Summary

The essay "Checkpoints" deals with the subject of fact-checking in nonfiction writing. John writes about working with The New Yorker fact-checker Sara Lippincott who asserted that "Each word in the piece that has even a shred of fact clinging to it is scrutinized" (130). John provides examples of Sara's dedication and fastidiousness by writing about the extreme lengths she went to to verify an anecdote in one of his pieces titled "The Curve of Binding Energy." In another example, when consulting an expert geologist, the expert himself gave John and Sara an incorrect fact which made its way into print on his authority.

In a lecture to journalism students, Sara Lippincott emphasizes how "an error is everlasting" in that it lives on in print in perpetuity. John then notes that some other publications, such as The Atlantic, which have historically not employed fact-checkers now do...