Fact Checking: Even Check the Small Stuff

I feel badly for Naomi Wolf and the recent cancellation of her latest book due to errors of fact.

From the New York Times:

“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has canceled the publication of Naomi Wolf’s book “Outrages” in the United States, months after errors were uncovered during a radio interview.

“In “Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love,” Ms. Wolf examined how Victorian laws criminalized same-sex relations. In May, during a radio interview with the BBC host Matthew Sweet, she told him that she had found evidence of “several dozen executions” of men accused of having sex with other men. But Mr. Sweet pointed out that Ms. Wolf was misunderstanding the legal term “death recorded,” saying it meant that the men had been pardoned. “I don’t think any of the executions you’ve identified here actually happened,” he told her.”

So, Wolf I’m sure is dealing with a bit of a pile on in that a writer of her experience and stature shouldn’t have gotten something like this wrong. She shouldn’t have.

But, at the same time we’ve all been caught out, or caught, these mistakes where, gee, “death record” should mean what it seems to mean. Some forgiveness is appropriate.

Another large point, already discussed a lot lately, is what role does a publisher have in fact checking? I argue, they should have a big role and it seems odd to me that they wouldn’t agree and that their insurers wouldn’t agree. It’s not that authors should be allowed to not fact check or accept a basic level of sloppiness that will be caught by a publisher. We need to be awesome fact checkers. But good fact checking, and editing and revising happens when talented people are layered into the publishing process so no one or single set of eyes is relied upon.

And to writers, I even ask people with the last name of Smith to spell their last names for me. I get a lot of comments, but spell Smith when it’s Smythe once and you will know why I do it.

So, yes, fact check even the small stuff like you have no backstop or net beneath you.