Right: Better check Snopes.com to see if these things are true. (The first is not; the second is indeed if you, like me, live in Massachusetts.)

Established in 1995, Snopes has long been the go-to Web site for running a rumor through the nonsense-detector, and its proprietors, David and Barbara Mikkelson, have assumed an almost mythic stature as the most authoritative discoverers of truth and falsity online.

But who's checking the fact checkers?

Recently it was a similar but more narrowly focused outfit, FactCheck.org, which is funded by the Annenberg Foundation and describes itself as "a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." (Why not try something easier first, like say peace in the Middle East?)

Here's the essence of a chain e-mail that FactCheck.org decided to fact check: Is Snopes.com run by a "very Democratic" duo who long hid their true identities, rarely do any real research, and blatantly fabricated a tale about a State Farm Insurance agent just because he publicly opposed the election of President Obama?