PACER vs State Court Dockets: Which Should You Check First?
PACER vs state court dockets decides where a case record lives and what it costs. Federal filings are centralized and paid; state lookups vary by county.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
News Cod
News literacy in practice: verifying a claim, reading a source, spotting a manipulated image, and knowing when the honest answer is that nobody knows yet.
Public document types and statuses compared
Public document types compared across bills, laws, proposed and final rules, notices, guidance, filings, pleadings, orders, minutes, audits, and archival records.
Costs Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Is That ATIP Response Real? How to Verify Access to Information Records
Learn how to verify access to information request records from Canadian federal and provincial portals. Check release letters, exemptions, and file numbers.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Elections Canada vs Provincial Commissions: Where to Verify Campaign Finance Claims
To verify campaign finance claim Canada, use the right database. Federal and provincial filings are searched separately, and errors carry real costs.
Costs Desk · 6 min read · Read →
EPA Water Quality Reports: A Verification Checklist for Local Claims
Verify an EPA water quality report before repeating a local claim. Use ECHO, state portals, and Clean Water Act standards to confirm what the data shows.
Standards Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Is That Screenshot of a PACER Court Filing Real? A Verification Guide
Verify PACER court filing screenshots by matching the case number to the live docket, checking the filing date and judge, and confirming with the court.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
How to Verify a Product Recall Claim Before You Report It
Verify product recall claim before you report it by checking CPSC, FDA and NHTSA records, not the press release. Questions and red flags for editors.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
School Board Meeting Claims: Check the Agenda and Minutes Before Sharing
School Board Meeting Claims: verify the agenda and minutes before you share. Texas and California open meetings deadlines, draft minute risks, and what to wait for.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
5 Checks for a State Bill Signing Claim Before You Report It
Verify bill signing claim with five checks against state legislature bill status pages, governor veto records, and official enacted laws databases online.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
How to Verify a Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey Claim
Verify Statistics Canada claim numbers against LFS data, The Daily and provincial labour statistics, and see what a $0 to $400 yearly checking budget buys.
Costs Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Student Loan Forgiveness Claims: Check State and Federal Sources First
Student loan forgiveness claims need a quick check of Department of Education announcements, Federal Student Aid data, and state program pages before you share.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
What CDC and FDA datasets actually say about health claims
CDC and FDA datasets describe populations over set periods, so a viral number usually misreads what the underlying survey data measures about health trends.
Standards Desk · 10 min read · Read →
3 places to check a Chicago police scanner claim against city records
A Chicago police scanner claim needs three record sets to stand up: Cook County court dockets, City Council agendas, and CPD incident reports.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Spotting deepfakes in US political ads under FEC rules and platform policy
Deepfakes political ads FEC: check disclaimers, advisory opinions, platform synthetic media policies, and C2PA provenance signals on video ads.
Standards Desk · 11 min read · Read →
How to find and request public records, step by step
A public records request works best as a reporting specification: name the office, the record series, the custodian, and the date range before you file.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Is that TMZ clip real? Verifying Los Angeles celebrity claims
Verifying a Los Angeles celebrity claim means finding the original TMZ upload, checking court records, and naming the outlet that first aired the footage.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Can you trust a San Francisco AI startup's synthetic media claims?
San Francisco AI synthetic media claims need proof: demand model cards, NIST AI benchmarks, provenance signals, and detector accuracy tests before you cite any tool.
Standards Desk · 12 min read · Read →
State public records compared: California, Texas, and New York request rules
State public records request rules differ sharply across California, Texas, and New York, from 10-day deadlines to attorney general rulings and FOIL appeals.
Costs Desk · 11 min read · Read →
US and Canada border claims, checked against CBP and Census data
Four real US Canada border claims, checked against Census trade tables, CBP statistics and Canadian releases, with what each number actually counts.
