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What the picker changes
  • Top topics digest — the cards score the selected period against the prior 4 weeks.
  • 12-week heatmap & outlet matrix — show the 12 weeks ending at the selected week (they slide back with the picker, they aren’t a fixed snapshot).
  • Per-topic volume / alias drift — same 12-week trailing window, anchored on the selected period.
  • Coverage gap quadrant — scores the selected period against the 12 weeks before it (not including it).
  • Anomaly cards — only show alerts the detector fired during the selected period. Quiet weeks legitimately show none.
What stays as-is
  • Outlet orientation strip / lean colours — context-only, drawn from the last 12 weeks of activity regardless.
  • Co-occurrence graph — recent-activity anchored, not picker-driven.
  • Source & topic profiles — all-time data for the topic; the picker doesn’t affect them.
Rolling 7 days is a sliding live window for “current vibes”; switch to Weekly to compare specific weeks side-by-side.
Weekly Rolling 7 days
live window
Press topic

Royal Prerogative Of Mercy

4 articles · 2 aliases in press · first seen 24 May 2026

The Court of Appeal has dismissed Scott Watson's appeal, ruling that his trial was fair and his convictions for the 1998 murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope stand, despite challenges to the reliability of hair evidence and photo identification.

Coverage by outlet lean Methodology →

Stacked weekly counts; colour by editorial lean. Stuff and The Spinoff lean centre-left, NZ Herald centre-right, others centre.

Alias drift

How press outlets have named this topic, week by week.

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Recent headlines

Most recent 4 articles linking to this topic.

Sample framings

Up to 12 framings spread across outlets. Each framing is the LLM's one-line characterisation of the article's editorial angle — not a quote.

rnz Centre

multiple applications for pardon denied

Scott watson loses bid to quash convictions as court rules he had a fair trial
10 Sep
rnz Centre

government granted mercy in 2020

Crown to request retrial if court quashes david tamihere s murder convictions
20 Aug
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