Fact-checkers around the world face major funding cuts from USAID and Meta. Meanwhile, new threats loom, including attempts to influence AI products through what some have dubbed "LLM poisoning." My report from the GlobalFact conference in Vilnius, Lithuania. www.niemanlab.org/2026/06/at-g...

Fact-checkers reckon with shrinking budgets and growing AI threats at GlobalFact 2026

Hundreds gathered in Lithuania to discuss Russian influence operations, “LLM poisoning," and how to survive a funding crisis.

niemanlab.org

I’m glad Anthropic models will be released, but de facto executive control of AI systems has got to be the worst possible version of AI governance. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/t...

U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Anthropic’s Most Powerful A.I. Models

nytimes.com

Tweet —> ad under the tweet

Wish I could write like @gene.meme

Gene Park@gene.meme · 2mo ago

I am shifting away from games journalism as my interest has always primarily been the arts in general. This piece is a peek into the style of writing I will be doing in the future. www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...

Inspired by the work of @mantzarlis.com at @indicator.media, I fired up my AI Community Notes bot. I hope it actually flags political misinformation. And I'll be testing lots of LLMs to see which one is best at it. alexmahadevan.com/blog/communi...

Meet Kind Raspberry Chickadee, my AI fact-checker

My quest to build a bot that would actually fact-check politics on X's Community Notes.

alexmahadevan.com

Interesting things happening over on X. A community note bot leaves an AI-written fact-check on AI slop from the DOL

I wondered: How much has the legalization of online sports gambling transformed watching sports on TV? We got an AI to watch fifty hours of sports to find out. Every single game had gambling ads, promotions or other references. Every single one! But some sports had far more than others.

Sam Altman is smoking crack if he thinks we’re gonna make $0.17 per click from agents. I think a vast majority of TollBit customers make NOTHING

Short videos. Major impact. Now is your chance to learn how to repackage your journalism into high-quality vertical video for social media. Don’t miss Poynter’s crash course on Vertical Video for Creators and Journalists: www.poynter.org/shop/reporti...

Vertical Video for Creators and Journalists - Poynter

Create vertical video, including TikTok and Reels, that reaches real audiences. Learn scripting, filming and strategy in this hands-on course for journalists and creators.

poynter.org

There’s zero evidence Saturday’s night’s shooting was staged. But there’s a ton of evidence they should change the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. I wrote about this for my Monday newsletter this week. Excerpt below, subscribe now to get it Monday: www.LNI.media

Very big week for insane AI experiments in newsrooms! www.poynter.org/commentary/2...

Why can't newsroom leaders just be normal about AI? - Poynter

From person-to-person coaching and intensive hands-on seminars to interactive online courses and media reporting, Poynter helps journalists sharpen skills and elevate storytelling throughout their car...

poynter.org

Up first at @nclocal.bsky.social summit: Keynote on AI in journalism from @alexmahadevan.com You can find information on AI and journalism from an ethics perspective here: www.poynter.org/ai-ethics-jo...

AI ethics guidelines - Poynter

In 2024, the Poynter Institute introduced a framework to help newsrooms create clear, responsible AI ethics policies — especially those just beginning to address the role of artificial intelligence in...

poynter.org

How can you tell what’s real from fake when your feed is flooded with images and videos that can easily be altered or imagined by AI? First, slow down. Next, check the source. Here are three tips from MediaWise to help you sort through the noise: www.poynter.org/fact-checkin...

How do I know if that’s real? 3 tips from Poynter's MediaWise to stay smart in tricky times - Poynter

AI gives us more reason to slow down and be skeptical.

poynter.org

This was fun as hell last year www.poynter.org/commentary/a...

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Hi! The Onion and Bluesky are throwing a party at South By Southwest in Austin on Saturday. It's free and spots are limited, so sign up nowish. We did this last year and only a handful of people died, so we're hoping to keep those numbers down once again! anormalfuckingparty.splashthat.com

happy friday

Lars Gotrich@totalvibration.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Stop literally everything. Steve Albini's Fugazi sessions, widely bootlegged and full of lore, now available officially for the first time. fugazi.bandcamp.com/album/albini...

23 years old today

Luke O'Neil@lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 3y ago

Oh man this is a good one. They're all good ones, but this one... I asked a bunch of writers and musicians to write about their favorite Jason Molina songs. LISTEN. www.welcometohellworld.com/almost-was-g...

Tired: In the future journalism and reporting will simply be data for AI systems Wired: In the future journalism and reporting will simply be data for prediction markets

Research suggests people who use AI tools to find news seem to prefer them over clicking on individual stories, despite being conscious of their limits when it comes to accuracy. @aisvarya17.bsky.social and I wrote about what publishers can learn from this www.cjr.org/tow_center/a...

AI versus accuracy? We're willing to make the trade-off.

When asking AI about the news, readers “know the answers they are getting are not perfect.” They keep asking anyway.

cjr.org

Ecommerce fraud is rampant. It's also easy to launch and hard to trace. My new guide to investigating ecommerce sites covers how to ID the store platform, trace ownership, analyze traffic, do a safe test purchase etc. I also found a few free, new-to-me tools: indicator.media/p/the-indica...

The Indicator guide to investigating ecommerce sites

A practical walkthrough of the tools, techniques, and indicators used to analyze online stores and identify ecommerce fraud operations.

indicator.media

Me (in 20 years): …. help!!! Please!!! I’m being frame mogged!! Palantir PeaceBot: FEAR NOT CITIZEN *starts sparking and eviscerates me with wayward laser shot*

Current view at the fire tower. Photo credit: Ashley Harris #BM100

Literally the only reason to be on X

Still great! Would love to see more of this from journalists in general, re the Twitch / streaming space

I suspect that the echo chamber of Truth Social and conservative media, along with X becoming a safe space for racism and extremism under Musk, has given our Republican leaders a deeply skewed idea of what ordinary Americans find acceptable www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Trump shares video depicting Obamas as apes

Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican in the Senate, called it ‘the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.’

washingtonpost.com

the only molt book I care about

It still absolutely boggles the mind why any company would advertise on X, where there's a good chance your ad for a high protein menu is right under an AI video of Charlie Kirk arguing with Jeffrey Epstein

From @mariaressa.bsky.social to where it is now, the Nobel Peace Prize’s journey says a lot about the world and where it’s headed. I hope journalism can withstand this year.

Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife entered not guilty pleas Jan. 5 on drug and weapons related charges. Here’s what the indictment said and what comes next.

What to know about Nicolás Maduro’s indictment

Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife entered not guilty pleas Jan. 5 on drug and weapons related charges. Here’s what the indictment said and what comes next.

buff.ly