SPIN·DETECTOR

How the coverage framed it

Coverage of Selma Blair's arrest was largely uniform across outlets, with a bias spread of just 0.0 points on the Claude scale and a modest 1.5-point maximum on Grok's scale. Most headlines anchored their reporting in standard law-enforcement language — "arrested," "taken into custody," and "allegedly" — reflecting a shared commitment to factual, qualified description. The primary variation was tonal rather than ideological: the Boston Globe's phrasing, "taken into custody by police responding to a physically abusive passenger," was the most detached and procedural, while the New York Post's "screamed maniacally as she was dragged off plane" introduced more vivid, charged language without shifting the underlying political framing. Similarly, the Daily Mail's accumulation of specific details — "punching and biting," "trying to open plane door mid-air" — added dramatic texture but remained factually grounded. No outlet framed the story through a discernible political lens.