Ethics & Standards

The Pennsylvania Gazette is a publication of the Massachusetts Society of Journalism. We hold ourselves to the following standards in all of our reporting, in the tradition of the newspaper Benjamin Franklin established in Philadelphia in 1728.

The Franklin Standard

Benjamin Franklin understood that a free press was not merely a convenience of civil society — it was the mechanism by which free people governed themselves. The Pennsylvania Gazette, under Franklin's direction, covered the affairs of the colonies with rigor, wit, and the understanding that an informed citizenry was the only reliable check on the concentration of power. We inherit that obligation. We do not carry it lightly.

Franklin's journalism was characterized by a commitment to the useful, the true, and the consequential. He wrote that a newspaper's duty was to serve its readers with accurate intelligence and to spare them the distraction of the trivial. We adopt that standard as our own. Every article published in The Pennsylvania Gazette must serve the reader's interest in understanding their world — not the interest of any party, faction, or advertiser in shaping their perception of it.

Truth and Accuracy

We verify facts before publication. When we cannot independently verify a claim, we say so. We do not publish rumors, speculation, or unverified allegations as established fact. When we make errors, we correct them promptly and transparently. Franklin himself ran corrections in the Gazette when the record required it. So do we.

Independence

Our editorial decisions are not influenced by advertisers, political figures, government officials, or any outside interest. No source, subject, or stakeholder receives advance review or approval of our coverage. The Pennsylvania Gazette answers to its readers and to no one else. Franklin's Gazette was published in a city where political and commercial pressures were constant and fierce. His paper survived because readers trusted it. That trust was earned through independence. Ours must be as well.

Civic Argument

Franklin did not confuse neutrality with objectivity. He took positions. He argued. He engaged the great questions of his era — colonial rights, scientific inquiry, the obligations of public life — with the full force of his reasoning. The Pennsylvania Gazette, in that spirit, is not a publication that withholds its judgment from its readers. We report what is true, and we argue for what we believe serves the Republic. We distinguish clearly between news and argument. We do not present editorial opinion as reporting. But we do not pretend that a newspaper has no obligations beyond the stenographic recording of competing claims.

Commitment

The Pennsylvania Gazette exists to serve the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the national interest of the United States, and the tradition of independent journalism that Franklin built on the corner of Market Street. We are accountable to those purposes above all other interests. The Republic Franklin helped build is older now, and its press faces pressures he could not have imagined. We publish in the belief that the answer to those pressures is the same answer he gave: more journalism, more accurately rendered, more freely distributed, and more fiercely independent.

Effective: April 2026