Circle City Broadcasting Publishing Principles
Introduction
Circle City Broadcasting is committed to serving our communities with accurate, timely and responsible journalism across our television stations, websites, streaming platforms, social media channels and other digital platforms.
As a locally owned media company, we take seriously our responsibility to the communities we serve. Our journalists work to inform the public, hold institutions and individuals accountable, provide critical information during breaking news and severe weather, and tell the stories of the communities we serve.
These publishing principles guide the journalism produced and published by Circle City Broadcasting and its news operations, including WISH-TV and WRTV.
Our Principles
- Integrity and Accuracy: Accuracy is fundamental to our journalism. We work to verify information using appropriate journalistic practices and reliable sources before reporting it as fact.
- Public Interest: Our journalism focuses on news and information that matters to the communities we serve, including local and national news, weather, sports, investigative reporting and community stories.
- Fairness and Independence: We strive to approach our reporting fairly and independently, without allowing personal, political or commercial interests to improperly influence our journalism.
- Transparency and Accountability: We take responsibility for the journalism we publish, attribute information to its source when appropriate and correct substantive factual errors when they occur.
- Community Engagement: We value feedback, news tips and participation from the communities we serve and recognize the important role our audience can play in our journalism.
Our Coverage
Circle City Broadcasting’s newsrooms provide local and national news, weather, investigative journalism, sports and community-focused reporting across our broadcast and digital platforms.
Our journalists work to keep our communities informed about issues and events that affect them, provide timely information during breaking news and severe weather, investigate issues affecting the public interest, and highlight stories that reflect the people and communities we serve.
Our Commitment
Circle City Broadcasting is committed to being a trusted source of news and information for the communities we serve.
Our journalists distinguish between confirmed information, allegations, opinion and information that remains under investigation. We attribute information to its source when appropriate and seek original or authoritative sources whenever possible.
Speed is important, particularly during breaking news, but being first does not outweigh our responsibility to be accurate.
When information cannot yet be independently confirmed but is important to an ongoing story, we strive to clearly communicate what is known, what is not known and where the information originated.
Ownership
WISH-TV, WRTV and WNDY are owned and operated by Circle City Broadcasting, a locally owned media company based in Indianapolis.
Circle City Broadcasting is owned by DuJuan McCoy, who serves as Owner, President and CEO.
Our ownership supports local journalism and programming serving the communities of Central Indiana and the state.
Information about Circle City Broadcasting and its companies is available at CircleCityBroadcasting.com.
Community Feedback
Circle City Broadcasting is committed to maintaining open communication with our audience. We welcome news tips, questions, corrections, concerns and constructive feedback from the communities we serve.
Audience feedback may help identify new stories, additional sources, missing context or potential errors. Feedback does not automatically result in a change to published content. Editorial decisions are based on accuracy, newsworthiness, journalistic standards and the information available to our newsroom.
Information about contacting WISH-TV or WRTV can be found on each station’s Contact Us page.
Corrections & Updates
Circle City Broadcasting takes responsibility for the accuracy of the journalism we publish.
When we confirm that a substantive factual error has been published, we work to correct it promptly. When appropriate, a correction, clarification or editor’s note may be added to explain a significant change.
Not every change to published content constitutes a correction. Stories may be updated as additional reporting becomes available, and routine changes involving spelling, grammar, style, formatting, headlines or other non-substantive matters may be made without a correction notice.
We welcome information from viewers and readers who believe our reporting contains an error. Concerns are reviewed by our editorial team, and corrections are made when warranted.
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Ethical Journalism: Our Standards & Practices
Our commitment to ethical journalism is at the core of our mission. The following standards help guide the editorial decisions our journalists make every day.
Fairness, Independence & Editorial Judgment
We strive to approach our reporting fairly, independently and without allowing personal, political or commercial interests to improperly influence our journalism.
Fairness requires thoughtful consideration of relevant facts and perspectives, but does not mean every viewpoint warrants equal weight. Our journalists use editorial judgment to determine which facts, perspectives and sources are relevant and credible based on the circumstances of each story.
When reporting includes significant allegations or criticism of an individual, organization or institution, we make reasonable efforts to seek an appropriate response when circumstances allow.
Our journalists are expected to avoid conflicts of interest that could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, the independence and credibility of our reporting.
Sources, Attribution & Information From Social Media
Sources are essential to journalism. We identify and attribute sources when appropriate and carefully evaluate information provided by sources who require confidentiality.
Information found on social media or elsewhere online is not automatically considered verified simply because it has been widely shared or published by another source. We work to evaluate the original source, authenticity and context of information before relying on it in our reporting.
We also distinguish reporting by Circle City Broadcasting journalists from reporting or information originating with other news organizations, government agencies, businesses and third parties.
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Breaking & Developing News
Breaking news develops quickly, and the information available at the beginning of an event may change significantly as additional facts become known.
Our digital stories, live coverage and social media posts may be updated as new information is confirmed. Early reports may contain preliminary information from law enforcement, public officials, witnesses or other sources that is later clarified or changed.
We work to make clear when information is preliminary or when important questions remain unanswered.
When new information materially changes previously reported facts, we update our coverage and provide appropriate clarification or correction.
Photos, Video & User-Generated Content (UGC)
Photos, video, audio and other material submitted by viewers or obtained from social media can provide important documentation of news events.
Before presenting such material as authentic, we take reasonable steps to evaluate its source, context and authenticity. When material has been edited, altered or generated in a way that could materially affect an audience’s understanding of what occurred, we provide appropriate context.
We do not knowingly present manipulated or synthetic media as authentic documentation of a news event.
Privacy, Dignity & Minimizing Harm
Reporting the news sometimes requires publishing information that is sensitive, disturbing or deeply personal. We balance the public’s need for information with consideration for the privacy, safety and dignity of the people involved.
We exercise particular care when reporting about children, victims of crime, grieving families and others who may be especially vulnerable.
The fact that information is publicly available does not automatically mean that publishing it serves the public interest. Our journalists and editors consider relevance, newsworthiness, potential harm and the circumstances of each story when making those decisions.
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Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technology
Circle City Broadcasting may use artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to assist journalists and staff with tasks such as organizing information, transcription, formatting, summarization and other parts of the content-production process.
AI tools support our journalism. They do not replace the judgment, reporting or responsibility of our journalists and editors.
AI-assisted content is subject to human editorial oversight. Facts, quotes, statistics, names, dates, locations, source attributions and other factual information produced or assisted by AI must be verified before publication. AI-generated information is not a substitute for original reporting, research, source development or fact-checking.
Circle City Broadcasting does not use artificial intelligence to fabricate quotes, interviews, sources, events, images, audio or video and present them as authentic journalism. When AI-generated or substantially altered material is used in a way that could affect an audience’s understanding of what is authentic, we provide appropriate context or disclosure in accordance with our editorial standards.
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Sponsored & Paid Content
Circle City Broadcasting produces journalism as well as commercial, sponsored and promotional content.
Paid or sponsored content is identified appropriately so audiences can distinguish it from independent newsroom reporting.
Advertising, sponsorships and other commercial relationships do not determine or dictate our independent news reporting.
Requests to Remove Published Content
Circle City Broadcasting considers requests concerning previously published journalism on a case-by-case basis.
Accurate journalism generally remains part of the public record.
When circumstances warrant, we may update a story, add relevant context, correct inaccurate information or take other appropriate editorial action. In exceptional circumstances, removal or other changes may be considered based on editorial, legal, safety, privacy or other significant considerations.