The arithmetic for one report
Trump casts doubt on election results after saying he was ‘absolutely willing’ to accept them
93Few flagged expressions
What was read
744 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 15 in the headline. 29% of the text is in quotes, with 6 listed words inside quotes. 19 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): absolutely
, actually
, radical left
, crazy
, massive
, rebuke
.
Scare quotes (a phrase of one to three words in quotation marks with no speaker in the same sentence): absolutely willing
, absolutely willing
, honest.
, 60 Minutes
, The systems worked,
, matching algorithmic patterns.
, fake.
. Since method 3.1.0 their words count as the outlet's own.
Words found
- In the headline:
absolutely
1 point Editorializing
results after saying he was absolutely willing to accept them - Word choice:
absolutely
1 point Editorializing
Days after saying he was absolutely willing to accept the massive Republicanrigged
attributed to a speaker, not counted Contentious label
the 2016 Iowa Caucus was rigged against him when he lost torigged
attributed to a speaker, not counted Contentious label
he added. Claims about a rigged election were sparse as polls openedrigged
attributed to a speaker, not counted Contentious label
social media posts analyzing the rigged election rumors, noting that the false - Raises the temperature:
massive
1 point Raises the temperature
absolutely willing to accept the massive Republican losses in the midterm elections,
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 | 1 | 744 | 1.3 | 5.0 (words 1 to 200) | 3.2 | 0 to 40 | 92 |
| Temperature | 1 | 744 | 1.3 | 5.0 (words 1 to 200) | 3.2 | 0 to 40 | 92 |
| Flagged attribution phrases | 0 | 744 | 0.0 | 0.0 (words 1 to 200) | 0.0 | 0 to 20 | 100 |
| Headline wording | 1 | 25 | 40.0 | headline only | 40.0 | 0 to 240 | 83 |
Densest stretch: Word choice, words 1 to 200 of 744, with absolutely
; Temperature, words 1 to 200 of 744, with massive
.
Shown, not scored: the headline's rate minus the rate of the story's first 80 words is 41.4 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 92 + 10)0.4 × (Temperature 92 + 10)0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 100 + 10)0.2 × (Headline wording 83 + 10)0.1 − 10 = 93. 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.
What a reader could check
| People named as sources | 3 (State Cisco Aguilar, Pew Research Center, Kate Starbird) |
|---|---|
| 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) | 9 |
| Data shown (a table or chart) | no |
| 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: 2307ff4c3e3ea5d3. 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.