Sally Yates to testify before Senate panel even if she doesnt appear before House committee

[ColemanMaskell]

29. Here is a link to fakenewschecker, a list of sites deemed Fake News (by the owners of the list)

The link: http://www.fakenewschecker.com/

Raw Story is included on the list, as are Alternet and Bipartisan Report.

Besides obvious propaganda and other intentionally fake news such as Breitbart, Infowars, and Sputnik News, the list includes any site deemed to be biased (either right or left), particularly anything that (allegedly) does not verify its sources, omits facts that contradict the bias of the site, or uses a lot of emotionally loaded language. So PoliticusUSA is an obvious left wing example of the biased designation.

The list also includes many non-news sites, including satire sites as well as editorial, opinion, and commentary. The aim on this seems to be to include sites that might be mistaken for news. DU is on the list, even though it is not a news site -- presumably because we sometimes quote news articles, as in this thread, and we sometimes get it wrong, mistakenly passing on an untrue story without checking it before posting. The Borowitz Report is on the list, even though it is plainly labeled as satire at the top of every article -- presumably some people are mistaking it for news. So, anything where a naive person might mistakenly place unwarranted trust.

Some sources that seem to meet the criteria are not included on the list. Such overlooked/omitted sources include Fox News and The National Enquirer, and numerous overlooked political satire sites (of which there are many).

Sometimes you have to search a bit to find the listing for something referred to by more than one name. So Alex Jones is not listed under that name, but his site Infowars is. PoliticusUSA is listed as Politics USA, but when you click over to the detail page it shows that they mean the website PoliticusUSA.com --However, the Infowars detail page does not mention Alex Jones by name at all, so you just need to know that Alex Jones and Infowars are commonly used to refer to the same site.

To get to the detail page for a listing, click on the right-arrowhead > at the right of the name in the list. (Looks like a mathematical greater-than symbol.)

The detail page will tell more about the site, including why it is listed. Except for satire sites, almost every such write-up I've looked at (including the one for DU) ends with the sentence "It is among the most untrustworthy sources in the media.", so that description in itself seems to be meaningless. The part that precedes that summation contains some description, though, such as left or right, anti-scientific, and so on.

No list is perfect. Lists require verification and maintenance. So this list is not to be taken as definitive; One still needs to check stories in some additional way, such as googling the story, and, for obviously questionable stories, checking fact-check sites such as Snopes and Politifact. However, as a purely practical expedient, checking the list might be a good first step. It is especially useful for finding well-established satire sources such as The Onion and Borowitz Report.

Here is a link to the DU discussion post for the conversation on possible establishment of a DU Fake News policy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028857074