Monster News publishes independent journalism, investigations, commentary, and satire. These policies establish standards for our editorial work, the conduct of people contributing to Monster News, and participation on our platforms.
They apply to editors, reporters, field investigators, photographers, videographers, freelance contributors, and others acting on behalf of Monster News. Community participation provisions apply to commenters and account holders.
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions belong to Monster News. Public officials, advertisers, sponsors, donors, sources, and subjects of reporting do not receive control over coverage in exchange for access, cooperation, payment, or other consideration.
Advertising and financial support do not purchase favorable coverage or protection from scrutiny. Contributors must disclose attempts to influence coverage through gifts, threats, favors, financial arrangements, or other pressure.
Accuracy and Verification
Contributors must make reasonable efforts to verify material factual claims before publication. Verification should include original records, firsthand observations, recordings, knowledgeable sources, and independent corroboration where available.
Reporting must distinguish documented facts, allegations, disputed accounts, analysis, and opinion. Headlines, captions, illustrations, and social media posts must accurately reflect the underlying reporting.
Quotations must preserve the speaker’s meaning. Contributors must not fabricate sources, quotations, events, documents, or evidence.
The absence of a record or response must be described accurately. It must not be presented as proof of a broader conclusion than the evidence supports.
Accountability Reporting and Source Documents
Monster News scrutinizes the exercise of public power, the expenditure of public money, institutional conduct, and matters affecting the public.
Where practical and appropriate, reporting should link to or reproduce supporting records so readers can examine the evidence themselves. Excerpts must preserve relevant context. Redactions must protect information that should not be disclosed without misleading readers about the substance of a record.
Contributors must preserve original source materials and distinguish original records from annotated copies, transcriptions, reconstructions, and explanatory graphics.
Fairness and Requests for Comment
Monster News reserves the right to publish without advance notification or a prepublication request for comment. Subjects of reporting have an opportunity to respond upon publication through Monster News’s published contact channels. Advance notice, participation, or approval by a subject is not a condition of publication.
Refusal to comment is not an admission. Monster News has no obligation to distinguish in its published reporting between a declined request, an unanswered request, and an unsuccessful contact attempt. Any description we choose to publish about those communications must be accurate and must not falsely attribute a refusal to someone who did not decline to comment.
Material responses, factual corrections, and subsequent clarifications will be evaluated fairly. Monster News retains editorial discretion over whether and how to publish a response, including its length, placement, and timing. An opportunity to respond does not guarantee publication of a submission in full or without editing.
Subjects do not have a right to approve articles or prevent publication.
Recording of Reporting Interactions
Monster News maintains a strict policy requiring contributors acting on its behalf—including editors, reporters, and field investigators—to record substantive reporting interactions through audio or video whenever lawful and reasonably practicable. Video is preferred.
This policy includes interviews, field investigations, requests for comment, public-records interactions, and substantive exchanges with public officials or institutional representatives.
Contributors must comply with applicable recording and consent requirements, court orders, and lawful restrictions on access. This policy does not authorize trespassing, obstruction, or interference with public business.
When recording cannot lawfully or safely occur, or conflicts with an approved confidential-source arrangement, contributors must make contemporaneous notes and preserve related correspondence. Material exceptions must be brought to an editor’s attention.
Original recordings must be retained securely. Editing, transcription, captioning, and publication must preserve the substance and context of the interaction. Recording does not automatically authorize publication of every person, conversation, or detail captured.
Identification and Newsgathering Conduct
Contributors should identify themselves and their affiliation when conducting interviews or requesting information for publication.
Any departure from ordinary identification practices requires editorial approval and a substantial public-interest justification. Contributors must not impersonate law enforcement, misuse credentials, unlawfully obtain access, or direct others to engage in unlawful conduct.
Contributors must avoid unnecessary disruption and treat sources, subjects, colleagues, and members of the public professionally. Firm questioning and persistent follow-up must not become threats or harassment.
Sources and Confidentiality
Monster News prefers sources who can be identified and whose knowledge can be evaluated by readers.
