Just as a hammer goes with a nail, peanut butter with jelly, and the Trump administration with lies and falsehoods* April Fools Day for the past two years has been paired with Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Day, April 2nd.
The International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) are calling for a broad coalition of journalists, students and everyday media consumers to arm themselves with the tools and methods needed to decipher what’s real and what’s not all year long.
Alexios Mantzarlis, Poynter’s Director of IFCN says: “International Fact-Checking Day is meant to be lighthearted, but practical. Our hope is that we can all commit one day to paying extra attention to the accuracy of what we read and especially of what we share.”
*According to the Washington Post as of January 2018 Trump’s total number of false or misleading claims stood at 1,950 claims in 347 days, or an average of 5.6 inaccurate claims per day.