Story Hunters

For decades I worked with my fellow reporters producing stories. We would study the patterns in the events we were following, trying to connect the dots so we could beat other reporters to the story.

In the process, there were times that we were tempted to cut corners.

During the process of landing a big investigative story, we usually had identified a bad guy or a group of bad guys who were responsible for the situation we were trying to expose.

As part of that work, we would become interested in the bad guy’s psychology, and on occasion we would consult with psychologists to better understand that.

This was particularly important when we were tracking ongoing behavior, such as a series of crimes by a perpetrator not yet apprehended by the authorities.

So in those cases we were much like cops or intelligence agents, some of whom were often tracking the same targets as we were.

This is how journalists acquire some of their most valuable sources -- fellow investigators with similar objectives, which in all cases is catching the bad guy.

But this is also where problems can develop. One issue is when journalists get confused about whose agenda they are pursuing. As long as there is alignment, there is nothing wrong with a reporter and, say, a D.A. working to break the same case.

But their objectives are different -- the prosecutor is seeking to build a legal case, whereas the reporter is seeking to tell an accurate story.

While its may seem that those objectives are consistent with one another, the devil is in the details. There is a world of difference between what is legally provable in a court of law and what is publishable.

While all of this is happening in real time, any reasonably self-aware investigator starts turning inward to ask a few questions: “Why am I doing this work? Who am I to judge others? Which ends justify which means?”

There are many different possible answers to these questions. All I know for sure is that to continue with this kind of work over many decades, you need to have found the ones that work for you.

Otherwise you will stop.

(This is an edited version from an essay I wrote in 2021.)

HEADLINES:

• Trump to address U.N. General Assembly and meet with world leaders as he navigates Iran, Gaza, Ukraine conflicts (CBS)

• Natalie Harp Reportedly Showed Trump Critical News Coverage Before Media Ban (Forbes)

• Major TV networks stand with CNN, decline to replace its White House pool crew (CNN)

• President’s UN trip will not have a TV camera (Axios)

• Paramount and state AGs settle lawsuit, allowing Warner Bros. merger to proceed (CNBC)

• Paramount wins Warner Bros takeover after settling states, union lawsuits (Reuters)

• Newsom Signs Bills Meant to Prevent Trump’s Interference in Midterms (NYT)

• ICE officer shoots Venezuelan man delivering food in Austin, lawyer says (NBC)

• Trump ally Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children (Guardian)

• US strikes on alleged drug boats could be crimes against humanity, says UN (BBC)

• As Trump and Xi Meet, the U.S. and China Are ‘Shin-Kicking Under the Table’ (NYT)

• Russia’s pro-Putin party set to win election as Ukraine exposes war’s growing reach into Moscow (CNBC)

• Auto Industry Workers Protest in Germany Against Job Cuts, Industrial Policy (WSJ)

• Even Republicans Are Figuring Out That Pete Hegseth Is a Disaster (Nation)

• Inside the squishy toy nightmare (BI)

• California declares statewide emergency ahead of epic El Niño storms (LAT)

• Gates Foundation launches coalition to build more representative language data sets for AI (AP)

• Is this how the world ends? Extinction scenarios are taking over the AI debate. (WP)

• US proposes AI incident alert system in talks with China, Bessent says (AP)

• Report: Other Tailgate Looks More Fun (Onion)

Seeking Truths

Forty-some years ago, when we were writing our textbook, Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets the Story, Dan Noyes and I described what we called the hypothesis-driven method of journalism.

It’s a tricky business, this hypothesis methodology. You’ve got to have some basic evidence that indicates a pattern plus a suspicion, an instinct, a guess about what you’ll find as you keep searching.

But a hypothesis is not the same as a conspiracy theory, and you don’t publish your hypothesis. You use it, just like a scientist would, to investigate where the truth lies. We understand that this may frustrate true believers who wish reporters would just substantiate their theories.

