Editing Fact-checking (section)

=== As a career ===
Professional fact-checkers have generally been hired by newspapers, magazines, and book publishers, probably starting in the early 1920s with the creation of [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine in the United States,<ref name=OxfordUniversity/><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=The Fact Checker's Bible: A Guide to Getting it Right|last=Harrison Smith|first=Sarah|date=2004|publisher=Anchor Books|isbn=0385721064|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/factcheckersbibl00smit/page/8 8–12]|oclc=53919260|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/factcheckersbibl00smit/page/8}}</ref> though they were not originally called "fact-checkers".<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4858683/fact-checking-history/|title=The Story Behind the First-Ever Fact-Checkers|magazine=Time|language=en|access-date=2020-01-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116003117/https://time.com/4858683/fact-checking-history/|archive-date=16 January 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> Fact-checkers may be aspiring writers, future editors, or [[freelancer]]s engaged other projects; others are career professionals.<ref name=":6"/>

Historically, the field was considered [[women's work]], and from the time of the first professional American fact-checker through at least the 1970s, the fact-checkers at a media company might be entirely female or primarily so.<ref name=":6"/>

The number of people employed in fact-checking varies by publication. Some organizations have substantial fact-checking departments. For example, ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine had 16 fact-checkers in 2003<ref name=":6"/> and the fact-checking department of the German weekly magazine {{lang|de|[[Der Spiegel]]}} counted 70 staff in 2017.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Southern|first=Lucinda|date=2017-08-15|title=Inside Spiegel's 70-person fact-checking team|work=[[Digiday]]|url=https://digiday.com/media/inside-spiegels-70-person-fact-checking-team/|access-date=2021-11-20}}</ref> Others may hire freelancers per piece or may combine fact-checking with other duties. Magazines are more likely to use fact-checkers than newspapers.<ref name=OxfordUniversity/> Television and radio programs rarely employ dedicated fact-checkers, and instead expect others, including senior staff, to engage in fact-checking in addition to their other duties.<ref name=":6"/>