New research finds that, in general, people trust journalists who agree with false claims, and distrust journalists who show that false claims are false.
From the abstract:
The research also solves the mystery of why so many people distrust fact-checking sites: It's because they debunk false claims. Read all about it."Do people trust journalists who provide fact-checks? Building upon research on negativity bias, two studies support the hypothesis that people generally trust journalists when they confirm claims as true, but are relatively distrusting of journalists when they correct false claims."