>The Fact Checking Process: from ready reference to in-depth research
Tools, techniques, talent, and "X-factors"

>Semonche's Sources and Strategies for Reference and Research:
[Fact finding vs. research: copy editors should be acquainted with the range of strategies required at these two extremes of research. Recognize also that other news professionals (librarians, reporters, editors, photographers, graphic artists) have specialized skills to contribute to accuracy and quality of newspapers.]

The Future: Accu-meters? Stat-proofers? Fact-verifiers? Plagia-alerts?
Plagiarism detection tools are used at a few newspapers: [Note: not foolproof! June/July 2004 issue of American Journalism Review published a long article about plagiarism and fact checking in news organizations. ]

1. Safe, Smart, and Efficient Fact Checking is a worthy aim, but not realistic in deadline driven world of newspaper copy editing. Recognizing this fact is not a carte blanche for failure to try. There is another critical factor: finding information is not the same as knowing how to use it correctly.

2. The last line of defense for quality in newspapers: copy editors and corporate culture. [From Phil Meyer's The Vanishing Newspaper, University of Missouri Press, 2004.

3. In journalism, many people care about accuracy: copy editors, reporters, photographers, graphic artists, news librarians/researchers, and readers. Work together to get the job done well.

4. Writing news vs. editing news: copy editors should be familiar with the technical, ethical, and creative demands of both. Reporters should not rely upon editors to do all the copy cleanup.

5. Effective fact checking is as much about attitude as it is about techniques and tools. A willingness to be surprised is an indication of an open mind. A closed mind is a good thing to lose. [Anonymous]

6. No book, journal, database, newspaper, magazine, Web site, reference book is without error. The same is true for so-called experts and even veteran fact checkers. A copy editor's best approach is a polite skepticism, eternal vigilance and a wise selection of reasonably reliable sources. [Illustrate with World Almanac ?]

7. Facts (and errors) are hard to define and harder to recognize, and nearly impossible to eliminate. Experience and training help.

8. Errors are easy to make and difficult to correct. They rarely look different from verifiable facts. Further, in the high-speed digital age, they have the half life of a radioactive isotope. They are nearly impossible to purge from electronic resources. Database quality suffers. [Note: The NYT Blair case's impact on "poisoning the archival well."]

9. Reliable fact checking skills require continuous training. Take time to learn the unique attributes of new print and online sources; also, find time to review your older favorites.

10. Fact checking, while admirable, is not a growth industry. For the most part it is a "do-it-yourself" activity. Still, don't neglect help from other qualified folks. Actively seek help from proven talent.

11. When you are certain that you are absolutely right about a fact, check further.

12. Avoid making beta errors correcting alpha mistakes.

Corrections Policy of the San Francisco Chronicle
Sept. 13, 2002

Purpose

In keeping with the highest standards of journalism, this policy will help ensure the accuracy, credibility, fairness, truthfulness and historical value of The Chronicle, its library archives and its online component, The Gate.

Policy

It is the policy of The Chronicle to promptly correct errors of fact and to promptly clarify potentially confusing statements. The policy applies to all newsroom employees.

Errors, whether brought to our attention by readers or staff members, will be corrected quickly and in a straightforward manner.

It will be considered unprofessional conduct and a breach of duty if employees are notified of possible errors but fail to respond. Correcting errors and clarifying ambiguous information is a virtue and an admirable practice.

Procedures

o All correction requests made of The Chronicle and The Gate will be reported to a section editor or department head and, when possible and practical, to the employee involved, along with a copy to the Readers’ Representative. The request will be recorded by the section editor or department head in the corrections database using the form on the Chronweb home page. Any action taken as a result of the request will likewise be recorded.

o Correction and retraction demands, whether made orally, by letter or by email, that could lead to legal action must be forwarded immediately by a section editor or department head to our lawyers and to the executive editor.

o Section or department heads will personally review corrections prior to publication and take responsibility for ensuring that all errors are set straight. Copies of proposed text will be forwarded to the Readers’ Representative for review.

o Corrections in the print editions will run on page A-2. Exceptions can be made for legal reasons and for the convenience of readers. Errors in Sunday editions and other non-daily editions will be corrected as soon as possible and again in the subsequent non-daily edition.

