RETRO REPORT ON PBS, a public affairs program that aired on PBS in October 2019, brings new insight to today’s important headlines with stories that provide historical context and discredit myths.
“Part of our mission is to be the second draft of history, if journalism is the first draft,” Executive Producer Kyra Darnton said.
The reporting process for each story is meticulous. First, it involves searching for and examining documents and books, interviewing people with connections to the past, and tracking down various other available resources. Then, it requires fact-checking a “massive amount of sources and information,” sometimes from a span of 50 years, said Darnton, who previously worked as a producer for CBS’s 60 Minutes.
Here’s how the rigorous fact-checking process works:
Once the team of a reporter and producer are done editing their piece, Darnton said, they footnote every fact in the transcript, including soundbites. The material then goes to an independent fact checker. It usually takes a couple of weeks to verify all the facts. And then there is a big fact-check meeting, “which can go on for hours,” Darnton said. “We can talk for 45 minutes about a clause.”
“It only makes you better and stronger the more you’re building your case for why something is true,” Darnton said. “I never mind defending something if we have the reporting to back it up.”
The PBS Editorial Standards state that “Producers must implement rigorous fact-checking procedures to verify the accuracy of all factual assertions.” Importantly, it’s not just the facts that producers need to make sure to get right. Accuracy means “facts must be placed in sufficient context based on the nature of the piece to ensure that the public is not misled.”
“We really work hard to make sure people are quoted in context, in the way they meant,” Darnton said.
With a story that has an historical perspective, archival news footage can present a dilemma if it includes an inaccuracy. For example, if the footage includes an interview in which someone makes an erroneous statement, producers will point this out, no matter how minor, Darnton said.
Fortunately, producers don’t have the same time constraints as a daily news organization; they are able to spend four to eight months working on a report. “We have this amazing gift, which is the gift of time and resources to go and spend really digging into a topic,” Darnton said.
RETRO REPORT ON PBS was produced by Retro Report, a non-profit news organization based in New York City that was established in 2013. There are more than 200 short-form documentaries on Retro Report’s website on topics ranging from migrant children to genetic screening to the future of gaming.
The PBS series consisted of eight one-hour episodes. Each episode was hosted by journalist Celeste Headlee and artist Masud Olufani and included four news stories (approximately 10-12 minutes each) as well as a closing opinion segment by humorist Andy Borowitz.
Borowitz’s segment had its own title sequence and name—“Now It All Makes Sense with Andy Borowitz”—to separate it from the news stories. This is consistent with the PBS Editorial Standards, which state that “Producers must identify for the audience in a clear and consistent manner material that is opinion or commentary, and communicate to the audience whose views are being presented.”
Borowitz’s team, which includes a producer and editor who previously worked at The Daily Show, operated as its own unit.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about it. It is important to separate it out from the rest of the show,” Darnton said. “And we are constantly identifying him as a humorist, making sure that people understand that this is a different kettle of fish. But that said, everything in his piece is vigorously fact-checked and based on fact.”
Contact Standards & Practices at standards@pbs.org
