Fact checker

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A fact checker is the person who checks factual assertions in news copy to determine their veracity and correctness. The job requires general knowledge, but more important it requires the ability to conduct quick and proper research.

The resources and time needed for fact-checking are many and much. Consequently, this work cannot realistically be applied to copy filed daily. For this reason, fact-checking is not done at most newspapers, where reporters' timely ability to correct and verify their own data and information is chief among their qualifications. News sources publishing on weekly, monthly, or infrequent bases are more likely to employ fact-checkers.

Fact-checking, known as "research" at many publications, is most critical for those publishing material written by authors who are not trained reporters — such writers being more likely to make professional, ethical, or mere factual mistakes. Fact-checking methods vary; some publications have neither the staff nor the budget needed for verifying every claim in a given article. Others will attempt just that, going so far as communicating with the authors' sources to review the content of quotations.

Also, fact-checking is distinctive to American publications. British and European magazines and newspapers may have editors for correcting spelling and performing superficial verification, but do not employ fact-checkers as such. Typically, fact-checking is an entry-level publishing job at major magazines; fact-checker jobs at The New Yorker are considered prestigious and can lead to higher-level positions, usually at other magazines.

Among the benefits of printing only checked copy is that it averts serious, sometimes costly, problems, i.e. lawsuits and discreditation. Fact checkers are primarily useful in catching accidental mistakes; they are not guaranteed safeguards against those who wish to commit journalistic frauds, such as Stephen Glass (who began his journalism career as a fact-checker). The fact checkers at The New Republic and other weeklies never flagged the numerous fictions in Glass's reportage. Michael Kelly, who edited some of Glass's 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 fact-checking but the editor."[1]

The rhetorical device "Fact-check" was popularized by Nick Foretek, Adam Rice, and Ben Alter at the Packer Collegiate Institute. Mr. Foretek defined the term as one which "may be used in any context during a conversation. It does not stop a conversation from proceeding. Instead it is a non-confrontational method for putting what has just been said under review. Although the fact may never be checked, it allows the listener to convey to the speaker that what he has said appears to be debatable." The use of "fact check" in conversation is a simple, non-condescending way for one interlocutor to question the assertion of another, and has become common lingo at various academic institutions, especially at the University of Chicago and Cornell University, where Mr. Foretek and Mr. Alter matriculated.