Whose fault is it then?

In response to a previous post It Isn't Your Fault, Bob Lane (Episyllogism) responded with the question whose fault is it? Later he replied:  "I would think that individuals have an obligation in a democracy to learn the facts; to learn how to distinguish facts from nonsense; and to be skeptical about all media and government bloviations."

Which means, among other things, fact checking. Tips on how to check facts from politifact.com:
1. Ask the person making the claim for evidence. 

2. Look for what other fact-checkers have found before you.
3. Do a Google search -- and then search again. 
4. Search the Deep Web.  areas of the Internet that aren’t open to surface searching.
5. Look for experts with different perspectives.
6. Check out some books.
7. Anything else?