A standard, not a side.

The Baseline exists to do one thing well: measure political claims against the empirical record, and show the receipt every time. We quote a claim exactly, check it against primary sources, assign a verdict from a fixed scale, and publish the evidence so you can verify it yourself.

Who runs it

The Baseline is published and edited by Cory Hepler, and has been since July 2026. That is the whole staff: one editor, and an automated desk the editor built and runs. The desk is software. It finds claims by tracked public figures, gathers sources, drafts a check, and publishes it only when it clears rules the editor set; it has no editorial authority of its own, and every check it publishes is labeled as automated until the editor has read it. The editor answers for every word on this site, including the desk's, and can be reached at coryh2014+baseline-hello@gmail.com. Ownership, funding, and legal status are on the transparency page.

Who we write for

Anyone who wants a claim measured against the record instead of shouted about. We do not write for a side, and we do not choose an audience by its politics. Our method is non-partisan, and our credibility depends on it: every claim, from every direction, meets the same standard, including claims from politicians a given reader happens to like.

What we will not do

We don't trade in outrage, we don't run a watchlist, and we don't publish a verdict we can't source to primary evidence. We do not pretend the news desk is reporting: it collects and ranks what other newsrooms publish, links to them, and says so.

How a check is made

An automated desk finds claims by tracked public figures, gathers independent sources, and publishes a check only when it clears a fixed gate: a named public figure, at least two independent sources it actually cites, a confidence floor, a daily cap, and a daily limit per speaker so one politician cannot fill the record. Every automated check is labeled as such until the editor, Cory Hepler, has read it, and the editor can edit or unpublish any check in one click. Anything that fails the gate waits as a draft for the editor. The full method is on our methodology page.

Prefer to listen? The record comes in audio as The Baseline Brief. Writing about us? Grab the press kit.

Questions, tips, or a claim you want checked? Contact us. Think we got something wrong? See corrections.