{ "standard": "FactUnion Standard v1", "checkedAt": "2026-10-22T05:10:29.768Z", "title": "Five Lines, Fifty-Five Dollars", "date": "2026-10-22", "facts": [ { "n": 1, "claim": "A death notice has a flat rate, is published for a single day at a fixed price, and has a maximum of five lines of text.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://placeanobit.lee.net/obits/omaha/index.html", "title": "Adportal Self Service Advertising" }, { "url": "https://placeanobit.lee.net/", "title": "Adportal Self Service Advertising" }, { "url": "https://placeanobit.lee.net/obits/scnow/index.html", "title": "Adportal Self Service Advertising" } ], "verdict": "corrected", "note": "Removed unsupported $55 price and Omaha World-Herald attribution; evidence supports only the flat rate, single-day fixed-price run, and five-line maximum. Kept on a lower-weight source; nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 2, "claim": "The Lee portal offers a death notice at a flat rate, published for a single day at a fixed price, with a maximum of five lines of text.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://placeanobit.lee.net/", "title": "Adportal Self Service Advertising" } ], "verdict": "corrected", "note": "Original's $55 price, two-paper claim, and obituary prices are unsupported. Evidence shows only a single-day flat-rate death notice, five lines maximum. Kept on a lower-weight source; nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 3, "claim": "Legacy.com portal starting prices checked on Sept 19, 2026 included $36.50 at the Houston Chronicle, $50 at the Detroit Free Press, $263 at the New York Times and $475 at the Washington Post; these are entry prices, not typical totals.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://obituary.design/blog/obituary-cost-newspaper/", "title": "How Much Does an Obituary Cost? Newspaper Prices (2026)" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (obituary.design); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 4, "claim": "The Los Angeles Times prices start at $205 for a five-line, one-column notice, and third-party sites say a typical obituary there costs about $1,000 to $1,500.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.thepricer.org/obituary-in-the-newspaper-cost/", "title": "How Much Does a Newspaper Obituary Cost?" }, { "url": "https://obitsonline.net/newspaper-obituary-cost/", "title": "Frustrated with the high cost of newspaper obituaries?" }, { "url": "https://obitsonline.net/newspaper-obituary-prices/", "title": "The ridiculous price of a newspaper obituary" } ], "verdict": "corrected", "note": "The $205 figure is a starting price for a five-line notice, not a minimum charge. The $1,000 to $1,500 obituary cost appears only on third-party sites.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 5, "claim": "Legacy explains that newspaper obituary pricing can include an insertion fee charged 'regardless of length' plus a line fee based on printed lines of roughly 25 to 40 characters.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.legacy.com/contact/en/articles/10752883-how-much-does-an-obituary-cost", "title": "How Much Does an Obituary Cost? | Legacy Help Center" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 6, "claim": "A writer recalling his start as a 17-year-old cub reporter at a small daily says 'Paid death notices, called in by local funeral directors' were standard and 'Very, very few local people ranked a news obit.'", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.kgbreport.com/archives/death/index.shtml", "title": "KGB Report" }, { "url": "https://www.kgbreport.com/archives/2018/05/21/index.shtml", "title": "KGB Report" }, { "url": "https://www.kgbreport.com/archives/2018/05/do-not-go-gently-but-please-do-be-brief.shtml", "title": "Do not go gently, but please do be brief." } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (kgbreport.com); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 7, "claim": "The KGB Report account says that adding the word 'died' to an obituary ran it one line deeper, which cost about ten dollars.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.kgbreport.com/archives/death/index.shtml", "title": "KGB Report" }, { "url": "https://www.kgbreport.com/archives/2018/05/do-not-go-gently-but-please-do-be-brief.shtml", "title": "Do not go gently, but please do be brief." } ], "verdict": "corrected", "note": "Original wrongly named funeral homes and tied line billing to KGB. KGB says adding \"died\" to an obituary cost about ten dollars. Kept on a lower-weight source; nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 8, "claim": "A Medford weekly editor quoted in a 2011 Rural Blog post said: 'About five years ago we switched to a three-tiered system for obituaries here in Medford. Prior to that we ran them all for free'.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://irjci.blogspot.com/2011/01/should-newspapers-charge-for-obituaries.html?m=1", "title": "As more weekly newspapers charge for obituaries, some editors and publishers resist" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (Blogger); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 9, "claim": "The same 2011 Rural Blog post quotes Paula Barnett, publisher of the Woodruff County Monitor, as resisting charging for obituaries.