From a new CJR book, a chapter excerpt based on a 2002 lecture by New Yorker fact-checking director Peter Canby, with stories like this one about the author of A Bright Shining Lie: "One more thing I want to say about Neil Sheehan is that it was a particularly frustrating experience for us fact-checkers because Neil Sheehan never got anything wrong, and at the end of two months we would go, 'Neil, give us a break, you know? Give us one little thing we can change.'"
