# Park, Yang and Kseniia: What Breaks When Facts Become Stories? [Canonical reading](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/park-yang-and-kseniia-what-breaks-when-facts-become-stories-a2a02141) Kwangsuk Park, JiWoong Yang and Kseniia Vaniushkina argue that source-agreement metrics can misjudge models that turn recorded facts into stories. In reconstruction, departing from the source may be intended: agreement-based evaluation can count warranted changes as errors, while ignoring agreement can let real distortions pass. The authors had three model families rewrite 2,000 news articles as summaries and stories, then assessed changes across the five Ws. They report that time and manner were replaced, while place and causation lost expressions that carry them. Accountability distortion rose up to sevenfold in stories compared with summaries; among cases whose direction could be determined, two in three made the perpetrator seem less responsible. The authors say these distortions can survive claim-level fact checking, leaving a retelling grammatically cleaner than its source. The distinction between a change and a warranted change remains contested: the authors report that three relabeling authors converged on whether distortion occurred, but not whether it was warranted. They release ReTold-2k, a reconstructable corpus, scoring protocol and per-judge baselines kept unaggregated. The abstract does not establish how these results generalize beyond the studied articles and model families. How do the authors determine whether a perspective warrants a change? Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims. ## Original source arXiv cs.AI · Article Original source date: Oct 29, 2026 (2026-10-29). Date basis: Date basis not provided. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-11T06:54:43.751Z. First observed: 2026-10-30T06:42:49.958Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-31T08:48:43.639Z. - [What Breaks When Facts Become Stories? The Distortions Source-Agreement Metrics Miss When Models Retell Real Events](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Limits The abstract does not report how the 2,000 news articles were selected or provide further detail about the three model families. The authors report disagreement about whether distortions were warranted; the abstract does not describe the criteria used to make that judgment. The results summarized here concern the articles and model families in this study; the abstract does not establish how broadly they generalize. ## Source-stated The authors argue that source-agreement metrics can fail in reconstruction: they may treat intended departures as errors, while omitting agreement can allow distortions to pass. > applied as is, it counts intended departures as errors; withheld, it lets real distortion through. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The study had three model families rewrite 2,000 news articles as summaries and stories, and assessed changes across the five Ws. > We had three model families rewrite 2,000 news articles as summaries and as stories, measured what changed on every axis of the five Ws - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors report that time and manner were replaced, while place and causation lost the expressions that carry them. > Time and manner were not lost but replaced, while place and causation lost the expressions that carry them. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors report that accountability distortion rose up to sevenfold in stories; among cases with a determinable direction, two in three lightened the perpetrator's responsibility. > it rose up to sevenfold in stories, and of those whose direction could be determined, two in three lightened the perpetrator's responsibility. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors say these distortions survive claim-level fact checking and that the relabeling authors agreed on whether distortion occurred, but not whether it was warranted. > three authors relabeling the same cases converged on whether a distortion had occurred but not on whether it was warranted - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors release ReTold-2k with a scoring protocol and per-judge baselines kept unaggregated. > we release ReTold-2k, a reconstructable corpus with the scoring protocol and per-judge baselines kept unaggregated. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source and contributor context Park, Kwangsuk, Yang, JiWoong, Kseniia, Vaniushkina · Article author These are credits stated by the source; they do not establish a profile match or authorship of every passage. ## Source media No suitable media was found by the supported page extraction. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## arXiv arXiv is a research manuscript repository where authors share papers that may not yet have been peer reviewed. - [Explore this context](/entities/arxiv) - [Reference](https://arxiv.org/) - [Reference](https://info.arxiv.org/help/api/index.html) ## TIME TIME is a news magazine publishing reporting on world affairs, business, technology and the workers behind digital services. - [Explore this context](/entities/time) - [Reference](https://time.com/) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 8670c092-e5d2-460b-85fe-72820335f36b. Prepared by gpt-6-luna; grounding review by gpt-6-luna. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-11T06:54:43.751Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: useful\_perspective. Observation: 7a5481e587c2045f47cae452e9f19b856a4e76bc6b2961959b242eb9536f1f70. Source text hash: d1cb859b00f13b27670203a1d4972e018838c83cc7b807fff8d9b7f15e6df99f. ## Revision and source-check history ### Version 1 — 2026-11-11T06:54:43.751Z Kwangsuk Park, JiWoong Yang and Kseniia Vaniushkina argue that source-agreement metrics can misjudge models that turn recorded facts into stories. In reconstruction, departing from the source may be intended: agreement-based evaluation can count warranted changes as errors, while ignoring agreement can let real distortions pass. The authors had three model families rewrite 2,000 news articles as summaries and stories, then assessed changes across the five Ws. They report that time and manner were replaced, while place and causation lost expressions that carry them. Accountability distortion rose up to sevenfold in stories compared with summaries; among cases whose direction could be determined, two in three made the perpetrator seem less responsible. The authors say these distortions can survive claim-level fact checking, leaving a retelling grammatically cleaner than its source. The distinction between a change and a warranted change remains contested: the authors report that three relabeling authors converged on whether distortion occurred, but not whether it was warranted. They release ReTold-2k, a reconstructable corpus, scoring protocol and per-judge baselines kept unaggregated. The abstract does not establish how these results generalize beyond the studied articles and model families. How do the authors determine whether a perspective warrants a change? ## Original source arXiv cs.AI · Article Original source date: Oct 29, 2026 (2026-10-29). Date basis: Date basis not provided. