‘Janitors of the internet’
For this item we’re turning it over to the director of Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network, Angie Drobnic Holan:
If you lay off the “janitors of the internet,” how long before the mess gets out of control? That was the central question at a panel I moderated last week at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, regarding the "digital cold war" between the U.S. and Europe.
For years, a bargain of sorts existed: platforms sought credibility, and fact-checkers helped provide it. But after Meta effectively ended its U.S. partnership with fact-checkers like PolitiFact and FactCheck.org last year — a move celebrated by President Trump — that bargain is dead. In America, accuracy is a political liability.
Partnerships? That’s laughable, said Courtney Radsch of the Center for Journalism and Liberty, who studies tech accountability.
"How many massive corporations think that the janitors are their partners? Fact-checking for the platforms essentially turned journalists into the janitors of the internet,” she said.
Chris Morris of Full Fact, based in London, offered a reframe of the janitor metaphor:
"If you don't clean your corporate headquarters, eventually it gets so dirty that someone's going to close it down. So I think we should say, yay for the janitors.” Morris noted that unlike the U.S., the U.K. and Europe are standing behind regulations that require more responsible platform design.
The janitors could use a little more support from philanthropy, said Ana Brakus of Faktograf in Croatia. Fact-checkers from small countries worldwide have relied on project-based funding that is now drying up. She highlighted a funding “betrayal," noting that many philanthropic foundations are "hiding under a rock" just as political pressure on fact-checkers reaches a fever pitch.
What’s next for fact-checking? The path forward likely involves forging a “market for facts” within the AI revolution. Instead of begging for platform traffic, Radsch argues for some type of statutory licensing as well as individual business deals. “Why not create rules of the road? … Build it into the market,” she said, noting that there is an important role for news and facts collectively.
I closed out the panel by noting that even as fact-checking groups have reduced staff, the audience is still growing. People don’t know what to believe, but they understand that fact-checking journalists are at least trying to sort out the truth from fiction — keeping the internet a little cleaner, despite the AI slop. (Watch the panel via YouTube.)
McClatchy layoffs and a resignation, spicy corrections and more media tidbits
New York Times executive editor Joseph Kahn criticized the FBI’s investigation of Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson, calling it an “alarming” attempt by the FBI to “criminalize routine reporting.” The Times’ Michael Schmidt reported on Wednesday that the FBI investigated Williamson following her reporting about Patel providing his girlfriend with security and transportation using bureau resources. Kahn wrote in an internal memo obtained by CNN that while they have no reason to believe that this is a widespread practice” by the FBI, “it marks an escalation of tactics to chill and intimidate reporters who reveal information that’s unflattering to the administration.”
The Charlotte Observer is losing its two top editors. QCity Metro reported Thursday that the paper’s executive editor, Rana Cash, has resigned from her role. And Taylor Batten, the managing editor who has been at the Observer since 1995, will leave May 1 after the company eliminated his job. Cash made history in 2021 when she was named the first Black editor in the history of the Observer. Her past experience includes stops at The Miami Herald, The Dallas Morning News, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Reached by email Thursday, Cash confirmed that May 1 would be her last day but declined to comment at this time. Batten also declined to comment. The changes come following news of additional layoffs at McClatchy, which owns the Observer and other newspapers.
Nexstar, the nation’s largest owner of local television stations, is appealing a court order banning its merger with Tegna. Last week, a federal judge ruled that the companies cannot merge until a lawsuit claiming that Nexstar is creating a monopoly is settled. Nexstar said the deal is done. DirectTV and attorneys general from eight states sued to stop the merger because Nexstar would reach 80% of U.S. television households. Under federal law, an entity can only reach 39%. Nexstar CEO Perry Sook responded to the claim that Nexstar would become a ‘broadcast behemoth’ during an interview at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference on Tuesday. He said it’s not an accurate claim because his company is competing with the likes of Google and Meta which are much larger. The merger represents larger concerns about consolidation in the broadcast industry. With fewer owners, there is the perception that there will be fewer points of view in news coverage.
Meanwhile, E.W. Scripps wants to own more television stations. The company requested a waiver from the FCC as it buys nearly two dozen TV stations affiliated with the Ion network. With the newly acquired stations, Scripps would reach more households than allowed by the law. This move will also make Scripps the owner of three stations in Phoenix, Detroit, Denver, Cleveland, Kansas City, West Palm Beach, Florida; Norfolk and Lexington, Kentucky. It’s also asking the FCC to waive a rule that allows ownership of only two stations in a market. The FCC is seeking challenges to Scripps' request.
Former Poynter chairman Andrew Barnes, who shepherded the institute through an attempted hostile takeover of the Tampa Bay Times, died Thursday at the age of 86. The cause of death was not disclosed. Barnes helped lead the Times to multiple Pulitzer Prizes and secured its status as an independently owned publication. “The effort not only preserved the paper's independence and local control, but helped solidify the very concept of non-profit ownership that is a vital component of today's news landscape,” said Neil Brown, the current president and chairman of the Poynter Institute.
Anyone who has worked at a garden variety newspaper knows that when the crossword puzzle is messed up, you’ll get more reader feedback about it than for the most explosive investigation. Still, the New York Magazine coverage about the fallout from an unsolvable puzzle published in the Sunday New York Times Magazine discovered a new level of fragility among puzzle solvers: “Some solvers who complete the Sunday puzzle in the print magazine (often with pen) complained on crossword forums and social media, saying they were “nearly in tears,” some with fears of “sudden onset dementia” or, worse yet, ineptitude. When Mike McFadden, in New Jersey, couldn’t crack it, he thought, “something was wrong with me. I didn’t think that they would have an error.” It nagged at him all day. For others, the error triggered an existential crisis. “We trust that it’s always going to be something that at least somebody can figure out,” Irene Papoulis, a former writing instructor at Trinity College, said. “The world is making less and less sense. So it’s like, ‘The crossword puzzle? Not you, too!’ “
Kicking them when they’re down: Perhaps to deflect from its own error, a correction in the The New York Times took a free shot. “A correction was made on April 21, 2026: Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated which day the New York Mets suffered their 11th straight loss. It was on Sunday, not Monday. Even the Mets cannot lose on an off day.”
Today’s Poynter Report was written by Alex Mahadevan, Angie Drobnic Holan, Amaris Castillo, TyLisa C. Johnson, Kerwin Speight, Angela Fu and Jennifer Orsi.
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