Ethics Policy

Our editorial mission

The Juggernaut is a media company and community that centers South Asian stories. Our mission is to diversify storytelling and to report with depth, nuance, and context to deliver stories you won’t see anywhere else.

Our ethics

At our core, we are a journalism organization that is also building a community. All of our work, whether in written, audio, or video form, goes through rigorous reporting, editing, and fact-checking. This ensures high quality reportage and that we build trust with our audiences. 

We take pride in what we create. Behind the scenes, before we publish anything, we are working to ensure that our reporting is accurate, diverse, fair, and complete. Here are some of the questions we ask: Is this story balanced and fair? Do we have original sourcing? Do we have diversity in sources? Do we have enough sources? Have we confirmed, and then double confirmed, the stickiest of claims? 

Our journalists conduct their work with honesty, respect, independence, impartiality, and a desire to inform. We do not tolerate plagiarism or fabrication. We attribute information and image to their original source if they are not us. We practice “no surprises” journalism and reach out to sources for comment if we are writing about them or issues where their opinions are key. We indicate when we have reached out to these key sources and have yet to receive comment.

Journalism is more than transcription — we’re not in the business of being stenographers. Our job is to reduce bias and tell the complete story, replete with context, analysis, and data as well as a hypothesis and thesis statement, plus rebuttals and reporting that acknowledges the other side — if there is one — as well. 

Editorial decisions at The Juggernaut are not influenced by our investors, sources, subscribers, business partners, or other outside forces. We will always disclose it if our reporting might be perceived as a conflict of interest (e.g., if the subject of an article is also an investor, etc.). We do not share any copy with those outside the editorial team before publication We refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel, and special treatment, and avoid political activity that may compromise integrity or impartiality. That said, if certain favors are unavoidable as part of the process (e.g., attending an early screening of a movie we must review), the granting of such favor does not influence the ultimate tenor of the reporting.

Corrections

We strive to be accurate in our reporting and fact-check our evidence and sources. That said, in any newsroom, mistakes do happen, and when they do, we seek to correct them.

Our baseline is this: A correction is a factual error. 

We will seek to investigate all correction claims and feedback but we will not post a correction if the claim does not rise to the level of a factual error. When we learn of a mistake, we will quickly seek to correct it in the place that the material originally appeared and append a Correction(s) note. 

If there is a piece of information that comes to light after publication that amplifies and clarifies certain points and would make for a more well-rounded piece, we will occasionally add context or clarifications. Where that happens, we will append a Clarification(s) note.

Readers can easily contact us about corrections or clarifications by contacting our reporters, messaging us through our social media channels, and emailing us at hi@thejuggernaut.com.

Ownership and funding

We're funded by Y Combinator, Precursor Ventures, Backstage Capital, New Media Ventures, Old Town Media, and several other investors who are supportive of our mission and do not have editorial input. We're also funded by our readers, who pay monthly, annual, student, or lifetime subscription fees. We are currently owned by our team.