I made no extrapolation. I said that we haven't measured the reliability of the earlier stories. Instead of having a reliable measurement, we're going with our much-less-reliable assumptions (prior beliefs).
The interesting thing, I think, is those prior beliefs. Your prior beliefs, it would seem, include the belief TAL's stories are generally reliable. You believe it strongly enough that you write that doubting the reliability of earlier TAL stories is an "over correction in the wrong direction."
I don't think it's an overcorrection. When we find evidence of one fabrication from a trusted source, that source ought to lose trust. If we want to know how much trust it should lose, we have to measure. When we don't measure, when we don't take seriously the responsibility to ground our beliefs, that's how we end up with things like the replication crisis in psychology.
You're extrapolating from the Daisy incident to doubt of their previous reporting. And believe that the Daisy incident merits responding by holding TAL to a newly escalated standard for verification. From this most recent comment of yours, you seem comfortable with "doubting the reliability of earlier TAL stories" as a position you view to be not an over correction. I think you're underestimating how an extreme a position that is, and kind of equivocating between ordinary skepticism and doubting the veracity of their previous stories.
You're right that I believe TAL's stories are generally reliable, that I believe doubting them is an over-correction in the wrong direction.
I also don't think I agree that it's simply a matter of checking or not checking because I believe the vast body of work that's been free from error, although exposed to the same conditions of public scrutiny that could have revealed error in just the same way as with the Daisy story, is part of the body of evidence that actively testifies in favor of TAL. And I do think if there was more of a rocky track record, or if there proves to be more of one in the future, it absolutely could merit spot checking. And as I've said twice now already, I've given the example of Stephen Glass as a case where that skepticism was warranted.
You seem to be implying that I have a categorical opposition to spot checking which couldn't be further from the truth. I just don't think it's warranted in this instance, because it's not a reasonable extrapolation from what happened with the Daisy story.
You're inferring a lot that I didn't write or even imply. I'll be clear about my beliefs:
1. I just learned from the article about the fabricated Daisey episode and that TAL started using professional fact checkers only afterward. I was surprised on both counts.
2. I saw your comment that it would be in poor character to discredit TAL's prior reporting on the basis of this one failure.
3. I responded that it would be telling to actually estimate the reliability of earlier episodes because, right now, we're just going off our personal beliefs (and these probably vary widely from person to person).
4. You and I had a back and forth, mainly talking past one another.
5. I think that if we did actually measure the reliability of prior episodes, it would be less than a lot of TAL defenders expect and greater than a lot of TAL doubters expect.
6. As for what's reasonable vs. over correction to take away from the article, that depends largely on your prior beliefs about TAL and how the world functions in general.
Note that point 5, being a product of my prior beliefs about TAL and how the world functions in general, is actually an example of point 6 in action.
You never had a reason to trust TAL's reporting before the Daisey incident. You maybe trusted it because it is on the radio, and you trust people who can afford a radio station; or because it was on an NPR station, and you trust NPR.
This is pragmatic as long as you have no evidence either way and you're not basing any serious decisions on this "trust." But the fact that they didn't bother to fact check Daisey, and in fact had never fact-checked before that: this is actually the first information you have about TAL's internal processes. It should vastly outweigh it being on the radio.
This comes off like fandom. You seem to have an interest in this incident not affecting people's perception of the quality of TAL, but I have no idea what that interest would be. It shouldn't bother you that people see the show as a place whose facts should be checked if one is considering spreading them.
The interesting thing, I think, is those prior beliefs. Your prior beliefs, it would seem, include the belief TAL's stories are generally reliable. You believe it strongly enough that you write that doubting the reliability of earlier TAL stories is an "over correction in the wrong direction."
I don't think it's an overcorrection. When we find evidence of one fabrication from a trusted source, that source ought to lose trust. If we want to know how much trust it should lose, we have to measure. When we don't measure, when we don't take seriously the responsibility to ground our beliefs, that's how we end up with things like the replication crisis in psychology.