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The Web as Watchdog
Candidates say a lot of things when they’re trying to win your vote, such as details from their careers or personal lives. But how can you be sure the things they’re saying are true? Fortunately, this is where “watchdog” or fact checking websites come in. The people who run these sites check everything a candidate says. Sometimes the facts are checked by “citizen reporters” -- everyday people who check up on politicians and want to share their discoveries with the world. If a congressman says he “created ten thousand new jobs” in his last term, a watchdog website will look for actual proof of this claim, and may find out that he actually created less than half that number. By checking the claim against the facts, we can see if a politician is being honest…or exaggerating in order to get more votes.
Another way to tell if a politician is being honest is to check how she cast her votes on specific issues in the past. The Web makes checking these things a lot faster and easier, so it’s harder for an official to “hide” her record. In this way, politicians are held accountable. For example, a politician might say that he has “always voted to keep jobs in America.” The voting record, checked on the Internet at a website such as FactCheck.org, might show that he indeed recently voted against a bill that would have sent jobs overseas. The Internet helped voters to hold the politician accountable, and in this case he passed the test.
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