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123 andrew gelman stats-2010-07-01-Truth in headlines


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Introduction: I came across the following headline: Unemployment Extension Fails: Senate Rejects Jobless Benefits 58-38 Actually, though, the Senate voted 58-38 in favor of the bill. But the opponents did a filibuster. Here’s another try: Congress Fails to Pass an Extension of Jobless Aid But it’s still not clear that the vote was strongly in favor–not even close, in fact. A better headline, I think, would be: Senate Vote on Unemployment Extension: 58-38 in Favor, Not Enough to Beat Filibuster Or maybe someone more journalistic than I can come up with something better?


Summary: the most important sentenses genereted by tfidf model

sentIndex sentText sentNum sentScore

1 I came across the following headline: Unemployment Extension Fails: Senate Rejects Jobless Benefits 58-38 Actually, though, the Senate voted 58-38 in favor of the bill. [sent-1, score-0.567]

2 Here’s another try: Congress Fails to Pass an Extension of Jobless Aid But it’s still not clear that the vote was strongly in favor–not even close, in fact. [sent-3, score-0.42]

3 A better headline, I think, would be: Senate Vote on Unemployment Extension: 58-38 in Favor, Not Enough to Beat Filibuster Or maybe someone more journalistic than I can come up with something better? [sent-4, score-0.433]


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