Alameda Post Selected to Host California Local News Fellow 12%

By Adam Gillitt50%

7/31/2026, 7:49:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Optimism Bias, and Self-Serving Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 19.3% saturation with 106 hits. Analysis detected 449 faulty-reasoning hits from 548 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24% and a BS Rank of 12% (22,320 of 25,180 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 88.60% of the article peer group.

Desmond Bracken will report full-time for the Post for two years 
On Tuesday, July 28, the California Local News Fellowship , a multi-year, state-funded initiative to strengthen local journalism across the state, announced the selection of their 2026 cohort of journalists and partner newsrooms. 
The program is based at UC Berkeley’s Graduate school of Journalism and is designed to address the crisis in local news. 
Alameda Post ’s new full-time reporter, Desmond “Dez” Bracken. 
File photo. 
Every year since launching in 2023, through a competitive process, the program has placed early-career journalists in newsrooms around California for a two-year period. 
The program provides these journalists with ongoing training and mentoring, coaching, research tools, along with full-time salaries and benefits from the University of California. 
Newsrooms currently hosting fellows include CalMatters , SF Gate , the Fresno Bee , and the San Francisco Chronicle , as well as outlets such as San Francisco Public Press , Shasta Scout , Oakland’s El Tímpano , and Alameda’s EdSource . 
More than 300 people from across the country applied to the program this year, and 80 newsrooms applied to host a fellow. 
The Alameda Post is proud to share that we are one of the three dozen newsrooms selected for the 2026-2028 cohort, and we are happy to welcome Desmond “Dez” Bracken (he, they, all pronouns), who was placed with us as our new reporter. 
Bracken is a recent graduate of Laney College, and has gained experience as a fellow with CalMatters , as an intern with KALW and KQED, and a writer and editor for the Peralta Citizen . 
He has won awards for his journalism, including accolades from the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California chapter, the Journalism Association of Community Colleges, the National Public Radio College Podcast Challenge, and the National Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. 
He recently got married and lives with his wife next to Lake Merritt. 
When he starts after Labor Day, Bracken will be the Post’s first full-time reporter, covering a range of city news with both short-form articles and longer investigative reports, as well as adding new multimedia elements to the Post’s coverage. 
He will also be covering AUSD Board meetings. 
Working from a desk in our newsroom on Oak Street, he will be involved in planning and executing coverage of Alameda news and issues until the summer of 2028. 
This award is a huge honor for the Alameda Post , providing encouragement and validation for our efforts as Alameda’s only news outlet as we approach our fifth anniversary in December. 
We are very excited by the opportunity to add Dez to our team and are looking forward to the increased and improved coverage we will be able to provide for our readers. 
On behalf of our team and board of directors, I would like to thank the staff and selection committee from the Local News Fellowship, and to extend our gratitude to the other applicants to our newsroom who were not placed with us. 
Adam Gillitt is the Editor and Publisher of the Alameda Post . 
Reach him at adam@alamedapost.com . 
His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Adam-Gillitt . 
The post Alameda Post Selected to Host California Local News Fellow appeared first on Alameda Post . 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 5.8%Adam Gillitt: 7.4%Alameda Post: 2.3%Confirmation Bias5.8%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.9%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.3%Alameda Post: 1.0%Availability Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.2%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.2%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 7.8%Alameda Post: 4.8%Framing Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.3%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 5.7%Adam Gillitt: 0.7%Alameda Post: 0.8%Status Quo Bias5.7%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.4%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 13.7%Adam Gillitt: 6.7%Alameda Post: 5.1%Optimism Bias13.7%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.2%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.4%Alameda Post: 1.5%Negativity Bias0.0%This article: 13.5%Adam Gillitt: 4.1%Alameda Post: 1.9%Self-Serving Bias13.5%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.1%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 3.4%Alameda Post: 1.0%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.1%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 14.8%Adam Gillitt: 18.7%Alameda Post: 5.0%Halo Effect14.8%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.1%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.6%Alameda Post: 0.5%Recency Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 2.0%Alameda Post: 0.4%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Straw Man0.0%This article: 6.9%Adam Gillitt: 6.2%Alameda Post: 3.0%Appeal to Authority6.9%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.5%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.4%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 2.0%Alameda Post: 1.7%Hasty Generalization0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.1%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 1.6%Alameda Post: 0.6%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 3.5%Alameda Post: 3.6%Appeal to Emotion0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.1%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.5%Alameda Post: 0.8%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.4%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.0%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 3.2%Alameda Post: 0.7%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.3%Alameda Post: 0.1%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 19.3%Adam Gillitt: 11.9%Alameda Post: 3.5%Biased Writer Voice19.3%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 2.6%Alameda Post: 1.6%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.1%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%Alameda Post: 0.2%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 2.2%Adam Gillitt: 0.6%Alameda Post: 1.1%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…2.2%

548 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers19%attributed speech443writer words
Selected voice

Adam Gillitt

50%flagged-word coverage
24 attributed words23% of attributed speech33% writer coverage
0%25.0%50.0%Attempt to Sell a Product +50.0 ptsWriter: 0.0%Adam Gillitt: 50.0%50.0%Biased Writer Voice-23.9 ptsWriter: 23.9%Adam Gillitt: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.