How to Recognize Political Fact From Fiction

Nowadays, there are number of ways of communicating political news to the general public including television, newspapers, magazines, blogs, radio shows, websites, etc. We're bombarded with information, some conflicting. At times, information is put out there by a secondary source and perhaps re-written over and over. We read it or hear it so often, we think it's true.

How do we know what's true when different views are presented?

There are three main ways, that together, help to verify information on your own:

1. Is it logical? That is, when you break it down, does all parts of the situation make logical sense.
2. Can you prove the article is accurate?
3. Go to the initial source, when possible.

It was rumored for months on blogs and web sites that Barack Obama wasn't born in Hawaii because (a.) no one could accurately verify his birth certificate, (b.) the local Hawaiian hospitals would not verify his birth. And (c.) his father was from Kenya, so it was thought he was born there. It was blogged that his birth certificate had been tampered with. President Obama insisted he was born to Ann Dunham Obama in Hawaii.

5 Things to Look for in Online Conservative Politics News Sources - Choose Wisely!

In this day and age there is such a flood of information online, that it can be tough to choose which sources to turn to for your daily blast of news updates. This can be particularly challenging in niche arenas, such as conservative political news as an example. We want to know that our attention, the short bit that we all have left after Facebook, Twitter, cleaning out our email inbox, and reading a blog post or two, are worth our time. Here's 5 tips that will help you to evaluate your conservative political online news options so that you make the choice that is best for you.

1) Is it objective? While we own have different political views, some news sources can lean heavily in one direction or another. I'm not talking about Republican or democratic, but rather within a republican news source, are both sides of the equation being presented?

2) Is there interaction? Look to see if there are comments on blog posts and articles, and if it's a forum type atmosphere, are there active conversations going on, an active community if you will.

3) Look at the advertisers on the site. Nearly all online publications make the bulk of their revenue through online advertising partners. Generally speaking, if the companies listed on their site with large banner ads are large, well known brands, you can assume they are charging a hefty fee for the space and therefore have the web traffic to support it, an excellent indicator of popularity and therefore, often quality as well.