Google appears to be throttling AI searches related to Donald Trump’s obviously addled mental state. Jay Peters reports (sub. req.) in The Verge:
There’s been a lot of coverage of the mental acuity of both President Trump and President Biden, who are the two oldest presidents ever, so it’s reasonable to expect that people might query Google about it. The company may be worried about accurately presenting information on a sensitive subject, as AI overviews remain susceptible to delivering incorrect information. But in this case, it may also be worried about the president’s response to such information. Google agreed this week to pay $24.5 million to settle a highly questionable lawsuit about Trump’s account being banned from YouTube.
I wanted to see if I could reproduce Peters’ results, and sure enough, Google is still giving Trump special treatment, even though Peters’ embarrassing story was published two days ago. I searched “is trump showing signs of dementia” in Google’s “All” tab, which these days will generally give you an AI-generated summary before getting to the links. Instead, you get nothing but links. The same thing happened when I switched to “AI Mode.”
Next I searched for “is biden showing signs of dementia” at the “All” tab. As with Trump, I got nothing but links — no AI summary at the top. But when I switched to “AI Mode,” I got a detailed AI summary that begins:
In response to concerns and observations about President Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities, a range of opinions and reports have emerged. It’s important to note that diagnosing dementia or cognitive decline requires a formal medical assessment by qualified professionals.
I have mixed feelings about AI searches, though, like many people, I make use of them — always checking the citations to make sure I’m getting accurate information. But as Peters observes, it looks like Google is flinching.
On the latest “What Works” podcast, Ellen Clegg and I talk with Tracy Baim, a Chicago-based journalist who directed the recently published LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project, which tracks LGBTQ news outlets across the country.
The LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project was created in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, the Local Media Foundation, News Is Out and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The project surfaced 107 LGBTQ media outlets in total, 80 of which responded to the survey.
According to the accompanying report: “While they may have few similarities, there are several common denominators: Most are in need of additional resources to better cover their communities, and most are facing strong headwinds as advertising and sponsors reverse course, pulling back from diverse marketing efforts.”
Baim interviewing Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in his City Hall office in 1987. Photo by William Burks / Windy City Times. Used with permission.
Baim is also the executive director of Press Forward Chicago, the local arm of a national philanthropic effort to address the community news crisis.
I’ve got a Quick Take about the state of Kansas, where authorities have banned print newspapers in prisons, a ban that affects some 9,000 inmates in 20 correctional facilities. Weirdly enough, officials have not banned digital newspapers, although, as media commentator Bo Sacks observes, “Most Kansas inmates have limited or no meaningful internet access.”
Ellen’s Quick Take is on a column in The Minnesota Star Tribune written by Steve Grove, the CEO and publisher. He writes about the “stabilizing power of quality journalism” and announces a new team in the newsroom devoted to investigative reporting. But he also announces the outsourcing of the Strib’s print product, which means job losses.
Today marks the end of government funding for public media, and Boston’s GBH is announcing a major fundraising initiative to fill the gap. Susan Goldberg, the operation’s president and CEO, says that GBH will attempt to raise $225 million over the next three years to “secure a sustainable future for the organization following the unprecedented loss of federal funding.”
The press release identifies television documentary programs and children’s shows that are produced in Boston but distributed nationally. There’s no mention of radio, including “The World,” a daily broadcast that covers international news, or GBH News, which provides local news, primarily on radio but also on digital platforms. No doubt we’ll learn more soon.
As you know, the Republican Congress earlier this year pulled back $1.1 billion in funding for public media over the next two years at Donald Trump’s insistence, even though that money had already been approved.
The full text of GBH’s press release follows, lightly edited for style.
On the Day Federal Funding Ends, GBH Launches a $225 Million Campaign to Invest in the Future of Public Media
BOSTON — Public media powerhouse GBH today announced the launch of its “Fund the Future” campaign, an ambitious three-year initiative to raise $225 million and secure a sustainable future for the organization following the unprecedented loss of federal funding. The campaign, launched on the same day that federal funding expires, aims to ensure the continuity of independent, fact-based journalism and trusted educational content in the Boston area and beyond.
