AccountedAbility desk rules

Editorial Standards

This is an accountability scoreboard. Humor, if any, is incidental to documented timelines, published indicators, and sourced campaign promises.

1. What we publish

Promise callouts with outlet + date. Elapsed-day meters with disclosed anchors. Public economic series (gasoline, CPI) with source labels. Short “what happened” summaries. Topic coverage currently emphasizes Ukraine, Iran, Palestine/Israel/Gaza, gas, tax refunds, groceries, and inflation.

2. Promise rules

Prefer short verbatim or closely paraphrased pledges that are well-documented in named outlets or primary transcripts. If a quote is contested (e.g., later “I was joking” walk-backs), note the contest. If the record is thin (e.g., tax-rebate checks), say so rather than inventing a campaign promise.

3. What we do not invent

No invented pollsters, fake headlines, fabricated quotes from living people, or parody institutes. No fabricated campaign promises.

4. Real numbers get real citations

Gas charts cite EIA and/or AAA. Inflation charts cite BLS CPI-U. Rhetoric-expectation lines are labeled as such—not peer-reviewed forecasts.

5. What the meters mean

Election / inauguration meters count calendar days since fixed civic dates. Campaign-promise meters count days since the pledged timing anchor. Conflict-start meters use commonly reported start dates and accurate names (e.g., Twelve-Day War). Price meters show the latest published indicator versus the documented pledge.

6. Tone

Dry. Bleak. Documentary. No Onion gags. Observations must be grounded in cited facts.

7. Corrections

Wrong data or misattributed quotes get corrected. Promise-status labels are editorial curation, not court findings.

URL slug remains /standards/.