The Fact Checker's Bible [Paperback]

Sarah Harrison Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0385721064 | ISBN-13: 978-0385721066 | Publication Date: August 10, 2004

  These days fact-checking can seem like a lost art.  The Fact Checker's Bible arrives not a moment too soon: it is the first—and essential—guide to the important but increasingly neglected task of checking facts, whatever their source.

We are all overwhelmed with information that claims to be factual, but even the most punctilious researcher, writer, and journalist can sometimes get it wrong, so checking facts has become a more pressing task.  Now Sarah Harrison Smith, former New Yorker fact checker and currently head of checking for The New York Times Magazine explains exactly how to:

*Reading for accuracy
*Determine what to check
*Research the facts
*Assess sources: people, newspapers and magazines, books, the Internet, etc.
*Check quotations
*Understand the legal liabilities
*Look out for and avoid the dangers of plagiarism

For everyone from students to journalists to editors, the methods and practices outlined in The Fact Checker’s Bible provide both a standard and a working manual for how to get the facts right.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

How do those incomparable fact-checkers at the New Yorker do it? Smith used to be one of them (she’s now head fact-checker for the New York Times Magazine), and in this tidy little volume, she shares the secrets of her craft. And even for those don’t aspire to be a journalist or researcher, Smith’s tips are useful: in an information-logged world, we all ought to be able to determine the reliability of what we read. She opens with an excellent lesson in the art of skeptical reading ("do you find the article credible and persuasive?…. Occasionally, flat writing can be a tip-off that an author is parroting someone else’s ideas"), and she offers a useful discussion of fact-checking procedures at some top newspapers and magazines and helpful (though not comprehensive) lists of reliable resources in subjects ranging from films to wine. Much of the book, however, is for professionals, and the journalists, fact-checkers, researchers and editors at whom this is aimed should find it nearly indispensable.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“The indispensable guide to the field. Smith’s abundant common sense, her relentless zeal for the truth, not to mention her exquisite sense of fairness, make her book a godsend for researchers and writers alike” –-Jeffrey Toobin

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (August 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385721064
• ISBN-13: 978-0385721066
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharpen your reading and writing skills, October 26, 2004

By 

Warren Keith Wright - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Fact Checker's Bible (Paperback)

Fittingly, the descriptions of THE FACT CHECKER'S BIBLE given in the blurbs above exactly match Sarah Harrison Smith's book. Despite an enviable résumé, something in Smith's tone suggests youthful excitement---inasmuch as she still finds it exciting to track down the ten thousand details that a writer has already dug up in order to ensure that she or he has got them all right. (In literary studies, those people are called critics and biographers.) But considering the number of scandals concerning plagiarism, fabrication, and sheer audacity in American journalism during recent years, this demanding task is a necessary one---even though it is surrounded by so many legal pitfalls that it sounds like Hell, Inc.
(Her chapter on fact-checking poetry and fiction comes off as a little comic, albeit unintentionally, and suggests it is likely that she writes neither: when creating imaginative literature, accuracy is swell but plausibility is paramount.)
Far from being addressed only to colleagues in the profession, this brisk handbook will educate anyone who writes anything, and readers who wish to become better judges of everything they read---in the news, in their own area of expertise, or for pleasure. Smith maintains the fine line where skepticism does not sour into cynicism, and makes better critics of us all.

5.0 out of 5 stars Gave me clarity when I really needed it, August 5, 2011

By 

Jennifer Mascia - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Fact Checker's Bible (Paperback)

I needed to learn the basics of fact-checking rather quickly, and Smith's book taught me everything I needed to know. A must-read for anyone in media or publishing.

6 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fact Checker for the New Yorker=Safety Expert at Chernobyl, January 21, 2005

By 

J. Gabrielson (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Fact Checker's Bible (Paperback)

[...] If someone knew nothing about the publication the author worked for, the New Yorker or the others she discussed, like the NYT, the book would seem to be informative.

In reality the book itself is [...]. It would be like a book on safety published by the former manager of the Chernobyl Power plant.

If you want to get quickly to the heart of the deception(and get a good laugh); skip to the back of the book and read the parts about fact checking for TV news programs.

If you have made a serious effort to study and research the truth, the facts about current events and contemporary political debate; then you know that the New Yorker constantly lies and deceives its readers. It is little more that a trade publication for the New York left.

To put it another way.; A lawyer pleads with a Judge to be lenient with his client who has just been convicted of a double homicide, on the basis that his client is an orphan.

The authors idea of fact checking is to confirm the fact, by proper research into government records, that indeed both of the defendants parents are dead.

The fact that the reason they are dead is that the defendant, their son, murdered them is conveniently overlooked.