Follow the trail of evidence to see who the writer links to, quotes or references:

• Has the journalist represented the original source accurately?
• Is data presented fully or "cherry picked" to suppress contradictory evidence?
• Are the journalist's sources credible and relevant? (Tip: If the sources are unnamed, e-mail the reporter.)
• How strong is the evidence? If there is a study or poll, is the sample size large enough to represent the population accurately?

Corroborate: Compare information from different media (e.g., magazines, reports, journals, blogs) to gather diverse viewpoints.