Student journalists meet the moment, as we’ve seen most recently this week. As the Cornell University sexual abuse case highlights the importance of student journalism, public records reveal how schools try to censor on-campus news outlets. Claire Woodcock talked to students and legal experts about how censorship from above impacts their work. “One of the biggest things we’ve certainly found with censors over the years is they want to be called everything but a censor,” one expert said. “What they’re doing is everything but censorship.”
How Schools and Universities Try to Censor Student Journalists
Student journalists, their advisors, and legal advocates say colleagues and administrators are attempting to undermine student reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, Gaza, and other issues that public institutions would rather not have their reputations connected to.
Public records obtained by 404 Media show administrators taking meetings with parents and alumni when they take issue with student reporting and asking advisors to compromise their professional ethics. They also show escalating tensions between student newsroom staff and administrators, prompting more legal aid requests to advocacy groups.
This comes as student journalists at The Cornell Daily Sun earned recognition for breaking the “Cornell Seven” story regarding the lawsuit filed in New York’s trial court last month by a Jane Doe accusing current and former Cornell University students of drugging and sexual abuse. The student journalists told The Cut this week that a vague university and campus police statement from nearly two years ago prompted more questions than answers. Such is the basis for most accountability journalism on college campuses.
The cases we reviewed involved the phase of the reporting process that comes later, where a factual dispute the newsroom has defended or a complaint where the person doesn’t bother to explain what is allegedly wrong with the students’ reporting.
MORE FROM 404
Look at my lawyer dawg. A New Mexico attorney used ChatGPT to generate briefs that included completely made-up witnesses and testimony while representing a man accused of shooting his wife. When the judges caught him, the lawyer blamed it on his own “stupidity.” I'll say.
Love 2 see “community safety” and cameras in the same sentence. The USPS is putting cameras in mail carrier trucks to “continuously scan roads and signs, map roadways and sidewalks, and improve ‘community safety.’”
Big tech props up big abuse. The most prominent hosts of non-consensual, AI-generated imagery are supported by some of the biggest web infrastructure providers in the world, getting their hosting, email, advertising, and content management systems from these companies, a new study found. It examines how providers like Cloudflare, Google, Proton, Namecheap, and WordPress help non-consensual imagery sites thrive.
“Absolute game changer.” A company that makes phone hacking devices claims to have found a way to freeze iPhones in a state that lets cops more easily access sensitive data inside them, according to a video obtained by 404 Media. It’s nice to have our pal Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai on the site!
People (effective altruists) are being extremely normal about “torturing” (quotes heavily emphasized) an LLM. I don’t think I can sum this situation up in less than 800 words, so just read about the AI Saw torture chamber here.
AROUND THE WEB
Today in incredible PR pitches in my inbox: “Motorbunny Jack was already a handheld, thrusting sex machine controlled through Fluffer for remote and interactive play. Now, a new Battery Upgrade Kit lets JACK go cordless while still delivering 65–210 adjustable strokes per minute.” Yes, that’s right, they’re doing hot swappable battery packs for the Hole Driller 5000. I mean, just look at the recoil on this thing (NSFW link!).
Later this month, Netflix is releasing a six-episode miniseries called The New Stanford Prison Experiment. Every day Black Mirror gets surpassed in new and exciting ways.
The Greensboro Police Department did the one thing you do not do: Invoke the wrath of Swifties.
ICYMI, the White House can’t spell “United States.”
So sorry to link to an Amazon product but unfortunately I love my Kindle. I put off buying a new one for years because I didn’t want to give up the model with page-turn buttons on the sides, because tapping the screen to turn a page sucks for multiple reasons. Apparently there’s a new case that sells my beloved buttons back to me for $80. UGH.
The Interim Computer Museum is restoring Galaxy Game, which was first installed at Stanford’s Tresidder Union in September 1971. The entire blog, if you haven’t seen it and have a few minutes to peruse, is full of very cool old stuff.
We are cursed to forever reinvent Foursquare.
And finally, the thing that almost made me go back to bed this morning: This story about the piss drinking community’s use of AI by Futurism. One of the greatest one-line ledes I’ve seen in a while: “Pee drinkers are absolutely obsessed with AI.” Has anyone checked on the grandson pee guy lately?
That’s enough for today. See ya tomorrow for the weekly roundup.
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