Check your facts before you share the info!

​

Questions about voting, elections in Denton County:

Denton County Elections at votedenton.gov, email elections@dentoncounty.gov, call (940) 349-3200.

​​

Use the links below to check out national or international information. 

This list was compiled by a member of RRDC who is a retiree with 40 years' experience in daily fact-based journalism.  She has used these sites to check facts for several years and finds them reliable.

 

These are all non-partisan public websites.  Most are free, no subscription required.

 

Many of these sites are signatories to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) code of ethics, which requires that members

 

"regularly publish non-partisan reports on the factual accuracy of statements by public figures and prominent institutions and widely circulated claims in text, visual and other formats focused primarily on claims related to public interest issues.

 

"IFCN signatory status may not be granted to organizations whose editorial work is controlled by the state, a political party or politician." 

 

You can see a full list of fact-checkers that have signed on to these principles at https://ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org/signatories

 

factcheck.org -- 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, the Daily Racing Form and Seventeen magazine.

 

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.

 

reuters.com/fact-check -- Run by Reuters, a European news service, a bona fide news organization.

 

snopes.com -- A privately owned, ad-supported fact checking site around since 1994.

 

politifact.org -- A fact checking site run by the Poynter Institute, a journalism education institute in Florida.  

 

washingtonpost.com/politics/fact-checker  -- Run by The Washington Post newspaper, which is owned by Jeff Bezos.  (This one is behind the Post paywall.)

​

Google Images:   Go to images.google.com, drag a copy of your photo onto the search bar, see if it comes identified as a fake phone.

 

Other good resources:  

 

USAfacts.org -- a new non-profit run by Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft.  They don't usually fact-check 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.

 

And here's a copy of the list that you can download to save or print.​