A Look at Snopes

Before this blog assignment, I have heard about Snopes in passing, but never used it or actually looked on the website. As a skeptic and somewhat cynical person, I do not trust everything that I see on the internet or even in print. This is especially true when friends post things on Facebook. Anything goes on the internet, and anyone could write or publish anything. Then, that could spread everywhere. Unfortunately, plenty of people are gullible and are used as tools to spread this false information around the internet. In general, bias is extremely difficult to completely avoid. A personal take or response on something can be avoided, but then it could be interpreted that your sources lean one way or another. The sources could be biased, although that should be avoided as well.

Focusing on Snopes itself, it seems to focus on a lot of "fact-checking" and news articles. They also feature the most popular urban legends, updated frequently. Their more recent news articles are about politics and celebrities that have recently passed. However, the fact-checking is the most popular part of the site. It is also the most updated, with several checks posted per day. Some of the ones that most interested me were the one about the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico meeting and supposedly not mixing, North Carolina no longer accepting $20 bills, and the story of a doctor and paramedic saving each other's lives.

Overall, it does not seem like, at least at first glance around Snopes, that it has blatantly obvious bias issues. I did not take a look too far back into the past, or really look in-depth at their sources though. They may have had issues in the past, or been less objective. This could be a good place for people to look for fact-checks, but I would not trust it as the exclusive, only source of important information.