together footage from other cities and claimed they were from Chicago factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
factcheck.afp.com
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 29/09/2025
Smart and thorough analysis from @ninajankowicz.com: Jim Jordan Claims Google Censored Conservatives. His Own Committee’s Work Shows Otherwise. wiczipedia.substack.com/p/jim-jordan...
wiczipedia.substack.com
Jim Jordan Claims Google Censored Conservatives. His Own Committee’s Work Shows Otherwise.
Google execs’ interviews before the House Judiciary Committee show no evidence of “censorship” or government coercion - so who’s lying?
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 15/09/2025
Why does Microsoft do this? Every day (???), it sends an "Reaction Daily Digest" email that summarizes the "thumbs-ups" (and, I guess, other emojis) that I have received that day. What value is that email, coming hours after a respondent sent them?
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 21/08/2025
A smart and simple fact-check. To check Trump's claim that the Smithsonian has "nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future," PolitiFact fact-checkers simply toured the museums. Pants on Fire. www.politifact.com/factchecks/2...
politifact.com
Trump is wrong: Smithsonian does feature success, brightness
President Donald Trump attacked the Smithsonian Institution for being “woke” and giving no attention to “success,” “brightness” and the “future.” Visiting several of the most popular museums, we found...
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 15/08/2025
Hey Chicago! Come and see me Sept. 6 at Printers Row Lit Fest! I'll be discussing lying in politics and misinformation with @barbmcquade.bsky.social‬! -- moderated by the Chicago Tribune's ‪@jake-sheridan.bsky.social‬!
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 12/08/2025
Three news alerts, three different takes
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 01/08/2025
Great lede here from @joshuabenton.com: "Alden Global Capital just can’t understand. Why would any newspaper not want to be the next to pass through its digestive tract?" www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/alde...
niemanlab.org
Alden Global Capital is miffed that The Dallas Morning News won’t offer itself up for disembowelment
The hedge fund threatens to shift their takeover bid to shareholders — while trying to sweet-talk the only shareholder that matters.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 26/06/2025
Some thoughts on Google’s announcement ending the use of ClaimReview in search:
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 20/06/2025
A lot of people believed Meta's decision to end its support of fact-checkers would lead to a dramatic decline. But that hasn't happened, at least not yet, according to the latest census by the Duke Reporters' Lab. reporterslab.org/2025/06/19/f...
reporterslab.org
2025 census: Fact-checkers persevere as politicians, platforms turn up heat - Reporters' Lab
In its annual census, the Duke Reporters’ Lab counts 443 active fact-checking projects, down about 2 percent so far from 2024.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 12/06/2025
Isn't this the result for, like, everything? Every issue, every question that begins, "Do you support President Trump..."
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 05/06/2025
I was watching a video on Spotify today and I realized… that I was watching a video on Spotify. It has become a platform for music + audiobooks + podcasts + now, podcasts with video. It’s the everything platform.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 23/05/2025
From @glennkessler.bsky.social, anatomy of a flip-flop: How Trump has changed his claims that he can end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
Analysis | Trump’s flip-flop on how easy it would be to end the Russia-Ukraine war
The president has gone from a “24-hour” deal to “back away” in just a few months.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 15/05/2025
A great fact-check by Grace Abels and some other tremendous actors. www.instagram.com/reel/DJo946k...
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 07/05/2025
I lied to a guy on national TV. So I decided to track him down and say I was sorry. This is the story of my search. www.cjr.org/analysis/pol...
cjr.org
Brian from Michigan
Thirteen years ago, I lied to a guy named Brian on national television. So I decided to find him and apologize.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 29/04/2025
Anybody know how long Trump has been in office? I'd love to see some coverage of that...
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 20/04/2025
Ran into John from @themountaingoats.bsky.social exactly where you'd expect a big rock star on a Saturday night, in the parking lot of Target, where he was shopping for Easter candy. What a smart, wonderful guy. Reminded me why I love the Goats.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 28/03/2025
“I would like to say one more thing,” Chávez said. “Again to our trans students, we see you and we love you.” 9thstreetjournal.org/2025/03/28/d...
9thstreetjournal.org
Durham school board vows to support transgender students - 9th Street Journal
At a time when the transgender community feels under attack at the federal and state level, the Durham school board is taking a public stand…
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 25/03/2025
Journalists who use "[timely word]gate" in a headline should be suspended without pay for a week. Today's example: "Signalgate."
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 23/03/2025
Not sure how new this is, but the NYT's Athletic now has a button so you can directly bet on teams. The gap between journalism and gambling keeps narrowing.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 20/03/2025
My Newswriting students are reading one of my favorite works of student journalism, @carmela.bsky.social's "I watched all 162 crashes at the Can Opener," which then led me to watch way too many YouTube videos. But a fun way to spend an afternoon! 9thstreetjournal.org/2021/04/13/i...
