Corrections policy

Accuracy is non-negotiable. When we publish something wrong, we fix it visibly, with a timestamp, on the same article page under "What changed." We never quietly rewrite history.

Our promise

Stateside Daily commits to three things on every correction:

1. Speed: verifiable factual errors are corrected within 24 hours of receiving a credible report. Time-sensitive errors (a story that's actively misleading readers) are corrected as soon as we can verify the right answer.
2. Transparency: the article shows a "What changed" note above the body with a timestamp, a one-line summary of what was wrong, and a one-line summary of what was changed. Significant corrections are also logged in the article's version history.
3. No erasure: we don't remove published stories to make errors disappear. The original version remains accessible via our internal version history for accountability. We will, however, take down a story if it was published in error (e.g. a draft posted by mistake) — and we'll log that takedown.

How to report a correction

Email corrections@statesidedaily.com with three things:

• The article URL.
• The specific passage you believe is inaccurate.
• A reliable source — primary if possible — that supports the correct version.

We review every correction request. You can expect a response within 24 hours, even if it's just an acknowledgment that we're looking into it. If we agree the original was wrong, the fix appears on the article and the "What changed" note is added. If we disagree, we'll explain why.

What counts as a correction

• Factual correction. A named fact in the story is wrong: a date, a name, a number, a location, an attribution, a quote. These get a "Correction" note.
• Clarification. The story is technically correct but framed in a way that gave readers a misleading impression. These get a "Clarification" note explaining the original phrasing and the revised one.
• Update. A developing story gets new verified information. These get an "Update" note with a timestamp; the original reporting remains visible above.
• Retraction. The central claim of a story turns out to be wrong, and a partial fix isn't enough. The story is retracted in place, with an editor's note explaining what was wrong and what we got right and wrong in our process. The URL stays live so existing links don't break; the body is replaced with the retraction notice.

What we don't formally log

• Typos and grammar. Silent fixes for spelling, punctuation, missing words, and similar polish. These don't change meaning so they don't get a public note.
• Layout and formatting. Image alignment, section reordering, broken links — not editorial corrections.
• Headline rewrites for clarity. If we change a headline to better match a story already published, that's a polish, not a correction. If we change a headline because the original was misleading or factually wrong, that's a clarification and gets logged.

Special handling: high-stakes stories

Stories on politics, elections, crime, public health, finance, and the legal system get an extra layer of scrutiny — both before publishing and when corrections come in. Errors in these domains get same-day correction priority, often within hours, and the "What changed" note is more detailed.

For stories where a correction substantially changes the narrative — for example, a name change in a crime story or a revised number in a markets story — we may push out a separate correction notification (push, social) so readers who saw the original version see the fix.

Disputed reporting and right of reply

If a person or organization named in a story disputes our characterization but can't point to a specific factual error, we will offer them the opportunity to provide a brief response. At our discretion, we may publish the response inline or as an update at the end of the article. We do not, however, remove accurate reporting at the subject's request.

If you're a public official, executive, or otherwise a person with a public role and you believe our coverage is inaccurate or unfair, write to corrections@statesidedaily.com with specifics. Legal threats should go to legal@statesidedaily.com.

What we correct

Because we don't write or republish article bodies, the corrections we make are different from a traditional news outlet's. We correct:

• Source classifications. A publisher's political-lean rating or reliability score. See editorial standards for how we classify; see methodology for the full rubric.
• Cluster errors. Two unrelated stories merged into one cluster, or two halves of the same story split. We rebuild the cluster from the underlying headlines and tune the algorithm if a class of errors keeps appearing.
• Misattributed headlines. A headline credited to the wrong publisher, or pointing to the wrong canonical URL.
• Stale or misleading summaries. The short fair-use excerpt we display can occasionally lag a publisher's headline correction. We refetch and update.

For factual errors in the article body itself — the actual reporting — write to the publisher. We can't correct text we don't produce. If a publisher's pattern of errors meets our reliability-rating threshold, we downgrade them in our classification.