By Jane Scholz
At the Voices United meeting in September, a member asked about where she could go to check the factual basis of news stories on TV, in print or online. As a retired journalist, I have a 40-year history of checking my facts. Here is a list of resources I use now to do that. All are free, no membership or subscription required. Best ones have an asterisk, but they are all good.
Questions about voting or elections in Denton County:
Denton County Elections Office at votedenton.gov ,
email elections@dentoncounty.gov or call (940) 349-3200.
National, international
https://www.factcheck.org * -- This is a non-profit run by the Annenberg Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The late Mr. Annenberg was once the publisher or the Philadelphia Inquirer.
https://apnews.com/hub/ap-fact-check * -- Run by the Associated Press, a bona fide news organization.
Factcheck@ap.org -- You can also email the AP a questionable story that you see and ask them to fact check it. They won't respond to every query, but they might respond to yours.
https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/ * -- Run by Reuters, a European news service, a bona fide news organization.
https://www.snopes.com* -- A privately owned, ad-supported fact checking site around since 1994. Reliable.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/list/* -- A fact checking site run by the Poynter Institute, a journalism education institute in Florida.
Https://www.Washingtonpost.com/news/fact-check *- Run by The Washington Post newspaper.
Other good resources:
AP.org -- breaking news stories from Associated Press.
Reuters.com -- breaking news stories from Reuters.
USAfacts.org -- a new organization run by Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft. They don't usually factcheck breaking stories, but they have a lot of what appears to be reliable factual numbers-based information that is the basis for a lot of news stories. Well written, easy to understand, lots of charts and graphs. They also have a weekly email newsletter.
Enjoy. Facts matter!!!