In this week’s media round-up, we mention a (fifth) birthday — the KC Defender’s! It’s nice to have something to celebrate, and I’ve long admired the Defender’s expansive abolitionist work, from supporting direct community through mutual aid like grocery distros and sustaining important archives to reporting on tips from Black community members that may have flown under the radar.

We’ve also included a story that echoes Jennie Rose Halperin’s Civic Media Series piece on libraries’ potential as a locus for civic change.

Other bits of media in our round-up include a Q&A expanding on the sharp de-prioritization of climate reporting and two follow-ups on stories we’ve followed before: CBS changes and the Seattle Times’ union fight. Find an abbreviated version of our media links on Instagram each week. (Previous week’s here.)

—James Salanga

👏 As major artificial intelligence companies dominate the news in billion-dollar deals, a library in South Philadelphia is among many libraries hosting classes on how to disable AI tools on phones – and it was a massive hit. A gap between progressives and mainstream news priorities, including partnerships with companies like OpenAI, has also been contributing to the growth of an alternative media ecosystem.

🎂 The Kansas City Defender is five years old. The abolitionist outlet has grown from Ryan Sorrell’s personal response to white media’s coverage (or lack thereof) of Black movements, and is now a staff of 14 people and a bookstore. “We will deepen our political education, expand our understanding of the world and one another, and continue refining how we respond to the conditions around us. Like water, we will forever move forward, toward the places where we are most needed.”

🌎 As media consolidates into the hands of the powerful few, their incentive to fund critical coverage declines, Emily Atkin of HEATED told the Future Earth Substack. Atkin sees climate journalism disappearing and climate change worsening as inversely related: there is less support for climate reporting as conditions get more unbearable.

⏱ FOLLOW-UP: After the noisy departure of high-level talent at 60 Minutes, “editor-in-chief” Bari Weiss’ new hires for the show have been met with skepticism. The storied CBS News show has faced a series of controversies after Weiss’ hiring, including when Weiss allegedly asked former host Scott Pelley to alter coverage of ICE agents killing Minnesotans earlier this year.

🏔 FOLLOW-UP: The Seattle Times Union finally received a wage counterproposal after weeks of organizing and writing to management…  “but the company’s wage proposal of an extra $20 per week was so insultingly low that we cannot accept it,” the union’s Instagram post said. In the past few months, the union and management have exchanged unfair labor practice charges against each other as management has both denied AI protections for media workers other than reporters and taken weeks to respond to the union’s wage demands.

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.

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/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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