Read this from my Miami U. colleague Pepper Stetler.

Way too much press coverage of "AI" is spent debating the hypemerchants' claims of speed & efficiency & scale of impact, & not nearly enough is time spent on 2 very basic questions: Are these systems outputs anything like correct? And, if & when they get things wrong, how much harm will that cause?

Too early for this nonsense.

not reading scott galloway on masculinity. cmon now

i want to repeat this: mamdani and spanberger have run similar campaigns tailored to their respective electorates and it is maddening to watch political journalists attempt to create some broad contrast where none exist

What the…

*IN VIOLATION OF A COURT ORDER Pretty important context

Students in my JRN 101 work in groups to create posters illustrating famous 1A cases. Their work always delights me.

White House restricts media access in the West Wing The administration said it’s a matter of security, but the new rule appears to be part of a larger effort to restrict the press.

Some good news.

It's been a rough week 'round these parts, but I just put on the Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack and it was the right call.

Could someone be poisoning your kids’ Halloween candy? In this episode of "Stats + Stories," Joel Best joins @johnbailer.bsky.social and @rompenni.bsky.social to unpack this enduring Halloween myth—and how bad stats can fuel social fears. tinyurl.com/ntjdhk54 #STATSSKY

Three times in the past two weeks, editorials at the 'Washington Post' failed to disclose that they focused on matters in which owner Jeff Bezos had a material interest.

US Department of Agriculture says no food aid benefits will be issued next month reut.rs/3WohHMk

The leader of a Bronx mosque who hosted Cuomo last month “completely” condemns his remarks yesterday suggesting that Mamdani would have cheered 9/11, saying his comments evoked painful memories of anti-Muslim backlash. www.thecity.nyc/2025/10/23/c...

Not the WSJ having the only even moderately acceptable push alert here. NYT and NBC with basic journalism fails here.

Records obtained by ProPublica indicate that food banks across the country were expecting more than 27 million pounds of chicken, 2 million gallons of milk, 10 million pounds of dried fruit and 60 million eggs that never arrived.

Hilarious how Disney spent years courting the hackiest directors in the world to make Star Wars movies, then when that effort ran aground, fuckin' Steven Soderbergh and David goddamn Fincher were both like "Hey, let me save your franchise with Art" and in both cases Disney went "...nah"

My university is now using SciVal for a particular thing and I just went it and discovered that it only has 9 of my publications listed. So, that's fun. And a headache to fix.

Can't wait to see the list of publications these folks work for.

Finally, some good news www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...

Worth noting that Harvard et al massively expanded their PhD programs in the 1990s, poaching extensively from major public R1s in the process, ultimately to cash-in on PhD research funding. The effects were not always good for the state of higher ed.

Everything feels bad, but the TikToks using Nobody's Son under videos of bad cats is making my day

Quoted in this story on turbulence at the Indiana Daily Student, where Indiana University officials made the shameful decision to censor the student newspaper, firing its advisor and shutting down the print edition. To no one’s surprise, I was critical: https://loom.ly/haV7puk

Two Dutch professors, Olivia Guest and Iris van Rooij, dare to say what many prefer to ignore: AI won’t save higher education, it may hollow it out. Their warning cuts deep; against the tide of hype, they defend the true worth of knowledge, critical thinking, and academic freedom. 1/2

I got to hang out with her while I was a student at Scripps at OU. She was such a kind and generous person. Spent more time than she needed to helping me see a life in public radio. What a loss.

Can’t wait to listen to this as the product of a university public broadcasting station

Could this be a record-breaking century for human longevity? In this “Stats + Stories” episode, @johnbailer.bsky.social & @rompenni.bsky.social talk with Michael Pearce (Reed College) about the statistics behind aging and the odds of more people reaching 110—and beyond. tinyurl.com/3jxwf6mn

When the School of Journalism was forced into The Media School I was in my last year of graduate school. A major worry was that storied program would be damaged in the merger. Seems that worry was justified.

To catch you up, Indiana University’s student newspaper reported: • It was told to print no news in its homecoming edition, set to come out Thursday. • It refused. • The director of student media was fired. • Hours later, IU cut all print editions of the paper, including Thursday’s issue.

Brown becomes the second of nine initial invitees to decline the Trump administration's #HigherEd compact, joining MIT. This comes several months after it struck a deal with the feds to restore research funding and resolve OCR investigations. @shenandoahkate.bsky.social has the story @chronicle.com.

And here's a link to a letter from the IDS editors about the firing of the student newspaper director. www.idsnews.com/article/2025...

I’d like to say I’m shocked, I’m not given all that’s happened at IU the last few years. Destroying things left & right

Down in Kentucky today. Visited Rosemary Clooney’s home in Augusta.

The Guardian- The US president may impose tariffs, demand higher NATO contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says, if on Friday he is not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. www.theguardian.com/world/202...

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

Bari Weiss introduced herself to CBS News staff today on the network's 9AM call, saying she wants to "win," which requires restoring trust to CBS. She also said she was excited for staff to get to know the Free Press, and ended her remarks by saying: "Let's do the fucking news."

Nieman: “Bari Weiss’s CBS News and MSNBC both just laid out their new journalistic principles — and they’re fascinatingly different. CBS: “America,” “American,” “all of the tools of the digital era,” and speed. MSNBC: Press freedom, the First Amendment, and ethics.” www.niemanlab.org/2025/10/msnb...

truly an iconic Portland photo www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America

This is awful. It’s an awful way to treat your students. This station served not only students, but also the wider Cleveland metro area. Student media is necessary & matters & shouldn’t be treated this way.

I hope the ghost of Edward R Murrow haunts the higher ups at CBS for the foreseeable future

Oh, this one hurts. I was fascinated by her and her work when I was a kid.

It feels like there's a whole swath of folks who took the wrong lessons from all that dystopian literature we read in our youth.

Well, this is a bummer.

Meta "has formed a new super PAC called the American Technology Excellence Project that will work to elect AI and tech-friendly state lawmakers and oppose those it views as insufficiently supportive of the AI industry." *American Technology Excellence Project* www.pymnts.com/cpi-posts/me...

Everything feels bad, but I've discovered there's a special kind of hell for an eldest/only daughter in her 40's who is tasked with caregiving for an ailing parent. Nothing like a breakdown during therapy to make you realize how wrung out you are. Be gentle with yourselves, friends.

Denmark may invoke NATO's Article 4 due to repeated unidentified drone incursions into its airspace, Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulson says. That would be the third time in a month article 4 - calling for discussions among members - has been invoked.