Methodology
Methodology
GaitherNews aggregates RSS feeds from across the political spectrum, scores each article's framing, clusters articles covering the same underlying event, and synthesizes a multi-source view of how each story is being told.
Bias scale (AllSides)
Sources are tagged on the AllSides scale: −2 (left), −1 (lean left), 0 (center), +1 (lean right), +2 (right). The per-event lean meter rescales to −5 to +5.
Pipeline
- Ingest: a Cloudflare Worker cron pulls RSS every 4 hours and inserts new articles into D1.
- Per-article analysis (Haiku 4.5): reads each article and emits a 2-sentence neutral summary, a framing score (−5 to +5), a confidence, and a category.
- Clustering: deterministic single-link clustering on headline content tokens. Same-source articles never cluster together.
- Cross-source synthesis (Sonnet 4.6): writes the neutral headline, a left framing, a right framing, and a weighted lean. The voice is a "brilliant friend across the table" — sharp, warm, concrete.
- Image gate: events without a picture are hidden from the feed (feature wireframe cards are exempt). An og:image backfill cron catches most articles within a few hours.
- Feature cards: six daily wireframe cards generated on a 4-hour rotation — word of the day, famous birthdays, on-this-day, on-this-day list, a public-domain historical cartoon, and historical figure birthdays.
- On-demand layers: lazily-generated analyses per event, surfaced via opt-in buttons on each card. A Read more long-form expansion (Haiku 4.5), Gaither's take cynic-realism read (Haiku 4.5), per-outlet framing differences (Sonnet 4.6), and follow-the-money analysis (Sonnet 4.6). Cached on the event row after first generation.
- Prior coverage (web search): for political stories, an out-of-band pass queries the Anthropic web_search tool to gather how left and right outlets have previously framed similar topics. Refs are stored on the event and shown as "framing patterns in related coverage" pills.
Gaither's take (cynical realism)
The "cynic" lens is intentionally non-centrist. It applies the same forensic frame to left and right institutions: describe how the world actually works, follow the money, look at what actors optimize for rather than what they say. The Patagonia / Holdfast 501(c)(4) analysis and the Bill Gates timing observations are calibration examples.
Limits
- RSS feeds vary in completeness. Some publishers (NYT, NPR, Hill) headlines only; we don't have body text.
- Per-article scores are based on headline + RSS description, not the full article body.
- The cluster count varies by news cycle. Slow days produce fewer cards.
- Bias ratings are imperfect and contested. Use them as a rough orientation, not gospel.
Current sources (368)
- Reuters (news, lean 0)
- AP News (news, lean 0)
- PBS NewsHour (news, lean -1)
- Al Jazeera (news, lean -1)
- France 24 (news, lean 0)
- DW (Deutsche Welle) (news, lean 0)
- CBC News (news, lean -1)
- NBC News (news, lean -1)
- NPR (news, lean -1)
- The Guardian (news, lean -2)
- NYT (news, lean -1)
- Washington Post (news, lean -1)
- CNN (news, lean -1)
- MSNBC (news, lean -2)
- ABC News (news, lean -1)
- CBS News (news, lean -1)
- Axios (news, lean 0)
- Politico (news, lean -1)
- BBC (news, lean 0)
- Bloomberg (news, lean 0)
- WSJ (news, lean +1)
- Fox News (news, lean +2)
- NY Post (news, lean +2)
- National Review (news, lean +2)
- Daily Wire (news, lean +2)
- Newsmax (news, lean +2)
- OAN (news, lean +2)
- Breitbart (news, lean +2)
- The Free Press (news, lean +1)
- Vox (news, lean -1)
- HuffPost (news, lean -2)
- The Atlantic (news, lean -1)
- The Intercept (news, lean -2)
- Reason (news, lean +1)
- The Economist (news, lean 0)
- Financial Times (news, lean 0)
- ProPublica (news, lean -1)
- PolitiFact (news, lean 0)
- RealClearPolitics (news, lean +1)
- The 19th News (news, lean -1)
- Politico EU (news, lean -1)
- Foreign Policy (news, lean 0)
- Politics Home (news, lean 0)
- BBC Politics (news, lean 0)
- BBC Business (news, lean 0)
- BBC England (news, lean 0)
- The Nation (news, lean -2)
- Mother Jones (news, lean -2)
- Slate (news, lean -1)
- Salon (news, lean -1)
- Mediaite (news, lean 0)
- AllSides (news, lean 0)
- Washington Examiner (news, lean +1)
- Washington Times (news, lean +1)
- The Hill (Opinion) (news, lean 0)
- Guardian Opinion (news, lean -1)
- Mashable Tech (news, lean 0)
- The Verge (news, lean -1)
- Ars Technica (news, lean -1)
- Wired (news, lean -1)
- Engadget (news, lean 0)
- Hyperallergic (news, lean -1)
- Aeon (almanac, lean 0)
- The Conversation: Arts (news, lean 0)
