The method
A number is not a fact until two records agree on it.
The films are short and the claims are large, which is exactly the combination that goes wrong most often. This is the checking that happens before a figure is allowed to be spoken out loud.
- 01
Trace it back to where it was first published
A figure travels. It appears in a trade article, which took it from a consultancy note, which took it from one estimate somebody made years earlier. Every number is followed upstream until the trail ends at an original publication — a filing, a court exhibit, a regulation, an official statistical series, a peer-reviewed paper — and read there, in full, at the page it appears on.
- 02
Two sources passing on the same estimate are one source
This is the rule that does most of the work. Agreement between publications means nothing if both are quoting the same original. A figure counts as standing on two records only when two genuinely separate collections arrive at it, or when one primary document states it directly.
- 03
Check the year the number is actually about
A 2011 teardown estimate quoted in a 2024 article is a 2011 figure. Where the reference year matters to the claim — and it usually does — it is stated, and the film is written around the year the record supports rather than the year it was republished.
- 04
Sort into three piles, and act on the sorting
Solid: two independent records, or a primary document read in full. Single-source or shaky: it may still be used, but it is marked here and never carries the turn of an episode. Out: it does not appear in the film at all, however good it sounds — and it stays out, including in the description and the thumbnail.
- 05
Publish the register, including its holes
Every source that survived is listed on this site with what it backs. Where the record is genuinely contested, the episode page says so rather than picking the more striking number. Where a citation has no public link — a book, a court exhibit, a paywalled series — it is named in full so it can be found.
What the marks on this site mean
- Two sources
- Two independent records, or one primary document read in full at the page.
- One source
- Rests on a single record. Stated in the film, and flagged here so you can weigh it.
- Contested
- The records disagree, or the figure is an allegation in a case that has not been decided.
Corrections
Corrections are published rather than quietly patched: the episode page carries what was wrong and what replaced it. If you have found an error, the fastest route is an email with the source that contradicts us — corrections@thefineprint26.com.
See the register→