The arithmetic for one report
John Oliver on Pete Hegseth’s military plans: ‘Dr Seuss for concussed bigots’
79Moderate density of flagged expressions
What was read
411 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 7 in the headline. 54% of the text is in quotes, with 6 listed words inside quotes; the headline quotes someone. 11 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): bigots
, pathetic
, bigots
, regime
, unfortunately
, utterly
.
Scare quotes (a phrase of one to three words in quotation marks with no speaker in the same sentence): patriotic press
, Deus Vult
. Since method 3.1.0 their words count as the outlet's own.
Words found
- Word choice:
clearly
2 points Editorializing
said Oliver. In 2024, Hegseth clearly articulated his views in a book - Raises the temperature:
war on
2 points Raises the temperature
in a book titled The War on Warriors. In the tome, he compared - Attribution phrases:
reportedly
2 points Unnamed source
by Trump, one defense lobbyist reportedly reacted by saying: said Oliver.
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 | 2 | 411 | 4.9 | 10.0 (words 101 to 300) | 7.4 | 0 to 40 | 81 |
| Temperature | 2 | 411 | 4.9 | 10.0 (words 101 to 300) | 7.4 | 0 to 40 | 81 |
| Flagged attribution phrases | 2 | 411 | 4.9 | 10.0 (words 201 to 400) | 7.4 | 0 to 20 | 63 |
| Headline wording | 0 | 25 | 0.0 | headline only | 0.0 | 0 to 240 | 100 |
Densest stretch: Word choice, words 101 to 300 of 411, with clearly
; Temperature, words 101 to 300 of 411, with war on
; Flagged attribution phrases, words 201 to 400 of 411, with reportedly
.
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. Experimental: 3 of 3 names and figures in the headline also appear in the text read.
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 81 + 10)0.4 × (Temperature 81 + 10)0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 63 + 10)0.2 × (Headline wording 100 + 10)0.1 − 10 = 79. 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: Flagged attribution phrases.
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 | 0 |
|---|---|
| Unnamed sources | 1 (100% 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) | 4 |
| 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: aa68a1a3bad08c2a. 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.