Our Commitment to Accuracy
Our editorial standards start with a simple idea: Sports By The Balz blends sharp opinion and commentary with an honest respect for the facts underneath it. We get things wrong sometimes — everyone does — and when we do, we fix it in the open rather than quietly editing history.
How We Handle Corrections
When a factual error is identified in a published piece, we update the article and append a dated correction note at the bottom explaining what was changed and why. We don’t delete or unpublish pieces to make mistakes disappear, except in rare cases involving legal or safety concerns. Corrections fall into a few categories: factual errors (a wrong date, name, or figure), clarity fixes (a sentence that was technically accurate but easy to misread), and updates (new information that came out after publication that changes the context of the story). We label each one differently in the correction note so readers know exactly what kind of change was made and why.
Opinion vs. Reporting
Most of what runs on The Hairy Times is commentary and opinion, not straight news reporting, and we label it that way. Our writers bring distinct voices and perspectives to the issues of the day. We use AI to assist with our research and post development, but every piece is reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a human before it’s published. Sourced factual claims within that commentary are still held to the same accuracy standard described above. We think that distinction matters, especially now that AI-assisted writing is common across the industry. Using AI to help draft or research a piece doesn’t lower our editorial standards — every claim still gets checked by a person, every opinion still belongs to the writer whose byline is on it, and nothing goes out the door because a tool generated it and nobody looked twice.
Sourcing Standards
When we reference a claim, statistic, or event, we aim to link to or cite a credible original source wherever possible so readers can verify it themselves. That means primary documents, official statements, court filings, government data, and named on-record sources whenever they’re available. We’re cautious with anonymous sourcing and use it sparingly, mainly when a source faces real risk for speaking on the record and the information can be corroborated another way. Screenshots, social media posts, and secondhand reporting from other outlets get the same scrutiny — we don’t treat something as true just because it went viral first.
Report an Error
Spotted something that looks wrong? Email us at andrewhahn@thehairytimes.com with the article link and details, and we’ll look into it. Please include the headline or URL of the piece, the specific claim you’re questioning, and — if you have it — a link to a source that supports the correction. We review every report personally rather than routing it through a generic inbox, and we’ll follow up if we need more information before making a change. Most corrections get reviewed within a few business days, though anything involving a safety or legal concern gets prioritized immediately.
These editorial standards apply to every writer and every section of the site, without exceptions for convenience or deadline pressure. We’d rather take an extra day to get a correction right than rush it out and get it wrong twice. If you’re a regular reader, thank you for holding us to this — that accountability is exactly what makes it worth having a written policy in the first place. We take that seriously. Thank you for reading and for keeping us honest along the way. It genuinely helps us do better work. Truly, thank you.