o Corrections to stories in the library and online archives, including The Gate, will be flagged in the header with the words “This story has material that has been corrected.” The text of the correction will be appended to the top of the story before the headline, following the word CORRECTION. Spelling errors and less significant mistakes can be corrected without preserving the original text.

o The Gate will call attention to corrections in two places on the home page: On the left side of the home page under “resources” there will be a “Corrections” link, and also at the bottom of the home page next to “Privacy Policy” there will be a link to “Corrections Policy.”

o The Gate will post corrections for seven days on its corrections page, which will be available from the home page. Corrections to Chronicle stories will also be available from a corrections link on The Chronicle page. Corrections will remain on any story in The Gate archive.

o We avoid repeating errors in corrections unless repeating the error will make the correction easier to understand.

o We avoid assigning blame in corrections. A reporter who believes his or her credibility is damaged due to someone else’s mistake can ask his or her editor to contact the source and exonerate the reporter of `responsibility.

o As a general rule, corrections should not be made exclusively in follow-up stories, nor should readers who discern inaccuracies be told to set the record straight by writing letters to the editor. (Corrections made in this manner cannot be ensured of finding their way into the archive or Web site.) While it may be appropriate in the proper circumstances to correct errors in columns and in follow-up stories, these “corrections” must be in addition to another correction that will go on Page A2.

o If necessary for clarity, photographs that carried incorrect captions and graphics that contained incorrect information will be rerun as part of the correction.

OUTSIDE THE TENT

The Correct Way to Fix Mistakes

An experimental column in which the Los Angeles Times invites outside critics to rip a Southern California newspaper whose most popular features include a weekly column on celebrity real estate transactions.

By Patrick Frey
Patrick Frey runs a blog called Patterico's Pontifications (www.patterico.com).

February 13, 2005

Has anyone ever said something about you that wasn't true? Something that, if people believed it, would significantly damage your reputation? How would you feel if you saw that falsehood printed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times? Would it make things right if the paper later retracted the false statement — with a brief correction buried inside the paper?

For some, this is not a hypothetical question. Just ask L. Paul Bremer III, Antonin Scalia or the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Last year, The Times suggested on Page 1 that Bremer was a coward: "L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator for Iraq, left without even giving a final speech to the country — almost as if he were afraid to look in the eye the people he had ruled for more than a year."

False. Not only had Bremer given a farewell speech, CNN had broadcast key parts of it.

In the lead sentence of another front-page article, The Times claimed that Justice Scalia had acted unethically by speaking to a group that — according to The Times — was backing a lawsuit against gay rights: "Justice Antonin Scalia gave a keynote dinner speech in Philadelphia for an advocacy group waging a legal battle against gay rights."

False. The group had nothing to do with that lawsuit.

In yet another front-page article, about the Swift boat veterans who opposed John Kerry's presidential candidacy, The Times claimed: "None of the men in the Swift boat group behind the anti-Kerry ad … served on Kerry's patrol boat during the war."

False. Steven Gardner, a Swift Boat Veterans for Truth member, served on a patrol boat with Kerry for 2 1/2 of the four months that Kerry spent in country.

Each of these false assertions damaged someone's reputation, and each ran on the front page of the L.A. Times. In each case, The Times later ran a small correction inside the paper — alongside corrections of trivial errors, such as misspelled names. In each case, only a fraction of the people who read the original article ever saw the correction.

This is business as usual — not just at the L.A. Times but at newspapers nationwide. Yet for people whose reputations are harmed by false assertions, business as usual isn't good enough. How do you think L.A. Times editors would feel if their reputations were unfairly smeared on the front page of a national newspaper? Would they be satisfied with a small correction hidden inside the paper? Not likely.

The Times can prove that it takes the journalistic value of fairness seriously by placing noteworthy corrections in a more prominent space. A substantive correction should be at least as conspicuous as the original article in which the error appeared. A correction of a substantial error in a front-page article should run on Page 1. The policy would make it more likely readers would actually see corrections of significant errors. It would give reporters and editors greater incentive to get stories right. And it would encourage more vigorous scrutiny for political bias, latent or overt.

