Exclusive: How Angela Rye’s New YouTube Series is Tackling Misinformation

Angela Rye is betting that facts can still cut through the noise. The former executive director of the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) is launching “Cite Your Source,” a new weekly YouTube series built around tough conversations, real-time fact-checking and holding guests accountable for the claims they make.

The Root spoke exclusively with Rye about why the show’s fact-checking component is essential, the responsibility that comes with challenging misinformation in real time, and how truth can compete in an online ecosystem where outrage often travels faster. Asked whether productive political discourse is possible when people can’t agree on what’s real, Rye suggested that the problem goes beyond differing opinions.

“I think the reality of it is we are living in a day and age where people think that there are two truths,” she said. “Our experiences can be different, but I don’t think that means that the facts can be.”

That belief shaped the show’s design, as Rye said the decision to include a fact checker was inspired by her years as a CNN commentator, where panels often split into camps and viewers simply rooted for their side.

“You would have two silos mostly, sometimes three, where people would find their person and root for their, you know, commentator A, B or C, and it would be their amen corner,” she said. “But no minds were being changed.”

Rye added that the show’s use of a buzzer is meant to interrupt that cycle, with the commentator explaining that when the buzzer is hit, the “record scratches” and the person speaking has to cite their source.

Although the series includes some creative elements, Rye admits that some of the heavy topics are already stretching her, noting that the first episode, which is about modern-day lynching, was “hard.” The episode put three claims under review: whether lynching is a thing of the past, whether Black people don’t hang themselves, and whether Black lives matter. The second, which includes statistics from Psychology Today, raises a harder question, she said.

“Well, what happens when we do?” Rye said. “Does that post now shame people who are struggling with suicide, suicidal ideologies and thoughts?”

On whether influencers and podcasters with massive platforms have a responsibility to fact-check themselves, she said accuracy is a matter of ethics before it is a matter of politics.

“If you’re putting information out, shouldn’t you want to be telling the truth?” she said. “We shouldn’t seek to spread news that is inaccurate in part because sometimes there are legal consequences to sharing piss poor information. As their platforms grow, the consequences of sharing that information increases.”

She added that the stakes can be legal as well as moral. “It’s pricey to share information that’s not right,” Rye said, pointing to Cardi B’s lawsuit against a blogger as an example.

With outrage often traveling faster than facts online, Rye said the show’s gamelike structure is meant to make accuracy compelling. The record scratch, she said, is designed to stick with viewers long after the episode ends.

“We wanted to do that so that subconsciously, at some point in your mind when you read something that doesn’t sound quite right, you hear that record scratch and it’s compelling you to go into your research,” the host said. Her advice is to “stress test” what you see.

“Don’t just rely on one source; rely on multiple,” she exclaimed.

Looking ahead, the show will also take on whether the N-word should become a thing of the past.

When asked whether some Black cultural debates resist a single “correct” answer, Rye said the goal is the conversation itself, not a verdict.

“I think the idea is for us to continually stress test,” she said. “I think being in conversation, just like we would with our families at a kitchen table, is abundantly important.”

Rye hopes that the show can be that table. “We do need to talk to each other and not start at canceling,” she said. “We all want to treat each other with respect and love. Well, work backward from there.”