Latest news with #investigativeJournalism
National Post
01-08-2025
- Business
- National Post
Alister Adams: AI threatens the lifeblood of democracy
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Google's AI Overviews pose yet another challenge to news publishers. Government and industry must adapt quickly Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP Imagine a world without investigative journalists. Thanks to Google's AI Overviews (AIOs), that future may not be far off. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors AIOs promise instant answers — but at a potentially devastating cost. These summaries, automatically generated by Google, increasingly appear at the top of search results. The intent is to keep users within Google's ecosystem and eliminate the need to click through to source websites. AIOs first launched in the United States in May 2024 and expanded to over 100 countries by October. AIOs are the clearest example yet of 'Google Zero' — a term coined by Nilay Patel of the Verge — describing Google's aim to keep users entirely within its ecosystem, delivering answers, education — and even purchases — with zero clicks to an external site. The fallout? A potential death spiral for journalism. This newsletter tackles hot topics with boldness, verve and wit. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays) By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again As marketers, we've seen AIOs disrupt traffic patterns across the web. Analysts report AI overviews now appear on roughly 16 per cent of U.S. keyword volume — and as much as 55 per cent of all search queries, depending on how you define AIO coverage. Brands have already seen click-through rates drop — organic traffic has dropped 15–64 per cent, with an average decline of around 35 per cent, depending on the study. News organizations, with their reliance on clicks for ad revenue, are hit particularly hard. The appeal for users is obvious: quick, clean answers, often with citations. But those citations don't translate into traffic. Worse still, AIOs are prone to 'hallucinations' — confidently serving up misinformation. That might be laughable when AI suggests eating rocks for nutrients, but it's dangerous when applied to current events and news. Why does this matter? Because journalism isn't just content. It's accountability. It's Woodward and Bernstein exposing Watergate. The Boston Globe uncovering the Catholic Church's abuse scandal. The New York Times revealing Harvey Weinstein's crimes. These stories changed the world. Without clicks, the business model that supports such reporting collapses. Journalism, and especially investigative journalism, is expensive and time-consuming. As ad dollars have dried up — first in print, then digital — newsrooms have shrunk. Print ad revenue has dropped 75–80 per cent since its 2005 peak. Digital ads and subscriptions haven't filled the gap. And now AIOs are accelerating the decline. The journalism crisis isn't theoretical — it's measurable. Between 2008 and 2021, U.S. newsroom employment has dropped by roughly 26 per cent, with newspaper jobs falling more than 50 per cent. In the past two years alone, more than 21,000 media jobs have been lost, and the cuts continue: in early 2025 — according to reports — the Washington Post laid off four per cent of its staff, HuffPost slashed 22 per cent of its newsroom and the L.A. Times has cut its editorial staff by half in just three years. This advertisement has not loaded yet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. These aren't just numbers — they're watchdogs gone missing, stories left untold and communities left in the dark. And as more local papers vanish at a rate of two per week, tens of millions of Americans and Canadians now live in 'news deserts' without reliable local coverage. This hollowing out of journalism isn't just an industry collapse — it's a democratic emergency. Google's long-term vision seems clear: a user journey entirely within its platform, from awareness to purchase. To Google, news is just another puzzle piece – scraped, summarized, and served without compensation. Social platforms aren't any better: influencers on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube monetize headlines created by reporters, while newsrooms see nothing. Some governments have attempted to intervene. Canada's Online News Act resulted in Google making a $100-million annual licensing agreement with Canadian publishers. And I must commend Google for this. And to be clear — this is not an attack on Google. My personal experience with Google as a business partner has always been excellent. But I cannot ignore and stay silent to what I see happening. Meta, meanwhile, chose to block Canadian news entirely. In the U.S., proposed legislation to allow collective bargaining for media organizations stalled before a vote. Regulation is slow. Platform disruption is fast. What can be done? Platforms must treat journalism like the way we license music, film or television content. If Reddit and Stack Overflow can negotiate licensing deals with AI providers, so can newsrooms. One challenge is that news media is so decentralized, no single entity holds enough clout. A possible solution? Establishing a cross-platform journalism licensing coalition, similar to those used in the music industry. Regardless, Google should share ad revenue based on citations, not just clicks. Social media should compensate original sources when news drives engagement. These aren't radical ideas — they're necessary lifelines. News organizations must evolve, too. They need to think like content creators, not just publishers, in order to stay relevant. But they can't survive on hustle alone. This isn't just a business problem. It's a democratic crisis. If we allow investigative journalism to die, we risk a world where corruption festers unchecked, where the powerful act with impunity and where truth becomes a casualty of convenience. Journalists shine a light in dark places. Without them, darkness spreads. A zero-click future can't become a zero-accountability one. Journalism protects democracy. It's time we protected journalism. Alister Adams is a father, husband and president of Saatchi & Saatchi Canada.