Costs Desk · 10 min read · Read →
How US defamation law and the First Amendment shape what you can share
US defamation law First Amendment rules decide what you can safely share: actual malice, the fair report privilege, Section 230, and state anti-SLAPP statutes.
Standards Desk · 12 min read · Read →
How to verify a disaster claim with NOAA and FEMA data in Houston and Miami
Verify disaster claims with NOAA and FEMA records: hurricane advisories, storm reports and OpenFEMA declarations for Houston and Miami posts.
Practice Desk · 10 min read · Read →
How to check US election claims with FEC filings, county clerks, and state offices
Match each US election claim to its record: FEC filings for campaign money, county clerk pages for raw returns, state portals for certified totals.
Practice Desk · 12 min read · Read →
Government records and public documents verification guide
How to verify a government record before quoting it: find the creating system, read its status and version, and cite the page that proves the claim.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Fictional case: correcting a retracted health study story
Retracted health study correction case showing how a coding error invalidates a result and how a newsroom repairs its headline, chart, archives, and social claims.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Fictional case: correcting a false survey trend and chart
Survey correction case showing how a newsroom finds an unsupported trend, checks margins of error and wording, repairs a chart, and publishes a complete correction.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Fictional case: correcting a fake emergency-agency account
Emergency-account correction case tracing a lookalike profile, false evacuation claim, unsafe link, newsroom alert error, public repair, and prevention controls.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
Fictional case: correcting an old flood video labeled as current
Flood video correction case tracing an old clip through reposts, geolocation, shadow and construction clues, source contact, publication repair, and prevention.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Fictional case: correcting a circular citation that became a fact
Circular citation correction case showing how one unsupported claim spread across reports, passed weak checks, and required a transparent article-wide repair.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
Common science and health reporting problems
Science and health reporting problems explained, including causal overreach, relative-risk framing, surrogate outcomes, product status, and image claims.
Standards Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Common statistics and chart reporting problems
Statistics and chart reporting problems explained, from missing denominators and uncertain estimates to distorted axes, weak poll questions, and false causal claims.
Standards Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Common social verification problems and how to fix them
Ten verification problems that let false posts through, each with the check that catches it, from badge trust to copied posts and hacked accounts.
Standards Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Common visual verification problems and how to fix them
Nine visual verification problems, from baseline screenshots to detector confidence scores, with the specific check that resolves each one before publication.
Standards Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Common source-evaluation mistakes and how to fix them
Eight common source-evaluation mistakes, from surface trust to forced ratings and citation bias, each paired with the practical check that corrects it.
Standards Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Account and viral-claim verification checklist
Account and viral-claim checklist for preservation, identity, control, badges, origin, reposts, links, evidence, coordination, safety, publication, and correction.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
How to audit a poll or survey story before you cite it
Poll audit workflow for sponsor, population, sample, recruitment, fieldwork, questions, weighting, uncertainty, subgroup comparisons, headlines, and corrections.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
How to check an unfamiliar account and viral post
A step-by-step way to verify an unfamiliar account and viral post before you share it, from preserving the original screenshot to checking the claim.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
How to check an unfamiliar online source before trusting a claim
Checking an unfamiliar online source means preserving the page, naming its publisher, tracing the evidence, and recording what stays unresolved.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Evidence source types compared: firsthand accounts, records, experts and reports
Evidence source types compared by proximity, scope, independence, strengths, limits, and best uses for checking events, numbers, causes, and quotations.
Costs Desk · 4 min read · Read →
How to geolocate and chronolocate visual media
Geolocation fixes where a photo or clip was made, chronolocation fixes when, and both rest on matched features, sun angles, and independent records.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Health research evidence types compared, from trials to case reports
Health research evidence types compared across laboratory work, case reports, observational studies, trials, qualitative research, and systematic reviews.
