Editorial Standards and Ethics
What these standards are for
These are the rules Riverdale Standard works to, written down so readers can hold us to them. They apply to every desk: the local desk covering Riverdale, Clayton County and the south metro, and the national and world desks covering business, technology, sports, science, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, auto and gaming. A gaming story and a county budget story are held to the same standard of accuracy, sourcing and fairness. The subjects differ; the discipline does not.
Accuracy comes first
We publish what we can verify. Every fact in a story should be traceable to a document, a record, a direct observation or a named or identified source, and the story should tell the reader which. A claim we could not verify is either left out or presented as an unverified claim, with that word. Being first is worth something; being right is worth more, and when the two conflict we hold the story. The fact-checking policy describes how verification works in practice.
Independence
No advertiser, sponsor, official, business, party or campaign influences what we cover or how. Advertising staff and editorial staff are separate functions, and advertiser identities are not part of editorial planning. Nobody outside the newsroom sees a story before it is published. We accept no payment for coverage, no payment to withhold coverage, and no gifts of more than nominal value from anyone we cover. Travel and access for reporting are paid for by us; where a story could not have been done without a subject’s assistance, the story says so.
Sourcing and attribution
Sources are named whenever possible. When we quote a person, we say who they are and in what capacity they spoke. When we rely on a document, we identify it well enough for a reader to find it. “Officials say” and “sources say” without further identification are not acceptable attribution on this site. The local desk in particular names the body, the meeting and the agenda item, because that is the information a reader needs to check us or to take part.
Anonymous sources are used only when the information is important, cannot be obtained on the record, and the source has a real reason to fear the consequences of being named. An editor must know the source’s identity and approve the use. The story explains why the source is not named and what position they are in to know what they claim. Anonymity is never granted to allow someone to attack another person without accountability.
Fairness
People and organizations criticized in a story are given a genuine chance to respond before publication, with enough detail about the allegation and enough time to answer it. The response is reported fairly and prominently, not buried. Where someone declines to comment, we say so. Where we could not reach them, we say what we tried. Fairness does not mean false balance: a claim contradicted by the evidence is reported as contradicted, not as one of two equal views.
Covering our neighbors
The local desk writes about people who live within a few miles of us, and the record follows them. We report crime from official sources and identify people charged with crimes as the record identifies them, and we follow up when a case is dismissed or ends in acquittal. We do not name minors who are victims or witnesses, and we name minors charged with crimes only in the rare cases where the law and the seriousness of the matter justify it. We do not publish home addresses of private individuals. We treat public officials’ public conduct as fully open to scrutiny and their private lives as private unless they bear on their office.
We do not exploit grief. After a death, we approach families with respect, accept a refusal, and do not take photographs from social media without permission. We do not publish images of bodies or of people at the worst moment of their lives to draw clicks.
Opinion and analysis
News stories report; they do not argue. Where we publish opinion, analysis or a review, it is labeled and the label is visible, and the piece is kept separate from news coverage of the same subject. Reviews of games, vehicles, products or entertainment state the reviewer’s basis: whether the product was bought, borrowed, or supplied by the maker, and under what conditions.
Headlines, images and captions
A headline must be supported by the story beneath it. It may not promise more than the story delivers, imply a conclusion the story does not reach, or state as fact something the story attributes. Images must show what the caption says they show. File photographs, stock images, renderings and illustrations are identified as such. We do not alter news photographs beyond routine cropping and exposure adjustment, and we do not create synthetic images of real events or real people and present them as photographs.
Plagiarism and originality
We do not present other people’s work as our own. Reporting that originated elsewhere is credited to where it originated. A reworded version of someone else’s exclusive is still someone else’s exclusive. Quotations are exact; where we tidy grammar in a spoken quote, we do not change meaning, and where we cut, we mark it.
Automated tools
We use software in the newsroom for transcription, research, drafting, translation, spelling and grammar, and for checking numbers and dates. These are tools; they are not authors. Every published sentence is the responsibility of a human editor who has checked it against the underlying sources. We do not publish a claim because software generated it, and we do not use synthetic images or video of real events or people. If material of substance in a story was produced with automated assistance, the story says so. If our practice in this area changes, this page changes first.
Conflicts of interest
Staff and contributors disclose to an editor any financial interest, family relationship, political involvement or business connection that touches a story they are working on, and they do not cover subjects where such a conflict exists. Staff do not hold office, campaign, or work for the public bodies and businesses the local desk covers. Where a connection is unavoidable and disclosure serves the reader, the story discloses it.
Errors and accountability
We correct errors openly under the corrections policy. Readers who believe we have breached these standards can write to support@riverdalestandard.com; complaints are read by an editor not involved in the story and are answered in writing. These standards are reviewed when the corrections log or a complaint shows they need to be, and changes are published on this page.
