Our promise

The ethics policy applies to 828NewsNOW editors and reporters, and to news content, and includes how we interact with our Asheville Media Group advertising team and radio station colleagues.

Report with accuracy, fairness and transparency

We promise to:

  • Strive for accuracy, fairness and transparency in everything we do.
  • Correct our errors and point out significant corrections.
  • Present you with verified information, not rumors, and share links to original source material when possible.
  • Identify our sources, telling you where we got our information.
  • Use anonymous sources only as a last resort, and only when information cannot be obtained otherwise. While news tips often are anonymous, we won’t rely on anonymous sources for reporting or quotes unless it’s critical to our mission. We be transparent when doing so.
  • Set our personal opinions aside and strive to get both sides of our stories.
  • Use ethical, transparent reporting methods. We will identify ourselves when reporting. People will know when they are being quoted.
  • Label opinion or commentary so that readers know up front if a piece is intended as the opinion of the author.
  • Be transparent about the authorship of our content, identifying the author or source of each article, and not using AI programs to write our news content.

Minimize harm

We promise to:

  • Balance the legal access to information with the ethical justification to publish or broadcast that information. We will avoid tipping those scales toward “lurid curiosity.”
  • Exercise sensitivity when dealing with crime victims, juveniles and survivors.
  • Exercise grace when dealing with private citizens who may not be used to being in the public eye. This is a different standard from what’s expected of public figures, such as politicians or those seeking to influence the public.
  • Consider the long-term impact of criminal charges and strive to update stories regarding criminal charges when cases are finalized.

Act independently

We promise to:

  • Avoid conflicts of interest and disclose any that are unavoidable.
  • Prohibit staff political activity, and ensure that reporters and editors choose no sides, remaining objective in everything that they do.
  • Deny favored treatment to advertisers, sponsors and business partners, both in what is covered and how it is published.
  • Distinguish news from advertising, and clearly label advertiser-sponsored content.
  • Refuse any gifts, favors or other special treatment.