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County · Events · Business · Announcement · Thu Oct 1

Grade F, score 36 of 100 · open the full fact check No independent confirmation yet

“NRF Halloween Survey Shows Consumer Spending Expected to Reach $13.5 Billion”

Headline as ContraCosta.news wrote it

Story guide: details named in the linked reporting

What the reporting says

ContraCosta.news reports: “WASHINGTON – Consumer spending on Halloween is expected to reach $13.5 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation ’s annual consumer survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. The figure maintains the strong spending level of last year’s record $13.1 billion and reflects consumers’ continued enthusiasm for the holiday.”

Read it at ContraCosta.news

The full fact check1 outlet · Grade F
> THE MARTINEZ WIRE ▌SOURCE CHECK · OCT 1, 2026F36 / 100

Grade F · score 36/100

The story links no document and names two people or agencies on the record.

Checked Thu Oct 1, 8:52 AM · 1 of 1 page read

Sources checked

No independent confirmation found yet.

The reporting

  1. “NRF Halloween Survey Shows Consumer Spending Expected to Reach $13.5 Billion”ContraCosta.news

coverage1 outlet

1 newsroom

ContraCosta.news

News report · CC News · Thu Oct 1, 6:28 AM

Source grade F36/100

“NRF Halloween Survey Shows Consumer Spending Expected to Reach $13.5 Billion”

WASHINGTON – Consumer spending on Halloween is expected to reach $13.5 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation ’s annual consumer survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. The figure maintains the strong spending level of last year’s record $13.1 billion and reflects consumers’ continued enthusiasm for the holiday.

The opening, as ContraCosta.news wrote it

0 documents linked4 quotes5 of 17 paragraphs say where facts came from

Read the full story at ContraCosta.news

How this was graded13.4 + 0 + 10 + 6 = 29.4 of 80 → 36/100 · Grade F
13.4
Sourcing · of 45
0
Corroboration · of 15
10
Headline · of 10
6
Transparency · of 10

Left out: Record match (nothing of that kind to count).

Comments

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    How the grading works

    The short version

    The Wire grades each article from what the page itself shows: whether its facts say where they came from, the public documents it links, the other outlets and sources that confirm the same story, whether its facts match the Wire's own public records, a calm headline, and a clear byline and date. The story takes its best-sourced telling's grade. The grade describes the page, never the people in it.

    The formulaGrade = 100 × points ÷ possibleA 85 · B 70 · C 55 · D 40

    Grade = 100 × points ÷ possibleeach article · 0 to 100

    Story = its best tellingA 85 · B 70 · C 55 · D 40 · F below 40

    45
    Sourcing · 25 for the share of facts that say where they came from, 0, 7 or 12 for none, one or two or more public documents linked, 0 to 8 for the people and agencies named on the record
    15
    Corroboration · 8 or 12 for one or two or more other outlets or sources confirming it, 3 more when one is official; 8 for a telling alone that links two or more documents
    20
    Record match · 20 × the key facts confirmed or matching the Wire's records ÷ the facts checked; left out when none could be checked
    10
    Headline · less for a question, capitals, an exclamation mark, a teaser or heated words
    10
    Transparency · a byline, a date, an update or correction note, the outlet's identity, the kind labelled
    This story's arithmeticone article graded
    OutletSCRHTScore
    ContraCosta.news13.40–10636

    13.4 + 0 + 10 + 6 = 29.4 of 80 → 36/100 · Grade F

    S sourcing · C corroboration · R record match · H headline · T transparency. A dash is a part left out.

    How it is checked6 rules
    • Every input is read by rules from the page itself; the arithmetic is shown for every article.
    • An article that names no source, links no document and names no one on the record says "No sources cited", and its grade is at most D.
    • Where the Wire's own records hold the fact (a vote, a meeting, an amount, a call, a listing), the story and the record are set side by side; a vote the record tells differently holds the grade at most at D.
    • An agency's own release is the record itself and is not graded; an outlet that prints it as its story counts once.
    • Each story's key facts are checked for independent confirmation: first by rules against the Wire's records and the agencies' own releases, then each morning by research. A confirmation counts only when the Wire read the source's page itself and found the sentence on it; a government page, a public record or another newsroom's own reporting, never a copy of the story or a social post. A source that tells a fact differently is shown beside the story.
    • A page the Wire cannot read is never guessed at: it shows only its own headline, quoted, and is not graded.
    Sources1 records
    1. News reportThu Oct 1ContraCosta.newsRead