Saturday, September 5, 2026MethodNewsletterAbout
The BaselineThe standard for political claims
Newsroom notes

How the site itself gets better.

Transparency shouldn't stop at the checks. This is the public log of changes to The Baseline itself — features, fixes, and editorial infrastructure. For corrections to published checks, see the corrections log.

September 1, 2026

The desk in August 20260 checks published; 10 drafts left for the editor; 759 leads ingested; 117 social posts archived. Counted from the published record on the first of the month.

July 3, 2026

  • The record reaches 18 checks — named claims from the President, Senate Democrats, and a cabinet official, held to one standard.
  • Episode 3 of the Brief covers all nine new checks, with the full transcript published.
  • Sitewide polish wave: sticky navigation, this notes page, loading states, copy-a-post buttons, and structured data for search engines.

July 2, 2026

  • The record grows to 14 published checks across a dozen topics, with verdicts on both sides of the aisle.
  • The Baseline Brief launches: Episodes 1 and 2 with full transcripts, an open RSS feed, and a homepage player.
  • Press kit published at /brand. Verdict legend, reading times, related checks, and prev/next navigation added.
  • News ingest now runs twice daily. Editor drafts automatically carry their source article as citation #1.

July 1, 2026

  • The Baseline publishes its first real fact-checks — war powers, foreign aid, debt interest.
  • All demonstration content retired or clearly labeled; trackers switch to the real published record.
  • Homepage stat band added with live counts from the database.

June 2026

  • The Baseline is built: methodology, verdict scale, corrections policy, transparency pledge, roster, and the editor pipeline.