General Use: News Literacy: Fact Checking Sites

There is no one source that is always 100% right! As humans, we make mistakes. 

However, these well known fact-checking sites are widely recognized for their accuracy and fairness.

Familiarize yourself with two or three and use them whenever you come across a questionable post.

	FactCheck.org: One of the most frequently used and well-respected fact-checking sites.
	Snopes began by debunking or confirming email hoaxes in the early days of the internet and has grown into one of the most popular fact-checking sites today.
	PolitiFact focuses solely on political news and uses the "truth-o-meter" to rate the accuracy of news stories and political claims.
	AP News Fact Check Hub publishes a weekly, "Not Real News: A Look at What Didn't Happen This Week," which debunks falsehoods from the past week's news events

Lead Stories fact checks viral social media posts and organized them into a "Blue Feed" and "Red Feed," making it easier to find examples on both sides.

Looking for more sources? The International Fact-Checking Network certifies fact-checking websites from around the globe using a stringent set of standards and professional journalists. See the list and the evaluations of each site.

Humans are biased. Responsible journalism shouldn't be.

It's important to take these steps to make sure you are getting a balanced diet of news:

1. Recognize your own bias: What is your worldview? Which direction do you lean on the political spectrum? Where are your blind spots?

2. Identify the bias in the media you consume: Use one of the tools below to help evaluate news sources.

3. Balance your bias diet: If your favorite new source is biased, find another that is equally biased in the opposite direction and read both.

4. Seek out fact-based, opinion-free new sources: Make fact-based sources your first stop for news. Then you can form your own opinions before hearing the opinions of pundits and others.