Principle 06 of 06
The Institutional Distinction
Not all subjects of investigation are equivalent. The methodology draws a firm line.
Institutions are legitimate subjects
A company, foundation, agency, or organization is a public legal entity. It has continuity, records, the capacity to be held to account. Its history — including the origins of its assets, the conduct of its officers, its documented relationships — is fair territory for rigorous investigation.
Public officials acting in public capacity are legitimate subjects
Their decisions, their voting records, their documented relationships, their financial disclosures, the policies they enact — all of this is the appropriate domain of accountability journalism and citizen investigation. Prominence in public life is an invitation to public scrutiny of public conduct.
Private individuals are not
Descent, family connection, or association alone does not make someone a legitimate subject of investigation. The line is: public conduct makes someone a legitimate subject. Private accident of birth does not.
Why the line
This distinction is not squeamishness — it is methodology. Findings built on institutional and public-conduct evidence hold. Findings built on private-individual inference collapse, and they collapse on the people who built them.