Fact-check the story’s claims, not your guess about who wrote it. A byline, polished prose, AI disclosure, or detector result cannot establish whether the reporting is accurate. Identify the consequential claims, trace them to original evidence, and look for independent corroboration. If a key claim remains unsupported, call it unverified—not true or false—and think twice before sharing it as fact.
1. Check who is accountable for the story
Note the publisher, byline, publication date, and any update time. Look for the outlet’s editorial standards, corrections policy, and a way to contact someone responsible for the story. These details help you assess accountability and find later changes; they do not prove the article is accurate.
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Some publishers disclose when automation or AI materially contributed to a story. The Journalism Trust Initiative standard says automatically generated news should be clearly indicated and calls for author identification or records to be accessible when a query arises. A missing or unclear disclosure is a reason to ask how the story was produced, not proof that AI wrote it. See the Journalism Trust Initiative.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2. Break the story into claims you can check
Pull out the factual statements that could change the story’s central conclusion. Separate them from opinion, prediction, and interpretation. For each factual claim, write down what evidence could confirm it and what could weaken it.
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- What happened? Identify the specific event or decision.
- When and where? Look for dates, locations, and the period a claim covers.
- Who was involved? Distinguish named people or organizations from vague attributions.
- How many or how much? Record the exact number, unit, and comparison being made.
- What was said? Treat quotations as claims to verify, not as proof of themselves.
- What caused it? Check whether the evidence supports the stated cause, rather than merely showing that two events occurred together.
The Verification Handbook offers two useful prompts: “How do you know that?” and “How else do you know that?” The route to checking one fact may not work for another, so assess claims individually.
3. Trace important claims to their original evidence
Follow the article’s citations and links as far as they go. Prefer the underlying record or person with direct knowledge over a summary that repeats someone else’s account. Depending on the claim, original evidence might be a court filing, public dataset, research paper, recording, official statement, or direct testimony.
Ask each source how it knows what it says. An AI-generated citation, summary, or attribution is a lead to inspect—not evidence by itself. ProPublica’s AI principles put it plainly: “We treat AI-generated material as unverified source material.” Its AI principles and Ars Technica’s AI policy both emphasize independent checks; Ars says reporters should review source material directly rather than rely on AI summaries or generated attributions.
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Seek more than one reliable route to the important facts. A second article is not necessarily independent corroboration: several outlets may all be repeating the same original statement, report, or error. Follow each account back to its source and ask whether it adds separate access to the evidence.
For a claim about a person or institution, look for the underlying record or a direct response, not only commentary about it. The Associated Press’s news values and principles describe corroborating facts with documents and on-the-record sources and using several independent, reliable sources. The Verification Handbook also recommends looking for multiple paths to verification.
5. Check numbers, quotations, photos, and video in context
Statistics
Record the precise figure, who produced it, the year or period it covers, and the original dataset or report. Check what was counted and whether the article’s comparison or conclusion follows from the underlying material. Do not present a number from a secondary story as though that outlet collected the data itself.
Quotes
Compare consequential quotations with a recording, transcript, published statement, or direct confirmation. Check whether words were shortened or separated from the surrounding context in a way that changes their meaning.
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Photos and video
A genuine image can still be old, miscaptioned, or unrelated to the event described. Look for where it first appeared, its date and location, and contextual clues such as landmarks, signs, weather, language, or other visible details. A still or clip can also be manipulated or presented without the frames that explain it. AP’s verification guidance describes techniques including reverse-image searches, geolocation, contextual comparison, frame-by-frame checks, and contacting the original filmer.
6. Classify what you found—and check for updates
For each important claim, decide whether the evidence supports it, contradicts it, shows it to be misleading or missing context, or leaves it unresolved. “Unresolved” is not the same as “false.” If a material point cannot be checked, name the missing evidence rather than filling the gap with a guess.
Before sharing, revisit the article and check for a correction or update. The evidence—and the responsible publisher’s account of it—may change after publication. The Verification Handbook’s verification guidance and the Journalism Trust Initiative’s transparency standard provide further context.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What AI disclosure and authorship can tell you
A disclosure can help explain whether AI materially contributed to published content; it cannot certify the reporting. Its absence does not establish that AI was used. The Associated Press’s newsroom standards, published July 23, 2026, state: “AI does not replace reporting, sourcing, editorial judgment or verification.” AP describes disclosure when generative AI plays a material role in published content and clear identification and context for included AI-generated or manipulated material in its newsroom standards.
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A chatbot may help you think of search terms or locate a document, but do not ask it to deliver the final truth verdict. Check any claims and citations it produces against the original material. And do not upload confidential source documents or sensitive personal information to public AI tools: ProPublica warns that doing so can compromise data privacy in its AI principles.
If you are comparing coverage of the same event
Compare how each story supports its claims, rather than ranking outlets by reputation or apparent writing quality alone. Check:
- Which underlying evidence each story cites, and whether it links to primary material.
- Whether sources have separate access to the facts or repeat one original account.
- How fresh the reporting is and whether corrections or updates are visible.
- Whether the story explains uncertainty and engages with relevant contrary evidence.
- What it says about authorship and AI use, and who is accountable for publication.
These are practical comparison points drawn from the AP’s verification principles, ProPublica’s AI principles, and the Journalism Trust Initiative.
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