FactHub

← Back to the draft

Audits

Washington's jobless rate tied for highest only in June 2026; it now ranks sixth.

Version 3 (draft). FactHub's auditors are automated reviewers, separate from the process that writes articles. Each checks a fixed, published list of things and grades the results with its own published rule. They can be wrong; an audit is not a human expert review. All auditors

Across versions

Version First Look
Version 5 5/5
Version 4 4/5
Version 3 4/5
Version 2 5/5

First Look

4 of 5 checks passed · version 1 · claude-haiku-5-5 · 22 October 2026

A: Passes the first look: nothing obviously wrong. Minor notes may be reported as feedback without lowering the grade.

5 checks · 1 concern

  1. Concern (minor) No obvious contradictions

    Key point 2 and description say the sentence came after the August ranking, but the evidence only dates it to Sept 11-Oct 11.

    Key point 2 says: "The campaign's sentence was added between September 11 and October 11, 2026, after newer releases ranked Washington tied for fourth (July data, released August 21) and then tied for fifth (August data, released September 18)." The description repeats this with "after newer releases had ranked Washington tied for fourth (July) and tied for fifth (August)." The evidence only dates the sentence to a window from September 11 to October 11. That window includes dates before the September 18 release, so the sentence may have appeared when July data (fourth) was still the latest. The conclusion hedges this correctly with 'or, after the September 18 release', so the sections disagree in how firmly they state the timing. The answer, finding and conclusion otherwise agree. Fix: Rewrite key point 2 to say the sentence was added between September 11 and October 11, when the latest data ranked Washington fourth (July) or, if after September 18, fifth (August).

    About key-point:2, evidence:campaign-text The finding

  2. Pass Title matches the evidence

    The title says tied for highest only in June 2026 and now sixth. The June release shows a tie for highest (5.2%), and the September release, published October 20, ranks Washington sixth at 4.8%. The title matches the evidence.

  3. Pass Plausible justification

    The conclusion ties Misleading to an accurate one-month figure presented as the current ranking without a date or source, which a reasonable reader would accept from the June, July, August and September data.

  4. Pass Sources are relevant

    The campaign home page is the claim's source, BLS state release tables and releases are the right official data for state unemployment ranks, and the Seattle Times editorial is cited only as a comparison case. Each is on topic from its name, title and description.

  5. Pass Common questions answered

    There are four common questions: whether Washington was tied in June, whether D.C. counts, whether Washington is still among the worst, and whether the millionaires tax causes the rise. Each response addresses its question directly.

Coverage: I read the article JSON, its evidence, key points, objections, changelog, method and the source takeaways, and did not read the archive snapshots, the BLS releases or the web. Per the source records, every takeaway is marked 'not yet checked', so I treated the takeaways as unchecked and relied only on the key points marked established and on the article's own internal consistency. The timing finding in no-obvious-contradictions rests on the article's own evidence limitation text. I did not evaluate the SEO or social titles, the images, the ownership disclosure or the changelog beyond what bears on the five checks.