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://irjci.blogspot.com/2011/01/should-newspapers-charge-for-obituaries.html?m=1", "title": "As more weekly newspapers charge for obituaries, some editors and publishers resist" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (Blogger); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 10, "claim": "By the mid-19th century, American newspapers were regularly publishing death notices submitted by local funeral homes, separate from journalist-written stories on notable people.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/funerals/obituary-history.htm", "title": "https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/funerals/obituary-history.htm" } ], "verdict": "corrected", "note": "Source corrected: the page first cited was read and is about something else; the sources listed state this.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 11, "claim": "The Library of Congress post says almost all obituaries before the 1880s were short, and that steam-powered printing and the penny press in the years before the Civil War expanded obituaries of ordinary citizens.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2026/05/mourn-not-a-history-of-obituaries-in-american-newspapers/", "title": "Mourn Not! A History of Obituaries in American Newspapers" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 12, "claim": "A 2005 study of 869 obituaries, death notices and memorials found 'Males, compared to females, had significantly more lines describing careers.'", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.academia.edu/81174181/A_Double_Standard_in_Death_Gender_Differences_in_Obituaries", "title": "(PDF) A Double Standard in Death? Gender Differences in Obituaries (2005) | Academia.edu" }, { "url": "https://doi.org/10.2190/V443-74PW-7066-0173", "title": "A Double Standard in Death? Gender Differences in Obituaries - Shirley Matile Ogletree, Daniella Pena, Patricia Figueroa, 2005" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 13, "claim": "Fowler and Bielsa's 2007 quantitative analysis of newspaper obituaries found that over time 'women start to appear in their own right' and 'a wider array of occupations have become the source of obituary portraits.'", "sources": [ { "url": "https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00702.x", "title": "The Lives We Choose to Remember: A Quantitative Analysis of Newspaper Obituaries - Bridget Fowler, Esperança Bielsa, 2007" }, { "url": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00702.x", "title": "The lives we choose to remember: a quantitative analysis of newspaper obituaries - Fowler - 2007 - The Sociological Review - Wiley Online Library" }, { "url": "https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00702.x", "title": "The Lives We Choose to Remember: A Quantitative Analysis of Newspaper Obituaries - Bridget Fowler, Esperança Bielsa, 2007" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 14, "claim": "A study of 38 million obituaries found men's contained more language linked to achievement, conformity and power, and women's more language linked to benevolence and enjoying life's pleasures.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://theconversation.com/what-38-million-obituaries-reveal-about-how-americans-define-a-life-well-lived-263880", "title": "What 38 million obituaries reveal about how Americans define a ‘life well lived’" }, { "url": "https://lakeconews.com/en/83271-what-38-million-obituaries-reveal-about-how-americans-define-a-life-well-lived", "title": "What 38 million obituaries reveal about how Americans define a ‘life well lived’ - Lake County News,California" }, { "url": "https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/obituaries-study", "title": "Obituaries are the most-read parts of newspapers. Here's what 38 million tributes reveal" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 15, "claim": "Johnny Diaz's April 28, 2026 New York Times piece states: 'As newsroom staffs have shrunk and newspapers have turned to paid obituaries, the way has been paved for more offbeat obituaries that can be funny and brutally honest.'", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/offbeat-obituaries-honor-loss-with-levity-and-brutal-honesty/", "title": "Offbeat obituaries honor loss with levity (and brutal honesty)" }, { "url": "https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/offbeat-obituaries-honor-loss-with-levity-and-brutal-honesty/", "title": "Offbeat obituaries honor loss with levity (and brutal honesty)" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 16, "claim": "Funeralwise wrote around 2015 that 'It's hard to say just how quickly the trend toward writing your own obituary is growing,' and obituary writer Katharine Lowrie said she 'can't give you any statistics.'", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.funeralwise.com/self-penned-obituary-labor-love-trend-movement/", "title": "The self-penned obituary: Is this labor of love a trend or a movement?" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (funeralwise.com); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 17, "claim": "Poynter (2024), citing Axios (2019), reports more than a million paid obituaries a year bringing in $500 million, and a Hartford Courant price of about $1,200 for a long family-written obituary.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2024/newspaper-obits-nonprofit-content-sharing/", "title": "Obits for a paper’s long-time staffer underline new approaches to media competition and collaboration" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 18, "claim": "In Legacy's own marketing, Wick Communications COO John D'Orlando is quoted saying 'We absolutely cannot survive without a robust obituary category'.