Compare a Press Release with Its Source Document
Check a press release’s central claims against the report, decision, or data it summarizes.
Locate the underlying record
A press release is designed to make a development understandable and timely. It may summarize a report, board action, data release, or funding announcement. Find the document the release cites and open the relevant section, table, or attachment. Confirm that it is the source for the specific claim you want to repeat, rather than a related document with a similar title.
Record the dates of both items. A release may be newer than the underlying data, or it may describe a decision that has since been revised. Dates help explain why two documents appear to say different things.
Match claims to evidence
Choose the release’s main factual statements and look for the corresponding evidence in the source. Compare the population, period, and measure. If a release says “more residents received assistance,” check whether the report counts unique residents, applications, payments, or households. Similar wording can hide important differences in what was measured.
For a hypothetical announcement about food support, the release might highlight 1,000 “services delivered.” The source table could define a service as each distribution event, meaning one household may appear more than once. Your summary should preserve that definition instead of turning the count into 1,000 distinct households.
Notice what the summary leaves out
A release may emphasize a result while omitting limitations, comparison years, or uncertainty described in the full document. Check the methods and notes, and look for a baseline that makes the figure interpretable. An increase sounds meaningful only when you know what period it is compared with and whether the measure was collected consistently.
Also inspect whether the source presents other relevant findings that complicate the headline. A program may have served more people while waiting times also grew. Mentioning both can make a short summary more useful without implying that one cancels out the other.
Write a transparent summary
Separate the agency’s framing from what the source establishes. You can write, “The release describes the change as an expansion; its report records a higher number of completed applications for the stated period.” If the report does not support a claim, say that the source does not establish it rather than accusing the issuer of intent.
Include links or document titles and note when you checked them. This gives readers a path to the underlying record and makes it easier to correct your summary if the agency updates its materials. The method is useful for local housing, utility, transit, and food-access announcements alike.
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