Minimalist wrote:I expect Ishtar to show up with a shamanic curse on editors any moment now.
Welcome Santyago!
Fact checkers?
There are fact checkers in journalism?
I never saw any.
When I was a journalist, there were no such thing ... not even on The Times. I started off my career working on the foreign desk of The Times, taking the news from the foreign correspondents and passing it on to the subs editors' desk. I suppose the subs would have checked something if it jumped out at them as suspect. But otherwise the role of the sub is just to knock the story into shape. Then it goes to various other editors, increasingly more and more senior who would probably think it below them to have to check a fact.
So no ... there are no fact checkers on British newspapers and magazines.
But we did have a saying - don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.
The truth is, all major media outlets are owned by global magnates, like Rupert Murdoch whose bottom line is to create a narrative that will optimise his assets and holdings in countries where he supports - if not actually appoints - the government. Any other stories that a paper runs are just the sugar to sweeten that pill.
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