Fact checking sites - sorting the facts from the spin

With a general election weeks away, and claim and counter claim appearing in the media and online, coupled with the rise of "fake news" and "deep fake" videos, it is can be difficult to sift out the facts from the spin (or even misinformation).


However, there are some sites who do their very best to ensure factual analysis of the days news and deliver an unbiased, un-spun analysis.

We recommend starting with Full Fact. They are an independent charity who provide impartial analysis of news items and political claims and who even push to have misinformation corrected. Full Fact are transparent about their funding and the team who run the organisation and carry out the analysis. They are a great place to start if you want to get to the bottom of a news story.

There are also some other fact checking sites you may find useful:

• Media Bias / Fact Check is a useful site that follows a strict methodology to assess the biases and the accuracy of media sources. It is a US based site, but also includes reviews of lots of UK based media outlets (e.g. The Daily Mail). A useful resource if you come across a site you are less familiar with or want to get a feel for the accuracy of your preferred media company.
  
• Fact Check run by Channel 4, attempts to look at the truth behind news stories and the claims of political parties and "hold them to account"
  
• BBC Reality Check as with Fact Check, the BBC service was set up to check and debunk misleading stories posing as real news.

Of course not every story will be covered by a fact checking service, so you will sometimes have to use your own judgement. Full Fact have developed a handy fact checking toolkit which offers simple practical tools to help you identify the accuracy of a story.