Standards and corrections

We get the facts right, say where they came from, and fix mistakes in the open.

How stories are made

Most Current stories are written by our AI news desk under rules our editor sets. The desk follows public sources, drafts stories and checks every name, number, date, dollar amount and vote against the source documents. Stories that pass those checks publish without a person reading them first.

Some stories always wait for our editor: anything the desk cannot confirm, anything that accuses a named private person of wrongdoing, and anything involving an arrest, a crime victim or a minor outside routine school sports. Our editor gets a report of every story that publishes or is held, and handles corrections.

Bylines

• Cape Ann Current Staff means the ideas and direction came from people at the Current, and our AI news desk wrote the story from public records, meeting video and other outlets' reporting, listed under Sources on each story. Nobody from the Current attended the event or interviewed anyone unless the story says so.
• A person's name means that person did the reporting for the Current.
• Reader submission means a reader sent it in, such as a game report. It carries the reader's name, or says "a reader" if they asked us not to use it.

Sources and attribution

• We confirm facts in an official record, such as a document, agenda, minutes or meeting video, whenever one exists. Otherwise a fact needs two independent sources, or we name the outlet that reported it.
• Every story lists its sources at the end. Record marks an official record, Credit marks the outlet that reported the story first, and Also reported marks other coverage.
• We never copy another outlet's sentences, and we do not use quotes from paywalled articles.
• Quotes come from public meetings, public documents or written replies to our questions. Things said at a meeting are attributed to that meeting.
• We do not publish rumors. We do not name private people accused of wrongdoing unless authorities have charged them, and those stories always go to our editor first.
• We do not publish the names of minors in crime or safety stories.

How we use AI

• Following sources and writing stories: Anthropic's Claude watches our sources, drafts stories and checks them against the records.
• Meeting transcripts: the captions posted with each meeting video, usually generated automatically by YouTube. Captions can garble names, so we check names against the agenda and the town's own listings.
• The Daily Brief audio: Google's Gemini writes the script from stories already published on the site, checks it against them, and voices it.
• Advertising: an AI model (Meta's Llama, run by Cloudflare) screens ad requests against our advertising standards and drafts ad concepts.

AI tools make mistakes. That is why every story shows its sources, and why we correct errors in the open.

Our AI newsreader

The Daily Brief is read by Kerry Jane, the Current's AI newsreader. She is an AI voice, not a person or a reporter. She reads only stories already published on the site, and our editor approves each episode before it posts.

Sponsors and advertisers

• Ads and sponsor messages on the site and in the Morning Current are labeled.
• Sponsors and advertisers never see stories before they run and have no say in what we cover. Paying for an ad never buys news coverage.
• Sponsored articles, such as a paid Business Spotlight, are written by the business, lightly edited by us and labeled as paid. Our news desk does not write them.

Elections

• The Cape Ann Current does not endorse candidates or ballot questions.
• Every candidate in a race gets the same questionnaire and the same deadline. We publish answers as written, fixing only obvious typos, and say so when a candidate chose not to answer or did not respond.
• We publish candidates' hometowns, not their home addresses.
• Poll averages follow Ballotpedia's rules: polls taken in the last 30 days, each shown with its dates, sample size and margin of error.
• We do not accept political or ballot question ads from anyone, so no campaign pays the Current while we cover its race. See our advertising standards.

Reader submissions

• Game reports become short recaps only after the score is confirmed by a second source, such as the other team, the league site or MaxPreps. They are labeled as reader submissions.
• Events go on the calendar once they have a date, time and place. We may shorten the description.
• Crosscurrents entries run only if our editor picks them. We trim for length and fix spelling only, and each entry reflects the view of the person who wrote it.
• Tips are a starting point. We confirm them with an official record or two independent sources before we report them.

Photos and images

• We publish a photo only when we took it, the owner gave us written permission, or a license we checked allows our use. Finding a photo online does not mean we may use it, and we never reuse other news outlets' photos.
• Every photo carries a credit. Older or general photos are labeled File photo, and drawings or graphics are labeled Illustration.
• We never use AI-generated images to show real news events, people or places, and we never pair a story with a photo of a different place, event or person.
• We do not publish photos of identifiable children without a parent's permission.
• Most stories run without a photo. We add one only when it shows readers something real about the story.

How the homepage is chosen

Our editor and news desk pick the lead story and top stories by local importance, not by clicks or by who advertises. When several stories cover the same news, the homepage shows the most useful one and the others stay on their section and town pages. Every story shows its date, and older stories remain on the section and town pages.

Corrections

If you see an error, email [email protected] with the story and what is wrong. We fix the story and add a dated "Correction" line at the bottom saying what changed.

Police logs

Our police log publishes the public daily logs that Cape Ann police departments keep under state law. We publish what the department released, after privacy edits. We never publish house or unit numbers, only the street, and we never publish the names, ages or home addresses of people in the log, including people who were arrested. Arrests are listed by town, street and charges only. We withhold the details of calls involving domestic violence, sexual assault, children, a family or household member, a person who uses a wheelchair or is bedridden, mental health, suicide or a death. An arrest listed in the log is an accusation, not proof of guilt. If we write a story about an arrest, we update it when we learn the outcome, including when charges are dropped. To ask us to review a log entry, email [email protected] with the town, date and call number.

Removing a story

We correct or update stories rather than take them down. When new facts change a story, we update it and say so at the bottom. If charges are dropped or someone is cleared, we report that as prominently as the original.

We remove a story only when it is wrong at its core and a correction cannot fix it, when a court orders it or our lawyer advises it, or when it puts someone's safety at risk. We may also remove the name of a crime victim or a minor. When a story comes down, its address stays up with a note saying it was removed and why.

If you are a private person named in an old, minor item, such as a police log entry, you can ask us to review it. Email [email protected] with the story and your reason. Our editor decides each request and we keep a record of every one. We do not remove accurate reporting because an official, business or advertiser asks. Your own Crosscurrents entries, photos and listings can be taken down on request.

Meeting records we rely on, such as agendas and minutes, are credited in each story's sources. When official minutes later differ from what we reported, we correct the story and note it.