by Jackie Goutor
Aaliyah Dasoo’s presentation, “Getting the Facts on Fact-Checking,” not only provided us with a thorough overview of the fact-checking process, but emphasized the importance of verifiable truth in journalism in the era of AI.
Meet Aaliyah Dasoo
Aaliyah began fact-checking with TMU’s campus newspaper shortly before graduating with her degree in journalism. Her work experience includes both magazines and day-to-day newsrooms. She joined The Walrus, a rigorous “fact-checking boot camp,” where the team included Alison Baker, one of the project leads for the Truth in Journalism Project; Aaliyah recommended the Truth in Journalism Fact-Checking Guide as a fantastic resource. Aaliyah now works for The Logic, an independent news organization where she fact-checks daily on short deadlines.
Guiding principles of fact-checking
How we check a story is the most important part, says Aaliyah. She reviewed some guiding principles, advising that at least one or two of these principles will apply to every project’s process.
The two-layer principle (report, then verify)
Every journalist should start each project by deciding how to package their project so that the fact-checker can verify every piece of information.
Internal versus external facts
• Internal facts can be easily verified. Examples include addresses or birthdays, or the spelling of a city or street.
• External facts require verification through less specific sources. For example, if a subject says they went to a café and bought a coffee yesterday, verification would include checking with witnesses or asking for receipts.
Authority
Who is an expert? Who can verify a fact? Who has the authority to confirm a statement? Subject experts aren’t always academics. Someone can have expertise or a high level of knowledge on a topic, or they can have extensive experience in a subject or field.
Independence
• Check that sources are independent. If a source receives funding or backing from, for example, a political party, this may add bias to their information.
• Red flag any information where there is only one source.
Knowledge
• Marginalized communities and sources with different forms of knowledge, such as Indigenous communities, maintain traditions of oral storytelling and oral history. Remember that knowledge comes in different forms—don’t assume that “documentation” means paper copies.
• Sometimes verification is simply someone’s lived experience. Undocumented migrants and refugees won’t be able to produce paper documentation, but their lived experience can stand as its own expertise.
Personal
Different kinds of facts involve different kinds of people. Journalists, and then fact checkers, build relationships with people, communities, etc., based on honesty and trust. One can’t just parachute into someone’s life and ask personal questions expecting immediate honesty and truth, so it’s important to factor in the time required to build trust.
Collaboration
Journalists should ask people how they’d like to participate in the fact-checking process (for example, via email, phone, or in-person meetings). This collaborative approach empowers the subject with a sense of control over the process, helping to build trust and truthfulness.
Power
Who has power in different relationships? Consider the dynamic in every setting. Who gains or seeks to gain? Who loses or risks losing? When verifying controversial facts, take more care with the party that has more to lose. Divulging information can ruin reputations, careers, or lives.
In journalism, speed gets rewarded, but fact-checking can’t be fast.
Fact-checking, not fast-checking
Aaliyah went on to describe the gold-standard process for magazine-style (long-form features) to give us a sense of how many hands a fact-checker’s work will pass through. “The quality of fact-checking should never be sacrificed for speed,” she reminded us. The goal is to ensure that everything is “squeaky, squeaky clean.” Aaliyah also advised us to keep copies of every draft.
1. Checker reads story, prepares smaller facts, thinks of who to contact.
a. Fact-checker completes a preliminary read.
b. Fact-checker creates a checking package, including requests for contact information for characters in the story, transcripts, and any sources consulted (books, court documents).
2. Checker then reads through the journalist’s annotated draft, makes calls and corrections.
a. Every single line should be sourced and verified.
b. Fact-checker will make corrections based on the sources provided by the journalist.
3. Checker presents checked copy to a head of research.
a. Head of research oversees the fact-checkers.
b. The head of research will re-check all work and review fact-checker’s suggestions.
4. Head of research goes over fact-checking page with checked copy.
a. Head of research and fact-checker will review if there are any further corrections.
5. Final checked copy is sent to copy-and-handling editors to input changes.
12 things to double-check when fact-checking
Building on this general workflow, Aaliyah provided us with a list of things to double-check.
• Names – accents, hyphens, middle initials
• Pronouns – one of the first questions in a checking call
• Age – ask specifically for a birthdate; if they have had a birthday between the interview and publication, it then changes a fact
• Titles – some may have multiple titles
• Superlatives – claims like “we are the first” or “we are the biggest” or “the company said they are the first” can be hard to verify if there’s a time crunch
• Institutions – exact name and spelling of any institution, particularly details like “co.” which could stand for company or corporation
• Days and dates – check that events actually took place on the date reported
• Locations – check they exist and you’re spelling them correctly
• Numbers and calculations – do the math or ask the reporter how they got the figure, and make sure money conversions are accurate
• Quotes – the best way to verify quotes is through a recorded transcript; while notes do hold up in a court of law, a recording is still better
• Web addresses and phone numbers – numbers and letters can get mixed up
• Historical references – compare to historical events; even in opinion pieces, history and facts must be correct
Finding work fact-checking
During the Q&A session, Aaliyah was asked about finding work: “The Walrus is a great place to work. Reach out to Reader’s Digest, Toronto Life, FB groups, associations, Broadview magazine, CBC, Macleans, This Magazine, Maisonneuve, Xtra, The Local. Most people do it almost full-time. Actual full-time is hard to find.”
Jackie Goutor is a Toronto-based fiction editor with a special interest in mysteries, science and speculative fiction, and fantasy.
This article was copy edited by Ann Kennedy, a freelance copy editor and proofreader who lives in Toronto with her retired service dog, Rosa, by her side.
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