What is Unvarnished?

Unvarnished provides a more accurate picture of the news by adding missing context in a clear, compelling, and credible package.

The Problem

Empty News

Too often, the straight news fails to provide context, or even core facts:

  • Today’s events are reported without the history leading up to them
  • Conflicting sides are presented without evaluating which is correct
  • People are quoted without any assessment of their credibility
  • Politics comes first and policy comes last (or not at all)
  • Quotes are cleaned up or paraphrased to sound more reasonable

The Consequence

A Crisis of Trust

The results of this media ecosystem are bleak. The news is ever-present, yet the public is less informed than ever, and so polarized that we don’t even share a common reality.

The public has become profoundly cynical. But without trust, we fall prey to confirmation bias, rejecting information that challenges our views and accepting lies that affirm them. Ironically, our cynicism has made us gullible.

Things are even worse in social media, where partisans rule, ragebait is rewarded, and accuracy is an afterthought.

The Mission

Bringing the Receipts

Unvarnished will help to rebuild a scaffolding of context, evidence, and facts for the news. We’re starting with the most fundamental building block of all: our leaders’ own words, unvarnished.

Through validated, direct quotations, we reveal who they are, what they believe, and what they’ve said. As we build the site, more types of evidence will be added.

A Platform for the Public

Unvarnished is a platform for the public. Our threads are prepared by posters who represent a wide range of views and politics. Through a diverse range of open opinions, we avoid the pernicious hidden biases — personal, institutional, and algorithmic — that narrow discourse and leave people in epistemic bubbles.

By combining unimpeachable facts and viewpoint diversity, we can break through the cynicism to inform the public with the missing context.