The article "Woman receives life sentence for role in brutal slaying of Courtepatte" from the Edmonton Journal January 26, 2010 has been checked for accuracy according to the Detriot Free Press checklist and found to patially pass.
Reporter Checklist
The names and facts of the article are correct and as far as I can tell from someone who did not conduct the interviews the quotes are correct. They may have given voice to the woman convicted if they were legally allowed, or at least attempted to get a quote from her. Since the woman has always been tried as an adult there should be an explanation of why her name is never used. Is it because of family issues, or is there some other reason her name is not used.
Assigning Editor Checklist
Many of the checks done are the same as those for the reporter and seem to have been done correctly. The names, numbers, and facts seem to be correct in the story and only a comment from the convicted woman might have added context.
Copy Editor Checklist
The headline is very well rounded and represntative of the story. Again they could have used a comment from the convicted woman to add balance to the story. In the lead there is a question of how she was automatically handed a life sentence when the murder happened a couple of years ago.
Conclusion
The facts in this story is pretty acurate there is just some unexplained anomolies in the information of the story. Could they get a quote from the woman? Could they use her name? Accuacy is very important in journalsim because newspapers give news to different people and are expected to be accurate. When Journalists mess-up they can defame someone or misrepresent an issue by not showing both sides, this could result in people losing jobs, and journalists being filed with a law suit.
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