Blaze News Editorial Standards

Overview

Blaze News holds its correspondents, editors, journalists, and contributors to high journalistic, ethical, and professional standards.

Blaze News follows the AP Stylebook except in certain enumerated cases, which are set forth in the Blaze News style guide.

If you feel that Blaze News has failed to maintain these standards or have a more general comment, please make your feedback known using this contact form.

Our readers put their trust in the Blaze News editorial team, and our fact-checking, ethics, and corrections policies are designed to safeguard that trust.

Fact-Checking Policy

Accuracy is extremely important, and the Blaze News editorial process has several safeguards in place to ensure accuracy. In today's hyper-connected world, news moves fast, but that doesn't mean Blaze News is willing to sacrifice accuracy.

As journalists, accuracy is our best defense and most potent means for showcasing the truth in our work. When possible, we reference original sources. Otherwise, a story will cite social media sources or posts or other news organizations.

Whenever possible, we will avoid anonymous sourcing. However, if important information cannot be reported through traditional on-the-record channels, we will attempt to independently verify information from anonymous sources to a very high degree of confidence. Authors who wish to use anonymous sourcing must reveal the identity of the anonymous source to the managing editor.

We try to identify the source of each fact we cover. When a piece of content is subjective in nature, we mark it as such — as either a commentary or op-ed — so the reader understands the piece is based partly on the author's opinions.

When the fact-checking policy is not met and an error occurs, we will issue a correction. See our corrections policy below for more information.

Ethics Policy

Blaze News is a values-based publication, and our ethics are centered around the virtues of integrity, honesty, transparency, and independence.

Blaze News strives to ensure that subjects of our articles are treated fairly and objectively. As such, we will not run a story that paints any person or organization in a negative light without giving that person or organization a reasonable opportunity to comment. Generally, this means at least one business day. There are two exceptions to this rule:

1. When the subject of the story has already released a full statement — or declined to make such a statement — to another reputable news organization, and
2. During the course of a breaking, time-sensitive news story about a matter of immediate import, e.g., an active shooter situation. In the case of exceptions, the reporter shall work diligently to obtain a comment or statement from the subject of the story as soon as possible.

We do our utmost to ensure that all quotes are presented with 100% accuracy and fairness and are never deceptively edited to omit relevant context that might change the news significance of the story.

Regarding aggregation of a new story, Blaze News credits the source(s) of the original story by explicitly naming them. To the greatest extent possible, our reporters are expected to consult original source documents rather than other media reports in order to ensure that we are not recapitulating errors that may exist in the reporting of other outlets.

When a conflict of interest could arise, we work to assign the story to mitigate the conflict, or where it cannot be mitigated, we disclose that conflict in our content with an editor's note.

Blaze News has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism and treats plagiarism allegations very seriously.

Corrections Policy

When necessary, corrections will be made expeditiously and with full transparency.

Typos that make it through the editorial process may be corrected without an editorial note only to the extent that they do not change the meaning of the story.

Typos that do change the meaning of the story (for instance, a typo in the spelling of the name of a person mentioned in a story or that changes the meaning of a sentence) will be corrected with an editorial note at the bottom of the piece.

Any fact requiring correction or modification that changes any significant aspect of the story should be corrected with an editor's note at the top of the story that sets forth, in as much detail as is necessary for fairness and accuracy, what has been changed in the story and why. In such cases, the title should likewise be changed and "(UPDATED)" added to let readers know that a significant correction has been made.

In some cases, a correction will be required that is so central to the story that fairness demands that the entire story be removed. In that case, the entire text of the story should be removed and replaced with an editor's note that explains what the original story stated, why Blaze News can no longer stand behind it, and an apology to all persons who may have been negatively impacted by the story. We will never intentionally leave a dead link to a story.

If you feel that Blaze News has made an error or have a more general comment, please make your feedback known using this contact form.

Mass Killings and Active Shooter Situations

Blaze News does not publish a murderer's propaganda or manifesto. If it is vital to the story, we will provide a summary that indicates "according to social media postings, the killer seems to have been motivated by a belief in X," but we will not reprint killers' own words or include their videos. This policy also applies to terrorism.

Blaze News never wants to give a killer or terrorist organization a platform, justification, attention, or fame that they are seeking. We will always hide, blur, or obscure the faces of the killers with exception of "AT LARGE" killers or suspects.

Ownership and Funding

Blaze News is owned and operated by Blaze Media LLC, a private for-profit company. It is funded through advertising, merchandise, and subscription revenue.

Editorial Team Info

For information on our editorial team, please view the Blaze News Masthead.