“Congress told us to ‘go fund ourselves,’ and that’s exactly what we are going to do,” said Susan Goldberg, President and CEO of GBH. “This is a time when facts are being questioned and communities crave connection. GBH is doubling down on our values, focused on protecting independent journalism and making trusted, educational, and inspirational content accessible to everyone. We have a long history of innovation, and we’re relying on that muscle memory, and on the support and passion of our communities, to reimagine public media.”
GBH’s “Fund the Future” campaign focuses on three key pillars:
Defending independent, fact-based journalism by expanding GBH’s commitment to telling stories that matter across the state and across platforms and creating a unified documentary film unit to support “Frontline,” “Nova” and “American Experience,” all of which are produced by GBH.
Ensuring universal access to trusted programs and educational content, including the signature kids’ series GBH produces like “Arthur,” “Molly of Denali” and “Work It Out Wombats!” We will also deepen community impact and audience reach.
Transitioning to an innovative and sustainable business model through digital innovation, distribution and streaming opportunities to be here for audiences for decades to come.
The campaign kicks off with the provocative slogan “Congress told us to Go Fund Ourselves.” The campaign will also incorporate the concept of “Love it? Fund it,” appealing to supporters to invest in the media that makes a difference to them.
Now that Congress has defunded public media, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) will cease to exist. To mark this historic loss and show gratitude for CPB, GBH will pause programming for 10 seconds on Oct. 1 across broadcast and streaming channels. Audiences can experience these pauses on the radio at 11:59 a.m. on GBH 89.7; CRB Classical 99.5; CAI 90.1, 91.1, and 94.3; NEPM 88.5; and Classical NEPM; and on television at 7 p.m. on GBH 2, GBH 44, WORLD, and CREATE in the Boston area; and at 7:30 p.m. on NEPM TV.
Jill Lepore at the 2023 Kentucky Author Forum. Photo (cc) by uoflphoto3.
Over the weekend I finished the audio version of Jill Lepore’s monumental survey of American history, “These Truths,” published in 2018. At 960 pages or, in my case, 29 hours, the book is a major commitment, but it’s well worth it.
That said, one thing I learned was that I already knew a lot about American history, so much of “These Truths” was familiar to me. There’s nothing startlingly revisionistic about it, but it nevertheless works as a skillfully executed and gracefully written overview of the past 500 years, from Columbus to Trump. I especially appreciated her extensive treatment of Black and women’s history.
Carlton Fisk, immortalized at what is currently called Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, where he never should have played. Photo (cc) 2011 by Brian Crawford.
It’s the first day of the Red Sox-Yankees wild card series, which means it’s as good a time as any to relive past great moments in Red Sox history. And other than the World Series victory of 2004, there was no greater moment than Carlton Fisk’s 12th-inning walkoff home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series against Cincinnati.
So here’s a treat from Kirk Carapezza of GBH Radio. Kirk recently talked New Yorker editor David Remnick into reading the late Roger Angell’s classic account of that homer. You can listen (and read) here. If you’re of my generation, it will bring that incredible night back.
It’s been called the finest game in baseball history, and it did a lot to revive the sport at a time when, as Carapezza points out, football was ascendant. Sadly, the Sox went on to lose Game 7. But we’ll always have that night — not to mention 2004, ’07, ’13 and ’18. Go Sox!
Quincy City Hall, built in 1844. Photo (cc) 2019 by Antony-22.
Thomas Koch, the mayor of Quincy, Massachusetts, is under fire for blurting out on a radio talk show that the Catholic Church sexual-abuse crisis was a matter of “mostly homosexual issues, not pedophilia.”
Koch’s remarks, made on “NightSide with Dan Rea” on WBZ Radio, is just the latest controversy the mayor has jumped into, including a clearly unconstitutional plan to install two 10-foot statues of Catholic saints on public property at the city’s new public safety building (the subject of a New England Muzzle Award last May) and a 79% increase to his salary, from $159,000 to $285,000.
Adam Reilly of GBH News reports that Koch’s remarks on Dan Rea’s talk show came during a discussion of public antipathy toward religion, something that Koch and Rea both lamented. But when Rea brought up the “pedophile priest crisis,” Koch went off the rails. Reilly writes:
At that point Koch interjected, saying, “That was mostly homosexual issues, not pedophilia.” When Rea pushed back, saying there were lots of children and early teenagers who were impacted by abuse, Koch replied, “There were? Well, pedophilia’s a younger age than to me a teenager. But that’s another issue for another day. I [unintelligible] either at all, believe me.”
