Why Stipulation Was Created
Beyond the conventional “About” page briefing, I’d like to add a bit more context as to why I created this platform and what I hope it provides to visitors. This post will hopefully give readers further insight into the purpose of Stipulation.
In the last, say, 5 years I have been increasingly concerned with what I call the hyper-partisianization of American public discourse. In my judgement, we are moving far beyond a point where facts are simply politized. Unfortunately, it seems we are entering a realm where there isn’t even agreement on the essential facts of news reports and stories. This is what the RAND Corporation called Truth Decay.
If members of the public cannot even agree on basic facts, then how can there ever be productive discussions on matters that truly matter? The answer, if there is one, is not obvious to me.
Noticing this pernicious circumstance, I decided to to make a good-faith attempt to combat the balkanization of news and fight against the decay truth and facts.
So What Is Stipulation?
I am not a lawyer, but one of the things that fascinates me about the profession are pretrial conferences. Specifically, I appreciate the practice in where opposing lawyers come together and agree on the basic facts of a case. (Yes, the site name does come from said practice.) This may seem trivial, but convening with someone you may not see eye-to-eye with in order to find common ground is an ambitious and meaningful accomplishment – especially in 2020.
This is what Stipulation hopes to facilitate. The central idea is to provide citizens with the basic facts of noteworthy stories that are agreed upon by “both sides” of the political spectrum. Doing so will involve breaking down reports from various news outlets, regardless of their perceived partisanship, and informing the public on what news reports are biased, undetermined, or fair.
As such, if a story is only being reported/confirmed by one “side,” it is less credible than a story that is being reported by multiple outlets, with multiple biases. For instance, a story being independently reported by both Fox News, the Associated Press, and NPR is weighted by Stipulation stronger than a story only reported by Vox and The Nation.
Essentially, Stipulation is a mix between a fact-checking operation and a news aggregator. As the masthead tagline suggests, if successful, Stipulation will empower citizens for productive public discourse. I have bigger visions for the functionality and form of TheStipulation.com, but I am pleased and enthusiastic to get started with what I have now. I hope you’ll tag along.