Ethics
Our rules, in plain English. No committee-speak, no wiggle room — this is how the Herald operates, and how to call us out when we fall short of it.
We print what we can prove
If we can't back it up — with records, documents, or people willing to put their name on it — it doesn't run. Court files, public records, and the paper trail come first, and when a story rests on a document, we show you the document. Anyone we're about to hit gets asked for their side before we publish. When they duck us, we tell you that too.
We're not neutral about accountability
The Herald has a point of view: public power answers to the public, and we're aggressive about it. But you'll always know what you're reading. News pages report what happened. Opinion runs labeled as Opinion — big, clear, impossible to miss. We don't sneak our arguments into the news.
Nobody buys our coverage — and nobody buys their way out of it
No donor, subscriber, or friend of the paper sees a story early, kills a story, or softens one. Giving us money gets you journalism, not influence.
Unnamed sources are the exception, not the habit
We want names on the record. When we grant anonymity, it's because the information matters, we've verified it, and the source has something real to lose — and we tell you as much of the why as we safely can. We always know who our sources are. And we protect them, all the way.
When we blow it, we say so
Fast, in print, and plainly — what we got wrong and what the truth is. No quiet edits, no memory-holing. The full policy, including how to demand a correction, is on our corrections page.
Who owns this thing
One person: founder Anthony Tomashefsky. No parent company, no investors, no chain. The money comes from readers — voluntary subscriptions and donations — and that's it. The receipts are on our About page; the ways to chip in are on our donate page.
Think we broke our own rules? Call us on it — accountability starts at home.