A recent poll finds that two-thirds of Americans often or occasionally get news from social media. But many consumers are highly skeptical of the information they see on Facebook and other sites, expecting it to be "largely inaccurate."

Now a new company, Newsguard, uses journalism to fight the epidemic of false stories, misinformation and outright propaganda, helping readers to navigate through online news sites. Newsguard's web browser extension rates websites that appear in searches on their reliability. The easy-to-use plug-in includes a red-green symbol that shows if a site is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda. 

"We apply common sense to a problem that algorithms haven't been able to resolve," says Newguard's co-CEO, Steven Brill. During an extraordinary career as a journalist, author and business executive, Steven was founder of Court TV, The American Lawyer Magazine, Brill's Content Magazine, and The Yale Journalism Initiative. 

Now, his latest passion is fighting fake news.

Newsguard provides "nutrition label" write-ups for news and information websites in the U.S. and plans to expand globally. Employing scores of journalists and analysts, the growing venture also identifies suddenly trending fake news sites and warns internet users about them in real time.

More information here.

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