Sample investigation · Newsrooms
A desk editor has an hour to say what is known about a port closure. Fourteen reports say it in different words. Three of them are origins.
Illustrative An invented example. No real client, event or organisation, and the figures are samples. Sample record 7A-D-000731, SAMPLE · 14 SEP 2026 · 09:20 local.
Reports ingested
in the first three hours
Independent origins
of the fourteen
Primary documents
a posted notice
Contested axes
where and why
01 Headline
Reports agree the port is shut to inbound vessels. They differ on why, and on whether secondary berths are affected.
14Reports ingested
The headline arrives with fourteen versions. The desk starts from the claim, not the wording: the port is closed, and someone says why.
Dispatch
SAMPLE · 14 SEP 2026 · 09:20 local
Reports agree the port is shut to inbound vessels. They differ on why, and on whether secondary berths are affected.
The question
What can the desk print now, and what must it mark as unconfirmed?
02 Sources
An origin is the first to report something. A repeat only passes it on. Counting origins shows how many separate voices there really are.
3Origins among 6 sources shown
Six of the fourteen are shown here. One is the notice itself, two report on their own, and the rest repeat. Counting origins rather than reports moves the desk from fourteen voices to three.
Source ledger
| Source | Role | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Harbour authority notice | Primary | 90 |
| Port agency wire, own reporting | Origin | 84 |
| Shippers’ association statement | Origin | 71 |
| Regional daily, relays wire | Repeat | 60 |
| Broadcaster, relays wire | Repeat | 58 |
| Aggregator, no sourcing | Repeat | 34 |
3 of 6 shown report on their own or are the document itself
03 Six-axis audit
The audit asks who, what, when, where, why and how. Each question gets its own confidence from 0 to 100. A weak answer is marked contested instead of being averaged away.
Who, what and when hold. Where and why do not. The two origins give different reasons, so the audit marks the axis as contested instead of picking a side.
Six-axis audit
Who
The harbour authority, per its own notice.
What
Port closed to inbound vessels.
When
From 06:00 local, no end time stated.
Where
Main container terminal. Secondary berths unclear.
Why
Weather, or an inspection. The two origins differ.
How
Notice posted, then enforced by traffic control.
04 Impact
The impact matrix does not forecast. It lists where the claim, if it holds, would touch each of nine areas, and how strongly.
The record does not forecast. It lists where the claim, if it holds, touches the nine pillars. Supply chain and economic readings are highest, and the desk can see which findings rest on the unconfirmed axes.
Impact matrix
05 Dossier
Port closure: what is established and what is not. The file is fixed as it stood on 14 SEP 2026 · 12:05 local. A later correction would be a new entry.
The desk a at the time of publishing. The claim ledger, the sources and the two recorded edits are fixed as they stood, so a later correction is a new entry, not a rewrite.
Dossier
Sealed 14 SEP 2026 · 12:05 local. Later changes become new entries.
The desk files the dossier with the story and links it from the corrections log.
What happened next. The story prints the closure as confirmed, gives both reasons with their origins, and marks the berths as unconfirmed.
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