Tuesday, February 4, 2025 |
| With quippy headlines, a “betting” portal, a tournament bracket, and more, Central da COP is pulling out all the stops to inform Brazilians ahead of the next U.N. Climate Change Conference. By Hanaa' Tameez. |
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| “They’re going to the shop for sense-making, I think. And there’s nothing on the shelf.” By Neel Dhanesha. |
What We’re ReadingThe Atlantic / Charlie Warzel
Elon Musk’s “rapid unscheduled disassembly” of the United States government →“What are DOGE’s metrics for success? If X is our guide, health, functionality, and sustainability are incidental and able to be sacrificed. The end game for Musk seems to be just as it was with Twitter: seize a polarized, inefficient institution; fuse his identity with it; and then use it to punish his enemies and reward his friends. DOGE is a moon-shot program to turn the government into Musk’s personal political weapon.”The Guardian / Robin Buller
“Panic benefits ICE”: Local newsrooms fight back as immigrants face misinformation →“Cityside’s community journalism director, Jacob Simas, says the shift represents a broader transition in how the obligations of local newsrooms to their surrounding communities are understood. ‘We need to see ourselves as service providers,’ Simas said. ‘We’re providing what we think is a really critical service to our communities, which is trustworthy, credible reporting and information resources that people can actually use to better their lives.'”X / Max Tani
Los Angeles Times offers voluntary buyouts to all staff who’ve been at the company longer than two years →Per an internal email, which comes weeks after the historically destructive wildfires: “The difficult financial situation faced by The Times requires us to remain diligent in managing costs.”404 Media / Emanuel Maiberg
AI-generated slop is already in your public library →“On one hand, Hoopla’s gigantic catalog, which includes ebooks, audio books, and movies, is a selling point because it gives librarians access to more for cheaper price. On the other hand, making librarians buy into the entire catalog means that a customer looking for a book about how to diet for a healthier liver might end up borrowing Fatty Liver Diet Cookbook: 2000 Days of Simple and Flavorful Recipes for a Revitalized Liver. The book was authored by Magda Tangy, who has no online footprint, and who has an AI-generated profile picture on Amazon, where her books are also for sale. Note the earring that is only on one ear and seems slightly deformed.”Platformer / Casey Newton
ChatGPT’s deep research might be the first good agent →“Generally speaking, the more you already know about something, the more useful I think deep research is. This may be somewhat counterintuitive; perhaps you expected that an AI agent would be well suited to getting you up to speed on an important topic that just landed on your lap at work, for example. In my early tests, the reverse felt true. Deep research excels for drilling deep into subjects you already have some expertise in, letting you probe for specific pieces of information, types of analysis, or ideas that are new to you.”The Verge / David Pierce
The timeline apps are here, and they’re awesome →“But I suspect timeline apps are exactly the thing we need for the internet we have now. Maybe someday we’ll get fully interoperable everything and life will be magical. Until then, there’s something powerful in taking all your favorite stuff — and I really recommend picking only your favorite stuff — and putting it into one place.”The Wrap / Sean Burch
Fox to launch new streaming service by end of 2025 →“CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the service will be priced ‘relatively low’ and offer ‘existing content and existing brands.’ The yet-to-be-named platform will provide a ‘holistic’ offering of Fox programming, he added, including sports, TV shows and news. Murdoch…said it will be aimed at reaching viewers who do not typically pay for cable and other pay TV services.”Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
USAID and the media in “a time of monsters” →“Ultimately, much of the work that USAID and other donors have supported would simply cease without it, in countries where commercial revenue streams for journalism are restricted by war, authoritarianism, or simple market forces.”Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
The Sun launches £1.99 paywall for premium online content →“The move follows falling website traffic to The Sun website apparently partly in response to the way platforms like Google and Facebook refer people to the site.”Mongabay Environmental News / Rhett Butler
Cambodia denies re-entry to Mongabay journalist who reported on illegal logging →“Flynn, who was elected president of the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia in both 2023 and 2024, has reported for a range of local media in Cambodia, as well as for several international outlets, with a focus on environmental crimes and human rights abuses. From 2022 to 2023, he spent a year investigating illegal logging in the Cardamom Mountains as a fellow at the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN).”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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