That’s called journalism
Media statistic of the week
In August 2023, NewsGuard identified 37 websites that are using chatbots to rewrite articles that first appeared in news outlets including CNN, The New York Times and Reuters — and it found that none of the original news sources was credited.
“Moreover, some of these content farms featured programmatic ads from well-known companies,” NewsGuard observes, “meaning blue-chip brands are unknowingly helping to fund the practice of using AI to deceptively reproduce content from mainstream sources.”
NewsGuard was able to identify many of the sites because they included at least one article that contained error messages commonly found in AI-generated copy. In other words, this is probably the tip of the iceberg: “There are likely hundreds — if not thousands — of websites that are using AI to lift content from outside sources that NewsGuard could not identify because they have not mistakenly published an AI error message.”
In response, CNN’s Oliver Darcy reports that Disney, Bloomberg, CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, The Washington Post and a number of other major media companies are taking defensive measures to safeguard their content from ChatGPT by injecting code into their websites that blocks OpenAI’s web crawler, GPTBot, from scanning their platforms for content.
This past week in the media industry
Pulls no punches
First up is a column by Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer that has been making the rounds in media and journalism circles. In the wake of the first GOP debate and Trump’s most recent arrest, Journalism fails miserably at explaining what is really happening to America, Bunch argues.
“America is on the brink, so of course the media doesn't get it,” he says. “Last week, the disconnect between rising GOP fascism - on a debate stage, in Trump's arrest posturing - and journalists covering 'a normal election' was really jarring. Now what?”
Jeff Nesbit dubbed it “Quite a column,” quoting, “We need to understand that if the next 15 months remain the worst covered election in U.S. history, that it might also be the last.”
The piece also got a ringing endorsement from Margaret Sullivan, who urged, “Read @Will_Bunch who pulls no punches, actually reports and may well be the best columnist working.”
And Pat Kreitlow said, “Let me add my voice to the many who are praising this article as the definitive word on what our national media is still doing so badly in attempting to cover a burgeoning authoritarian movement as a traditional political party.”
The situation in Kansas
Next, Amy Argetsinger says, “What really happened in the Marion, Kan., police raid of a weekly newspaper that shocked all of American journalism. A mesmerizing small-town saga reconstructed by @jocwapo @farhip @bySofiaAndrade.”
Whether or not you’ve been following the story of the raid on the Marion County Record, a weekly newspaper in Kansas, this deep dive gives you a more complete picture of all the complexities surrounding the events. From Jonathan O'Connell, Paul Farhi and Sofia Andrade of The Washington Post, it’s the story of How a small-town feud in Kansas sent a shock through American journalism.
“Really good nuanced look at the situation in Kansas with the small town paper, a police chief, and a raid on a newsroom. There’s a lot to this,” says Don L. Day.
“The most comprehensive story yet, giving the police chief the benefit of the doubt,” Al Cross adds. “But I have little doubt that his animus for the paper prompted him to make a raid instead of serving a warrant that could have been challenged in court.”
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Also, as Craig Welch points out, “My college pal leading the WaPo story because she had the audacity to ask if the police chief of Marion, KS, had gotten himself in trouble in his old job. I believe that’s called journalism.”
Winning team defeats losing team
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A high school football team edged out another high school football team in a close encounter of the athletic kind.
As Kyle Koster reported at The Big Lead last week, there’s a good chance that phrase sounds both odd and familiar. It’s the product of newsrooms’ experimentations with generative AI — in this case, trying to get the tools to construct a game recap out of box score data.
Tyler Buchanan of Axios is reporting that the Gannett-owned Columbus Dispatch has paused its AI sports writing tool after one of its “close encounter” game recaps went viral.
But Buchanan also shares, “The newspaper's ethics page says AI content must be checked before publishing. I asked Gannett if it did with these sports stories. Didn't answer. But I have a hunch, based on this soccer story (that's still up!).”
So that’s not great. Still, Matt Egan of Foundry argues that Generative AI has a role in journalism. But it's not what you think. Egan explains that Foundry has launched an AI chatbot called Smart Answers, which is an “audience-facing Gen AI app that helps readers of Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor and TechHive find the information they need based only on content created by our world-class journalists.”
The Verge’s Mia Sato has more on Smart Answers with Can news outlets build a ‘trustworthy’ AI chatbot?
Sato noted that in her own testing of the chatbot, “Smart Answers struggled with queries that seem straightforward,” and Harry McCracken added, “My old stomping grounds created its own AI search feature. (It got one of the first questions I asked–‘What is the current version of Windows?’--wrong.)”
At the Online News Association conference in Philadelphia last week, a few publishers shared how their reporters are using generative AI in their reporting processes. Sara Guaglione of Digiday has highlights from those presentations, How publishers like The Marshall Project and The Markup are testing generative AI in their newsrooms.
Cobb plays ball
Last up is what David Friend describes as an “Important Q&A as classes commence @columbiajourn @jelani9 @joepompeo @NewYorker.”
New Yorker staff writer and Columbia Journalism School dean Jelani Cobb sat down with Vanity Fair’s Joe Pompeo for a wide-ranging interview, Jelani Cobb on J-School Sticker Shock, Education Wars, and the Trump Coverage Conundrum.
Pompeo promises, “Jelani Cobb, now beginning his 2nd year as @columbiajourn dean, played ball for my latest Hot Seat column. Come for the David Carr nostalgia, stay for the Trump-McCarthy history lesson.”
More notable media stories
From the Muck Rack Team
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