Our editorial policy

Passed by the Edit Board in February 2021

Our mission

The publication’s mission derives from the Greater Greater Washington mission statement:

“Greater Greater Washington is a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization that brings people together online and offline to discuss, organize, and advocate for an inclusive, diverse, growing Washington region where all people can choose to live in walkable urban communities.”

GGWash fulfills this mission through multiple separate avenues, including the publication and the policy team.

The publication best fulfills this mission as an entry point to urbanism and the GGWash community. It does this by introducing residents to urbanist news, ideas, and concepts, and giving them the information they need to engage on these issues.

What we do

The GGWash blog publishes advocacy journalism, defined as: Fair, transparent journalism that is based in facts, but comes from an explicit shared understanding of what is “good.”

Our lens: As an urbanist publication, we explicitly seek a walkable, transit-oriented, sustainable, and equitable future for our region. That is the “lens” by which we approach our journalism. But as a publication (by this we mean our editorial department), we don’t start from the point of advocating for specific policy solutions, nor do we campaign for specific candidates (endorsements are made by a separate committee). Instead, we seek out facts, truth, and a diversity of opinions within this lens.

How we do it

The GGWash publication brings people together to discuss urbanist issues through a variety of types of content, all published in compliance with solid ethical guidelines.

Types of content

GGWash publishes six broad categories of content, all of which must be clearly labeled.

News and analysis: A factual, reported article written without a specific policy agenda, by someone who does not have a personal or professional stake in the topic.*

Written by editorial staffers, correspondents, paid freelancers, and some volunteers
Should never be authored by GGWash policy staff or elected or appointed officials
Articles should be based on facts and, while not engaging in both-sidesism, should consider opposing viewpoints fairly
Conflict of interest standards for news pieces are strict: if a writer has a personal or professional stake* in the topic, the article should be labeled opinion.

Opinion: An article written with the intent to persuade.

Written by volunteers, board members, and staff
Like news articles, opinion should also be based on facts
Unlike news articles, opinion writers can have a stake in the topic they are writing about, but that interest should be disclosed (for instance, if the author owns one of ten homes affected by a proposed zoning change, an article about that zoning change should be explicit about that fact)
Op-eds are under the umbrella of journalism and have a time honored connection with newsrooms.

Advocacy: An article written for the purpose of furthering an organizational policy goal, or about GGWash’s advocacy work.

Written by GGWash policy staff, board members, or GGWash partners (NOT editorial staff)
Guidelines about advocacy content and direction are under the authority of the policy team
Editorial staff can help facilitate posting of advocacy articles and edit for style, but should have no input on content

Endorsements: An article written during election season to communicate endorsement decisions made by the Elections Committee. This can also include Q&As run by the Elections Committee and other content from that committee related to elections.

Written by the Elections Committee
Editorial staff can help facilitate posting of endorsement articles and edit for style, but should have no input on content

About GGWash: An article written to communicate about job postings, style guide updates, fundraising, events, and other general administrative topics.

Written by GGWash staff or board members

Roundups: Breakfast Links, National Links, and events posts.

*What is a personal or professional stake? We like to think of this as having skin in the game: if an issue affects you, your employer or your loved ones specifically, you have a stake in it.

This includes: stories that specifically impact your job, family, home, or institutions to which you belong; and issues around which you advocate, either for your job or in your spare time.
This does NOT include: stories that impact you because you live in the region or in a general area, or because you belong to a particular identity group.
Some examples for illustrative purposes:
- Someone who lives in a condominium can write about condo associations, but shouldn’t write a news/analysis article about their own condo association.
- Someone who spends time advocating for slower speed limits in their neighborhood shouldn’t write a news/analysis article about a policy change around those speed limits.
- Someone whose organization has conducted a survey shouldn’t write a news/analysis article about that survey.

Ethical guidelines

General guidelines

Everyone who publishes content on GGWash is expected to follow the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

Some general principles to follow:

Always strive to be accurate, honest, and fair
Avoid conflicts of interest and disclose those that are unavoidable
Prioritize transparency, particularly around who is writing the article and why (avoid ghostwriting)
Treat subjects as human beings worthy of respect
Avoid stereotyping as well as racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of hate and bias

Funding and editorial independence

GGWash is a nonprofit with multiple sources of revenue — including donations, grants and advertisers — as well as a rich community of volunteers.

While we value all members of the GGWash community, our news judgment and editorial direction are separate and independent from our funders, members of our Board of Directors, and members of our Advocacy and Elections committees. Donors, advertisers, and board members will receive no preferential coverage, and should be aware that we may publish content with which they disagree. Editorial copy is never shared with donors, advertisers, or board members in advance. If we write about our funders or board members, we will disclose those relationships.

We do accept support for coverage of particular topics (i.e. grants and underwriting), but those funders have no oversight over the resulting content, and GGWash maintains full editorial control. In these instances, content will be clearly labeled.

Relationship with advocacy

As both a media outlet and an advocacy organization, GGWash is unique. We will never be purveyors of purely “unbiased” news, because our organization was built to view things through the lens of urbanism. We have a clear sense of what “good” looks like for the Washington region: more walkable, more navigable without cars, more sustainable, more equitable.

Though our editorial team has a distinct point of view, it is governed separately from the advocacy side of the organization. Our editorial staff (and our paid contributors) are not advocating for specific policies, lobbying politicians, or testifying. Instead, we explain and seek truth.

Here’s how our editorial team will interact with our advocacy team:

Collaborate in staff meetings about general organization-wide issues
Help facilitate posting content clearly labeled as advocacy
Engage in general discussions about broad issues on which our staff are experts

Here’s how our editorial team won’t interact with our advocacy team:

Editorial staff won’t engage in advocacy strategic planning, and advocacy staff won’t participate in editorial plans
Advocacy staff will not read or change editorial content prior to publication
Issues advocacy staff are working on won’t get preferential editorial coverage; and when we do write about something our coworkers are working on, we’ll disclose it.

Different standards for different content

GGWash publishes multiple kinds of content, some of which have specific ethical standards:

News and analysis:

Articles should consider multiple viewpoints fairly, while not engaging in both-sidesism for the sake of it
News and analysis should NOT be written by:
- Policy staff
- People who engage politically (for instance, organize, advocate, or campaign) around the topic at hand
- Someone who is running for or holds public office
- Someone whose close friends or family are involved in the story
Any potential conflicts of interests should be disclosed during the pitching process

Opinion:

The author’s interest in the topic at hand and any relevant affiliations should always be disclosed, both to the editor and to the public
Opinion should be based on facts and represent the truth