Does a nonfiction article need facts?

Do photos need all their pixels to be true?

John D’Agata wrote an essay and a magazine accepted it, but the magazine's fact-checker said there were some facts that were wrong. Mr. D'Agata and the fact-checker, Jim Fingal, spent seven years trying to hash out what was true and what was not true. John D’Agata then published a book, along with all the correspondence between the two, called The Lifespan of a Fact.

Slate writer Dan Kois writes an article to explain:

I wonder how any reader can take D’Agata seriously when “What Happens There,” the essay being checked in Lifespan, is rife with inaccuracies, altered quotes, half-remembered events, and outright falsehoods. “You feel misled by my essay,” he said. “I accept that. You feel that it’s inappropriate for me to have done this. While I feel that it’s a necessary part of my job to do this. By taking these liberties, I’m making a better work of art—a truer experience for the reader—than if I stuck to the facts.”

Photo is of writer John D'Agata.

Facts Are Stupid. An essayist and his fact-checker go to battle over the line between true and false. Slate>>