News to Me: Facts Are Facts

(Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania)

Non-partisan analysis of statements, news releases & interviews by politicians and their associates, monitoring for factual accuracy.

Use the search engine on this comprehensive media resource to check for media bias.

Run by editors and reporters from the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times, this Pulitzer Prize winning website features a "Truth-0-Meter" analyzing the statements of public officials.

Non-partisan site known for debunking urban legends, independent researcher David Mikkelson has lately been tackling improbable fake news claims.

Fact Checking Sites with Noted Political Leanings:

The Washington Post's fact checks are accurate and well-sourced, but their bias is evident in their focus on conservative targets.
 

This liberal, non-profit describes itself as a "progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."
 

Maintained by the conservative Media Research Center, which describes themselves as "America’s leading media watchdog in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias."

Pew Research Center

'Everyone is entitled to his own opinion,
but not to his own facts.”

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.  A responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not, what a fact is and is not, and begin by holding ourselves accountable to truthfulness, and demand our pursuit of America’s future be fact-based.”

Rex W. Tillerson,
69th Secretary of State
Graduation Address at
Virginia Military Institute
May 2018

Graphic designed by the Indiana University East Library team.  Thank you to K.T. Lowe for permission to use resources on their excellent Fake News Libguide.  liblearn@iue.edu.

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.  A responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not, what a fact is and is not, and begin by holding ourselves accountable to truthfulness, and demand our pursuit of America’s future be fact-based.”

Rex W. Tillerson,
69th Secretary of State
Graduation Address at
Virginia Military Institute
May 2018

Detailed view.
Expect ACCOUNTABILITY
Does your source have publication standards?

Produced by Neweum ED
Lesson Plan / Additional resources

Think Before You Forward!
Excellent flow chart on analyzing elements of a news story.

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to access thought provoking resources.
 

CURRENCY:

• Is the info timely if necessary?
• When was it published and is it updated?
• Do the links work?

RELEVANCE:

• Who is the intended audience?
• Have you compared the info to other sources?
• Would you be comfortable citing this source in a research paper?
   

AUTHORITY

• Do the  authors credentials  and are they qualified to write on the subject?
• Is there contact information for the author or affiliated organization?
• Does the URL reveal anything about the source? 

ACCURACY

• Is the information supported by evidence?
• Has the info been held to accountability standards by a review process?
• Are there spelling, grammar & typographical errors?

PURPOSE

• Does the article intend to to teach, sell, entertain or persuade, and is this clear?
• Is it fact, opinion or propaganda?
• Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
   

This checklist was adapted by Nathan Gabriel from the Meriam Library's original.

Society of Professional Journalists
Click image to view full sized copy
and fact checking tools.

Journalists' Toolbox