NBC News producer on "unverifying" accepted facts

Summary:

True, verification is a key to becoming news literate – but what happens when previously “verified facts” later turn out to be untrue? In cases of wrongful convictions, the process of verification often means you first have to “unverify” events that virtually everyone else thought had actually happened.

Video:

Reinvestigating Wrongful Convictions

Video Script

Key Concept: Truth & Verification

Verification is perhaps the most important concept for news consumers to understand. It is one in which a reporter needs to gather, assess, and weigh different pieces of evidence, put those pieces of evidence into the big picture and give context to the topic as a whole, to be fair to all parties involved, but when appropriate, balancing the story and avoiding false equivalency

Guiding Questions

• What steps would a news consumer have to follow to "unverify" a fact?
• Describe the steps that a news consumer or a journalist might follow to verify a piece of information that is referenced by Mr. Slepian.
• What ways do you as a news consumer verify pieces of information you come across from news sources?
• For Journalism students, discuss what a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request is, and describe a situation in which the request may lead to the "unverifying" of a fact.

Additional Resources:

NBC's Dateline Source Stories

• The Palladium Case
• The Velazquez Case
• Glisson Case: full episode
• Glisson Case: Reporter’s Notebook