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‘AT The New Yorker, each article undergoes an extensive fact-checking process: Quotes are confirmed, details authenticated, the spellings of names verified, and so forth,” write that magazine’s editors in their November 12 issue. “This is well known.” With jaw- dropping piety, they go on to note that their “grueling procedure” applies even to cartoons.

It is The New Yorker’s reputation for rigorous fact-checking that made a story appearing in the same issue such a sensation. Seymour M. “Sy” Hersh, one of America’s most celebrated investigative journalists, reported stunning new information about the military’s nighttime raid, on October 20, of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s compound in Afghanistan. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said the mission “overall was successful.” Hersh, however, labeled it “a near-disaster,” and provided astonishing details: “Twelve Delta members were wounded, three of them seriously.” It was the first time anybody in the public at large had heard this. Hersh’s article was the talk of the Sunday news shows on November 4, before copies of The New Yorker had even hit the newsstands; he made a number of media appearances to explain his version of the events.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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‘AT The New Yorker, each article undergoes an extensive fact-checking process: Quotes are confirmed, details authenticated, the spellings of names verified, and so forth,” write that magazine’s editors in their November 12 issue. “This is well known.” With jaw- dropping piety, they go on to note that their “grueling procedure” applies even to cartoons.

It is The New Yorker’s reputation for rigorous fact-checking that made a story appearing in the same issue such a sensation. Seymour M. “Sy” Hersh, one of America’s most celebrated investigative journalists, reported stunning new information about the military’s nighttime raid, on October 20, of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s compound in Afghanistan. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said the mission “overall was successful.” Hersh, however, labeled it “a near-disaster,” and provided astonishing details: “Twelve Delta members were wounded, three of them seriously.” It was the first time anybody in the public at large had heard this. Hersh’s article was the talk of the Sunday news shows on November 4, before copies of The New Yorker had even hit the newsstands; he made a number of media appearances to explain his version of the events.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.