(Roughly) Daily

It’s getting harder and harder to sift the wheat from the chaff– the truth from the misinformation, disinformation, and just plain noise. Here to help, Rocky Parker, with a collection of verification tools– aimed at journalists, but available to us all…

Presenting accurate information to readers is crucial to journalists maintaining trust with their readers. But despite journalists’ best efforts, trust in the media continues to be an issue. The latest American Views report from Gallup and the Knight Foundation found that more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount.

The explosion of AI-generated content on the internet has only added another layer and more complications as readers and journalists work to determine who (or what) created a piece of content and if it’s accurate. And if you’re sourcing story ideas from social media, the recent removals of fact-checking teams from several platforms will make your verification even more difficult.

In light of these challenges… we thought it’d be a good time to round up a few verification tools that journalists should bookmark…

“20 Helpful Verification Tools for Journalists” (and the rest of us).

* Stan Freberg’s parody of “Sgt. Joe Friday” (Jack Webb) on Dragnet

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As we confirm, we might might recall that it was on this date in 1941 that Orson Welles’ first feature film, Citizen Kane, premiered at the Palace Theater in New York. A quasi-biography (based on the life of William Randolph Hearst, with elements of those of Joseph Pulitzer and Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick), it was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, winning Best Writing (Original Screenplay) for Herman Mankiewicz and Welles.

Considered by many critics and filmmakers to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane was voted number 1 in five consecutive British Film Institute Sight & Sound polls of critics, and it topped the American Film Institute’s 100 Years … 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update.

Citizen Kane is particularly praised for Gregg Toland‘s cinematography, Robert Wise‘s editing, Bernard Herrmann‘s music, and its narrative structure, all of which were innovative and have been precedent-setting.

• Kane (in his role as owner of The Inquirer): Read the cable.
• Mr. Bernstein (Kane’s business manager): “Girls delightful in Cuba. Stop. Could send you prose poems about scenery, but don’t feel right spending your money. Stop. There is no war in Cuba, signed Wheeler.” Any answer?
• Kane: Yes. “Dear Wheeler: you provide the prose poems. I’ll provide the war.”

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