Conflict of Interest — Civic term

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