How We Work

How We Work

We think you deserve to know not just what we publish, but how we decide what's true enough to publish. This isn't boilerplate - it's the actual process every VoteFresno article goes through before you see it.

1. We start from documented sources - never assumption

Every story starts with something real and traceable: a council agenda, a campaign finance filing, a public vote record, an on-record quote, an official filing. We don't start with a conclusion and go looking for support - we start with the record and report what it actually shows. If the record doesn't support a claim, the claim doesn't run, no matter how plausible it sounds.

2. Every draft is checked against its own sources - by a second, independent pass

After a piece is drafted, it goes through a separate verification step - not a rubber stamp, a genuinely independent check that re-reads every factual claim in the piece against the specific source it's supposed to come from. This step has no memory of why the claim was written the way it was - it only asks whether the source actually says what the article says it says. Anything that doesn't hold up gets flagged before a human ever sees the piece for final review.

3. Every claim gets a confidence rating

Alongside the article, our editorial team sees a source-by-source, claim-by-claim breakdown showing how directly each fact traces back to its source. Claims with strong, direct source support move forward easily. Claims that are weakly sourced, or not sourced at all, get flagged for closer scrutiny - or get cut before publication. This rating is a tool for our own editorial judgment, not a public score, but the discipline behind it is what keeps our reporting accurate.

4. Analysis is always labeled as analysis, and it's grounded - not guesswork

When we explore why someone might support or oppose a decision, we're honest that it's interpretation, not a claim of settled fact. We only build that kind of analysis on documented information - voting history, disclosed donors, publicly known relationships - never on unverifiable speculation about someone's private motives or character. If we can't point to something real behind an inference, we don't publish the inference.

5. Plain-language explainers are checked for balance, not just accuracy

When we break down a proposal or ballot measure in plain language, we don't just check that the facts are right - we check that we haven't quietly favored one side by only explaining its version of the impact. A good explainer shows effects on multiple sides fairly, in language anyone can follow.

6. A real person reviews everything before it goes live

Nothing on VoteFresno publishes automatically, ever. Every single piece - news, analysis, scorecards, explainers - is reviewed by a person on our team before it goes out. Automation helps us draft and check; it does not have the final word.

7. Paid content is always labeled, and never mixed with our reporting

Politicians, campaigns, and organizations can purchase space for opinion pieces or advertising on VoteFresno. When one side does, we proactively offer the same opportunity, at the same price, to the other side of the issue - we don't wait to be asked. Every piece of paid content lives in its own clearly marked section of the site, visually distinct from our reporting, and is labeled as paid every time it appears - including in email, if it's ever distributed that way.

8. Our scorecards use a fixed, public rubric

The Record - our politician scorecard feature - is built on a rubric we publish before scoring anyone, applied the same way to every official regardless of party. We show you the data - votes, attendance, donor patterns - using a visual scale; we don't tell you who's good or bad. That call is yours to make.

9. We correct our mistakes, publicly

If we get something wrong - a fact, a date, a figure - we fix it and note that a correction was made. We'd rather be visibly accountable than quietly right. (Full corrections policy to be published once formalized.)

Questions about our process?