Editorial Standards & Ethics
Editorial Standards and Ethics
WEAR YELLOW FOR SETH is an independent general-news publication. We cover world and breaking news across business, economy, entertainment, health, politics, science, sports, technology, and general news. This page explains the rules our editors work by. It is not decoration. When a reader asks how we decided something was true, or why a story is framed the way it is, the answer should be here.
Two things sit at the center of how we operate: where our facts come from, and the line we keep between reporting and opinion. Almost everything else on this page grows out of those two commitments.
How the desk sources a story
A story is only as good as what it stands on. Our default is to name sources. A named person who can be held to their words is worth more than an anonymous voice, and readers deserve to judge for themselves who is talking and why they might be talking.
Where we can, we go to primary documents rather than descriptions of them. That means the court ruling itself, the regulatory filing, the official transcript, the company statement, the data release. A summary written by someone else is a starting point, not proof.
For any claim that is contested or consequential, we look for corroboration before we publish. One source asserting something does not make it a fact on our pages. We want a second independent line of confirmation, a document, or an on-the-record acknowledgement.
Anonymous sources
Sometimes the only way to report something important is to protect the person telling us. We allow anonymity, but we treat it as an exception that has to be earned, not a convenience. Before we grant it, the desk asks a few questions:
- Does this person have direct knowledge, or are they passing along rumor?
- Why do they need protection? A real risk of retaliation counts. A wish to avoid accountability does not.
- Can we corroborate what they tell us through documents or other sources?
- What is their motive, and have we accounted for it in how we present the claim?
When we do use an unnamed source, we try to tell readers as much as we responsibly can about why the person has knowledge and why they are not named. We do not invent a phantom source to prop up a weak story.
Verification before publishing
Nothing goes up because it is exciting. It goes up because we have satisfied ourselves it is accurate. Names, numbers, dates, quotes, and official actions are checked against the underlying record. Our approach to this is set out in more detail in our fact-checking policy, and the two pages are meant to be read together.
Breaking news is where discipline matters most, because the pressure to be first is real. When a story is still moving, we label it as developing, we say plainly what we have confirmed and what we have not, and we update rather than pretend we knew everything at once. Being fast is worth nothing if it is wrong.
Separating news from opinion
This is the second pillar. Reporting and opinion are different jobs, and readers should never have to guess which one they are reading.
- News reports what happened and what can be established. It aims to be fair and to keep the writer’s views out of it.
- Opinion and analysis argue a point of view or interpret events. These are labelled as such, so the argument is understood as an argument.
- Sponsored content is paid for by an advertiser. It is always marked, and it is never presented as the work of our newsroom. More on that in our advertise page.
Mixing these categories, letting an opinion slide out under a straight news headline or dressing an ad up as a report, is one of the fastest ways a publication loses trust. We treat the labels as non-negotiable.
Fairness and the right of reply
When a story makes a serious allegation about a person or an organization, we give them a fair chance to respond before we publish, and we carry their response. If they decline or do not answer in time, we say so. Fairness does not mean false balance: we will not manufacture a phony two-sided dispute when the evidence points clearly one way. It means we do not ambush people with accusations they were never allowed to answer.
Conflicts of interest
Anyone on the desk who has a personal, financial, or family stake in a story is expected to disclose it and step back from covering it. We do not report on matters where we cannot be independent. Our independence from the people who fund the site is covered on our ownership and funding page, and it is a firm rule: advertisers do not shape, soften, or spike our coverage.
Corrections culture
We will get things wrong. Every newsroom does. What separates an honest one is what happens next. When we make a factual error, we fix it, and we say we fixed it rather than quietly editing the record. The full process, including how to flag a mistake, lives on our corrections policy. A correction is not an embarrassment to be hidden. It is the system working.
Plagiarism and the use of AI
We do not pass off other people’s work as our own. Reporting from another outlet is credited and, where appropriate, linked. On artificial intelligence: we may use software tools to help with research, transcription, or drafting, but a human editor is responsible for every published story, checks the facts, and stands behind the words. We do not publish machine-generated text as reporting without that human accountability.
Graphic content, privacy, and images
Some news is violent or distressing. We do not use graphic material for shock value. When disturbing content is genuinely necessary to understand a story, we include it carefully and warn readers first.
Private individuals are not public figures, and we weigh their privacy seriously. We think hard before naming ordinary people caught up in events, especially victims, minors, and those who did not choose to be in the news. Public interest has to outweigh the harm, not just satisfy curiosity.
Images must be accurate. We do not stage photos, we do not present an old or unrelated image as if it shows a current event, and we label illustrations and any altered visuals as what they are. Manipulated or synthetic images are disclosed. A picture is a factual claim, and we hold it to the same standard as a sentence.
Questions about any of this can go to our contact page or straight to support@wearyellowforseth.com. These standards are reviewed as our work and the world change.
Last updated: August 2026
