Feel Good Friday - FactCheck.org

Odds are this will not be the last politically inspired Feel Good Friday post of the election season, but for now it is the first.

While watching a portion of the GOP 2016 Presidential debate last night, I was dubious of some of the claims being made. Where does a person go to learn the truth when it comes to political posturing? FactCheck.org.

FactCheck.org is, according to the mission statement on their website, "a nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. policies." Hooray!

But how, you ask? "We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases." They already have information posted about last night's debate and they have an entire section dedicated to the 2016 elections.

If you're doing you're part to stay engaged with politics in the United States, let FactCheck.org do some of the difficult work for you. As they explain, "Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."

The website has a lot of articles you can read and you can even write in and ask a question. For those of you more visually inclined, you can check out their YouTube channel, Flack Check. It has a number of videos calling out current presidential candidates on misinformation they've shared. Donald, Bernie - no side is spared. (Though Bernie's video was 0:52 min long and only mentioned one statement while Donald's was 3:35 min. Just sayin'.) They also have helpful videos that explain, among other things, how to spot a false viral rumor in their section, Viral Spiral.

If that all feels a little too serious and you want to take a quiz to test your knowledge, ala BuzzFeed, you can do that too! Though these are a lot more difficult that determining which presidential candidate is your soulmate.

They get their funding from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and now, from people like you and me. Whether you choose to donate or just stay current by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @factcheckdotorg, you've now got a place to go when you want "just the facts ma'am".