A knowledgeable source and writer of this website, who declined to be named, gave Middle East Transparent the following explanation for The New Yorker’s failure (rather, unwillingness) to publish Seymour Hersh’s story on the killing of Bin Laden:
One of the reasons I think the New Yorker did not publish the article on the killing of Osama bin Laden was that it just came not through the fact checking department.
The New Yorker has a very rigid fact checking department.
Once I had to deal with the fact-checking department of The New Yorker. My organization had given a writer some information and documents and, as research director, they came to me to help them in fact-checking that information. That was rigourous and meticulous. I think the Seymour Hersh article which seems to be build on two sources did not make it through due to a lack of substantiated information.
It just did not make the standard for publishing.
The following two articles on The New Yorker’s fact-checking department should make things clear for readers:
Checkpoints
Fact-checkers do it a tick at a time.
By John McPhee
The Art of Fact-Checking
By Hannah Goldfield
Also, read: