The Washington Post is laying off a third of its workers across all departments, scaling back foreign coverage and shutting down some sections of the paper.
Executive editor Matt Murray announced the layoffs during a Zoom call with employees on Wednesday. The Post will restructure its local news department and editing staff, close its books department, and shrink the number of journalists it stations overseas, he told staffers.
Barry Svrluga, a sports columnist at the Post, said on social media that the media outlet will also close its sports department in its “current form,” citing comments by Murray during Wednesday’s call.
In a letter to the newsroom shared with CBS News, Murray wrote that the restructuring plans are intended to “place The Washington Post on a stronger footing” and better position the paper in a “rapidly changing era of new technologies and evolving user habits.”
Murrary also acknowledged the financial challenges the paper, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has faced after “multiple rounds of cost cuts and buyouts.”
WaPo “dramatically diminished,” former editor says
Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post from 2013 to 2021, told CBS News the cuts will seriously weaken the paper’s ability to cover news.
“The scope of the coverage is going to be dramatically diminished,” he said. “That’s sad because the newspaper is setting its ambitions low, rather than setting its ambitions high.”
Baron criticized the Post’s leadership for some of its editorial decisions, including a controversial move not to endorse a presidential candidate in the days before the 2024 national election, which he said hurt the paper’s reputation.
Baron also directed blame at Bezos for prioritizing his business goals over the paper’s welfare.
“He’s not the same person who was there when I was there,” Baron said of Bezos. “He let his business interests get in the way of his management of the Post.”
Bezos’ communications team and Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the newspaper didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the scale of the job cuts or confirm the size of its workforce.
Pleading with Bezos
The announcement follows days of speculation that the company was planning to make cuts to its foreign, sports and local desks.
Amid media reports about the planned layoffs, some Washington Post reporters last month sent letters to owner Jeff Bezos pleading with the billionaire and Amazon founder not to cut any jobs.
“Cutting this deeply sourced, battle-hardened and tireless staff would hinder The Post’s ability to respond to the biggest news developments on the horizon,” the Post’s foreign correspondents said in their letter, which was posted on social media.
“Don’t eliminate our jobs,” reporters from the Post’s local desk said in their missive to Bezos. “Keep the Washington Post a place that covers Washington.”
Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million amid a declining readership and other budgetary challenges.
At the time, he promised employees that the paper would follow in the footsteps of its late publisher, Katharine Graham, in pursuing the truth and following important stories, “no matter the cost.”
Downie, who served as executive editor from 1991 to 2008, contrasted the paths of the Times and the Post. During the past decade, the Times transformed itself into a one-stop-shopping environment that lured readers with games such as Spelling Bee, a cooking app, and a shopping guide. By the end of 2025, it was reporting close to thirteen million digital subscribers and an operating profit of more than a hundred and ninety-two million dollars. The Post does not release information about its digital subscribers, but it was reported to have two and a half million digital subscribers at the time of the non-endorsement decision, in 2024.
“One of the big differences to me was that they hired a publisher”—Ryan—“who didn’t come up with any ideas,” Downie told me. “And then when he left . . . we knew that Bezos was losing money, and we were encouraged by the fact that they were looking for somebody who could improve the business side of the paper and the circulation side of the paper. And then they chose this guy who we hardly ever heard from, who had a checkered past in British journalism.”
Writing last month on a private Listserv for former Post employees, Paul Farhi, who as the media reporter for the Post covered Bezos’s acquisition of the paper, shared his “utter mystification and bafflement” about Bezos’s tolerance of Lewis. “Even as a hands-off boss,” he wondered, “could Bezos not see what was obvious to even casual observers within a few months of Will’s arrival—that Will was ill-suited to the Post, that he had alienated the newsroom, that he had an ethically suspect past, and—most important—that none of his big ideas was working or even being implemented?” (Farhi, who took a buyout in 2023, gave me permission to quote his message.)
Even before these new cuts, a parade of key staffers had left the Post. A beloved managing editor, Matea Gold, went to the Times. The national editor, Philip Rucker, decamped to CNN, and the political reporter Josh Dawsey to the Wall StreetJournal. The Atlantic hired, among others, three stars of the paper’s White House team: Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, and Toluse Olorunnipa. These are losses that would take years to rebuild—if the Post were in a rebuilding mode. The Post, Woodward said, “lives and is doing an extraordinary reporting job on the political crisis that is Donald Trump”—including its scoop on the second strike to kill survivors of an attack on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat. But the print edition is a shadow of its former self, with metro, style, and sports melded into an anemic second section; daily print circulation is now below one hundred thousand. More pressingly, it’s unclear whether a newsroom so stripped of resources can sustain the quality of its work.
The sports columnist Sally Jenkins, who left the Post in August, 2025, as part of the second wave of buyouts, has been more supportive of management than many other Post veterans. So it was striking that, when we spoke recently, she was both passionate about the work of her newsroom colleagues and unsparing about how the business side had failed them. “When you whack at these sections, you’re whacking at the roots of the tree,” she told me. “We train great journalists in every section of the paper, and we train them to cover every subject on the globe. And when you whack whole sections of people away, you are really, really in danger of killing the whole tree.” When I asked how she felt about the losses, Jenkins said, “My heart is cracked in about five different pieces.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Journalist Don Lemon and three other people were arrested Friday in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church and increased tensions between residents and federal officials.
Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon and the others are facing in the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as a journalist chronicling protesters.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media Friday morning confirming the arrest of Lemon and the others who were present during the protest.
“At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi said.
‘Keep trying’
Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have gone into business for himself, posting regularly on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for President Donald Trump. Yet during his online show from the church, he said repeatedly, “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene in front of him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.
A magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the veteran journalist. Shortly after, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again.
“And guess what,” he said. “Here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”
Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton called Lemon’s arrest “alarming” saying the Trump administration is using a “sledge hammer” on “the knees of the First Amendment.”
“We cannot let Donald Trump put tape over our mouths to muffle our right to free speech, when his administration is conducting some of the most heinous actions in American history,” Sharpton said in a statement.
Discouraging scrutiny
Fort, an independent journalist, livestreamed the moments before her arrest Friday on Facebook Live, saying “agents are at my door right now” with an arrest warrant and a grand jury indictment.
“I don’t feel like I have my first amendment right as a member of the press because now the federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” Fort said, adding that she knew she was on a sealed list of defendants.
It was not immediately clear if Fort and the two other Minnesotans who were arrested have attorneys.
Kelly McBride, a senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said these arrests and the recent search of a Washington Post journalist’s home send a clear message discouraging journalists from documenting opposition to the Trump administration
“This is all about intimidation. And it appears that this administration does not like being scrutinized by the public and journalists. They don’t want people to see what they’re doing,” McBride said. It’s an additional burden on independent journalists who don’t have a media organization to pay for their defense.
In an Instagram post, the National Association of Black Journalists said it was “outraged and deeply alarmed” by Lemon’s arrest. The group called it an effort to “criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement.”
Crews is a leader of Black Lives Matter Minnesota who has led many protests and actions for racial justice, particularly following George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in 2020.
After Trump administration officials said earlier this month that arrests would be coming in the church protest, Crews told The Associated Press there’s a “tradition” of Black activists and leaders being targeted or subjected to violence.
“Just as being a Black person, you always have to have that in mind,” Crews said.
Protesters charged previously
A prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.
The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.
Jordan Kushner, an attorney for Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was in the first group arrested, said the latest prosecutions “are beyond the pale.”
