I write quite a bit and I write for a couple of newspapers. I follow 3 rules: 1) Accurate, 2) Timely, 3) Relevant.
I am try to live by Reagan's old axe: 'trust but verify"
I use snopes often, but if you want to be a good writer and I pride myself, you check and cross check and check again before you call it a fact. Snopes is often very wishy-washy, too many times the answer is well kinda, sorta, more or less true/false.
Snopes is worth a look, trust, BUT verify if you do not you will get burned by snopes