The Hype Index
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Fact checking

Not a fact check. A drift check.

Most damaging claims in business are not false. They are true about something narrower than what they are being used for.

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A true-or-false verdict cannot describe a study that was competently conducted, accurately reported, and then applied to a population it never sampled. That claim passes a fact check and still leads to a bad decision.

So drift is scored on its own, worth twenty of the hundred points. It measures the distance between what the source establishes and what the claim is currently being used to justify.

This is why a claim can rest on solid research and still score high. Overstated and Unsupported are different verdicts for different failures, and conflating them is how good research gets dismissed alongside bad research.

How every claim is scored

Source quality0 to 20
Peer reviewed, preprint, self-published report, vendor material, or press release.
Sample and method0 to 20
Sample size, how subjects were selected, and whether the underlying data is available.
Independence0 to 20
Does the publisher sell the solution its own finding recommends.
Replication0 to 20
Has anyone independently reproduced it with a comparable method.
Drift0 to 20
How far the popular use of the claim sits from what the source actually says.

Full method at /method/. Every scored claim stays on the record.

Questions

How is this different from a fact-checking site?

Fact checkers rule on accuracy. This scores accuracy and application together, because a correctly reported finding used far outside its scope still misleads.

Is it partisan?

No. The subject is evidence and its use, and the same five components are applied regardless of who is making the claim.

Are the verdicts ever revised?

Calls resolve on a stated date and are marked held or missed. Nothing is deleted.

Where this stands today. The scored record currently covers artificial intelligence and cybersecurity claims. This subject is in scope and has not been scored yet. We are telling you that rather than implying a back catalogue that does not exist. The record shows exactly what has been scored.

Also here
Method, in practiceHow to tell a real finding from a repeated oneThe indexHype versus reality, with a number attachedBusiness and moneyThe numbers behind business and money stories, scored
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Two editions a week. One scored claim each.

Tuesday and Thursday at 1:00 PM Central. Every call is dated and graded in public, including the ones we get wrong.

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One email, one scored claim, no pitch. We never sell or share your address. Subscriber figure taken live from our mail provider and last checked July 26, 2026; most of it carried over from the two publications that merged into this one.