Confessions of a teenage fact checker

This is a guest post by Jeff Edelstein, columnist at the Trentonian (who’s appeared in this blog before), prompted by these tweets and an email exchange following my blog post about linking and the Manti Te-0 story:

As a former fact checker at a magazine, I do wonder … does no mag that wrote about Te’o employ fact checkers?

— Jeff Edelstein (@jeffedelstein) January 16, 2013

Newspapers generally don’t employ fact checkers. Mags usually do. How did SI not flush this out? No fact checkers? @stevebuttry

— Jeff Edelstein (@jeffedelstein) January 16, 2013

@stevebuttry @ergoproxy05 yes, reporters. But fact checkers at mags-and I was one-are paid to check facts, period. How did it slip thru SI?

— Jeff Edelstein (@jeffedelstein) January 17, 2013

I asked him if he’d like to write a guest post about his fact-checking experience. Here it is (links added by me):

Jeff Edelstein

It was my first job in journalism. Fact checker for New Jersey Monthly Magazine. I was 19. (Yes, yes, this is about Manti Te’o. Bear with me.)

So yeah. A fact checker. The job was exactly what it sounded like. I checked facts. An article would be assigned, the writer would write, it would go through at least two edits, and then it would land in my hands. Sometimes the author was kind enough to provide phone numbers and relevant materials, other times I had to call the author and beg them for phone numbers and relevant materials.

Fact checkers are not universally loved.

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Jeff Edelstein’s Sandy engagement shows how to use Facebook during a big story

Jeff Edelstein

Trentonian columnist Jeff Edelstein showed two things with his Facebook engagement before, during and after Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey:

1. He showed how to use Facebook to engage during a big story.
2. He showed how effective routine Facebook engagement gives you a strong connection with people that is invaluable when the big story breaks.

I’ve written before about Jeff’s great connection with his community on Facebook. He uses Facebook regularly, asking questions of his 4,000-plus friends and they answer, sometimes giving him column material, sometimes giving feedback on a column and sometimes just deepening the connection with chatter among friends.

That routine conversation gave Jeff a deeply engaged community that stayed in touch as the storm approached and blew through New Jersey. With a mix of humor, impatience, empathy and reporting questions, Jeff had a  running conversation with the community throughout the disaster. I’m going to highlight a few of the dozens of Facebook updates that Jeff posted relating to Sandy.

It was a mix of personal and professional, all with personality. So when Jeff asked for help, it wasn’t like a journalist was asking people to do his job for him. It was a trusted friend asking for information. And he got lots of replies, whatever he was asking or saying.

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Jeff Edelstein tells a difficult first-person story

Jeff Edelstein

I have long thought that journalists are too timid about telling stories in the first person. I noted a year ago that one of the best stories of my career was not published because it was a first-person account.

Columnists get away with writing in the first person, and I’m glad my colleague Jeff Edelstein of the Trentonian had the courage and honesty to tell the story of falling asleep at the wheel with his son in the car.

I hope other journalists with powerful personal stories to tell don’t let our reticence about first-person journalism keep them from telling the stories. And when they tell them, I hope our editors have the good sense to publish them. What are some other outstanding examples of first-person journalism? I’d be happy to share some links here.

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Trentonian’s best-bar tourney heightens March Madness engagement

I know you’re planning to watch tonight’s basketball game. I am, too. But I already know the big winners of the March bracket: The Trentonian and First N’ Ten.

After a competitive month with strong community engagement, the Trentonian’s Facebook fans have chosen the best bar in Trenton. Jeff Edelstein, columnist and engagement whiz, who says his role was simply to “publicize on social media and host our live TV bits,” explains (lightly edited):

Our editor, Mike Topel, had the idea to have a “best bar” tourney to coincide with March Madness. He enlisted Joe D’Aquila to figure it out. Joe and I then posted on our FB’s and Twitter, and on the Trentonian’s, looking for nominations. Relatively unscientific, but it worked. Got 32 entries. Picked ‘em out of a hat. Joe set up Facebook polls on the Trentonian page for the first round.

Honestly, I was expecting blah results.

I was blown away.

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Jeff Edelstein uses Klout to reach people interested in his content

Thanks to Jeff Edelstein of the Trentonian for showing a good way for journalists to use Klout.

I have wavered in my views on the value of Klout.

I think you can overdo metrics, especially when you are measuring the wrong things. But I do think we should try to measure the results of our efforts. And Klout tries to measure influence in social media.

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Engagement opportunities: weather, elections, schools, sports, fun

Journal Register Co. newsrooms are experiencing lots of opportunities for strong community engagement right now. I’ll share some examples (I could share many more, but I’ve taken too long on this post already) relating to weather, elections, a search for a school superintendent, sports and fun.

Weather engagement

The weekend storm that hit the Northeast provided abundant engagement opportunities (as severe weather always does).

Jeff Edelstein, a columnist at the Trentonian who is a rock star at using Facebook (and good on Twitter, too), covered the storm from his home by engaging the community. At me request, Jeff provided this account:

Saturday morning, home with wife, 2 yr old, 9-month old. Not working. Raining, which was all Greater Trenton was supposed to get. At 11 a.m., I post:

I love it outside! The only thing — and I mean the ONLY thing — that could make this weather better was if it were 76 degrees and sunny with low humidity.

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