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Methodology

Methodology

This page is the editorial constitution of Deeper Truth. It applies to every piece we publish.

1. The fact rule

No claim is published as fact without a verifiable source. If a claim cannot be sourced, it is either cut or framed in the sentence itself as analysis or speculation. Phrases like “According to [source],” “[publication] reported,” or “public filing X shows” are always visible. Anonymous sources are used only when the story requires it and only with editor approval plus a second corroborating source.

2. Source hierarchy

We prefer sources in this order:

  1. Primary documents: court filings, SEC filings, FOIA releases, leaked documents with verified provenance, company 10-Ks, regulatory rulings, peer-reviewed academic papers, on-the-record interviews
  2. Credible secondary reporting with visible sourcing: ProPublica, Reuters, AP, The Intercept, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times investigative desk, local papers on local stories. We link to them directly and credit them
  3. Named credentialed experts, with credentials stated
  4. Data from reputable research organizations: Brookings, Pew, BLS, CBO, academic institutions, with the dataset linked
  5. Social media, PR releases, and unsourced blog posts are not sufficient on their own. We may use them as pointer material, but every factual claim must ultimately resolve to one of the higher tiers above

3. “As many layers deep as needed”

Surface reporting is the start of the story, not the end. If a policy passed, we ask who drafted it, who funded the legislators who voted for it, who benefits financially, who regulates the beneficiary, who those regulators previously worked for, and who funds the think tanks behind the policy brief. We follow the chain until it stops producing new information. The depth is the point.

4. Every article publishes its sources

The Sources block at the end of every article is mandatory. It is always visible, never collapsed. Every cited source appears numbered with: publication, author where relevant, publication date, working URL, a “(paywall)” marker where applicable, and an Internet Archive or archive.today snapshot for sources at risk of disappearing. If a claim in the article is not traceable to a source in the block, the claim does not ship.

5. Corrections and retractions

Errors get corrected publicly. Every correction is logged on the corrections page with: date, article affected, what was wrong, what is now correct, and whether the correction is material. Material corrections also append a visible note to the top of the affected article. Retractions are rare and follow the same disclosure pattern.

6. How we respond to pushback

When someone calls the reporting “conspiracy theory,” “partisan,” or similar, our response is the same: we recheck the sourcing, correct anything actually wrong, and continue. We do not apologize for reporting a sourced fact. We do not soften the dek to make it easier to swallow. We do not moralize either. The facts are stated, the chain is shown, and the reader decides what to do with that.

7. What we do not do

  • Publish anonymous tips without independent verification
  • Speculate on motive beyond what evidence supports
  • Use “just asking questions” rhetoric
  • Accept sponsored or undisclosed affiliate content in editorial pieces
  • Publish to keep up with the news cycle
  • Use “alleged” to launder an unsourced claim

8. Pre-publish verification

Every piece passes, in order:

  1. A source-verification pass: every factual claim is extracted and checked against its cited source
  2. A voice pass to remove AI-generated texture and buzzword filler
  3. A voice and style check against the editorial standard
  4. A human editor’s final read

Pieces that fail any step stay in draft until the issue is fixed.

AI assistance

Some Deeper Truth pieces are drafted with assistance from large language models, currently Claude (Anthropic) for drafting and voice-checking, and Gemini (Google) for long-context source verification. The role of those tools is bounded: they produce structural drafts and run pre-publish checks against the cited sources. They do not source the reporting, do not select the framing, and do not approve the final text. A human editor verifies every factual claim against the cited source and signs off on every piece before it publishes. The list of tools and their use is disclosed here, on this page, rather than stamped on each article. Readers who want the per-piece detail are welcome to ask.