Source ledger — v1.1 (2026-10-25)

What is public and what is ours

• Every label is public. Three raters, fetched 2026-10-25 (appendix): Media Bias/Fact Check (bias · factual reporting · credibility), Ad Fontes Media (bias −42…+42, reliability 0…64, "scores above 36 are generally good"), AllSides (Left … Right, US politics only; blocks automated reads, so its labels come from its own published pages via search). MBFC's "Left" for Chinese state outlets means alignment with a communist state under MBFC's method, not a US-spectrum position.
• The tier structure and pairing rules are ours. Tiers follow standard newsroom practice (primary documents beat write-ups; corroborate; attribute). We do not override the raters (decision 2026-10-25: follow public ratings and consensus, minimise our own judgment).
• Consensus rule, applied mechanically to every side: an outlet is a *fact source* (eligible for Tiers 1–3) only when every rater that rates it clears the bar — MBFC credibility HIGH and Ad Fontes reliability ≥ 36. If any rater puts it below the bar → Tier 4 (corroborate first, never alone). MBFC LOW, or Ad Fontes "Unreliable" → not a source of fact at all, quotable only as "X reported" to show that side's position. Lean label = the majority of raters; a split is shown as a split.
• Unrated outlets (most golf and Chinese financial specialists, crypto trade press) are usable on their own beat only alongside a rated fact source or a primary document, never alone.

Tiers are per beat, not per brand. Smaller can be better: a specialist outranks a general outlet on its own beat. A declared lean is not a ban — lean outlets are read to learn what each side is saying, paired across the divide, and their characterisations are attributed, never adopted.

Tier 0 — Primary (always preferred; quote the document, not the write-up)

Fed (federalreserve.gov), BLS, BEA, Census, Treasury, SEC EDGAR filings, company investor-relations pages and newsrooms, court filings, CME FedWatch; 国家统计局 stats.gov.cn, 中国人民银行 pbc.gov.cn, gov.cn, and 新华社/ministry sites only for the verbatim text of an official policy or statement — a government's own words are a primary document, not an outlet's reporting; PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LIV Golf, USGA, R&A, Augusta National official sites and scoreboards; a person's own account for a statement they made on X or Weibo.

Tier 1 — Wire and reference (fact sources; default first secondary source)

Reuters [centre: AllSides Center · MBFC Least Biased, Very High · Ad Fontes Middle −1.4, 45.0], Financial Times [centre: MBFC Least Biased, High · Ad Fontes Middle −4.0, 44.0], Wall Street Journal news pages [centre, 2 of 3: AllSides Center · Ad Fontes Middle 4.3, 42.9 · MBFC Right-Center], Associated Press [left-of-centre: AllSides Lean Left · MBFC Left-Center, High], Bloomberg [left-of-centre: AllSides Lean Left · MBFC Left-Center, High], Nikkei Asia [right-of-centre: MBFC Right-Center, High; others unrated].

Tier 2 — Specialists, by beat

• Markets/crypto: CNBC [MBFC Left-Center, High], MarketWatch [MBFC Right-Center, High], Barron's [MBFC Right-Center, High]; CoinDesk, The Block — unrated, see unrated rule.
• AI/tech: The Information [MBFC Least Biased, High] (often single-source exclusives — say so), The Verge [MBFC Left-Center, High], TechCrunch [MBFC Left-Center, High], Ars Technica [MBFC Least Biased, High]; company engineering blogs are primary for their own announcements.
• Golf: Golf Channel, Golfweek, Golf Digest, Golf.com, SI Golf, No Laying Up, The Fried Egg, MyGolfSpy — unrated, see unrated rule; scoreboards are Tier 0.
• China: 21世纪经济报道, 第一财经/Yicai, 经济观察报 — unrated, see unrated rule. SCMP is Tier 4 and Caixin is position-only (below).

Tier 3 — General press with a declared lean (fact sources; use in pairs; attribute framing)

• Left-of-centre: New York Times [Lean Left · Left-Center, High · Skews Left −7.8, 40.9], Washington Post [Lean Left · Left-Center, High · Skews Left −7.0, 38.6], CNN [Lean Left · Left-Center, High · Skews Left −6.3, 41.9], NPR [Left-Center, High · Middle −4.4, 42.7], The Guardian [Left-Center, High · Skews Left −8.5, 39.5], Politico [Lean Left · Left-Center, High · Middle −5.5, 41.4].
• Centre: BBC [Center · Least Biased, High · Middle −1.4, 44.6], The Economist [Least Biased, High · Middle −3.1, 41.4] (opinionated by design — attribute its views), The Hill [Center · Least Biased, High], Semafor [Least Biased, High · Middle −5.3, 39.8], Axios [centre, 2 of 3: AllSides Center · Ad Fontes Middle −3.3, 42.5 · MBFC Left-Center].
• Right-of-centre: Nikkei Asia (Tier 1). No other right-of-centre outlet clears every rater's reliability bar — the candidates sit in Tier 4 below.

