How to Spot Fake News - FactCheck.org

Fake news is nothing new.

But bogus stories can reach more people

more quickly via social media
than would good

old-fashioned viral emails could
accomplish in years past.

A lot of those viral claims aren't "news"
at all,

but fiction, satire and efforts to fool readers into thinking they're for real.

Here are some strategies to shield yourself from fake news.

Are you familiar with the source? Is it legitimate?

Has it been reliable in the past?

If not, you may not want to trust it.

If a provocative headline drew your attention,

read a little further before you decide

to pass along the shocking information.

Even in legitimate news stories,

the headline doesn't always tell the whole story.

But fake news, particularly efforts to be satirical,

can include several revealing signs in the text.

One fake story even attributed a quote to a dolphin.

If that had been real,

you could argue they buried the lede.

Another telltale sign of a fake story

is often the byline - if there even is one.

And in some cases, the authors are not even real.

One story was credited to a "doctor" who

won "fourteen Peabody awards and a handful of Pulitzer Prizes."

Which would be very impressive if it wasn't also totally made up.

Many times these bogus stories will cite official —

or official-sounding — sources,

but once you look into it, the source doesn't back up the claim.

Some false stories aren't completely fake,

but rather distortions of real events.

These mendacious claims can take
a legitimate news story and twist what it says

or even claim that something that happened long ago is related to current events.

Once deceptive website took a story that

was over a year old from CNN and slapped on a new,

misleading headline and publication date.

So on top of deception,

there is copyright infringement.