An example historically is the JFK assassination on November 22, 1963. Perhaps no other event in the 20th century inspired more complex yet largely unfounded theories.

Many wondered how something like this could have happened without a conspiracy. As years passed, even though no credible evidence emerged to substantiate any of the wilder theories, certain individuals continued to stoke the conspiracy fires and keep them burning.

Oliver Stone exploited this more skillfully than most, imagining how the conspiracy might have unfolded in his movie, “JFK”, which has shaped subsequent generations’ views about the event. That he patched in real footage, including the Zapruder footage that is the only known visual evidence of the shooting, made his docudrama feel more realistic than it actually was.

As a result, if you ask people, say, in their 50s or younger today about the assassination, they probably believe we all witnessed it on television as it happened. But that is incorrect: Nobody saw it on TV, because there was no live coverage of Kennedy riding in his motorcade at all. 

In fact we never saw any video evidence until a full decade later, when the Zapruder film of Kennedy’s head exploding was finally declassified and released to the public.

All of this only complicated the effort of journalists like me who actually tried to investigate the circumstances surrounding the assassination. Maintaining our commitment to stick to the facts is not as sexy as publishing fantasies based on conjecture. But all we can do is stay alert and adjust our hypothesis in light of any new evidence as it emerges. We can’t afford to get wedded to any one hypothesis until and unless the preponderance of evidence becomes obvious.

Otherwise all you end up with are conspiracy theories.

To this day, whether someone else in addition to assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in the Kennedy murder remains unproven. And that is the truth.

(This is an edited version of an essay I’ve published previously.)

HEADLINES:

• Networks Suspend Pool Coverage of Trump After CNN Is Barred — The five networks that have suspended their pool coverage of President Trump — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC — just issued a joint statement: “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.” (NYT)

• CNN, MS NOW, Politico reporters denied access to White House following Trump ban (NPR)

• Trump Faced Loss After Loss. He Then Turned to a Familiar Target: The Press. (NYT)

• North Korea launches 2 ballistic missiles toward the sea and dials up pressure on the US (AP)

• In Significant Escalation, Houthis Attack Saudi Capital (NYT)

• Rising gas prices frustrate voters. Trump says it's an 'inexpensive price to pay' for the Iran war (AP)

• German Chancellor Merz vows to stay on despite ‘disaster’ in state election (BBC)

• White House Moves to Take Control of N.I.H. Grants (NYT)

• ICE agent shoots and wounds man in Austin, Texas, officials say (AP)

• Scientists heard a knock at the door. It was a pelican in need of help. (WP)

• How hard will the coming El Niño hit California? Here’s one key clue (SFC)

• The politics of A.I. (New Yorker)

• Trump and sons invest heavily in AI economy as he resists calls for slowdown (WP)

• AI safety conversations have gotten unbelievable (TechCrunch)

• Why China is pushing back on US warnings over rapid AI development (Guardian)

• China’s A.I. Makes a Great Leap Forward. But Its Economy Is Falling Behind. (NYT)

• Hackers who broke into OpenAI warn the AI industry has a security problem (WP)

• Creating a Kill Switch to Shut Down a Rogue A.I. Is Harder Than It Sounds (NYT)

• Landlord Takes Hornets’ Side (Onion)

On a Free Press

• “The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed. … If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.” — Hannah Arendt, political theorist

• “In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” — Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court justice

• “Power can be very addictive. And it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.” — George W. Bush

• “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” — Thomas Jefferson

• “Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive. ... And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment – the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution – not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply ‘give the public what it wants’ — but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.” — John F. Kennedy

• “But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.” ― The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

HEADLINES:

• Trump says planned arch will be ‘military complex’ for drones, snipers (WP)

• Trump’s proposed Washington arch to become sniper, drone facility (Axios)

• Inside the White House media ban (Politico)

• News Outlets Express Solidarity After Trump Bars Some Reporters (NYT)

