But nothing, he says, has been changed because of factual inaccuracy. Krakauer did not respond to a message left with his wife at his unlisted number, which was later changed. His publicist says the author is no longer talking to journalists. All six of Hersh's previous books have been controversial, but nothing has surpassed Dark Side . The vast majority of reviews say Hersh's portrait of John F. Kennedy is off, that his accounts of womanizing, election fraud, assassination plots aimed at foreign leaders, warmongering, and other unpleasantries demonstrate sensationalism, not sober historical inquiry.
Few reviewers mention demonstrable factual errors.
Little, Brown, publisher of Dark Side , commits more resources to fact-checking than most houses. Part of the copy editor's job there is to fact-check sections of books, and to raise questions if spot checks indicate an accuracy problem. Hersh says copy editor Peggy Leith Anderson placed some 600 queries about facts in his manuscript. And because the publishing schedule was so tight and the material so volatile, Little, Brown took the rare step of assigning a second copy editor to go over the manuscript with Anderson. Hersh also hired a doctoral student to check facts and showed portions of the manuscript to experts, including a former CIA agent.