{"id":6996,"date":"2022-07-12T07:48:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T11:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=6996"},"modified":"2022-07-12T07:48:11","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T11:48:11","slug":"just-the-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2022\/07\/just-the-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Just the Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this age of online falsehoods and conspiracy theories, it\u2019s sometimes hard to figure out what\u2019s true and what\u2019s not, so I was fascinated when I read about a study done early in the pandemic. It set out to determine whether older people (like me) are more likely to believe false news than young people are.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers focused on older adults because we were clearly more vulnerable to COVID. Were we also more vulnerable to faked news about it? Researchers had previously reported that during the 2016 presidential election, older people who used social media shared inaccurate \u201cfacts\u201d more often than young people did. <\/span><\/p>\n

The study\u2019s bottom line: the older adults were as good as the younger ones at spotting inaccurate or faked news\u2014except for those who were 85 and up. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m 87, and that was disconcerting. As I\u2019ve grown older, I think I\u2019ve become more skeptical, less easy to fool, but I could be wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was speculating about that when I remembered hearing about fact-checking websites\u2014which could be useful. So, I did some research. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, the internet\u2014which has made it so easy to spread disinformation\u2014now has a multitude of websites we can use when we\u2019re doubtful about something. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d already heard of <\/span>Snopes<\/span><\/a>, which<\/span> has been investigating everything from urban legends to rumors and disinformation since 1994. It has tackled questions ranging from \u201cDo centipedes actually have 100 legs\u201d (no) to \u201cIs putting hotel luggage in the bathtub upon arrival a good idea?\u201d (It can be, if you\u2019re worried about bringing home bedbugs and want to give yourself time to check the room for signs of infestation.) <\/span><\/p>\n

Snopes covers a wide range of subjects, but other sites specialize. I\u2019m addicted to political news, so I\u2019m now a fan of <\/span>PolitiFact<\/a>,<\/span> which is nonpartisan, nonprofit and drills down on politics. Here\u2019s how it does fact-checking. <\/span><\/p>\n

To begin with, the checkers are journalists, whose jobs in newspapers have been disappearing while the need for skilled fact-checking keeps growing. At PolitiFact, they scan everything from news stories to campaign brochures for statements that seem significant and possibly untrue. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, Facebook and TikTok flag questionable posts for PolitiFact to investigate. (I always wondered how Facebook patrolled its massive content. Now I know: it gets help from independent, third-party checkers.) Once the results are in, the social platforms themselves decide what action to take. <\/span><\/p>\n

For each report PolitiFact publishes online, it describes how the fact-checking was done and provides links to original sources. For example, not long after the news broke that Paul Pelosi had been arrested for drunk driving, an Instagram post claimed that his wife, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had asked California Governor Gavin Newsom to intervene, and that Newsom had \u201cordered the California Highway Patrol to drop all charges.”<\/span><\/p>\n

PolitiFact contacted the highway patrol and the governor\u2019s office, scanned online sources and reported that the highway patrol can\u2019t file charges\u2014that\u2019s the district attorney\u2019s job\u2014and the DA was still reviewing the case. The website declared the story \u201cfalse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

PolitiFact\u2019s list of sources is, to me, the best part. It makes the checking process transparent. If the checkers failed to dig deep enough, that becomes obvious. <\/span><\/p>\n

Media Bias Fact Check<\/span><\/a> (MBFC)<\/span> offers something different, a way to validate sources themselves\u2014to learn whether a publication or website is generally reliable, what its political leaning or bias is and how accurate its content is, based on how often it has published \u201cfacts\u201d that fact-checkers have found to be untrue. MBFC also rates individual journalists. All in all, it has researched more than 4,600 media sources and journalists in various countries, and its database keeps growing. <\/span><\/p>\n

What about medical facts, so vital during pandemics? <\/span>SciCheck<\/span><\/a> has become my favorite place for confirming health news. It\u2019s part of FactCheck.org, and its journalists look specifically for false or misleading scientific claims that are intended to influence public policy. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, SciCheck debunked the conspiracy theory that COVID vaccines contain microchips, developed by the government to track citizens\u2019 whereabouts. This was supposedly substantiated by a video clip shared on Facebook that showed the CEO of Pfizer, which makes vaccines, talking about an \u201celectronic pill.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The fact-checkers found that the video was shot in 2018 and the CEO wasn\u2019t even referring to something developed by Pfizer. <\/span><\/p>\n

How reliable are fact-checking sites themselves? A study that compared PolitiFact with the <\/span>Washington Post\u2019s <\/span><\/i>fact-checker found that they agreed 92 percent of the time in assessing accuracy or truthfulness. But they didn\u2019t often check the same statements, which suggests that, if you can\u2019t find something on one site, it\u2019s worth trying another.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, there <\/span>are <\/span><\/i>some<\/span> fact-checking websites that are heavily biased and sometimes not at all accurate. The International Fact Checking Network was established in 2015 to promote standards for fact-checking. Websites that sign its code of ethics are checked themselves once a year. Go <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> to find a list of IFCN\u2019s 91 current signatories and the results of their last checkup. <\/span><\/p>\n

Everything I\u2019ve read about fake news and fact-checking has convinced me that all of us (not just those over 85) need to cultivate a skeptical eye. And I\u2019ve vowed that whenever I\u2019m not sure whether something is fact or fiction, I\u2019ll consult a fact-checking website before passing it on.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this age of online falsehoods and conspiracy theories, it\u2019s sometimes hard to figure out what\u2019s true and what\u2019s not, so I was fascinated when I read about a study done early in the pandemic. It set out to determine…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Just the Facts<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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