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.legacy.com/contact/en/articles/11109460-supercharge-your-newspaper-s-obituaries-with-legacy-hosted-obits", "title": "Supercharge Your Newspaper’s Obituaries with Legacy Hosted Obits | Legacy Help Center" }, { "url": "https://sales.legacy.com/", "title": "Legacy and iPublish | Classifieds, Legals and Obituaries" }, { "url": "https://sales.legacy.com/advertising-revenue-opportunities/", "title": "Legacy and iPublish | Classifieds, Legals and Obituaries" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (Legacy Help Center); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 19, "claim": "Pew Research Center reports that US newsroom employment dropped 23% between 2008 and 2019.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/04/28/10-charts-about-americas-newsrooms/", "title": "Newsroom jobs and employment in the U.S.: 10 charts about the industry" } ], "verdict": "corrected", "note": "The original gave 57% for 2008 to 2020 and attributed it to Pew. Pew's passage says 23% for 2008 to 2019, so the 57% figure and 2020 date are unsupported.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 20, "claim": "Funeral.com advises: 'Many families save money by placing a short, clear notice in print (so the community is informed) and then publishing the fuller story online (so the tribute is complete and shareable).'", "sources": [ { "url": "https://funeral.com/blogs/the-journal/how-much-do-digital-and-newspaper-obituaries-cost-2025-2026-price-ranges-and-ways-to-save", "title": "How Much Do Digital and Newspaper Obituaries Cost? 2025–2026 Price Ranges and Ways to Save" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (funeral.com); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 21, "claim": "A funeral home usually lists the newspaper notice as a cash-advance item on the written statement that federal rules require, so families can ask which paper, how many lines and whether a handling fee was added.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.memorials.com/info/how-much-does-a-funeral-cost/obituary-cost", "title": "How Much Does an Obituary Cost?" }, { "url": "https://www.finalnotes.page/obituary-cost/", "title": "Obituary Cost Guide: Newspaper and Online Prices" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (memorials.com); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 22, "claim": "Rootstalk says that when ordinary people began writing family obituaries 'the first eight lines were often free-of-charge,' but gives no date, place or paper.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://rootstalk.grinnell.edu/issues/volume-v-issue-1/on-the-changing-nature-of-the-obituary/", "title": "On the Changing Nature of the Obituary" } ], "verdict": "verified", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true }, { "n": 23, "claim": "An April 20, 2026 newdeaths.com piece says AI-written scraped obituary pages often outrank the official funeral-home notice for the first 48 hours, though it names no specific cases.", "sources": [ { "url": "https://newdeaths.com/2026/04/20/the-rise-of-ai-clickbait-obituaries-why-your-digital-legacy-is-under-attack-in-2026/", "title": "The Rise of AI Clickbait Obituaries: Why Your Digital Legacy is Under Attack in 2026" } ], "verdict": "verified", "note": "Kept on a lower-weight source (newdeaths.com); nothing we found says otherwise.", "quote": false, "usedInEpisode": true } ], "removed": [ { "claim": "The Omaha World-Herald's Lee portal lists obituaries starting at $185 and In Memoriam notices from $8.75.", "reason": "We could not find a public record about this either way." }, { "claim": "Cutting words lowers an obituary's cost only if the number of printed lines or the ad size actually shrinks.", "reason": "Only one source states this: thepricer.org." }, { "claim": "Writing about 18th- and early-19th-century American death notices, the Library of Congress says 'Death notices of men were more likely to be published than of women, white citizen's deaths were more likely to be published than of any other group, and the wealthy were able to afford to pay to have their death notice or obituary published'.", "reason": "Library of Congress gives context that changes the meaning. Our summary: The page limits the paid-notice point to cases where the newspaper was not already planning to print the death, a condition the claim omits." }, { "claim": "Small-town papers could find space for the deaths of even common people, while large dailies printed lengthy obituaries only for the prominent.", "reason": "Sources only partly back this: atlasobscura.com." }, { "claim": "Legacy claims 3,200+ newspaper partners and says newspapers 'earn a share of ad revenue from every obituary page view.'", "reason": "Legacy Help Center states something different: \"Legacy partners with over 2,800 newspapers across the country to feature your loved one's obituary in the newspaper of your choice.\"." } ], "audioCheck": { "lines": 179, "matched": 179 }, "corrections": [], "verify": { "method": "1.3", "llmMode": "testing", "models": { "summary": "claude-haiku-5-5", "extract": "claude-haiku-5-5", "consolidate": "claude-haiku-5-5", "query": "claude-haiku-5-5", "read": "claude-haiku-5-5", "read_second": "claude-sonnet-5-5", "compare": "claude-haiku-5-5", "classify": "claude-haiku-5-5", "explain": "claude-haiku-5-5", "undash": "claude-haiku-5-5", "correct": "claude-haiku-5-5" }, "preScript": { "jobId": "job_X9HPA5KF4A0GJJFGRNT3", "checkedAt": "2026-10-22T05:10:29.768Z", "counts": { "verified": 17, "corrected": 6, "removed": 5 } }, "episode": { "jobId": "job_MABPY4WPD6TA50J3XFGD", "checkRef": "chk_R9B17BZP81HWN78N2ZHH", "trustPageUrl": null, "checkedAt": "2026-10-22T11:09:41.110Z", "score": null, "outcome": "not_rated", "counts": { "verified": 15, "not_verified": 0, "questionable": 26, "unable_to_determine": 18 }, "stability": { "spread": 8, "unstableClaims": 4, "pass": false }, "notVerified": [], "questionable": [ { "k": 4, "claim": "Legacy says a newspaper obituary line is roughly twenty-five to forty characters long.