• Google’s Gemini AI hacked into other companies, adding to ‘rogue’ AI incidents (WP)

• Trump says he’s creating an AI force and appointing a czar amid concerns over the rapidly developing tech (NBC)

• Will AI models achieve the ability to improve autonomously? Leading labs say the scenario is near (AP)

• Democrats dump on data centers (Reuters)

• Trump Calls A.I. Fears a Hoax. Inside the White House, the Debate Is More Complex. (NYT)

• Behind Trump’s public confidence, his private view of midterms is sobering (WP)

• Republicans Reel on the Midterm Map as Deep-Red Areas Come Into Play (NYT)

• ‘Musk’ film is terrifying and engrossing, and has drawn the tech titan’s ire (WP)

• Civil Rights Groups Sue to Keep Armed Agents Away From Voting Sites (NYT)

• North Korea fires two ballistic missiles off east coast in three hours (Reuters)

• Houthis say they targeted Saudi capital with ballistic missiles (BBC)

• UN report details sexual violence in Ukraine war (Reuters)

• Largest attack on Moscow sees Ukraine fire hundreds of drones, mayor says (BBC)

• Israel’s Qatargate Scandal (New Yorker)

• USPS’ cost cuts come with a price: Slower mail (Axios)

• Higher interest rates and AI safety fears put the stock market to the test last week (CNBC)

• The Goal of Contemporary Journalism (Atlantic)

• China’s embodied intelligence is moving from stage to factory floor (Global Times)

• AI-Generated ‘Actress’ Tilly Norwood Starts Rambling in Cantonese During Piers Morgan Interview (Gizmodo)

• Small AI models let drones autonomously identify and attack battlefield targets (ArsTechnica)

• My AI assistant is deeply annoying — and that’s the least of it (WP)

• Olivia Rodrigo Releases Fantasy Tabletop Game ‘The High Winter Elves Of Girlville’ (Onion)

 

The Tyrant's Media Ban

In a revealing slip of the tongue Friday, Trump argued that the reporters he didn’t like shouldn’t be able to come into “my… (pause) … the people’s house.” The tyrant clearly considers the White House “his.”

Besides the three outlets he banned, Trump also threatened the New York Times, the Washington Post and the rest of the “fake news” with future bans.

Trump’s purported ban is unconstitutional and will not stand up to legal challenges, but it is another of his repeated attempts to accumulate unrestrained power. And it will result in disruptions among the media outlets he attacked in the short term.

This is the latest evidence that we have a very dangerous man in the White House who represents the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War.

His attacks on the press will ultimately fail, but the First Amendment may be wounded in the process. And as long as Trump remains in power, his assault on democracy will continue, weakening our most vital institutions one by one.

HEADLINES:

• Trump Says Bans CNN, MS NOW and Politico From White House (NYT)

• Trump’s authoritarian mindset can’t handle dissent from his appointees (Guardian)

• US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say (CNN)

• More U.S. troops have died amid Iran war than Pentagon has disclosed publicly (WP)

• Postal Service chief says work stopped on computer system key to Trump effort to limit mail voting (AP)

• U.S. Has Reached Security Deal on Greenland, Trump Says (NYT)

• Judge says Trump can’t demolish Kennedy Center. And, lawsuits target voter intimidation (NPR)

• Thousands join protest outside Kennedy Center, expressing concern that Trump might tear it down (AP)

• Republicans Reel on the Midterm Map as Deep-Red Areas Come Into Play (NYT)

• Judge rules EPA illegally terminated $7 billion solar program intended to help poorer Americans (AP)

• ‘You’re Eroding Trust’: What Trump Shifting Tens of Millions in Military Aid Means for U.S. Alliances (Time)

• US military moving drones to South America ahead of anticipated counternarcotics operations (CNN)

• F.B.I. Temporarily Halted Cooperation With Canada Over References to 9/11 (NYT)