The Guardian
25-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
From 60 Minutes to Colbert, it's been a dark time for CBS. But there's a ray of hope
The past few weeks have brought a torrent of bad news for those who care about CBS News – the home of the legendary Walter Cronkite and a great deal of investigative journalism over many decades. Most notably, the network's parent company, Paramount Global, capitulated to the Trump administration, unnecessarily – and wimpily – settling a lawsuit by paying $16m, purportedly for a future presidential library. Trump had sued over a story on 60 Minutes, the network's flagship program, claiming it was deceptively edited to favor his then-rival for the presidency, Kamala Harris. After the settlement was announced, Trump crowed that the network had 'defrauded the American people' and was desperate to settle; he also claimed that another $20m in advertising and programming was also coming his way. Days later, another troubling sign. The network decided to dump The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the top-rated show on late-night television, whose host has been relentlessly critical of Trump. Network bosses claimed the move was financial, since the show was losing money. But it wasn't hard to connect the dots and see this as part of an all-out effort to appease the president. The Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren called for answers in a Variety op-ed, asking: 'Are we sure that this wasn't part of a wink-wink deal between the president and a giant corporation that needed something from his administration?' That 'something' is federal clearance for an $8bn merger between Paramount and another giant media corporation, Skydance. (The latter company is doing its kowtowing part, promising to 'evaluate any complaints of bias' at CBS News, appoint an ombudsman to keep watch, and ensure there are no diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Paramount. The proposed merger got approval on Thursday from the FCC, which means that it's essentially a done deal.) Colbert's on-air commentary on the settlement was brutal: 'This kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It's 'big, fat bribe'.' Could it be a complete coincidence that The Late Show was canceled three days later? Amid all this, one positive development this week shone through like a wan blade of light. A new executive producer for 60 Minutes – the top editorial role – got the nod. To the relief of many there, Tanya Simon is no outsider who might have been tapped to make the show more Trump-friendly. Simon has deep roots at the revered program – a 25-year veteran of 60 Minutes, she is also the daughter of the late CBS correspondent Bob Simon. She has been the acting executive producer since the previous executive producer, Bill Owens, resigned under pressure, saying he felt he no longer had the full editorial independence he had always enjoyed. Her appointment, of course, doesn't mean no political pressure will be exerted from corporate bosses above her, who seem to be under Trump's sway. 'There is great fear about what comes next,' one CBS News staffer told CNN earlier this month. Simon's appointment offers at least a modest measure of reassurance. She 'understands what makes '60 minutes' tick,' said the news division's president, Tom Cibrowski, in a memo to staff. She's also the first woman, in the show's nearly six-decade history, to be at the helm. If the choice had been a right-leaning newcomer, it's a good bet that top quality talent like Scott Pelley – a former chief White House correspondent and a former anchor of the CBS Evening News – would have quickly headed for the door. As for the future of CBS, once admired enough to be dubbed the Tiffany Network, the outlook is mixed. 'I know that the C in CBS stands for Columbia, but … it ought to be called the Contradiction Broadcasting Network,' wrote Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch. That's always been true, he argued, given the bright journalistic legacy of Cronkite and Edward R Murrow along with some ugly chapters in the distant past. That includes the time when – under fire from the FBI director J Edgar Hoover in the late 1940s – the network demanded that all its employees sign a loyalty oath to the US government. When it comes to integrity, that history of contradiction is bad enough. Capitulation, though, is far worse. And given recent events, it's easy to make the case that CBS – or, more accurately, its parent company – deserves that acronym even more. Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
Free Malaysia Today
24-07-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
No solid evidence of Jho Low living in Shanghai, says Saifuddin
Two investigative journalists had claimed that Low Taek Jho is currently living in a mansion in Green Hills, an 'ultra high-end neighbourhood' in Shanghai. (File pic) KUALA LUMPUR : Police have yet to find any credible evidence to support claims that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, is currently residing in Shanghai, China, using a fake Australian passport. Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said Malaysian authorities were working closely with international enforcement agencies to verify Low's exact whereabouts. 'I want to emphasise that the ministry, through the police, is maintaining close and ongoing cooperation with international law enforcement agencies. 'So far, claims about his location and use of a fake passport have not been backed by any verified or credible evidence. 'These remain claims by the journalists in question,' he told a press conference after visiting the National Scam Response Centre at Sasana Kijang, Bank Negara Malaysia. The claims were made by investigative journalists Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, who said they gathered evidence from various sources and newly uncovered documents which showed that Low was living in a mansion in Green Hills, an 'ultra high-end neighbourhood' in Shanghai. They added that Low was using a fake Australian passport under the Greek name 'Constantinos Achilles Veis' to hide his identity. Hope and Wright also claimed that Low was now working as a 'behind-the-scenes strategist for the Chinese government'. His role allegedly includes helping sanctioned companies from China 'navigate difficulties around the world'. Hope and Wright are former Wall Street Journal journalists who broke many of the key early 1MDB stories and co-wrote the book 'Billion Dollar Whale' about the scandal. On Tuesday, Wright alleged that Low had used the fake Australian passport to register a company in the UK. The firm, called Wisdom Opensto Technology Service Enterprise Ltd, is said to have been incorporated on March 13, with a registered office in Cardiff, South Glamorgan.
