Fact-Checking, Nancy Gordy

In the Edmonton Sun article on Keshroy Hillary Clinton's capture by Edmonton police, i was not able to find any spelling or grammatical errors. There also appeared to be no errors in the spelling of names and titles of people. I double checked the accuracy of that information by doing searches on google and locating a media release on the Edmonton Police Service web page. All of the important addresses and locations were correct, as well as important dates. The attribution throughout the article is done well. As the reader i am always aware of who said certain quotes and where information came from.

- "Cops nab city man on lam" by Richard Liebrecht, Edmonton Sun, Jan. 29/10

Accuracy is very important in journalism as it creates credibility. It creates loyal readers that have trust in the author. If a journalist's facts are wrong then it could also create trouble in the future with legal issues if it becomes a common error. When accuracy isn't consistent, a journalists work will become useless. A journalists role is to find the facts and present them in a truthful and accurate manner. Skipping the step of editing one's work for accuracy will create a major problem.

Note: Image from Tony Scida

Fact Checking, Susan Eder

Writer: Trish Audette and Archie McLean
Article: "Edmonton's Northlands hires lobbyist", denies it has arena plans
Newspaper: The Edmonton Journal
Date: February 1st 2010
Publisher: John McDonald

The article was critiqued for:Numbers & Math Names
Titles (people, books etc.)LocationsCompare quotes to notes/recordingQuote AttributionDefinitionsURLsSpelling & GrammarSpellchecker Errors

The only mistake found was that the name Jason G. Hatcher was missing the G. in his name.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURACY
It is important to be accurate so that the reader will understand what the writer was trying to convey. The writer in this instance did a good job on being accurate. This is important for the credibility of the paper.

Fact-checking, Tyler Grant

Frank Landry of The Sun was off to a good start by spelling Mary Anne Jablonski correctly. That last name's tough, and I'm sure I would've had to qradruple check it to make sure it was right.

Mr. Landry also comments on a 2% budget cut that Ms. Jablonski is responsible for. I'm not sure what this 2% added to the unmentioned 98% totals. After some searching, I've discovered that Renata D'Aliesio of the Calgary Herald has said the dollar amount Ms. Jablonski's department is trying to trim $11 million. So, that means $11 million is a paltry 2% of a pile of money. Fortunately, the less fortunate of Alberta won't have to suffer this loss of many for the time being.

The funny thing is that Frank Landry's article is from February 1st, and Renata D'Aliesio's article is from January 28th.

Accuracy leads to crediblity. The more mistakes I read in an article, the less chance of me ever finishing it. With the two articles I read, I was left to wonder what surprises the 2010 alberta budget will hold. Is there really that much of a difference in information that is sent to Calagary and Edmonton? Someone's made a mistake here, but I'm not sure who. Back to fact-checking I go.

Fact-Checking, Isaac Kaplyuk

Female bomber kills 54 in Baghdad
The story was written by Juhi Bushra, from THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Story from the Edmonton Sun website, found via Twitter.
This was published February 1st, 2010.
Link to the story: Click here.

The story says that a police official said 54 people total were killed, including 18 women and 12 children, and that 117 were wounded. When typed into Google search, using the headline as the key words, multiple results from msnbc.com, canoe.com, times.com, yahoo.com and many more reputable sites came up, all verifying the exact same numbers used by Bushra in THE ASSOCIATED PRESS story.

Facts taken from quotes within the story were properly attributed, and the one source used for this story, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi is in fact spelt correctly, when the name is typed into Google search, many results containg the exact same spelling and title of this character come up, confirming his status, person and spelling of his name.

The locations, dates and times used within the story all check out when fact-checked using Google search. There appear to be no spelling errors, lack of quote attributions, or any kind of other error. There are no URL's within the story to speak of.


Accuracy is integral to journalism. An innaccurate story that provides innaccurate facts, and misleads the reader, will cause overall confusion among people who read the same article, when compared to an article that is accurate. Accuracy is necessary to deliver information correctly and to allow people reading it to understand it accurately, as well. With so much junk out there in the wireless realm, as well as the un-wired one, accuracy is key not only for good journalism, but is key for maintaining a cohesive and concise article that will be effectively understood by the masses that read it. In this case, the story appears to be accurate, giving a quick run-down of what happened, uses a reputable source when attributing quotes and information, and is, overall, an example of good journalism.

Note: Image taken from http://islamizationwatch.blogspot.com/2009/12/report-al-qaida-kills-eight-times-more.html. According to the story, the woman in the picture is very similiar to what the suicide-bomber would have looked like, with the bombs hidden underneath the cloak.

Fact-Checking, Matt White

The article I chose for this activity is titled:
Transit fares increase potentially a spark

By Justin Bell, Edmonton Sun. Last Updated Feb. 1, 2010.

The first item on the accuracy checklist is numbers and math. In this article there is a reference to the increase in transit fares for both single fares and bus passes. Both costs listed are correct, as they match the prices listed on the ETS homepage.

The second item on the checklist is names and titles. There are a couple names of citizens’ whose quotes were added to the story. There is no way to verify these names so we can only assume they have been spelt correctly. Other names include Stu Litwinowich and Patricia Dickson. I verified that Stu's name was spelt correctly through the Amalgamated Transit Union Homepage, but his title is actually "President Business Agent" as opposed to just "President." As for Patricia, I was able to find her name used in a similar article, and it was spelt the same way.

Many of the other items on the list do not apply. Location for instance, is obviously Edmonton.

Lastly, spelling and grammar. In the sentence "Her concerns about more bus violence was echoed by others," the word "was" is being used incorrectly. To fix this error the author could have done one of two things.
1. Her concerns about more bus violence were echoed by others.
2. Her concern about more bus violence was echoed by others.
I was unable to find any additional errors, but that doesn't mean there weren't any, it just means I can't find any.

To close, saying that accuracy is important in journalism is an under statement. It is the essence of journalism. Without accuracy, an article or piece is useless to its readers. All facts, dates, names, etc. must be 100 per cent accurate... otherwise, you're just another unqualified reporter pretending to be a journalist.

Image by Myke Waddy on Wikipedia.

Fact-Checking, Erik Nelson

Transit fares increase potentially a spark

This article was written by Justin Bell for the Edmonton Sun newspaper. It was published February 1, 2010 and was last updated at 12:17 p.m.

This article was written very with hardly any grammatical errors. The easiest error to spot is the article ending with a comma rather than a period.

In the sentence "There has been a recent spat of violence against drivers, with four having been assaulted in the past two months." A spell check identifies spat as a contextual error, and provides spate as a correction.

"Her concerns about more bus violence was echoed by others." A grammatical error is shown in this sentence that should be "Her concern about more bus violence was echoed by others."

Other than these few errors, the journalist made sure the information was correct.

Picture from Edmonton Sun / Picture taken by David Bloom