Fact-Checking and the Problem of Public Knowledge
A Conversation with Chad Hegelmeyer
12.00-1.30pm | February 2
Elm Library, 31 Whitney Avenue
What is the purpose of institutionalized fact checking? At times its importance is explained by the need to protect the general public from misinformation, but it also protects public figures and institutions from the embarrassment of being caught in error. What do these differing rationales imply about the state of public knowledge? And what can the history of this peculiarly modern - and peculiarly American - practice teach us about the role of public knowledge in democratic society and about the social character of factual knowledge?
Chad Hegelmeyer is a Lecturer in English at New York University.
This event is open to all members of the Yale community. Lunch will be served.
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The facts are always less than what really happens.
—Nadine Gordimer