This guide lays out the AllSides content team’s standards for our original writing. Exceptions are unacceptable, unless the writing is explicitly someone’s point of view, either in the form of a quote or written by an AllSides team member in a properly-labeled Perspectives Blog.

Using Neutral Terminology

Immigration

We refer to people who move to the U.S. illegally as unauthorized immigrants.

Race

We don’t capitalize “black” “brown” or “white” when used in a racial or ethnic sense.

LGBTQ+ Issues

We refer to transgender individuals by their stated name and chosen pronouns. In coverage immediately following someone’s coming-out, we include their former name on first reference to minimize confusion.

When describing a transgender individual’s transition process, we use “gender transition procedures”, “gender transition treatments,” or “transgender treatments” instead of more polarized terms like “gender-affirming care” or “reassignment surgery”.

Violence

“Violent protests" is poor and misleading terminology. Either a legally protected "protest" is occurring, or illicit "violence" is occuring. It can't be both, so we have to be extra specific!

If a peaceful protest somehow descends into violence, we make that distinction also. If peaceful protests are happening in one part of a city while violence is also happening elsewhere, that's worth noting too. But our writing separate peaceful demonstrations and 1st Amendment-protected protesting from the violence, arson and other crime taking place. 

Avoiding Types of Bias

In our own work, we avoid replicating the many different forms of media bias, namely bias by omission, slant and unsubstantiated claims.

Refer to our Types of Media Bias guide for examples and more.

Vulgarity

We do not use curse words. When using a quote that includes a curse, we style it as follows:

President Joe Biden called a reporter “a stupid son of a b****” Tuesday at a press briefing.

President Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as "s***hole countries" during a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators at the White House.

This piece was reviewed and edited by Isaiah Anthony, Deputy Blog Editor (Center bias).

Media Bias, Journalism