Editorial standards

The standard is our tagline: counter-narrative, never counterfactual. Fairness, restraint, and proof do not lapse when a public figure dies.

The editorial line

Accuracy before argument

Every material claim must be supportable. Assertions about votes, policies, conduct, consequences, and public statements should link to the strongest available evidence. If a fact is uncertain or disputed, we say so plainly.

Omission is itself a claim

We do not declare that “the media ignored” something based on an impression or a single article. We identify the coverage being examined, represent it fairly, and describe the omission with appropriate scope: one article, a group of outlets, or a broader pattern supported by evidence.

Relevance and proportionality

Facts are included because they materially change the understanding of a public life, not because they are embarrassing. The prominence of a criticism reflects its consequence, evidentiary strength, and relevance to the legacy being described.

Context without laundering

Historical context can explain conduct without excusing it. We present the options, pressures, norms, and information available at the time. We avoid judging old decisions solely through present-day language, but we do not use “it was a different time” to erase agency or harm.

Fairness without false balance

We credit accomplishments when the record supports them and include evidence that complicates our own thesis. Fairness means an honest accounting of the whole record; it does not mean equally strong treatment of unequal evidence.

Public record, public consequence

The focus is public figures and the exercise of public or institutional power: elected officials, senior appointees, judges, executives, movement leaders, major donors, and others whose decisions materially affected people. Private grief and uninvolved family members are outside the story unless there is a compelling, documented public-interest reason.

Restraint in tone

We write precisely, directly, and without gloating. No grave-dancing, cheap shots, diagnosis at a distance, speculation about death, or self-righteous performance. The facts carry the force of the piece.

Transparent correction

Substantive errors are corrected promptly and visibly, with a dated correction note. See the corrections policy.

Evidence standards

We prefer sources in roughly this order:

1. Primary records: legislation, roll-call votes, court records, official correspondence, financial disclosures, transcripts, recordings, archived webpages, and contemporaneous government data.
2. High-quality contemporaneous reporting with named sources and direct documentation.
3. Credible scholarship, books, investigations, and retrospective reporting.
4. Advocacy research when its interest is disclosed and its underlying evidence can be independently checked.

Omituaries synthesizes the published record; it does not currently conduct firsthand investigative reporting. Social posts, unsourced compilations, search snippets, partisan summaries, and AI-generated text are leads, not evidence. Anonymous claims require exceptional care and should rarely anchor a consequential allegation.

Whenever possible we link readers to the underlying record rather than only to someone else’s characterization of it, and we archive fragile sources and record access dates where appropriate.

Publication protocol

• We confirm a death through authoritative reporting before publishing an Omituary.
• Rumor, hospitalization, age, appearance, and social-media chatter are not confirmation.
• Advance research on living subjects stays private and is described internally as a dossier or preparedness file, not a published obituary.
• Every time-sensitive fact, quotation, link, office held, and legal disposition is rechecked at publication time.
• Serious allegations, disputed claims, leaked material, private-person details, and language that could create legal risk are escalated to the editor. Without outside or legal review, the threshold for such material is especially high; we omit what cannot be established responsibly.
• We distinguish clearly among allegation, charge, finding, judgment, reversal, settlement, and conviction.

Timing

The standard publication window is within 72 hours of authoritative confirmation of death. A fully researched and fact-checked preparedness piece may publish immediately after confirmation. Speed never justifies publishing a rumor, a stale office or title, an unconfirmed cause of death, or a claim whose source has not been checked. Claims that a named outlet omitted or distorted a fact must be based on that outlet’s actual coverage, never anticipation.

What an Omituary contains

1. The news: a concise, verified account of the death and the person’s public significance.
2. The conventional account: a fair summary of the established legacy.
3. What was left out: the material record missing or diminished in that framing.
4. Why it matters: the consequences for people, institutions, policy, or public memory.
5. The complications: accomplishments, constraints, disputed interpretations, and evidence that cuts against the piece’s central argument.
6. The record: clearly attributed sources sufficient for readers to audit the work.
7. Corrections and updates: a visible history when facts or the article change materially.

Headlines describe the missing record, not bait outrage. Images inform rather than humiliate. Labels such as “analysis,” “commentary,” and “reporting” reflect what a piece actually is.

Accountability

Final editorial authority currently rests with the founder and editor, who checks every material factual claim against its cited source before publication. There is currently no outside fact-checking or legal review. Writers disclose material conflicts; undisclosed paid advocacy, opposition research, campaign direction, or personal involvement with a subject is incompatible with trustworthy authorship. See about Omituaries Ed.