LibGuides: Fake News: Check your own claim!

Fact Checking Links

Fact-Checking Links

FactCheck
A product of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, this site is terrific for checking up on political claims.
Politifact
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy.
Snopes.com
One of the oldest debunking sites on the Internet, Snopes.com focuses on urban legends, news stories and memes. They also cite their sources at the end of each debunking.
LinkedIn
A professional networking website where you can look up the authors of articles and books to see if they're credible.
AllSides
Displays the day’s top news stories from the Left, Center, and Right of the political spectrum — side-by-side so you can see the full picture.

Practice makes perfect

Use the tips throughout this LibGuide to check your own claim, or use one of the claims listed below for practice. Remember, fake news articles may fall under multiple categories and might even mix in a few facts amid their falsehoods.

Select a claim to examine

Food Babe: How Food Companies Exploit Americans
This article claims that US consumers ingest chemicals that people in other countries don't. Is that true? What else does this article imply?
Spoon University: Drinking Tequila Could Help You Lose Weight
Can you find enough evidence to prove or disprove this claim?

Things to think about

Other tips for fact checking and avoiding fake news

When you open up a news article in your browser, open a second, empty tab. Use that second window to look up claims, author credentials and organizations that you come across in the article.
Fake news spans across all kinds of media - printed and online articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, radio shows, even still images.
As Mad-Eye Moody said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "Constant Vigilance!" Always be ready to fact check.
Even the best researchers will be fooled once in a while. If you find yourself fooled by a fake news story, use your experience as a learning tool.