---
name: article-fact-checking
description: "Fact-check articles, news stories, press releases and blog posts: claim extraction, risk tiers, primary and independent sources, quotes, people, dates, superlatives and causal claims, image and video verification, AI-written passages, framing, breaking news rules, corrections policies and editorial standards based on IFCN principles. Use whenever someone needs to fact-check an article, news story, blog post, press release or newsletter, verify quotes, statistics, images or videos before publishing, check AI-written content, or publish a correction."
license: CC-BY-4.0
metadata:
  author: Afeez Adebayo
  author_url: https://afeezadebayo.com
  author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
  author_x: https://x.com/za_icon
  source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/marketing/content-copy-pr/article-fact-checking/
  category: marketing
  subcategory: content-copy-pr
  version: "1.0.0"
  created: "2026-10-16"
  updated: "2026-10-16"
---

# Article and News Fact-Checking

Published content carries your name. One wrong statistic, misattributed quote, recycled photo or outdated claim in a blog post, news story, press release or thought-leadership article can lead to corrections, lost trust, legal complaints and, increasingly, AI answer engines repeating the error at scale. Newsrooms solve this with verification desks and editorial standards; content teams rarely do. The International Fact-Checking Network's Code of Principles, followed by professional fact-checkers worldwide, rests on fairness, transparency of sources and methods, transparency of funding and an open corrections policy. [Reference, IFCN Code of Principles]

This skill fact-checks articles and news content before and after publication: extracting every checkable claim, rating risk, verifying statistics, quotes, people, dates, events, images and video, checking AI-written drafts, judging context and framing, handling breaking news, writing corrections and building editorial standards that make accuracy routine. It works for blogs, news sites, press releases, newsletters, reports, social posts and SEO content.

## Operating principles
1. **Every claim is checkable until proven otherwise.** Numbers, names, quotes, dates, superlatives, causal claims and images.
2. **Primary sources first.** Original data, documents, recordings and direct confirmation beat articles about them.
3. **Two independent sources for contested facts.** One source is a lead, not confirmation.
4. **Context is part of accuracy.** True facts framed misleadingly are still errors.
5. **Check media, not just text.** Images and videos are often reused, cropped or misdated.
6. **Correct openly.** Visible, dated corrections build more trust than silent edits.

## Claim types and verification methods
| Claim type | Example | Verify with |
|---|---|---|
| Statistic | "Nigeria has 220 million people" | National statistics office, UN or World Bank data with year |
| Study finding | "A study found remote workers are 13% more productive" | The original paper: sample, setting, what was measured |
| Quote | "We will not raise prices," the CEO said | Transcript, recording, original interview or direct confirmation |
| Attribution | "According to Gartner..." | The named report itself, not an article citing it |
| Person and title | "Dr Ada Okafor, Lagos State Commissioner" | Official websites, gazettes, recent press releases |
| Event and date | "The policy took effect in January 2025" | Official notices, laws, regulator pages |
| Superlative | "The largest fintech in Africa" | Authoritative ranking with definition and date, or remove |
| Causal claim | "The new law caused prices to fall" | Evidence beyond timing; expert input; other explanations |
| Prediction | "Analysts expect growth to double" | Named analysts and their actual forecasts |
| Image or video | Photo of a flood "today" | Reverse image search, metadata, location and date checks |

## Risk tiers
| Tier | Claims | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Allegations about people or companies, health, legal, financial, safety, numbers central to the story | Primary source plus second independent source; editor sign-off; legal review where needed |
| Important | Key statistics, quotes, attributions, dates | Primary source |
| Routine | Background facts, widely known details | Reliable source check |

## When to use, and when not to
Use it before publishing articles, news stories, press releases, guest posts, newsletters and reports; when updating old content; when AI drafted part of the text; when a reader or source disputes a fact; and during breaking news.

Don't use it as legal clearance for defamation or privacy risk; serious allegations need legal review. For general research claims, see the Productivity `fact-checking` skill.

## Inputs
- The draft or published URL.
- The writer's sources, notes, recordings and links.
- Images, videos and their origins.
- Audience, publication date and risk level.
- House style and corrections policy.

## Workflow

### Step 1. Extract claims
List every checkable statement with its location: numbers, names, titles, quotes, dates, places, superlatives, causal claims, predictions, images and captions.

### Step 2. Assign risk tiers
Mark each claim critical, important or routine using the table above.

### Step 3. Ask the writer for sources
For each critical and important claim, the source the writer used and how they found it.

### Step 4. Verify against primary sources
Open the original report, dataset, document or recording; compare wording, number, date, definition and context.

### Step 5. Confirm independently
For critical claims, find a second independent source or confirm directly with the person or organisation.

### Step 6. Verify quotes
Match word for word; check speaker, date, setting and that the meaning is not changed by cuts.

### Step 7. Verify media
Reverse image search, check metadata where available, compare landmarks, weather and shadows with the claimed place and time, find the earliest version and confirm rights to use.

### Step 8. Check context and framing
Headline matches the story; time periods are fair; percentages have bases; correlation is not presented as causation; relevant opposing evidence is mentioned.

### Step 9. Check AI-written passages
Treat every specific fact, quote, study and citation as unverified; confirm each exists and says what is claimed.

