Editorial Standards
Mission
American Courant publishes daily news and analysis on politics, business, world affairs, opinion, and culture. We write for a general American audience and aim to be straightforward, accurate, and worth reading.
Bylines and the staff model
Every article on American Courant runs under the byline American Courant Staff. We use a single organizational byline rather than individual reporter bylines because our editorial model is collaborative — stories are researched, drafted, and edited by more than one person before they ship, and the staff byline accurately reflects that the publication, not any single individual, stands behind each article.
We do not invent named individual reporters. We do not create author profile pages or biographies for personas that aren't real people with real public profiles. If and when contributors with public credentials and accountable bylines join the masthead, their names will appear on the work they author, and only on the work they author.
How we use AI
We use AI tools — including large language models for research summaries, drafting assistance, and copy editing — as part of our newsroom workflow. A human editor reviews every article before publication for accuracy, framing, and sourcing. We disclose this practice openly because we believe readers are entitled to know the production process behind the news they read.
What we will not do with AI:
- Generate quotes from real or fictional people. Every quoted statement in an article comes from a real, verifiable, attributed source.
- Fabricate sources, statistics, dates, documents, or named experts.
- Generate AI images of real, identifiable people. AI-generated hero images, when used, are generic and labeled as AI-generated image — American Courant in the caption.
- Publish without human editorial review.
We do not consent to our published content being used to train commercial
AI models. Our robots.txt reflects this.
Sources
We rely on, in roughly this order of preference:
- Primary sources: government press releases, court filings, agency announcements, official statements, bills and legislation, regulatory documents, transcripts, datasets, and earnings reports. Every article that ought to have a primary source includes one in its visible Sources block.
- Wire reporting: the Associated Press, Reuters, AFP.
- Major newspapers and broadcasters: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, NPR, and their peers, with attribution.
- Trade and academic publications: domain-specialty outlets, peer-reviewed research, and reputable industry data sources when relevant.
We avoid anonymous sources unless safety, retaliation risk, or material information is at stake — and even then we describe the source's position and motivation as fully as the situation allows.
Most articles include a visible Sources block at the end of the body listing the materials we relied on, with primary sources marked. If sources cannot be verified for an older article, we mark the article for editorial review rather than ship unverifiable content.
Fact-checking
Every article passes through a second pair of editorial eyes before publication: the drafter and at least one editor. Quoted material is checked against the original source. Numerical claims (percentages, dollar figures, dates, casualty counts, vote totals) are checked against a primary or wire source. When we update an article after publication for a non-trivial factual reason, we note the correction at the top of the article, describe what changed, and date it.
Corrections policy
If we get something wrong, we want to know. Email tips and corrections to admin@americancourant.com.
For factual errors, we:
- Update the article with the correct information.
- Add a clearly labeled correction notice at the top of the article.
- Note the date and nature of the correction.
We do not silently re-write articles. The published record stands; corrections are visible.
Opinion vs. reporting
Articles in the Opinion section reflect the author's view. They are argued, not impartial. Articles in news sections aim for the standard journalistic balance between fact and necessary context. We try to label clearly which is which.
Advertising and editorial independence
Advertising on this site is sold via Google AdSense, which uses automated placement. American Courant does not have influence over which specific ads are shown alongside which articles. We do not let advertisers review or pre-approve editorial coverage. We do not publish sponsored content disguised as editorial. If we ever publish sponsored content, it will be clearly labeled as such. Trust and legal pages — About, Contact, Privacy, Terms, and this page — do not carry advertising.
What we will not publish
- Misinformation we know to be false.
- Personal information of private individuals (addresses, phone numbers, financial details) without a strong public-interest reason.
- Material that incites violence or directly harasses individuals.
- Material we cannot legally publish (defamation, classified information, content that infringes copyright).
Reader feedback
We read every email tip, correction, and letter to the editor. We may publish letters with the writer's permission, edited for length and clarity.