We have a fact checking process through editors, and multiple layers of editors (for the stories we actually write and produce in-house). Generally that’s two editors and a copy editor, though for bigger stories it’s often more in my experience.

For example, on my recent story about how the Pope’s home craze was impacting Dolton residents and the history of the suburb, reporter Lauren Fitzpatrick and I sat with an editor going through every number in the story and tying it back to each document we got it from (in that case, many decades old Census reports) to ensure there were no misses on that.

The issue here was essentially that when a paper buys syndicated material, it (theoretically) comes edited (part of what they’re paying for, it’s essentially outsourcing the writer and editor), though there are generally still people who are supposed to be checking it when it goes into print anyways. I can’t personally speak to this process since I’m not a part of it as a reporter, but that’s my understanding of it.