Checking the News

An example of WarFlagger usage to review a news article

Are you unhappy with an article in your newspaper? Is that article available online? Instead of writing a letter to the editor that may or may not be printed, you can use WarFlagger to address your concerns.

First of all, does the article contain unsubstantiated claims? Is the author sneering rather than honestly addressing? Consider attaching a Flag:NeedsReference flag to each problematic statement. In the comment field add a question that clarifies exactly what point needs more evidence. Before posting your own Flag:NeedsReference flag, you might want to see if someone else has already raised the same point. In that case you can just Flag:Agree with the pre-existing opinion.

Sometimes the problem with an article is not in what it says, but in what it fails to say. What if the journalist is failing to mention a fact that would totally change the conclusion of the article - if readers knew about it? Maybe a person has been quoted as a average person on the street, but readers might think differently if they knew that he was a professional lobbyist or radical partisan. In some cases the journalist has previously handled things in an unfair manner. You can alert other readers to this with the Flag:RaiseQuestion flag.

You may also realize that you know of another article that addresses a matter of fact relevant to the article. Use the Flag:Evidence flag to post a reference. You can use a negative VoteValue if your evidence contradicts the article, or a positive VoteValue to indicate supporting evidence. If it is available, use an evidence source that has already been discussed by the WarFlagger community. This helps to keep redundant discussions from popping up all over. Also, if your evidence is already well vetted by the community, it will have more impact on the target article.

On occasion you will see that a journalist has interviewed someone to whom you have access. People sometimes feel that they have been misrepresented by the interviewer. You have a chance, as a member of the WarFlagger community, to remedy this problem. The tool you use is the Flag:SecondHand flag. Go to your aquaintance and ask if he or she feels that the journalist's representation was accurate. Select the quote in the article and flag it with Flag:SecondHand, then use the VoteValue and Comment fields to indicate the approval or reservations of your aquaintance. This will be used, based on your reputation in the community, to validate the actions of the journalist.

Flag:SecondHand can also be used to add the results of your own interviewing to the article. It's not necessary that your source be interviewed by the original journalist. You may add your own anecdotal evidence with the Flag:EyeWitness flag.