If you’re getting your news mostly from social media, your information diet is probably a little lacking. You might even be consuming fake news, which the New York Times defines as "a published news report that can be easily proved false,"¹ in the recently published book Fake New: Read All About It.

Fake news doesn’t just occur by accident. It’s a "deliberate attempt to sway public opinion using false and explosive claims." ¹ Fake news is "shocking, exciting, or confirms some belief you hold deeply." ¹ If there’s too much sensation and affirmation in your news cycle, you might be reading fake news.

Fake news isn’t harmless. It leaves readers misinformed and can spread quickly, affecting people on a global scale. It’s a "weapon that is taking aim at the practice of democracy," that can "undermin(e) truth and public trust in responsible investigative reporting."

Don’t get duped! Quickly check if a news story is true, by visiting trusted sources of information such as factcheck.org, snopes.com, Washington Post Fact Checker, or politifact.com.

If you’d like to ditch fake news in favor of rich, varied, trusted news sources, look no further than the Free Library of Philadelphia’s eResources:

For the latest news that’s fit to print, try:

• Philadelphia Inquirer – Cover-to-cover access, from 1981 to today.
   
• New York Times – Free access to NYTimes.com, including historical coverage.
   
• Access World News – Over 9,000 local, national, and international news sources.
   
• InfoTrac Newsstand – More than 2,500 news sources from around the nation and the world.
   
• NewsBank Hot Topics – Trending news and hot topics on politics, technology, health, and more.

For historical news, explore:

• American Broadsides and Ephemera – Rare printed documents from 1760-1900.
   
• America’s Historical Newspapers – Over 750 early American newspapers from as early as 1690.
   
• Pennsylvania Historical Newspapers – 174 Pennsylvania newspapers from 1790-1922.
   
• Philadelphia Inquirer Historical Archive – Full-text historical Inquirer articles dating back to the Civil War-era, 1829-1922.

You can fight against fake news and always be informed with the help of the Free Library and these resources—all you need is a library card!

1.        New York Times Educational Publishing. (2019). Fake News: Read All About It.