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Politics and Activism

Why Fact Checking Is Important This Political Season

Don't believe everything you see, hear, or read.

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Why Fact Checking Is Important This Political Season
YouTube -- Pinocchio Video

I am sure you know by now not to trust everything you see on the Internet. With technology advancements, it has become increasingly hard to discern the truth from the convincingly fake. That is why we learn early on in school how to fact-check our sources to make sure that they are reliable. I recently come across a New York Times article fact-checking Trump's speech that he made at the Republic National Convention. Not long after, our own President Obama did the same.

I believe that we as voting Americans should follow their example with the three and some months left until we hit the polls. I think we are too quick to trust and if our friends are posting something online, or our favorite candidate said it, then it must be true. We hear what we want to hear and we don't take the time to actually check whether or not it is true.

When Melania Trump gave her speech, the whole internet exploded with how she plagiarized Michelle Obama and how awful it was. Then someone made a Twitter post of Donald Trump saying the same thing as Barack Obama to try and make at least some of the public believe that the Trumps are copycats. I unfortunately saw the image of the two tweets un-ironically on Facebook as well.

I have also seen a remarkable amount of articles shared by my friends that are from sketchy sources saying not nice things about a candidate. But because it was what they wanted to hear and it put a passionate hate in their heart against the candidate, they shared it, and others shared it from them.

It is important that we put effort into what we know and what is reliable because we can't trust everything the media says. I would hate for someone to have the wrong impression of a candidate and vote based on what they saw and heard on television than actually looking into it and seeing if it is true.

Before November, fact check, fact check, fact check. I would really hate for you to have a false idea of a political candidate just because someone else wanted you to. It's just like doing research for a paper in that you should check your facts, using two different, reliable sources.

I know fact checking does take some time from your day but please remember that this is the leader of our country that we have the opportunity to vote for. We need to make the right decision and not just check a box because we believed an article or a speech that is not in fact reliable.

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