- Make: Magazine (news, lean 0)
- Reasons to be Cheerful (news, lean 0)
- Medical Xpress (news, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily Health (news, lean 0)
- Hacker News (news, lean 0)
- Invisible People (news, lean -1)
- National Coalition for the Homeless (news, lean -1)
- Community Solutions (news, lean 0)
- National Housing Conference (news, lean 0)
- Bipartisan Policy Center (news, lean 0)
- Kaiser Family Foundation (news, lean 0)
- Human Rights Watch (news, lean -1)
- Variety (news, lean 0)
- Vulture (news, lean -1)
- Deadline (news, lean 0)
- Anime News Network (news, lean 0)
- Forbes (news, lean +1)
- Yahoo Finance (news, lean 0)
- CBS Sports (news, lean 0)
- BBC Sport (news, lean 0)
- ESPN (news, lean 0)
- Yahoo Sports (news, lean 0)
- SB Nation (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- The Athletic (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- Good News Network (news, lean 0)
- Positive News (news, lean 0)
- National Alliance to End Homelessness (news, lean 0)
- Nat'l Low Income Housing Coalition (news, lean 0)
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (news, lean 0)
- Urban Institute (news, lean 0)
- American Progress (news, lean -1)
- Brookings (Social Policy) (news, lean 0)
- Shelterforce (news, lean 0)
- HUD News (news, lean 0)
- Kirkus Reviews (news, lean 0)
- Publishers Weekly (news, lean 0)
- BookBrowse (news, lean 0)
- Library Journal (news, lean 0)
- Book Riot (news, lean -1)
- Literary Hub (news, lean -1)
- NYT Books (news, lean -1)
- NPR Books (news, lean -1)
- The Guardian Books (news, lean -2)
- Washington Post Books (news, lean -1)
- Los Angeles Review of Books (news, lean -1)
- Locus Magazine (news, lean 0)
- Clarkesworld (news, lean 0)
- Independent Book Review (news, lean 0)
- Electric Literature (news, lean -1)
- The Millions (news, lean 0)
- Audiobook Reviews (news, lean 0)
- NYT Audiobooks (news, lean -1)
- Best Audiobooks (news, lean 0)
- Comic Book Resources (news, lean 0)
- The Comics Beat (news, lean 0)
- AV Club Comics (news, lean -1)
- Bleeding Cool (news, lean 0)
- PopMatters Comics (news, lean -1)
- xkcd (news, lean 0)
- Poorly Drawn Lines (news, lean 0)
- Existential Comics (news, lean 0)
- Wondermark (news, lean 0)
- Lifehacker (news, lean 0)
- Hackaday (news, lean 0)
- Modern Farmer (news, lean 0)
- Pinch of Yum (news, lean 0)
- Budget Bytes (news, lean 0)
- Smitten Kitchen (news, lean 0)
- Bon Appétit (news, lean 0)
- David Lebovitz (news, lean 0)
- The Perfect Loaf (news, lean 0)
- RecipeTin Eats (news, lean 0)
- Cooking for Keeps (news, lean 0)
- Serious Eats (news, lean 0)
- NYT Cooking (news, lean 0)
- Simply Recipes (news, lean 0)
- King Arthur Baking (news, lean 0)
- Food52 (news, lean 0)
- Epicurious (news, lean 0)
- On This Day (news, lean 0)
- History.com (news, lean 0)
- Smithsonian History (almanac, lean 0)
- Library of Congress (news, lean 0)
- National Archives (news, lean 0)
- JSTOR Daily (almanac, lean 0)
- Archaeology Magazine (news, lean 0)
- Ancient Origins (news, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily Archaeology (news, lean 0)
- National Geographic History (news, lean 0)
- Medievalists.net (news, lean 0)
- War on the Rocks (news, lean 0)
- HistoryNet (news, lean 0)
- Lapham's Quarterly (news, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily (study, lean 0)
- Phys.org (study, lean 0)
- Nature News (study, lean 0)
- New Scientist (study, lean 0)
- Quanta Magazine (study, lean 0)
- Ars Technica Science (news, lean 0)
- Smithsonian (almanac, lean 0)
- National Geographic (news, lean 0)
- MIT Technology Review (news, lean 0)
- NASA News (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (AI) (study, lean 0)
- PubMed (medical) (study, lean 0)
- NASA Science (study, lean 0)
- ESA Space Science (study, lean 0)
- MIT News (Research) (study, lean 0)
- Pew Research (study, lean 0)
- NBER Working Papers (study, lean 0)
- PLOS One (study, lean 0)
- Science News (study, lean 0)
- Wired Science (news, lean 0)
- Popular Science (news, lean 0)
- The Conversation (news, lean 0)
- Stat News (news, lean 0)
- Knowable Magazine (study, lean 0)
- Discover Magazine (study, lean 0)
- Inverse Science (news, lean 0)
- arXiv (Math) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Applied Math) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Probability) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (CS) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Machine Learning) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Cryptography) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Robotics) (study, lean 0)
