Truthsquad Update

This week, we would like to give you a quick update on Truthsquad, the pro-am fact-checking network we are developing with the Center for Public Integrity.

We spent the summer fundraising, signing up new partners -- and designing a new user experience, which we will be introducing next Wednesday. We hope you will participate actively in next week's extended pilot, to help us test and improve this new service. For more info about Truthsquad, visit the Truthsquad pilot site and sign up, so we can inform you when our new service launches.

Truthsquad aims to revolutionize the field of fact checking by combining the best practices of crowdsourcing with the knowledge of a large nonprofit newsroom and the reach of major online news partners. This new initiative empowers citizens to collaborate with journalists to fact-check controversial claims from politicians and newsmakers. Participants are invited to post questionable claims online, research factual evidence supporting or opposing these claims, and verify their accuracy as a community, with professional oversight.

With the help of our community, we aim to launch Truthsquad.com as a daily service by early 2012. Our goal is to provide new ways to find accurate information and verify suspicious claims on our site and widgets -- featuring our own findings, as well as promoting the work of other trusted research organizations like FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and the Washington Post.

To learn more about our next steps, read the recent articles in The Atlantic and Nieman Journalism Lab.

We are encouraged to witness the rise of a new fact-checking movement, as more journalists join forces to verify claims from politicians -- and expose misinformation during the 2012 elections. The next step is to give citizens a voice in that process, which is what Truthsquad is all about. Stay tuned for more …

 

Fact-checking the GOP Debate 
In the meantime, we thought you would enjoy these links to some great fact-checks on the recent GOP debate, from a wide range of trusted sources. How did the fact-checkers cover the CNN Tea Party Express debate? Compare these reports:

• FactCheck: CNN/Tea Party Debate

• PolitiFact: Fact-checking the CNN/Tea Party Express GOP debate

• Washington Post: Fact checking the CNN and Tea Party Express debate

• Associated Press: GOP debate fact check: A look at the record

• New York Times: Fact Check: Social Security, Health Care and More

• CNN Politics: Fact Check: Did the stimulus create “zero” jobs?

Review more fact-checks (and post your own) on this special feed from Google News.

See you next week on the Truthsquad pilot site!