Snopes

Beginning to look at the Snopes website, I found that many articles are on recent political events. These include the Dakota access pipeline and the political fallout resulting from the recent election. It is of concern to have such polarizing topics on the homepage of the website. Utilizing these topics can result in the most traffic producing stories with their controversy, because the controversy brings in many curious internet browsers. These are topics such as election rigging, celebrity scandals, and popular product defects. The problem with having all of these topics is that, some statements can give a political leaning to some stories that otherwise would not be on the website. However, these leanings can also be made by a lack of information about a topic as well and result in there being a bias in stories when then are written.

Looking into further parts of the website brings up its wide coverage different topics as well, such as cartoons, giant squids and cooking with aluminum foil. It is also possible to submit rumors, which get researched further by the writers for Snopes. The site rates its articles based on their truthfulness as well.  This can also be a source of bias as some stories like global warming and gun control that are written are on borderline topics, which lean one way or the other depending on what and how much information you have. Overall, Snopes has a lot of information on its site, but it should be used with caution and double checked with other sources.