My new column at CJR argues that the persistence of false claims in the presidential campaign doesn’t mean that the fact-checkers have failed. Here’s how it begins:

Can the media stop politicians from misleading the public?

That’s the question on the minds of many journalists and commentators after Paul Ryan’s speech last night at the Republican National Convention, which continued the Romney campaign’s pattern of disingenuous and misleading attacks on President Obama. While Obama and his allies have made many misleading claims of their own, the frequency and repetition of the Romney campaign’s claims has been particularly striking.

For more, read the whole thing.