NEW: For months, my colleagues and I dug into YouTube's conservative airwaves and found a flourishing network of host-read ads on right-leaning podcasts. This phenomenon has enriched hosts, YouTube, and businesses that use ideology to sell. bloom.bg/3Kaio9w

Friday was my last day at WIRED. Today I started a new job at Bloomberg on a dream desk with @suryamattu.com and @jeffykao.bsky.social. Got a tip? A dataset? Something we should look at? Find me on Signal at dmehro.89 In no particular order, here’s some stuff I’d like to continue to dig in to:

Headed to New Orleans or my first @ire.org Conference. I'll be on a panel Friday morning (11:30) on crowdsourcing data for your next investigation w/ Cassandra Garibay and Sergio Olmos. schedules.ire.org/ire-2025/ind...

Good "missing data" story

Tried "vibe coding" ... hated it! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

NEW: The US government has collected DNA samples from 133,000+ migrant children and teenagers and uploaded them into CODIS, a national criminal database originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

This is a great story, the kind of great story you can do through using the data released by The Deportation Data Project: deportationdata.org Every data reporter covering immigration should get familiar with the data here

NEW: @bloomberg.com analysis of +13 years of ICE detentions shows immigrants transferred to the South and SW from interior US at unprecedented rates. Reducing the odds of winning their cases. w/ @elenamejia.bsky.social @racheladhe.bsky.social @pollymosendz.bsky.social bloom.bg/43am95w

ICE will be working with IRS now. New data-sharing document signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will allow ICE to use IRS data. Acting Commissioner resigns over it. apnews.com/article/irs-...

This Friday at @ire-nicar.bsky.social myself and @leonyin.org will be teaching how to can find and use undocumented API and build your own datasets. Come say hi and learn something new!

After a big story we (reporters) go back to zero. It's a lifeless and cold wasteland. Sometimes we shine a light down a new rabbit hole and see new potential to start digging again.

Wrote about how Bloomberg used WhatsApp to crowdsource data on rideshare labor practices for @gijn.org. gijn.org/stories/what...

An absolute pleasure to talk to @davey.bsky.social and @leonyin.org about their blockbuster Bloomberg investigation into the podcasts building support for Trump's agenda. Via @columjournreview.bsky.social www.cjr.org/the_media_to...

Read our Oct. investigation into Uber and Lyft's driver lockouts, which the FTC is now looking into for illegally limiting driver pay in New York City bloom.bg/3WHra1X

If you’re looking for a weekend read, please check out our new data investigation on podcasters and streamers. bloom.bg/4jnaKW1

The story behind RFK Jr. in Samoa's measles crisis has never been reported. He wasn't there to spread misinformation about vaccines (though he did). He wanted to study a "natural experiment" of unvaccinated kids. “I can’t imagine anything less ethical or more cruel.” www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Transgender identity was mentioned in 29% of the most highly viewed YouTube videos from top male podcasters/YouTubers. 30% videos discussing trans identity also mention children.

Becca’s 2018 study on the reactionary right on YouTube was so illuminating and prescient, and inspired this piece in so many ways! Grateful that she paved the path for us datasociety.net/library/alte...

Incredible new piece of data journalism from a crack team at Bloomberg, led by @davey.bsky.social and @leonyin.org 🔥 bloom.bg/4jnaKW1

NEW: Bloomberg reviewed +1K hours of YouTube vids from 9 popular streamers and podcasters who cater to American men. We analyzed 2 yrs of guests and transcripts to see how they discussed political topics and understand their role as a new mainstream info hub www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

@dmehro.bsky.social has been reporting on the serial school swatter Torswatz for over 2 years. Read this thrilling piece about the private detective who discovered the identity of Torswatz. www.wired.com/story/school...

In response to driver lockouts, NYC is working to close the loophole that Uber and Lyft used to deprive drivers of millions in future pay. The answer? Fix the variable efficiency rate that companies were trying to inflate with lockouts. From @natalielung.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

@denisedslu.bsky.social's graphics for Bloomberg's investigation into Uber and Lyft locking drivers out of work made it to @flowingdata.com's top data viz projects of 2024. flowingdata.com/2024/12/30/b... cc: @natalielung.com @agordon.me

Professors and researchers: are you booking speakers for the Spring semester? I have talks and workshops on data-driven investigations using crowdsourcing with WhatsApp, auditing black box AI systems and advanced web scraping. inspectelement.org/apis.html gist.github.com/yinleon/4e39...

