Last week President Trump installed housing finance regulator Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, an appointment that generated criticism and concern from Democrats and Republicans alike. Our analysts rated four news articles and two videos about the appointment of Pulte in our Topic of the Week. On June 11 Trump withdrew the appointment and said he would instead nominate U.S. Attorney and former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to fill the position permanently. 

Let’s start our analysis this week with the content that received the lowest ratings from our analyst team, which was ultimately rated in our lowest reliability category for having both undisclosed generative AI and inaccurate content. An article from WLT Report was initially assigned a reliability score in the 16-23 range because analysts found evidence that made them suspect generative AI. This included the language used in the report, a questionable byline, and a hyperlink to an article from Associated Press that does not work and appears to be made up. We have a rubric for scoring various levels of AI-generated content. When we find such evidence that leads us to the conclusion it is “more likely than not” that the content is undisclosed generative AI (a “preponderance of the evidence” standard), we score it in the 16-24 section of our chart for reliability.

Analysts then looked further at this quote attributed to President Trump: “It’s way too big an office … It’s way too high for way too long.” After conducting lateral reading, our analysts verified that Trump said the second part of that quote but not the first. With this conclusive evidence of the use of AI — and the inclusion of an AI-generated error (a false quote) — analysts dropped the reliability rating even lower, into the category of “contains inaccurate/fabricated information.”

Finally, analysts found that the language in the article not only strongly praises Trump’s decision to nominate Pulte, but assigns heroic, mastermind-like intentions to it, while omitting any comments from lawmakers opposed to Pulte’s appointment. The language and rhetorical framing led to a bias rating of “hyper-partisan right.”

An article from Washington Examiner and a video from PBS were found to be “a mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “middle/balanced” bias. The video clip from “PBS News Hour” features host Geoff Bennett interviewing White House correspondent Liz Landers, who describes Pulte’s background and his relationship with President Trump. She also includes reaction to the appointment from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

The article focuses on one official’s reaction to Pulte’s appointment: Republican Sen. James Lankford. The article quotes Lankford’s comments from an interview on Fox News. It also includes comments from other Democratic and Republican lawmakers who question Trump’s choice.

A video clip from CBS’ “Face the Nation” and an article from the NewsNation website were both rated as “analysis.” The article gives details about Pulte’s career and his work as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a position he filled in January 2025 after being nominated by Trump. It also gives brief information about former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. However, analysts found that the article lacks context, as it omits reporting any aspects of Pulte’s experience that would relate to his position in national intelligence. The article received a bias rating of “middle/balanced.”

In the video, host Margaret Brennan interviews Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Himes voices his distrust and criticism of Pulte’s qualifications. Himes gives a detailed analysis about how Pulte’s appointment may affect Congress’ reauthorization of the FISA 702 provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Analysts found that Brennan’s questions were relevant, timely and neutral; however, she offered very limited pushback to some of Himes’ most vehement positions. The video was rated with a “skews left” bias.

An opinion column published on the USA Today website describes Pulte in the headline as “another unqualified Trump toady” whose “actions have largely been serving Trump and his unquenchable thirst for revenge against political opponents.” Author Rex Huppke says Pulte “will say and do anything to make the president happy” and his lack of qualifications “could put Americans in danger.” Huppke quotes both Republicans and Democrats who are critical of Pulte’s appointment, which he describes this way: “It’s like bypassing a qualified electrician and hiring an accountant to rewire your house. You’re welcome to do it, but you’ll have no one but yourself to blame when the house burns down.” Analysts rated the article as “opinion” with a “strong left” bias.

If you’d like to follow along on our weekly Topic of the Week exercise, you can do so by visiting our website. New Topics of the Week are posted each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with those of our analysts. Learn more here.

Beth Heldebrandt is Director of Communications at Ad Fontes Media. She has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of journalism and public relations, and was an adjunct instructor of journalism for 17 years at Eastern Illinois University. Beth has a B.A. in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University. She’s a mom and grandma, and enjoys traveling, puzzles and reading.