Primary-Source Requirement

Every factual claim in a Undiscovered America TV article cites a primary source. Primary means the document of record — the Social Security Administration for SSI rules, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for Medicare rates, the IRS for tax thresholds, the Federal Register for rulemaking, and equivalent named issuers for every other figure we print. We do not cite aggregators, we do not cite rewrites of rewrites, and we do not infer a number without showing the source it came from.

Fact-Checking Workflow

Before publication, every article passes through our Research Desk review. The desk extracts every quantitative or named claim, resolves each one against an archived primary source, and records the resolution in our internal claim graph. The claim graph is Merkle-hashed and the root is published alongside the article so readers (and external auditors) can verify the bibliography was not quietly amended after publication.

Articles that fail verification — a claim without a source, a quantity that does not match its cited source, a source that cannot be archived — are returned for rework or dropped. They are not published.

Expertise Requirements for Contributors

Contributors writing about regulated domains must demonstrate subject-matter grounding — a relevant credential, prior reporting under byline in the domain, or documented training. Each contributor’s author page lists their credentials and prior work. We do not publish anonymous contributors on regulated topics.

Vertical-Specific Standards

For Undiscovered America — Hidden Places, Local Culture & Place-Based Finance, we rely on named primary sources — official publications, agency data, peer-reviewed records — rather than aggregators or competitor rewrites.

Conflict-of-Interest Disclosure

Writers disclose any personal or financial relationship that could be perceived as influencing their coverage. No contributor writes about an organisation in which they hold equity, a paid advisory role, or an immediate-family employment relationship without an explicit disclosure in the article. Gifts, free products, and sponsored travel are declined as a matter of policy.

Update Frequency Commitment

Content about rates, amounts, eligibility rules, payment schedules, and other time-sensitive figures is re-verified on a Every article is reviewed before publication and re-verified at least quarterly. basis, with accelerated review whenever the underlying source publishes a material update. When we update an article, the revision date at the top of the article reflects the most recent substantive verification — not cosmetic edits.