“Nonviolent protest is not a federal felony,” Kushner said.
Lundy is an intergovernmental affairs manager in the office of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, and is married to St. Paul City Council Member Anika Bowie. Bowie and Moriarty could not be reached for comment.
Lemon briefly interviewed Lundy, who is also a candidate for state senate, as they gathered with protesters preparing to drive to the church.
“I feel like it’s important that if you’re going to be representing people in office that you are out here with the people,” he told Lemon, adding he believed in “direct action, certainly within the lines of the law.”
Church leaders praise arrests in protest
Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads ICE’s St. Paul field office.
“We are grateful that the Department of Justice acted swiftly to protect Cities Church so that we can continue to faithfully live out the church’s mission to worship Jesus and make him known,” lead pastor Jonathan Parnell said Friday in a statement.
“Make no mistake. Under President Trump’s leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely,” Bondi said in a video posted to social media on Friday. “And if I haven’t been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you.”
USA Today Co., the newspaper publisher formerly named Gannett, says it plans to acquire The Detroit News
LANSING, Mich. — USA Today Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press, said Monday that it plans to acquire The Detroit News and bring both major metropolitan newspapers under its banner.
The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press recently ended an almost 40-year agreement that allowed the two papers to operate in the same city and merge aspects of their business operations.
According to a statement from USA Today Co., the newspaper publisher formerly named Gannett, both newspapers will continue to publish separately. The company provided little other information on the planned operation of the daily newspapers.
The statement also did not disclose a price of the sale.
USA Today Co., which publishes the largest chain of newspapers in the U.S., said the sale is being funded through cash and financing managed by Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm that funded New Media Investment Group Inc.’s 2019 acquisition of Gannett.
The deal is expected to close “at the end of the month.”
The two newspapers have both been in operation for over 100 years. The Detroit News has won three Pulitzer Prizes and the Detroit Free Press has won 10.
“Both companies have a mutual desire to ensure that these publications and their distinct journalism continue to serve the greater Detroit area,” Guy Gilmore, chief operating officer of MediaNews Group, the current owner of The Detroit News said in a statement.
In 1989, the two papers began a joint operating agreement, a deal established under the 1970 Newspaper Preservation Act which allowed failing newspapers to be exempt from certain antitrust rules. The two newspapers worked in competition but shared some overhead resources and business operations including advertising, printing and distribution.
The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News ended the agreement in December after 36 years.
Mark Tully, a longtime BBC correspondent who was widely known as the “voice of India” for his reporting on the South Asian nation, has died, the broadcaster said. He was 90.Tully died Sunday at a New Delhi hospital after a brief illness.Video above: Remembering those we lost in 2026Born in India’s Kolkata city in 1935, Tully joined the BBC in 1965 and was appointed its New Delhi correspondent in 1971. He later served for more than two decades as the BBC’s bureau chief for South Asia.Tully reported on some of India’s most consequential events, including the 1971 India-Pakistan war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, the siege of the Golden Temple in 1984, the 1991 assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the 1992 demolition of the Babri mosque, which triggered nationwide riots.Tully also reported from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Tully as “a towering voice of journalism.”“His connect with India and the people of our nation was reflected in his works. His reporting and insights have left an enduring mark on public discourse,” Modi wrote on X.Britain knighted Tully in 2002 for services to broadcasting and journalism. He also received two of India’s highest civilian honors, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.
NEW DELHI, DL —
Mark Tully, a longtime BBC correspondent who was widely known as the “voice of India” for his reporting on the South Asian nation, has died, the broadcaster said. He was 90.
Tully died Sunday at a New Delhi hospital after a brief illness.
Video above: Remembering those we lost in 2026
Born in India’s Kolkata city in 1935, Tully joined the BBC in 1965 and was appointed its New Delhi correspondent in 1971. He later served for more than two decades as the BBC’s bureau chief for South Asia.
Tully reported on some of India’s most consequential events, including the 1971 India-Pakistan war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, the siege of the Golden Temple in 1984, the 1991 assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the 1992 demolition of the Babri mosque, which triggered nationwide riots.
Tully also reported from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Tully as “a towering voice of journalism.”
“His connect with India and the people of our nation was reflected in his works. His reporting and insights have left an enduring mark on public discourse,” Modi wrote on X.
Britain knighted Tully in 2002 for services to broadcasting and journalism. He also received two of India’s highest civilian honors, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.
ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish court on Monday ordered the release of veteran journalist Fatih Altayli from prison pending the outcome of his appeal against a conviction for allegedly threatening President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Altayli, 63, a longtime columnist whose YouTube programs drew hundreds of thousands of viewers daily, was sentenced last month to four years and two months in prison. He had been arrested in June on charges of threatening the president during one of his broadcasts — a case critics described as an attempt to silence a prominent government opponent.
The regional appeals court ruled for his release from prison, citing the absence of any flight risk, the fact that evidence had already been collected, and the time he had already spent in detention, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.
Altayli’s arrest stemmed from remarks on his program “Fatih Altayli Comments,” in which he discussed a survey showing more than 70% of the public opposed a lifetime presidency for Erdogan, who has ruled for over two decades. Altayli said he was not surprised by the result, noting that Turkish society favored checks on authority.
“Look at the history of this nation,” he said. “This is a nation which strangled its sultan when they didn’t like him or want him. There are quite a few Ottoman sultans who were assassinated, strangled, or whose deaths were made to look like suicide.”
Altayli has strongly denied that his comments amounted to a threat against Erdogan.
Following his arrest, he continued to provide commentary through letters relayed by his lawyers, though he later suspended the program.
With much of Turkey’s mainstream media owned by pro-government businesses or directly controlled by the state, many independent journalists have turned to YouTube as a platform for uncensored reporting.
It’s the end of the year. That means it’s time for us to celebrate the best cybersecurity stories we didn’t publish. Since 2023, TechCrunch has looked back at the best stories across the board from the year in cybersecurity.
If you’re not familiar, the idea is simple. There are now dozens of journalists who cover cybersecurity in the English language. There are a lot of stories about cybersecurity, privacy, and surveillance that are published every week. And a lot of them are great, and you should read them. We’re here to recommend the ones we liked the most, so keep in mind that it’s a very subjective and, at the end of the day, incomplete list.
Anyway, let’s get into it. — Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Shane Harris described how he cultivated a senior Iranian hacker as a source, who was then killed
In 2016, The Atlantic’s journalist made contact with a person claiming to work as a hacker for Iran’s intelligence, where he claimed to have worked on major operations, such as the downing of an American drone and the now-infamous hack against oil giant Saudi Aramco, where Iranian hackers wiped the company’s computers. Harris was rightly skeptical, but as he kept talking to the hacker, who eventually revealed his real name to him, Harris started to believe him. When the hacker died, Harris was able to piece together the real story, which somehow turned out to be more incredible than the hacker had led Harris to believe.
The gripping story is also a great behind-the-scenes look at the challenges cybersecurity reporters face when dealing with sources claiming to have great stories to share.
The Washington Post revealed a secret order demanding Apple let U.K. officials spy on users’ encrypted data
In January, the U.K. government secretly issued Apple with a court order demanding that the company build a back door so police can access the iCloud data of any customer in the world. Due to a worldwide gag order, it was only because The Washington Post broke the news that we learned the order existed to begin with. The demand was the first of its kind, and — if successful — would be a major defeat for tech giants who have spent the past decade locking themselves out of their users’ own data so they can’t be compelled to provide it to governments.
