Editorial Standards

Accuracy and verification

• Treat source material as evidence, not automatically as established fact.
• Cross-check consequential claims when independent corroboration is reasonably available.
• Do not invent precision, dates, quotations, numbers or certainty that the evidence does not support.
• Block publication when material conflicts or required information remain unresolved.

Headlines and previews

• Headlines must state the verified news directly and must not promise details that the article does not support.
• High-confidence curiosity-gap, engagement-bait, repeated sensational punctuation and full all-caps headlines are blocked before review.
• A legitimate question headline is not automatically clickbait, but it must still be answered or fairly addressed by the underlying reporting.
• Headline urgency must never be manufactured by inventing certainty, timing, danger or significance.

Attribution and source context

Readers should be able to understand where material information came from. Source identity, publication timing and relevant limitations should be preserved through the newsroom workflow.

Human approval

AI or automation may assist with bounded newsroom tasks, but unattended autonomous publishing is not permitted. Editorial approval and the final publish action require an authorized human.

AI-assisted work

• AI output must remain evidence-locked and reviewable.
• Generated text cannot convert unverified claims into confirmed facts.
• Ambiguous or sensitive issues should fail closed for human review rather than be automatically repaired.
• Provider or model changes must not weaken editorial safeguards.

Corrections and accountability

Material factual errors should be corrected transparently. Published-state changes and newsroom actions are designed to leave an auditable record rather than silently rewriting history.