Campus edition · v1.0

US Brief Editorial and Moderation Rubric (Campus Edition)

Version 1.0, October 10, 2026. Draft for the campus pilot. This rubric describes how US Brief chooses, writes, sources and corrects the stories in the Campus Weekly digest. Rules marked "Campus edition" are added for the pilot and go beyond the rules on the public site.

1. What US Brief is

US Brief (us-brief.com) is a small, independent news briefing. It publishes short, plain-language stories on US news, politics, technology, world, finance and entertainment. Every story lists its sources with links.

The Campus Weekly is a once-a-week digest built from stories US Brief has already published. It contains no ads, no affiliate links, no games and no images.

2. How stories are made: AI drafting and human approval

• AI tools draft every story from published reporting and primary documents (court filings, official transcripts, government data).
• A human editor reviews every draft and approves it before it is published. Nothing publishes automatically.
• Stories are credited to "the US Brief desk," not to a personal byline, and each story ends with a method note saying it was AI-assisted.
• US Brief has one human editor. We say this plainly so readers can judge the work.
• Campus edition: the human editor also approves each weekly digest before it is sent.

3. Inclusion criteria

A story can be included in the Campus Weekly when all of these are true:

1. It was published on us-brief.com during the week and passed human approval.
2. Its core facts trace to at least one wire service (AP or Reuters), a primary document, or two independent outlets. If only one partisan or anonymous-source report exists, the story says so in the text.
3. It adds at least one "original layer" beyond a summary: how different outlets framed it, a short timeline, the strongest argument from each side, a short excerpt from a primary document, what remains unknown, or what would change the story.
4. It concerns public affairs: government, courts, elections, policy, the economy, international affairs, science and technology policy, or major public-safety events.

Campus edition: each issue aims for 5 to 7 stories, including at least one "Both Sides" report on a contested political question when one was published that week.

4. Exclusion criteria

These are left out of the Campus Weekly:

• Celebrity gossip and entertainment news with no public-policy angle.
• Graphic detail of violence, crime-scene descriptions and victim images. The digest has no images at all.
• Opinion pieces presented as news. Opinion appears only when it is attributed as one side of a debate.
• Claims that rest on a single unverified source, unless the story is clear that it is unverified.
• Breaking news in its first 12 hours, when facts are still moving (campus edition).
• Ads, sponsored lines, affiliate links and calls to buy anything.
• Endorsements of candidates, parties or ballot measures, and calls to political action.

5. How multiple angles are chosen

• Balance comes first from the source mix. Stories are built from outlets across the spectrum, for example Fox News, the New York Post or the Washington Examiner alongside AP, Reuters, CNN or The New York Times.
• Equal credibility: conservative outlets and mainstream or liberal-leaning outlets get the same verification standard. Neither group is treated as the neutral default.
• On contested political stories, the story includes the main response or counterpoint from the other side or from the subject, or says they did not respond.
• Each Both Sides report must cite at least one right-leaning outlet and at least one mainstream or left-leaning outlet. It shows how each side framed the story, the main claims, the strongest argument from each side, and where the sources differ.
• Wire services (AP, Reuters) and primary documents are the factual baseline. Partisan or opinion outlets on either side, advocacy groups, campaign or party statements, and state media (for example TASS, Press TV, Global Times or Xinhua) are not treated as neutral and are attributed by name.
• Selection balance: over a week, we avoid a pattern of only covering stories that flatter or embarrass one side.
• Campus edition: each story in the digest carries a short "agreed / disputed" note. "Agreed" lists facts no cited source contests. "Disputed" lists the claims the sides contest, attributed to who makes them.

6. Source-lean labels: method and limits

What we label: outlets, not individual stories or reporters. We do not give stories a bias score.

How the labels work: US Brief keeps its own short, written list of outlets in two groups. The list is maintained by US Brief. It is not copied from, licensed from or scored by AllSides, Ad Fontes Media, Media Bias/Fact Check or any other rating service.

