begging this website to see the Sun Times AI book list thing as a labor issue: - Sun Times has been laying off newsroom & editorial staff, including union members - the guy who created the piece says he had no idea where it would run (per the @404media.co story) - ThreadSky

laurie-merrell.bsky.social • 14 days ago

begging this website to see the Sun Times AI book list thing as a labor issue:
- Sun Times has been laying off newsroom & editorial staff, including union members
- the guy who created the piece says he had no idea where it would run (per the @404media.co story)

Comments

cynthiasaysboo.bsky.social•14 days ago

The guy who created the piece? Nobody created it! It's generated by an LLM!

laurie-merrell.bsky.social•14 days ago

a person created the piece using AI and submitted it

https://www.404media.co/chicago-sun-times-prints-ai-generated-summer-reading-list-with-books-that-dont-exist/

laurie-merrell.bsky.social•14 days ago

this is the enshittification of newspapers as labor becomes more and more contingent

laurie-merrell.bsky.social•14 days ago

I do think there's a media literacy thing here too, someone pointed out in another space I'm in that these types of inserts are not new and people could recognize what it is. this also came up on latest episode of Know Your Enemy where they talked about placement in physical magazine offered context

laurie-merrell.bsky.social•14 days ago

idk, mostly this just makes me really sad. seems like people are piling on the Sun Times without trying to figure out any context, which frankly is part of this same cesspool of an information ecosystem we all find ourselves in.

laurie-merrell.bsky.social•14 days ago

also extra sad because WBEZ and the Sun Times do put out real summer guides that they do actually put specific effort into and that have the bylines of Chicago journalism workers on them

urbanexile.bsky.social•14 days ago

All the rich assholes in Chicago and none of them have stepped up to put a dime into legacy media. Is it because they can't rename a newspaper after themselves?

marykasprzak.bsky.social•14 days ago

It also ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer and probably other papers

poemless.bsky.social•14 days ago

I consider myself media literate. The pics I've seen of the insert are CST branded and appear to lack a paid advertisement or syndicated content descriptor. While inserts often try to look organic, they normally contain fine print to the effect that they are not. Legally protects the publication.

poemless.bsky.social•14 days ago

But even if it were clearly marked as syndicated content and not CST branded, there is still the matter of truth in advertising and journalistic ethics. Even a Menards flyer should not hallucinate products and sales. Even a syndicated Op-Ed should be written by a real person who has a real opinion.

laurie-merrell.bsky.social•14 days ago

yes I think there's a ton to criticize here for sure, I do just think that the fact that it was a physically distinct insert is a notable fact about what happened. the fact that it appeared seemingly almost verbatim in the Inquirer is important context

https://bsky.app/profile/laurie-merrell.bsky.social/post/3lpmg6wadrc2f

laurie-merrell.bsky.social•14 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/laurie-merrell.bsky.social/post/3lpmnlxti4c2f

poemless.bsky.social•14 days ago

New York Times Magazine is an insert, but it is still NYT branded and contains original content.

bedubble.bsky.social•14 days ago

And this all started roughly 15 to 20 years ago with the firing of all copy editors and fact checkers.

jmd5120.bsky.social•13 days ago

Exactly, labor issue

sorenspicknall.bsky.social•14 days ago

CST also used to have a dedicated book section before budget crunches led to cuts about a decade ago - this cheap infill where fully staffed locally housed coverage used to live is intrinsic to the models of multi-paper giants like Gannett, AI aside, and it getting more common at independent papers.

cooler-by-the-lake.bsky.social•14 days ago

Also important to note that this same guy produced the whole 60-something page supplement! I’m sure it has AI slop throughout. Of course he’s still to blame, but some of it belongs to whoever commissioned such a ridiculous assignment and took advantage of desperate freelance gig economy “writers”

maraleia.bsky.social•14 days ago

WBEZ needs to eject the Sun-Times from its auspices.

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