How Soursen checks facts

How a story is chosen

I pick each story by hand. I publish it when I can find the document it rests on and when the document says something a reader can use.

Where a piece starts

A piece starts from primary material. That is a release, a filing, an incident report, a mailing list thread, or a research paper.

What counts as a primary source

A primary source is that document. When I use a writeup that only retells it, I treat the writeup as a secondary source and I say so.

Unnamed sources

When a claim comes from an unnamed source, I label it as an unnamed source in the sentence where the claim appears.

Last verified

Last verified is the date I opened the sources again and checked the claims in the piece against them.

Corrections

When a fact is wrong, I correct the piece and publish the correction on the corrections page. The note stays on the article with the date and the change.

Sponsored pieces

A sponsored piece is labelled as sponsored at the top. The sources stay listed.

Who does the work

One person answers for every piece. I choose the story, I read the source documents, I check each claim against them, and my name is on the piece.