Apple subsequently stopped offering its opt-in end-to-end encrypted cloud storage to its customers in the U.K. in response to the demand. But by breaking the news, the secret order was thrust into the public eye and allowed both Apple and critics to scrutinize U.K. surveillance powers in a way that hasn’t been tested in public before. The story sparked a months-long diplomatic row between the U.K. and the United States, prompting Downing Street to drop the request — only to try again several months later.
“The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans” by The Atlantic is this year’s best headline
This story was the sort of fly-on-the-wall access that some reporters would dream of, but The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief got to play out in real time after he was unwittingly added to a Signal group of senior U.S. government officials by a senior U.S. government official discussing war plans on their cell phones.
“We are currently clean on OPSEC,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. they were not. Image Credits:The Atlantic (screenshot)
Reading the discussion about where U.S. military forces should drop bombs — and then seeing news reports of missiles hitting the ground on the other side of the world — was confirmation that Jeffrey Goldberg needed to know that he was, as he suspected, in a real chat with real Trump administration officials, and this was all on-the-record and reportable.
And so he did, paving the way for a months-long investigation (and critique) of the government’s operational security practices, in what was called the biggest government opsec mistake in history. The unraveling of the situation ultimately exposed security lapses involving the use of a knock-off Signal clone that further jeopardized the government’s ostensibly secure communications.
Brian Krebs tracked down a prolific hacker group admin as a Jordanian teenager
Brian Krebs is one of the more veteran cybersecurity reporters out there, and for years he has specialized in following online breadcrumbs that lead to him revealing the identity of notorious cybercriminals. In this case, Krebs was able to find the real identity behind a hacker’s online handle Rey, who is part of the notorious advanced persistent teenagers‘ cybercrime group that calls itself Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters.
Krebs’ quest was so successful that he was able to talk to a person very close to the hacker — we won’t spoil the whole article here — and then the hacker himself, who confessed to his crimes and claimed he was trying to escape the cybercriminal life.
404 Media reported that a little-known data broker set up by the airline industry called the Airlines Reporting Corporation was selling access to 5 billion plane tickets and travel itineraries, including names and financial details of ordinary Americans, allowing government agencies like ICE, the State Department, and the IRS to track people without a warrant.
ARC, owned by United, American, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, and other airlines, said it would shut down the warrantless data program following 404 Media’s months-long reporting and intense pressure from lawmakers.
Wired made the 3D-printed gun that Luigi Mangione allegedly used to kill a healthcare executive to test the legalities of “ghost guns”
The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024 was one of the biggest stories of the year. Luigi Mangione, the chief suspect in the killing, was soon after arrested and indicted on charges of using a “ghost gun,” a 3D-printed firearm that had no serial numbers and built in private without a background check — effectively a gun that the government has no idea exists.
NPR detailed a federal whistleblower’s account of how DOGE took sensitive government data, and the threats he faced
DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, was one of the biggest running stories of the year, as the gang of Elon Musk’s lackeys ripped through the federal government, tearing down security protocols and red tape, as part of the mass-grab of citizens’ data. NPR had some of the best investigative reporting uncovering the resistance movement of federal workers trying to prevent the pilfering of the government’s most sensitive data.
In one story detailing a whistleblower’s official disclosure as shared with members of Congress, a senior IT employee in the National Labor Relations Board told lawmakers that as he was seeking help investigating DOGE’s activity, he “found a printed letter in an envelope taped to his door, which included threatening language, sensitive personal information and overhead pictures of him walking his dog, according to the cover letter attached to his official disclosure.”
Mother Jones found an exposed dataset of tracked surveillance victims, including world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you
Any story that starts with a journalist saying they found something that made them “feel like shitting my pants,” you know it’s going to be a fun read. Gabriel Geiger found a dataset from a mysterious surveillance company called First Wap, which contained records on thousands of people from around the world whose phone locations had been tracked.
The dataset, spanning 2007 through 2015, allowed Geiger to identify dozens of high-profile people whose phones were tracked, including a former Syrian first lady, the head of a private military contractor, a Hollywood actor, and an enemy of the Vatican. This story explored the shadowy world of phone surveillance by exploiting Signaling System No. 7, or SS7, an obscurely named protocol long known to allow malicious tracking.
Wired reported on the investigation behind a string of “swatting” attacks on hundreds of schools nationwide
Swatting has been a problem for years. What started as a bad joke has become a real threat, which has resulted in at least one death. Swatting is a type of hoax where someone — often a hacker — calls the emergency services and tricks the authorities into sending an armed SWAT team to the home of the hoaxer’s target, often pretending to be the target themselves and pretending they are about to commit a violent crime.
In this feature, Wired’s Andy Greenberg put a face on the many characters who are part of these stories, such as the call operators who have to deal with this problem. And he also profiled a prolific swatter, known as Torswats, who for months tormented the operators and schools all over the country with fake — but extremely believable — threats of violence, as well as a hacker who took it upon himself to track Torswats down.
FNC’s Greg Gutfeld rips MS-NOW’s Rachel Maddow’s acceptance speech for the Walter Cronkite Award for “excellence in TV political journalism.”
GREG GUTFELD: Because Maddow isn’t paid to be right. She’s paid to keep a dwindling audience from giving up altogether.
She sells her drug to a shrinking mass, but along the way, she got hooked on the fumes.
And yet here she is honored, celebrated, canonized by people as wrong as she is. She broke no stories; instead, she only broke her brain, and those of others who listened to her. She did the job she was supposed to do. She wasn’t questioning power; she was insulating it.
On the left, accountability is nonexistent. What matters is loyalty. You don’t get fired for being wrong, but you can be promoted for service to the cause, and that means distributing the marching orders to your minions, ignore everything else, including stories that actually cost lives.
That’s the biggest story of all. Can you imagine being a journalist in America and stating in public, with no fear of being held accountable at all, that your goal is to stop one political party over the other? And you’re worshipped by a corrupt, closed loop where mistakes are memory-holed, narratives outrank reality, and awards are handed out like condoms at a Hunter Biden pool party?
Maddow is honored because she was wrong, reliably providing an alternative reality to a circle jerk of self-congratulators that’s getting smaller by the day. So maybe it’s right to call it the “Walter Cronkite Award” because they’re as dead as he is.
The true-crime genre has been a cornerstone of the podcast market for years, and we could very well see a proliferation of newsletters about cold cases, wife murders, or gangland rackets. Sadly, this is a form that could easily be mimicked by ChatGPT, which can pull information off Wikipedia and other websites and stitch together stories that feel suspenseful.
4. An A.I. scammer cons her way into print
ChatGPT brings me to the next item on my list. In September, Nicholas Hune-Brown, a Toronto-based journalist and editor at The Local, put out an open call for stories about the privatization of health care in Canada. One of the better pitches he received came from Victoria Goldiee, a freelancer who boasted a résumé of publications that would intrigue any editor at a small but prestigious outlet such as The Local. Through some straightforward due diligence, Hune-Brown figured out that Goldiee had fabricated quotes in previous stories—sometimes from people who did not seem to exist—and concluded that she had likely used A.I. to write not only her articles but also her pitch. She did not appear to live in Toronto, as she claimed when she pitched her story to Hune-Brown. She had been deceptive in her other work.
Goldiee seems to have duped a long list of publications; the Guardian, Dwell, and the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland all retracted articles she had written for them. I do not think the editors in these places were naïve, nor do I think they made obvious mistakes that reflect widespread incompetence in the industry. And this does not necessarily augur a flood of A.I.-slop freelancers duping editors around the world—mostly because journalism pays terribly and there are better grifts to pull. But we are approaching a time when it will be hard to tell the difference between a daily feed of news generated by humans and one generated by a large language model. What happens when that line gets crossed?