• Russia's mass deployment of repurposed training missiles, which has driven its aerial onslaught on Ukraine to record levels. (Reuters)

• Trump Wants Putin to End the War. He May Offer Russia Business Deals First. (NYT)

• Trump tells Axios he’s approaching major crossroads in Iran war (Axios)

• Millions of people have crossed into the United States over the past decade. But what happened after the border? (AP)

• RFK Jr.’s Brazen Reassurance to Anti-Vaxxers (Atlantic)

• Lindsay Clancy holdout juror says he had no doubt she deliberately killed her children (BBC)

• Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds (Stanford)

• An M.I.T. Report Warns A.I. Is Causing ‘Cognitive Surrender.’ Universities Are in a Bind. (NYT)

• California Gov. Newsom issues executive order to rein in AI ‘before it’s too late’ (CNBC)

• The fix for rogue AI agents could be more AI (TechCrunch)

• How Chinese AI Radicalizes (ChinaTalk)

• Why China Isn’t Getting Existential About A.I. (New Yorker)

• Wake up, people. What we should actually fear, near term, is not so much rogue superintelligence as unleashed agentic AI causing hacking the internet at scale. (Marcus on AI)

• The Awesome and Alarming A.I. Visions of Anthropic’s C.E.O. (NYT)

• They hacked a TikTok user’s camera, with help from free AI (WP)

• New Orleans Pelicans Can’t Help But Notice They’re Not On NBA Schedule This Year (Onion)

Storytellers

Of all the courses I taught over a long teaching career, only one was explicitly about writing.

All of the others focused on journalism methodology — how to gather information and validate, organize and defend it once published.

But there is another component to the whole process and that is how to tell a story once it’s in your hands. Partly in reaction to receiving too many poorly-told story drafts, I incorporated “how to investigate the story” into my teaching curriculum..

The problem was and is that students (and most everybody else) gets too caught up in the twists and turns of a reasonably complicated story to stay in control of the narrative. They just surrender and let the details take over.

To counter this we studied pace, rhythm, structure, character development and transitions. We talked about beginnings and endings. If I were to teach a course on story-telling today we would read short stories by writers like Chekov and listen to songs by Dolly Pardon and watch movies like Casablanca.

Some people seem to be natural story-tellers but the rest of us can learn to be better through hard work and practice. 

So that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

HEADLINES:

• AI has transformed the Pentagon’s aging networks into a national security risk. (WP)

• A supermajority wants to slow AI down (Silver Bulletin)

• Why is China less worried about an AI dystopia than the US? (CNN)

• How, Exactly, Could A.I. Kill Us? (New Yorker)

• Trump Defended A.I. Data Centers on Truth Social, and Commenters Clapped Back (NYT)

• Liability, regulation, and AI’s new false dichotomy (Marcus on AI)

• Britain’s King Charles will urge leading artificial intelligence executives to ensure the technology remains “firmly in the service of humanity” when he meets them in Scotland, as warnings ‌mount about AI’s potential risks. (Reuters)

• Russians vote in elections with no party opposing Putin or war in Ukraine (Euronews)

• 2 ships attacked in Strait of Hormuz as Trump says next move could be to “annihilate” regime (CBS)

• Gas prices are about to take a big jump, analysts say, with the worst still to come (WP)

• Speaker Johnson recesses the House early as GOP lawmaker pushes Hegseth impeachment (AP)

• Why Karl Rove, a father of the modern Texas GOP, is voting for a Democrat (WP)

• Barbra Streisand criticized President Donald Trump‘s “unchecked ego” amid the ongoing debacle surrounding the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (Rolling Stone)

• Trump photo appears to reference Kennedy Center demolition, judge orders advance notice of any move to knock it down (CNBC)

• Trump’s arch will harm historic sites but must proceed, federal officials say (WP)

• UN experts say grounds to believe US committed war crimes in Iran strikes (BBC)

• Tens of thousands flee as Iran-backed rebels draw Yemen into the wider war (AP)