The mistakes cited above follow a consistent ideological pattern. I could fill this entire Sunday Opinion section with similar examples. Errors like these do not result from any conspiracy to distort the truth. Rather, they are the natural result of a newsroom that I'm willing to bet is staffed by people who largely share similar views.

All humans have opinions and beliefs, and with them come ideological blind spots. Most people are better at catching errors when the errors conflict with their own point of view. Journalists are no different. This is why newspapers should strive to have a mix of viewpoints in the newsroom. If The Times staff reflected a wider variety of political perspectives, the errors cited above might never have appeared.

By balancing the editorial staff's ideological makeup, The Times could minimize its factual errors. By more prominently correcting errors when they do occur, the paper would better inform its readers and begin repairing its reputation as a reliable news source.

Prof. Frank Fee "The Accurate Copy Editor"		Librarian's Index http://lii.org/
ACES http://www.copydesk.org/		Reference Desk http://www.refdesk.com
The Slot http://www.theslot.com		Library Spot http://www.libraryspot.com
Bruce Oakley (online editor) Database Quality Survey		McAdams: We know where to look it up. http://www.well.com/user/mmcadams/reference.html
Writing Labs http://owl.english.purdue.edu/		SLA News Division: Reference Tools http://ibiblio.org/slanews/reference
The Editorial Eye http://eeicommunications.com/eye		Los Angeles Times: "The Correct Way to Fix Mistakes (Feb. 13, 2005)

INTA Trademarks (checklist)	Sept. 11, 2001
Statistical Abstract of the US CQ Electronic Library	Calculators: Inflation Calculator Percentage Calculators
U.S. Elections: DC Political Report PollTrack [Requires registration] Annenberg Political Fact Check Campaign Search Campaigns & Elections 2004	Population Reference Bureau; State & Local Gov. on the Net
Government: United States Bios of U.S. Gov. Officials	Federal Stats Homepage; Social Statistics Briefing Room
U.S. Census: American FactFinder State & County Quick Facts	Weather: Lii's weather site NOAA Tornado Wind Scale Water Data (storms, floods) Major U.S. Weather Disasters [find: disasters]
Dictionaries Foreign Language Dictionaries Quotations Books of Adages, Maxims, Proverbs [Check a search engine]	Directories: Forms of Address Phone Books
Encyclopedias Wikipedia	Timeline Index Corporate Milestones Media Milestones Computer History This Day in History
ACES: Words on Words	Journalists' Toolbox
Maps National Geographic Maps	G. Price's Fast Facts, Almanacs, Statistics, etc.
D. Wolfe's "Tipsheets" (backgrounding beats, downloading data, math guides, training resources)	Internet Credibility: Evaluating Internet Sources; Internet Search Engines
Diversity: Multi-ethnic Reporting Diversity manuals	Image Searches (Google) Finding Data on the Internet
Law Resources: Copyright Virtual Chase Virtual Gumshoe	Health & Science Resources: Health Portals Science.gov How Stuff Works
Religion Resources: Religion Online Catholic Priests Scandal	Sports Reference: Baseball Sports Encyclopedias
Music Guide	Internet Movie Database
Business Resources SEC Annual Reports Library Free ERISA	Non-Profits The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Military Personnel Statistics U.S. Military Casualty Data Defense Department Facts Military Bases	Finding People Biographies (Also access for a fee in Nexis, Dialog, NewsBank, etc.) CNN People in the News More Biographical Resources
Obituaries: Dead People Server National Obituary Archive

Intranets : Indianapolis Star's Library "FactFiles" The Tennessean Library's "NewsSpot"	NewsLib (News research email list for over 1,200 subscribers from 30 countries)
Personal Rolodex; Sources & Experts	Email lists Blogs

Corrections Policy of the San Francisco Chronicle Sept. 13, 2002

Procedures

OUTSIDE THE TENT

The Correct Way to Fix Mistakes

An experimental column in which the Los Angeles Times invites outside critics to rip a Southern California newspaper whose most popular features include a weekly column on celebrity real estate transactions.

Corrections Policy of the San Francisco Chronicle
Sept. 13, 2002