Categories
Books Fact-checking History Journalism Librarianship Travel

The 2014 Global Fact-checking Summit in London (photo gallery)

In June, I attended the Global Fact-Checking Summit in London. About 50 fact-checkers from Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Australia attended. The conference was  hosted by the Poynter Institute, organized by Duke University’s Bill Adair (PolitiFact’s founding editor), and funded by the Omidyar Network, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Ford Foundation, craigconnects, the Duke Reporters’ Lab and Full Fact.

The conference was fantastic, and seeing London for the first time was a real treat. Here are a few photos and comments from my trip. Click on the first photo to launch the gallery.

Categories
Fact-checking Journalism

Why fact-checking is the root of journalism: 8 good questions with PolitiFact’s Angie Drobnic Holan – American Press Institute

Why fact-checking is the root of journalism: 8 good questions with PolitiFact’s Angie Drobnic Holan – American Press Institute

API interviewed me by phone back in December; it was a good conversation.

Categories
Fact-checking Journalism

New editors named for PolitiFact and PunditFact

New editors named for PolitiFact and PunditFact

Categories
Fact-checking Journalism

A Look at PolitiFact Grades of Candidates – NYTimes.com

A Look at PolitiFact Grades of Candidates – NYTimes.com

Categories
Journalism

Unnecessary Journalism Phrases

Unnecessary Journalism Phrases

Categories
Journalism

Howard Troxler column, with the links

I couldn’t resist adding the hyperlinks to the kicker of today’s most excellent Howard Troxler column, defending the St. Pete Times against the haters:

“As for the whole Not the Newspaper It Used To Be thing, I do agree, except for a couple of things, including: Two reporters using satellites, computers and two years’ time to show the destruction of Florida’s wetlands; dogged scrutiny of the state pension system; the single-handed uncovering of the Ray Sansom scandal (which was true even if the charges didn’t stick); investigations of the pharmaceutical industry and pill mills; the amazing coverage of the Dozier School for Boys; equally amazing stories of the Church of Scientology; the here-is-why-we-need-newspapers reporting on chemicals at Camp Lejeune; ongoing local investigations of everything from the Jim Smith land scandal in Pinellas to the Buddy Johnson circus in Hillsborough to the cracks in Tampa Bay Water’s reservoir; with our friends at the Miami Herald the most in-depth coverage of state government in Florida; the must-read Buzz for political news; the story of double-dipping public employees that led to a change in state law; the exposure of the “Taj Mahal” courthouse in Tallahassee; ongoing investigations of the mortgage fraud industry; the brilliant exposure of the scam called the U.S. Navy Veterans Association; one of the nation’s best sports sections; award-winning design, photography and visual presentation; the single-handed invention of a new kind of journalism called PolitiFact, which is spreading across the country, and which, in 2009, along with some of the best feature writing you will read, won the newspaper two Pulitzer Prizes in the same year for the first time in its history. I am leaving out a few hundred things. Other than that, it’s a rag.”

Categories
Fact-checking Journalism

The Fact-Checking Explosion  | American Journalism Review

The Fact-Checking Explosion  | American Journalism Review

Categories
Books Journalism

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

This novel is a deceptively charming slice of life at an English-language newspaper in Rome. It cuts back and forth between profiles of the people who work there today — the obit writer, the copy editor, the Paris correspondent — and a history of the paper’s founding to its hey-dey to its current decline.

If you have a nostalgic love for newspapers, you should read this. The characters are fascinating and funny, from the wheedling business reporter who’s a fool for love to the obit writer who decides to claw his way to the top. But know that things will not end well. The newspaper doesn’t even have a website, and the owners are tired of pouring money into a hole.

One thing that nagged, though, is I felt like the author had a slight mean streak toward his characters that seemed to become decidedly more cruel as the novel moved toward its end. Not to give away too much, but the chapters got darker — a girlfriend’s betrayal, the macabre death of a dog — as things went along.

Then later, I was thinking, maybe that meanness is meant to parallel the demise of the newspaper. Maybe the author’s making the point that it’s a mean world that no longer has a place for an eclectic, old-fashioned expat newspaper. At least that was my interpretation.