• White House pulls stalled ICE director nominee (Politico)

• Canada’s Mark Carney and the EU shrug off Trump’s threats, looking to forge an “Alliance for the Future” (CBS)

• Trump Wanted Canada as the 51st State. He Ended Up Pushing It Toward the European Union. (NYT)

• Lindsay Clancy holdout juror says he had no doubt she deliberately killed her children (BBC)

• Inside the rising counterculture of Silicon Valley smokers (BI)

• PGA Announces Golf Will Be Loud Now (Onion)

Time for the Goods

Over the past week, the links to AI stories in my daily headlines have gone from the bottom of the list to the top.

Why?

Because we’ve reached that moment when we all have to know this stuff. I’ve focused a lot of attention on Plan A from the AI Futures Project because I think it is a reasonable scenario for the steps forward we should take as a species to survive extinction at the hands of super intelligent AI.

I can hardly believe I just wrote “survive extinction” but I had to.

And yet I remain optimistic humanity can get through this.

Why?

Because there are more good people in the world than bad people — perhaps only by a whisker — and the good people should prevail.

At present that is happening. All sorts of good people inside the AI industry are calling on the rest of us to help them slow down the existential threat of runaway AI.

What can we do?

One easy option is to read the plan. Another is to skip the plan and just support the nonprofit doing this work. Or call your representative in the House of Representatives or the Senate and urge them to get to work on AI.

HEADLINES:

• OpenAI Discloses Six New Incidents of ‘Concerning’ A.I. Behavior (NYT)

• Zuckerberg distances Meta from calls for a coordinated approach on an AI slowdown (AP)

• Sam Altman says trust me; Jensen Huang says everything is going to be fine; Bernie Sanders says AI is more dangerous than nukes (Marcus on AI)

• Are We All Doomed? (New Yorker)

• The Liftoff Scenario That Terrifies A.I. Doomsayers (NYT)

• OpenAI's rogue agents probed Hugging Face for weaknesses two months before its major hack (Reuters)

• Americans are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of AI (AP)

• How A.I. Risks Are Splitting Silicon Valley and Washington (NYT)

• Carney says Canada will decide its own partnerships after Trump calls EU proposal ‘laughable’ (CNBC)

• Battle with Trump is sending Canada into the arms of the E.U. (WP)

• Trump’s frustration hits a boiling point with loss after loss (CNN)

• Trump Administration Moves to Gut a Core Endangered Species Protection (NYT)

• Iowa Republicans in battleground House races vote to halt Trump's ability to continue the Iran war (AP)

• GOP candidates are largely ignoring Trump’s midterm advice, Post analysis shows (WP)

• Fed Raises Interest Rates in Push for ‘Timelier’ Retreat in Inflation (NYT)

• Kennedy Center closes as Trump threatens to stop repairs over naming fight (WP)

• UN-backed experts cite possible US war crimes in Iran strikes (AP)

• A Saudi coalition says a Houthi drone was destroyed near Mecca (Reuters)

• Russian drone strike on a passenger bus in Ukraine kills 5 people and wounds at least 7 others (AP)

• Saudi Arabia Faces ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ After Being Rebuffed by Trump (NYT)

• Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was found guilty ‌of war crimes by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal. He was sentenced to 25 ⁠years in prison for crimes including murder, torture and illegal detention. (Reuters)

• Amazon’s next move could reshape how America shops — all over again (BI)

• What the Sydney Sweeney nudity controversy is really about (WP)

• Is There Anything a Fruit Fly Brain Can’t Do? Models of the insect’s nervous system have been trained to solve a Rubik’s Cube, play video games and even parallel park a car. (NYT)

• Congress Passes $430,000/Hour Minimum Wage For Billionaires (Onion)

Nation on Edge

As the midterm elections approach, it’s worth remembering that the beauty of our system is the “little people” who help make sure it works.

