You know you should never believe everything you read online, right? Â I should know this better than anyone since I teach people how to be safe online. Â But even I fall for fake articles or news online sometimes. Â Just the other day I was on Facebook and came across an article on Willie Nelson passing.
I clicked on the article and after reading the whole thing, decided that it was the truth.  It certainly looked like it came from a legit website (MSNBC). Then, of course, I mentioned it at work to my co-workers, because I’m a big fan of Willie and I was bummed.  This is when I was shown the error of my ways.  I must give credit where credit is due and that credit goes to Tori my co-worker.  She pointed out that it was a hoax and I fell for it.  Tori used a website that helps you find out if an online story is a hoax or not.  This got me thinking that:
- I should have known better
- I should have done my research as I usually do, and
- Maybe I should inform readers of some of the websites that will help you not make the same mistake I did.
Sites to Check if a Story is True or Not
So here we are, and after searching for some good websites that will help you verify these stories, I found two to share.
The website that Tori went to is http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.asp.
This is a great website to use when trying to verify articles online, including a search option for you to quickly find the article. Â I would recommend this one to go check out.
Another one I will mention to you is www.factcheck.org.
This one is more focused on checking the facts of US politics.  I find it a great one to have in your pocket especially with the upcoming election in 2016.  This will help keep you from falling for the BS you will most likely encounter during politicians’ speeches.
These two will help make sure you do not end up as I did, looking like a sucker.
If you know of other sites that can help, please share down below.
I lost faith in Snopes when they stated something I experienced first hand was a hoax. When I first saw it, I e-mailed them an gave told them and said all they needed to do was find out from thousands of others who had the same experience. The replied back that I was wrong and then cited a couple of newspaper articles to back their claim. One article could not be found on the internet. The other article was in the NY Times and actually backed my claim up and refuted theirs. I e-mailed them back, including the couple of sentences in the NY Times that showed them to be wrong. Their response was to pull the NY Times citation and no longer accepted any comments or e-mails from me.
Also, even though they say they are Canadian, when it comes to US politics, they are very left of center. They tend to find most things stated about a US conservative or Republican politician to be “true” and most things stated about a neo-liberal or Democrat politician to be “false”. Again, they deny they are “neutral” but their actions show otherwise.
There are other hoax sites that I have found to be more reliable and unbiased and tend to stay away from the political as everyone knows that an “honest politician” is an oxymoron (regardless of political bent)!
The lack of specifics in this complaint makes it impossible to verify. I have seen Snopes analyze plenty of “negative” rumors targeting both the “left” and the “right”. Here are just a few links to stories refuting Bob’s point:
http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/cruzcamp.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/cruz/libertyfine.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/targetsharia.asp
This is great echo14612 I will take a look at these. It is always good to have both views when debating something like this.
Bob, I would love to have you share some websites that you have used. Yes there are many but it is always good to have specific ones listed that you know work. Thanks for the post Bob.
Trust but verify ..Ronnie Reagan
Well said johnpro2 🙂
What is , unfortunately, no longer astounding (at least to me), but nevertheless should be of great concern to all those grounded in evidence-based reality (and who have an I.Q. larger than their shoe size), is that there remain a not insignificant number of people (many in positions of power) who exist in a completely fact-free fantasy world — upon which beliefs are based their actions.
I think that pretty much all of the news media (TV, radio, paper & web) are competing for the coveted National Inquirer – Star sensationalism.
All of them are biased either to the right or the left. There is no such thing as an honest news media any longer. They all have their own agendas that they are pushing.
Truthorfiction.com and AARP’s Fraud Watch Network are also places where you can check for scams.
Thanks for the info Faye. 🙂
Whenever I read something questionable on the web I always remember what Abraham Lincoln said, “You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.”
BTW you can simply Google it.