AI tools are driving a global wave of digital abuse →

“There are brief periods, half an hour to an hour, when some people in Iran can connect to the internet. As you can imagine, there’s quite a lot of footage that people still have on their phones that they haven’t been able to post. So they use those brief periods of respite to share as much as they can, send us new videos, eyewitness accounts, and information.” —SS

A new study analyzing data from a major European news site found polarizing news increased time spent but also yielded fewer subscriptions, particularly during “politically charged moments” such as elections. —SS

Goalhanger — best known for “The Rest is” podcasts, including “The Rest is Politics” — said the investment will support its next phase of growth in the United States. The Chernin Group’s previous media investments include Substack, Barstool Sports, and The Athletic. —SS

“Sometimes I feel like your mom’s friend is like, ‘How can my daughter be an influencer?’ I don’t know how to make someone an influencer. I know how to take someone that has created something really unique and interesting and is hopefully singular and then monetize it.” —SS

“For just these three major news funders [Ford, MacArthur, Knight], the aggregate cost comes to more than $300 million in one year alone … That total spent on running three foundations is more than half of the rescinded federal support of public broadcasting.” —SS

Under CEO Louise Story, the travel publisher has laid off employees and leaned into AI and user-generated content. —SS

“Most leaks, Hess said [in ‘The Art of Leaking’], do not come from press officers, bureaucrats or midlevel officials, who have too much to lose if they are caught. ‘This leaves political appointees as the prime leakers,’ Mr. Hess said. ‘In other words, it is the president’s own men who are most often sharing state secrets.'” —SS

“The gold standard, especially when you’re trying to figure out timing for these things, is to be able to get in contact with the original poster, to be able to verify further things from there. In this case, that’s hard to do when everybody’s looking at the same story and everybody’s trying to find the same person.” —LO

The forthcoming podcast will “explore the moral, social, and philosophical underpinnings of human decency.” —SS