Snopes is an interesting website that “fact checks”
various rumors, articles, and stories and also reports on recent news. The fact checks tend toward issues that
are not so serious, like a debunking a picture of a moose wading in a kiddie
pool watching a car burn. A lot of these originate from social media and
probably should not have been taken serious in the first place. But not all of their fact checking articles are that way, and their are few that are more serious. An example of this is
one about the Supreme Court vacancy and a quote that had supposedly arisen from
Colin Powell. In addition to fact checking, they also have a normal news
section. The news here also varies widely on how serious the articles are. One of the article’s
title is “The Great Toilet Paper Orientation Debate.” This article can hardly
be taken serious. Another article is titled “City, State Officials Face
Criminal Charges in Flint Water Crisis.” This article, on the other hand, tackles
a much more serious issue.
As far as bias from the site’s creators and main
researchers, I don’t see much evidence of it from reading their articles. In
their articles, unlike those seen on many other sites such as Facebook or
Twitter, there are verifiable sources usually included in their articles. They
include links to sources so that you can check their facts too. Additionally,
at the bottom of every article there is a description of who the writer is and
their credentials. Although that does not stop bias, it does make the articles
on Snopes more reliable than those found on other anonymous sites.
Overall, Snopes can be a good website to use if you want to check out a strange article on social media to see if it is true or not, or if you want a different take on some of your recent news.
