Yep, that’s the “dirty little secret” of journalism — formal independent fact-checking rarely occurs. In the 100+ interviews I’ve given over the years, I’ve received follow-up calls from fact checkers exactly three times.

On the other hand, when I’m doing journalism I know that my own stories are generally not independently fact-checked. However, I do generally make efforts to independently verify facts, statistics, etc. given to me by sources if my source is not the primary source.

The practice of journalism is by no means pure. Independent fact-checking takes time and costs money, and is generally treated as a luxury. It’s done scrupulously only in the most legally sensitive stories.

- Amy Gahran
Editor, Contentious