Reading 1

Unit 9- Reading 2

Page 130

A GAME OF CHECKERS

It was all a mistake, but that was no comfort to the Vorick family of southern California in the United State of America. On a cable television channel in 2005, a news commentator s said that the owner of a grocery store in the Los Angeles area was a terrorist and that he lived at a certain address in the town of La Habra. The address belonged to the Vorichs.

Day and night, people drove by their house and shouted rude comments. Someone, apparently not the best speller in town, spray-painted “Terrist” on their property. The family’s sense of privacy disappeared as strangers drove up, photographed the house, and drove silently away.

The commentator should have checked his facts before he spoke. The man accused of being a “terrorist” had once lived at that address, but that was before the Voricks bought it. And another small thing: The man had never been charged with terrorism or any other crime. The cable network had a lot of apologizing to do.

WORTH THE EFFORT

Mistakes will happen, but the errors in this case were easily preventable. Any college journalism student would have known what to do: a simple Internet search of property ownership in La Habra and a quick check to see if the “terrorist” had a police record. Inserting this one important step in the process might have taken the staff 30 minutes or so. Carelessly skipping it was very costly, both for the commentator (who lost his job) and the cable network. Many advertisers are nervous about purchasing air time on a network.

that is perceived as careless. If either the Voricks or the alleged terrorist decides to file a lawsuit, the court could levy huge penalties against the cable network, the commentator, or both.

CHECKING EVERYTHING

Most magazines, television stations, and other media outlets employ fact-checkers or “researchers” of some type so they avoid trouble. Fact-checkers are usually young, relatively inexperienced members of the editorial staff. When a report, script, article, or manuscript is being prepared, the fact-checkers are assigned to make sure everything is right.

They check the spelling of names, the accuracy of numbers, the sequence of events, and the sources of quotations. Their tools are Internet search engines, dictionaries, history books, telephones, and public records of every sort. No questionable item can be ignored. If they don’t know whether something is correct, they have to find out.

Most journalists believe they have an ethical responsibility to be as accurate as possible. Sometimes that involves fact-checking, but sometimes it cannot. Daily newspapers do not generally employ separate fact-checkers. Reporters are expected to get the facts right in the copy they submit. A copy editor might occasionally question a “fact” that seems incorrect, but newspapers operate under severe time restrictions. Re-checking most information is usually not possible.

For media that have deadlines that aren’t as short, the story is different. Some magazine fact-checking departments are legendary for their thoroughness. The New Yorker magazine of the mid-20th century had a reputation for their thoroughness. The New Yorker magazine of the mid-20th century had a reputation for fact-checking excellence.

The magazine’s standards declined a bit in the 1970s and 1980s. Then, in the 1990s, managing editor Tina Brown, emphasizing accuracy, hired the people necessary to restore the department’s good reputation. According to one rumor, there was an article that said a singer had gestured with both arms. An eager fact- checker called the singer and asked whether he, in fact, had two arms.

Even other publications granted that The new Yorker was the fact-checking champion. Jobs in the fact-checking department at the magazine became a desirable path to high-level editorial jobs.

SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES

In far more cases, fact-checking departments so have been severely cut back or even eliminated. When a checking staff is reduced, the few checkers whoremain cannot afford to spend much time on any one issue. As a result, some inaccurate stories have slipped through the system. One account in Newsweek in 2005, about the behavior of U.S. Soldiers, sparked religious riots that killed at least 15 people. Because the story had never been fact checked, Newsweek’s editors could not show evidence that it was true.

It was based on statements by only one source, and no one else could verify it. Eventually the magazine retracted’ the story, an indication that it was probably not true. Of course, by that time the damage had been done. Good fact-checking early in a story’s life is vital. Any errors must be amended right from the start. Once one magazine or television station has reported a story, others will soon do the same. Consequently, mistakes get passed on and circulated widely. Even if they are eventually discovered, they are very hard to remove from what “everybody knows.”