Heroes of Fact-Checking

Thanks to Ta-Nehisi for pointing me to Ian Parker's recent Letter from Reykjavík in The New Yorker (sub. required), which is just masterful. It also represents a masterful feat of fact-checking. Here are some names appearing in the article: Jónína Benediktsdóttir; Hildur Margrétardóttir; Thorhallur Vilhjálmsson; Ingibjörg Pálmadóttir; Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson; Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson; and, of course, Svein Harald Øygard.

What a fact-checking höfu�°verkur! The Atlantic and the New Yorker are staffed by remarkable fact-checkers, who don't get enough credit for their work. So this is a salute to the New Yorker fact-checker who worked on Parker's impossible piece. Make yourself known to Goldblog, and I'll celebrate you publicly, and maybe even send you on a trip to Iceland, which, I understand, is very cheap right now. 

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2009/03/heroes-of-fact-checking/9828/