Rule for a Trump or US-politics story: facts come from at least one left-of-centre fact source and one centre or right-of-centre fact source (WSJ, Nikkei, Reuters, FT, BBC, The Hill, Semafor, The Economist); the right-leaning framing is quoted and attributed from Washington Examiner, New York Post or Fox News ("the Examiner reported …") so the reader sees both framings. A US–China story carries at least one Tier 1 Western source, the Chinese official text (Tier 0) and a Chinese specialist where one exists. Facts = what the fact sources agree on; differences are stated and attributed.

Tier 4 — Raters disagree, or MEDIUM credibility: corroborate first, never the sole source

Washington Examiner [AllSides Lean Right · MBFC Right-Center, High · Ad Fontes Skews Right 11.2, reliability 34.2 < 36], MSNBC [Left · MBFC Left, Mixed, Medium · Ad Fontes Strong Left −13.7, 34.5], New York Post [AllSides Right · MBFC Right-Center, Mixed, Medium · Ad Fontes Skews Right 9.6, 30.3], The Epoch Times [Lean Right · MBFC Right-Center, Mostly Factual, Medium · Ad Fontes Skews Right 8.2, 35.4], Al Jazeera [MBFC Left-Center, Mixed, Medium · Ad Fontes Skews Left −7.3, 41.3 — Qatar state-funded], SCMP [MBFC Left-Center, Mixed, Medium · Ad Fontes Middle −3.3, 41.6 — Alibaba-owned], The Telegraph [MBFC Right, Mixed, Medium], Daily Mail [MBFC Right, Mostly Factual, Medium · Ad Fontes Middle 4.6, 30.7]. Also, regardless of rating: Newsquawk and other squawk services (find the underlying statement), Yahoo Finance / MSN / Google News pages (cite the underlying wire), 网易/新浪/搜狐 reposts (cite the original outlet).

Not a source of fact (MBFC LOW or Ad Fontes Unreliable) — quote only as that side's stated position

Fox News [AllSides Right · MBFC Right, Low factual, Low · Ad Fontes Skews Right 11.4, 33.9], Breitbart [MBFC Right, Mixed, Low "Questionable" · Ad Fontes Strong Right 13.6, 30.4], Zero Hedge [MBFC Right-Conspiracy, Low · Ad Fontes Strong Right 17.1, Unreliable 20.9], RT/Sputnik/TASS, 财新 Caixin Global [MBFC Right-Center, Mixed, Low] (widely cited by Tier 1 wires; we follow the rating — "Caixin reported"), 新华社 Xinhua [MBFC Left, Mixed, Low] except as Tier 0 for official text, 环球时报 Global Times [Left, Mixed, Low], China Daily [Left, Mixed, Low], CGTN [Left-Center, Mixed, Low], Sixth Tone [Left, Mixed, Low].

Never

Content farms, unknown domains, AI-generated news sites, anonymous accounts, social posts as the sole source for a claim about someone else.

Decisions log

• 2026-10-25 (Jason): follow public ratings and consensus; minimise our own judgment; no overrides.
• 2026-10-25, consequence of the three-rater cross-check: consensus bar = MBFC HIGH and Ad Fontes ≥ 36, disagreements → Tier 4. Washington Examiner moved to Tier 4 (Ad Fontes 34.2); WSJ and Axios relabelled centre (2 of 3 raters); the only right-of-centre outlet clearing every bar is Nikkei Asia, so US-politics stories take facts from left-of-centre + centre sources and quote the right-leaning framing with attribution. Caixin follows its LOW rating. Xinhua/gov.cn are primary only for verbatim official text.

Applying it (what the curator does)

1. Every story: at least one Tier 0 or Tier 1 source when one exists, filled with Tier 2 on that beat.
2. Contested story: paired across the divide as the Tier 3 rule says.
3. Tier 4 used only alongside a fact source, and the summary says why it was used; unrated specialists likewise.
4. The sources list under each story is ordered Tier 0 → 1 → 2 → 3 → 4.

Evidence this is needed (Sunday 2026-10-25 brief, before this ledger)

Markets stories were single-sourced to Yahoo Finance (aggregator), Al Jazeera [Tier 4] and Newsquawk (squawk) instead of the Fed statement, Reuters or the EIA.

Appendix — ratings fetched 2026-10-25

Not rated by any of the three (or page not found): CoinDesk, The Block, Golf Digest, Golf Channel, Golfweek, Golf.com, MyGolfSpy, No Laying Up, The Fried Egg, Yicai, 21世纪经济报道, 经济观察报. "—" = that rater has no page for the outlet or it could not be fetched.