Last updated: April 29, 2026
Hollywood vs Reality covers the documented history of organized crime in the United States and the gap between that history and how Hollywood has dramatized it. This page describes the editorial standards under which our articles are researched, written, and corrected. We publish it so that readers, advertisers, and the subjects of our coverage can hold us to a known process.
Editorial Voice
Articles are published under the byline HVR Editorial. HVR Editorial is the collective pseudonym for the small group of researchers and writers who produce the Site. We use a collective byline because the editorial process — pulling source material, drafting, fact-checking, and final review — is shared rather than authored by a single person, and because much of our subject matter involves identified real individuals where named-author accountability without institutional support is not the right balance for us today. The collective byline does not reduce our accountability for accuracy: every claim made under the byline is the responsibility of the editorial collective, and corrections are owned by HVR Editorial without exception.
Source Hierarchy
We rank sources from strongest to weakest as follows:
- Primary documents. Court filings, indictments, plea agreements, sentencing transcripts, FBI files released through FOIA, declassified intelligence documents, sworn testimony, official government reports.
- Contemporaneous reporting from established news organizations. Newspaper and wire-service accounts published at or near the time of the event, where the publication has a record of corrections and editorial standards.
- Long-form investigative reporting. Book-length investigations by reporters with track records on the subject (for example, Nicholas Pileggi, Selwyn Raab, Gus Russo).
- Academic histories. University-press monographs and peer-reviewed articles.
- Memoirs and first-person accounts. Used carefully and never as the sole source for a factual claim about another person, because memoirists have incentives to shape their own story.
- Aggregator sites and unsourced internet articles. Used only to locate primary sources, not as a source themselves.
Verification
Every factual claim about a real person — what someone did, said, was charged with, or was convicted of — is required to trace to at least one source from category 1, 2, or 3 above. Claims supported only by category 5 (memoir) are flagged in the article as such. Where two sources conflict, we present the conflict rather than picking the one we prefer. Where the record is genuinely ambiguous, we say so rather than papering over the ambiguity with confident prose.
Attribution
Sources are listed at the end of every article in a Sources block. Where a source is quoted directly, the quotation is presented in the body of the article with attribution. Court cases are cited by case name and date. Books are cited by author and title. FBI files are cited by Bureau file number when available. We do not invent sources, and we do not cite sources we have not actually consulted.
Quotations
Direct quotations are reproduced from the source as written or transcribed. We do not alter quotations to fit narrative needs. Where a quotation is reconstructed (for example, dialogue reported in a memoir rather than transcribed verbatim), we make that clear in the surrounding text.
Statements About Real People
Statements about identifiable real people are made with the documentary record as the controlling reference. Where a person was charged but not convicted, the article says so. Where a person was alleged but never charged, the article says so. We do not assert criminal guilt beyond what the documentary record supports, and we do not characterize a person’s motives or interior life beyond what we can support from a source.
Use of AI-Assisted Tools
We use software tools, including AI-assisted writing and research tools, in our editorial workflow. Tools are used to locate sources, summarize long documents, draft and revise prose, and check copy for clarity. Every claim that appears under our byline is reviewed by a human editor against its source. We do not publish material that has not been reviewed against its underlying source. The use of tools does not relax our verification obligation.
Conflicts of Interest
HVR Editorial has no financial relationship with any person, family, estate, or organization that is the subject of our coverage. We do not accept payment, gifts, or other consideration from subjects or their representatives. We participate in standard advertising programs (Google AdSense) that display third-party advertisements unrelated to article content. Editorial decisions are not made based on advertiser preferences.
Corrections Protocol
Errors of fact are corrected promptly when brought to our attention. The correction protocol is as follows:
- The reader emails hollywoodvsreality@outlook.com with the article URL, the specific passage in question, and any source they want us to consider.
- An editor reviews the documentary record.
- If the record supports the correction, we update the article in-line and append a dated correction note at the bottom of the article describing what was changed and why.
- Minor copy-editing fixes (typos, broken links, formatting) are made silently without a correction note.
- We do not delete articles in response to coverage we later regret. If an article is materially flawed, the article is rewritten with a prominent correction note rather than removed.
Right of Reply
Identified subjects of an article, or their authorized representatives, may submit a written response to coverage. Where the response addresses a specific factual claim, we will review the underlying record and correct as warranted. Where the response is a disagreement with our analysis or framing, we may publish the response (in whole or in part) at the bottom of the relevant article.
Comments
Reader comments are moderated. Comments that violate our Terms of Service — including defamation, harassment, doxxing, or spam — are removed. We do not remove comments that disagree with our coverage so long as they comply with the Terms.
Contact
Editorial inquiries, corrections, and right-of-reply submissions should be sent to hollywoodvsreality@outlook.com.