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Reporting on the Mirror – THE NEW YORK TIMES
You realize, guys, this is not helping, don’t you?
The Nicholas Kristof dustup this week only continues, as his column of claims of Israeli abuse of Palestinian prisoners and the use of “rape dogs” has generated more condemnation and mockery. One indicator of the flawed quality of this entry is that not only has no other news outlet followed up with his charges, but not even The Times has had any additional news items concerning his claims.
https://t.co/860eTKMugW pic.twitter.com/xsqFyP3ptS
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) May 12, 2026
That has not deterred the paper from defending the man. Repeatedly.
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) May 13, 2026
What is additionally revealing is that The Times has now issued its THIRD official statement about his column, so it has fully embraced this problematic piece of journalism.
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) May 13, 2026
DNC PR Firm – POLITICO
We won’t like them when they’re angry!
In what is becoming a trend in this era of redistricting hysteria, we keep getting told that the Democrats are threatening to be on the verge of doing the very things they have already long been doing. We got the claim that Democrats have been lobbying for redistricting reform. Uh-huh. Explain the lack of ANY red districts in New England, or that Illinois removed the GOP district of Adam Kinzinger. Then, earlier this week, Jonathan Martin warned Republicans that pursuing map revisions could lead to them becoming branded as “racists” by Democrats. (Insert eyeroll → Right here.)
Now the latest is Politico informing us that Democrats are getting ready to “Ditch the niceties.” That would be the party that has been in hysterical overdrive since January 2025, and had its party leader last month pledging to enforce “Maximum warfare, everywhere all the time”; THAT “nice” party, Politico?!
After more than a decade of pushing for anti-gerrymandering measures, Dems are gearing up to play political hardball as the GOP gains the redistricting upper hand.
— POLITICO (@politico) May 14, 2026
“We will beat the far-right extremists,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.https://t.co/IujO1Esebj
Stolen Validity – NEW YORK MAGAZINE - INTELLIGENCER
Your robotic writing needs a flesh-and-blood editor.
Drew Harwell of the Washington Post provided a head-turning dose of lifted content. He gives a side-by-side presentation of his paper’s coverage from Sunday about the recent fortunes of The Daily Wire on social media, and then a segment from The New York Magazine’s section of The Intelligencer.
The lede of our Shapiro story on Saturday and the lede of the @NYMag story todayhttps://t.co/P20BkpGhqWhttps://t.co/Ha03RLE3qs pic.twitter.com/64OzrvFcRS
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) May 14, 2026
While not directly copying the text, the content and order of items is nearly identical. It certainly would appear the NY Mag piece was written with A.I.
After being called out for the blatant carbon copy work, the outlet included an attribution to WaPo and a note as a coda.
Update: An @NYMag editor told me they reworked the passage to credit our story and added a note at the end. The writer @RossBarkan hasn't reached out yet, so I'm not entirely sure what happened https://t.co/Ha03RLE3qs pic.twitter.com/0bvPdSv9YW
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) May 14, 2026
Legalized Press-titution – THE ORWELL PRIZE
We, uh, have questions…
The announced shortlist of finalists for The Orwell Prize hs been released. If you are unfamiliar, this is somewhat of the British version of the Pulitzers, with more of a focus on political coverage and other serious issues.
Among the nominees was noted slanted source Al Jazeera, and the BBC for a documentary division, one that had a massive scandal of a documentary last year.
For the record, The Orwell Prize is NOT given for reporting in line with the propaganda seen in “1984.”
We are proud to announce the finalists for the 2026 Orwell Prize for Journalism. Congratulations all - and huge thanks to our expert panel @GregWilliams718 (Chair), Nick Davies, @meenakshirv & @SayeedaWarsi.
— The Orwell Prize (@TheOrwellPrize) May 13, 2026
Explore the shortlists: https://t.co/kncvRHp9n2 pic.twitter.com/gHwsDffE2s
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – THE BBC
And this was something we were told was a vital service.
In direct conflict of media claims that the Trump 2.0 era is ruled by misinformation, the BBC has — well not announced — officially ended its touted fact-check division, called The Verify Blog. The irony is that this adjunct service, which was established with the announced goal of delivering more transparency, has been shelved without any formal statement.
It had been decelerating for a time, and then primarily went on hiatus in early March, just as the Iran conflict ramped up, when one would expect more need for the service. An internal memo declared that the plug had been pulled on the project.
🪦💀 RIP BBC Verify
— The Free Speech Union (@SpeechUnion) May 11, 2026
The BBC has quietly shelved its Verify blog after it failed to attract key audiences.
Readers had been promised daily updates from fact-checking journalists explaining and sharing their work.
One BBC staff member said: “It’s ironic because the Verify Live… pic.twitter.com/pZ1d4D6E9a