Reilly notes that Koch later apologized for his remarks:
Koch sent GBH News a statement after this article’s [initial] publication Thursday, saying that he had apologized directly to the local schools and LGBTQ+ community at a schools committee meeting Wednesday night. He said his comments were “ill-thought remarks” and he was caught off guard by the issue.
The incident prompted an editorial from the Boston Herald calling on Koch to resign (sub. req.), referring to his “insane lack of empathy,” adding:
On a basic human level, the mayor should be ashamed of himself. The crisis in the Catholic church will only truly heal when everyone acknowledges the institutional cancer that metastasized.
Meanwhile, Quincy voters will not have an opportunity to scale back Koch’s salary grab, which was approved earlier this year by the city council. Robert Bosworth reports for The Quincy Sun that a ballot measure to grant Koch a more modest 15% increase, to $183,000, fell short of the signature requirement. As a result, Simón Rios of WBUR observes, Koch will receive a higher salary than the mayors of Boston and New York City.
I awarded a Muzzle to Koch for pushing a plan to erect statues of two Catholic saints on public property after the ACLU of Massachusetts, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation sued the city on the grounds that it would violate the First Amendment separation of church and state. As Peter Blandino reported (sub. req.) for The Patriot Ledger of Quincy:
The statues depict St. Michael and St. Florian, the patron saints of policed officers and firefighters respectively. Plans for the statues, which have already been paid for at the price of $850,000, were developed by Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch and a close circle of advisors without informing residents or city councilors.
According to earlier reporting by Blandino, the statues had been criticized by at least one member of the city council as well as some local religious organizations. The ACLU voiced its objections as far back as February. But that didn’t stop Koch, who has insisted that the statues represent bravery, courage and service rather than religious messages.
The case was heard earlier this month in Norfolk Superior Court, reports Neal Riley of WBZ-TV. A ruling is expected soon.
Madison County, N.Y. Photo (cc) 2011 by Doug Kerr.
It’s almost the end of the month, which means that the free September shares that I still have for The New York Times will disappear. So here are gift links to three stories that caught my eye earlier today. Enjoy!
► “How 106 People Got Together to Stop a School Shooting — Before It Happened,” by John Leland. The remarkable tale of a team in rural Madison County, New York, comprising law enforcement, mental health professionals, social workers and educators that intervened with a desperately unhappy high school student who was being bullied by his peers and derided as “the next school shooter.” The team’s intervention may have saved his life — as well as those of his fellow students.
► “To Get People Off the Street, He Pays for a One-Way Ticket Home,” by Eli Saslow and Erin Schaff. John Alle is a wealthy businessman in Santa Monica, California, who’s taken the vexing problem of homelessness into his own hands by paying people living on the streets to go back to where they came from. Alle himself was the victim of a severe beating at the hands of a homeless person, and he counts Stephen Miller as one of his heroes. Is Alle a good guy or a bad guy? There are no definitive answers here, but the article and accompanying visuals will make you think.
“NJ Spotlight News” anchor Briana Vannozzi, right, interviews U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J. Photo (cc) 2022 by Dan Kennedy.
NJ PBS chair Scott Kobler has issued a statement in which he criticizes New Jersey government officials for “intransigence or maybe even apathy” over the public broadcasting funding crisis.
As I noted Wednesday, NJ PBS may shut down in June 2026 following a breakdown in negotiations between the state and WNET of New York, the public media organization that runs the New Jersey operation. In addition to losing some $1.5 million in federal funds, NJ PBS’s allotment of state funds has been cut from $1 million for the coming year to just $250,000.
The cuts are likely to affect NJ Spotlight News, a website covering statewide politics and public policy as well as the name of NJ PBS’s daily half-hour newscast. The two operations merged in 2019. Although WNET has pledged to keep the news operation alive online and on its New York-based station, Thirteen, regardless of what happens, its reporting capacity is likely to be reduced unless a well-heeled benefactor or two steps up.
