The desk

How we source stories

We are anonymous, which means you have no name to hold responsible. The only thing we can offer instead is a set of rules stated in advance and applied visibly, so you can check us against them.

Two sources, or it says one

Nothing goes up on a single anonymous source without the story saying, in the body, that it rests on one. Every item carries a sourcing box at the bottom describing what it is built on. If the box is missing, that is a mistake and it goes in the corrections log.

Things we will not publish

• Anything that places a person somewhere at a time: addresses, hotels, gyms, schools, flight details, restaurant tables.
• Photographs taken on a closed set, or stills from an unreleased cut.
• Health, sexuality or immigration status that the person has not discussed themselves.
• Family members who are not public figures, and children in any circumstances.
• Best-and-worst dressed lists. See the carpet rundown for what we do instead.

Why the timestamps are relative

Because that is what the feed is for. A precise minute of publication implies a precision about when something happened that we usually do not have. When an exact date matters to a story, the story gives it in the text.

Right of reply

Anyone written about here can put a response to us and we will carry it in the piece, at the top, unedited except for length. We have done it four times. We do not take stories down in exchange for one.

Money

We do not pay for stories or for tips, we do not run sponsored posts, and nobody on this desk takes junket travel. Two of us have day jobs in unrelated fields, which is the actual reason the desk is anonymous.