Posted in Behind the News

Fact-checking to ‘reach deeper' into communities

, by Lauren Easton

As the Nov. 6 U.S. midterm elections approach, AP has stepped up efforts to fact-check political misinformation circulating at the local, state and national levels. 

“Over the past year, AP has worked to reach deeper into communities, taking advantage of the expertise of our journalists in all 50 states to produce AP Fact Checks and debunk misinformation on the state and local levels,” said AP Fact Check Editor Karen Mahabir. “These local fact checks are of huge value to our members and customers across the U.S., and to a public hungry for objective, factual information, especially as we approach Election Day.”  

She added: “This work builds on AP’s long and rich history of fact-checking, something that’s deeply engrained in our entire global newsgathering operation.”  
 
A sampling of recent state and local fact checks includes: 

We continue to fact-check statements from politicians and other public figures at the national level in both individual AP Fact Checks and Not Real News roundups. 

For decades AP has offered its customers and member news organizations nonpartisan fact-checks that objectively examine the claims of politicians and other public officials.

The news agency has worked with Facebook since 2016 to debunk misinformation circulating on the platform, and announced in March it would begin working with Facebook to identify and debunk false and misleading stories on the platform related to the midterm elections.

Find all AP Fact Checks here.