How NPR's Debate Night Fact-Check Went Down

A real-time transcript and about 30 staffers, to start.

NPR’s fact-checking operation for Monday’s presidential debate was pretty epic. Instead of putting out periodic updates of selected sentences or a post-debate analysis, NPR went for a real-time fact-check of a scrolling script of the debate being transcribed as the debate was occurring.

The transcription, explains NPR ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen, was outsourced and automated but proofread and checked over by staff. NPR’s fact-checking crew was about 30-people strong, comprised of reporters, editors and visual staff. “We reached out across desks to policy and beat experts and editors from business to foreign affairs to education and created a shared document that everyone who wanted to be involved could do so in an easy way,” NPR lead political editor Domenico Montanaro told Jensen over email.

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