I'd like to pause for a moment. You can't really go into the world of journalism without...

Stephen Glass:

[Speaking to Mrs. Duke's students]
I'd like to pause for a moment. You can't really go into the world of journalism without first understanding how a piece gets edited at a place like TNR. This is the system that Michael Kelly brought with him from The New Yorker, a three day torture test. If your article is good, the process will only make it better. If your article is shaky, you're in for a long week. A story comes in, and it goes to a senior editor. He or she edits it on computer then calls in the writer, who makes revisions. Then the piece goes to a second editor, and the writer revises it again. Then it goes through a fact-check where every fact in the piece, every date, every title, every place or assertion is checked and verified. Then the piece goes to a copy editor where it is scrutinized once again. Then it goes to lawyers, who apply their own burdens of proof. Marty looks at it, too. He's very concerned with any kind of comment the magazine is making. Then production takes it and lays it out in columns inches and type. Then it goes back on paper, then back to the writer, back to the copy editor, back to editor number one and editor number two, back to the fact-checker, back to the writer, and back to production again. Throughout, those lawyers are reading and rereading, looking for red flags, anything that feels uncorroborated. Once they're satisfied, the pages are reprinted, and it all happens again. Every editor, the fact-checkers, they all go through it one last time. Now, most of you will start out as interns somewhere. And interns do a lot of fact-checking. So pay close attention. There is a hole in the fact-checking system. A big one. The facts in most pieces can be checked against some type of source material. If an article is on, say, Ethanol subsidies, you can check for discrepancies against the congressional record, trade publications... LexisNexis, footage from C-SPAN. But on other pieces, the only source material available are the notes provided by the reporter himself