The 2022 midterm elections were expected to be fairly consequential — especially in a battleground state like Pennsylvania.
Races for governor and U.S. Senate topped the ticket — but democracy itself was on the ballot as well — since the 2020 election fraud lie remains alive and well in the commonwealth.
So, WITF wanted to do something different with our election coverage.
We had already taken the unprecedented step to hold lawmakers accountable for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. But, we really wanted to try to change our approach to political stories.
We were part of the Democracy SOS program — where we learned things that will become part of our journalism DNA:
- Put voters at the center of your coverage.
- Don’t focus on which candidate they support.
- Ask what issues they want to be addressed.
- Don’t breathlessly cover poll results or political rallies.
And with support from America Amplified, a national collaboration dedicated to community engagement reporting, we found many ways to talk to people about what they want candidates to be talking about – and what questions they had about the voting process.
We wrote a mission statement — our promise to you — on how we will do this better.
WITF’s political coverage will be biased toward two things: Democracy and facts. We pledge to put you, the voter, first — by engaging with you about issues important to your community and shining a light on them.
We will be transparent and make decisions thoughtfully.
We will avoid horse race analysis, whataboutism, both sider-ism, bad faith actors and spreaders of misinformation/disinformation.
We pledge to speak truth to power and follow the facts wherever they go.
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