For a while my seventeen-year-old son came to me every day with a new outrageous new report he saw on social media. Watching his reaction to the false stories disturbed me to my core. Not easy to sway him from believing the stories I used my own influence to make him research the factual basis of the stories. I wouldn’t let him use the car. The pain of not driving motivated him to do the legwork and research the validity of last two news stories he told me about. After doing so and having a discussion surrounding the subject of Propaganda he’s turned the corner and is less likely to buy into the next outrageous story put out on the Internet. My son and all my children will continue the conversation for as long as it takes.
The following are a few reputable nonpartisan websites to check facts by elected officials
Politifact (http://www.politifact.com/) This Pulitzer Prize winning website is where you go to question the truthfulness of comments by elected officials. In today’s spin world some false hoods may have a hint or more of truth. These reporters and editors from the independent newspaper the Tampa Bay Times have created the Truth-O-Meter to address the percentage of truth in the comments made. Comments are broken down into the following five categories: “True,” ‘”Mostly True,” “Half True,” “False,” and “Pants on Fire.”
Fact check (http://www.factcheck.org/) A nonpartisan, nonprofit fact checking organization of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania follows and fact checks comments made by spokespersons pushing a political agenda and politicians. In addition they call balls and strikes on TV ads, debates, interviews and news releases.
Open secrets (http://www.opensecrets.org/) if you really want to know what drives most political agenda’s follow the money. A nonpartisan, Independent and nonprofit Website from the Center of Responsive Politics follows and exposes where and how much candidates running for public office gets their money.
Washington Post Fact Checker (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/?utm_term=.6f68b1246a31) Although some news organizations have a political bias it doesn’t mean their reporting is not factual. They tend to report less on comments from their political position and focus more on what the opposition is saying. One example is the Washington Post; a left center bias institution, but very well sourced and has a stellar reputation for reporting factually.
