this is a very insightful thread on the actual work that fact checkers do
in my 3 years as a fact-checker at the new yorker i had the privilege and the fun and the stress of trying to make sure everything was watertight. that included calling or trying to call everyone in a piece if they were alive. even if the reporter didn't interview them
walking through, sometimes for hours, every single quote from a source in paraphrase over the phone
i exchanged 4 separate emails with ursula k leguin about her marriage license
i called a russian policeman and asked if he pushed a dissident off a balcony to his death
when a source talked about his mother shooting his estranged father (who had tried to break in, and survived being shot 4 times), i went over the incident with both the mother and the father. the father told me about being handcuffed to his hospital bed
i also once sent this email
it was a whale penis, in the end
it was a whale penis, in the end
