A new study published in the International Journal of Press/Politics claims that a majority of journalists just quoted the claims of politicians during the 2012 Presidential debates as opposed to providing a context or factual analysis of them.

The study analyzed the tweets of 430 political journalists who covered the 2012 presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The findings show that most journalists became mere stenographers when it came to using Twitter during the debates:

They found that 60 percent of the journalist tweets “reflected traditional practices of ‘professional’ objectivity: stenography—simply passing along a claim made by a politician—and ‘he said, she said’ repetition of a politician’s claims and his opponent’s counterclaim.”

The study showed that only 15 percent of tweets challenged or verified the veracity of the statements made by the candidates.