Glossary
Fact-checking
The process of verifying factual claims against primary sources before — and sometimes after — publication.
Pre-publication fact-checking is internal to a newsroom and varies wildly in rigor. Post-publication fact-checking is the public-facing variety: PolitiFact, Snopes, FactCheck.org, and AP Fact Check. Both have limits: pre-publication checking is invisible to readers; post-publication checking happens after the original claim has spread. AI fact-checking — as in Prism Source Receipts — sits in a third category: per-article, on-demand verdicts on every load-bearing claim, available to any reader for free. See also: primary source.
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