Simon Willison: AI for Data Journalism – an annotated version of a recent talk where Simon gave twelve (!) demos of using AI tools to process data – jam packed!

In early April, I posted about Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn, who wrote a column saying that he was going to continue to tell the truth about Donald Trump, even when it offends those who are paying for information. Dan Froomkin has an excellent interview on PressWatch with Chris Quinn, including more on how Quinn took a long time in writing the piece, and opinions on the national news media and how editors are afraid. It is a good read!

I was reading through a set of articles on CNN.com, and got the following message: “You have reached your daily article limit. Continue reading with a free CNN account or come back tomorrow.”. I have NEVER seen this before – has this happened to anyone else?

There aren’t two sides to facts

Last week, the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chris Quinn, published a “Letter from the Editor” concerning the paper’s coverage of news concerning Donald Trump (mentioned on PressWatch). He stated that they are receiving a fair amount of mail/email on this topic criticizing the paper. I think these three paragraphs hit the main point of his response:

The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.

The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/03/our-trump-reporting-upsets-some-readers-but-there-arent-two-sides-to-facts-letter-from-the-editor.html

After publishing this column, the Plain Dealer received over 2700 emails, mostly positive, thanking the editor for “…reporting as fact the threat Donald Trump presents to our democracy” (see new editor column on the response). The Plain Dealer also published a sampling of the responses. Perhaps there is hope for us yet…

Buzz Machine/Jeff Jarvis: Is it time to give up on old news? “I am coming to a conclusion I have avoided for my last three decades working on the internet and news: It may finally be time to give up on old journalism and its legacy industry. ” Dave Winer offers EZ-Pass News as an alternative. Doc Searls is also writing about news alternatives.

Doc Searls: His series “The News Commons” is an exploration of the current news ecosystem and offering ideas “…toward helping local journalism thrive anew in our digital age.”

Pluralistic/Cory Doctorow: A media/literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza

ProPublica: Local Newspapers Are Vanishing. How Should We Remember Them? As smaller newspapers shrink or disappear, it’s easy to romanticize the role they played. But one reporter’s memories of the heyday of local journalism reveal a much more complicated reality. (My local newspaper has shrunk its overall coverage, now combining content from another local paper).

Upholding our democracy

The United States is having challenges in maintaining and upholding democracy. In Oregon, all of the candidates for governor have all called each other “extreme” for one reason or another. In many states, people who deny the results of the 2020 presidential election won their primaries and are candidates for high office. The Democracy Day journalism collaborative held an event in September 2022 to highlight issues and seek solutions. In a post on Waging Nonviolence, the group outlined seven ideas for coming together as partisans for democracy:

Look beyond electoral politics
Define “anti-democratic” behavior beyond partisan identities
Bridge the understanding of “anti-democratic” behavior to mobilize against it
Calling out toxic othering
Now is not the time for neutrality
Partisanship for democracy versus bipartisanship
A cross-ideological democracy movement is both necessary and possible

This post is excellent reading, with many links to supporting material. As for each of us, let us do what we can to help uphold our democracy.

Bookmarked Timothy Snyder on how to cover Trump’s coup attempt – CNN Video (CNN)

Yale professor Timothy Snyder, author of “On Tyranny,” says Donald Trump is “moving from the territory of the medium-sized lie into the big lie” about the election. Snyder tells Brian Stelter the news media should “take a deep breath” and “talk about the context” of Trump’s anti-democratic actions, including what it means for the integrity of future elections.

Worth watching….