Part 25: Factcheck

From researcher Rachel Swaby:

My job is to guard the facts, to double-check every statement and make sure no mistakes slip through. I started working on this after receiving Bob's edit, feeding the writer and editor a stream of updates and corrections throughout the process.

Jason sent me a list of contacts as well as his recorded interviews to work from. I sent an email to everyone mentioned in the story asking them to confirm any facts that Jason got from them. (We don't read back the sentences, just the facts themselves.) General movie stuff went to a pr rep for the film. Questions about Jonze went to his assistant and so on.

This process was especially interesting for me because I would almost never speak to someone like Kaufman directly; my correspondence is usually filtered through a publicist or assistant. But within an hour of sending Kaufman 40+ questions, he called me to discuss - a thrill to say the least.

I kept track of all the fact changes, and sent them to Nancy so she could incorporate them into the text (that memo is below).

I also make sure to go through the proof, to make sure all my corrections have been added, and to make sure nothing else has come up. As you can see by the page above, I went over my copy line by line, crossing out every word as I went back over my notes. After I cleared my suggestions with Jason and Nancy, the story went back to the copy desk. I get one more look at it after this, when the story goes to final proof.

Download the factcheck file here.