Providing accurate, fair, nonpartisan journalism is our call every day of the year at KUT.
As our nation prepares for a historic election night that may not yield conclusive results for days, we wanted to share with you what the KUT News and Texas Standard teams are doing to ensure our audience receives accurate, timely and fair stories about the 2020 election on all our platforms.
We understand our responsibility is to keep you informed and, in an environment full of competing voices, help you discern what’s important for you and your loved ones. So here's our commitment to you:
- We’ll bring you confirmed information only. What matters most to us is not to get it faster than anybody else, but to get it right. That’s why you might hear or read things in other media that you might not find at KUT.
- Our local news team will be working in shifts to provide continuous news coverage for 42 hours, from 6 a.m. on Nov. 3 to 11:59 p.m Nov. 4. The Texas Standard team will produce three shows that will broadcast around the state during that time. On Nov. 3, we'll be focusing our attention on voter turnout and possible issues at the polls. Once voting has ended, we’ll turn to the counting process.
- Out of respect for our fellow Texans still voting, we will not broadcast live speeches by candidates while the polls are still open for their races. This applies to local, state and presidential races.
- We have stringent criteria for confirmation and fact-checking everything we report. In fact, we have specific protocols in place for election results in general. We are following NPR's lead and will rely on The Associated Press (AP), a news organization with a track record of precision and caution, to call election results. For local races that aren't covered by the AP, we'll wait until all votes are counted.
- We will not carry projections for races or name likely winners. Instead, we'll keep you updated about the counting process until a clear result is declared.
- If mistakes are made, we will correct them quickly and thoroughly on the platforms where the content was published.
- Our high journalistic standards apply to all of our platforms: on-air and digital. We are broadcasting in Austin on 90.5 FM; you can listen to us throughout Texas on our daily statewide show Texas Standard; you can read our work at KUT.org and TexasStandard.org; stream us on our app; follow us on social media @KUT and @TexasStandard; check KUT’s Facebook page and Instagram or Texas Standard’s Facebook page and Instagram. You can also ask your smart speaker to play KUT.
- We are working with other news organizations to bring you the most complete coverage of the general elections in our state and our nation. KUT is part of The Texas Newsroom, an initiative to coordinate coverage and work amongst four NPR stations in the state: KERA in Dallas, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio, and Houston Public Media in Houston. We also work with our partners at the Texas Tribune and get a national perspective from NPR and The Associated Press.
- We want to hear from YOU, our audience: What can we do to better serve you? Please send us an email at news@kut.org, texasstandard@kut.org, or reach out on social media @KUT and @TexasStandard, KUT’s Facebook page and Instagram or Texas Standard’s Facebook page and Instagram.
