Fact checking is a subject that many people speak of with blithe confidence despite knowing very little about it. In truth, there’s nothing like going through a 5,000-word story with an exceptionally thorough fact checker to make you aware of just how often all of us talk confidently about subjects on which we are completely, or mostly, wrong. What’s obvious, what everybody knows, what’s only common sense: Much of this stuff turns out, under scrutiny, to melt away into fable, propaganda and wishful thinking. And that includes a lot of what people assume about fact checking.
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