A smarter person than me said check your sources. I did not hear that on a podcast.
That lesson was instilled in me when sources were harder to track down. The internet created generations who never learned what a trip to the library was really all about. Whether you were thumbing through yellowed old newspapers or a fifteen pound volume of ancient manuscripts chained to the reference librarian's desk, checking your sources meant leaving the house with a notebook and pencil.
When I ventured into journalism, before the age of desktop publishing, the fundamental principle hadn't changed. But instead of the result of bad sourcing being a poor grade, it became a lost job.
My cousin told me has never been an acceptable footnote in a reference paper or newspaper article.
If reporting on an event, you talked to witnesses. If the subject was complicated, you talked to experts. If you didn't know a detail, you either tracked it down or stated it was unknown.
Now I'm not saying things were better "back then". I promise I'd far rather be able to get online in my underwear than go to the closest reference library with a stack of quarters and a notebook to make copies of the stuff I need. No library is going to match the resources of the web. But that doesn't change the maxim.
To this day, I'm going to check my sources. I don't really care what you read on social media or what your aunt up the holler told you, I'm skeptical of every story I hear until I can track it down. It's pretty easy to do with the internet.
But obviously, I'm a bit of a dinosaur in the age of social media. Today checking your source is making sure it came from the right denomination. Sources aren't about truth, they're about doctrine. It doesn't matter how accurate a story is for many, as long as it came from the right source.
And speaking of the right source, some of my neighbors learned this week that Biden was going to ban red meat to meet climate goals, that NIS was handing out Kamala Harris children's book to refugees, and that the state of Virginia was going to stop offering advanced math classes in high schools.
They believed this because they checked their sources and all their sources speak Trumpublican all day every day. Unfortunately, that denomination tends to be loose with facts and short on truth. Other sources wouldn't have reported these stories because these stories are lies and verifiably so.
Check your sources. If they all come in the same flavor, its unlikely you're as well informed as you think you are. Facebook or YouTube or your aunt's prayer circle will never be known for accuracy. That website that reports what no one else will is mostly reporting fiction.
If you want truth, neither Russian social intelligence or Tucker Carlson are going to give it to you. Best to keep them out of your footnotes.