How to verify an unfolding emergency claim
Emergency claim verification workflow for urgent alerts, jurisdiction checks, source callbacks, location, live media, public safety wording, and timed updates.
Practice Desk · 6 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.
How newsrooms verify breaking news and crisis claims with an incident ledger and five tracks
Breaking news and crisis claims: one incident ledger, consequence triage, authority mapping, alert fields, five verification tracks and reconciliation.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Fictional case: how a newsroom corrects a false emergency report based on an impersonating voice
Fictional case: a newsroom corrects a false emergency alert based on an impersonating voice with correction wording, failed callback verification, and audit table.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Common synthetic media reporting problems
Synthetic media reporting problems include detector overclaiming, artifact guessing, provenance confusion, false context, unsafe sharing, and vague corrections.
Standards Desk · 5 min read · Read →
Synthetic media verification checklist for suspicious footage
Synthetic media verification checklist for claim framing, evidence preservation, source contact, provenance, context, forensic review, and publication controls.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Synthetic media evidence types compared, and what each proves
Synthetic media evidence types compared across provenance, source access, context, file metadata, forensic artifacts, detector scores, and corroboration.
Costs Desk · 6 min read · Read →
How to verify suspected AI images, video, and audio
A verifier's order of work for suspected AI media is to preserve the original file, confirm the person, check the event, then test the artifacts.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Synthetic media verification for reporters: evidence lanes and bounded findings
A guide for reporters: define a synthetic media claim, preserve files, sort evidence into four lanes, use detectors cautiously, and publish a bounded finding.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Fictional case: correcting a premature election winner claim
A fictional county race shows how incomplete unofficial returns produce a false winner call, and how a newsroom repairs headline, card and alerts.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Common election and political reporting problems
Election reporting problems explained, including premature winner claims, turnout math, audit and recount confusion, finance errors, and unsupported fraud labels.
Standards Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Election and political claim verification checklist
An election claim verification checklist for newsrooms, with official records, laws, result status, audits, campaign finance, visual checks, and updates.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Election and political evidence types compared
Election evidence types compared across returns, projections, canvass, certification, audits, recounts, filings, lawsuits, polls, and campaign speech.
Costs Desk · 5 min read · Read →
EPA Water Quality Reports: How to Verify a Local Utility's Boil-Water Notice
How to read a utility's consumer confidence report and SDWIS record to confirm or debunk a local boil-water or contamination claim, step by step.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
FEC deepfake ad rules: how to verify a political video before you share it
How the FEC's fraudulent misrepresentation rule and major platform synthetic media policies apply to a political video, with five checks before you share it.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
How to Verify a Canadian Government Benefit Payment Date Claim
Match each federal benefit to CRA or Service Canada, check the official payment calendar, and treat unverified ATIP or political ads as unproven.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
How to Verify a Police Scanner Claim Before Publishing
Learn how to verify police scanner claim reports with dispatch logs, blotters, jail rosters and court dockets before publishing.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
How to Verify a US or Canadian Amber Alert Text Before You Forward It
How to check a US or Canadian Amber Alert text before forwarding: sender, official feeds, provincial coordinators, and the scam signals that fail every test.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
How to check a viral election claim: 12 verification steps
A 12-step workflow to check a viral election claim: preserve posts, find the jurisdiction, ask officials, verify media and numbers, and check court records.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
Election claim checking: a practical guide
Election claim checking starts with jurisdiction and count stage, then verifies results, campaign filings, lawsuits and official statements against records.
Practice Desk · 9 min read · Read →
Fictional case: correcting a complaint reported as a ruling
Court record correction case showing how a newsroom mistakes complaint allegations for a ruling, reconstructs the docket, rewrites the story, and fixes each surface.
Practice Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Common public record reporting problems, and how to avoid them
Public record reporting problems explained, from mistaken status and missing versions to weak searches, unsupported redaction claims, citations, and lost context.
Standards Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Weather and disaster reporting problems and fixes
Radar overclaims, stale warnings and merged authorities change what readers do, so each fix starts with naming the product and its issue time.
Practice Desk · 4 min read · Read →
Public document verification checklist before you quote it
Public document checklist for provenance, identity, type, status, version, completeness, authenticity, context, redactions, calculations, citation, and review.
Practice Desk · 5 min read · Read →
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 →
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 · 7 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 · 8 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 →
How to Verify a PACER Court Filing Screenshot in Five Steps
Learn how to check a PACER or state court filing screenshot by matching the case number, date, and judge, downloading the document, and reading its current status.
