Fact checker
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A fact checker is person whose job consists in checking factual assertions made in news copy to determine whether they are correct. This job requires general knowledge but more importantly it requires the ability to conduct research quickly and properly.
The resources and time necessary for fact-checking are considerable. Therefore this work cannot be applied to copy filed on a daily basis. For this reason, fact-checking is not commonly done at most newspapers, where reporters' ability to correct and verify their own information in a timely manner is chief among their qualifications. News sources that publish on a weekly, monthly or less frequent basis are more likely to employ fact-checkers than are daily newspapers.
Fact-checking, officially known as "research" at most major publications, is most important for those publishing copy written by authors who are not trained reporters as these writers are more likely to make professional, ethical or merely factual mistakes. The methods employed in fact-checking vary from publication to publication. Some have neither the staff nor the budget necessary to check every claim in a given article. Others will attempt to do just that and go as far as to contact sources and authors in order to review the content of their statements contained in the article.
Fact-checking is also almost unique to American publications. British and European magazines and newspapers may have editors tasked specifically with correcting spelling and performing superficial verification but do not employ fact-checkers as such.
Among the benefits of printing only checked copy is that this can avert serious and sometimes costly problems, such as lawsuits, and discreditation. Fact checkers are primarily useful in catching accidental mistakes; they have proven ineffective at stopping Journalistic frauds like Stephen Glass (who began his own career as a fact-checker). The fact checkers at The New Republic, and other weeklies, never flagged the numerous fictions in reportage he submitted. Michael Kelly, who edited some of the concocted stories, blamed himself, rather than the fact-checkers:
- "Any fact-checking system is built on trust, if a reporter is willing to fake notes, it defeats the system. Anyway, the real vetting system is not factchecking but the editor." 1.
See Also
External links
- Advice and resources for fact checking (http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/factcheckers2004.html)
- Columbia Journalism Review on Stephen Glass (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3613/is_199807/ai_n8793932)
- Medill School of journalism article on working as a fact checker (http://journalism.medill.northwestern.edu/inside/1999/cwang.html) at People magazine. The article says that if more than four mistakes are later found in articles passed by a fact-checker in the course of a year, the magazine would fire them. To protect their jobs, fact checkers try to identify three separate sources for any claim.
- Star-Telegram report on the NYT Blair episode (http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/columnists/david_house/5883848.htm), and uncertainty at the paper as to how many of his stories contained invented details. The stories Jayson Blair fabricated have remained in the archive. Fact checkers on the paper are still unsure how many of his stories contain fraud, because he based the details given on genuine archival information, the same data that they checked against. They are concerned by the corruption of archive data quality in such cases, and whenever and any other occasion when published errors become part of the public record, spreading further error through citation and GIGO fact checking.
Footnotes
1 The compound spelling in this quote is highly unusual. A review of newspaper style manuals gives an approximately 50/50 split between "fact checking" and "fact-checking", and never “factchecking”. Since many of these guidelines cover copy-editing and hyphenation as well as the practise of fact checking it appears that either version is acceptable.