Our Editorial Independence

We subscribe to standards of editorial independence as adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:

An Arm and a Leg retains full authority over editorial content to best protect both our journalistic and business interests.

We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and revenue from donors, sponsors, and advertisers. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

An Arm and a Leg may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We do not give supporters the right to assign, review or edit content.

An Arm and a Leg will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.

Beyond INN’s guidelines: 

In order to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest, we avoid soliciting or accepting financial support from entities that represent vested interests in the subject we cover: The business of health care.

For instance, we do not accept support from hospitals, insurance companies, physician practice groups, pharmaceutical companies, etcetera. Nor do we accept support from organizations that represent or lobby for such interests.

We do not accept advertisements or sponsorships from such entities. We have directed our ad-sales agents to refuse advertising from any of the many categories marked in red on this list. (If you see a category you think should be marked in red but isn’t, please let us know.)

Ethics Policy: 

We are proud to follow the rigorous ethics guidelines published by our partners at KFF Health News.