The short version
The Wire grades each article from what the page itself shows: whether its facts say where they came from, the public documents it links, the other outlets and sources that confirm the same story, whether its facts match the Wire's own public records, a calm headline, and a clear byline and date. The story takes its best-sourced telling's grade. The grade describes the page, never the people in it.
The formula Grade = 100 × points ÷ possible A 85 · B 70 · C 55 · D 40 Grade = 100 × points ÷ possible each article · 0 to 100
Story = its best telling A 85 · B 70 · C 55 · D 40 · F below 40
45 Sourcing · 25 for the share of facts that say where they came from, 0, 7 or 12 for none, one or two or more public documents linked, 0 to 8 for the people and agencies named on the record
15 Corroboration · 8 or 12 for one or two or more other outlets or sources confirming it, 3 more when one is official; 8 for a telling alone that links two or more documents
20 Record match · 20 × the key facts confirmed or matching the Wire's records ÷ the facts checked; left out when none could be checked
10 Headline · less for a question, capitals, an exclamation mark, a teaser or heated words
10 Transparency · a byline, a date, an update or correction note, the outlet's identity, the kind labelledThis story's arithmetic one article graded Outlet S C R H T Score KQED 18 0 – 10 5 41
18 + 0 + 10 + 5 = 33 of 80 → 41/100 · Grade D
S sourcing · C corroboration · R record match · H headline · T transparency. A dash is a part left out.
How it is checked 6 rules Every input is read by rules from the page itself; the arithmetic is shown for every article. An article that names no source, links no document and names no one on the record says "No sources cited", and its grade is at most D. Where the Wire's own records hold the fact (a vote, a meeting, an amount, a call, a listing), the story and the record are set side by side; a vote the record tells differently holds the grade at most at D. An agency's own release is the record itself and is not graded; an outlet that prints it as its story counts once. Each story's key facts are checked for independent confirmation: first by rules against the Wire's records and the agencies' own releases, then each morning by research. A confirmation counts only when the Wire read the source's page itself and found the sentence on it; a government page, a public record or another newsroom's own reporting, never a copy of the story or a social post. A source that tells a fact differently is shown beside the story. A page the Wire cannot read is never guessed at: it shows only its own headline, quoted, and is not graded. Sources 1 records News reportTue Sep 29 KQED Read ↗