The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.

— Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism

Elite journalism

Our most important source of fact checking is currently the mainstream media. The best large media institutions have a longstanding commitment to discerning and sharing the truth, and far more resources to check important facts than the average citizen. Their long-term livelihood depends upon their credibility with the public.

The American Press Association has developed nine principles of journalism that support fact checking in the public interest. The Association recognizes that journalism “does not pursue truth in an absolute or philosophical sense, but it can and must pursue it in a practical sense”; as thus defined, truth is journalism’s “first obligation.” “[A]ccuracy is the foundation upon which everything else is built:  context, interpretation, comment, criticism, analysis and debate.”

Journalism’s other principles include: Journalism’s “first loyalty is to its citizens”; its “essence is [the] discipline of verification”; journalists “must maintain an independence from those they cover”; journalism “must serve as an independent monitor of power”; journalism “must balance what readers know they want with what they cannot anticipate but need”; journalism “must keep the news comprehensive and proportional”; and journalism must “stimulate the intellectual diversity necessary to understand and accurately cover an increasingly diverse society.”

Fact checking tips

Be curious. Ask lots of questions. Identify and challenge assumptions. Be aware of your own biases and predispositions.

Start with “who, what, where, when, why, and how.”

Who is sharing the fact — what is the source of the fact?

Is the source reliable? How can you tell? Is the source committed to making its own work as transparent as possible to others? What is its tone? Is the source neutral or does it have its own agenda? Does it have a history of telling the truth? Are there multiple sources reporting the fact? Do those sources have similar or competing biases? The only agenda of a real news source is to inform, not to persuade.

What evidence supports the fact? Is it verifiable? Can you examine the evidence directly rather than relying on a source’s description of the evidence? Are there multiple, consistent pieces of evidence that support the fact? Is it the kind of fact that can be tested through experiment and the scientific method? If so, has the fact been tested? Is there conflicting evidence? If so, how are you choosing to trust some pieces of evidence over others?

When did the fact take place? When was it discovered? When was the discovery shared? Is there anything suspicious in the timeline about the facts themselves or the way they came to light?

How did the fact become known? How did the source learn of it? Are the source’s sources reliable? Why?

Try to understand your own potential biases.

Why do you believe or disbelieve the fact? Are you basing your belief on your pre-existing beliefs or biases, or on a neutral evaluation of the fact? Does the fact reaffirm your worldview or challenge it? Are you emotionally invested in believing or disbelieving the fact? Do you have a personal stake in the truth or falsity of the fact?

Don’t go it alone.

Have other fact checkers analyzed the fact? Are they reliable? How do their conclusions vary from yours?

Does the fact involve subjects about which there are experts? If so, are you such an expert and is your training up to the task of evaluating the evidence? If not, have you sought an expert’s evaluation or advice?

Are there resource materials — books, journals, websites, government databases — that could give you a better context for evaluating the fact?

Keep an open mind and reevaluate.

When you learn new relevant information, start over. A newly discovered missing clue can change your previous evaluation of the earlier evidence.

Can you add to these tips? Contact us to share your thoughts.