COLLABORATION: we were not alone. In both debates we worked together with the eldiario.es team, with whom we regularly collaborate to publish our fact-checks in ‘El Detector de Mentiras’. In addition, in the first debate, which took place on RTVE, Maldita.es also collaborated with the RTVE team and in the post-debate we presented fact-checks carried out on all the candidates.
Preparing each debate
The Maldito Dato team, experts in political fact-checking, led the team on both nights. They are the ones who listen every day to politicians’ statements, so they are the ones who best know the topics candidates usually talk about and the data they tend to use – whether false or not – and they have databases prepared to speed up the verification process as much as possible.
Days before the two debates, we contacted the press offices of all four political parties to tell them what we were going to do and invite them to clarify or give us their points of view on the candidate’s statements during the debate. The only party that agreed to our request was Unidas Podemos.
How did we carry out the verification?
First of all, as always, we listened carefully to what the politicians were saying to catch their statements on the spot. When we detected a figure or a claim that sounded suspicious or that we had already heard before, the coordinator of Maldito Dato assigned that statement to a reporter, who transcribed it literally into a spreadsheet and we checked whether it was verifiable.
Between the two debates we detected more than 250 verifiable claims from the candidates. We are still working on some of them to check the lies that may have slipped through and that require more time, which is why we cannot yet give you statistics on the lies each candidate has told.
Once the sentence has been transcribed literally and we see that it can be verified, we begin the verification process. A member of the team investigates the possible disinformation. With data, facts and arguments, they demonstrate the falsehood or truthfulness of the candidate’s statement. During the process, we consult primary sources, verify the origin of the information and cross-check with official databases. If necessary, we also contact experts on the subject in question to clarify any doubts that may arise and political parties to learn their approach or point of view.
If the data and facts show that the candidate’s claim is false or needs context, the reporter writes the piece providing all the sources and as much detail as possible. Once the falsehood or the need for context of the candidate’s statement is considered proven, the reporter assigns one of the three possible categories used by Maldito Dato: “false”, “false but…” or “true but…” as defined in nuestra metodología
That fact-check is sent to the coordinator of Maldito Dato, who carries out a second verification, requests any necessary clarifications and modifies whatever is needed, including the category of the fact. Afterwards, the piece is sent to the editor-in-chief, who carries out a third and final verification with the same characteristics as the previous one.
When the three levels of verification have been completed and the team agrees, the fact is ready to be published.
If during this process we detect a statement that is true without the need to provide additional context or information, all the details are sent to the coordinator of Maldito Dato who, if there are no errors, assigns the category of “true” internally and we continue listening to the debate because we do not publish statements that are true, as we assume that politicians, as a rule, are supposed to tell us the truth
In addition, the Maldita.es social media team paid close attention during both nights. Through @MalditoDato and the Maldita App, thousands of people followed our fact-checking of the candidates, and not only from Spain!
Two very intense nights of teamwork during the electoral debates. Two nights of collaboration; with other media, with fellow journalists who wrote to us alerting us to possible falsehoods and, most importantly, with you malditos and malditas sharing our work and encouraging us; because only together can we make it harder for them to fool us.