Daniel Dale

Daniel Dale was born in 1984 or 1985 in Toronto, Ontario, and raised in Thornhill, Ontario, within a Jewish family. He pursued higher education at York University’s Schulich School of Business, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration. During his university years, Dale developed an interest in journalism, contributing to campus publications and seeking journalism internships, which ultimately shaped his career path.

Dale began his professional journalism career at the Toronto Star in 2008. From 2010 to 2014, he served as the Toronto City Hall reporter and bureau chief, extensively covering the administration of Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug Ford. A notable incident in May 2012 involved a confrontation with Rob Ford, which, despite a later retraction of false accusations and a dropped lawsuit from Dale, significantly influenced his approach to fact-checking. This experience led him to develop a brand of adversarial journalism, focusing on verifiable facts and public statements by political figures. In 2014, he applied this rigorous fact-checking method to candidates in the Toronto mayoral election.

In 2015, Dale transitioned to the role of Washington bureau chief for the Toronto Star, where he covered the final two years of President Barack Obama’s administration, including the heroin crisis and the Flint water crisis. His focus shifted significantly with the rise of Donald Trump. Starting in September 2016, Dale gained widespread recognition for meticulously fact-checking Trump’s public statements, initially sharing these lists on Twitter. His detailed work attracted the attention of filmmaker Michael Moore in 2016, which boosted his profile and following. In June 2019, Dale joined CNN as a full-time fact-checker for Donald Trump, later becoming a senior reporter. He has since fact-checked political claims from both Donald Trump and Joe Biden during presidential election cycles, including the 2020 and 2024 elections, continuing to provide data-driven reporting.