The arithmetic for one report
‘The many v the money’ should frame the next US Congress
81Moderate density of flagged expressions
What was read
1200 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 6 in the headline. 11% of the text is in quotes, with 1 listed word inside quotes; the headline quotes someone. 3 attribution markers (such as "said" or "according to") found.
Listed words inside quotes (not scored; quoting is reporting, but which quotes to use is an editorial choice): very
.
Scare quotes (a phrase of one to three words in quotation marks with no speaker in the same sentence): empty beaches
, flamingo revolution
. Since method 3.1.0 their words count as the outlet's own.
Words found
- Word choice:
racist
3 points Contentious label
a insert vomitorium of misogynistic, [racist and ableist slurs here]. Musk, hisinterestingly
2 points Editorializing
rapidly turning into techno-libertarian laboratory ( Interestingly , Tesla just launched an Argentine division.)beloved
1 point Puffery
laid claim to a different beloved wildlife refuge for their private benefit. - Raises the temperature:
mocked
1 point Raises the temperature
on X, she was roundly mocked by Musk’s many fans: imagine valuingenormous
1 point Raises the temperature
that helped them grow their enormous wealth, thus the threats that Muskenormous
1 point Raises the temperature
that helped them grow their enormous wealth. In sharp contrast, the massesbacklash
1 point Raises the temperature
There was the muscular, national backlash against artificial intelligence and datacenters, whichrage
2 points Raises the temperature
was equally evident in the rage at the US war-of-choice in Iran,very
1 point Raises the temperature
by entangling themselves with the very individuals and corporations their voters justsweeping
1 point Raises the temperature
Republicans to push through a sweeping bill in the current lame-duck Congress
Layer scores
Rates are counted points per 1,000 words of the story's own text. For a story longer than 200 words, the rate used is the average of the whole-story rate and the rate in its densest 200-word stretch, so neutral filler cannot dilute a loaded passage away. Score = 100 × (loaded end − rate used) ÷ loaded end, kept between 0 and 100. Headline words count only in the headline layer.
| Layer | Points | Words | Whole-story rate | Densest 200 words | Rate used | Scale | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word choice | 6 | 1200 | 5.0 | 15.0 (words 101 to 300) | 10.0 | 0 to 40 | 75 |
| Temperature | 8 | 1200 | 6.7 | 15.0 (words 601 to 800) | 10.8 | 0 to 40 | 73 |
| Flagged attribution phrases | 0 | 1200 | 0.0 | 0.0 (words 1 to 200) | 0.0 | 0 to 20 | 100 |
| Headline wording | 0 | 25 | 0.0 | headline only | 0.0 | 0 to 240 | 100 |
Densest stretch: Word choice, words 101 to 300 of 1200, with racist
; Temperature, words 601 to 800 of 1200, with backlash
, rage
.
Shown, not scored: the headline's rate minus the rate of the story's first 80 words is 0.0 points per 1,000 words.
Overall
Weighted geometric mean of the layers that are established, with 10 added to each layer first and taken away at the end: (Word choice 75 + 10)0.4 × (Temperature 73 + 10)0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 100 + 10)0.2 × (Headline wording 100 + 10)0.1 − 10 = 81. Adding 10 means one layer at 0 lowers the total steeply without collapsing it. A weak layer pulls the total down.
Lowered the score most: Word choice.
Name-swap test: with party, politician and institution names swapped, this report's score moves by 0.0 points.
The outlet labels this report as opinion, so it does not count toward the outlet's news score.
What a reader could check
| People named as sources | 1 (Peggy Flanagan) |
|---|---|
| Unnamed sources | 0 (0% of all sources found) |
| Links to primary records (government, court, filings, PDFs) | 0 |
| Documents cited in the text (a report, bill, ruling, filing) | 0 |
| Checkable specifics (numbers and dates) | 5 |
| Data shown (a table or chart) | yes |
| Correction or clarification noted | no |
What a reader could check, counted by published patterns. Shown beside the score, never part of it. How each count works
Checked against the official record
No vote count or bill number found in the text read.
Record of this measurement
Method 3.1.0, word-list fingerprint 807a17189402a416, read by text extractor version 4. Fingerprint of the text read: 6df20307c3c7fb84. Internet Archive copy nearest the time it was read. The text read was not kept (read before method 3.1.0, or from the feed only), so a later rule change can be applied only while the report is still in the outlet's feed.