How We Review
How We Review
Guidelines for Contributions
American Reality Today welcomes voices from across the political spectrum—including people who steer clear of politics altogether.
Access to the Site is free.
The goal is to add your voice to the conversation about how we understand the realities we share.
At a time when misinformation is widespread and artificial intelligence makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish what is real from what is manufactured, firsthand accounts— in words, photographs, or video—are increasingly valuable to our civic life and personal relationships.
The most popular contributions generally combine personal observation with verifiable information. They distinguish facts from opinions, provide credible sources that readers can easily check for themselves, and acknowledge relevant evidence that may point in a different direction.
Tell us what you’ve experienced and what you think it means. It’s a small but important contribution to our common understanding of the reality on which our communities, relationships, and democracy depend.
What we are trying to protect
It is important for visitors to trust both the content and the platform's selection process.
American Reality Today is a Social Benefit Corporation in Washington State, incorporated in 2025.
We have designed the Site to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and welcome feedback about any accessibility issues by Contacting us.
For those who would like to comment on submissions by others, a simple Reader Account is available.
For those who would like to submit content, sign-up as a Contributor.
Both of these accounts are designed to be easy to use and cancel, prevent abuse and strengthen the Site's integrity and credibility.
Your personal data will never be sold or marketed in any way and your email is only used to verify that you are not a computer.
Visitors - Please feel free to tour the site, free and without registering.
For those who would like to comment on what you see here, or post content, there are two options:
1st, Reader accounts — If you would like to Comment on articles or other content, or Flag content for staff review, simply sign-up with a User Name, Password and email which is then verified.
2nd, Contributor accounts —To submit letters, op-eds, photos, or videos, and full access to all the other features, register as a Contributor with your name, a User Name and Password, email for verification and the City where you are. We have provided a space for your phone number, which is optional, in case you'd like us to be able to contact you with questions.
Contributors may edit their own items while they are still in draft or pending. Once published, changes will go through the review process.
Please note: Including your name and city is a well established way to increase the credibility of your posts, used by almost every newspaper in the US in their Opinion and Letters to the Editor pages.
Your personal data will never be sold or marketed in any way.
Article submissions
Submitted content goes first to Pending where it is reviewed. Editors may:
Post it — it becomes part of the public site.
Leave it pending — it stays out of public view while review continues.
Set it to private — it is withheld from public listings but retained in the Site history.
Contact Contributor — if a phone number has been provided, we may contact Contributors with questions.
Remove it — content that is clearly llegal or inappropriate will not be posted and may be removed or referred.
Refer it - for content that doesn't fall into any of the above categories, the editors reserve the right to refer it wherever they deem appropriate.
Comments
Reader accounts may leave comments on content pages. Every new comment starts as pending.
You can see your own pending (or flagged) comments while they await review.
Other visitors only see approved comments.
Administrators and content editors may approve, reject, or flag a comment.
Rejected comments are not shown on the public thread.
Guests and unverified users are asked to log in with a Reader or Contributor account and/or verify email before commenting.
Flags and taking content offline
Any verified users may flag an article for legal, terms-of-service, privacy, or other concerns. Flagged content enters a staff queue. One flag alone does not automatically hide an article.
If enough different users flag the same piece, the site can automatically set that article to private so it leaves public view pending staff review. The current threshold is three unique flaggers (staff can change this setting).
How decisions are made
Computer programs (including Ai) will be used to fact check and screen for obvious illegal or indecent content. Human content administrators may review the queues for submissions, comments, and flags. Software helps organize the work. Editorial judgment—what is published, withheld, approved, or rejected—remains human.
Related pages
For step-by-step instructions on using the site, see Help. Legal terms are on Terms. Questions about the project: Contact or support@americanrealitytoday.us.