Costs Desk · 6 min read · Read →
How to audit a clinical study story before it runs
Audit a clinical study story by pulling the paper, protocol and registry record, then checking every claim, number and quote against the data.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Image and video verification checklist for the desk
Image and video verification checklist for preservation, source identity, origin, metadata, location, time, editing, provenance, safety, credit, and publication.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Image and video verification: a practical guide
Image and video verification means separating origin, place, time and edit into distinct claims, then testing each against records before you publish.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Science and health news verification guide
How to trace a science or health claim back through the paper, the press release, the protocol and the regulator before you repeat it to anyone.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Science and health story verification checklist
Science and health verification checklist for study identity, design, outcomes, statistics, risk, harms, conflicts, product status, expert review, and corrections.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Social account identity signals compared
Social account identity signals compared across badges, profile labels, official links, history, direct confirmation, posting patterns, and platform limits.
Costs Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Social posts and viral claims: a verification guide
Verify a viral social post by checking account identity, control, the earliest upload, and the claim itself, then report without amplifying it.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Source and claim verification checklist for reporters
Source and claim verification checklist for scope, origin, authority, evidence, independence, quotations, numbers, conflicts, response, wording, and corrections.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
Source evaluation and claim mapping: a practical guide
Source evaluation and claim mapping helps you split a story into checkable claims, trace each to its earliest record, and judge authority against each claim.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
Counts, percentages, rates, indexes, and averages compared
Statistical measures compared across counts, proportions, percentages, rates, ratios, indexes, means, medians, change measures, and seasonal adjustment.
Costs Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Statistics and chart verification checklist
Statistics and chart checklist for provenance, definitions, data quality, denominators, calculations, uncertainty, comparisons, axes, labels, review, and correction.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
Statistics, polls, and charts: a verification guide
A statistic carries a definition, a source population, and a revision date. Check all three of these details before you repeat the number as a finding.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Visual verification methods compared, from reverse search to metadata
Visual verification methods compared across reverse search, source interviews, metadata, geolocation, chronolocation, provenance, and forensic analysis.
Costs Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Start here
Guides
What CDC and FDA datasets actually say about health claims
CDC and FDA datasets describe populations over set periods, so a viral number usually misreads what the underlying survey data measures about health trends.
Guides
3 places to check a Chicago police scanner claim against city records
A Chicago police scanner claim needs three record sets to stand up: Cook County court dockets, City Council agendas, and CPD incident reports.
Rules
Spotting deepfakes in US political ads under FEC rules and platform policy
Deepfakes political ads FEC: check disclaimers, advisory opinions, platform synthetic media policies, and C2PA provenance signals on video ads.
Guides
Is that TMZ clip real? Verifying Los Angeles celebrity claims
Verifying a Los Angeles celebrity claim means finding the original TMZ upload, checking court records, and naming the outlet that first aired the footage.
Reviews
Can you trust a San Francisco AI startup's synthetic media claims?
San Francisco AI synthetic media claims need proof: demand model cards, NIST AI benchmarks, provenance signals, and detector accuracy tests before you cite any tool.
Rules
State public records compared: California, Texas, and New York request rules
State public records request rules differ sharply across California, Texas, and New York, from 10-day deadlines to attorney general rulings and FOIL appeals.
Latest from News Cod
Guides
PACER vs State Court Dockets: Which Should You Check First?
PACER vs state court dockets decides where a case record lives and what it costs. Federal filings are centralized and paid; state lookups vary by county.
Reviews
Public document types and statuses compared
Public document types compared across bills, laws, proposed and final rules, notices, guidance, filings, pleadings, orders, minutes, audits, and archival records.
Rules
Is That ATIP Response Real? How to Verify Access to Information Records
Learn how to verify access to information request records from Canadian federal and provincial portals. Check release letters, exemptions, and file numbers.
Guides
Elections Canada vs Provincial Commissions: Where to Verify Campaign Finance Claims
To verify campaign finance claim Canada, use the right database. Federal and provincial filings are searched separately, and errors carry real costs.