Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A reporter asks a perfectly legitimate question of President Donald Trump. And because Trump doesn’t like the question, he verbally accosts the reporter, and the reporter’s news organization, with insults.
Rinse and repeat.
It’s getting tiresome, isn’t it? Not the story, but Trump’s repeated pettiness and attacks against the press that is unbecoming of the President of the United States.
On Wednesday in the Oval Office during Trump’s meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump went on an unhinged rant against NBC’s Peter Alexander. It came after Alexander asked about reports that the Trump administration was going to accept a jet worth millions of dollars from Qatar that would eventually be used as Air Force One. (The U.S. formally accepted the gift Wednesday evening, the Defense Department confirmed.)
Trump said, “You know, you ought to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatari jet? They are giving the United States Air Force a jet, OK? And it’s a great thing. We’re talking about a lot of other things, and it is NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a terrible reporter. No. 1, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You are not smart enough. But for you to go on to a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing.”
Trump wasn’t done. He said, “You ought to go back to your studio at NBC, because (Comcast chairman and CEO) Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that network. And you are a disgrace. No more questions from you.”
Trump finished off that part by saying, “His name is Peter something. He’s a terrible reporter.”
Disturbing story involving star journalist Wesley Lowery
This story here is extremely disturbing, and it’s about Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery. It includes multiple allegations of sexual misconduct spanning from 2018 to 2024. Columbia Journalism Review’s acting editor Betsy Morais talks with four female journalists who bravely told their stories in “Journalists Attest to Experiences of Sexual Misconduct with Wesley Lowery.”
Morais writes, “These four people spoke with me along with several others, including colleagues and students, who attest to a pattern of predatory behavior toward young women in journalism, going back years.”
Lowery recently stepped down as executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop and as an associate professor of journalism at American University in Washington after allegations that he made inappropriate sexual comments in meetings with students and unwanted sexual advances toward journalists. (CJR was the first to break that news.)
Lowery was a former star reporter at The Washington Post. (He served on Poynter’s National Advisory Board from 2017 to 2020.)
One of the journalists in this new CJR story, current Barbed Wire editor-in-chief Olivia Messer, told Morais, “I know from our decade of friendship that when he interacts with women, he pushes sexuality and romance into the conversation, even when they make it clear that they aren’t interested in more than friendship. Even when they put up a boundary. Even when they say no. His perspective may truly be that every woman in his life has a romantic or sexual interest in him, but that doesn’t make it true. His inability to see the damage he’s caused — much less change his behavior — makes me gravely concerned for all young women around him.”
The allegations involve specific descriptions of female journalists meeting Lowery, who would order them alcoholic drinks. Morais wrote, “In each case, these women wound up leaving with Lowery, who they said then sexually assaulted them.”
Lowery sent CJR a statement that said, “CJR’s portrayal of these periods in my personal life is incomplete and includes false insinuations about complicated dynamics. Still, I respect the women who have shared their experiences and take their perspectives seriously. As a young professional, I did not always recognize the power imbalances that surfaced as personal relationships evolved into professional ones, and vice versa. I should have better upheld boundaries that would have protected myself and others, particularly during interactions impaired by mutual intoxication. I have committed to sobriety, now approaching one year, and continue to work with professionals on my understanding of the power dynamics that accompany race, gender, and my professional success.”
Following up
In Wednesday’s newsletter, I wrote about how two major newspapers — the Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer — recently had special sections that included an AI-generated “summer reading list.” It essentially was book suggestions for their readers. The big issue was some of the book titles from real authors did not even exist.
To be clear, the list appeared in special sections that were not produced by the newsroom of those two papers. It was licensed content provided by King Features, a unit of the publisher Hearst Newspapers
The freelancer responsible for the AI-generated story (and mistakes) took the blame, saying he didn’t double-check the story and was embarrassed by what happened.
Still, both papers ran stories about the incident. The Philadelphia Inquirer acknowledged what happened, as did the Sun-Times in a story by Melissa Bell, the CEO of Chicago Public Media — owner of the Sun-Times.
Bell wrote, “We are in a moment of great transformation in journalism and technology, and at the same time our industry continues to be besieged by business challenges. This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued — and valuable — because of the humanity behind it.” (Bell chose to bold that last sentence.)
According to Bell, King Features released a statement to her saying it has “a strict policy with our staff, cartoonists, columnists, and freelance writers against the use of AI to create content. The Heat Index summer supplement was created by a freelance content creator who used AI in its story development without disclosing the use of AI. We are terminating our relationship with this individual. We regret this incident and are working with the handful of publishing partners who acquired this supplement.”
Still, Bell outlined some of the things Chicago Public Media will do in response to this incident, including “We are updating our policies so that all our third-party licensed editorial content comply with our journalistic standards”, and “Moving forward, we will explicitly identify third-party licensed editorial content and provide transparency about its origin.”
Bell wrote, “We are committed to making sure this never happens again. We know that there is work to be done to provide more answers and transparency around the production and publication of this section, and will share additional updates in the coming days.”
Going gaga over the Sports Emmys