Or perhaps an anxious and financially strapped media industry will simply cross that Rubicon itself, deliberately. Last week, the Washington Post launched an audio product called Your Personal Podcast, which will allow users to custom-build a daily summary of the news. According to an internal e-mail, users will be able to pick their own hosts, select their areas of interest, and even “ask questions using our Ask the Post AI technology.” Presumably, these answers will be derived from the paper’s own reporters and stories, but when you replace the names and faces that gather the news with a soothing robot voice, how will readers and listeners begin to think about the news?
3. Streamers get incentivized to talk about politics
I’ve written about this plenty already this year, so I’ll keep it short: streaming, like all disaggregated social-media phenomena, is much less democratic and independent than it might seem. The algorithm is the great determiner of success and failure, and the people who are always trying to game its secrets tend, ultimately, to do the same things. This past year, we saw something that I’ll call, in a term coined by the internet, “politicsmaxxing.” Content creators such as Adin Ross and the Nelk Boys, who only recently have demonstrated an interest in politics, began talking about the news—most notably, about Gaza. I imagine that many of these people will stop talking about Palestine and politics the instant the algorithms change; still, given the influence that these new-media forms have on young men specifically, it would not be surprising to see this switch get turned on during every major election cycle.
2. News traffic continues to decline
In October, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism released its annual report on the state of local news. During the past four years, according to the report, monthly page views for the hundred largest newspapers in the country dropped by forty-five per cent. The other stats in the report are no better. The number of “news deserts,” defined as areas that don’t have consistent local reporting, continued to grow, as more than a hundred and thirty newspapers shut down in 2025, about the same number that shut down the year before.
Nobody seems to have much of a plan for what to do about any of this. Certainly, no one seems to know how to fill the need for local news—despite many efforts, which have had varying degrees of success. One possibility is that there is less demand for local news than journalists would like to believe, and that we now live in a world in which what people care most about are updates regarding Donald Trump. But I believe that the public is a bit sick, at this point, of endless Trump coverage, and that people will support local news efforts that try to meet them somewhere in their regular rounds, through the internet.
In Finland, some parents have adopted a bedtime routine that seems almost too simple to matter. Each night, they ask their children one question: “What was the last good moment of your day?” No screens, no lectures, no moralizing, just a moment to pause and reflect.
Psychologists who followed families practicing this ritual for 10 years found remarkable results. Children who answered the question daily were up to 80 percent less anxious by the time they reached their teenage years. Ending the day on a calm note helps the brain wrap up its stress cycle, allowing children to sleep more peacefully and recover emotionally from the day’s challenges.
The story recently became popular on social media, but it also makes us think about something bigger: why don’t the media talk more about such easy and helpful ways to take care of our mental health? In a news world focused on major crises and troubling stories, reporters don’t often highlight positive developments happening around the world.
The hidden cost of daily news
Newsrooms have long followed the mantra: “If it bleeds, it leads.” Stories about crime, disasters, or conflict grab attention – and clicks. But reading it can really affect people’s feelings. The research has shown that many adults experience stress or discomfort when following the news, and some even limit their news consumption because they find it stressful (American Psychological Association 2023). Meanwhile, the Reuters Institute notes that “news avoidance” is rising globally, as people deliberately turn away from stories that make them feel overwhelmed.
The paradox is clear: journalism aims to inform and empower the public, yet relentless coverage of negative events can leave readers anxious, helpless, or disengaged. Ignoring these effects undercuts the basic mission of the press.
Learning from Finland: A different approach
The Finnish bedtime ritual offers a useful metaphor for journalism. Just like children think about their day before going to sleep, readers can better understand the news if stories include background information, ideas for fixing problems, and messages of hope.
This is the philosophy behind solutions journalism, promoted by groups like the Solutions Journalism Network. It doesn’t mean sugar-coating problems or avoiding hard truths. Instead, it means telling the full story, highlighting not just the problem but also credible responses and examples of success.
For instance, when reporting on youth anxiety, a journalist could explore programs in schools, community initiatives, or national policies that help children build resilience. Research from the University of Texas at Austin’s Engaging News Project found that readers of solutions-focused articles felt more optimistic about the issue and more confident that there were effective ways to address it, compared with readers who only saw problem-focused news. Engaging audiences this way also strengthens trust in media, an important advantage at a time when many people doubt the news.
Small shifts, big impact
In many ways, journalism can borrow inspiration from the Finnish habit of ending the day with a moment of reflection. It’s a simple cultural practice, not a rule, but it shows how small habits can shape how people process the world around them and be less anxious.
Similarly, there are a few modest adjustments journalists can consider when thinking about how audiences absorb the news:
Language: choosing clear, calm wording instead of dramatic phrasing when covering difficult subjects.
Balance: showing not only the problem, but also what people or communities are trying in response.
Context: helping readers understand why something is happening, not only that it happened.
Follow-up: returning to stories so people see what changed over time.
They are reflections on how reporting might support a clearer and more grounded understanding of events. And just as the Finnish ritual helps families end the day with perspective, these small journalistic choices can help audiences navigate the news with a better coherence.
Real-world examples
Some news outlets are already using solutions journalism. The Guardian’s Upside series, BBC’s People Fixing the World, and CBC’s What On Earth? spotlight serious issues, like climate, health, and inequality, while focusing on real-world innovations and responses. These programs illustrate that news can inform without overwhelming, by highlighting constructive change.
Closing the cycle
In a world where headlines bombard us with crisis after crisis, journalism can offer closure. Just as the Finnish ritual encourages children to reflect on a positive moment before sleep, journalists can help audiences finish the news cycle feeling informed rather than exhausted. The goal isn’t “feel-good news” – it’s resilience and understanding in an age of constant noise.
Journalism has always been about sharing information. Today, it can also help improve our mental well-being, one calming story at a time.
American Psychological Association (2023). Stress in America: The State of Our Nation.
Reuters Institute (2024). Digital News Report: Trends in News Consumption and Avoidance.
University of Texas at Austin (2021). The Effects of Solutions Journalism on Audience Trust and Engagement.
Thanksgiving is a seasonal, needed reminder of the promise and reality of America – on which we celebrate our nation’s shared, uniting holiday of gratitude.
We the People are not doing well. We are divided, angry, and house-poor. That said, whether you are liberal, conservative, progressive, or MAGA, we all have much – by any real, clear metric – to be thankful for and much that’s deserving of our collective, bipartisan celebration, cherishing, and defense. We are a better and more united people when we look up in shared gratitude.
If you are an American – poor, middle class, or rich – there is still an “Unum,” part principle and part shared experience, which connects the American “Pluribus” and our varied pursuits of happiness.
Regardless of your own familial origin story, there remains a shared American truth and reality: “We the People” are all born on third base compared to the rest of the world, and it’s not because we hit a triple.
This country is special. It remains special. Whatever our problems, we still have much to be thankful for and reasons to rise above our differences and unite in a common good for civic defense.
On a personal note, I am thankful that I am going to be a grandfather soon. A new chapter in our family’s American story will begin in the new year of our country’s 250th year. Having grandkids reminds us to keep our eyes on defending the prize.
Civically and professionally, I am giving thanks for RealClear’s readers and supporters.
