donal brown

A federal district judge ordered that reports on the conditions of jails and prisoners in San Diego County be made public as information the public should have access to. Three local news outlets wanted the reports to see if they would reveal a pattern of neglect in the jails. (Courthouse News Service, May 31, 2023, by Sam Ribakoff) After The Californian failed to turn over notes of a jail interview, a Kern County Superior Court

An California law to make online platforms pay for news content hit a barrier as Facebook and Instagram announced they would block all news articles in California should the law pass. The law is intended to produce revenue for a strapped newspaper industry. (NPR, May 31, 2023, by Bobby Allyn) Online advertising has sucked up ad revenues that the newspaper industry once dominated. The bill tries to make social media companies pay for content produced

Pen America’s Shannon Jankowski in The Hill, May 23, 2023, writes that journalists will be handicapped during the upcoming presidential elections in fighting online lies now that Twitter is charging exorbitant prices to access API necessary to operate the fact-checking tools Bot Sentinel, Botometer and Hoaxy. These tools are necessary to avoid passing on false information and debunking fake stories.