• Right-leaning: Fox News, Fox Business, New York Post, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, Daily Wire, Daily Caller, Washington Times, National Review, The Federalist, Newsmax, TheBlaze, Townhall, Washington Free Beacon, OAN, Daily Signal, Just the News, RedState, and Wall Street Journal opinion pages.
• Mainstream or left-leaning: CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC (MS NOW), NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, NPR, PBS, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, POLITICO, HuffPost, Vox, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Axios, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, Slate and Salon.
• Not labeled on either side: AP, Reuters, BBC, CNBC, The Hill and Wall Street Journal news pages, plus primary documents, government data, international outlets and local outlets. State media are labeled as state media in the text.

How a label is assigned: by the outlet's web address or exact outlet name in the story's source list. A story gets the line "Sources across the spectrum" only when its sources include at least one outlet from each group.

Limits we want readers to know:

• Two groups are a blunt tool. They do not measure accuracy, and they do not capture how lean differs between an outlet's news and opinion sections.
• Grouping "mainstream" with "left-leaning" outlets is itself a judgment that some readers will dispute. We publish the list so readers can see it and challenge it.
• Labels follow the website a source appears on. A wire story republished by NBC News, for example, carries NBC's label.
• A source mix is not proof of a balanced story. The wording rules in section 7 and human review do that work.
• The list changes rarely. Any change is dated in the change log (section 12).

7. Language rules

• Lead with what happened, who said it and documented numbers. Attribute every claim, characterization or prediction ("X said," "according to Y").
• Strip loaded language. Examples we rewrite: "slammed," "radical," "far-right" or "far-left" used as labels, "regime," "bombshell," "chaos." Charged words are quoted only when they are the news, and they are attributed.
• Headlines and summaries state the event and attribute claims. No implied verdicts.
• Short sentences, plain words, about 20 words per sentence. A balance fix must not make the story harder to read. An added counterpoint is one short sentence.
• Notes about a source's lean go in the source list, not in the body.

8. Accuracy and corrections

• Every fact must trace to a linked source. Numbers must match the source. Quotes are never invented.
• Uncertainty is kept: casualty counts, estimates and forecasts are attributed and marked as subject to change.
• To report an error, email contact@us-brief.com with the story link, what is wrong and a source.
• We fix substantive errors and add a dated correction note to the story. We do not silently change facts.
• Campus edition: we aim to correct a substantive error in a published story within 24 hours of confirming it. If an error appeared in a digest that was already sent, the next issue lists the correction at the top.

9. Consistency checks

Checks that run today on every draft before publication:

• Automated validation: required fields, a desk credit (no personal bylines), no scripts or unsafe links, photo license checks (no AI-generated photos, no non-commercial or no-derivatives licenses), and affiliate-link rules.
• Both Sides check: a story only counts as a Both Sides report if its sources include both outlet groups in section 6.
• Human approval of every story, with any lean in the sourcing noted in the approval request.

Added for the campus pilot (to be run and reported during the pilot):

• A second, independent automated review of each digest against this rubric: exclusions, loaded words, attribution and link checks.
• Disagreements between the two reviews go to the human editor.
• A monthly transparency note for pilot partners: sources used by outlet group, stories excluded and why, corrections made, and how often the two reviews agreed. We will publish real counts only once they exist.

10. What we never do

• Invent quotes, figures, sources, links or forecasts.
• Claim editor review, independent confirmation or primary-source consultation that did not happen.
• Give stories a numeric bias score.
• Endorse candidates, parties or ballot measures, or ask readers to take political action.
• Put ads, sponsored content or affiliate links in the Campus Weekly.
• Use AI-generated images in the Campus Weekly.
• Collect student data. The pilot needs no student accounts; a campus office simply forwards or posts the digest.
• Share pilot partners' contact details with anyone.

11. Questions and complaints

Email contact@us-brief.com about errors, bias concerns or this rubric. Campus edition: we aim to reply within two business days, and complaints about bias or accuracy are reviewed by the human editor.

12. Change log

• v1.0, October 10, 2026: first version for the campus pilot.

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