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Civic term

Conflict of Interest


What it means

A situation where someone's official duty and their private interests pull in different directions — an official deciding a matter in which they hold a financial stake, for instance. It names the situation, not a finding that anyone acted on it.

Definition drawn from law.cornell.edu · last verified 2026-08-18

Sift's plain-language summary of the cited source, not a quotation from it.


How it's being covered

215 stories in Sift's index, from 46 outlets.

Filed 2021-07-15 — 2026-09-26.

Counts stories whose headline or summary uses the term, plus stories where Sift's own reading notes flagged it — many pieces turn on a term they never spell out in the headline.

Across the spectrum

  • Left54 stories
  • Center62 stories
  • Right60 stories

Positions are AllSides' published ratings, shown for the outlets that filed these stories. 39 stories are counted in the total above but not placed here — either the outlet has no published rating, or Sift has not yet matched the name it files under to a dossier.

Who's covering it


Recent stories on Sift