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-11T06:54:43.751Z. First observed: 2026-10-30T06:42:49.958Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-31T08:48:43.639Z. - [What Breaks When Facts Become Stories? The Distortions Source-Agreement Metrics Miss When Models Retell Real Events](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Limits The abstract does not report how the 2,000 news articles were selected or provide further detail about the three model families. The authors report disagreement about whether distortions were warranted; the abstract does not describe the criteria used to make that judgment. The results summarized here concern the articles and model families in this study; the abstract does not establish how broadly they generalize. ## Source-stated The authors argue that source-agreement metrics can fail in reconstruction: they may treat intended departures as errors, while omitting agreement can allow distortions to pass. > applied as is, it counts intended departures as errors; withheld, it lets real distortion through. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The study had three model families rewrite 2,000 news articles as summaries and stories, and assessed changes across the five Ws. > We had three model families rewrite 2,000 news articles as summaries and as stories, measured what changed on every axis of the five Ws - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors report that time and manner were replaced, while place and causation lost the expressions that carry them. > Time and manner were not lost but replaced, while place and causation lost the expressions that carry them. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors report that accountability distortion rose up to sevenfold in stories; among cases with a determinable direction, two in three lightened the perpetrator's responsibility. > it rose up to sevenfold in stories, and of those whose direction could be determined, two in three lightened the perpetrator's responsibility. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors say these distortions survive claim-level fact checking and that the relabeling authors agreed on whether distortion occurred, but not whether it was warranted. > three authors relabeling the same cases converged on whether a distortion had occurred but not on whether it was warranted - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source-stated The authors release ReTold-2k with a scoring protocol and per-judge baselines kept unaggregated. > we release ReTold-2k, a reconstructable corpus with the scoring protocol and per-judge baselines kept unaggregated. - [Supporting source](https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39500) ## Source and contributor context Park, Kwangsuk, Yang, JiWoong, Kseniia, Vaniushkina · Article author These are credits stated by the source; they do not establish a profile match or authorship of every passage. ## Source media No suitable media was found by the supported page extraction. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## arXiv arXiv is a research manuscript repository where authors share papers that may not yet have been peer reviewed. - [Explore this context](/entities/arxiv) - [Reference](https://arxiv.org/) - [Reference](https://info.arxiv.org/help/api/index.html) ## TIME TIME is a news magazine publishing reporting on world affairs, business, technology and the workers behind digital services. - [Explore this context](/entities/time) - [Reference](https://time.com/) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 8670c092-e5d2-460b-85fe-72820335f36b. Prepared by gpt-6-luna; grounding review by gpt-6-luna. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-11T06:54:43.751Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: useful\_perspective. Observation: 7a5481e587c2045f47cae452e9f19b856a4e76bc6b2961959b242eb9536f1f70. Source text hash: d1cb859b00f13b27670203a1d4972e018838c83cc7b807fff8d9b7f15e6df99f. ### uncertain — 2026-11-11T06:54:43.751Z — anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 Publication: 8670c092-e5d2-460b-85fe-72820335f36b attribution — uncertain: The source lists the third author as "Vaniushkina Kseniia." The summary reorders this to "Kseniia Vaniushkina," while the title treats "Kseniia" as the surname ("Park, Yang and Kseniia"). The two forms conflict, and the source does not settle the name order. Smallest repair: use the name exactly as listed, or a neutral form such as "Park et al." in the title. > Authors:Kwangsuk Park, JiWoong Yang, Vaniushkina Kseniia summary — uncertain: The draft never says the models wrote from an assigned perspective, yet it ends by asking whether "a perspective" warrants a change. It also omits that this warrant check set aside a third of detected distortions. It drops a scope condition: the three-author relabeling covered only cases where the judges disagreed. Central terms such as five Ws (who, what, when, where, why), "replaced" versus "lost," and claim-level fact checking are not explained for lay readers. The question sits inside the summary while the question field is empty. Repairs: add the assigned-perspective context, the one-third figure and the judge-disagreement scope, and gloss the five Ws. > asked of each detected distortion whether the assigned perspective warranted it, which set a third of them aside date — pass: The originalPublished value, 2026-10-29, matches the arXiv v1 submission date. It is not the later feed date. > \[Submitted on 29 Oct 2026\] support — pass: Each claim is attributed to the authors and matches the abstract. This includes the sevenfold rise, the two-in-three direction finding, survival of claim-level fact checking, and the ReTold-2k release. The limitations correctly mark what the abstract leaves unknown. The draft attributes no unsupported benefits or forecasts. > Such distortions survive claim-level fact checking and leave the retelling grammatically cleaner than its source. media — pass: The selected media is the verified direct arXiv abstract page for this paper, which is the original source. ## Recorded references Explicit citations in public readings and public file attachments to this reading. Shared topics are not citations. Other artifact types need an explicit reference adapter. Some references could not be checked. Reload to try again. [Reference data (JSON)](/readings/a2a02141e3a761bdbfa9e05c9bd1ef8cd3c777864f52ebb8c25d2c0617974668/references.json) ## Corrections and challenges [Send a correction or an opposing source](https://escapemeridian.com/corrections/) [JSON record](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/park-yang-and-kseniia-what-breaks-when-facts-become-stories-a2a02141.json)