Questions to ask of every story

Newsroom coach Rosalie Stemer led a group of new editors through a discussion of "Skeptical Editing" during the recent New Editors' Survival Guide seminar at API. The editors came up with a list of questions for editors to ask with each story they edit.

Some of the questions are questions you would ask the reporter. Some are questions you would ask yourself as you edit. Some you might ask whether the story answers the questions. But the editor needs to know the answers. Here are the questions these editors came up with. What are questions you would ask?
* Have you read the original data?
* Do you have any reason to doubt this information is true?
* Are you sure the attribution for the information is correct?
* Is this the correct source to use for this information?
* Is this source the voice of authority?
* Is the information attributed to the correct source?
* Is anyone or anything hiding behind the attribution?
* What's missing from this story? Have you looked at all sides?
* Does the story have diversity in sources, in points of view and in thinking?
* Does the story back up its lede?
* Has this person ever been a source for your stories before this time?
* Have you checked the information and the people in the story on
LexisNexis?
* What promises did you make to the source?
* Do you know the paper's policy on unnamed sources?
* Did you do the math?
* Is everything spelled correctly? Did you run spell check at least twice?
* Did you check spelling of all proper names?
* Did you double-check all numbers? Do the numbers add up?
* Did you double-check phone numbers and web site addresses?
* Did you double-check street addresses?
* Did you double-check company names?
* Is this something that must run now?
* Will this come back to bite us in the ass?
* Will your mom understand this story?
* Will your father finish reading this story?
* Does this story make intuitive sense?
* Do you understand this story?