A recent error by Deadline news offers an important lesson for consumers of news; journalism professor Carl Corry shares four ways to fact check a story.

The headline from a link forwarded to me by a relative on October 8 from the online news outlet Deadline read: “PREP. DO NOT PUBLISH UNTIL THE NEWS CROSSES. Vice President Mike Pence Tests Positive for Coronavirus 8 Days After Donald Trump.”

I was both surprised and skeptical, given the odd nature of the headline text itself and the fact that I had not received notifications from any other major news outlets about such high-priority news. If it was Deadline’s scoop, okay; I figured it was fair to give the other operations time to catch up. But I had to check.  

After a quick search, I found that news outlets like The New York Post and The Hill posted stories noting that Deadline had mistakenly published a draft story incorrectly stating that the vice president had tested positive for Covid-19. Then Deadline itself issued an apology: 

“It never should have been posted and Deadline will take steps to see this kind of thing never happens again,” the statement said. “Apologies to the Vice President and our readers. We regret the error.” 

In this case, Deadline made an error. But when social media heightens the chances for misinformation to spread, as we have seen many times in recent years, and at a time when solid journalism is crucial prior to a national election, how do you avoid falling into to the trap that my relative did in believing false information to be true?

I’ve been teaching a class for the last year called Judging the News, modeled after Stony Brook University’s groundbreaking news literacy program, that provides students with the tools to be good news consumers. Some of what they learn I shared above by describing how I followed up on Deadline’s dubious headline.

As we tell our students, the burden is on news consumers to serve as our own fact-checkers—to have our own verification process so that we can find and share reliable information.

So, how do you do that?

The Western Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the country’s largest and most broad-based journalism organization, provides several tips, which I share and annotate below:

1. Vet the author. Search the author’s name to see if they have other articles they have written and see if you can find them on Twitter or LinkedIn. Real people are accountable for what they write.
   
   It’s a big red flag if there is no author on a story or if it’s an anonymous username.
   
   
2. Know the source. What sources does the author use in a story? Do they name people they quote or do they rely heavily on unnamed sources? If they are unnamed, do they provide valid reasons why the names were withheld? Do they provide documents that you can check yourself? Verify on your own.
   
   Jon Anzalone, who runs Stony Brook’s Center for News Literacy, says, “Studies on social media have shown that who shares a story matters more to users than where the story comes from, or the news source. So, if you get a story from a trusted friend or relative, don’t assume it’s reliable.”
   
   
3. Go beyond the headline. Headlines only tell part of the story. Don’t be duped by a pithy ten-word headline.
   
   Do your homework and read laterally, meaning check other news outlets to see if they corroborate the initial headline. If it’s about an important issue and it’s not being picked up by other outlets, that’s another red flag.
   
   
4. Listen to your gut. If something doesn’t seem right, take a deeper look. But remember that stories that shock or offend you may still be accurate.

Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a champion news consumer.