Press Kit · Booking · Media Inquiries · May 2026
Press &
Media Kit
Keynotes · Panels · Consulting · Media · Academic
DECLASSIFIED by Sean is a primary-source fact-checking game, a 78,000-word annotated satirical manuscript, and an original analytical framework for identifying political rhetoric applied to the documented record. The project is built entirely on the Bogost Citation Scale — four tiers of evidentiary quality — and the Phillips Pattern Library — 14 named rhetorical techniques applied to authenticated primary sources.
Available for keynotes, conference panels, podcast appearances, consulting engagements, and academic presentations. Response time for press inquiries: 48–72 hours.
By the Numbers
60+
Documented Claims Evaluated
14
Named Rhetorical Patterns
431
Footnotes to Primary Sources
78K
Words in Companion Manuscript
57
Defined Terms in Glossary
20+
Years Persuasion Research
4
Verdict Tiers (vs Pinocchio's 1 scale)
Speaking Topics
Keynote · 45–60 min · Panel-adaptable
Naming the Technique: Why Prebunking Beats Fact-Checking
The research is clear: inoculating people against rhetorical techniques before they encounter misinformation is more effective than correcting it after. The Phillips Pattern Library is a prebunking instrument. This talk covers the academic basis (van der Linden, Roozenbeek, Traberg), the 14-pattern framework, and why naming a technique is the first and most durable defense against it. Grounded in peer-reviewed research with primary-source documentation throughout.
Keynote / Workshop · 45–90 min
The Bogost Citation Scale: A Framework for Evaluating Any Claim
The Pinocchio scale has a structural problem: it conflates FALSE and MISLEADING on the same ordinal range. They are different problems requiring different corrections. This talk introduces the four-tier Bogost Citation Scale — STRONG, CAREFUL, WEAK, INSUFFICIENT — and demonstrates it against documented primary sources. Applicable to journalism, education, corporate communications, and political analysis. The methodology is the message.
Workshop · 60–90 min · Interactive
The Dunning-Kruger Game: How DECLASSIFIED Teaches What Textbooks Can't
Game-based learning, the testing effect, inoculation theory, and cognitive load management — applied to political misinformation in a live interactive format. Participants play two or three Acts, then debrief on the rhetorical patterns they identified. This talk demonstrates how retrieval practice improves retention over passive reading (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006), why naming patterns confers immunity (van der Linden, 2022), and what the Dunning-Kruger curve looks like when it's your own score on the board.
Keynote · 45 min · Media / Journalism
The Continued Influence Effect: Why Corrections Aren't Enough
Misinformation retains 40–65% of its inferential effect even after accepted correction (Lewandowsky et al., 2012). This talk covers the mathematics of the continued influence effect, the illusory truth effect, and why the architecture of how a correction is delivered matters as much as the correction itself. Practical implications for newsrooms, fact-checking organizations, and media literacy educators. The Debunking Handbook 2020 in applied form.
Keynote / Panel · 30–60 min · Political / Academic
Haines v. Kerner in the Age of Primary Sources: Pro Se Democracy
The same evidentiary standard that governs pro se legal filings — statute-heavy, primary-source grounded, bone-honest — is the correct standard for political discourse. This talk connects the Haines standard to the broader breakdown of evidentiary norms in political communication, and argues that the methodology behind DECLASSIFIED is not a game mechanic. It's the only framework that actually works.
Speaker Bio
Sean McKendry
Persuasion Researcher · Political Content Creator · Creator of the Phillips Pattern Library
Sean McKendry is a persuasion researcher and political content creator with over 20 years of study in the field. He is the creator of DECLASSIFIED by Sean — a primary-source political fact-checking game applying the Phillips Pattern Library and Bogost Citation Scale to 60+ documented claims — and the author of The Holy Bible of Donald J. Trump — Annotated and Unredacted, a 78,000-word satirical manuscript with 431 footnotes to primary sources.
A former competitive policy debater (Mona Shores High School, 1999–2002, Michigan state runner-up on the WMD topic), McKendry's analytical framework draws from Robert Lifton's thought reform criteria, Jonathan Haidt's moral foundations theory, and the peer-reviewed misinformation research of van der Linden, Pennycook, Lewandowsky, and Kahan — all applied to the authenticated primary-source record.
His work has been described as "dry, prosecutorial, Gen X" — no rhetorical polish, no partisan framing, just primary sources stacked in logical order with hard closers. Based in Lansing, Michigan.
Consulting Services
Media Literacy
Curriculum development, pattern library training, fact-checking methodology
Fact-Check Methodology
Four-verdict system implementation, citation tier frameworks, editorial standards
Political Analysis
Primary-source grounded analysis, rhetorical pattern identification, persuasion research
Game-Based Learning
Interactive educational game design, inoculation theory application, retrieval practice
Contact
Press use: All statistics and methodology descriptions on this page may be used freely for editorial purposes with attribution to "DECLASSIFIED by Sean (declassifiedbysean.com)." The Phillips Pattern Library, Bogost Citation Scale, and four-verdict system are original frameworks of this project. High-resolution versions of all graphics are available upon request.
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