The BBC has apologised after a presenter called the Second World War Dambusters raid “infamous” on its 80th anniversary in May.
Sally Nugent used the term in a BBC Breakfast segment about RAF 617 Squadron’s 1943 attack on three key dams in Germany as she reported on a flypast by Second World War bombers in May.
It prompted two viewers to complain to the corporation that the description breached accuracy and impartiality guidelines.
A free society has a combative press that vehemently argues, debates and takes on all comers. A totalitarian society has a bizarre dystopian press whose articles make no sense because they leave out crucial pieces of the puzzle. The degree to which the media is haunted by the ‘elephant in the room’ reflects the degree of political censorship that any kind of reporting now undergoes. Take this bizarre article.
Relying on Twitter instead of live sources, the media are losing money and credibility, one smear at a time.
Surveying the disgraceful condition of our nation’s 21st-century news media, there are times when the question occurs to me, “What would Wes Pruden do?” During the decade I worked as an assistant editor at The Washington Times, I occasionally had the misfortune of angering our esteemed editor-in-chief, who had a low tolerance for errors. Being called on the carpet in Mr. Pruden’s office was an experience one never wished to repeat. As the conservative newspaper in the nation’s capital, our work was always critically scrutinized, and Mr. Pruden enforced high standards to ensure that the news reporting in The Washington Times was always accurate. “Get it first, get it right,” was his motto, and woe be unto he who got it wrong.
Hi Tweeps..does anyone know who the man in orange is? This screenshot is from the Prime Minister's visit to Belleville yesterday. Please DM. Thanks pic.twitter.com/jm5Nx9Pl0B
— Judy Trinh (@judyatrinh) July 21, 2023
h/t Mauser
Some executives found it “unsettling.” And some people “said it seemed to take for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artful news stories.”
That’s how, according to the New York Times, leaders at the Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal reacted to a new tool that Google is testing, known internally as Genesis, that uses artificial intelligence to write news articles. The tool “can take in information—details of current events, for example—and generate news content,” according to the Times, which reported on Wednesday that Genesis had been demonstrated for executives at the three organizations. “Google believed it could serve as a kind of personal assistant for journalists, automating some tasks to free up time for others,” the Times reports, adding that “the company saw it as responsible technology that could help steer the publishing industry away from the pitfalls of generative A.I.”
The error-filled story about Star Wars movies and TV shows demonstrates why artificial intelligence shouldn’t be involved in news-gathering, reporters said
A few hours after James Whitbrook clocked into work at Gizmodo on Wednesday, he received a note from his editor in chief: Within 12 hours, the company would roll out articles written by artificial intelligence. Roughly 10 minutes later, a story by “Gizmodo Bot” posted on the site about the chronological order of Star Wars movies and television shows.
Journalists are supposed to be governed by rules of ethics, but too many of them will do anything, violate any rule, break any trust, lie to any source, in order to get a career-building story. Most journalists comply with their ethical obligations, but the ones who do not cause understandable distrust among the general public.
The New York Times and the Washington Post were honored for bogus Russiagate reporting. Honorable institutions would return the awards.
The New York Times and the Washington Post are among the obvious losers in the Trump–Russia collusion hoax, as the report by special counsel John H. Durham, released last week, makes clear.
But don’t forget the Pulitzer Prize Board, which has earned a special shame in this mess. It was this organization that in 2018 awarded a joint Pulitzer to the two papers for their coverage of what ended up being an election-year deception. That neither the Times nor the Post has offered to return the undeserved award only discredits them further. That the Pulitzer committee hasn’t demanded their return is similarly damning.
Mainstream news reporters — in lockstep with Democratic strategists — rushed to social media to smear journalist Matt Taibbi as a “sad” “fraud” as he released his bombshell report on political censorship at Twitter.
“Matt Taibbi…what sad, disgraceful downfall,” Daily Beast columnist and New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali posted. “Selling your soul for the richest white nationalist on Earth.”
Inaccurate news report claimed Russian missiles had strayed into a Nato member state
The Associated Press put the world on high alert last week when it reported claims by a “senior US intelligence official” that Russian missiles had killed two people in Poland.
The inaccurate news alert, which was circulated last Tuesday, prompted widespread fears of an escalation of Russia’s war beyond Ukraine’s borders as it claimed Russian missiles had strayed into a Nato member state.
Will they cancel Zelensky too? I don’t see that he has recanted his assertion that the missile was fired by the Russians.
Ukraine war: Kyiv not to blame for Poland missile – Zelensky
CBS has finally admitted Hunter Biden’s laptop is real – 20 months after DailyMail.com authenticated its contents with top experts.
When files from the laptop were published before the 2020 presidential election, 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl insisted in an interview with Donald Trump that the contents couldn’t be verified.
The network was among a wide range of left-leaning outlets such as the New York Times and MSNBC who doubted the authenticity as the Biden administration insisted it was Russian disinformation.
Long at the core of journalism, the idea that reporters must be seen to conduct their work objectively is under siege. And it is losing.
The verbal trebuchets of social justice warriors chased Bari Weiss from the New York Times. National Post staff rebelled after Rex Murphy’s column questioning institutional racism was published. The Washington Post battled reporters over social media activism. National Public Radio news staff won the right to join demonstrations. Wendy Mesley mentioned a book title out loud at the CBC and a 40-year career was demolished.
And now, even the walls of the Globe and Mail have been breached.
Having witnessed wave after wave of cost-cutting measures and layoffs in Canadian media, I was not at all surprised to hear that “CTV National News” anchor Lisa LaFlamme had been let go. But unlike the other 13,800 employees who lost their jobs in radio and television broadcasting between 2010 and 2021, the reaction to LaFlamme’s departure was swift, and filled with the type of over-the-top righteous indignation that has now become a staple of Canada’s chattering classes.
In her six years in journalism, Fatima Syed estimates she has received about 150 messages of hate. The vile messages arrive in her email inbox, or come in replies to her social media posts.
In emails she has shown to CTV News, Syed is called a variant of the N-word and is referred to as a “Nazi c**t.” She has been threatened with rape and told that she should be put on her knees and “shotgunned, Afghan style.”
