Der Spiegel Fact Checkers

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Behind the News, Regret the Error April 9, 2010 11:47 AM

A converstion with two st!!ers t Der Spiegel

B" #rig $ilver%n

Late last month, I had an experience unlike any other in my professional life. For two days, I

was surrounded by people who work in, or have a specific interest in, fact checking. Yes,

someone decided to take the seemingly unprecedented step and create an entire conference

about fact checking.

The conference was cosponsored by !et"werk #echercheandDer Spiegel, the venerable

$erman weekly maga"ine. It was held in %amburg the last weekend of &arch, and I was invited

to give a workshop about preventing factual errors and deliver a keynote address about the rise

of external fact checking, a topic I touched upon in a previous columnand in my book.

'ven though the vast ma(ority of the other presentations at the conference were in a language I

couldn)t understand, it was clear that one notable story was that ofDer Spiegelitself. It turns

out the publication is home to what is most likely the world)s largest fact checking operation.

This came as something of a surprise not only to me, but also to the two editors from The New

York Times Magazineand The New Yorkerthat (oined me as speakers at the conference. *You

can read more about the 'nglish presenters in this post on my +eb site.

The New Yorkercurrently has sixteen fact checkers including -eter anby, the head of the

department, whom I met for the first time in person in $ermany. The New York Times

Magazine, which was represented by managing editor /arah /mith, has fewer checkers on staff

than The New Yorker, though it also works with freelancers. */mith wrote the excellent book,

The Fact Checkers Bible. 0nd so there we sat, in the outrageously decoratedmeeting area at

Der Spiegel, staring at $erman -ower-oint slides revealing that we were in fact inside the walls

that house a rather large and ama"ing fact checking department.

#oughly eighty fulltime people work in fact checking and the research1library atDer Spiegel. It

calls this its 23okumentation4 department. 0nother thirty or so parttimers also do duty at the

maga"ine. That)s an astounding, unprecedented number. 3r. %auke 5anssen, the head of

2dokumentation,4 delivered the opening presentation of the conference. Though the words were

e the Worlds Largest Fact Checking Operation : CJR http://www.cjr.org/behindthenews/insidetheworldslargest

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unintelligible *my fault, not his it soon became clear that he was detailing an old and very

detailed process. The next day, I sat down with &aximilian /chaefer, a fact checker at the

maga"ine who speciali"es in science and technology articles, and 0xel -ult, a former checker

who is now the deputy head of the department, to discuss fact checking atDer Spiegel. 6elow is

an edited transcript of our discussion.

Craig Silverman:+hen did fact checking first start atDer Spiegel7 I got the impression from

yesterday)s presentation that it)s been there for a while.

Axel Pult:Spiegelstarted in 89:; or :s. It was established by the publisher himself and the leading figures in the company.

They came to the conclusion that it)s important to avoid mistakes, and it)s important to make it

possible to publish things that are checked twice?and not only @checkedA by the author.

CS:%ow many people are in the department7

AP:There are seventy people checking the facts, but also some people are working on handling

the database and doing indexing, and stuff like that. It)s almost 8>> people, although B some of

the people only work parttime. It)s not 8>> people working fulltime. You can say about eighty

fulltime (obs.

CS:+hy don)t you explain the archives and library you have7

AP:+e have a database which mainly contains press articles from the published press, but

which also contains documents we call 2grey literature.4 It means something @that isA informal

or not freCuently published, something like a leaflet from somebody.

CS:+ould a onetime government report fall into that category as well7

AP:Yes. +e are also starting to archive things like videos or &-D files, but this is still in the

beginning @phaseA. It is mainly text. The photo archive is a different thing.

Maximilian Schaefer:Ene difference I noticed yesterday, if I understand /arah /mith

correctly, is that @The New York Times MagazineA are using one person to check the text and

the photographs. %ere it)s different we have one person to check the facts, and another to check

the photographs.

CS:+hat about illustrations7

MS:The illustrations are checked by the text fact checker. The reason is @illustrations oftenA

contain factual information.

