Newsmax⁠75%

Accused WH Press Dinner Attacker a Tutor, Programmer from California ⁠2%

By MICHAEL BIESECKER⁠44% MICHAEL KUNZELMAN⁠12%

4/26/2026, 10:33:23 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Representativeness Heuristic, Appeal to Authority, and Hasty Generalization, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 35.5% saturation with 140 hits. Analysis detected 830 faulty-reasoning hits from 394 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 10.2% and a BS Rank of ⁠2% (20,240 of 20,518 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.60% of the article peer group.

Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. 
A May 2025 profile photo of Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by President Donald Trump. 
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills. 
Allen, 31, earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. 
He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns. 
Bin Tang, a computer science professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills, told The Associated Press that Allen took a few of his classes before graduating a couple of years ago. 
“He was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. 
Soft spoken, very polite, a good fellow. 
I am very shocked to see the news,” Tang wrote in an email. 
A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college as part of a story about new technologies to help people as they age. 
He had developed a prototype for a new type of emergency brake for wheelchairs. 
Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024, according to federal campaign finance records. 
Allen's online resume says he worked for the last six years at C2 Education, a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students. 
A 2024 post on the company’s Facebook page listed Allen as the company’s teacher of the month. 
The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday night. 
Allen also posted that he had developed a video game for the Steam platform based on molecular chemistry. 
A post under Allen’s name said he was working to develop a new “top-down shooter” combat game set in outer space. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 8.4%Michael Biesecker: 3.2%Newsmax: 3.4%Confirmation Bias8.4%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 1.1%Newsmax: 0.9%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 5.3%Michael Biesecker: 2.8%Newsmax: 3.2%Availability Heuristic5.3%This article: 23.9%Michael Biesecker: 2.1%Newsmax: 0.9%Representativeness Heuristic23.9%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.5%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 1.4%Newsmax: 3.8%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 8.9%Michael Biesecker: 7.7%Newsmax: 11.0%Framing Effect8.9%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.8%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.5%Newsmax: 0.9%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.1%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 1.7%Newsmax: 4.1%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 1.1%Newsmax: 2.9%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 9.6%Michael Biesecker: 14.9%Newsmax: 10.3%Negativity Bias9.6%This article: 7.1%Michael Biesecker: 1.0%Newsmax: 3.0%Self-Serving Bias7.1%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 2.1%Newsmax: 1.2%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 1.0%Newsmax: 2.7%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.3%Newsmax: 1.3%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 35.5%Michael Biesecker: 6.5%Newsmax: 2.0%Halo Effect35.5%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.7%Newsmax: 0.2%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.6%Newsmax: 1.9%Recency Bias0.0%This article: 8.1%Michael Biesecker: 0.7%Newsmax: 0.4%Primacy Effect8.1%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 4.3%Michael Biesecker: 0.9%Newsmax: 1.3%Ad Hominem4.3%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.3%Straw Man0.0%This article: 18.3%Michael Biesecker: 4.4%Newsmax: 4.8%Appeal to Authority18.3%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.7%Newsmax: 2.5%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 1.4%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 13.7%Michael Biesecker: 6.9%Newsmax: 4.2%Hasty Generalization13.7%This article: 5.3%Michael Biesecker: 0.8%Newsmax: 0.3%Red Herring5.3%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.3%Newsmax: 0.5%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 3.3%Michael Biesecker: 6.6%Newsmax: 5.9%Appeal to Emotion3.3%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.6%Newsmax: 1.1%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 3.6%Michael Biesecker: 4.5%Newsmax: 3.8%Post Hoc (False Cause)3.6%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.5%Newsmax: 0.5%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.3%Newsmax: 0.2%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 12.7%Michael Biesecker: 4.5%Newsmax: 0.9%Anecdotal12.7%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 10.2%Michael Biesecker: 1.7%Newsmax: 2.1%Ambiguity (Equivocation)10.2%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.2%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.3%Newsmax: 0.2%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 1.1%Newsmax: 3.1%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 8.1%Michael Biesecker: 2.7%Newsmax: 1.9%Quote-first Misdirection8.1%This article: 10.9%Michael Biesecker: 1.4%Newsmax: 4.1%Biased Writer Voice10.9%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 2.5%Newsmax: 1.0%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 6.3%Michael Biesecker: 5.3%Newsmax: 0.3%Politically Left Leaning Bias6.3%This article: 0.0%Michael Biesecker: 0.0%Newsmax: 1.5%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 7.1%Michael Biesecker: 1.2%Newsmax: 1.1%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…7.1%

394 words analyzed.

Speakers

1speaker19%attributed speech319writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 10 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 33 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 40 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 0.0% coverageBin Tang • 30 words • 0.0% coverageBin Tang • 25 words • 100.0% coverageBin Tang • 7 words • 100.0% coverageBin Tang • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 32 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 14 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 25 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 18 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 21 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

Bin Tang

100%flagged-word coverage
75 attributed words100% of attributed speech90% writer coverage
0%22.5%45.0%Quote-first Misdirection+42.7 ptsWriter: 0.0%Bin Tang: 42.7%42.7%Biased Writer Voice-13.5 ptsWriter: 13.5%Bin Tang: 0.0%0.0%Attempt to Sell a Product -8.8 ptsWriter: 8.8%Bin Tang: 0.0%0.0%Politically Left Leaning B-7.8 ptsWriter: 7.8%Bin Tang: 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.