Blog Fact Checking and Fermat’s Last Theorem

May 31, 2005

PCIJ’s  Alecks Pabico has elegantly demonstrated how smart on-line sleuthing can reveal flaws in published news reports.  Specifically, he focuses on a local academic’s claim regarding errors in the proof to Fermat’s Last Theorem.  As a journalist, he recognizes the need to hold the media to a high standard.  As a blogger, he uses this platform to make his case because traditional media might not devote enough space for criticism.  Alecks was our iBlogspeaker on “Blogging and Journalism” and this incident illustrates a way by which these two (2) fields interact. Alecks finds himself in the middle of that junction and I certainly hope more journalists follow his lead.