Journalism/Media Archives - Attention to the Unseen

Judge orders Trump to sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11

October 22, 2026 From elsewhere

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11. The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett came as lawyers for the British broadcaster complained that Trump had delayed his appearance in his own lawsuit. Charles Tobin, attorney for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the…

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The Wayback Machine is one of journalism’s most important investigative instruments

October 19, 2026 From elsewhere

Brewster Kahle writes: In 1996, during the early years of the web, I could see that those of us who were participating online were creating an extraordinary new record of human activity—and allowing it to disappear almost as quickly as we made it. The web was becoming the place where government officials made promises, journalists published information in the public interest, and ordinary people shared ideas and documented their lives. Yet it was fragile—equal parts consequential and ephemeral. Many people…

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Judge threatens Trump with sanctions to testify in lawsuit he brought against the BBC

October 16, 2026 From elsewhere

Bloomberg reports: A judge threatened to sanction President Donald Trump for failing to sit for a mandatory deposition in the $10 billion defamation suit he filed against the British Broadcasting Corp. “The court has admonished plaintiff for his lack of participation to no avail,” US Magistrate Judge Enjolique A. Lett said in a brief order in Miami. “Going forward, the court expects strict compliance with its order, the failure of which will lead to sanctions.” Lett made the comment in…

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Israeli settlers attack Palestinians and Washington Post photographer in West Bank

October 16, 2026 From elsewhere

The Washington Post reports: Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers trying to gather their autumn olive harvest on Friday, setting groves on fire and slinging rocks in a coordinated assault that fits a pattern of accelerating settler violence across the occupied West Bank. Also caught up in the attack was Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer for The Washington Post. Levine, wearing a protective vest clearly marked “PRESS” on front and back, was knocked to the ground, kicked repeatedly…

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A Florida local newspaper ran an op-ed. It was an Iranian fake using OpenAI

October 11, 2026 From elsewhere

The Washington Post reports: “The bill will follow Americans beyond the fighting itself,” an opinion piece in the Port St. Joe Star, a tiny Florida weekly newspaper, warned of the Iran war last month. The article ran under the byline Ervin Hoskins, which has also appeared on articles critical of the war in larger publications including Daily Kos and Middle East Monitor, which together have more than 3 million followers on Facebook. But ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Thursday that Hoskins’s…

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Trump demanded that taxpayer money be used for TV ads praising him

October 3, 2026 From elsewhere

The New York Times reports: President Trump personally instructed his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him and his presidency, setting in motion a $20 million contract that used funds from the Department of Homeland Security, according to people familiar with the matter. The ads have run across cable and network television — on Fox News, CNN and MS Now, with football games on Fox and with national newscasts on CBS, ABC and NBC, including “Meet…

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Trump is ‘literally stealing’ $20M in taxpayer funds for pro-Trump ads

September 29, 2026 From elsewhere

The Associated Press reports: The Department of Homeland Security has tapped $20 million to pay for the campaign-style ads glorifying President Donald Trump that have drawn widespread criticism from Republicans and Democrats as a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars that likely runs afoul of anti-propaganda law. In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, two top Democratic senators said that the money is being drawn from Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” and was supposed to go for…

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Pro-Trump ads are being paid for by U.S. taxpayers

September 27, 2026 From elsewhere

The New York Times reports: As President Trump ran to return to the White House in 2024, his campaign released a somber, black-and-white ad in which he railed against the “deep state” and vowed to expel “warmongers” from government. “This is the final battle,” Mr. Trump is heard saying in the online ad, which shows him walking silently down a hallway. That ad has returned this weekend, airing on television stations across the country, with one notable difference: As it…

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‘Pink slime’ is polluting AI chatbots ahead of the midterms

September 25, 2026 From elsewhere

Ines Chomnalez and Isis Blachez from NewsGuard, write: It’s no secret that AI has become an explosive factor in American politics. Even before the latest concerns that AI poses existential risks to humanity, many people had soured on the rapid growth of data centers used to support the technology. Meanwhile, tens of millions of AI industry dollars are sloshing around the midterm campaign in support of candidates on both sides of the aisle. But the increasing ubiquity of AI is…

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Fox News, NYT, AP and other media outlets jointly condemn Trump’s media ban

September 23, 2026 From elsewhere

Politico reports: More than 50 media organizations signed an amicus brief backing POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW in their lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Wednesday, an unusual display of solidarity across the industry in calling for the immediate reversal of his media ban. The brief was signed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents’ Association and 49 other media organizations. That list runs the ideological gamut, from Fox News to Vox Media, and…

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The Washington press corps needs to boycott White House events

September 21, 2026 From elsewhere

Margaret Sullivan writes: On Monday, the three news organizations that had been kicked out of the White House because of Donald Trump’s latest fit of pique sued the president and three top advisers. An accompanying statement by CNN, MS Now and Politico accurately calls last week’s sudden lockout “a direct assault on the first amendment”. The legal action is the right move, of course, and one that may prevail since the ban seems to be a clear case of what…

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Did OpenAI carry out the biggest IP heist of all-time?

September 19, 2026 From elsewhere

The Hollywood Reporter reports: VCR recordings. Book digitization. The use of existing code to build a new operating system. The legality of some of the most consequential technology and products in the last century have come down to a singular question: Are they protected under fair use, the legal doctrine allowing the use of copyrighted works without a license? Now, that question has become the central battleground in landmark lawsuits between publishers, studios and recording companies against artificial intelligence companies…

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Trump’s widening attacks on the First Amendment

September 19, 2026 From elsewhere

Adam Serwer writes: On the first day of his second term in the White House, President Trump signed an executive order on free speech stating that his administration would ensure that “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” He has gone on to violate that order many times. Trump announced today on his social-media network, Truth Social, that he is banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White…

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‘Doom loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft admit LLMs are destroying the web and are built on theft

September 18, 2026 From elsewhere

404 Media reports: Executives working on AI at Microsoft and OpenAI admitted what its critics have been saying all along: Large language models are predatory pieces of technology that have been built on what a Microsoft executive called “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” and the “largest theft of labor in human history.” An internal Microsoft document said generative AI products have created a “doom loop” that is killing “the entire web.” Those statements and a series of other mask-off…

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