With all the rampant use of the terms “fake news” and “alternative facts” people are becoming EXHAUSTED with trying to figure out if what they’re seeing/reading/hearing can be trusted. Are they going to misquote something and end up feeling stupid? Are they outright being lied to? Some people might be wondering how THEY can become informed consumers of information, and fact check things they see for themselves. So here’s a quick crash course on how YOU can be your own fact checker and identify “Fake News.”

“We can all be a bit better about educating ourselves and listening to facts that we might not agree with.”

To determine if you can trust a news article, ask yourself the following questions:

“It is old?” Check the date. People frequently post out of date information that contextually doesn’t apply anymore.

Check the date. People frequently post out of date information that contextually doesn’t apply anymore. “What is the source?” Many sources out there aren’t legit, or editorialize information. That weakens any arguments and information you try to derive from them. Try to find core sources!

As a quick aside, and to give you a quick head start, the most centrist and minimal partisan bias sources out there right now are the AP Wire, Reuters, and BBC. The NEXT tier out from them consists of NPR, Washington Post, and the New York Times.

NBC and ABC news are, right now, the least biased mainstream cable networks, however you should be aware of Comcast’s ties to NBC, and Disney’s ties to ABC.

(This is based on where funding from these organizations come from, which you can find with FEC and public filings, along with the ratio of editorials to flat news reporting they provide. This changes sometimes)

No, CNN is NOT Fake News, but they aren’t totally unbiased either.

Back to our list of questions!

“Is it labeled ‘satire’?” Seriously! This one is simple. Are you on a website that is labeled as a satire or commentary site, or is the article itself tagged with a satire label? If so, don’t take it seriously or as fact.

Seriously! This one is simple. Are you on a website that is labeled as a satire or commentary site, or is the article itself tagged with a satire label? If so, don’t take it seriously or as fact. “Who is the author?” This one is big. The author of an article can tell you a lot. Try googling their name. Look them up on twitter. See if they work for any particular organization or individual that has a vested interest in the way they report/write their articles. If they aren’t verified or if they are taking money from a source that may bias them: take what they say with a grain of salt.

Also, if they are a well known writer whose goals seem to be stirring shit up, you can probably disregard their data too.

This one is big. The author of an article can tell you a lot. Try googling their name. Look them up on twitter. See if they work for any particular organization or individual that has a vested interest in the way they report/write their articles. If they aren’t verified or if they are taking money from a source that may bias them: take what they say with a grain of salt. Also, if they are a well known writer whose goals seem to be stirring shit up, you can probably disregard their data too. “Who are the experts in this field/what are they saying?” Always look for the smarter person in the room. If the person writing an article is quoting someone, look up that person and see what they have to say for themselves. What else are they talking about? Who do THEY use as a source? Keep moving up the food chain until you find a reliable, academic, and peer-reviewed source whenever possible.

Always look for the smarter person in the room. If the person writing an article is quoting someone, look up that person and see what they have to say for themselves. What else are they talking about? Who do THEY use as a source? Keep moving up the food chain until you find a reliable, academic, and peer-reviewed source whenever possible. Reverse Image Search. This isn’t a question, but more of a suggestion. When you see an image on an article talking about something controversial, save the image to your computer, then drag and drop it into google to reverse search it. Google will show you (usually) everywhere else that image has been used. I’ve used this myself to debunk images of “riots in Ferguson, MO” that happened to be from the Arab Spring in Egypt. It’s easy, and goes a long way to demonstrate if your author can be trusted.

Here’s another quick note about search results: Don’t always trust the first result in google. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is easily leveraged for “evil” in misinformation. Basically, SEO is when a company or individual tried to do everything they can both on-page and on other websites to ensure that search engines think that THEIR content is the MOST valuable, and puts them at the top of the search results page. My entire career is foundationally based on manipulating/leveraging search results. It’s a DEEP rabbit hole. I’m not saying not to trust Google or Bing/Yahoo, but make sure that you’re verifying information whenever possible. I promise, the people who want to reach the #1 result on your search engine don’t always have the best info.

Good luck! I know this is a lot of hard work, especially if you’re already a busy person, but once you spend some time doing this, you can construct a stable of trusted and reliable news sources for you to fact check with. We can all be a bit better about educating ourselves and listening to facts that we might not agree with.

Additional Resources:

I recommend familiarizing yourself with www.politifact.com and www.snopes.com as a START, and www.OpenSecrets.org is great to see where funding for political campaigns and lobbyists comes from.