NEW @mmfa STUDY: Major media outlets show improvement at debunking Trump misinformation on Twitter mediamatters.org/donald-trump/s… (1/x)
@mmfa This is a follow-up to our review earlier this year of 3 weeks of tweets from 32 major media outlet twitter feeds in Jan/Feb (~50,000 tweets), which we reviewed to see if they were passing on Trump falsehoods without disputing them. We reran the study for 3 weeks in July/Aug.
@mmfa 50% of the time, the outlets’ Twitter accounts disputed the misinformation. This is a big improvement from our first study, when they did so only 35% of the time, though obviously still not ideal -- they are failing half the time. (3/x)
@mmfa The improvement in major media Twitter accounts disputing Trump's falsehoods was across the board, for all types of Trump comments. 22 of the 32 news outlet Twitter feeds we reviewed improved at disputing Trump’s misinformation in tweets compared to the first study. (4/x) 
Feeds controlled by the broadcast networks (CBS/NBC/ABC) posted large improvements from our last study, but from a very low floor. So they're doing much better, but still far from perfect. (6/x)
Axios’ feed disputed Trump’s misinformation 12 out of 13 times (92%), giving it the highest rate of any feed we studied that tweeted about 10 or more false Trump claims. That’s a big step forward from our first study, in which Axios disputed only 36% of the time. (7/x)
Feeds controlled by The Washington Post and CNN were among the few accounts to do worse in the new study than the old one. Disappointing backsliding, particularly for the Post, which was one of the standouts in our original review. (8/x)
Broadly, the study is good news -- media outlets are doing a better job of rebutting Trump's falsehoods in their tweets -- but there is still a long way to go. On average, outlets amplified false/misleading claims without disputing them 15 times a day. They can do better. (9/9)
