How firmly the paper rebutted each side's central verification claim

What this dataset measures

The Seattle Times is Washington's largest daily newspaper and ran more staff news stories on I-638 than any other Washington outlet. This release records each item a two-coder review and a red-team pass flagged as departing from the measure's text, official statistics, peer-reviewed research or the paper's own later reporting, so readers can check every item and every count.

Geography

Washington, United States

Unit of observation

One coded statement (or headline) in one Seattle Times news story

Update cadence

One-time release; a new version will record any later corrections by the Times or challenges FactHub accepts.

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Saved analyses

Sources

1. The Seattle Times Primary record: the news stories whose wording is coded. Each row's url names its story.

   Retrieved October 30, 2026. All rights reserved (The Seattle Times). Short quotations only, for criticism and review; full story text is not redistributed.

   Reliability: News report. Washington's largest daily newspaper and the subject of this review. Its own published wording is the record being coded.

2. Washington Secretary of State Reference record: the measure's filed text, used to check statements about what I-638 requires and whom it covers (Sections 1 and 3).

   Retrieved October 30, 2026. Public record. Public government record; linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Government. Official filed text of Initiative Measure IL26-638 as published by the Secretary of State; the measure itself was written by its sponsors.

3. American Academy of Pediatrics Reference record: what AAP well-visit guidelines list for girls aged 11-17, used to check statements about well visits.

   Retrieved October 30, 2026. Copyright American Academy of Pediatrics. Linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Academic. The AAP's national guideline for preventive pediatric care (4th edition, 2017). The AAP opposes measures like I-638, but the guideline predates it and does not address sports.

4. Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (NSCH) Reference record: Washington children without a personal doctor or nurse, 2023-24, used to check the paper's 18% figure.

   Retrieved October 30, 2026. Public data. Linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Government. National Survey of Children's Health, funded by HRSA and fielded by the Census Bureau; query tool run by the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative.

5. Hilton & Lundberg, Sports Medicine Reference record: review of strength and lean mass after testosterone suppression, used to check statements about the research. Free copy

   Retrieved October 30, 2026. CC BY 4.0. Linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Peer-reviewed study. Peer-reviewed narrative review (Sports Med 2021;51:199-214). The authors have argued publicly for protecting the female category.

6. Harper et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine Reference record: systematic review of strength, lean mass and muscle area after hormone therapy.

   Retrieved October 30, 2026. CC BY-NC 4.0. Linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Peer-reviewed study. Systematic review of 24 studies (Br J Sports Med 2021;55:865-872). Lead author Joanna Harper supports transgender inclusion and is quoted by the Times.

Limitations and reproducibility

Partially reproducible: Every coded item gives the story URL, the coded wording and what the record shows, so anyone can re-check each item and recount the tables. The coding judgments themselves (especially framing) cannot be recomputed mechanically. Pre-correction wording for three corrected items comes from Internet Archive captures or the paper's correction notes.

• Framing calls are judgments. Two independent coders and a red-team review reduce, but do not remove, the chance that another reader would code an item differently. Inter-coder agreement was not computed formally.
• Scope: 44 Seattle Times staff, partner and freelance news stories on I-638 or Washington trans athletes, January 2025 to October 30, 2026. Opinion pieces, letters and wire copy are excluded, so the 12-to-2 opinion-page balance against the measure is not counted here.
• Only items that depart from the record are listed. Accurate statements are not tallied, so the table measures the direction of errors and slanted framing, not their rate per sentence.
• Quotes the paper printed without checking are tallied separately as 'unchecked', because they are not the paper's own words. They split roughly evenly: 4 favored Yes and 3 favored No.
• Some pre-correction wording (for example the October 14, 2026 Camas story) comes from an Internet Archive capture and the paper's correction note, not from the current page.
• One story URL contains the name of a minor athlete; for that row (B7) the url field gives the section page instead.
• The Seattle Times was not asked to comment before publication.