It Ain’t Necessary So

How to Separate Internet Fact from Misinformation, Disinformation, and Spin

Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash

It is a truth universally acknowledged that you cannot believe everything you see on the Internet. The more challenging question is, can you believe anything on the Internet?

The answer ought to be yes, but it really depends on how good you are at picking out what is true from what is misinformation, disinformation, information of dubious provenance, or spin.

This is an issue for elders. Forty percent of us over age 65 are active on social media platforms. On the one hand, it’s great that we are not letting our age stop us from engaging on sites that were invented by and for Generation Whippersnapper. On the other hand, as a group we tend to be less sophisticated about social media, and it shows. For example, one study conducted after the 2016 election found that “users over 65 shared nearly seven times as many articles from fake news domains as the youngest group.”

Spreading misinformation and disinformation, deliberately or out of naivete, actually became life-threatening during the Covid-19 pandemic. Postings on social media sites cast doubts on the statements of expert epidemiologists and promoted a variety of potentially lethal quack cures, from bleach to horse de-wormer.

Every one of us would benefit from having a built-in bullshit detector in our brains that flashed warning lights whenever our eyes behold a statement that strains credulity. Perhaps human evolution will take us there in several thousand years, but at this moment in time we have to be content with other measures to separate truth from lies, distortions, or “truthiness.” Here are two.

1.       Train Yourself.

MediaWise for Seniors has developed a free online course, “How to Spot Misinformation Online.” You take it at your own pace. I got through it in about 90 minutes broken up into two sittings. It is time well spent. The information is solid, and the course designers keep it interesting by dropping in clips from “special guests” Joan Lunden, Christiane Amanpour, Lester Holt, and other professional journalists. By the end you will get a good sense of how to pick out what’s misleading, false, or dangerous on the Internet, so that you can make your own assessments of what you read and choose to believe.

MediaWise for Seniors is a project of the Poynter Institute, a journalism nonprofit. (Disclaimer: my first job was with the St. Petersburg Times, a newspaper owned by Nelson Poynter, who also created the Poynter Institute.) The MediaWise project began in 2018 as a campaign to help teenagers be more discerning about social media. But after evidence showed elders being susceptible to bad information online, the Poynter Institute launched the seniors campaign in June 2020. To broaden their reach, they have partnered with AARP and Facebook.

2.       Consult  an online fact-checking site.

Rumors-conspiracies-and-lies-oh-my is not a new problem for media. Print and broadcast media tend to be careful with fact – or at least, to put information through an editing and filtering process before publishing it broadly. With the popularity of social media, any person can say anything and have it seen by hundreds, or even millions, of others. Fortunately, a number of very competent organizations have taken on the role of investigating what is true, half-true, and untrue. Here are the best ones:

Snopes is the granddaddy of the fact-check sites, dating back to 1994. Did Dr. Fauci “spend taxpayer dollars on ‘cruel and unnecessary’ test of a vaccine on beagles?” “Can stranded people with no cell service and a dying battery still change their voicemail greeting?” Snopes will get to the bottom of it and tell you what the facts show. Site members can submit topics to research. Snopes also has archives of past checks in various categories.

PolitiFact limits its activity to fact-checking political claims. Needless to say, that keeps it plenty busy. In 2008, for example, it debunked more than 750 stories about misdirected claims and won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. PolitiFact rates claims on a Truth-O-Meter whose settings are True, Half True, False, and Pants on Fire. At the end of their report, they include their sources so you can verify their work on your own. PolitiFact is also operated by the Poynter Institute.

FactCheck.org is mostly in the political realm, like PolitiFact. But FactCheck.org, run by the University of Pennsylvania’ Annenberg Public Policy Center, tries to hold public officials accountable by checking the accuracy of television ads, speeches, interviews, and news releases.

ProPublica is an independent online newsroom that conducts investigative journalism. More than just fact-checking, it dives deep into complex issues in healthcare, education, finance, criminal justice, and others. It is supported by the Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, and several other philanthropies.

Open Secrets does what Woodward and Bernstein were advised to do: Follow the money. This site tracks which firms, political action committees, and individuals funnel money into which candidates and causes. Created by the Center for Responsive Politics, it goes back to 1983 and has an extensive database of political donors and their beneficiaries.

Media Bias/Fact Check  checks facts but, more significantly, is the go-to, authoritative source for determining the political leanings of more than 4,000 media sources and journalists. Users can check sources by name or URL.

By all means, imbibe freely of the wonders of social media and other Internet platforms. But drink responsibly!