Confidentiality may be granted when a source provides information of public importance and has a credible reason to fear retaliation or other substantial harm. Contributors must obtain editorial approval before making significant confidentiality commitments whenever practicable.
Terms such as “off the record,” “background,” and “not for attribution” must be agreed upon before the information is provided. Sources cannot retroactively impose confidentiality without agreement.
Confidential information must be shared internally only as necessary for verification, editorial oversight, security, and legal obligations. Contributors must not promise protections that Monster News cannot reasonably provide.
Conflicts of Interest and Personal Involvement
Contributors must disclose financial, professional, political, family, organizational, or personal relationships that could materially affect—or reasonably appear to affect—their reporting.
A contributor’s involvement in a dispute does not automatically prevent coverage. It requires editorial consideration, disclosure when relevant, and additional verification or independent review where appropriate.
Contributors must not present their own involvement as independent corroboration. Pseudonyms and separate public identities do not remove disclosure obligations.
Relevant public offices, advocacy roles, litigation interests, and relationships with subjects must be considered when assigning, reviewing, and presenting coverage.
Gifts, Payments, and Outside Influence
Contributors must not accept money, valuable gifts, preferential treatment, or personal benefits in exchange for coverage or editorial decisions.
Expenses, complimentary access, sponsored travel, and similar arrangements require editorial approval when they could affect independence. Material arrangements must be disclosed to readers where relevant.
Payment for access to a source’s account or evidence requires exceptional editorial scrutiny. No payment may be conditioned on a particular allegation, testimony, or outcome.
News, Opinion, Satire, and Advertising
Monster News publishes different forms of expression. Readers should be able to recognize whether material is reporting, analysis, opinion, satire, advertising, or sponsored content.
Opinion may be forceful and critical, but factual claims remain subject to verification. Satirical illustrations, composites, and altered images must be presented in a context that makes their illustrative character clear.
Advertisements and sponsored material must be identifiable. Paid content must not masquerade as independent reporting.
Photographs, Video, Audio, and Illustrations
Visual and audio material must not be manipulated in a way that materially misrepresents an event or creates false evidence.
Routine adjustments for clarity, sound quality, cropping, and length are permitted when they preserve meaning. Significant alterations, reenactments, composites, synthetic media, and illustrative imagery must be identified where necessary to prevent confusion.
Captions must accurately describe what the material shows and distinguish observation from interpretation.
Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools
AI and automated tools may assist with research, transcription, organization, translation, editing, and production. Human contributors remain responsible for the resulting work.
AI output is not an independent source. Material claims, quotations, citations, and descriptions must be checked against reliable evidence.
Synthetic material must not be presented as an authentic recording, photograph, interview, or source document. Material AI involvement must be disclosed when omission would mislead readers.
Confidential sources, unpublished sensitive records, and personal information must not be entered into outside tools without appropriate authorization and consideration of security.
Privacy and Minimizing Harm
Monster News weighs the public importance of information against foreseeable and unnecessary harm.
Contributors must take particular care with children, victims of abuse, confidential sources, medical information, private contact details, financial identifiers, and other sensitive information.
Public availability does not automatically make publication necessary. Redaction, limited quotation, anonymization, or omission may be appropriate.
Privacy concerns must be evaluated alongside legitimate public interests, including official conduct, institutional accountability, and the use of public resources.
Copyright, Attribution, and Original Work
Contributors must respect copyright and other applicable rights. Material obtained from others must be appropriately attributed and used with permission, under an applicable license, or on another lawful basis.
Plagiarism is prohibited. Attribution alone does not authorize unrestricted reproduction.
People submitting material must have the right to provide it. Submissions do not guarantee publication, payment, confidentiality, or a continuing relationship with Monster News.
Corrections, Clarifications, and Updates
Monster News will evaluate credible reports of factual errors and correct material inaccuracies promptly.
Significant corrections should explain what was wrong and what was changed. Developing information may be added as an update. Minor spelling, formatting, and grammatical repairs may be made without a separate correction notice.
