An explainer on the process the entire 6 News team goes through to ensure our fact-checks are correct.
One of the most important things 6 News does is fact-check - whether that's politicians, the media, companies or even just random strangers on social media.
It's clear trust in the media - especially traditional mainstream media - has dropped amongst all sides of politics, and fact-checking sites have also faced some pushback over alleged funding & biases.
Here at 6 News, we're funded by YOU - just $4 a month on Patreon, giving you exclusive benefits & plenty more - that's cheaper than subscriptions to major newspapers & streaming services - and we're also an unbiased news outlet.
This is how our team fact-checks accurately & without bias:
Find the original source
On social media, false claims can be shared hundreds of times in the space of a minute - but often, they've originated long before.
Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest parts - when it comes to images & graphics it's not easy to find the original, and with so many social media sites it's a tough job.
If we do manage to find the original - or the earliest known source - we'll be show to include it in our report.
Be blunt
It's simple - when we see something that's false, misleading or missing context, we'll say that.
Misinformation is a massive problem & it needs to be called out - by us & by you.
If we're told by someone that they didn't make the original claim, we'll try to find the original - just like what we said above.
Link our sources
It's easy to tell someone "that's false" - but you've got to show evidence.
We'll do our best to use neutral sources & as many as possible, and include them in our articles.
Government sources will be used for certain stories, but their political views will be tossed aside.
Be precise
Fact-checking isn't just saying "this is true" and "this is false" - there's a lot more to it.
We'll make sure we're precise in our reports by labelling a claim as one of the following:
True
Mostly True
Missing Context
Mostly False
False
Unproven
Satire/Humour
If we need to go more in-depth or use a different label, we'll do so, but those are those are the main ones - find out more about our rating system here.
Correct the record
Reporters are human - and sometimes we make mistakes.
As outlined in our editorial policies, we encourage you to DM us on social media or email contact@6newsau.com if you believe we've made a mistake or have further evidence to present to us.
Minor issues like typos, misspellings or grammatical mistakes will be corrected but not acknowledged.
Quotes included as part of the fact-checking process will remain as they were.
RELATED ARTICLE: How our fact-checking rating system works
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