Concerned over problems in a fact check published by the Associated Press through its AP Fact Check subgroup, Zebra Fact Check sought to follow AP guidelines calling for correction requests to wait until an attempt was made to fix the problem through the reporter and a supervisor.
AP does not list contact information for its AP Fact Check staffers, so far as we could tell, so we emailed AP Fact Check to seek better contact information than what we seemed to possess via Twitter.
Zebra Fact Check will update this item if we note any response to our request.
We acknowledge our error in misspelling Ali Swenson’s name twice in the email.
Dear AP Fact Check,
Your recently-published fact check on medically necessary abortion and [sic] presents with a number of problems, though some of these will resist precise identification without more information than was provided in the fact check (such as the source of the claims).
Your correction policy guidelines ask that “every attempt” be made to contact the reporter and the supervisor about the problem before submitting a correction request. I’m happy to abide by that request, however AP does not appear to supply contact information for its staff. I’ve tried using Twitter to raise flags about the story with fact check reporter Ali Swensen. I’ve also identified Barbara Whitaker’s (seldom used?) Twitter account. Twitter, however, serves as a poor forum for detailed discussion. Nor has Swensen acknowledged any of my @ tweets.
Can you offer superior means for contacting the fact check team to enable questions that could serve to confirm sources and context to rule out the likely existence of an entirely equivocal (and thus improper) argument in its fact check?
Thanks!