Most people know political ads, and a lot of news, are trying to push them somewhere. What's harder is seeing how. I built Semblen to show that: the exact sentence, the technique it uses and why, so it gets easier to spot on your own. It takes an article, a video link or pasted text and marks the sentences that use a manipulation technique (loaded language, appeals to fear, name calling and about 15 others), with a one-line reason for each. It also checks the factual claims against sources and adds background for stories that need it. Besides the analyzer it runs a few things on its own every night: - a daily set of news articles from left, center and right outlets - every ad in 14 competitive Senate races, with the FEC money behind each candidate - statements from the White House, congressional leaders and federal departments Some things I've learned so far: about half of all Senate ads use at least one technique. Maine is lowest at about a third, Alaska and Minnesota highest at about two thirds. The hardest part hasn't been the model, it's keeping the model from flagging strong but fair writing. Free, no account needed: https://semblen.com/?ref=reddit Would love feedback, especially on anything it flags that you think it shouldn't.   submitted by   /u/jayubba [link]   [comments]