Transparency in the information industry

Graphic from Wired

In a world where information moves faster than truth, transparency is no longer optional — it’s the foundation of credibility.

For creators, journalists, and anyone working in the information industry, transparency is the quiet contract we sign with our audience. Without it, we’re just more noise in the din, fighting for attention without offering assurance.

Trust takes years to build and seconds to shatter. It requires consistency, accountability, and a willingness to show your work—whether that’s disclosing funding, admitting what you don’t know, or correcting mistakes in public. The more walls we build between ourselves and our audiences, the easier it is for misinformation to slip in and take hold.

That’s why the revelations about some of the liberal creators with the largest platforms (even here on Substack) from a recent WIRED investigation are troubling.

The report found that a liberal dark-money network, Chorus/The Sixteen Thirty Fund, has been secretly paying some of the most popular liberal creators up to $8,000 a month to produce pro-Democratic content—while contractually banning them from disclosing that relationship or even booking political work outside the program.