They turn over their garages for polling places, gather up and transport the ballots, count the votes and accept the results in victory or defeat. 

But this year election officials are steeling themselves for a frightening possibility — that as Reuters says in a special report “the biggest threat to November’s elections might come not from foreign meddling or technical failures, but from the Trump administration itself.”

• “Reuters interviewed more than 50 state and local election officials from both political parties, including a dozen secretaries of state, the top election officials in their states. Nearly all said they are adopting new strategies to prepare for political interference, misinformation, cyber attacks and even threats of violence ahead of the midterms..“

• “Their efforts span jurisdictions large and small, in areas controlled by Trump’s Republican Party as well as the opposition Democratic Party.”

• “The preparations reflect growing alarm among state and local officials that the biggest threat to November’s elections might come not from foreign meddling or technical failures, but from the Trump administration itself, as the president seeks to expand the federal government’s role in elections…”

• “More than a dozen local and state election officials said they are hiring outside lawyers or seeking legal training for themselves and their staff to prepare for potential demands by the administration for access to sensitive voting records or election equipment.”

• “Nearly twice that many said they are expanding public outreach and social media campaigns to counter misinformation, including the false claims made by Trump and Republican allies that voting machines are unreliable and mail-in voting is inherently corrupt.”

• “And most said they are scrambling to fill gaps left by the Trump administration’s cuts to programs that help safeguard elections from cyber attacks and physical security threats. That includes ongoing work to fortify election offices with camera systems and bulletproof glass – a trend that began after Trump disputed his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, igniting waves of violent threats by Trump supporters against election workers.”

There is much more in this article, which captures the mood among those on the frontlines of a nation on edge. It’s most definitely worth a read.

HEADLINES:

• With Less Than Two Months Left, Here’s Who We Think Will Win the Midterms (NYT)

• US election officials preparing for chaos ahead of the midterms. (Reuters)

• Canada invited to become first ‘associate member’ of the EU (Euronews)

• Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board votes to immediately close venue for renovations (NBC)

• Kennedy Center stood as a symbol of the importance of arts for over 50 years (WP)

• Trump’s Name Must Stay Off Kennedy Center, Judge Rules (NYT)

• ICE is quietly firing new hires. For one recruit, it was devastating. (WP)

• US orbital weapons acknowledgment a landmark moment, US Space Command official says (Reuters)

• What the closure of Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline could mean for oil flows (AP)

• Trump Approves $2.8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, Including 40,000 One-Ton Bombs (NYT)

• Iran war has led to US munitions shortfalls, Pentagon inspector confirms (BBC)

• Trump’s war shifts clean energy into high gear everywhere but here (Money Trail)

• Gavin Newsom Says He Won’t Run in 2028 if Kamala Harris Does (NYT)

• 3 dead after news helicopter reporting for NBC L.A. crashes while covering fatal bus collision (NBC)

• Lead you absorbed as a child may cause dementia as you age (WP)

• The Bay Area has become a brutal place to start a career — and not just in tech (SFC)

• Senate Votes to Block Crypto Bill in Major Blow to the Industry (NYT)

• Leaders at OpenAI, Google and Anthropic have reportedly been meeting regularly to discuss establishing a regulatory framework for the artificial intelligence industry, and President Donald Trump is not a fan. [HuffPost]

• The timing of AI leaders’ calls for a slowdown is too convenient to ignore (BI)

• China is preparing for the risk of AI escaping human control. (Reuters)

• China’s Top Spy Chief Warns A.I. Is a Threat to Party Rule (NYT)

• AI companies buoyed the U.S. economy. What happens if they slow down? (WP)

• As A.I. Fears Rise, Experts Suggest Focusing on the Humans in Charge (NYT)

• We’re not ready for superpersistent AI (Silver Bulletin)

• As the world debates the risks of AI, China closes the technology gap with the US (AP)

• Last-Ever Global Warming Report Released For Posterity (Onion)