More Wind Power Industry Stuff & Nonsense from East County Magazine

[MineralMan]

69. It's not really editing. It's fact checking before publication.

Corrections for specific things are a good idea. However, correcting one error does not fix the other errors in an article. It's a clean-up action, rather than responsible editorial oversight.

When I was working as a professional journalist, the publications I worked for were active in fact checking. Because of that, I was also very active in fact checking my own articles. I hated it if a fact checker found something I missed or got wrong. The process begins with the writer, and all article should be fact checked by the publication, as well.

Such careful fact checking is less and less common these days, with budget cuts and staffs overworked, unfortunately. All too often, error are never spotted until an alert reader sees the error. That's really bad for the reputation of the publication or the website. If it happens often, the publication or website earns a reputation for unreliability.

It's a growing problem, and readers who care about factual information are often put in the position of doing their own fact checking. That's a very sad state of affairs.