Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

To preserve their work — and drafts of history — journalists take archiving into their own hands

From loading up the Wayback Machine to meticulous AirTables to 72 hours of scraping, journalists are doing whatever they can to keep their clips when websites go dark. By Hanaa' Tameez.
With the Hyperlocal News Network, TAPinto adds a licensing option to its longtime franchise model
What We’re Reading
The Guardian / Dan Sabbagh
UK police special inquiry team to examine role of Washington Post CEO Will Lewis in email deletions →
“The Met has told the former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown that its standing unit responsible for high-profile cases is reviewing a complaint he had submitted about Lewis after fresh disclosures emerged during civil actions relating to the phone-hacking scandal.”
PolitiFact
PolitiFact is live fact-checking Donald Trump at the 2024 NABJ convention →
“The event is closed to the public, but will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook. ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott, FOX News anchor Harris Faulkner and Semafor politics reporter Kadia Goba will moderate the conversation.”
ProPublica / Justin Elliott, Robert Faturechi and Alex Mierjeski
Trump Media quietly enters deal with a Republican donor who could benefit from second Trump administration →
Trump’s “shares of the company, a meme stock that has soared despite the company generating almost no revenue, are valued at more than $3 billion. That makes up more than half of his estimated net worth. Ethics experts have warned that advertisers, vendors or investors who have political agendas could try to use Trump Media to curry favor. The deal with Davison poses just that potential for undue influence, said Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer.”
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera journalist, cameraman killed in Israeli attack on Gaza →
“The killings on Wednesday bring the total number of Al Jazeera journalists killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war to four.”
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
Reach, the UK’s largest commercial publisher, reports first digital revenue growth since 2022 →
“Content around the Euros, UK general election and Taylor Swift’s Eras tour coming to the UK all in Q2 also bolstered the results.”
Wired / Kate Knibbs
Zombie alt-weeklies are stuffed with AI slop about OnlyFans →
“Former employees are disturbed to see their archival work comingling with SEO porn slop. ‘It’s wrenching in so many ways,’ says former Riverfront Times writer Danny Wicentowski. ‘Like watching a loved home get devoured by vines, or left to rot.'”
Rest of World / Angel Martinez
Filipinos want the country’s biggest YouTube star to be their next president →
“[Raffy] Tulfo, 64, anchors the country’s top-rated public affairs program, Wanted sa Radyo (Wanted on Radio). Many of the cases are also streamed on his YouTube channel Raffy Tulfo in Action, which has more than 28 million subscribers — the largest following for an individual in the country.”
The Atlantic / Helen Lewis
What’s genuinely weird about the online right →
“Its echo chamber is so big and so luxurious — people are out there making millions by interviewing their buddies about how correct they both are about everything — that some of its most influential members have forgotten that they, too, do not live regular lives or hold regular opinions or use the same vocabulary that regular people do.”
Wired / Kate O'Flaherty
Can ChatGPT-4o be trusted with your private data? →
“The catch-all ‘user content’ clause likely covers images and voice data too, says Allan. ‘It’s a data hoover on steroids, and it’s all there in black and white. The policy hasn’t changed significantly with GPT-4o, but given its expanded capabilities, the scope of what constitutes ‘user content’ has broadened dramatically.'”
The Verge / Alex Heath
Meta blames hallucinations after its AI said Trump rally shooting didn’t happen →
“Meta caved on letting its AI assistant answer questions about the shooting and immediately ran into the problem it was trying to avoid.”
The Washington Post / Laura Wagner
How a school district took its spat with a local TV station to the FCC →
“In one example cited by Adams, Minock aired a story suggesting that the school system had cut speech pathologist jobs while spending $11 million on new bathrooms to accommodate transgender students. But Adams said that school officials had previously made it clear to Minock that the system simply eliminated a handful of long-vacant slots while maintaining a number of speech pathologists ‘above the staffing standard.’ The bathroom upgrades, meanwhile, were for all students and staff.”
The Guardian / Ramon Antonio Vargas
Reporter calls his blindness an asset for key Trump shooting interview: “Vision could get in the way” →
“O’Donoghue said he hoped the grace he demonstrated in front of a global audience – under literal fire – leads more of the public to realize ‘that the barriers … often put in the way of disabled people do not need to be there.'”
The New York Times / Katie Robertson
The Stranger in Seattle gets a new owner, with plans for expansion →
“Mr. Walkinshaw said that advertising remained an important part of the revenue mix for the publications, which are free online and in print. The ticketing platform, which is used by many local performers, has also proved to be an important part of the business, he added.”