Editorial standards
These are the rules Splatter Scoop works to. If we break one, tell us.
What we publish
- Briefs are short items: what happened, in our words, with a short read on why it matters, labelled as our judgment, and a link to the original source. The read reasons from the facts in the story and never adds a fact, a figure or a forecast of its own.
- Analysis is our reading of a development: what changed, what is known, what is not. It uses several sources and carries a named author.
- Opinion argues a position. It is always labelled, always has a named author, and its facts are sourced like any other story. Opinion can be pointed and can be uncomfortable for the people it is about. It cannot be false.
- The weekly digest is the Monday email and page that gathers the week’s stories.
Attribution
Every fact traces to a source we list at the bottom of the story, and the original source is linked first. When we rely on another outlet’s reporting, we name it in the text. A studio, distributor or festival’s own announcement is that party’s claim, and we say so. Ratings-board decisions and censorship actions are reported with the board’s own language, not a paraphrase that overstates or understates them. If we could not confirm something, we say we have not confirmed it, or we do not run it.
In our own words
We summarize and link. We do not copy. Quotations are short, in quotation marks and attributed. We do not reuse other publishers’ images or headlines.
The checks every story passes
Before a story is published it is checked against its sources, checked by a second, independent system, and reviewed against these standards. Analysis and opinion get further review, including a reviewer whose job is to look for the error, the spin and the side we missed. Any edit after review means the checks run again.
Splatter Scoop specifically
We report on gore and horror film as a craft and an industry. We do not review films, and we do not use shock language for its own sake. Practical-effects work is described with the same technical respect a cinematographer’s or editor’s work gets elsewhere: who did it, how, and what the result achieved. A film’s content rating or a censorship decision is reported as fact, sourced to the board that made it, never inflated into a marketing line. We do not repeat promotional language as fact, and we never take payment for coverage.
Where a story comes from and where it is placed
Every story has one topic and one or more regions (North America, United Kingdom & Europe, International). Categories cover topics such as new releases, craft, festivals and distribution.
Images
The images on our stories are illustrations, not news photographs. Each one is generated with an AI image tool and chosen to fit a topic, such as a film set, a workshop bench or an editing suite. None of them depicts the event, the people or the companies in a story, and none is meant to be graphic. Every image carries a label on the page saying that it is an AI illustration, and the same statement is written into the image file. We never present a generated image as a photograph of a real event, and we do not use other publishers’ images. If we ever run a real photograph, it is credited to the photographer and the source.
Interests we disclose
Splatter Scoop is published by Christopher Ross, who also runs thisismyurl.com, a web and WordPress business. The only advertising on this site is labelled house advertising for that business. It has no say over what we cover, and we do not cover the publisher’s business as news. If that ever changes, we will say so on the story.
Independence
Advertisers and sponsors have no say over what we select or how we write about it. Sponsored content, if we ever run it, will be labelled as such and kept apart from editorial. We disclose any interest an author or the site has in a story.
Corrections
We fix errors openly. See corrections.