Live Q&As

This is a great question.  If we could reduce the guidelines to a few sentences, we would have. But the endless complexity of the web makes that impossible. Please remember also, that these are guidelines and not "rules," which is an important distinction.  So, okay, here are two sentences: No matter how much pressure there is to deliver news faster and faster and no matter how much we desire to speak to our readers in a more direct voice, we can never forget the standards for accuracy and fairness that have always guided The Post.  Ombudsman Patrick Pexton, in his Sunday column, offered a one-sentence summary from a journalism professor.  

Good question. TechCrunch is one of our "content partners" and although they're vetted for credibility and value, we don't force our standards on them. TechCrunch (and others) appear on our site through an automatic feed; if we see objectional content, we can and do remove it.  Always tell us if you see headlines or other content that contradicts our guidelines.  (From Jane Elizabeth.)

Untrue. We actually have started new blogs recently, including Tom Jackman's "State of NoVa" and Mike Rosenwald's "Rosenwald, Md."  both of which highlight local news. By the way, blogging is not an "experiment" at The Post; for years, we have added blogs and occasionally ended them based on reader interest. (By Jane Elizabeth.)

Our standards do not address this question specifically, but at no time do newsroom reporters and bloggers insert links based on The Post's business interests.

RT is retweet -- when a tweet is repeated by another user. 

You can get a single-page view by clicking "print."

Bob Levey, Mark Fisher, and now Robert McCartney are all Post columnists and we specifically ask our columnists to share their opinions with readers, no matter how provocative they may be. So their biases are out there and visible to readers every day. 

Blogs were made for the Internet. Columns are a print invention. But you probably already knew that. Blogs can be updated continuously; bloggers also tend to converse with their readers more often and share links to outside sources.

We thank you.

We redesigned our comments pages about six months ago in an effort to improve readers' access and also to attempt to raise the level of intelligent conversation.  Since the redesign, our comment traffic has roughly tripled and we have literally millions of comments posted.  We are always looking for ways to improve the reader's experience and will continue to try doing that.

Nearly all  blog posts/stories/columns are read by more than one editor before posting, even during fast-moving news stories. Only rarely is an item posted with no editing; and when that happens, it's "back-read" asap. Having said that, I do realize there are typos and grammar mistakes, certainly more often than we would like. (Trying hard not to make any right now.)  We correct them as soon as we see them -- the lovely thing about the Internet -- and are always grateful to our readers who point out mistakes.  Seriously.

You can find Patrick Pexton's columns by clicking on the Opinions tab.  Scroll about 3/4 down the page and you'll see his picture and links to his columns.  I will pass along your question to Mr. Pexton.

With permission from their editors, Post employees may do appropriate outside work.  Please note that some appearances on other media programs are actually arranged by The Post.