Editorial standards
How Veteran Benefit Desk reports, verifies, attributes and corrects the journalism published in its News section.
Accuracy and verification
Every factual assertion in a news, investigation or data article must be traceable to a primary government record, a FOIA release, an official dataset, a court record, a statute or regulation, an official statement, an on-record interview, credible attributed reporting, or a Veteran Benefit Desk calculation that we document and can reproduce. Numbers are checked against their source before publication, and calculations are re-run through a separate check rather than by repeating the original computation.
Primary sources and attribution
We prefer the record over the summary of the record. Articles distinguish what documents show, what VA or another party says, what another source reports, what Veteran Benefit Desk calculated and what remains unknown. We do not convert correlation into causation, attribute motives without evidence, or imply that a dataset answers a question it cannot answer. Limitations documented in the underlying research are preserved in the news version.
Fairness and right of reply
When a story criticizes an identifiable organization or person, reports potentially damaging information, compares named contractors, questions an agency's conduct, or presents a finding on which an affected party could reasonably add important context, we make a genuine request for comment before publication when practical. We record the recipient, what was sent, when, the deadline and any response. We never describe outreach that did not happen, and we say a party "declined to comment" only if it did. If no response arrives after a reasonable opportunity, we say so in plain terms.
News, analysis and opinion
Each article carries one label: NEWS, INVESTIGATION, DATA, EXPLAINER, ANALYSIS or OPINION. Analysis and opinion are labeled and styled so that they are never mistaken for straight reporting. Research reports, calculators, reference guides, indexes and methodology pages are not journalism and are not presented as such.
Anonymous sources
Our reporting is records-driven and anonymous sourcing should rarely be necessary. If it is ever used, the source must have direct knowledge, the information must serve a strong public interest and be unavailable on the record, it must be independently verified, and the article must explain why anonymity was granted.
Corrections
Factual errors are corrected promptly and visibly. Material corrections carry a note stating what was wrong, what changed and when. See the corrections policy.
Independence, ownership and commercial separation
Veteran Benefit Desk is operated by Aurelis LLC and is independent of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. government. If the publication accepts sponsorship or advertising, sponsors receive no editorial review or approval, sponsorship does not determine coverage, sponsored material is unmistakably labeled, and paid placement is kept visually distinct from reporting. Sponsored material is never disguised as journalism. See also our editorial independence statement.
Conflicts of interest
Reporters and editors disclose personal, financial or organizational interests that a reasonable reader would want to know about, either in the article or on the author page. The publisher is a member of Military Veterans in Journalism; that membership is stated in his biography and confers no credential or endorsement.
Data journalism and FOIA records
Data stories state the dataset, the period, the unit of measure and the source of every figure, and say plainly what the records do not show. FOIA-derived material is linked to the release letter and the released files whenever they can be published. Charts carry a title, units, period, source and alt text; figures we computed are attributed as "Veteran Benefit Desk analysis of [source]."
Privacy and harm
We do not publish personal health information, claim files or identifying details of individual veterans without consent and a clear public-interest reason. We weigh the harm to identifiable people against the value of the information.
Headlines and images
Headlines must be supported by the evidence, avoid clickbait and emotional language, and not imply causation the data do not establish. SEO and social titles may differ slightly but may not exaggerate. Records-driven stories use documents, charts and data visualizations rather than decorative stock photography. Any material synthetic or AI-generated image is labeled and never presented as documentary photography.
AI-assisted work
Veteran Benefit Desk uses AI-assisted and automated tools. They may assist with research organization, transcription, data processing, coding, drafting and editorial workflow. A named human author and editor remains responsible for every published article. Source documents and material factual claims are checked by a person before publication. AI output is never treated as a source. We do not fabricate quotes, interviews, sources, documents, events or observations, and no AI-generated quotation is ever attributed to a real person. Automated data content is identified where appropriate and subjected to human verification. Separately, our AI usage policy states what AI systems and crawlers may do with Veteran Benefit Desk content.
Veteran Benefit Desk is operated by Aurelis LLC and is independent of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. government. These are Veteran Benefit Desk's own standards; they describe professional journalism practices we hold ourselves to and do not assert affiliation with, or endorsement by, any journalism organization.