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National Policy Atlas · aep-000681

Lexington Herald-Leader

This recordJSON (classification, evidence, history)CodebookCite
Type
Professional newsroom
Parent institution
McClatchy
Separate entity from parent
Unknown. A parent institution's policies are not attributed to this publication without evidence.
Location
KY
Publishing status
Not yet confirmed
Website
https://www.kentucky.com/
Outreach
Not yet contacted

What an automated search found

From NSMPA, which read this newsroom's website. Nobody has checked it by hand yet, and it isn't our classification; we haven't classified this newsroom yet.

Site could not be read well enough to tell

On NSMPA's hand-compiled list of known policies, noted as “Clean Slate / reviewed changes” (listed source).

RemedyPolicy text (automated reading)Practice (automated reading)
Removal / unpublishing——
Search-engine de-indexing——
Anonymization or redaction——
Update for later developments——

Policy pages

PageFirst seenChecked by us
The internet has a long memory. We’re offering a chance for a Clean Slate. | Lexington Herald LeaderOct 8, 2026Not yet

"First seen" is when a page was first read, by us or by NSMPA. It isn't the date the policy was adopted, and pages not yet checked may describe something other than a policy on old stories.

7 quotes from this newsroom's own pages, found automatically

Not checked by hand yet, so check the source before quoting.

  1. Retrieved Oct 8, 2026 · Read from the Internet Archive's copy · NSMPA evidence 398
    Generally, our policy has been that we do not remove or alter accurate stories from the past, any more than we would go back in time to unpublish a story from the printed newspaper.
  2. Retrieved Oct 8, 2026 · Read from the Internet Archive's copy · NSMPA evidence 399
    Some possible outcomes include updating or adding new information or making a story harder to find through a Google search.
  3. Retrieved Oct 8, 2026 · Read from the Internet Archive's copy · NSMPA evidence 400
    Here’s one small example of what we are talking about: A minor arrest that we covered years ago, without follow-up coverage when the person was later acquitted, or the case later dismissed or even expunged.
  4. Retrieved Oct 8, 2026 · Read from the Internet Archive's copy · NSMPA evidence 402
    But in some cases, the weight of that permanence can seem like a digital anchor – that top Google result on a person’s name that never seems to go away, that years-old mistake that tags along and pops up at the most unfortunate times.
  5. Retrieved Oct 8, 2026 · Read from the Internet Archive's copy · NSMPA evidence 403
    Check the Herald-Leader’s website, and you’ll find thousands of stories going back a decade or more, most just a quick Google search away.
  6. Retrieved Oct 8, 2026 · Read from the Internet Archive's copy · NSMPA evidence 404
    As the Herald-Leader’s editor, I frequently receive emails or phone calls from past story subjects asking us to remove old articles, or at least to take steps so they are not always the top result on Google for someone’s name.
  7. Retrieved Oct 8, 2026 · Read from the Internet Archive's copy · NSMPA evidence 405
    This project is aimed specifically at such stories that live on, through our site and through search engines, and may keep someone from getting a fair shake much later as they try to move on with life.

Cite this record

The Archive Ethics Project. Lexington Herald-Leader (aep-000681). National Policy Atlas. https://archiveethics.org/atlas/lexington-herald-leader. Accessed Oct 11, 2026.

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