Tag: Fact

April 2 is International Fact-Checking Day, launched in 2016 by Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to raise awareness of the importance of fact-checking in the modern era of misinformation. The day celebrates facts and equips journalists, professional fact-checkers, educators and citizens with resources to help separate fact from fiction. The premise is simple: We believe that fact-checking isn’t only for professional fact-checkers. Society relies on an accurate information ecosystem for democracy to thrive. We can all play a role in curbing the spread of misinformation. Since International Fact-Checking Day’s modest beginning three years ago, Poynter’s work in accountability journalism and media ethics has expanded. In January of 2018, Poynter acquired the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact from the (Poynter-owned) Tampa Bay Times, and shortly thereafter, we launched MediaWise — a project in partnership with Stanford University History Education Group and funded by Google — to help teenagers be more savvy consumers of online information. Even with all of this dedicated effort towards the fight against misinformation, there’s more work to be done. Take advantage of the International Fact-Checking Day resources and join the quest for the truth. Here’s how you can make the most of it:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is proofreading the text of tonight’s State of the Union address one last time to remove any remaining facts, Sanders confirmed on Tuesday. While a team of wordsmiths led by the senior adviser Stephen Miller has attempted to craft an entirely fact-free address, “It’s good to have a fresh set of eyes to root out any stray accuracies that might have crept in,” Sanders said. The press secretary said that, for example, while purging the speech of truths, she noticed a reference to the African-American unemployment rate standing at 6.8 per cent, a statistic that she deemed “unacceptably correct.” “I read that and my Sanders sense started tingling,” she said. Taking her blue pencil to the text, Sanders changed the number to a “better-sounding” 2.3 per cent. “That may seem like a tiny detail, but it’s stuff like that that separates the professional liars from the mere amateurs,” she said. Once Sanders is confident that she has obliterated any lingering traces of reality from the script, she will forward it to Donald J. Trump, who will insert misspellings. “It makes him more comfortable reading it on the teleprompter if things are spelled his way,” she said. The prospect of delivering tonight’s speech appears to have energized Trump, who tweeted early Tuesday morning that he was “very much looking forward to the Steak of the Onion.”

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is proofreading the text of tonight’s State of the Union address one last time to remove any remaining facts, Sanders confirmed on Tuesday. While a team of wordsmiths led by the senior adviser Stephen Miller has attempted to craft an entirely fact-free address, “It’s good to have a fresh set of eyes to root out any stray accuracies that might have crept in,” Sanders said. The press secretary said that, for example, while purging the speech of truths, she noticed a reference to the African-American unemployment rate standing at 6.8 per cent, a statistic that she deemed “unacceptably correct.” “I read that and my Sanders sense started tingling,” she said. Taking her blue pencil to the text, Sanders changed the number to a “better-sounding” 2.3 per cent. “That may seem like a tiny detail, but it’s stuff like that that separates the professional liars from the mere amateurs,” she said. Once Sanders is confident that she has obliterated any lingering traces of reality from the script, she will forward it to Donald J. Trump, who will insert misspellings. “It makes him more comfortable reading it on the teleprompter if things are spelled his way,” she said. The prospect of delivering tonight’s speech appears to have energized Trump, who tweeted early Tuesday morning that he was “very much looking forward to the Steak of the Onion.”