Tarbell Ethics and Standards Policies

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism (“Tarbell”) supports journalism that helps society navigate the emergence of increasingly advanced AI. This policy covers all Tarbell staff, fellows, and grantees, including our in-house publication Transformer. In most cases Tarbell fellows and grantees will publish in independent news outlets. As such they should familiarize themselves with the ethics and standards policies of those outlets in order to operate in compliance with them. Transformer has its own ethics guide.

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Coverage

The journalists and newsrooms we fund have complete control over everything they publish, and Tarbell does not seek to influence anything about their work, choice of topics, framing, or knowledge of stories before publication. This preserves the editorial independence of fellows and grantees as well as the autonomy of our partner news outlets.

 

Fellows have received training in journalism and AI from Tarbell, and Tarbell staff serve as an ongoing resource for fellows during their placement. If requested by grantees, Tarbell may offer guidance and support, including discussing a story, suggesting contacts, and making introductions. Grantees are under no obligation to accept or use any of Tarbell’s guidance or support.

 

Occasionally staff members may hear sensitive or confidential information from fellows, grantees, and colleagues about work in progress. Such information should be treated with care, and typically should not be shared outside the initial conversation.

 

Tarbell staff, fellows, and grantees should make their association with Tarbell clear. Writing funded wholly or in part by a Tarbell grant should indicate this on the same page as the publication. Tarbell Fellows should indicate their association with Tarbell on their author page on the partner outlet’s website.

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Conflicts of interest

Tarbell staff, fellows, and grantees should avoid activities that could create actual or perceived conflicts of interest for Tarbell. Any affiliation or association, financial or otherwise, with a subject of a story should be disclosed. Concerning financial arrangements could include employment, contractor, or consultant relationships; direct investment (not including index funds); acceptance of awards; speaking engagements (paid or unpaid); or paid advertisements on a personal blog or website.

 

Any such arrangement that could create an actual or perceived conflict of interest should be discussed with a manager as soon as possible.

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Organizations and politics

Tarbell staff, fellows, and grantees have a right to join organizations and advocate for causes of their choice, including advocating for political causes and electoral candidates. However, they should always make clear that such advocacy represents their views as an individual, not the views of Tarbell itself. Activities that could raise questions about Tarbell’s integrity and fairness as an organization should be approached with additional care and consideration.

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Donor relations

Tarbell is a non-profit organization that depends on the contributions of organizations and individuals to sustain our work. Our website lists all of our donors, with the exception of those giving less than $10,000/year who wish to remain anonymous. We do not accept anonymous donations greater than $10,000/year from any one source.

 

As of 2025, the majority of our funding originates with a single funder, Open Philanthropy. We take seriously the potential for actual or perceived conflicts of interest arising from our relationship with Open Philanthropy or any other funder.

 

Tarbell’s donors understand that their donations do not entitle them to any influence or control over our public presentation or the journalism we support. Donors have no role in reviewing, vetting, or approving our staff, fellows, or grantees.