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True crime has become a national obsession, but can jurors remain impartial when the court of public opinion has already spoken?

7NEWS
1 min read Rewritten in plain language
Show what we removed
  • From Jack the Ripper to Erin Patterson, the killings have a way of burrowing into the public consciousness.
  • Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today.
  • The Lindy Chamberlain case in the 1980s is a prime example of Australians finding ways to participate in criminal cases.
  • The podcast’s investigation into the 1982 disappearance of Lynette Dawson reignited public interest in a case that had remained unsolved for decades, bringing the story to a new audience and prompting people with information to come forward.

4 sentences from our version of the report, chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below. How

Headline check

Headline as published: True crime has become a national obsession, but can jurors truly remain impartial when the court of public opinion has already spoken?

There is nothing in this headline a machine can check against the report: no figure, no name and no quotation.

Nothing was measured here, so nothing is claimed. How this is checked

Many of us can’t explain why but humans are innately fascinated by murder.

From Jack the Ripper to Erin Patterson, the killings have a way of burrowing into the public consciousness.

We want to know who did it, why they did it and what happened behind closed doors.

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today.

We listen to podcasts that spend hours dissecting a case, watch documentaries that revisit murders committed decades ago or cases that remain unsolved, follow trials in real time and scroll through social media as strangers piece together evidence and rumours and build out their own theories.

A jury is selected on the expectation of impartiality, instructed to put aside what it has seen or heard outside the courtroom and consider only the evidence presented before it.

The Lindy Chamberlain case in the 1980s is a prime example of Australians finding ways to participate in criminal cases.

The audience that once waited for the newspaper or radio bulletin can now spend hours immersed in a case, moving between a podcast episode, a Reddit thread, a TikTok theory, and a news story before forming their own view on what happened.

The podcast’s investigation into the 1982 disappearance of Lynette Dawson reignited public interest in a case that had remained unsolved for decades, bringing the story to a new audience and prompting people with information to come forward.

The renewed attention led to the arrest and subsequent conviction of Lynette’s former husband Chris Dawson in 2022.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 10 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is 7NEWS's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

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Outlet Niral ScoreAdjectivesSourcingSentimentHappiness
7NEWSas they published this story 20.9 32 31 -0.2 8.2
Mundane Readneutralized from 7NEWS 17.2 27 31 -0.1 8.2

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