Chicago Politics editorial standards

Last modified: October 27, 2026

Chicago Politics is an independent civic news site about the Chicago City Council: its members, the legislation they file, their votes, committees and meetings, campaign money and lobbying, and the 2027 municipal election. It takes no side between parties or candidates. These are the rules we follow for everything we publish.

1. Who we are

Chicago Politics is built from public records. It is run by Matics Lab INC, which runs the network's other city politics sites on the same template. No government, political party, campaign or candidate runs or funds it, and we don't endorse candidates. More about the site: About.

2. Sourcing

Our facts come from public records: the Office of the City Clerk, the City of Chicago Board of Ethics, the Illinois State Board of Elections, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the video and transcripts of public meetings. Every page and story links to the records it draws on; Sources and methods lists each one and how often we update it.
Every quote is word for word from a public record or a meeting's recording or transcript, and says where it comes from.
We don't use anonymous sources.
Counts, totals, rankings and medians are calculated from the records, not written by AI.

3. How we use AI

We use AI to make long public records readable. Where AI wrote something, the page says so, and it links to the record it came from: the official record always wins. We use AI for:

Plain-language summaries and impact reports of legislation, written from the official document and linked to it.
Meeting notes and summaries written from a meeting's transcript, with links to the moment in the video. Speakers are inferred from the recording, and the notes say so.
Transcripts of meeting video and the Mayor's videos, made by speech-to-text software when the City doesn't publish its own captions. Each says how it was made.
Translations of the 2027 election guide and the contact page into 12 languages. Each translated page says it was translated with AI and links to the English page, which is the one that counts.
Profiles of each alderperson that summarize their votes, legislation and words in meetings, with a citation for each claim.
Research and drafting help for On My Block articles. Before an article is published, every quote in it is checked word for word against the public record it came from, and its figures against the records.

People decide what we cover and which articles we publish. Summaries, notes, transcripts and translations are made automatically as new records arrive, so they appear labeled as AI-written or machine-made. When one misstates its source, we correct it or take it down.

4. Corrections

If something we published is wrong, tell us at hello@chicagopolitics.org or with the contact form (topic: correction), with the page's link and, if you can, a link to the official record.

We check every report against the official record.
When we got it wrong, we fix it. A significant correction to an article gets a note on the article saying what changed and when.
If the official record itself is wrong, we say so on the page and tell you where to ask for a correction.
We don't remove accurate public records on request.

5. Independence from advertisers

Chicago Politics is paid for by advertising and by paid plans for offices and organizations. Ads are labeled "Advertisement" and kept apart from what we publish.

Advertisers and customers have no say over what we cover, how we cover it, or how we count.
Political ads carry a "Paid for by" line naming who paid for them, and we review every political ad before it runs.
We don't publish sponsored content dressed as news.

6. Contact

Questions about these standards, tips and corrections: hello@chicagopolitics.org, or the contact form. Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use cover how we handle your information and the rules for using the site.