I saw first-hand, up close, that nearly 100 percent of materials leaving the organization were not fact-checked from start to finish. In one major instance, a prominent researcher fabricated facts, and it was covered up - by layers of people, not just one or two - rather than addressed transparently. Their work is still publicly available and remains uncorrected. What mattered was reputation.
Social media posts—which drive a great deal of attention today—were not fact-checked at all. Staff are essentially free to post and retweet as they wish, including sharing incorrect information and amplifying positions that did not reflect the organization’s official stance, and implying without proof. It’s the Wild West of accuracy.
There is a corrections policy on paper, but no one oversees it or verifies that it is implemented. In practice, it doesn’t exist.
Staff receive mandatory methodology training at most once during their entire tenure, if at all. I only attended such a training after several years at the organization—and only because I requested it. It simply wasn’t on their radar.