AP:B There are two main purposes of our database. The first is to do the research in the

process of preparing articles. The writers department calls us up or sends us an email or comes

by our office, and we develop a plan of what materials are needed to research and write articles.

Ene of the researchers?who are the same people as the fact checkers?works with them. In a

way you could say that during a working week, the first three days, from &onday to +ednesday,

we are researchers and Thursday and Friday we are fact checkers. It)s oversimplified, but in a


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way it)s like that.

CS:%ow do you determine which sources are reliable and which aren)t7

AP:B In the $erman press, there)s newspapers that are more reliable than others, and of

course @this knowledge is part ofA the Cualifications of good fact checkers?to know the sources

in his field and rely on these.

MS:There are also differences between departments. The politics checkers are using more

crosschecking with published sources @like newspapersA. For example, has 0ngela &erkel

already said this Cuote to another newspaper7 0t the science @checkingA department, if we)re

reporting about a new scientific fact we don)t only look at what newspapers have written about

it?we look at the original papers of the scientists.

CS:Your fact checkers are organi"ed by areas of expertise. +hat are the specialties that you

have for fact checkers7

MS:-olitics, science, economics, foreign affairs, culture, and sports, which is small?only one

person. $erman politics is our biggest department B 0nd, for example, our fact checker for themedical stories used to work as a doctor.

CS:/o the idea is to match the expertise with the sub(ect because you know the right places to

look.

MS:0lso, we are kind of inhouse experts. /o if somebody writes an article and wants to know

some physics fact, he calls me and usually I can give it to him out of my own expertise. I usually

don)t have to call somebody else. +e)re consulted by the authors.

CS:That)s one big difference with the 0merican model, where the checker doesn)t get involved

until the piece is finished or close to finished. +hereas you might be consulted even before the

writer starts writing B

MS:Yes. The illustration department often has an idea and then calls and asks if it)s possible to

do it like this, or to get the data we need to do the illustration. /o we are involved also in

illustration creation.

AP:Yesterday during the presentation there was a Cuestion about whether there is a conflict of

interest because of this construction?or, to say in other words, because you check your own

research. I don)t think it)s really a problem. It would be a problem if somebody would be the fact

checker of his own writing B but assistance during the research process is okay. If I am fact

checking an article which I have assisted with research, it doesn)t represent any problem

because @the article doesn)t only containA the research from us. The author has researched a lot

of new material B 0lso, it)s not a problem to know some of the sources beforehand?it)s almost

an advantage because you selected them with lots of time to do so, and because you rely on

them. If the article refers to them, it)s okay?it)s not a disadvantage, it)s an advantage.

CS:Is there a different mentality for when you are acting as a researcher compared to when you

become a fact checker7


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MS:!ot really. In both cases you have to find reliable informationB

AP:There is one difference, according to my experience B in the process of research you are on

a team with the author. In process of fact checking, it)s more of an adversarial relationship.

MS:The relationship is different, true. 6ut the way of working isn)t. In both cases, I try to find

accurate information. In the research phase, I try to find a broader amount of information. 0nd

the fact checking is guided by the facts provided in the article.

CS:3o you think your readers know about this very involved fact checking process7

AP:I think so, yeah. Ene of the reasons to have such a big and of course financially significant

fact checking and research department is to build up a special relationship between reader and

maga"ine. In $erman there is a term @that meansA 2readermaga"ine connection.4 0nd it has

something to do with the special image ofDer Spiegelin $ermany.

CS:+hy do you think you)re the only ones who do this in $ermany7

AP:+e)re not the only one. +e)re the one who does it in the most sophisticated way.

MS:I think it is a @part of our maga"ine)sA culture, and becauseDer Spiegelwants to be?and

is?a high Cuality product.

AP:0nd let)s say it For many years @the maga"ineA was also economically a very successful

product. It had the money to sustain such a significant department, and that)s the reason why

it)s interesting to see what is going to happen when @we haveA less money.

Correction of the Week

20n earlier edition of this story incorrectly stated that 0E#! advisers posed as a prostitute anda pimp. In fact, two conservatives who posed as a pimp and a prostitute sought tax tips from

0E#! advisers.4 G The Washington Post


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