Your beliefs, inferences, preferences, and decisions are only as good as your information, the values you assign, your ability to organize your premises into good arguments, and your ability make decisions consistent with your values. Your upbringing and your education will give you much of your background knowledge and values.  However, current information is almost always a part of good decision making. You might be surprised to know that:

According to a 2001 Gallup Organization poll:

Similarly, about a 2004 Gallup poll showed that

Despite what many people consider definitive refutation from the 911 commission bipartisan report, many people continue to believe as they did in Aug. 2003 in a Washington Post study:

In a 2010 poll conducted by for The Daily Kos by the nonpartisan polling firm Research2000 discovered that 

For those who doubt Obama's citizenship, I recommend either the urban legends page on this myth or the Factcheck.org cite

Bad information and argumentation can be found in many places. For example, according to an MSNBC report, "Nearly 40 percent of lung disease patients believe that surgery can spread cancer by exposing the tumors to the air — a false idea that could cost them their lives,...."

Likewise, many people believe that saliva can transmit the HIV virus. In fact, there are only four fluids that can transmit HIV: blood, semen, breast milk, and vaginal fluids. Nor can mosquitoes can carry the virus; mosquitoes suck blood from the body and do not inject it.

If you find yourself interested in widespread but false beliefs, an excellent book on the topic is discussed here

Avoiding false beliefs, cultivating true beliefs, getting the most out of your life, and being responsible in your dealings with other people [even other animals ;-)] all require that you take an active role in gathering, organizing, and evaluating information.  This exercise is designed to help you achieve these goals.  Below you will find a large list of five different types of news sources from diverse viewpoints with links to their web sites.  Most of the standard news outlets are not linked below.  I assume that you are aware of CNN, etc..  More importantly, gathering information from a variety of sources and challenging your own perspective by exploring alternative viewpoints will give you a much greater depth of perspective.

It is equally important to understand who actually generates the news that you read in newspapers and magazines.  Very few information outlets generate all their own articles.  Additionally, you should try to develop a sense of the integrity of the news and information outlets that you visit regularly.  Independent and political blogs can break legitimate news, but they more often fail to properly fact check their reports and improperly distort the details to misrepresent the reality on the ground.  Based upon their journalistic practices as demonstrated over time, you can learn whether to trust what you read or hear on many, many internet sources and even on some high profile news outlets.  For example, the following e-mail was widely circulated on the internet, FOX NEWS and many congress people, ex. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R. Minn.), cited FOX and other outlets in further propagating this claim:

In actuality, this "story" first broke in the US by extremely partisan right-wing blogs like, http://www.breitbart.com/, known for their lack of journalistic integrity.  The original source for this article was a rural Indian newspaper, Press Trust of India.  They cited an unnamed Indian official.  The report was specifically denied as "absurd" by the White House and the Department of Defense.  To put the claims in perspective, the US spends 178 million dollars a month to run the entire war in Afghanistan.  34 warships represents 10% of the entire US navy.  None of the news outlets that reported this "story" ever cited a source, nor did the retract the story when its obvious falsity became clear. 

Go to AT LEAST 7 SITES, one site from each category on the large list (below)--including at least one magazine, one science or skepticism site, one national newspaper, one international newspaper, one non-political/non-partisan information source, one left-leaving information source, and right-leaning information source.  Read the article titles and a few article summaries (when given) on each site.  Finally, read ONE full article from ONE site on the large list.  Next, go to one of the three most common news outlets listed below the large list.  Read an article on the same topic from one of the three sources there (listed immediately below the list of 7 news sources).  Once you've done your reading, answer the questions on the quiz in beachboard (The questions are also given here.).


1.) What seven sources sources did you visit?  Your magazine [1], your science or skepticism site [2], your national newspaper [3], your international newspaper [4], your non-partisan watchdog source [5], your left-leaning news source [6], and your right-leaning news source [7].    Make sure you copy the title exactly without the parenthetic comments.

2.) Were you aware of these sources of information before now? 

3.) Were you aware of the websites for these sources of information before now? 

4.) What news source, long-list news source, did you choose?  Write the exact name in the blank.

5.) Which of the three major news sources did you choose?  Make sure you copy the title exactly without the parenthetic comments.

6.) Look at the cover page of each news source.  How many articles are "headline" articles (featured prominently, e.x. pictures) in the long-list news source?  Long-list news source [1]  Major news source [2]

7.) Are headline articles on each main page the same articles? 

8.) What article did you read from the sources on the long list?

9.) Did the articles in the major and long-list sources report the same facts in the same fashion? 

10.) Did one provide more information than the other?

11.) Did one provide more analysis than the other?

12.) Did the first major news source have an article on that topic, or did you have to look around?

13.) Where did each news source get their article?

14.) Which article did you find the most useful?  Why?

15.) On a scale of 1-5 how useful was this exercise?