Editorial Standards & Corrections Policy
Transparency, Primary-Source Accountability, and Journalistic Standards at YDHLGE
1. Masthead, Ownership & Editorial Desk
YDHLGE (You Don't Hate Local Government Enough) is a digital watchdog news publication covering municipal, county, and special-district governance across the State of Texas.
Reports attributed to the YDHLGE Texas Investigative Desk are produced through our municipal docket monitoring pipeline and verified against official city council agendas, enacted ordinances, county commissioner court minutes, and corroborated local reporting.
2. Primary-Source Verification & Research Methodology
Every investigative article published on YDHLGE adheres to strict evidentiary requirements designed to ensure factual accuracy on municipal votes, tax rates, bond obligations, and ordinances:
- Dual-Source Minimum Standard: No news report is published unless it is grounded in at least two verified, live deep-link sources (such as official municipal agenda packets, enacted ordinances, local news coverage, or legal/policy briefs from recognized research institutions including the Reason Foundation, Institute for Justice, Tax Foundation, or Texas Public Policy Foundation).
- Enacted Actions Focus: Our daily investigative reports focus on ordinances, fees, debt issuances, and regulatory actions officially voted on or enacted by local governing bodies, clearly distinguishing passed measures from pending proposals.
- Automated Discovery & Link Verification Disclosure: YDHLGE utilizes automated municipal docket ingestion and AI-assisted synthesis to scan thousands of pages of Texas city council and county commissioner records daily. Every outbound citation URL is programmatically verified for live HTTP resolution prior to publication, and all primary sources are explicitly listed in the Official Public Records & Primary Sources block at the bottom of every article.
3. Corrections, Clarifications & Right-of-Reply Policy
YDHLGE is committed to prompt, transparent corrections whenever a factual error regarding an ordinance number, vote tally, dollar figure, date, or official statement is identified:
- Submitting a Correction or Official Response: Readers, residents, and municipal officials may submit factual corrections or official public-record documentation via our Contact Page or by emailing contact@ydhlge.com with the article URL and supporting municipal document.
- Transparent Editor's Notes: When a substantive factual correction is made after publication, the article text is updated, the modification timestamp is refreshed, and a visible Correction Note is appended explaining what was changed and when. We never silently delete or alter published factual claims without notation.
4. Editorial Independence & Sponsored Content Policy
YDHLGE is funded by reader subscriptions and clearly labeled first-party sponsorships. We accept zero government grants or municipal subsidies.
- Strict Editorial Firewall: Advertisers, sponsors, and contributors have zero prior review or editorial control over our municipal investigative reports or Liberty Watchdog Freedom Scores.
- Clear Labeling & Search Separation: All sponsored placements and native campaign messages are prominently badged as Sponsored (with required political disclaimers where applicable), marked with
rel="sponsored"link attributes, and excluded from our Google News XML sitemap and RSS editorial feeds.