Claims, traced back to where they started

A fact check here starts with one sentence: the claim, quoted exactly. Not the paraphrase that showed up in your feed, and not the strongest or weakest version of it. Then we find who said it first and what they were pointing to. That’s often where the trouble starts, because the original source usually says something smaller, older or more careful than the claim built on top of it.

From there it’s evidence and context. We read the statute, the study, the filing or the dataset ourselves, and we note what each one can and can’t support. Every check ends with one of seven verdicts: true, false, misleading, unproven, outdated, partly true or missing context. Partly true isn’t a dodge. It’s what most claims turn out to be.

We rate statements, not people, and a claim from someone we agree with gets exactly the same treatment. Coming up on this desk: the most common mistakes people make when they check a claim on their own.