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 · 5 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 · 6 min read · Read →
Verify Statistics Canada Claim: What It Costs
See what it costs to verify Statistics Canada claim numbers—from free LFS data to illustrative software, training, and review expenses.
Costs Desk · 6 min read · Read →
Verify Student Loan Forgiveness Claim: Official Sources
To verify student loan forgiveness claim details, check named federal programs and laws, Federal Student Aid, and the state agency that administers the program.
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 →
How US political ad deepfakes meet FEC disclaimers, platform policies, and C2PA checks
This article explains how US political ad deepfakes relate to FEC disclaimers, advisory opinions, platform policies, C2PA provenance, and NIST benchmarks.
Standards Desk · 12 min read · Read →
How to request public records, step by step
Learn how to request public records step by step: name the office, the record series, the custodian, and the date range before you file.
Practice Desk · 8 min read · Read →
Is a TMZ clip real? Los Angeles celebrity claim verification
Los Angeles celebrity claim verification starts with the original TMZ upload, then checks video context, court access, local records, and source claims.
Practice Desk · 8 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 · 11 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 · 5 min read · Read →
How to check US Canada border and trade claims with CBP and Census data
A guide to checking US Canada border and trade claims with Census trade tables and CBP data, covering units, source vintages and four common failure modes.
Costs Desk · 5 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 Verification: Status and Context
Government records verification checks provenance, status, version and context, then preserves the citation another reader needs to retrace a claim.
Practice Desk · 9 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 →
Roadside design studios and regional warning signs: how local facts get lost
Roadside studio regional warning signs for 2027 separate broad planning context from local facts, forecasts, approvals, and unverified marketing claims.
Practice Desk · 5 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 →
Eight common source evaluation mistakes when checking a claim
Eight common source evaluation mistakes when checking a claim, from rating an outlet to forcing a verdict, with examples and honest limits on what records settle.
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
Use independent contact routes, platform history, reverse-image tools, and primary records to verify a social media account and viral post before sharing.
Practice Desk · 7 min read · Read →
How to check an unfamiliar online source by tracing each claim to its evidence
Check an unfamiliar online source by identifying its publisher, reading laterally, tracing each quotation, figure and image, 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 →
A visual geolocation workflow for place and time
This visual geolocation workflow shows how to match a photo or clip to a place, narrow its date, and report what the evidence can and cannot support.
Practice Desk · 7 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 · 6 min read · Read →
Science health news verification: a practical guide
Science health news verification: trace a claim through the paper, trial record, supplement, correction notice and FDA product record before repeating it.
Practice Desk · 9 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 · 6 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 post verification: a guide to viral claims
Social post verification separates account identity from control, traces original uploads, checks claims and platform signals, and supports careful reporting.
Practice Desk · 7 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 guide: mapping claims
This source evaluation guide shows how to split compound claims, test evidence by claim type, trace images and records, and judge source authority.
Practice Desk · 6 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 Verification Guide: A Reading Framework
This statistics verification guide offers a framework for tracing figures, judging uncertainty, reviewing surveys, and checking what charts support.
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
How newsrooms verify breaking news and crisis claims with an incident ledger and five tracks
Breaking news and crisis claims: one incident ledger, consequence triage, authority mapping, alert fields, five verification tracks and reconciliation.
Guides
Synthetic media verification for reporters: evidence lanes and bounded findings
A guide for reporters: define a synthetic media claim, preserve files, sort evidence into four lanes, use detectors cautiously, and publish a bounded finding.
Guides
Election claim checking: a practical guide
Election claim checking starts with jurisdiction and count stage, then verifies results, campaign filings, lawsuits and official statements against records.
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
How US political ad deepfakes meet FEC disclaimers, platform policies, and C2PA checks
This article explains how US political ad deepfakes relate to FEC disclaimers, advisory opinions, platform policies, C2PA provenance, and NIST benchmarks.
Latest from News Cod
Guides
How to verify an unfolding emergency claim
Emergency claim verification workflow for urgent alerts, jurisdiction checks, source callbacks, location, live media, public safety wording, and timed updates.
Guides
How newsrooms verify breaking news and crisis claims with an incident ledger and five tracks
Breaking news and crisis claims: one incident ledger, consequence triage, authority mapping, alert fields, five verification tracks and reconciliation.
Features
Fictional case: how a newsroom corrects a false emergency report based on an impersonating voice
Fictional case: a newsroom corrects a false emergency alert based on an impersonating voice with correction wording, failed callback verification, and audit table.
Rules
Common synthetic media reporting problems
Synthetic media reporting problems include detector overclaiming, artifact guessing, provenance confusion, false context, unsafe sharing, and vague corrections.