Reviews
Context elements compared, from timelines to maps to glossaries
Context elements compared by reader need, evidence demands, strengths, and risks, including timelines, process guides, maps, data, glossaries, and profiles.
Contributor
Mason A. Brooks
The useful detail is often in the conditions attached to a claim. Subject: Explanatory News and Background Briefings: info, news, blaze. Mason A. Brooks is the editorial byline assigned to this area. Background, definitions and the interpretation of available information belong to this editorial remit. This is an editorial pen name used by the publication, not a claim of an independently verified personal identity.
Guides
Background Briefing Guide for Newsrooms
A background briefing guide for newsrooms: frame reader questions, set scope, organize context, label evidence, track updates, and review for clarity.
Rules
9 attribution problems that quietly distort expert quotes
Attribution and expert reporting problems with fixes for title inflation, source laundering, missing conflicts, quote drift, false balance, and vague officials.
Maintenance
Expert source checklist: what to confirm before quoting anyone
Attribution and expert-source checklist for checking authority, evidence, document status, field, methods, interests, quotation context, anonymity, and updates.
Reviews
Source materials, ranked: from press releases to sworn testimony
Source materials ranked from weakest to strongest, from press releases and statements up to sworn testimony, with what each can prove on its own.
Guides
How to check an expert's funding before quoting their opinion
How to check an expert's funding with CMS Open Payments, NIH RePORTER, NSF Award Search, SEC EDGAR, patent and nonprofit records, and lobbying disclosures.
Guides
Institutional claims guide: matching expertise to the actual claim
Institutional claims and attribution guide covering source roles, documents, spokesperson authority, expert fit, conflicts, evidence, quotations, and corrections.
Reviews
Watches vs warnings vs orders, with emergency alerts compared plainly
Emergency information types compared across forecasts, watches, warnings, orders, observations, incident reports, damage estimates, and casualty records.
Features
Why Payroll Numbers Are Revised After the First Report: Real Revision Sizes and a Fictional Desk Case
Payroll numbers are revised because first estimates rest on incomplete survey responses. BLS data give the typical size, and a fictional desk case shows how to report it.
Rules
9 economic reporting problems that turn a forecast into a promise
Economic reporting problems explained with fixes for mixed periods, seasonal adjustment, inflation, annualized rates, forecasts, revisions, and market narratives.
Guides
How Carbon Prices From Cap and Trade Can Reach Gasoline Prices
Explains how allowance and credit prices can translate into cents per gallon, why pass-through varies, and how several state programs cover transportation fuel.
Guides
Carbon costs at the pump: what Washington's records show
Test a state carbon market fuel price claim with Washington's records: 2026 auction settlement prices, clean fuel credit prices, bidder lists and filings.
Guides
How to read an economic release before writing a headline
How to read an economic release: check its measure, period, adjustments, components, revisions, technical notes, and comparisons before writing a headline.
Rules
Science and health reporting problems: practical fixes
Science and health reporting problems include overstated claims, missing comparisons, and hidden uncertainty; practical fixes show how reporters can check each.
Guides
How to File an Access to Information Request in Canada: Timelines, Fees, and Appeals
Access to information request Canada fees start at $5 and run to $25 per hour after search time, with provinces setting their own timelines and appeal routes.
Rules
FEC Filing Deadlines Explained: Who Reports, When, and What to Check
FEC filing deadlines set the calendar for campaign finance disclosure. This guide explains who reports, when reports are due, and what to check.
Guides
Federal vs Provincial Bill in Canada: Jurisdiction, Process, and Where to Watch
Federal vs provincial bill Canada: how sections 91 and 92 shape first reading, committee, royal assent, and where to watch each lawmaking process.
Reviews
Trials vs models vs preprints, scientific evidence types compared
Scientific evidence types compared across trials, observational studies, models, laboratory work, reviews, preprints, and surveillance reports.
Guides
Search Canadian Court Dockets Online: Where to Look
How to search Canadian court dockets online: the Supreme Court, the Federal Court and every province and territory, plus what registry searches and copies cost.
Features
7 ways California water rights shape drought reporting on farms
California water rights drought rules shape farm reporting: curtailment orders, senior versus junior claims, and groundwater basin rules decide who farms dry.
Guides
U.S. privacy rules vs Canadian law, a guide for cross-border newsrooms
U.S. privacy law is sectoral and state-by-state, while Canada runs one federal statute plus Quebec's stricter rules on consent and transfers.
Guides
How FOIA requests work at the federal level and what agencies can withhold
A federal FOIA request goes to the component that holds the record, not the agency. Nine exemptions, three fee categories, and one appeal clock follow.
Rules
What the FTC checks in business claims and where advertisers get it wrong
FTC business claims must be truthful, non-deceptive and backed by evidence before they run, and the agency polices them under FTC Act Section 5.
Guides
How to read a study before reporting its findings
How to read a study: check the question, design, participants, comparisons, outcomes, estimates, limits, and publication status before reporting findings.
Guides
Reading a New York City council bill before the vote happens
A New York City council bill moves from Legistar docket to committee referral, hearing testimony, land use review, and a possible mayoral veto override.
Rules
Court reporting problems: claims, rulings, and appeals
Court reporting problems arise when filings are mistaken for findings. Learn to distinguish allegations, motions, opinions, orders, appeals, and case status.
Rules
Is a missing public record proof that nothing happened?
Public records reporting problems and fixes for wrong versions, poor searches, missing context, redaction guesses, data errors, and unsupported conclusions.
Guides
Developing news stories need four information states
A guide to developing news stories: how to separate confirmed facts from reported claims, disputes, and open questions, with briefing steps and checks.
Maintenance
7 things a policy briefing checklist has to cover
Policy briefing checklist for authority, stage, dates, public input, funding, implementation, affected groups, enforcement, evidence, outcomes, and updates.
Reviews
Legislation vs regulation, comparing the policy tools reporters cite
Policy tools compared by authority, decision-maker, legal effect, funding role, public process, implementation record, common mistake, and reporting use.
Guides
Public records reporting starts with finding the right custodian
Public records reporting guide covering record ownership, searches, requests, versions, exemptions, document context, verification, citations, and findings.
Guides
How to read a court docket and ruling
A step-by-step method to read a court docket and ruling: confirm the case, trace the entries, find the holding, check for stays, then state the status.
Guides
Trace policy implementation: enactment vs effective date
Trace policy implementation by separating the enactment date from effective, compliance, and enforcement dates, with the records and steps marking each clock.