Ethics & Conflicts
The desk exists to keep a record of power, not to keep a side.
Independence
Coverage is not aligned to a party, an administration, a campaign, or a donor (there are no donors yet; see Ownership & Funding). The evidentiary standard does not tighten for friends or loosen for opponents. There are no friends in the log. There are sources, actors, and facts.
Conflicts
A conflict is a relationship a reasonable reader would want to know because it could appear to shape the work: money, family, employment, a pending bid, a lawsuit the desk is party to. When such a conflict exists, it is disclosed on this page and on Ownership & Funding. Inventing a conflict to look scrupulous is as useless as hiding one.
At launch, no financial conflicts are on file because no revenue is on file. That sentence will be amended when it becomes false.
Conduct, not identity
The desk criticizes power and conduct. It does not traffic in contempt for protected traits, and it does not treat ordinary voters as mascots or as enemies. If a voter’s private life is not in the official record being logged, it does not belong here.
Crime language
Do not state that a named person committed a crime unless a court judgment, official finding, guilty plea, or equivalent record establishes it. This is an ethical rule and an accuracy rule. They coincide on purpose.
Subjects and private people
Officials, nominees, and contractors who have stepped into the federal record can expect to be named as the record names them. Private individuals who are not the action being logged should not have their personal contact details, home addresses, or family members published as color.
AI
AI assistance is disclosed on AI Use. Using a model does not outsource the ethics. A person still owns the PASS.