Transcript fact_amc - Radical Reference

Fact Checking for Journalists
and how to make a FOIA request
Presented in June 2005 at the
Allied Media Conference
by Librarians of Radical Reference
www.radicalreference.info
and Free Government Information
fact checking 101*
Someone other than the reporter filing the story verifies all factual
material prior to publication so that:
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The work can’t be dismissed as propaganda or rumor
Legal risks associated with printing inaccuracies can be avoided
An even more interesting story might be discovered
Sources are kept happy
Embarrassment—or worse—can be avoided
Determine and highlight all facts in a story
Go beyond spelling and dates—look for causal links, attributions, reporter
assumptions, facts contained within quotes, and memories
Evaluate sources used by the reporter
Confirm everything, using multiple sources for controversial facts
*Much of this information can be found in an easy to read book, The Fact
Checker's Bible, by Sarah Harrison Smith. Random House 2004.
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before meeting
with your fact-checker
• Organize sources used to write the story
– Contact info for interviewees
– Website addresses
– Copies of documentation
• Highlight potential areas of concern
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meeting with the fact-checker
• Discuss sources and potential areas of
concern
• Identify which sources were used for
which part of the story
• Keep copies of your documentation for
yourself
• Quotes—checked or not?
• Remain available to your fact-checker
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post-check
• Discuss the story a final time.
• The fact checker will be concerned with
accuracy. Suggestions about reworking
the story will relate solely to factual issues.
• Unless the editorial policy dictates
otherwise, it's your name on the story, and
your final call.
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research tips
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Use the telephone
Search engine tips & tricks: advanced search. Google isn't the only one out there:
– Librarians Internet Index
– Dogpile
– Amazon
– Yahoo (the results will differ from Google's)
– Teoma (the results will differ from Google's)
Websites
– Advocacy (FAIR, Prison Activist Resource Center)
– Business (Monsanto, The New York Times Company)
– News (IndyMedia, Fox News)
– Informational (American Heritage Dictionary, Critical Mass)
– Personal (Makezine, Street Librarian)
Databases
– Subscription
• Commercial (Academic Universe, MasterFILE Premier) Lots available from your
local public library.
• Scholarly (PAIS International, Alternative Press Index)
– Free(ish)
• Commercial (New York Times, the Guardian)
• Government (American Factfinder, Library of Congress American Memory)
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bonus:
how to make a FOIA request
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free expensive databases from
your public library
• Commercial subscription databases are
freely available and accessible from home
to NYPL card holders and at branch and
research libraries to anyone who walks in
• Access government and legal information,
newspapers and magazine, statistical and
business information, and alternative
indexes
• www.nypl.org/databases
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accessing the databases
• Arranged alphabetically, by subject, and
by document type (e.g., full-text)
• Icons indicate from where databases can
be accessed
• Check other area libraries and their
database collections:
• Ask a reference librarian
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evaluation criteria
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Authority (auspices)
Accuracy
Objectivity (perspective, bias)
Currency (time, not money)
Coverage (scope, mission)
Much of the evaluation section was inspired by or taken directly from
Evaluating Web Resources
by Jan Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate
which can be found at
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial10
Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm
radical reference
• www.radicalreference.info
--Ask a reference question
--Links to radical information sources
--Search archive of questions
• Handout
http://radicalreference.info/amc/fact_handout
• Presentation
http://radicalreference.info/amc/fact_presentation
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contact us
[email protected]
this presentation on the web:
http://radicalreference.info/amc/fact_presentation
http://radicalreference.info/amc/fact_handout
Look for us in the streets during demonstrations.
We’ll be wearing stuff with the Radical Reference logo.
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