Check campaign evidence before outreach

Start with the claim, not the campaign

Most campaign pages bundle a dozen statements: a headline figure, a ranking, a trend, a quote. Outreach usually rests on one of them. Name that one sentence before you do anything else, because it is the thing a reporter will repeat and the thing they will challenge.

If you cannot say the claim in a single line without adjectives, the campaign is not ready to pitch. That is a useful finding, and it costs nothing to discover early.

Trace every number to a source

For each figure the claim depends on, find where it came from. A first-party survey, a public dataset, a freedom of information response and a scraped listing all carry different weight, and a reader should be able to tell which one they are looking at.

• Is the original source linked or named on the page?
• Can the figure be recomputed from what is published?
• Is the figure presented as a count, a percentage or an estimate?
• Would the claim survive if the least reliable source were removed?

Check population, dates and method

A result about 1,000 respondents is not a result about a country. A dataset from two years ago is not a statement about now. Look for who was asked or measured, when, and how, and check that the headline does not quietly widen any of the three.

Where the page is silent on method, treat that as missing evidence rather than as neutral.

Write the limitation before a journalist does

Every dataset has an edge. State it plainly in your own notes: what the data cannot show, which comparisons are unfair, which readings are tempting but wrong. Pitches that carry their own caveats read as more trustworthy, and they save follow-up emails.

Decide what the evidence can carry

Choose the angle your findings support. Strengthen weak evidence before outreach.