Today in VT history: huge VT-run drug smuggling ring caught 29%

By Guy Page12%

7/30/2026, 7:57:52 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Anchoring Bias, Representativeness Heuristic, and Hasty Generalization, with Fundamental Attribution Error as the most egregious example at 13.7% saturation with 27 hits. Analysis detected 244 faulty-reasoning hits from 197 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33% and a BS Rank of 29% (20,416 of 28,475 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 71.70% of the article peer group.

Billy Greer (left) and Steve Hutchins, WCAX photo 
By VDC staff 
Thirty-five years ago today, on July 30, 1991, one of the biggest international drug smuggling operations ever linked to Vermont literally came apart in the water. 
According to a WCAX news report, whale researchers on the St. 
Lawrence River in Canada spotted something unusual: hundreds of barrels floating downstream. 
What they found inside stunned investigators. 
The barrels contained 54 tons of hashish from Pakistan, with an estimated street value of more than $600 million. 
Authorities said the shipment was headed for the United States. 
Investigators traced the operation to two Vermonters, Billy Greer and Steve Hutchins, who prosecutors said had been running a sophisticated smuggling network for more than a decade. 
According to authorities, rough weather disrupted the transfer, forcing the smugglers to dump the cargo into the river and flee. 
Instead of quietly slipping across the border, the shipment became impossible to hide. 
The discovery led to what was, at the time, the largest drug seizure in Canadian history. 
Greer, Hutchins, eight other Americans, and 15 Canadians were eventually arrested in connection with the operation. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Guy Page: 1.4%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 3.4%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 13.2%Guy Page: 2.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.8%Anchoring Bias13.2%This article: 9.6%Guy Page: 4.8%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.6%Availability Heuristic9.6%This article: 13.2%Guy Page: 0.8%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.7%Representativeness Heuristic13.2%This article: 6.6%Guy Page: 0.3%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.3%Hindsight Bias6.6%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.9%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 2.6%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 3.8%Framing Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.2%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.8%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.9%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.5%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.4%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.2%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 1.1%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.8%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 3.0%Guy Page: 3.4%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 4.1%Negativity Bias3.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.9%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 13.7%Guy Page: 0.6%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.9%Fundamental Attribution Error13.7%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.9%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.7%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.9%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.4%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 8.1%Guy Page: 2.7%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.7%Recency Bias8.1%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.6%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.4%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.9%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.8%Straw Man0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 2.2%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.7%Appeal to Authority0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.7%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.7%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.0%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 13.2%Guy Page: 2.2%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 3.1%Hasty Generalization13.2%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%Red Herring0.0%This article: 8.1%Guy Page: 0.4%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.3%Bandwagon8.1%This article: 12.7%Guy Page: 0.6%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.9%Appeal to Emotion12.7%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.7%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 10.2%Guy Page: 1.1%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)10.2%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.1%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.9%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.5%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.1%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.0%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 6.6%Guy Page: 1.8%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.7%Ambiguity (Equivocation)6.6%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.4%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.0%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.0%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 5.6%Guy Page: 2.9%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.3%Unattributed Quote5.6%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.9%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.6%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 3.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 2.9%Biased Writer Voice0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 1.3%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.0%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 2.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Guy Page: 0.0%Vermont Daily Chronicle: 0.2%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

197 words analyzed.

Speakers

1speaker5.6%attributed speech186writer words
Selected voice

WCAX

100%flagged-word coverage
11 attributed words100% of attributed speech68% writer coverage
0%50.0%100.0%Unattributed Quote+100.0 ptsWriter: 0.0%WCAX: 100.0%100.0%

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

Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…

Analysis

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