I write this Thanksgiving note, having come back from a lunch with one of you – someone who exemplifies our audience and patrons. Smart, accomplished, and discerning. You represent thoughtful citizenship at its best. These getting-to-know-you conversations with RealClear readers inspire us.
Most of my meetings are with reader-supporters over Zoom, which provide daily bounces in our team’s steps. (If you are interested in having one, reach out to our advancement coordinator, Frank Filocomo [frank@realclear.com], and he will set one up. We truly enjoy it.)
This one was in-person and ennobling. I broke bread with a U.S. Navy pilot who flew 85 combat missions in Vietnam. On his return, he had to test fate again by landing a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier in hostile waters. After the war, he made his fortune on Wall Street, retired to Florida, and dedicated himself to public service as our local county commissioner. Thank you, Hal. You are a great American, and we are thankful to count you among RealClear’s faithful readers and steadfast supporters.
For the rest of you: Come to our Samizdat Prize Gala on Feb. 11, 2026, and I will introduce you to Hal.
* * * * *
For the past 10 years, it has been hard to be RealClear.
Our advertising revenue has been attacked because our viewpoint-diversity journalism – the kind that encourages Americans to think for themselves – offends the smug sensibilities of the self-appointed censors who prefer monologues managed to their liking. But we know that healthy democracy requires open dialogue. We went hungry when our business model was ambushed and we remain hungry, but, because of you, we did not starve as intended. Thank you.
My job at RealClear is Sisyphean in structure. I apologize for talking Greek.Please indulge me for a moment. Sisyphus’ curse was that he had to push a rock up a hill, with no hope of getting to the top and enjoying a level roll. It’s not a life for everyone, but we – with your funding at our back – have found both purpose and joy in it.
What would happen if Sisyphus didn’t show up for work? What would happen if RealClear simply quit? For us, giving up on presenting an array of viewpoints and keeping polling accurate and honest is not an option. Defeat is a possibility but surrender is not. Because of you, we will continue to push the viewpoint-diversity rock up a hill, and we’ll keep doing so joyfully. Thank you.
We could not do it alone. RealClear exists, still consequentially positioned on the “hill” of viewpoint diversity because of you. What others have taken away, or tried to sideline, our reader-supporters like you have preserved. And our country is better for it.
It pays to be partisan in today’s media landscape. But we’re still pushing against the ideological, closed-minded, censorious grain. If you are a past supporter, stay with us. Or, if you are reading this and haven’t given before, please consider joining us as a reader-supporter. Click here: www.realclearmediafund.org/donate.
Thank you for your past support and present consideration. We don’t take your support for granted. We hope you consider independent and unbiased news coverage as vital as we do. Our need for your support is real and enduring, as is our thanks.
P.P.S. You can also support RealClear by incorporating us in your estate plan. Some of you out there may be disappointed and feel let down by your alma mater. If this is you – and you want to advance viewpoint diversity, sanity, and accurate and honest polling for years to come – please consider making a planned gift to RealClear Media Fund. To discuss this with us, please contact our advancement coordinator, Frank Filocomo at: frank@realclear.com.
P.P.P.S. Again, we love talking to our readers. If you’d like to set up a conversation, Frank is the man for that as well.
David DesRosiers is the publisher of RealClearMedia and president of the RealClear Media Fund, which supports the cause of free speech through its annual Samizdat Prize, and its reporting, and the viewpoint diversity method.
Thanksgiving is a seasonal, needed reminder of the promise and reality of America – on which we celebrate our nation’s shared, uniting holiday of gratitude.
We the People are not doing well. We are divided, angry, and house-poor. That said, whether you are liberal, conservative, progressive, or MAGA, we all have much – by any real, clear metric – to be thankful for and much that’s deserving of our collective, bipartisan celebration, cherishing, and defense. We are a better and more united people when we look up in shared gratitude.
If you are an American – poor, middle class, or rich – there is still an “Unum,” part principle and part shared experience, which connects the American “Pluribus” and our varied pursuits of happiness.
Regardless of your own familial origin story, there remains a shared American truth and reality: “We the People” are all born on third base compared to the rest of the world, and it’s not because we hit a triple.
This country is special. It remains special. Whatever our problems, we still have much to be thankful for and reasons to rise above our differences and unite in a common good for civic defense.
On a personal note, I am thankful that I am going to be a grandfather soon. A new chapter in our family’s American story will begin in the new year of our country’s 250th year. Having grandkids reminds us to keep our eyes on defending the prize.
Civically and professionally, I am giving thanks for RealClear’s readers and supporters.
I write this Thanksgiving note, having come back from a lunch with one of you – someone who exemplifies our audience and patrons. Smart, accomplished, and discerning. You represent thoughtful citizenship at its best. These getting-to-know-you conversations with RealClear readers inspire us.
Most of my meetings are with reader-supporters over Zoom, which provide daily bounces in our team’s steps. (If you are interested in having one, reach out to our advancement coordinator, Frank Filocomo [frank@realclear.com], and he will set one up. We truly enjoy it.)
This one was in-person and ennobling. I broke bread with a U.S. Navy pilot who flew 85 combat missions in Vietnam. On his return, he had to test fate again by landing a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier in hostile waters. After the war, he made his fortune on Wall Street, retired to Florida, and dedicated himself to public service as our local county commissioner. Thank you, Hal. You are a great American, and we are thankful to count you among RealClear’s faithful readers and steadfast supporters.
For the rest of you: Come to our Samizdat Prize Gala on Feb. 11, 2026, and I will introduce you to Hal.
* * * * *
For the past 10 years, it has been hard to be RealClear.
Our advertising revenue has been attacked because our viewpoint-diversity journalism – the kind that encourages Americans to think for themselves – offends the smug sensibilities of the self-appointed censors who prefer monologues managed to their liking. But we know that healthy democracy requires open dialogue. We went hungry when our business model was ambushed and we remain hungry, but, because of you, we did not starve as intended. Thank you.
My job at RealClear is Sisyphean in structure. I apologize for talking Greek.Please indulge me for a moment. Sisyphus’ curse was that he had to push a rock up a hill, with no hope of getting to the top and enjoying a level roll. It’s not a life for everyone, but we – with your funding at our back – have found both purpose and joy in it.
What would happen if Sisyphus didn’t show up for work? What would happen if RealClear simply quit? For us, giving up on presenting an array of viewpoints and keeping polling accurate and honest is not an option. Defeat is a possibility but surrender is not. Because of you, we will continue to push the viewpoint-diversity rock up a hill, and we’ll keep doing so joyfully. Thank you.
We could not do it alone. RealClear exists, still consequentially positioned on the “hill” of viewpoint diversity because of you. What others have taken away, or tried to sideline, our reader-supporters like you have preserved. And our country is better for it.
It pays to be partisan in today’s media landscape. But we’re still pushing against the ideological, closed-minded, censorious grain. If you are a past supporter, stay with us. Or, if you are reading this and haven’t given before, please consider joining us as a reader-supporter. Click here: www.realclearmediafund.org/donate.
Thank you for your past support and present consideration. We don’t take your support for granted. We hope you consider independent and unbiased news coverage as vital as we do. Our need for your support is real and enduring, as is our thanks.
P.P.S. You can also support RealClear by incorporating us in your estate plan. Some of you out there may be disappointed and feel let down by your alma mater. If this is you – and you want to advance viewpoint diversity, sanity, and accurate and honest polling for years to come – please consider making a planned gift to RealClear Media Fund. To discuss this with us, please contact our advancement coordinator, Frank Filocomo at: frank@realclear.com.
