[lbo-talk] What is the industry standard in journalism forfact-checking letters?

[Carrol Cox]

It is nearly impossible to prove that someone did NOT say this or that. No
collected edition of anyone is really complete, and of course no index gets
everything: hence a negative results on a text search are inconclusive! To
check an attribution I guess you would have to get the person making it
before a Grand Jury under oath, and  ask for the source!

Our local paper continues to print letters from  local  conspiracy theorists
on 9/11.

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Matt
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 9:02 AM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: [lbo-talk] What is the industry standard in journalism
forfact-checking letters?

I am referring to Letters to the Editor.  Do serious newspapers
regularly print letters without bothering to fact-check claims made in
them and then offer disclaimers?

Our city paper prints anything and everything, when just a few seconds
of googling shows that the letter is making a bogus claim.  The latest
attributes a bible-thumping quote to James Madison which is clearly a
fabrication.

Matt

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