To Our Audience: This Is What You Can Expect From Texas Standard During Election Night (And The Days That Might Follow)

By Teresa FrontadoNovember 3, 2020 8:07 am

Providing accurate, fair, nonpartisan journalism is our call every day of the year at Texas Standard. 

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 Texas Standard and KUT News teams are doing to ensure our audience receives accurate, timely, and fair stories about the 2020 election on all of our platforms. 

We understand that 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 Texas Standard and 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, 2020 to 11:59 p.m Nov. 4, 2020. The Texas Standard team will produce three shows that will broadcast around the state during that time. 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. You can listen to us throughout Texas on our daily statewide show Texas Standard; if you are in Austin, you can listen to us on KUT 90.5 FM; you can read our work at  TexasStandard.org and KUT.org; follow us on social media @TexasStandard and @KUT ; check Texas Standard’s Facebook page and Instagram or KUT’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 we can do to better serve you? Please send us an email at texasstandard@kut.orgnews@kut.org, or reach out on social media @TexasStandard and @KUT , KUT’s Facebook page and Instagram or Texas Standard’s Facebook page and Instagram

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