A really important thread if you want to understand where news—and the concept of fake news—comes from. When I hear people dismiss “mainstream media” offhand as misleading, I want to scream. Have you ever been fact-checked? That shit is THOROUGH. https://twitter.com/mattsheffield/status/1324908316548493313

If you haven’t been on the back-end of journalism, fact-checking is a process where every line of an article, every word, is scrutinized and researched. You need concrete evidence for each claim. That doesn’t mean googling other articles; it means contacting every eyewitness.

In one of my first stories, I mentioned a beetle bending its legs—as a side detail!—and my editor made me send studies proving that beetles can bend their legs and I was like WHAT IS THIS and now I’m like well OBVIOUSLY that needs to be backed up, cheers to the entomologists.