The Distraction Index

An open-source civic intelligence platform that scores every major U.S. political event on two axes: constitutional damage and media distraction. Publishes immutable weekly snapshots with full algorithmic transparency.

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The Distraction Index launched in December 2024 and has been running for 60+ weeks, scoring 1,500+ political events. It's built for journalists, researchers, civic organizations, and engaged citizens who want data-driven insight into which democratic damage events are being buried under media noise. Every event gets two independent scores: constitutional damage (institutional harm) and media distraction (hype vs. strategic manipulation). Weekly snapshots are frozen and immutable. The scoring algorithm is fully transparent — prompts are published publicly. Built with Next.js, Supabase, and Claude API. Open source. No ads, no paywall.