Research Guides: Election 2022: Step Three: Fact Check Claims

Fact Checking Claims

As you research the candidates and issues on your ballot, you may need to fact check information you find. Use the resources below to help you determine the accuracy of claims made by candidates.

Fact-Checking Resources

Fact-checking websites for politics and public policy:

FactCheck.org
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
FlackCheck.org
Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org is the political literacy companion site to the award-winning FactCheck.org. The site provides resources designed to help viewers recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular. Video resources point out deception and incivility in political rhetoric.
OpenSecrets
We pursue our mission largely through our award-winning website, OpenSecrets.org, which is the most comprehensive resource for federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available anywhere. And for other organizations and news media, the Center's exclusive data powers their online features tracking money in politics - counting cash to make change.
Politifact
Fact-checking journalism is the heart of PolitiFact. Our core principles are independence, transparency, fairness, thorough reporting and clear writing. The reason we publish is to give citizens the information they need to govern themselves in a democracy.
Sunlight Foundation
The Sunlight Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses civic technologies, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all.

Our vision is for technology to enable more complete, equitable and effective democratic participation. Our overarching goal is to achieve changes in the law to require real-time, online transparency for all government information. And, while our work began in 2006 with only a focus on the U.S. Congress, our open government work now takes place at the local, state, federal and international levels.

Journalism and other fact-checking websites:

Poynter Institute Fact-Checking
Founded in 1975, Poynter is an inspirational place but also a practical one, connecting the varied crafts of journalism to its higher mission and purpose. From person-to-person coaching and intensive hands-on seminars to interactive online courses and media reporting, Poynter helps journalists sharpen skills and elevate storytelling throughout their careers.
Snopes.com
When misinformation obscures the truth and readers don’t know what to trust, Snopes.com’s fact checking and original, investigative reporting lights the way to evidence-based and contextualized analysis. We always document our sources so readers are empowered to do independent research and make up their own minds.

Scholarly communication fact-checking websites:

Retraction Watch
This site tracks retractions to scientific and medical research papers. Their aim is to track retractions as a window into the scientific process.
SciCheck
FactCheck.org’s SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy. It was launched in January 2015 with a grant from the Stanton Foundation. The foundation was founded by the late Frank Stanton, president of CBS for 25 years, from 1946 to 1971.

Iffy Quotient
The Center for Social Media Responsibility at the University of Michigan School of Information
has developed the Iffy Quotient, a metric for how much content from “Iffy” sites has been
amplified on Facebook and Twitter. We use the term “Iffy” to describe sites that frequently
publish misinformation. It is a light-hearted way to acknowledge that our categorization of the
sites is based on imprecise criteria and fallible human judgments. We are publishing a
web-based dashboard that charts the Iffy Quotient since early 2016. The dashboard enables
comparisons over time and between platforms. This report describes the calculation of the Iffy
Quotient in detail, discusses some of its potential limitations, and analyzes some of the trends.
The Global Disinformation Order 2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation
The use of computational propaganda to shape public attitudes via social media has become mainstream, extending far beyond the actions of a few bad actors. In an information environment characterized by high volumes of information and limited levels of user attention and trust, the tools and techniques of computational propaganda are becoming a common – and arguably essential – part of digital campaigning and public diplomacy. In addition to building a globally comparative picture of cyber troop activity, we also hope to drive public and scholarly debate about how we define and understand the changing nature of politics online, and how technologies can and should be used to enhance democracy and the expression of human rights online.
Hoaxy
Hoaxy is an open-source platform designed to visualize the online spread of claims.

BBC Editorial Standards: A Simple Guide
Provides active learning modules on accuracy, impartiality, offensive language, privacy, fairness, consent, crime reporting, conflicts of interest, and other aspects of ethical journalism.

Fact Checking in Action

Recently, a resident of Cook County received a paper newspaper called "South Cook News" on their doorstep. This newspaper has a lot of local political news in it, but they aren't familiar with the name. They want to know: what is this paper, and can I trust the information it has?

Step One: What is "South Cook News"?

To begin, let's look up this news source using Google - "South Cook News". They have a website, but beyond that there is limited information about them. A site called "Media Bias/Fact Check" has a short summary, which concludes that they have a right-center bias, and mixed factual reporting - though we also might want to double check that site for accuracy.

Step Two: Who publishes "South Cook News"?

We couldn't find much about the newspaper, so let's now look at who publishes it. Their "About Us" page says they are published by LGIS - Local Government Information Services. This time, a Google search has a lot of results, which identify LGIS as a conservative publisher, and gives us some additional keywords we might want to look up next: Dan Proft, North Cook News, Chicago City Wire.

Step Three: Is "South Cook News" factually accurate?

Once we've learned a bit about South Cook News and who publishes it, if we're still unsure, we can fact check some of their claims.

The paper this resident received was very focused on the SAFE-T Act, which ends cash bail. Specifically, it makes the claim, "The act will eliminate cash bail in Illinois, effective Jan. 1, 2023, releasing thousands of violent criminals back on to Illinois streets." Let's verify this claim on one of our fact checking websites.

Snopes rates the claim that Illinois’ SAFE-T Act makes some violent crimes non-detainable before trial as Mostly False, with specific explanations about why it is false as well as cited references. Snopes specifically says, "...pretrial release can still be denied when any defendant “poses a specific, real and present threat to any person or the community.” I.e., the act does not allow pretrial release without a judge considering the severity of the case first." So the claim that South Cook News is making about the act is false.

Conclusion: Despite the outward appearance, we have found that "South Cook News" is a biased source, and that it publishes false or misleading information. We used Snopes to fact check a story, and were able to learn more about a specific law currently being discussed by newspapers and politicians.

Sources

Ibrahim, Nur. “Does Illinois’ SAFE-T Act Make Some Violent Crimes Non-Detainable Before Trial?” Snopes, 12 Sept. 2022, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/illinois-safe-t-act-non-detainable-crime/.

Roy, Eugene. “Former Chicago Chief of Detectives: Violent Offenders given ‘Get out of Jail Free Card.’” South Cook News, 11 Sept. 2022, p. 1.

Election 2022

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Fact Checking Claims

Fact-Checking Resources

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