This page explains how Factsdesk works. It is written to be checked: each commitment below is something a reader can test against what we publish.
Publishing principles
Factsdesk exists to report facts accurately, with their sources, and to leave the judgment to the reader. We label every piece above its headline as news, analysis, opinion, explainer, live, rankings, fact check or data. A label does not change after publication unless a correction says so, and opinion is never formatted to look like news.
Ethics
We do not take payment, gifts or favors from the people and organizations we cover, and we do not sell coverage. We do not publish anything we know to be false, and we do not present a guess as a fact. We do not copy other publishers' reporting. We summarize it in our own words, quote at most one sentence and link to it.
News stays neutral. Straight news uses plain verbs such as "said" instead of loaded ones such as "claimed" or "admitted", names who says what, and on contested stories shows what is verified, what is disputed and who disputes it. Opinion may take sides, and says plainly that it is opinion.
Verification
Every factual claim in news, analysis, explainer, data and fact-check pieces links to a source, and primary sources come first: court filings, agency data, league data, company filings, transcripts and original documents. A news piece must cite at least two sources. Each piece opens with a short list of key facts, and each key fact shows its source and the time it was last confirmed.
Before publication, a separate verification pass reopens every source and checks each claim, number, date and quotation against it. Anything that cannot be confirmed is removed. A fact that rests on a single outlet stays out until the primary record or a second source supports it. Pieces that fail our automated checks, including missing sources and missing key facts, do not publish.
For developing stories we add timestamped updates to the same page instead of creating thin new pages, and we show what is known, what is not yet known and what is disputed. Pages built on official data state the time of their last data.
People we write about
An accusation of wrongdoing against a named person is published only when it comes from an official record, such as a court filing, a government report or a public filing, or from a statement made on the record, and the sentence says where it comes from. Other facts about public figures may come from a named, established news outlet, and the sentence names that outlet. Facts about a private person come only from official records.
A private person accused of a crime is named only when a court record shows a charge. We use the wording of the record, such as "charged with", and we update the page when the charge changes. We do not apply a label such as fraud, corrupt, criminal or liar to anyone unless an official record uses that word about that person.
Quotations and images
A quotation is copied exactly from its source. We do not paraphrase inside quotation marks, and we do not generate quotations.
The images on this site are graphics we make ourselves, or public-domain government images shown with credit. We do not use photographs from news organizations, photo agencies or social media posts, and we do not create images, audio or video that depict a real person or pretend to show a real event.
How AI is used
The news at Factsdesk is chosen, written and checked by AI. AI scans public records and official sources, decides what to cover, writes each piece and runs the verification pass. No person picks, writes, edits or approves a piece that reports facts before it publishes, and that covers news, explainers, data pages, schedules and results. We built it this way so that no person chooses which facts are reported or how they are worded.
A person set the rules the AI works under, which are the sourcing, verification and corrections rules on this page, and designed the site. That person is the editor, who remains responsible for what is published. Opinion and analysis are the exception to the automatic process: they are labeled above the headline, opinion is a person's view, and both publish only after a person approves them.
We say this plainly because readers are entitled to know how what they read was made. Verification is not left to the drafting pass: a separate pass reopens every source and compares it with the text before a piece publishes.
We do not invent reporters, biographies or credentials, and we do not present AI output as eyewitness reporting.
Opinion columns
Opinion appears under a named column, The Unfiltered Column, and is labeled Opinion above the headline. Columns are the editor's own views. A column states the facts it rests on, those facts are checked like everything else, and it accuses no named person of wrongdoing beyond what the record shows. Its conclusions are arguments, not findings, and they are never mixed into news pages.
Corrections
When we get something wrong we fix it in public. Mail sent to corrections@factsdesk.com is read within a day, and a confirmed error is fixed the same day. A correction states the date and what was wrong, appears on the piece itself, is added to the corrections log and is published in machine-readable form at corrections.json. We do not quietly rewrite a published fact. The full process is on the corrections page.
No bylines
Pieces carry a desk name such as "Politics Desk" instead of a personal byline, and opinion carries the name of its column. The desk name tells you which part of the operation produced the piece. It is not the name of a person, and we do not create fictional staff to fill a byline. Factsdesk does not publish the names of the people who run it, so its work has to stand on what can be checked: the sources linked beside every fact, the time each fact was confirmed and the public record of corrections. Responsibility for every piece sits with the editor, and corrections and feedback go to the address below.
Ownership and funding
Factsdesk is owned and paid for by its editor, a private individual, with no company, investors, advertisers, sponsors or donors behind it, and it takes no money from campaigns, political committees, governments or the companies it covers. It is not affiliated with any political party, candidate, government or other news organization. If any of this changes, this page will change first and the change will be dated.
Feedback
Tell us about an error, a missing source or an unfair framing at corrections@factsdesk.com. Include the address of the page and what you think is wrong. Factual errors are reviewed first and acted on the same day where we can confirm them. Tips and documents go to tips@factsdesk.com. We read every message, though we cannot reply to all of them.
Masthead
How the site is edited and how pieces are made is summarized on the about page.