The Duty to Check a Claim
Launch library · evergreen read
A subject's confident assertion of a fact is not the same thing as a verified fact, and an interviewer who repeats a claim without checking it, simply because it was stated with conviction, bears real responsibility for any resulting inaccuracy that reaches a wider audience. Conviction in a subject's voice is not the same thing as evidence, however persuasive it sounds.
This duty does not mean treating every subject with suspicion; it simply means separating what has been stated from what has been confirmed, and being clear, in the eventual account, about which category any particular claim actually falls into. This separation protects the subject as much as the reader, since an unchecked error can damage both.
Where checking is not possible before publication, honest framing, noting a claim as the subject's own account rather than an established fact, protects both the reader and the eventual credibility of the interviewer's broader body of work. That honest framing lets a reader judge the claim's weight for themselves, rather than assuming it settled.