There is not much that can make someone brush up on a fact check.
Since this is part of my 9-to-5 job, it is not something I would like to do in my spare time. Sometimes it has to be done anyway.
If my mom was about to make a cake with a cup of salt instead of sugar, I would suggest she check her ingredients again before wasting the whole drink. If my Uber driver turns wrong in a one-way street, it would be best for both of us if I pointed it out.
However, social media can be a minefield. Not long ago, a friend with whom I laughed when we were rehearsing for ‘The King and I’ in high school shared a post that was built on bad facts. I made a mistake. I checked with a friend.
I was not wrong in the information I shared. I was wrong because I corrected her facts when she was only interested in sharing opinions.
If there is one thing you can learn from the editorial page, it is the difference between the two.
Facts are things like what is included in the budget figures of the school district, which legislature voted for which bill and how many murders were committed last year.
Opinions are all why. Why is the budget not the priority of art programs? Why did the legislature that supports tax reform not vote for the tax cut? Why are murders generally turned off but violent attacks on one community increased?
They can look very similar. After all, an educated opinion must always be built on a solid foundation of facts. Without these facts, opinion is set on shifting ideas.
Reading opinions are not supposed to take the place of reading facts. It is supposed to teach us how to use it to ask better questions and find new answers.
The problem is that it only works if you want to start with the facts and then work to develop an opinion. It’s much harder to start with an opinion. Working backwards to the facts can lead to an incomplete picture.
My friend did not want the facts I was handing out, and although I was not wrong, I was not right either. I forced her to do something she did not want in a situation that was not mine.
If someone sends me a letter to the editor or submits an assignment that I need to consider, fact checking is not just my job. It’s my responsibility. I am obligated to make sure that the facts are not only correct, but that they support the opinion of the author. Bad facts can weaken a writer’s position and make it easy for someone to reject an opinion that is otherwise worth hearing. Good facts give it solid legs to stand on.
But my friend did not ask for help – and she did not appreciate it. She cut me off from her friends list without looking back.
In my opinion it was a bad decision, but the fact is that it was my fault.
Lori Falce is a community engagement editor at Tribune-Review. You can contact Lori at [email protected].