9thstreetjournal.org
I watched all 162 crashes at the Can Opener. Here’s what I saw. - 9th Street Journal
To understand Durham's most notorious location for crashes, I watched every video. I identified three types: the Curious Cat, the Bullet, and the Barbershop Shave.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 19/03/2025
NYT using crowdsourcing for coverage of JFK assassination files.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 17/03/2025
I always worry when I see an obit for Bill Adair - until I realize it’s not me.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 14/03/2025
Interesting addition to my Google search results that I haven’t seen before
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 13/03/2025
A student used "literally" in a paper, which gave me an excuse to watch this youtu.be/gYB-dM2Tsd0?...
youtu.be
Literally Every Time Chris Traeger Says "Literally" | Parks and Recreation
YouTube video by Parks and Recreation
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 12/03/2025
This is tremendous news. The amazing @edeggans.bsky.social becoming Knight professor at Washington & Lee. columns.wlu.edu/eric-deggans...
columns.wlu.edu
Eric Deggans Named Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Ethics at W&L
Eric Deggans, television critic, media analyst and guest host with NPR, has been selected to serve as the next John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Ethics at Washington and Lee…
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 09/03/2025
If you’re at SXSW, stop by Monday for my conversation about lying in politics with Nina Jankowicz! We’ll discuss Nina’s ordeal, which I recounted in Beyond the Big Lie, the patterns of lying and ideas to curb our lying epidemic. 11:30 a.m. in the Marriott’s Waller Ballroom D.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 19/02/2025
Interesting discussion at Knight Media Forum about whether to use the term disinformation or lies. I agree with @juliaangwin.com - call them lies.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 18/02/2025
An important insight from one of the nation's top misinformation researchers.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 06/02/2025
It would be interesting to track and chart the replication of this, like an infectious disease doctor following the spread of a virus from Patient Zero.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 05/02/2025
"Flagg is the moistest athlete I've ever seen." Frank Bruni at the Duke-UNC game. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Blue Devils Made Me Do It
What I learned at my first-ever Duke-U.N.C. basketball game.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 05/02/2025
The Netflix euphemism for "price increase": "update."
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 14/01/2025
The Truth-O-Meter gets all the attention, but the @PolitiFact promise meters are also hugely valuable in holding officials accountable for their campaign pledges. The final report card on 99 Biden promises shows 1/3 kept, 1/3 broken and 1/3 a compromise. www.politifact.com/article/2025...
politifact.com
99 Biden campaign promises. Did he keep his word?
As Joe Biden campaigned for president in 2020, national and global discussion focused on one issue: the COVID-19 pandemi
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 07/01/2025
A few thoughts about Meta's decision to end the Third Party Fact-Checking program in the U.S.: Fact-checkers weren’t censors. They just provided information to Meta, which decided what to do with that information. It chose to demote or delete posts – not the fact-checkers.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 31/12/2024
Update on @ninajankowicz.com, whose story I tell in Beyond the Big Lie: She has appealed the dismissal of her lawsuit against Fox.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 30/12/2024
Jimmy Carter, who was famous for promising not to tell a lie when he was president, was so honest that when 60 Minutes asked him in 1980 to grade aspects of his presidency, he gave himself a B- on foreign policy and said he deserved a B or a C on domestic policy.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 22/12/2024
Pickleball on TV is wildly popular or Amazon Prime is desperate for programming
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 20/12/2024
I talked with @davidcorn.bsky.social about Beyond the Big Lie, why Republicans lie more and how I got comfortable using the word "lie" link.motherjones.com/public/37869...
link.motherjones.com
Donald Trump at a press conference in Washington, DC, on September 16, 2016, where he discussed the birther conspiracy theory about then-President Barack Obama—and prompted the New York Times to use the word “lie” in covering him. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 18/12/2024
I was quite proud to be in top 4% of @glennkessler.bsky.social readers - only to discover that @markstencel.bsky.social was in top 2%!
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 17/12/2024
PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year: the Trump/Vance claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield Ohio were eating dogs and cats. www.politifact.com/article/2024...
politifact.com
Lie of the Year: Springfield Haitians are ‘eating the pets’
Donald Trump, JD Vance's false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet cats and dogs is PolitiFact's 2024 Lie of the Year.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 13/12/2024
Durham schools officials wait until late on a Friday to announce unfortunate news that parents will have to supplement bus drivers for at least another month 9thstreetjournal.org/2024/12/13/d...
9thstreetjournal.org
Durham schools ask parents to supplement bus transportation through Jan. 17 - 9th Street Journal
Durham Public Schools announced today that it will ask parents to continue transporting their children to school one day per week through Friday, Jan. 17. …
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 08/12/2024
Odd sponsorship.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 05/12/2024
The day after Spotify Wrapped: Re-playing all the songs I played over and over during 2024.
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Bill Adair @billadair.com · 03/12/2024
I love the New York Times, but I worry that it sometimes is so good that it hurts local journalism. For example, today it gave me, automatically, my local freeze estimates. It’s another reason I have less incentive to check local media.
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Reposted by Bill Adair
Nina Jankowicz @ninajankowicz.com · 23/11/2024
NYPost continues conflating academic research on disinformation with “government censorship.” (It also bears repeating that government activity on disinformation =/= censorship) That this continues to be a drumbeat for conservative media and the Trump transition is extremely concerning.
NYPost screenshot of article with headline “Feds blew $267M fighting ‘misinformation’ under Biden — as Trump vows to ban ‘censorship cartel’

A Fox News clip about the COVID lab leak theory is embedded. 

The lede of the article is “WASHINGTON — President Biden’s administration used $267 million of your money to study “misinformation” since he took office, a new report reveals — as President-elect Donald Trump vows to purge the term from the federal lexicon and make sweeping spending cuts.”NYPost cover of an angry picture of President Biden wagging his finger in front of an American flag. Headline is “censor in chief” and subhed is “Biden admin gave researchers $267 MILLION to go after ‘misinformation’ – some of which was true!”
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