Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

OnlinePoliticalFactCheckingSites posts

Filed under: Internet, News

Truth serum - online fact checking sites for political open season

truthometer
It probably would be more zen-like to ignore the ridiculousness of the political emails that are making the circuit and trashing my inbox. But rather than pressing delete, I go to some of my favorite online fact checking sites, find the offensive claim and its truthful antidote, copy the link, and then send to the long email chain with a perky little response.

I get a small sense of satisfaction that I'm doing my part to stanch the lies, rumors and trickery during political open season. Below are some nonpartisan fact checker sites to help you determine fact from fiction. Game on!

FactCheck.org -
powered by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, this site is nonpartisan, nonprofit, and aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. It accepts no funding from corporations, unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals.

Politifact.com - has a neat "Truth-O-Meter" so you can see at a glance what's up with the candidate's claims. Content is nicely organized with tabs like "Chain E-Mails," "Flip-O-Meter," (shows candidates position flipping), and "Attack File," which reviews candidate's attacks and discusses their legitimacy or not. It is run by the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly to help determine the truth of the respective presidential campaigns.

Fact Checker - a blog from the Washington Post which aims to be a truth squad in the national political debate. Its goal is to shed light on controversial claims involving important national issues and the records of the various presidential candidates.

Snopes.com
- a site devoted to dispelling urban legends that also runs a good bit of political fact checking. Try not to let the bad graphics and ads run you off as there's lots of fun content to review.

I didn't include partisan fact checking sites for reasons that I believe are, well - obvious. What are some of your favorite non partisan ones?

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse