How Penblock tells mainstream from independent sources

We place a source in a type by what it is, not by what it says. The type is set by us, once, when the source is added. It is not guessed by an AI from a story's content. The full list is on the sources page.

• MAINSTREAM

  Major news outlets such as Reuters, BBC, NYT, WSJ, CNBC, Al Jazeera.

• OFFICIAL

  Statements and data releases from central banks and government statistics agencies, about their own actions and data. A primary source, but self-reported.

• ON-THE-GROUND

  Independent analysts, specialist trackers, and people close to the situation, outside mainstream media.

• COMMENTARY

  Widely-followed commentators and outlets that shape the public story.

• ANALYSIS

  Think tanks and background analysis. Adds context, not confirmation.

• FILING

  Official disclosures such as congressional stock-trade filings. Primary documents, not reporting.

Mainstream means the large news organizations that set the public agenda, such as BBC News, CNBC, The New York Times and The Guardian. Independent means analysts, specialist trackers and publications outside that group: people who cover a subject closely, often before the large outlets do. Commentary is a separate type, because opinion and framing is not the same as reporting that something happened.

When several reports describe the same event, we look at which types are among them:

• CROSS-CONFIRMED
  Covered by mainstream outlets and independently backed by on-the-ground or disclosure sources.
• NOT IN MAINSTREAM YET
  Reported by independent or on-the-ground sources, but not (yet) picked up by mainstream outlets.
• MAINSTREAM ONLY
  Covered by mainstream outlets, with no independent on-the-ground confirmation tracked yet.
• CONTEXT ONLY
  Only background analysis so far, from neither mainstream nor on-the-ground sources.

You can browse each group on the news not covered by mainstream media page.

Confidence counts the number of different types of source that report an event, not the number of outlets. Ten outlets repeating one wire story are still one kind of source.

• High: Two or more independent source types report it, or it comes from an official financial disclosure.
• Medium: Reported by one type of source so far, with no independent corroboration yet.
• Low: Weakly supported: signals conflict, or the only support is indirect.

• Syndicated copies. Two outlets can repeat the same original report. We may not always tell a true second source from a republished one, so treat a count of outlets with care and read the linked reports.
• Not covered is not the same as true. A story that only independent sources have reported might be early, or it might be wrong. It is labelled "not in mainstream yet" so you can check it, not so you can trust it.
• A snapshot. The groups update hourly as new reports arrive, so a story can move from one group to another within a day.
• Limited sources. We track a fixed list, so something no tracked outlet has reported will not appear.

Summaries are written by AI from the linked reports and are not investment advice. See our editorial standards for how we handle corrections.