The MAGA right’s war on public broadcasting has come for an innovative statewide news collaboration in New Jersey, leaving its ultimate fate uncertain.
NJ PBS, the state’s public television outlet, may shut down in June 2026 following massive budget cuts at both the federal and state levels. The Republican Congress, acting at the behest of Donald Trump, eliminated $1.1 billion in funding for public television and radio over the next two years — including about $1.5 million for New Jersey’s TV station, according to Daniel Han of Politico. Meanwhile, the New Jersey state legislature, facing its own pressure from Trump cuts, reduced funding to NJ PBS by $750,000, reports Victoria Gladstone of NJ.com.
The upshot is that WNET of New York, the nonprofit umbrella organization for NJ PBS, was unable to reach an agreement with the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority to continue operating the station beyond June 2026. WNET says it will look for a new partner to keep NJ PBS on the air.
For news consumers, the effect could be considerable. NJ PBS is one of a tiny handful of public television stations that offers a daily evening newscast. Since 2019, that newscast has been produced in conjunction with NJ Spotlight News, a 15-year-old digital news outlet covering state politics and public policy. It’s a true collaboration, with the newscast and video clips posted on the website and with Spotlight reporters frequently popping up on the air. The story of how Spotlight and NJ PBS merged is told in “What Works in Community News,” the book that Ellen Clegg and I wrote.
John Mooney, the co-founder and executive director of NJ Spotlight News, declined to comment when I contacted him this morning. We interviewed John last spring on our “What Works” podcast.
Lucas Frau of NorthJersey.com reports that two Democratic state senators, John Burzichelli and Andrew Zwicker, are hoping to find a solution to save NJ PBS. According to their statement:
The shutdown of public TV in New Jersey will have real-life consequences, depriving the state’s residents of invaluable news and educational programming. The television network has played a pivotal role in New Jersey, bridging the divide between New York and Philadelphia with trusted information relevant to the lives and civic activities of the state’s residents.
Even if WNET is unable to find a partner, it will continue to offer the daily Spotlight newscast on Thirteen, its New York-based television station, which reaches a large segment of New Jersey viewers, and on a variety of digital platforms. Anchor Brianna Vannozzi shared all this with viewers on Tuesday.
In other words, coverage will continue, both on the newscast and on the website. The question is whether NJ Spotlight News will be able to continue offering the same in-depth reporting that has been its hallmark. As is too often the case these days, the answer is probably “no” — unless wealthy benefactors step up.
A network of more than 1,200 websites better known for publishing so-called pink slime designed to look like legitimate local news is now branching out.
Kirk Carapezza reports for GBH News that Metric Media is flooding public colleges and universities in Massachusetts with public-records requests in order to find what its founder, Brian Timpone, calls “anti-American” classroom materials. The company is also seeking to learn the number of Chinese nationals enrolled as students at those institutions.
“There’s great public interest in what public universities are teaching students,” Timpone told Carapezza. “We want to see what they’re teaching and why.” Among the institutions that Metric Media has targeted are Salem State University, UMass Boston and Bridgewater State University.
I was one of the people who Kirk interviewed, and as I told him, I was surprised to see Metric Media taking such a pro-active role. Timpone’s various media ventures over the years have been involved in passive, money-making operations such as publishing alleged local news produced by distant employees, some in the Philippines, as the public radio program “This American Life” reported way back in 2012.
In recent years, Metric Media pink-slime sites such as North Boston News (a travel tip for those of you who aren’t from around here: North Boston is not a place that actually exists) have been publishing weirdly irrelevant slop, perhaps produced by AI. If you look right now, for instance, North Boston News features repetitive pseudo-stories on school test scores, high school sports and gas prices.
In 2021, the Columbia Journalism Review published the results of an investigation that showed Metric Media has ties to a variety of right-wing interests.
The public-records law in Massachusetts is notoriously weak, yet teaching materials such as syllabuses and reading lists at public institutions are arguably covered by it. Since I teach at Northeastern University, a private institution, it’s not something I have to be concerned about. On the face of it, I’m not sure why the two should be treated differently.
In any case, it will be interesting to see what Metric Media does with this material. And by “interesting,” I don’t mean to suggest that it will be anything good.
