How we verify

Source tiers

• Primary: official documents, datasets, filings, court records, full transcripts
• Tier 1: wire services and peer-reviewed research
• Tier 2: major outlets from across the political spectrum
• Tier 3: think tanks and specialists, with funding and lean disclosed
• Signal: social media and automated headline feeds, never used as sole proof

Balance protocol

• Contested political items cite left-leaning, centrist, and right-leaning outlets
• Each side's strongest case is stated in its own terms
• Neutral verbs: “said,” “alleged,” “reported.” No loaded labels.
• Casualty and crowd figures are always attributed, never blended
• A quarterly audit of word choice and source mix is published

Live signal versus reviewed evidence

• The Live Wire and Social Pulse update automatically every 3 hours
• Automated items are labeled “Unreviewed signal” everywhere they appear
• Only items reviewed by The Cultured Scholar enter an evidence ledger, with a grade
• Headlines are sorted into trackers by published keyword rules, so some will be misfiled

Social media analysis

• Public posts only. Bluesky public search counts and Reddit public threads today, more platforms as they are added
• Only totals are reported; individual users are never named
• Possible coordination is flagged with evidence, never asserted
• Private individuals and minors are never named or shown
• Extremist propaganda is described, never linked

Citations and snapshots

• Every page saves one dated snapshot of its data per day
• Citation links include the snapshot date and always show that day's data
• Corrections stay visible, with the date and what changed

AI and accountability

• Research, collection, and first-pass analysis are done with Perplexity Computer agents
• Every reviewed publication is approved by The Cultured Scholar
• The full change history is kept in version control

Platforms

• Bluesky: counts of public posts matching each tracker's terms, past 24 hours
• Mastodon: daily hashtag uses and accounts, as seen from mastodon.social
• Reddit: the day's top public threads in selected communities
• YouTube: public uploads from news channels, past 72 hours
• Telegram: public channel posts, past 72 hours
• Wikipedia: daily pageviews of key articles, a measure of public curiosity
• Hacker News: story counts on technology topics
• Election calendar: Wikipedia's national electoral calendars, with their cited references

X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook don't offer free public access, so they're covered through reporting and manual review. Truth Social and GDELT's global news index are tried on every run and appear when they respond.

YouTube channels

C-SPAN, PBS NewsHour, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, MS NOW, Fox News, Newsmax, CNBC, BBC News, Sky News, GB News, DW News, France 24 English, Al Jazeera English, WION, CNN-News18, TRT World

Trial sources

These block automated readers from some networks. They are retried every run and appear when they respond: CBC News, Newsmax, U.S. Treasury, ACLED, Institute for the Study of War, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, The Washington Post, Washington Post Politics, USA Today, Kathimerini English, The Times of Israel, Ahram Online, Dawn, The East African, Americas Quarterly, UNHCR, Ukraine President's Office, Israel PMO, Sabato's Crystal Ball, IFES, Electoral Commission UK, Heritage election integrity, Chatham House, ECFR, Lawfare, EUvsDisinfo, AFP Fact Check, VentureBeat, Al Arabiya.

Telegram channels