Animal Politico's fact-checking project. "Fooling a dog is difficult."

He uses his sense of smell, his sight, he digs in the ground. With his senses he discovers everything ... even the lies of a politician. On Wednesday, January 28, 2015, Animal Político started its speech verification project called El Sabueso to contribute to monitoring the public debate. El Sabueso will analyze a phrase of relevance to national life and, with hard data, will establish whether it is true or false. This type of journalistic exercise is known as fact-checking and has been a trend in Latin America for several years. How will a verdict be given? El Sabueso has a seven-step methodology that is inspired by the processes of two of the leading sites in this field: Politifact , in the United States, and Chequeado , in Argentina. Methodology 1. Select a phrase from the public sphere and weigh its relevance both by topic and by the person who says it. 2. Request the author of the sentence the source of your statement. 3. Go to that source to verify if the data is available and if it matches the author of the phrase. If there is agreement, do not feel that the statement is true, since it must still be verified . 4. The data is compared with other figures or research by experts in the field. 5. The phrase is put in a social, economic and / or temporal context . 6. The phrase is confirmed, it counterbalances , or refuted . 7. The claim is rated in one of the eight categories and the result is published. Once each of the previous steps has been completed, we can assign one of the following categories to the chosen phrase. Ridiculous: The claim is not only false, but is far from exaggerated from what the data indicates. False: The claim is not verified after being verified with official sources and other investigations. Lie with the truth: The data is true, but if the author's conclusion is put in context, the meaning of the message changes. Misleading: The claim may coincide with certain data, but intentionally or unintentionally, it has been manipulated to generate a particular message. Can't prove: When available official data or independent investigations are not sufficient to determine whether the sentence is true or false. Debatable: The veracity of the statement depends on the methodology used to verify it. Inaccurate: Not all the data and information that the author gives are exactly how he communicates them. True: As it has been contrasted with official sources and / or those of greater rigor, what is stated is sustained or reinforced.