How do I feel when I find an undocumented API and get it to serve my purpose. Thanks👏 @leonyin.org for making such a great resource inspectelement.org/apis.html

NEW: Alan Filion, believed to have operated under the handle “Torswats,” admitted to making more than 375 fake threats against schools, places of worship, and government buildings around the United States. New details in here: www.wired.com/story/alan-f...

One thing about me that most of you prob don’t know is that I cook Thai food frequently… So much so that I broke through a mortar.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but (despite being a journalist) I’ve been in a dark place for so long that I respond to most journalism with a strange combination of numbness and despair. I’m surprised by how outraged I was reading this, and grateful for it. It’s excellent work, excellently rendered.

NEW INVESTIGATION: Uber and Lyft locked drivers out of work to game a NYC minimum wage law. We crowdsourced screenshots, monitored surge pricing and ran financial models to reveal the devastating impact on drivers. w/ Natalie Lung @awgordon.bsky.social Denise Lu https://bloom.bg/3BIPTLB

To get around minimum wage laws in New York, where drivers must be paid for time on the clock in between rides, Uber and Lyft are simply locking them out of the app so there's no record that they're on the roads. Incredible, infuriating story by @leonyin.org www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

We got the paywall down! Please read and share freely: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Why does GPT rank equally-qualified resumes differently based on names? Looking at how GPT represents the 800 names in our experiment as embeddings provides a clue. bloom.bg/3It4cE4

Amazing/disturbing data journalism by Leon Yin and colleagues at Bloomberg replicating a classic labor market discrimination study to show how GPT 3.5 can discriminate in ranking job candidates based on name alone www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202... Article GitHub: github.com/BloombergGra...

New: Employers and HR vendors are using AI chatbots to interview and screen job applicants. We found that OpenAI's GPT discriminates against names based on race and gender when ranking resumes. W/ @davey.bsky.social and @leonardonclt.bsky.social gift link: bloom.bg/3It4cE4

I’ve been lurking in car forums for the last few months and saw reports from drivers of General Motors cars that GM was selling their driving data to LexisNexis. It was resulting in their insurance going up. Can that be true, I thought. Reported it out. Yes. True. www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/t...

New: Employers and HR vendors are using AI chatbots to interview and screen job applicants. We found that OpenAI's GPT discriminates against names based on race and gender when ranking resumes. W/ @davey.bsky.social and @leonardonclt.bsky.social gift link: bloom.bg/3It4cE4

By the ShotSpotter contract's final day, Chicago taxpayers will have paid more than $53 million since 2018 for a system that Mayor Brandon Johnson said never provided a return on the city’s investment or the results that it promised.

I’m delighted to announce that today I’m launching a new nonprofit journalism studio: Proof News.  Proof is into proving things! Our goal is to question, test, and investigate the most important issues of our time. We will always tell you what we know and what we don’t know. www.proofnews.org

Don't forget the 🔤s of data work: Always Be Compressin'

New: When someone dies, Google is filled with clickbait articles about their death — even non-celebrity, private individuals. Even children. I wrote about the cruelty of SEO obituary spam, and how sites are now using generative AI to produce even more content. www.theverge.com/24065145/ai-...

As the world’s biggest democracy goes to polls in a few months, election campaign managers have a new mandate: grow YouTube numbers. restofworld.org/2024/india-e...

Are other people experiencing a steady stream of fake followers over the past few weeks?

We're seeing a huge surge in the number of publicly owned broadband networks. Turns out that citizen-run small-scale providers are often better, faster, and cheaper than the giants that dominant this industry. And they're inclusive by design.

Ohshitwhaddup, our investigation w lighthouse reports won the Philip Meyer award alongside a bunch of other great stories. Congrats to the whole crew Read it here: www.wired.com/story/welfar... www.ire.org/2023-meyer-w...

Speechless! Still loading was awarded a Phillip Meyer award! https://www.ire.org/2023-meyer-winners/

New from me: I wrote about how search algorithms have created a web full of content and words for Google, not humans. We made a fake lizard website to show you what has happened over 25 yrs. The visuals are beautiful. I’m so proud to work with such talented people! www.theverge.com/c/23998379/g...