Prof. McCarthy’s Macaulay honors students learn from Propublica’s deputy managing editor

Prof. McCarthy’s Macaulay honors students in News Literacy in a Digital Age learned about fact checking last week from ProPublica‘s deputy managing editor Eric Umansky. Umansky was a founding member of ProPublica back in 2008 and has overseen two Pulitzer Prize winning projects at the online nonprofit newsroom. With 75 reporters dedicated to investigative journalism, Umansky says ProPublica reports on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust and stays with a story as long as it takes to hold people and institutions accountable. He told students the most important question journalists need to ask their source is, “How do you know that?” The other principles the guide his work at ProPublica include: no-one sourced stories, no surprise journalism (i.e. give people a chance to respond before publication), a non-response is not a denial and only write what you know.