The Journalist’s Toolbox – Fact Checking

Current Affairs Quiz 51. What happened on Lake George in upstate New York?2. What is the big story out of California?3. The master storyteller who wrote a 10-play cycle about the black

struggle in America has died. What was his name?4. Who is Harriet Miers?5. Who is Tom DeLay?6. What was he recently forced to do?7. Three months ago, Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in

Iraq, estimated that three Iraqi army battalions were ready to go into combat without U.S. support. Last week, what did he tell Congress?

8. In his Sunday radio address, President Bush said he was encouraged by the increasing size and capability of the Iraqi security forces. True or False?

9. A new study of the Sunday Morning talks shows by the National Urban League revealed what?

Current Affairs Quiz 5 The study – "Sunday Morning Apartheid: A Diversity

Study of the Sunday Morning Talk Shows“ – revealed that only 8 percent of the guests booked on major Sunday-morning talk shows over the past 18 months were African American - and three people accounted for the majority of those appearances.

Out of more than 2,100 guests, journalists and experts offering commentary on the Sunday morning news programs, blacks appeared 176 times.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state Colin Powell and Juan Williams, a journalist and regular panel member on "Fox News Sunday," accounted for 122 of the 176 appearances.

An excellence reference source Journalism Resources

Compiled & Edited by Karla Tonella, University of Iowa Link to: http://

bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/journalism/journalists.html

Criss-Cross Directories

Also called City Directory, Cross-Reference Directory or Reverse Telephone Directory

It is "Criss-Cross Directory" because it is a Criss-Cross listing of nearly all the people who live in a town by: Street address Name Telephone number.

Complete collections of criss cross directories to find people covering the entire state can usually be found at larger libraries or larger newspapers.

Address Search

It lists every street in any given community alphabetically with each street number in consecutive order.

Under each street you'll find the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the people who live on those streets.

You would use this part of the directory if all you have is the address to go on.

You do a search on the address and if it's listed, a name and phone number will show up.

Phone Number Search

The other section of the criss-cross directory lists all the telephone numbers in sequence using the prefix as a base to find people.

Each telephone number lists address and names of the owners of the residence.

You would use this part of the directory if all you have is the telephone number to go on.

You do a search on the phone number and if it's listed, a name and address will show up.

Cross Directory Questions

There is a hostage taking at 26 Joneswood Drive, and police have the residence surrounded.

You identify who lives at that address and their phone number.

Would you call the residence of the hostage taking during the incident?

Why or why not?

Cross Directory Questions

You check cross directory and find names and phone numbers of four people who also live on Joneswood near the scene of the hostage-taking?

Would you call them for your story during the hostage-taking?

Why or why not?

Cross Directory Questions

There was a fire in a residence at 5930 Fisher Road. Firefighters say all four people in the home were killed. You check the cross directory and find the names of

four people listed as living in the home. Law-enforcement officials have not released the

names of the dead. Since you know who lives there, would you put the

names in the story? Why or why not?

Just Checking

LAKEWOOD – They wore solemn faces and desert fatigues. Hours before they were to board a C-5 Globemaster for the Persian Gulf, they were briefed about snakes, diseases and nerve gas.

Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft NOTE: The C-5 is called a Galaxy. The

Globemaster is a C-17. Which is it?

Just Checking

One of his favorite spots in Puget Sound was beneath the Hood Canal Bridge, which earned him the nickname “The Bridgemaster.”

NOTE: One of his favorite fishing spots in Puget Sound was the Hood Canal Bridge, but that bridge is in Hood Canal, not the Puget Sound.

Just Checking

In World War II, she and her sisters earned money for the family by appearing in group scenes in motion pictures such as “The Good Earth.”

NOTE: “The Good Earth” was filmed in 1937, three years before the war.

Just Checking

Thirty years with Pan American Airways. Thirty thousand miles in his pilot’s log.

Common sense – do the math. NOTE: We mean 30,000 hours, right?

Just Checking

It would be the first memorial of its kind to African Americans on federal land, and the second largest bronze sculpture in America, next to the Statue of Liberty, he said.

NOTE: The Statue of Liberty’s skin is 200,000 pounds of copper sheeting attached to a framework.

Just Checking

A Filipino middle-school student was in history class when he heard something about the Philippines that made him shrink with embarrassment: His ancestors had killed and eaten Ferdinand Magellan, the great Portuguese sea captain who was first to sail around the world.

NOTE: This needs some kind of rewrite since Magellan never sailed around the world.

Just Checking

The Mariners won’t say what the symphony will play, but yesterday it was rehearsing “Thus Sprach Zarathustra,” the song used as the theme for the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

NOTE: “Also Sprach Zarathustra” is the title of the Strauss symphony taken from the work by Nietzche. The English translation is “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” I am changing to “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” which is used to describe the title of the music used in movie.

Just Checking

According to the medical association, about 300,000 teenagers in the state smoke, consuming more than half a billion packs of cigarettes each year.

Common sense. Do the math. NOTE: 300,000 teens divided into 500

million packs comes out to 1,666 packs per teen a year, or about 4.5 packs a day for each teen. I don’t think so.

Research Web site

Cloning site

Read for Next Week

Introduction to: “Unbiased Editing in a Diverse Society” by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross. This is an e-book available to you through the library.

The Web & Journalism

What is the future of news presentation? Will non-linear story-telling begin to replace linear story telling?  Hypertext, the means by which we leap from link to link, allows for just such a way of telling a story. Take a few minutes and read through UF Professor Mindy McAdams’ paper on hypertext.

For Fun, check out this Scamming the Scammer site.

Check out this cloning site. Evaluate it. This one we will discuss in class.

Check out "What is Blogging?" if you are not sure what it is.

For fun, some conceptual maps of Cyberspace.