About What The News
The numbers behind the narrative.
What We Do
What The News analyzes media coverage with the same statistical rigor that What The Vote applies to congressional voting records and The Honest Copy applies to fiscal anomalies. We track what media says about legislation — who amplifies, who stays silent, and when the patterns deviate from baseline.
We don't rate outlets as left or right. We measure tone, frequency, framing, and coordination. Every statement is extracted from video with a timestamp linking to the exact moment in the source. Every number is sourced.
Methodology
Our analysis pipeline has three layers, each drawing from free public data:
Media Coverage Analysis
We query the GDELT Project's DOC API to measure how outlets cover legislation. GDELT monitors broadcast, print, and online news worldwide. We extract article counts, outlet-level tone scores, and cross-outlet stance breakdowns for each tracked bill.
Statement Extraction
On-air statements are extracted from YouTube video transcripts. Each statement is timestamped and linked to the exact moment in the source video so it can be independently verified. Tone scores range from −6 (strongly critical) to +6 (strongly favorable), measuring advocacy intensity — not correctness.
Trend Detection
Six statistical detectors identify patterns that deviate from baseline:
- Narrative Alignment — outlets that normally disagree suddenly agree
- Coverage Gaps — significant legislation with near-zero coverage
- Talking Points — same phrases across 3+ outlets within 48 hours
- Contradictions — personality reverses stance on the same topic
- Source Concentration — all outlets rewriting a single source
- Narrative Push — coordinated messaging from same-parent or cross-conglomerate outlets
Data Sources
All data comes from free, publicly accessible sources:
- Media coverage — GDELT Project DOC API
- On-air statements — YouTube video transcripts (no API key required)
- Salary data — Court filings (Dominion v. Fox News, Smartmatic v. Fox Corp), trade press (Variety, Forbes, Hollywood Reporter), SEC disclosures
- Legal records — Public court filings, depositions, discovery exhibits, settlement filings
- Ownership data — SEC filings, corporate registrations, public reporting
- Legislative data — What The Vote (upstream)
The Ecosystem
What The News is part of a three-project ecosystem, each analyzing a different layer of how policy becomes public understanding:
Editorial Principles
- No editorial lean labels — we measure tone, not ideology. We don't rate outlets as left or right.
- Every claim is citable — every statement links to the exact video timestamp. Every salary cites its source.
- Statistical, not editorial — trend detection is algorithmic. We surface deviations from baseline, not opinions about what they mean.
- Ownership matters — publications are classified by funding structure (corporate, independent, nonprofit, public) because who pays shapes what gets covered.
- Transparency over authority — our methodology, data sources, and limitations are public. Verify, don't trust.
Contact
For questions, corrections, or data inquiries: contact@whatthenews.us
If a salary figure, quote, or attribution is incorrect, we want to know. Corrections are applied immediately and noted in the data.