How NPR and Floodlight teamed up to uncover fossil fuel “news mirages” across the country

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Monday, May 13, 2024 [How NPR and Floodlight teamed up to uncover fossil fuel “news mirages” across the country]( “It’s information. But it’s not news.” By Neel Dhanesha. [This journalism professor made a NYC chatbot in minutes. It actually worked.]( “The step that we need to make as a society is moving from, ‘This came from a machine, it must be correct,’ to, if I’m talking to a friend of mine who says something crazy, ‘I need to double check that, I need to cross reference it to make sure that it is accurate.'” By Colin Lecher, The Markup. What We’re Reading The Washington Post / Gerrit De Vynck and Cat Zakrzewski [Web publishers brace for carnage as Google expands AI answers →]( “The shift stands to shake the very foundations of the web.” The Intercept / Seth Stern [A new anti-terrorism bill would allow the government to take away tax exemptions from nonprofit news outlets that criticize Israel →]( “…[a bill]( that passed the House with broad bipartisan support in April — after which a companion bill was immediately introduced in the Senate — would empower the secretary of the Treasury to revoke the nonprofit status of any organization deemed ‘terrorist supporting.’” Semafor / Max Tani [Hedge fund/news org Hunterbrook didn’t disclose its publisher’s investment in the rival of a product it wrote about critically →]( “In a text, [publisher and cofounder Sam] Koppelman noted he invested in ZBiotics well before Hunterbrook was created, and said his stake in the company is fairly insignificant. He also emphasized that the investment was a personal one, and Hunterbrook Capital was not invested in Zbiotics. ‘It was such a small personal check, the ZBiotics team ghosts my emails,’ Koppelman said.” Press Gazette / Clara Aberneithie [How BBC World Service’s 310 exiled journalists fight censorship and harassment →]( “Quite recently, we found out through leaked data by a hacktivist group, that back in 2022, a court in Iran had convicted a number of BBC journalists in absentia and without their knowledge. They had been sentenced to one year in jail under charges of propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” The Wall Street Journal / Suzanne Vranica [How TV advertising lost its relevance →]( “When Mondelez sought to promote a limited edition of its Oreo cookie earlier this year, it did something that would have been unthinkable not that long ago: It didn’t spend a dime advertising on TV. The snack company had a simple reason for that decision. The people it was looking to reach — Gen Z members, multicultural audiences, and households with children — aren’t watching enough television.” The New York Times / Santul Nerkar [Frustrated by Gaza coverage, student protesters turn to Al Jazeera →]( “Many student protesters said in recent interviews that they were seeking on-the-ground coverage of the war in Gaza, and often, a staunchly pro-Palestinian perspective – and they are turning to alternative media for it. There’s a range of options: Jewish Currents, The Intercept, Mondoweiss and even independent Palestinian journalists on social media, as they seek information about what is happening in Gaza.” Financial Times / John Burn-Murdoch [How our sense of economic reality is being distorted by news coverage →]( “Data from the US Federal Reserve shows the same tell-tale pattern we have grown used to with crime: people assess their own financial situation to be relatively healthy, and this changes very little from year to year, but their assessment of the national economy has cratered, opening up a huge gulf. It seems increasingly likely news coverage shoulders part of the blame.” Front Office Sports / A.J. Perez [Deadspin to launch for a third time under mysterious owners →]( “Lineup Publishing — a start-up with no history of producing sports content or anything else — purchased Deadspin for an undisclosed sum from G/O Media in March, a move that coincided with Deadspin’s entire staff getting let go. A spokesperson told Front Office Sports via email that Deadspin will relaunch next week but offered no other details about the direction of the site.” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Raksha Kumar [Indian journalists turned to YouTube to dodge Modi’s censorship. Some of their channels are now being blocked →]( “On 4 April, Bolta Hindustan, a Hindi news YouTube channel, received an email from YouTube saying that the channel had been blocked due to a notice received from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Before it was blocked, the channel had 275,000 subscribers and had posted more than 4,000 videos.” Financial Times / Daniel Thomas and Tim Bradshaw [Newspaper groups warn Apple over ad-blocking plans →]( “Apple is preparing to include an Al-based privacy feature in the Safari browser in the next iOS 18 software update that will remove ads or other unwanted website content, according to reports.” Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt [Le Monde’s Olympian effort to attract more English-language subscribers →]( “Arnaud Aubron, head of development at Le Monde, told Press Gazette that Le Monde in English now makes up 10% of all new subscribers to the overall brand. Le Monde’s English language website gets around five million visits a month, compared to more than 150 million for the main French online edition.” The New York Times / Nicholas Fandos [WABC cancels Rudy Giuliani’s radio show over false election claims →]( “John Catsimatidis, the billionaire Republican businessman who owns the station, said he had made the decision after Mr. Giuliani refused to avoid the topic despite repeated warnings.” The Guardian / Adria R. Walker [Student newsrooms at HBCUs to receive $200,000 in boost for journalism →]( “‘HBCU student newsrooms brim with talent, but often lack the resources needed to give students access to the cutting-edge technology and operational support that so many of their peers at predominately white institutions have,’ Nikole Hannah-Jones, the center’s founder, said in a statement.” The Washington Post / Jeremy Barr [Courtroom photo ban adds to hurdles for Trump trial journalists →]( “A court officer — conveying the decision of Justice Juan M. Merchan — met [photographers] in the hallway to inform them that they would no longer be allowed into the courtroom for the brief minutes they had been granted each morning to take photos of the former president seated at the defense table. Rather than taking photos from the front of the room, at least one photographer had broken the rules by snapping a shot from beside the table.” The Wall Street Journal / Alexandra Bruell [Refinery29’s new owner plans to cover sports and buy more media companies →]( “‘You’re seeing just a coming of age of women’s sports and that’s what Refinery has been about,’ [Richelieu Dennis, Sundial’s executive chairman] said. ‘You’re not seeing the female athlete just be an athlete, you’re seeing her as an entrepreneur, fashion model, business owner. That’s what we’re really interested in.'” The Verge / Alex Cranz [Streaming is cable now →]( “Content costs money to make, and companies are apparently obligated to ‘increase revenue’ and ‘make profit.’ This means Netflix spending billions of dollars a year on content isn’t necessarily sustainable unless it’s adding new users and monetizing them through some combination of ads and increasing subscription fees for stuff that used to be free, like sharing an account or streaming in 4K.” Press Gazette / Aisha Majid [Facebook’s referral traffic for publishers down 50% in 12 months →]( “Aggregate Facebook traffic to a group of 792 news and media sites that have been tracked by Chartbeat since 2018 shows that referrals to the sites have plunged by 58% in the last six years from 1.3 billion in March 2018 to 561 million last month. Traffic from Facebook fell by 50% in the last 12 months alone as the decline shows little sign of slowing.” The Guardian / Nick Robins-Early [CEO of world’s biggest ad firm targeted by deepfake scam →]( “Fraudsters created a WhatsApp account with a publicly available image of [WPP CEO Mark] Read and used it to set up a Microsoft Teams meeting that appeared to be with him and another senior WPP executive…During the meeting, the impostors deployed a voice clone of the executive as well as YouTube footage of them. The scammers impersonated Read off-camera using the meeting’s chat window.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](