P.P.P.S. Again, we love talking to our readers. If you’d like to set up a conversation, Frank is the man for that as well.
David DesRosiers is the publisher of RealClearMedia and president of the RealClear Media Fund, which supports the cause of free speech through its annual Samizdat Prize, and its reporting, and the viewpoint diversity method.
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Sinclair has submitted a bid to buy out E.W. Scripps for $7 per share, in a deal that could bring further consolidation across America’s local TV news landscape.
Under the proposal, which Sinclair disclosed Monday, the broadcast giant would acquire all of Scripps’ outstanding shares that it doesn’t already own. Sinclair has already upped its stake in Scripps recently — accounting for nearly 10% of the company’s class A common stock as of Nov. 17, per regulatory filings.
The proposed $7 per share price tag would consist of both cash and stock. If approved, the deal would give Scripps’ shareholders about a 12.7% stake of the combined company upon closing.
Sinclair is requesting a response from Scripps by Dec. 5.
“We are submitting an updated, actionable merger proposal,” Sinclair CEO Christopher S. Ripley wrote in a letter to Scripps’ board. He said the deal would “strengthen local journalism” and “position the combined company and employees for long-term success.”
Ohio-based Scripps acknowledged that it had received an “unsolicited acquisition proposal” from Sinclair on Monday. The company said its board would review it like any other offer — and determine next steps based on the interests of its stakeholders and “audiences it serves across the United States.”
Scripps previously said it would also protect itself from any “opportunistic actions of Sinclair or anyone else.”
Shares of E.W. Scripps Co. jumped more than 5% Monday, trading at about $4.30 apiece as of 2:30 p.m. ET. Sinclair’s stock slipped just under 1%, trading around $15.50 by the afternoon.
Sinclair has been eyeing Scripps for some time. Last week, the Maryland-based company said it held months of talks “regarding a potential combination” — and maintained more broadly that increasing its scale is “essential to address secular headwinds” in the U.S. media industry, pointing to growing competition.
Companies like Sinclair — as well as Nexstar and Tegna — have argued that acquisitions would allow them to better compete with both bigger media and tech players vying for consumers’ attention today. But critics warn of wider homogenization of news. In other words, more and more local TV stations becoming “duplicators” of syndicated reporting — and sharing corporate owners who may decide not to air certain content.
Sinclair Broadcast Group owns, operates or provides services to 185 TV stations in 85 markets affiliated with all major broadcast networks, and it also owns the Tennis Channel. The company has a reputation for a conservative viewpoint in its broadcasts.
Meanwhile, E.W. Scripps Co. operates more than 60 local stations in over 40 markets. It also owns national news outlets Scripps News and Court TV, as well as entertainment brands like ION.
Whether or not Scripps accepts Sinclair’s proposal has yet to be seen. And like all major corporate mergers, the deal would still require the regulatory greenlight. Sinclair on Monday said it was confident that its proposed transaction could be completed under existing rules.
Still, media consolidation could accelerate industrywide if the Trump administration loosens restrictions — or, perhaps more immediately, makes exceptions for certain mergers. Just last week, in efforts to complete its Tegna acquisition, Nexstar asked the Federal Communications Commission for a waiver on current rules that limit the number of stations a single company can own.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr previously signaled openness to changing those requirements overall. But some conservatives — and Trump himself — have recently expressed disdain over the possibility of such a change leading to an expansion in networks they view as left-leaning.
“If this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge,’ I would not be happy,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media Sunday. The Republican particularly targeted ABC and NBC, which he claimed were a “VIRTUAL ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.”
In response, Nexstar maintained that it believes “the landscape is ripe for regulatory reform” — and added that “we agree with President Trump that the status quo is no longer acceptable.”
Those sinful-looking blueberry pancakes, and that nice, noisy foamy latte – would you believe they are rescuing journalism, in and around Camden, Maine, at least?
Here in lobster country, at the Villager Cafe, customers can have their breakfast or lunch with a side of news, a weekly newspaper called the Midcoast Villager. “I was just reading about the SNAP benefits and different food pantries in the area,” said one cafe customer.
The cafe subsidizes the paper; the newsroom is one floor up. Throw in the rent from all the other tenants in the building, along with revenue from the Inn at Camden Place next door (same ownership), and it all helps.
The Villager Cafe opened in April. Revenue helps support the local weekly newspaper, the Midcoast Villager.
CBS News
“From the business standpoint, it achieves a sustainability,” said Reade Brower. At one time, Brower owned almost all of Maine’s newspapers, before selling most of them off. In September 2024, he merged four weeklies into the Midcoast Villager. The cafe opened this past April, but not just to make money.
“The accountability issues and local sports and all that stuff is important to a lot of people,” he said. “I don’t think that’s enough to sell and keep newspapers alive right now. I think it has to revolve around community. And what better way to serve community than to invite people here for food and to mix all this stuff together?”
How often do you see the owner of a newspaper, and members of his staff, hanging out with readers over breakfast?
Kathleen Capetta helps Brower run what they both see as an experiment in rebuilding trust in news. “We’re present, we’re visible, we’re real,” she said. “We’re not behind a screen.”
And would that experiment work if the food weren’t good? “Absolutely not, no!” Capetta laughed.
“It’s good, classic diner food, but a little bit elevated, which is I think kind of like our paper,” said deputy editor Alex Seitz-Wald. He is the face of the newspaper when he parks himself in the cafe on Friday mornings, to hear complaints, story tips, whatever. “Having a place where people can vent, or can say something, and have it be heard, I think is really valuable,” he said.
Midcoast Villager deputy editor Alex Seitz-Wald meets with the paper’s readers at the Villager Cafe.
CBS News
Seitz-Wald was an NBC politics reporter in Washington, D.C., for a decade before taking a chance – and a pay cut – to work for the Midcoast Villager, a start-up in a field where two newspapers die every week.
How’s the Villager doing? Circulation revenue, we’re told, is 40% above what all four papers it replaced took in – so, promising.
“I’m quite glad that I still have a newspaper to work for,” said Glenn Billington. A local news lifer, he’s the optimistic ad salesman and columnist for the Midcoast Villager, just as he was for one of its now-defunct predecessors.
The mascot on the paper’s masthead is Vern, who is the epitome of Midcoast Maine. “He sure is,” said Billington. “Look at his sou’wester. He’s got the hat that you wear when the wind blows from the southwest and it brings rain. And he’s got the telescope. Vern’s looking at the future of newspapers.”
What one sees at the Villager Cafe is old-fashioned – people sitting down at tables, eating and talking and looking at each other eye-to-eye. Or as Brower put it, “You’re picking up what we’re putting down.”
Vern, the Midcoast Villager’s mascot, is spotted at the Villager Cafe in Camden, Me.
If Andrews was using “women in the workplace” as a route to talk about wokeness, Sargeant was using it to talk about abortion and reproduction.
I really liked Andrews’s explanation of what makes wokeness feminized: When Douthat asks her about the “essential nature” of wokeness, she says, “Let’s pick one flavor,” and then complains about how #MeToo brought about the “mandatory” belief of women.
Nothing more feminized than believing women!
Wisdom Iheanyichukwu
I feel like the question itself is a sort of violence, but also it just reveals this obsession with denouncing wokeness and placing blame on women for men facing the consequences of the wrong things they do that get written off as manly vices. A desire for the workplace to be copacetic for all parties involved is now seen as woke. Woke is bad. Women are bad. Woke ruins the workplace. Women cause woke, so women ruin the workplace.
