If you didn’t fact-check this tweet from @JimDabakis, you might be a bit confused by the news that @MittRomney plans to vote on a Supreme Court nominee.
This tweet popped up hours after RBG died Friday. Did you question it using #medialiteracy?
Sure hope ya did!
When you see someone making controversial claims -- things that make you react emotionally -- you gotta check the facts.
So how to verify this one? Look to primary sources.
@MittRomney’s Twitter is a great place to start. He tweeted his condolences Friday, but didn’t share his voting plans then.
Today @SenatorRomney (second account) put out a statement making it clear that he is willing to vote on a nominee before election day.
And if you saw the @JimDabakis tweet Friday night, you still could’ve checked sources close to Romney.
His communications director, @LJ0hnson, responded to claims that Romney hasn’t committed to not voting before the next inauguration:
Or you could’ve web searched to see if others confirmed that Romney committed to not voting. Dozens of news outlets reported he hadn’t yet made up his mind.
If you kept following Twitter, you would have seen Dabakis double down on the claim:
Fact checking can be really easy! When you verify the legitimacy of a controversial claim before sharing, you protect your followers from misinformation.
Next time you see a sketchy tweet with a big claim:
1) Go to primary sources
2) Search somewhere else
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