Free Malaysia Today
19-07-2025
- Free Malaysia Today
Jho Low living lavishly in China with fake Australian passport, say journos
Investigative journalists Bradley Hope and Tom Wright said they have evidence suggesting that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho is holding a fake Australian passport with the name 'Constantinos Achilles Veis'. PETALING JAYA : Fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, is allegedly residing in a high-end neighbourhood in Shanghai and holding a fake Australian passport, according to investigative journalists Bradley Hope and Tom Wright. In a YouTube livestream yesterday, the duo said they gathered evidence from various sources and newly-uncovered documents which showed that Low is living in a mansion in Green Hills, an 'ultra high-end neighbourhood' in Shanghai, China. They added that Low was using a fake Australian passport with the Greek name 'Constantinos Achilles Veis' to hide his identity, Variety reported. Hope and Wright also claimed that Low was now working as a 'behind-the-scenes strategist for the Chinese government'. His role allegedly includes helping sanctioned companies from China 'navigate difficulties around the world'. Hope and Wright are former Wall Street Journal journalists who broke many of the key early 1MDB stories and co-wrote the book 'Billion Dollar Whale' about the scandal. In March, it was reported that several investigative journalists and cryptocurrency enthusiasts had launched a meme coin bounty system in the latest effort to locate Low's whereabouts. Hope had said that the bounty system using the meme coin known as $JHOLOW was aimed at obtaining tip-offs on Low. Describing it as a 'grand experiment in participatory journalism', Hope said it was a test to see whether a coin's value can be driven not just by speculation, but by the value of information it helps uncover. Information on Low's whereabouts would be vetted by a team of moderators, with those who channel verified and useful tip-offs to be rewarded with the crypto token. Different bounty amounts will be given depending on the value of information shared. Low, who has been charged in Malaysia and the US over allegations that he orchestrated the theft of US$4.5 billion from 1MDB, was previously said to be in Macau, although Beijing has denied protecting the fugitive financier.
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: Aussie crime drama Scrublands makes a bloody return
9pm, BBC TwoFresh from investigating a small-town shooting, the investigative journalist Martin Scarsden finds himself caught up in another tangle as this Aussie drama returns for a second season. Martin heads back to his home town, Port Silver – a place he's never really talked about growing up in – and finds his childhood friend dead. The only witness, though, is Martin's girlfriend – and rather unfortunately, she is covered in blood. Hollie Richardson 9pm, ITV1It's the final episode of the Tudor whodunnit based on CJ Sansom's novels, featuring Sean Bean as Thomas Cromwell. The origins of the sword used to murder Singleton lead Shardlake (Arthur Hughes) to the killer. And there's a thrilling showdown at the monastery as our hero reveals his findings about the other deaths – and some major fraud. Hannah J Davies 9pm, BBC Four The historian Heike Görtemaker introduces a never-before-broadcast 1971 interview with Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and armaments minister, which is then aired in its entirety, as he is cross-examined by Michael Charlton, Hugh Trevor-Roper and George Ball. HR 9pm, Sky AtlanticHer White Lotus boost means this Julian Fellowes series is now the 1880s-set costume drama that has Carrie Coon in it, although Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon provide just as many chewy bon mots. While engagements and illnesses keep the women of New York City busy, George (Morgan Spector) is still out in the sticks, chasing his railroad fortune. Jack Seale 10pm, Channel 4'There's maggots all over the entire carpet.' Welcome to the grim world of crime scene-cleaning in this stomach-churning new series that follows highly trained specialists, starting with an 'unattended death' in Kent. As one expert says: 'It takes a strong mind to go in and clean something like that.' HR 11pm, BBC TwoMore utterly fascinating eavesdropping on four very different couples in Dr Orna Guralnik's therapy room. Alison and Rod are at each other's throats, while Kyle opens up about his abusive father, Jessica tells Boris she is 'very tired' and Nick confesses it feels 'too risky' to speak to Guralnik. HR The Swimmer (Frank Perry, 1968), 4.55pm, Film4Starting life as a short John Cheever story in the New Yorker, The Swimmer does its best to defy as many conventions as it can. Burt Lancaster plays Ned Merrill, an ad executive who one day decides to 'swim home' by clambering in and out of every pool he passes. Along the way he attempts to seduce a string of women, refers to himself in ever more grandiose terms and begins to detach from the easy suburbia he finds himself in. Before long he has spiralled out of control. Dark and hallucinogenic, it's perhaps the best midlife crisis movie ever made. Stuart Heritage Tennis: Wimbledon 10.30am, BBC Two. Coverage of the opening day. Carlos Alcaraz will be hoping to add to his recent wins at the French Open and Queen's.