### Step 10. Fix and record
Correct, clarify, soften wording to match evidence or remove. Log each check.

### Step 11. Final read
Consistency of figures throughout, headline and captions, links working and pointing to the right sources.

## Fact-check log template
```
| # | Location | Claim | Tier | Source checked | Second source | Result | Change made |
| 1 | Headline | "Largest fintech in Africa" | Critical | No ranking found | - | Unsupported | "One of Nigeria's largest fintechs by users" with source |
| 2 | Para 3 | Inflation 32.7% in Sept | Important | National statistics release | - | Correct | Added month and source link |
| 3 | Para 5 | CEO quote | Important | Interview recording 12:40 | - | Wording differed | Quote corrected |
| 4 | Image 1 | Flood in Lagos "this week" | Critical | Reverse search: 2021 photo | Agency archive | Misdated | Replaced image |
```

## Verification toolkit
| Need | Tools and sources |
|---|---|
| Reverse image search | Google Lens, TinEye, Bing Visual Search, Yandex Images |
| Video verification | Keyframe extraction and reverse search (for example the InVID-WeVerify browser plugin) |
| Old versions of pages | Internet Archive Wayback Machine |
| Image metadata | EXIF viewers (metadata is often stripped by platforms) |
| Locations | Satellite and street-level map imagery |
| Company facts | Official registries, annual reports, investor pages |
| People | Official bios, registries, verified accounts, direct contact |
| Existing fact-checks | Google Fact Check Explorer and IFCN signatory sites |
Check each tool's current features, as they change over time.

## Breaking news rules
- Report only what is confirmed; label what is unconfirmed clearly.
- Attribute every claim ("police said", "according to the ministry").
- Avoid naming individuals in crimes or accidents until confirmed by authorities.
- Treat viral images and videos as unverified until checked.
- Update the story with timestamps as facts change.

## AI-content checks
| AI risk | Check |
|---|---|
| Invented studies or reports | Search for the exact title and authors |
| Fabricated quotes | Find the original source of every quote |
| Wrong dates and figures | Compare with primary data |
| Outdated facts | Check publication dates of sources |
| Generic claims presented as specific | Ask for evidence or remove |

## Corrections policy
```
Correction (<date>): An earlier version of this article said <wrong fact>.
It is <correct fact>, according to <source>.
```
Publish corrections at the point of error or at the end of the article, keep the original date and the correction date, notify partners who republished the piece and fix AI-facing versions such as summaries and structured data.

## Editorial standards for content teams
- Every article lists sources in the draft for editors.
- Critical claims get two-source confirmation and editor sign-off.
- Quotes are checked against recordings or confirmed in writing.
- Images have documented origins and usage rights.
- AI-assisted drafts are flagged and fully fact-checked.
- A public corrections policy and contact point exist.
- Evergreen articles are reviewed for accuracy on a schedule.

## Edge cases and judgement calls
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Source refuses to confirm | Say so in the article or remove the claim |
| Only one source available for a critical claim | Hold, attribute clearly or remove; escalate to the editor |
| Contested science or politics | Present the weight of evidence and main positions fairly |
| Claims about individuals | Right of reply; legal review for allegations |
| Old article with outdated facts | Update with a note, or add a dated editor's note |
| Satire or opinion pieces | Facts within opinion still need to be accurate |
| Translated sources | Native-speaker check of key passages |

## Handoffs to related skills
- General research fact-checking: the Productivity `fact-checking` and `source-evaluation` skills
- Writing and editing: `editing-proofreading`, `seo-content-writing`
- Digital PR and press releases: `digital-pr`
- Content quality and E-E-A-T: the Content and On-Page SEO `eeat-content-quality` skill
- How AI engines describe your brand: the AEO & GEO `brand-accuracy-ai-answers` skill

## Worked example
A fintech news site prepared a story headlined "Africa's largest fintech cuts prices as inflation hits 40%". The fact-check listed 22 claims. No authoritative ranking supported "largest", so the headline changed to a sourced user-count claim. The national statistics release showed inflation of 32.7%, not 40%, for the month in question. A CEO quote differed from the interview recording and was corrected. The lead image, described as this week's flooding, came from 2021 according to reverse image search and an agency archive, and was replaced. The story published a day later than planned, and two competitors who ran the original figures had to issue corrections.

## Common mistakes
- Checking only numbers and ignoring quotes, images and headlines.
- Using the writer's secondary source as confirmation.
- Accepting AI citations without opening them.
- Silent edits instead of visible corrections.
- Headlines that claim more than the story supports.

## Output format
```
1. Claims list with risk tiers
2. Fact-check log with sources and results
3. Media verification notes
4. Context and framing issues
5. Corrected text and headline
6. Unverified items and decisions
7. Correction notice (if after publication)
```

## Self-check before you answer
- Was every claim, quote, image and headline checked against its tier?
- Were critical claims confirmed by primary and independent sources?
- Were context, framing and AI-written passages reviewed?
- Is there a log and, if needed, a visible correction?

---
Created by Afeez Adebayo, Marketing, SEO & Growth Expert
Website: https://afeezadebayo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
X: https://x.com/za_icon
Source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/marketing/content-copy-pr/article-fact-checking/

Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may copy, share and adapt this skill, including for commercial use, as long as you credit Afeez Adebayo and link to the source URL above. Keep this notice in any copy or adapted version.