Should a reader have to fact-check a story?

What's happened to journalism in the past five years?

When did the idea begin that a reader should have to fact check a story in a Newspaper? Editors and reporters are supposed to do that, not the public. Does this mean that every article in every newspaper has to be fact-checked by the reader to confirm if it is not fake news?

The News and Media Research Centre, which is part of the University of Canberra produced the Digital News Report: Australia 2019. Contained in the vast amount of information they state, "One of the biggest divisions between news consumers stems from differences in education and income. Consistently, those with lower education and income consume less news, are less interested, are less likely to pay, and are less likely to fact-check news."

I assume that their findings bare out this statement, but, I wonder how many people in the world fact-check the news? 

How does a reader fact-check an article? 

The independent American media organisation National Public Radio (NPR) offers some hints. Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts

FactCheck.org, which checks stories mainly about the USA is another site to head to for fact-checking. 

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have their Fact Check site.

The independent news website Crikey have their fact-check column. And there are others.

You can go to these sites and check on stories and, you can even ask them to run a fact-check for you. But who checks the checkers?

How do you know that these sites are not more fake news? The truth is, you don't. Unless you want to run your own check on the information on these sites. But who has time to do that? Do we just have to at some point say, OK, I believe this? But how can you trust them? 

The nature of fact-checking is a tricky business. Finding actual truths or hard facts are hard to uncover. 

Whatever method you use to check the truth of a story, it is clear that with the proliferation of fake news in the world, that you have to do something to check on what you are reading, hearing and seeing. It's a sad fact that we have to do this, but that is a fact. Maybe that is the only fact we can truly know. 

July 7, 2019.