The arithmetic for one report
Kennedy told the country what it needed to know. Washington never has on Iran
48High density of flagged expressions
What was read
970 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 14 in the headline. 1% of the text is in quotes. 2 attribution markers (such as "said" or "according to") found.
Scare quotes (a phrase of one to three words in quotation marks with no speaker in the same sentence): largely true
. Since method 3.1.0 their words count as the outlet's own.
Words found
- Word choice:
terrorist
3 points Contentious label
Iran’s nuclear ambitions, support for terrorist groups, repression of protesters, and theregime
3 points Contentious label
something beyond capability degradation. Was regime change an objective, an anticipated consequence,regime
3 points Contentious label
government to accept Washington’s demands. Regime change replaces the political order withregime
3 points Contentious label
dismantle the institutions sustaining the regime . The nuclear issue reveals a parallelregime
3 points Contentious label
What concessions could the surviving regime actually deliver? Accommodation might have beenactually
1 point Editorializing
concessions could the surviving regime actually deliver? Accommodation might have been theregime
3 points Contentious label
weapons, no enrichment, submission, or regime change? What will Washington accept, and - Raises the temperature:
epic
1 point Raises the temperature
both. Eight months after Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, Washingtonfury
2 points Raises the temperature
Eight months after Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, Washington hasdestroys
1 point Raises the temperature
or merely an opportunity? Degradation destroys capabilities. Submission requires the surviving governmentepic
1 point Raises the temperature
What senior officers advised before Epic Fury remains partly classified. Public reportingfury
2 points Raises the temperature
senior officers advised before Epic Fury remains partly classified. Public reporting suggestsepic
1 point Raises the temperature
purpose of further sacrifice. Operation Epic Fury demonstrated America’s ability to destroyfury
2 points Raises the temperature
of further sacrifice. Operation Epic Fury demonstrated America’s ability to destroy leadership
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 | 19 | 970 | 19.6 | 45.0 (words 151 to 350) | 32.3 | 0 to 40 | 19 |
| Temperature | 10 | 970 | 10.3 | 15.0 (words 1 to 200) | 12.7 | 0 to 40 | 68 |
| Flagged attribution phrases | 0 | 970 | 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 151 to 350 of 970, with terrorist
, regime
, regime
; Temperature, words 1 to 200 of 970, with epic
, fury
.
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 19 + 10)0.4 × (Temperature 68 + 10)0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 100 + 10)0.2 × (Headline wording 100 + 10)0.1 − 10 = 48. 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 | 1 (Chairman Dan Caine) |
|---|---|
| Unnamed sources | 0 (0% of all sources found) |
| Links to primary records (government, court, filings, PDFs) | 2 www.jbsa.mil, history.state.gov |
| Documents cited in the text (a report, bill, ruling, filing) | 0 |
| Checkable specifics (numbers and dates) | 21 |
| 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: a76d92b1f93dd46e. 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.