- IEEE Spectrum (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Chemical Physics) (study, lean 0)
- JACS (ACS) (study, lean 0)
- Nature Chemistry (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Number Theory) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Dynamical Systems) (study, lean 0)
- Annals of Mathematics (study, lean 0)
- Discrete Analysis (study, lean 0)
- JMLR (Machine Learning) (study, lean 0)
- Mathematics Magazine (study, lean 0)
- American Mathematical Monthly (study, lean 0)
- Int'l Journal of Computer Mathematics (study, lean 0)
- Studies in Applied Mathematics (study, lean 0)
- Notes on Number Theory & Discrete Math (study, lean 0)
- AMS Feature Column (study, lean 0)
- AMS Blog on Math Blogs (study, lean 0)
- AMS Visual Insight (study, lean 0)
- Terence Tao — What's New (study, lean 0)
- Tim Gowers's Weblog (study, lean 0)
- Combinatorics and More (Kalai) (study, lean 0)
- Igor Pak's Blog (study, lean 0)
- Math With Bad Drawings (study, lean 0)
- Chalkdust Magazine (study, lean 0)
- Plus Magazine (Cambridge) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Physics) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (High-Energy Physics) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Quantum Physics) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Condensed Matter) (study, lean 0)
- Nature Physics (study, lean 0)
- AIP Publishing (study, lean 0)
- Make Magazine (news, lean 0)
- Raspberry Pi News (news, lean 0)
- Family Handyman (news, lean 0)
- The Prepared (news, lean 0)
- Woodworking Network (news, lean 0)
- Fine Woodworking (news, lean 0)
- Electronics For You (news, lean 0)
- Home Repair Tutor (news, lean 0)
- Ana White (news, lean 0)
- Crafting a Green World (news, lean 0)
- Adafruit Blog (news, lean 0)
- Arduino Blog (news, lean 0)
- OpenBuilds (news, lean 0)
- Popular Mechanics (news, lean 0)
- DPReview (news, lean 0)
- Photography Life (news, lean 0)
- Physical Review Letters (study, lean 0)
- RSC (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- APS Physics (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- ChemRxiv (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- AMS (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- SIAM (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- ACM CACM (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- IEEE Computer (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Science Magazine (study, lean 0)
- Angewandte Chemie (study, lean 0)
- Instructables (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- This Old House (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- Arduino Project Hub (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- DIY Photography (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- All About Circuits (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- National Geographic Photos (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- The Atlantic Photo (via Google News) (news, lean -1)
- The American Conservative (via Google News) (news, lean +2)
- Persuasion (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- The Bulwark (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- The Bulwark (news, lean 0)
- City Journal (news, lean +2)
- The Dispatch (news, lean +1)
- Persuasion (news, lean 0)
- Foreign Affairs (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- City Journal (via Google News) (news, lean +2)
- The Dispatch (via Google News) (news, lean +1)
- History Today (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- BBC History (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- HistoryExtra (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- Atlas Obscura (almanac, lean 0)
- The Conversation: History (news, lean 0)
- Apartment Therapy (news, lean 0)
- Curbed (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- Houzz (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- The Spruce (via Google News) (news, lean 0)
- Bob Vila (news, lean 0)
- Cell (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- J. Pure & Applied Algebra (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- PNAS (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Royal Society Publishing (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- The Royal Society (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Quanta Math (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Chemistry World (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- C&EN (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Scientific American Chemistry (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Oxford Academic Chemistry (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Combinatorics) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Geometric Topology) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Logic) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Classical Analysis) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Statistics) (study, lean 0)
