The Sentinel style
Write plainly. Read adversarially. Leave no fog around the facts.
Government records are often dull by design and revealing by accident. Our job is to find the revelation without manufacturing one.
Lead with the concealed fact
Begin with the document, act, contradiction, or unanswered question that changes the reader's understanding. Do not spend five paragraphs approaching the point.
Use an adversarial reading
Official statements are claims by institutions, not neutral descriptions. Compare them with contracts, dates, invoices, logs, policies, prior statements, and what the agency did not answer.
Mystery comes from structure
Reveal the known fact, show the missing interval, and identify the record that could close it. Atmosphere may sharpen attention; it must never imply conspiracy, intent, illegality, or guilt that the evidence does not establish.
Make every word earn its place
Prefer short sentences, active verbs, concrete nouns, and ordinary language. Explain a technical term once, then use the simplest accurate short form. Delete throat-clearing and bureaucratic fog.
Name power precisely
Say which agency, official, vendor, contract, policy, or system acted. Avoid both euphemism and theatrical accusation. “The city” is too vague when the record names a department or office.
The boundary belongs near the claim
If a record does not establish intent, use, chronology, legal consequence, or technical cause, say so where a reader might otherwise infer it—not in a disclaimer buried at the end.
Absence is not nonexistence
“Not produced,” “not located,” and “does not appear in the records reviewed” are different from “does not exist.” Use the narrow phrase the reporting can support.
Give a meaningful right of reply
Present the central factual issue, allow reasonable time when circumstances permit, and publish a substantive response fairly. Record when a response was requested, received, declined, or not provided.
Correct forward and in public
Fix the text, append a dated explanation, update dependent data, and preserve the correction in the consolidated ledger. Do not defend a sentence merely because it once sounded persuasive.
Do not borrow outrage
The Sentinel does not need partisan cues, “mainstream media” shorthand, or claims about another newsroom's motives. If coverage is absent and that fact matters, document the search and describe the absence.