We’re back with another issue of The Front Page, our weekly newsletter looking at what made headlines and why those headlines were written. We share The Objective digest, context about a bit more media around journalism, and journalism in a graf, our quote of the week.  

An abbreviated version of our media links is on our Instagram each week, focusing on what a handful of those stories say about how power and identity impact journalism. (Most recent week’s here.)

—James Salanga

🤖 “...Yet another insidious layer of bullsh*t we have to wade through in this technofascist hellscape.” Scalawag was notified of — and quickly confirmed — falsified quotes from a freelance piece it unpublished July 15. The writer, Margaux Blanchard, has been accused of using generative AI in pieces. Scalawag is reviewing its current processes for assuring all work is original from hired journalists and writers.

😵 The number of assaults on the free press from Trump is staggering. From the elimination of the press office at the Pentagon to regulatory pressure from the FCC, this administration has made it a point to attack journalism. This week, the New York Times reported five of its reporters had received subpoenas from the administration.

📺 Even as the current Federal Communications Committee chair accepts gala tickets from CBS, he is proposing a lift on the national ownership cap for broadcasters (currently set at 39% — meaning a broadcaster cannot cover more than 39% of households). Notably, the Nextstar merger far exceeds this cap, but received an FCC waiver to go through with it. The merger is in limbo, as a federal judge granted an injunction to state attorneys general as they challenge the sale of Tegna to Nextstar.

📷 Several hundred freelance photojournalists are turning down work from the Wall Street Journal because of its new contract and “Work Made For Hire” classification, which would reduce their power in negotiating copyright and allow their work to train generative AI.

📮 “You know how critical it is to have a media ecosystem that reveals how state power is exercised, enforced & resisted.” Movement journalism newsroom Prism is running an emergency summer fundraiser to sustain its reporting and keep the outlet alive, reporting that it has “almost no secure funding for next year” after losing $500,000 in philanthropic funding.

Have a story you think we should include in this section of next week’s newsletter? Let us know here or by responding to this email.

This issue was written by Marlee Baldridge and James Salanga. Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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