Journalism Policy

The Massachusetts Times · Published by The Massachusetts Times Company · massachusettstimes.us/policies/journalism · Effective October 16, 2026

This policy states how The Massachusetts Times gathers the news and writes it. Every sentence here is kept today.

1. Open Newsgathering

1.1. We identify ourselves as journalists when we are working as journalists. We do not misrepresent who we are, whom we work for, or why we are asking, to obtain information — from anyone, for any story.

1.2. We do not pay for information, as the Source Terms state. We receive what sources choose to give us; we do not direct anyone to take what they have no right to take.

1.3. We gather no information by unlawful intrusion. Persistence is the craft; trespass is not.

2. Sourcing Standards

2.1. Named sources are the standard. The record is built from people who stand behind what they say, identified to the reader.

2.2. Anonymity is the exception, granted and kept under the Source Terms — the attribution ladder set before the words are spoken, the reason for anonymity stated to the reader, and the promise kept by the institution forever.

2.3. Claims are corroborated to the standard of the Verification Policy before they enter the record. A document is verified before it is used; a claim that cannot be verified is withheld, not hedged into print.

3. Quotation

3.1. Quotation marks mean verbatim. Inside them, a person's words appear as spoken, with omissions marked by ellipses and insertions by brackets — the same fidelity we demand of those who quote us under the Citation and Quotation Terms.

3.2. We remove only the verbal debris of speech — false starts and filler — and never alter substance, emphasis, or meaning.

3.3. There is no quote approval. We may return to a source to verify accuracy; no source edits, softens, or withdraws their on-record words after the fact, as the Source Terms provide.

4. Interviews

4.1. Ground rules are set before the words are spoken, on the Source Terms' ladder, and an interview's level travels with its words.

4.2. We record only with consent. Where we do not record, our notes are the record of the exchange, kept to the standard a disputed quote would have to survive.

4.3. Questions sent in advance, interviews by written exchange, and statements issued in lieu of answers are described as what they were when the work relies on them.

5. Presence and Datelines

5.1. A dateline means presence: a work carrying a place was reported from that place. Work gathered by phone, record, or wire says so in its attribution rather than wearing a dateline it did not earn.

5.2. Nothing we publish claims witness it did not have. What we saw is written as seen; what we were told is written as told; what the record shows is written as the record — the text-side law of the Provenance Policy.

6. Gathering in the Digital Record

6.1. Public records, public proceedings, and the public web are sources like any others: verified under the Verification Policy, attributed under the Attribution Policy, and quoted under Section 3.

6.2. Another outlet's original reporting is credited by name and link, as the Attribution Policy requires. Aggregation is never dressed as our own gathering.

6.3. Machine assistance in gathering and drafting is governed by the Automation Policy: the standard of verification and the accountability of the masthead are identical whatever hand or system touched the work.

7. Conduct Toward People

7.1. We report on people at the worst moments of their lives, and we do it without adding to the harm: the bereaved are approached with restraint, refusals are honored after the honest ask, and persistence never becomes hounding.

7.2. Children encountered in newsgathering are handled under the Coverage of Minors Policy before any other consideration.

7.3. We owe subjects of coverage the chance to respond to substantive criticism before publication, with enough time and enough specificity for the response to be real.

8. The Record of This Policy

8.1. This policy is kept in dated versions at its address, so what governed the gathering of any work can always be checked against the work's date.

This policy is one of the Policies this publication keeps.