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: Legacy Help Center." }, { "k": 7, "claim": "In September 2026 the starting price for a Detroit Free Press death notice on Legacy's portal was 50 dollars.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: obituary.design." }, { "k": 8, "claim": "In September 2026 the starting price for a New York Times death notice on Legacy's portal was 263 dollars.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: obituary.design." }, { "k": 9, "claim": "In September 2026 the starting price for a Washington Post death notice on Legacy's portal was 475 dollars.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: obituary.design." }, { "k": 11, "claim": "Third-party sites say a typical Los Angeles Times obituary costs about 1,000 to 1,500 dollars.", "reasonText": "Only lower-weight sources state this: thepricer.org and 1 more." }, { "k": 12, "claim": "For most ordinary people, the long, full-length newspaper obituary was never in the newspaper.", "reasonText": "Sources only partly back this: Library of Congress." }, { "k": 15, "claim": "A SagaSeal order produces a printable gift certificate that is ready the same day.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: sagaseal.com." }, { "k": 16, "claim": "SagaSeal shows memoir questions on screen one at a time in large letters and reads each one aloud.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: sagaseal.com." }, { "k": 18, "claim": "The SagaSeal service works in a web browser on a computer, tablet or phone and requires nothing to be installed.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: sagaseal.com." }, { "k": 19, "claim": "SagaSeal builds every chapter from the customer's own words and phrases.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: sagaseal.com." }, { "k": 20, "claim": "SagaSeal reads every chapter before printing and revises any chapter that does not sound like the person.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: sagaseal.com." }, { "k": 21, "claim": "SagaSeal prints and binds each memoir as a hardcover book by real people.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: sagaseal.com." }, { "k": 23, "claim": "At the small daily, and as standard practice, paid death notices were phoned in by funeral homes and paid for by families like an ad.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: kgbreport.com." }, { "k": 25, "claim": "Adding the word died could push a death notice one line longer, and that extra line cost about ten dollars.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: kgbreport.com." }, { "k": 27, "claim": "By the middle of the 1800s, American newspapers were regularly running death notices sent in by funeral homes.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: people.howstuffworks.com." }, { "k": 32, "claim": "A Medford weekly ran all of its obituaries free until about 2006, when it switched to a three-tiered system, according to its editor.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: Blogger." }, { "k": 33, "claim": "Paula Barnett, publisher of the Woodruff County Monitor, opposed charging for obituaries at all in a 2011 Rural Blog post.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: Blogger." }, { "k": 40, "claim": "Pew Research Center says US newsroom employment dropped 23 percent between 2008 and 2019.", "reasonText": "Reliable sources disagree about this." }, { "k": 41, "claim": "Johnny Diaz wrote in the New York Times in April 2026 that shrinking newsrooms and paid obituaries paved the way for funnier, brutally honest obituaries.", "reasonText": "The fact holds, but the named source does not say it." }, { "k": 43, "claim": "Around 2015 Funeralwise wrote that it was hard to say how quickly the trend toward writing your own obituary was growing.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: funeralwise.com." }, { "k": 44, "claim": "Obituary writer Katharine Lowrie said she could not give statistics on the trend of writing one's own or funny obituaries.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: funeralwise.com." }, { "k": 48, "claim": "Funeral.com advises that many families save money by placing a short, clear notice in print and publishing the fuller story online.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: funeral.com." }, { "k": 49, "claim": "Paying for obituaries by the line cut ordinary lives out of the newspaper.", "reasonText": "Sources only partly back this: Library of Congress." }, { "k": 50, "claim": "The long version of obituaries, sometimes the funny one, moved online.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: memorials.com." }, { "k": 53, "claim": "An April 2026 newdeaths piece says scraped, machine-written obituary pages often outrank the funeral home's own notice for the first 48 hours.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: newdeaths.com." }, { "k": 54, "claim": "The newdeaths piece does not name a single specific case.", "reasonText": "Only one source states this: newdeaths.com." } ] } } }