June 26, 2025

■ Trump doubles down on demand that CNN, New York Times fire 'fake news reporters' after Iran coverage (The Wrap) / ‘Petty, personal attacks’: Karoline Leavitt’s briefing room screed against Natasha Bertrand prompts swift rebuke from her CNN colleagues (Mediaite) / With Iran coverage, Fox hosts gave Trump advice, support and platform (Washington Post) 

■ Senators challenge Trump's proposed cuts to foreign aid and public media in contentious hearing (Associated Press) / Sleepless in Seattle: Marathon KEXP broadcast raises awareness about threat to federal funding (Current) 

■ Kari Lake called the US Agency for Global Media ‘rotten to the core’ in a congressional hearing (Poynter) / A secret program allowed VOA to broadcast television into North Korea. Now it’s gone. (Columbia Journalism Review) 

■ Journalist Mario Guevara’s charges dropped after anti-ICE protest arrest (FOX 5 Atlanta)

■ Anna Wintour stepping down as Vogue US editor-in-chief after 37 Years (Variety) / ‘...I believe this is a record tenure for an editor of a major American magazine.’ (Yashar Ali) / As Anna Wintour shifts her focus at Condé Nast, Vogue US will seek a new editorial lead (Vogue) 

■ ‘Los Angeles Times staffers were hit with fresh buyout offers this week, fueling fears of deeper cuts — all while management begins enforcing a still-unsettled return-to-office mandate with a heavy hand.’ (Status)

■ Portland Tribune will cease print publication after major newsroom layoffs (OregonLive) 

■ New plan could deliver a devastating financial blow to New Jersey news outlets (NJ.com) 

■ California doesn't have enough court reporters. Their unions are fighting substitutes (CalMatters) 

■ Bloomberg hires Doyle as global defense editor (Talking Biz News) / Bloomberg taps Pickert as US economy team leader (Talking Biz News) / WSNS Chicago adds María Berrelleza as reporter (TV News Check) / Media veterans and nonprofit leaders join Craig Newmark J-School Foundation board, Vivek Shah named chair (Newmark J-School) 

■ The end of publishing as we know it (The Atlantic) / As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall to boost publisher revenue (TechCrunch) 

■ No breaking news in your Sunday print newspaper? Here’s why (Poynter)

Mastering AI: Unlock the power of prompting

AI is rapidly transforming newsrooms everywhere, offering tools for journalists that can assist with research, images, planning tasks, and more. 

Organizations like the Associated Press, The Haitian Times, and The New York Times are sharing how they use AI as well as ethical considerations. 

Make AI fact-check its work: When using AI for research development purposes, breaking down the step-by-step process leads to more thorough results. The “chain-of-thought” prompting technique encourages you to ask AI to think before producing an answer, provide reasoning, and avoid any fabrications of data. After reviewing the output, ask the AI bot to rate its confidence on a scale of 1-10 and to identify any weaknesses or gaps. 

Ask AI to challenge your perspective: It is important to create coverage from a nuanced perspective. Prompting your AI tools to provide counterarguments, review a story from different characters in your reporting, and highlight missed viewpoints can identify fault lines. Use AI to assist in pinpointing bias by asking how a specific group would frame the same story. 

Let AI handle the document work: Claude, ChatGPT, and Google’s Notebook LM allow you to upload multiple documents and assist with summarization and highlighting main bullet points. As a pro tip, split your documents into sections and analyze one snippet at a time so the data isn’t so daunting and won’t take as long to process. With multiple documents, Notebook LM allows you to stay on top of connections over time. ChatGPT and Claude are better for a side-by-side comparison. (See how Bloomberg used AI-driven data analysis for an investigative journalism project.) 

AI can help you become a wealth of knowledge: Instead of Google, Cheung uses Perplexity because it creates a contextualized search. When using Perplexity for research, users are granted an AI summary along with source links. 

While AI is helpful, Cheung advises editing the work AI produces. “Never go from input, output, to publish. It’s always input, output, edit, augment, and maybe publish,” he said. “As these tools progress, it is important to fact-check to remain accurate.

In addition, check in regularly with your organization on updates to AI policies.  

Interested in learning more about AI? Contact the Institute to gain access to a recording of our AI for Journalists workshop.

Resources

• ​​How to help audiences understand the serious implications of federal vaccine actions (Association of Health Care Journalists)
• Taking your story on the road: 6 considerations for broadening your reach (NPR Training)  
• Freelance quick-start guide (SoundPath)

This newsletter is written and edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff: Beth Francesco, Holly Butcher Grant, Elliot C. Williams, Allison Prang, and Mitch Harle. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

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