Corrections Policy

I want The Daily Operational Brief to be accurate, but no publication gets everything right every time.

When a meaningful factual error is identified, I will correct it as soon as reasonably possible.

The goal is simple: fix the record, explain what changed when it matters, and avoid pretending the mistake never happened.

What Gets Corrected

Corrections may be necessary when a report contains an incorrect fact, number, date, location, attribution, identification, quotation, or other detail that materially changes the reader’s understanding of what happened.

Developing events are different. Information can change quickly as agencies release new details, casualty figures are updated, warnings change, or investigations progress.

When new information changes the operational picture, the report may be updated even if the original information was accurate at the time it was published.

How Corrections Are Handled

Significant factual corrections will be acknowledged rather than quietly rewritten.

When appropriate, a correction note will explain what was wrong and what the corrected information is.

Minor changes involving spelling, grammar, formatting, broken links, or wording that do not change the substance of the report may be made without a formal correction notice.

Developing Information

A developing story may change several times during the day.

If an agency updates a warning, an investigation changes direction, a number is revised, or new evidence becomes available, the report may be updated to reflect the most reliable information available.

Those updates are not necessarily corrections. Sometimes the facts simply changed.

Reader Corrections

If you believe something in a report is inaccurate, I want to know.

Send the specific statement you believe is wrong, the report it appears in, and any source or evidence that supports the correction.

Every credible correction request will be reviewed.

What I Will Not Do

• Quietly rewrite a material error and pretend it never happened
• Leave a known factual error in place
• Treat disagreement with an assessment as automatically being a factual correction
• Change reporting simply because a source or subject dislikes how accurate information was presented
• Hide uncertainty when the facts are still developing

Reporting and Assessment

A correction applies to factual reporting.

My assessment is analysis based on the information available at the time.

An assessment may later prove incomplete or incorrect as events develop. When that happens, I may update the analysis or explain what changed, but a difference in judgment is not the same thing as a factual error.

The Standard

If I get something wrong, I want to correct it.

If the facts change, I want to update them.

If something remains uncertain, I want to say that clearly.

Maintaining trust matters more than protecting an old version of a report.

Last reviewed: August 2026

This policy may be updated as the publication grows and the reporting process evolves.