Tech became the villain of the US midterms
3 judges. Scored by all three judges. Only the day’s top stories get the claim check. How far stories are checked
Tech has become a central campaign issue in the 2026 US midterms, with over 150 ads focused on datacenters or AI and more than half a billion dollars spent by tech industry figures and PACs on elections.
Score
0.61total under rubric v2.0
- Significance0.68
- Reader interest0.80
- Audience breadth0.82
- Practical relevance0.47
- Substantiated0.67
- Technical depth0.23
- New information0.90
- Counts against: Promotional0.05
- Counts against: Overclaim0.26
Each judge’s answer per question (0–1), their mean and spread, and what the question adds to the score (weight × mean).
| Question | Judge 1 | Judge 2 | Judge 3 | Mean | Spread | Weight | Contribution (weight times mean) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Significance | 0.70 | 0.55 | 0.78 | 0.68 | 0.23 | +0.25 | +0.169 |
| Reader interest | 0.71 | 0.80 | 0.88 | 0.80 | 0.17 | +0.20 | +0.159 |
| Audience breadth | 0.89 | 0.70 | 0.86 | 0.82 | 0.19 | +0.10 | +0.082 |
| Practical relevance | 0.49 | 0.30 | 0.62 | 0.47 | 0.32 | +0.15 | +0.071 |
| Substantiated | 0.58 | 0.70 | 0.72 | 0.67 | 0.14 | +0.10 | +0.067 |
| Technical depth | 0.30 | 0.10 | 0.28 | 0.23 | 0.20 | +0.10 | +0.023 |
| New information | 0.93 | 0.80 | 0.98 | 0.90 | 0.18 | +0.10 | +0.090 |
| Promotional | 0.09 | 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.05 | 0.08 | −0.15 | −0.007 |
| Overclaim | 0.36 | 0.20 | 0.22 | 0.26 | 0.16 | −0.15 | −0.039 |
| Sum of contributions | +0.614 | ||||||
| Claim-check penalty | 0.000 | ||||||
| Total, as published | 0.614 | ||||||
Spread is the highest minus the lowest judge answer. marks a spread above 0.40: the judges disagree, and the story is marked contested.
Also covered by
No other coverage was clustered with this story.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere: HN 2 pts, not on front page
Recorded for context only, checked 24 Oct 2026, 08:54 UTC. It played no part in the ranking.