Fact Checking and Research Tips and Procedures

Credit: originally posted on AsAMom.

This is just a quick blog to give you some starting points when heading to the web for research and fact checking. Before you post or perpetuate just about anything new – it is always a good idea to do at least a cursory check on the information. Here are list of helpful sites and some pointers to get you started.

I start just about any research project with both a Google search and a Wikipedia search. There are liberal slants in almost everything, but the results here will get you going. Wikipedia, especially, will often provide a whole list of related topics to expand your research. Additionally, it is ALWAYS a good idea to read AT LEAST ONE opposing view to any information you are researching. Your Google search will no doubt give you thousands of articles, and you will want to look at a good number of them and discern the bias by looking at the source.

Just about anything that you receive in an email that is inflammatory, new or questionable should be run through www.snopes.com. I know that it has been shown to be a liberal operation, but they do often provide quality information and give you a starting point for further research.

My favorite site to use for ANY Federal Legislation or to find information on Representatives and Senators is www.OpenCongress.org. This site tracks every bit of legislation, has the full text, tells you who is sponsoring it and allows you to track its progress in the legislative process. It also has a ton of extra features that will allow you to create tracking widgets, look at legislation according to tags like “hot”, “fast tracked”, “popular” and “new.” You can also track individual Congressmen and get all sorts of stats on each. OpenCongress also tracks news articles and blogs for each bill. This is a HIGHLY recommended resource.

There are also quite a few websites that offer fact checking and claim to be unbiased. I am not sure that is completely possible, but again, part of research is looking at all angles and coming to a reasoned and logical conclusion. Here are a list of sites to look at for fact checking, particularly current events:

www.FactCheck.org
www.Newsbusters.org
www.AIM.org
www.MediaMatters.org
www.PolitiFact.com
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/

Here is an article that Anita forwarded to me that lists many of the fact checking sites, their bias and popularity.
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/09/political-fact-check-sites-proliferate-but-can-they-break-through-the-muck268.html

Overall, your best answers on issue research will come when you have checked SEVERAL sources and compared and contrasted information found at each.

When it comes to Legislation – you really need to take it to the very SOURCE – the legislative language, section and line, from the bill itself.

I hope this helps!!