- Numberphile (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Math Stack Exchange (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Data Structures) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Computation & Language) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Computer Vision) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Software Engineering) (study, lean 0)
- TechCrunch AI (study, lean 0)
- Hacker News (best) (study, lean 0)
- ACM Queue (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- The Register (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Astrophysics) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (General Relativity / QC) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Nuclear Theory) (study, lean 0)
- New Scientist Physics (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Neuron / Cell (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Neuroscience News (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Frontiers Neuroscience (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- BBC Health Brain (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Quanta Computer Science (study, lean 0)
- Quanta Physics (study, lean 0)
- Quanta Biology (study, lean 0)
- Quanta Mathematics (study, lean 0)
- Nature: Computer Science (study, lean 0)
- Nature: Physics (study, lean 0)
- Nature: Mathematics & Computing (study, lean 0)
- Nature: Neuroscience (study, lean 0)
- Nature: Chemistry (study, lean 0)
- Nature Communications (study, lean 0)
- PLOS Biology (study, lean 0)
- PLOS Computational Biology (study, lean 0)
- bioRxiv (All Preprints) (study, lean 0)
- bioRxiv (Neuroscience) (study, lean 0)
- bioRxiv (Genetics) (study, lean 0)
- medRxiv (Medical Preprints) (study, lean 0)
- PLOS Medicine (study, lean 0)
- BMJ Open (study, lean 0)
- ACS Omega (study, lean 0)
- ACS Central Science (study, lean 0)
- ChemistryOpen (Wiley) (study, lean 0)
- Frontiers in Neuroscience (study, lean 0)
- Frontiers in Psychology (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Earth & Planetary Astro) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Solar & Stellar Astro) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Atmospheric & Oceanic Physics) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Systems & Control) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Signal Processing) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (Optimization & Control) (study, lean 0)
- NASA News Releases (study, lean 0)
- Yale Climate Connections (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Inside Climate News (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Nature Climate Change (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Carbon Brief (via Google News) (study, lean 0)
- Phys.org: Chemistry (study, lean 0)
- Phys.org: Physics (study, lean 0)
- Phys.org: Earth & Climate (study, lean 0)
- Phys.org: Biology (study, lean 0)
- Phys.org: Computer Sciences (study, lean 0)
- Phys.org: Astronomy (study, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily: Physics (study, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily: Chemistry (study, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate (study, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily: Computers & Math (study, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins (study, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily: Neuroscience (study, lean 0)
- ScienceDaily: Psychology (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (History of Physics) (study, lean 0)
- arXiv (History & Overview of Math) (study, lean 0)
- Nautilus (almanac, lean 0)
- Universe Today (almanac, lean 0)
- Futility Closet (almanac, lean 0)
- Damn Interesting (almanac, lean 0)
- Messy Nessy Chic (almanac, lean 0)
- Amusing Planet (almanac, lean 0)
- The Public Domain Review (almanac, lean 0)
- Open Culture (almanac, lean 0)
- The Marginalian (almanac, lean 0)
- Big Think (almanac, lean 0)
- Psyche (almanac, lean 0)
- Merriam-Webster Word of the Day (almanac, lean 0)
- Wikipedia (almanac, lean 0)