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Keller @ Large: Do You Care About The Facts?

BOSTON (CBS) - Earlier this month, they held an unusual conference in Buenos Aires -- a gathering of the world's fact-checkers.

In addition to the political fact-checking we do here at WBZ-TV, you may be familiar with these online sites that have researchers fact-checking all sorts of public claims and confirming or debunking rumors. With the internet enabling instant publication and dissemination of falsehoods, these services are more important than ever.

Just look at our current political climate.

After a Bush administration that misled the public about some of the evidence justifying the invasion of Iraq, the Obama white house has produced some real whoppers, including the details of the Iran nuclear deal and, of course, the Politifact Lie of the Year for 2013, "if you like your health plan, you can keep it."

Hillary Clinton has dropped a series of fibs in her effort to explain away her e-mail misadventures, and I can assure you many voters will never forget the phony spin her State Department put out about what happened in Benghazi.

And as for Donald Trump, the reigning king of fact-free rhetoric? Suffice to say the fact-checkers can barely keep up with the misinformation he spews.

At the Buenos Aires conference, there was quite a bit of discussion of the rise of Trump and other pols around the world who keep repeating falsehoods even after fact-checkers have debunked them, and if that proves voters just don't care what the truth is.

I don't believe that.

I think most voters still believe that while you may be entitled to your own opinion, you are not entitled to your own set of facts. But I guess we're about to find out if I'm right, aren't we?

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