Disagreement with an opinion does not, by itself, establish a factual error. A complaint’s tone, the complainant’s status, or threats of consequences must not determine whether a correction is warranted.
Requests to remove an article will be evaluated individually. Removal is not guaranteed merely because reporting is embarrassing, critical, disputed, or unfavorable.
Editorial Complaints and Responses
Readers and subjects may submit concerns through Monster News’s published contact channels. Requests should identify the article or material, the specific disputed statement, the requested remedy, and supporting evidence.
Available responses include correction, clarification, further reporting, an editor’s note, publication of a response, restriction of access, removal, or no change.
Monster News retains editorial discretion over the form, length, placement, and publication of responses.
Comments and Community Participation
Comments ordinarily appear immediately upon submission, without advance editorial review. Automated security and spam controls may still delay or block submissions.
Comments express the views of their authors. Publication of a comment does not mean Monster News endorses or has verified it.
Criticism, disagreement, and discussion of public affairs are welcome. Strong language alone does not necessarily violate these policies.
Users must not post:
- Unlawful content, credible threats, incitement to violence, or targeted harassment.
- Unlawful defamatory statements or knowingly fabricated accusations presented as fact.
- Private identifying information published to intimidate, expose, or endanger someone.
- Sexual exploitation, unlawful sexual content, or material exploiting children.
- Impersonation, fraud, scams, malware, or attempts to compromise accounts or systems.
- Copyright-infringing material or other content unlawfully violating another person’s rights.
- Spam, repetitive flooding, unrelated advertising, or coordinated disruption.
- Content designed to evade moderation or restrictions imposed on an account.
Monster News may remove content it reasonably determines violates the law or these policies, and may temporarily restrict disputed material while reviewing it. Moderation decisions are editorial judgments and do not constitute judicial findings.
Repeated violations may result in account suspension or permanent banning. Serious violations may result in immediate removal or banning without a prior warning. Creating replacement accounts to evade a restriction may lead to further enforcement.
Users remain responsible for what they submit. Comments may be retained as necessary for moderation, security, recordkeeping, and legal obligations. Users may request review of a moderation decision through our published contact channels.
Accounts and Platform Security
Users must provide accurate information where required, protect their login credentials, and refrain from accessing accounts or systems without authorization.
Monster News may restrict accounts or access to address abuse, security threats, unlawful conduct, or interference with platform operations.
No user is entitled to continued publication of their submissions or continued access to commenting features.
Advertising, Sponsorship, and Financial Relationships
Advertisements, sponsorships, affiliate relationships, and other material commercial arrangements must be disclosed where relevant.
Advertisers are responsible for the legality and accuracy of their claims. Monster News may reject or remove advertising inconsistent with its standards.
Commercial relationships must not determine the findings of an investigation or the handling of corrections.
Records, Retention, and Information Security
Contributors must preserve records reasonably necessary to substantiate their reporting, including relevant recordings, notes, correspondence, source documents, and publication drafts.
Sensitive material must be stored with access appropriate to its confidentiality and risk. Records subject to a preservation obligation must not be destroyed or altered to avoid disclosure, investigation, or accountability.
Original evidence must be protected from unnecessary modification. Working copies should be used for annotation, transcription, editing, and publication.
Contributor Compliance and Enforcement
Contributors must raise significant accuracy, conflict, confidentiality, safety, or legal concerns with an editor before publication whenever practicable.
Violations may result in additional review, correction, reassignment, suspension, termination of a contributor relationship, or other appropriate action.
Editorial authority does not exempt editors or leadership from these standards. Monster News’s commitment to accountability includes scrutiny of its own work and conduct.
Policy Administration
Monster News may revise these policies as its reporting practices, platforms, and responsibilities develop. Current policies govern ongoing editorial and community decisions, subject to applicable law and commitments already made.
These policies describe organizational standards. They do not guarantee publication, access, confidentiality absent agreement, or a particular outcome in an editorial or moderation dispute.