Have women ruined the workplace? Have people ruined the Chicken Dance? A lot of inconsequential questions that don’t really need to be asked.
It’s interesting to focus on whether women ruin the workplace when women are many a time existing within the constraints of male-dominated spaces where men are acting out, which suggests an issue lies within the men, and not the women, of that space.
A multitude of the examples of how women ruin the workplace are just traits misattributed to femininity, while in reality they are not exclusively that, as women and men can behave in similar manners and fail at the same things. If the idea is that women are unfit to be in the workplace because it is “unnatural” for them, then I raise, it’s also unnatural for men. Women are not the only ones who find fault with the systems in place at work, but why are they the only ones being asked to divorce themselves from the workplace? Being restrained to a workplace for the majority of one’s week, being forced to prioritize work over one’s self and needs, is unnatural for humans in general. What we see is people being placed into situations and institutions where different levels of power are stripped from them, and these people then act out, or they don’t always behave in a manner conducive to everyone’s well-being. And so, rather than asking if women are ruining the workplace, we should be asking if the workplace is ruining the people. The workplace is unnatural; it is not a foundational aspect of human nature, so regardless of whoever dominated the space first or dominates it presently, we should be focusing on creating spaces that everyone can exist within in a copacetic manner.
In thinking about the influence of Sassy, I remembered a Daria episode featuring a character that was a parody of you. Have you rewatched that at any point in time? How does satire about you make you feel now?
The Daria thing, it does come up a lot. Pretty much every comment thread about me, someone will be like, Oh yeah, and they’ll mention it. I didn’t even see it at the time! I was so busy working, and then people did bring it up to me. I did watch it eventually, around when I was starting xoJane. I liked it! The TV show Girls also had a parody of me, an editor named “Jame” who made Lena Dunham snort cocaine.
I love that stuff. Even if my true motives are not necessarily coming through in those parodies, it means I have a strong stance. People get what that is and either relate to it, or don’t relate to it, or like it, or hate it, or whatever. I was on the back cover of Mad magazine once. And then the Sassy sketch from Saturday Night Live. I like that stuff. I would love more of it.
Sassy only existed for about eight years, but you continued to loom large, at least in comedy writers’ rooms.
When I see things like the Daria parody or the Girls parody, I feel like I raised them right with Sassy. I taught you all exactly how to do that. Be outspoken, ballsy, not deferring to authority. It’s like, okay, I reap what I sow.
What do you think of the current media landscape?
I think it is really frightening how few outlets we now have that are not corporately owned. The opportunities to be different in mainstream media and gain an audience that way feel diminished. Social media is so controlled and so manipulated, particularly around politics and political issues, and everybody sucking up to Trump—that’s been a really scary change. A lot of my friends don’t go on social media anymore. I also boycotted it for a while, but then I felt I had to go back to it for my work. It feels like the messages we’re getting are definitely one-sided—and they’re not one-sided in the way that Evie Magazine is trying to say they are!
When I was starting “Another Jane Pratt Thing,” people would say, “Why another one?” Because it is my fourth publication, with my one good idea that I’m doing again and again and again. But the reason is because it’s still needed. Publications like Evie keep me in business, because we need to keep presenting the actual progressive alternative.
A Mexican journalist who covered drug trafficking has been murdered, officials told AFP on Monday, the latest casualty in a country notoriously dangerous for reporters.
The reporter, Miguel Angel Beltran, had previously worked in print media and was now covering crime-related issues on social media, according to local reports.
Beltran’s body was found on Saturday along a stretch of highway that connects the northwest state of Durango with Mazatlan, a resort hub in the neighboring state of Sinaloa, local press reported. Local media reported the journalist’s body was found wrapped in a blanket, with a message that read: “For spreading false accusations against the people of Durango.”
His death was confirmed to AFP by the Durango state prosecutor’s office.
Beltran had reported from TikTok accounts, under the handle Capo, and on Facebook, on the page La Gazzetta Durango, AFP confirmed.
In one of his last posts, on October 22, Beltran reported on the arrest of a leader of a crime gang called Cabrera Sarabia, which operates in Durango and is a rival of the powerful Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels.
Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, with more than 150 media workers slain since 1994, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Beltran and other murdered journalists worked in areas where drug cartels were active, and they published their work in local media or on social media, generally in precarious employment conditions.
Media workers are regularly targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country’s notoriously violent drug traffickers.
A record number of journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report released earlier this year, including five in Mexico.
Mexico had its deadliest year for journalists in 2022, with 13 killings, according to CPJ and Articulo 19, an organization promoting press freedom in Mexico. Since 2000, Articulo 19 has documented 174 murders and 31 disappearances of journalists in Mexico.
All but a handful of media workers’ killings and abductions remain unsolved.
A car belonging to one of Italy’s leading investigative journalists exploded outside his home overnight, prompting an investigation by Italy’s anti-mafia authorities and condemnation Friday from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and others. No one was injured.
The explosion late Thursday targeting Sigfrido Ranucci, lead anchor of state-run RAI3’s Report investigative series, occurred on the eighth anniversary of the car bomb slaying of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
“The force of the explosion was so strong that it could have killed anyone passing by at that moment,” Report said in a statement on X.
Ranucci had just returned home at the time, and his daughter had walked by a half-hour before, Report said in a statement. The blast destroyed the car, damaged another family car next to it, as well as the front gate of Ranucci’s home in Pomezia, south of Rome.
Police, firefighters and forensic crews reported to the scene, and magistrates from the Rome district of the anti-Mafia police were investigating, Report said. Video shot by Ranucci, who has been under police protection since 2021 because of his hard-hitting investigations, showed the mangled remains of the cars and the gate.
This image released by investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci shows his destroyed car, left, outside his home after an explosive device detonated beneath it, in Pomezia, near Rome, Italy, on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025.
Sigfrido Ranucci / AP
Meloni expressed her solidarity with Ranucci and condemned what she called “the serious act of intimidation he has suffered.”
“Freedom and independence of information are essential values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend,” she said in a statement posted on social media.
In comments to journalists outside the offices of RAI, Ranucci said the explosion was an “escalation” of what he said were two years of threats that he believed were related to Report’s investigations into the links between the Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta and far-right crime groups and notable past Mafia hits.
Asked if the explosion would have a chilling effect on Report’s work, he said his colleagues were used to working under difficult conditions.
“Whoever thinks they can condition the work of Report by doing something like this will get the opposite effect,” he said. “The only thing this does is maybe makes us waste some time.”
Italian journalist unions, politicians and others also expressed solidarity.
Report is one of the few investigative programs on Italian television and regularly breaks news involving prominent Italian politicians, business leaders and public figures. Ranucci has been sued multiple times for defamation and, just this week, was absolved in the latest case he had faced.
The blast occurred on the eighth anniversary of the Oct. 16, 2017 murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in Malta. Like Ranucci, she had faced dozens of libel suits intended to silence her reporting. Two men were sentenced to life in prison earlier this year after being convicted of complicity in the murder. Two other people pleaded guilty in 2022 to carrying out the murder and were sentenced to 40 years in prison.
“Order to kill you”
Report is known for its in-depth investigative reports and Ranucci has also written a book on the mafia.
In a 2021 television program, he described how a former prisoner told him that mobsters “had given the order to kill you” after his book was published, but the hit “was stopped.”
Ranucci told Corriere he had also received various threats recently, including finding two bullets outside his house.
On Sunday, he revealed the highlights of the upcoming Report series on social media, including investigative reports into the powerful ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group in Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia.
