Fact-Checking

In 2020 I worked as a fact-checker on a Nashville Public Radio investigative podcast.
Starting two years before that, I did similar work for Outside Magazine.

Deadly Force: WPLN News Investigates

I fact-checked four episodes of this Nashville Public Radio podcast investigating a 2018 shooting in which a white police officer was charged with murdering a Black man.

The series runs to more than two hours, and the reporter, Samantha Max, provided me with notes, transcripts, legal documents, and many, many other files I reviewed and verified. I also re-interviewed some people in the story, gathered additional sourcing, and suggested tweaks as appropriate.

This is an unsettling, consequential story from Nashville Public Radio, where I previously worked as a reporter from 2008 to 2014.

Outside Magazine

My work as a fact-checker began at Outside in 2018, and has included stories both online and in print.

In 2019, I worked on a package of six stories (five short pieces and one longer profile of an Olympic gold medalist) that appeared in the magazine’s Innovation Issue.

I also fact-checked the feature “Cause of Death: Selfie” by Kathryn Miles.

An intense story that clocks in at more than 3,500 words, this entailed listening to recordings of the writer’s interviews, following up by phone with key sources, going through tons of old reports, making notes for the editor on concerns and potential tweaks, and reviewing and organizing materials like FOIA emails, topographic maps, and screenshots of Facebook posts. My final fact file catalogued more than 100 items.

One of the privileges of working as a fact checker is getting to see how a complex piece like this comes together at a national magazine. I always learn a lot about both the subject and the storytelling process.