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POL 119a: Red States/Blue States

Sources for students in Red States/Blue States: American Voters and Parties

Fact Checkers

It can be difficult to separate fact from hype so here are some resources that can help you navigate the tricky landscape of today's news.

FactCheck.org - nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.

Fact Checker from the Washington Post -  The mission is to assess the statements of political figures regarding issues of great importance, be they national, international or local. With the approaching election, many of statements made in the heat of the presidential contest will be scrutinized as will other difficult issues.

Project Vote Smart - Vote Smart's mission is to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to ALL Americans.

PolitiFact - PolitiFact is a project of the Tampa Bay Times and its partners to help you find the truth in politics.  Every day, reporters and researchers from PolitiFact and its partner news organization examine statements by members of Congress, state legislators, governors, mayors, the president, cabinet secretaries, lobbyists, people who testify before Congress and anyone else who speaks up in American politics. PolitiFact also ranks consistency of message.

Congressional Report Card - Since 1995, our non-partisan Report Cards have provided information on the most important, and often under-reported, part of each United States Congress member's job: making "good" laws. Report Cards popular now.

Current Newspapers

We use library databases to access newspapers instead of going directly to the newspaper's website (except the WSJ and the NYT). These databases allow you to search multiple news sources simultaneously,  provide better search results, stable links, and access to archived content.

Reading Today's Paper

   

Search Multiple Publications

Magazines & Periodicals

Some of our magazine subscriptions appear as lists of articles in a database, while some are hosted by the publication's website.  You can search by article title or author, or browse by issue or date range.  Please note: Due to copyright restrictions, the publisher may not make all content available.

If you have a particular article you are unable to find, please reach out to your librarian for additional guidance.  We're here to help!