According to campaign group Reporters Without Borders, Italy ranks 49th in the world for press freedom.
Pavol Szalai, RSF’s Europe head, told AFP it was “the most serious attack against an Italian reporter in recent years.”
“Press freedom itself is facing an existential threat in Italy,” Szalai added.
The group warned in its last update that journalists who investigate organized crime and corruption are “systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence.”
About 20 journalists currently live under permanent police protection after being the targets of intimidation and attacks, it said.
The most high-profile journalist is Roberto Saviano, best known for his international mafia bestseller “Gomorrah.”
Saviano linked the attack on Ranucci to a political climate in Italy in which journalists are seen as legitimate “targets.”
The Italian journalists’ federation FNSI said earlier this week that 81 reporters had been victims of acts of intimidation, including 16 cases of physical assault, in the first half of 2025, the Reuters news agency reported.
“The attack on Sigfrido Ranucci sets the clock of democracy in Italy back decades,” Alessandra Costante, FNSI’s Secretary General, said in a statement Friday.
When Paul Gausman announced his surprise retirement as superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools in December 2024, the district said he would be staying on in an as-needed advising capacity through June. And in that superintendent emeritus role, he would continue receiving his monthly salary.
It doesn’t appear he did any work.
A series of records requests submitted by the Flatwater Free Press shows Gausman didn’t exchange any emails with school board members, assistant superintendents or the interim superintendent from Dec. 28, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
In response to questions from Flatwater, the school board’s president confirmed that Gausman — who earned $333,720 annually — was not needed during the transition.
Few other details have emerged about the abrupt end of Gausman’s tenure with LPS, which culminated last month in the district naming interim Superintendent John Skretta as its new permanent superintendent.
A national expert said Gausman’s emeritus designation — agreed to amid ongoing scrutiny of superintendent pay in Nebraska — differed from typical circumstances where a district taps an outgoing superintendent to serve in an emeritus role.
LPS Board President Bob Rauner declined an interview request. But in a written statement, he said that Skretta and the rest of the district’s leadership team capably handled the additional workload, making Gausman’s input unneeded.
“Dr. Skretta’s work was exemplary during the first six months of 2025 and he did not need any assistance, which is in part why the board decided to remove interim from his title and make him our superintendent,” Rauner wrote. “We are fortunate to have a dedicated and highly-skilled executive team at Lincoln Public Schools.”
In a written statement, Gausman said he was proud to serve as superintendent, and he wished everyone in the district the best in the future.
“In our agreement, the District wanted assurance that my expertise and experience would be available to them via an on-call basis, through the remainder of my term as Superintendent Emeritus,” he wrote. “I was happy to serve in that manner under that agreement.”
The former superintendent joined LPS in the summer of 2022, after a four-month national search process that the district said included extensive recruiting and thorough background checks. When he started, his base salary was the highest of any superintendent in Nebraska.
His resignation, announced in the middle of the school year and more than a year before his contract was up, was unexpected. At the time, Gausman said he wanted to explore other opportunities “after 20 years in the public eye as a superintendent of schools.” During his final board meeting as superintendent, Gausman touted the district’s accomplishments during his tenure, including growth in high school enrollment.
“We have initiated positive programs to impact staff retention, recruitment and culture,” he said. “We have expanded early childhood programming and facilities, and there’s still more on the way to better serve our community.”
After board members approved his negotiated retirement/resignation agreement, both they and Gausman repeatedly declined to answer questions from local media about his departure.
Under the agreement, Gausman was placed on paid leave Dec. 27 and reassigned to superintendent emeritus status. The district agreed to pay him an additional $83,430 in separation pay in the form of retirement plan contributions. The document also said Gausman was prohibited from school property without permission from the district.
In a press release, the district said Gausman’s emeritus role was designed to ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruption caused by his retirement.
Rachel White, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin, said that each year, around 2,000 superintendents nationwide leave their positions. Of those, she estimated only about 10 end up in a superintendent emeritus role.
Emeritus positions typically arise when a longtime superintendent retires and the successor is someone who could benefit from their coaching and institutional knowledge, White said. Gausman’s relatively short tenure with the district, combined with Skretta’s lengthy career in Nebraska education, buck that trend.
“This is a unique case in that all of the puzzle pieces don’t match what we typically see for why a school board may choose to keep someone on in an emeritus position,” she said.
Gausman’s time at LPS was far briefer than that of his predecessor, Steve Joel, who helmed the ship for 12 years before retiring. It was also briefer than his own time in Sioux City, Iowa, where he served as superintendent for 14 years before accepting the Lincoln role.
But his tenure at Sioux City came under scrutiny in 2023 after it was revealed that the district had filed a complaint with the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners alleging he had tried to bribe incoming school board members to back his pick for board president. At the time, the LPS board expressed continued confidence in Gausman.
Gausman later filed a lawsuit against several Sioux City school board members, alleging they had violated open meetings laws by improperly calling two closed sessions to discuss filing the complaint against him. A judge ruled that one session violated the law, while the other did not, according to reporting from the Sioux City Journal.
In January 2025, a month after Gausman’s retirement announcement, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners found probable cause to proceed with two more ethics complaints against Gausman filed by the Sioux City school district.
The Flatwater Free Press submitted an open records request seeking emails sent by LPS school board members or associate superintendents that mentioned Gausman from Nov. 1, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2024, in an attempt to learn more about conversations conducted in the weeks before and after the retirement announcement.
Lincoln Public Schools released 178 pages of emails and attachments, but many were either substantially or completely redacted. The district cited exceptions to Nebraska’s open records law concerning attorney-client privilege and personal information.
While Rauner praised Gausman’s accomplishments during his final meeting, Rauner and other board members declined to speak to the press afterward. Emails indicate the board decided not to speak to the media in the interest of fairness after Gausman said he would not do any interviews.
“There’s sort of a balance here, of holding school board members accountable for effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars, while also understanding that this is a human being that we’re talking about,” White said. “And there may be things that happened that cannot be talked about for legal reasons that sort of justify the decision that was made.”
Superintendent pay remains a hot-button issue in Nebraska. Earlier this year, state Sen. Dave Murman, who chairs the Legislature’s Education Committee, introduced a bill seeking to cap superintendent pay at five times the salary and benefits of a first-year teacher. The bill faced opposition from some lawmakers who characterized it as government overreach on an issue that local districts should decide.
In April, State Auditor Mike Foley released a report stating the median and average superintendent salaries in Nebraska are well above their national counterparts. Foley declined to comment on Gausman’s retirement/resignation agreement.
White noted that schools across the U.S. face complicated financial considerations, navigating unpredictable shifts in state and federal funding even as their core mission remains the same.
“This may very well be a good use of dollars,” White said. “But I would hope that the school board was able to have these conversations about how this money is being spent in the context of the broader sort of budget problems that our public schools are facing.”
In March, Gausman filed for an LLC to start his own educational consulting firm, InspirED Vibe Leadership. In addition, he works as a consultant for two other firms — Zeal Education Group in Delaware and McPherson & Jacobson in Nebraska. His predecessor at LPS, Joel, has worked at McPherson & Jacobson since 1996. Gausman joined the firm in 2007.
When asked whether the district felt the superintendent emeritus agreement with Gausman was necessary in retrospect, Rauner said each situation is unique, and the board has to make decisions based on information it has available at the time.
“At that time, that was the decision the Board made based on the information and circumstances,” he wrote in an email. “It is impossible to predict what future circumstances or Board decisions will be.”
This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
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