{"id":371,"date":"2026-06-18T14:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=371"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:41:12","slug":"why-arent-newsrooms-covering-this-ai-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"Why Aren\u2019t Newsrooms Covering This AI Speech?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The publisher of The New York Times<\/em> recently made an extraordinary speech about AI, journalism, and the public square that\u2019s received surprisingly little public reaction. What makes A.G. Sulzberger\u2019s speech extraordinary is that it was unabashedly crusading, and crusading is a stance New York Times<\/em> publishers have rarely if ever adopted over the newspaper\u2019s 175-year history. What makes the scant reaction surprising is that the speech\u2019s audience\u2014fellow leaders of some of the world\u2019s most powerful news organizations\u2014have a commercial self-interest in the crusade Sulzberger is advocating for. What\u2019s more, the accusations Sulzberger made, the plainspoken language he used, the alleged villains he called out by name\u2014Google, Meta, OpenAI\u2014are the stuff of high drama.<\/p>\n

Read more The Blatant Hypocrisy of the Congressional Black Caucus\u2019s Out of Bounds Boycott<\/a><\/p>\n

Sulzberger\u2019s core argument when addressing the annual WAN-IFRA World News Media Conference on June 1 was that Big Tech is stealing the news media\u2019s property and undermining democracy, and that the only solution is for news organizations to work together to resist them.<\/p>\n

Big Tech\u2019s \u201chijacking of the public square is made possible by the original sin that animates their AI products\u2014a brazen theft of intellectual property that has occurred at an unprecedented scale,\u201d Sulzberger argued. \u201cTech giants strip-mine news websites without permission or compensation. They repackage these stolen goods as their own, siphoning off the audiences and revenue that otherwise would go to the news organizations that created this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

If such stealing is allowed to continue, he continued, we risk a \u201cfuture where a crucial wellspring of a healthy society and a stable democracy\u2014the truth, understanding and accountability provided by original journalism\u2014continues to dry up\u2026. The news industry\u2019s only path to counteracting [Big Tech\u2019s machinations]\u2026is by working together\u201d to protect the industry\u2019s property rights, including through lawsuits. (The Times<\/em>, he noted, has spent $20 million on such lawsuits.)<\/p>\n

In sum, the publisher of one of the world\u2019s most influential newspapers has accused some of the richest, most powerful companies on Earth of being criminals, of building their vast fortunes on a foundation of lies and theft at grand scale. And he urged the rest of the media to join the Times<\/em> in fighting back, not only for the sake of their own commercial survival but for the survival of a free press and the democracy it nourishes.<\/p>\n

Bravo to Le Monde<\/em>, Variety<\/em>, and Press Gazette<\/em> for writing about the speech, and to The Seattle Times<\/em> for publishing excerpts on its opinion page. But given the big names, enormous sums, and profound stakes involved, why has there been so little other coverage? Why are those outlets the exceptions?<\/p>\n

Read more The Banality of Peter Thiel\u2019s Evil<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a hint: The Times<\/em> itself didn\u2019t report on the speech. Instead, the business side of the paper issued a press release containing the text. But there was no mention of the speech in the news, business, opinion, or other sections of the paper. That absence reflects a view long held by newsroom traditionalists: We (almost) never report on ourselves. The corollary\u2014nor do we report on our competitors\u2014likely explains why the rest of the media has been silent.<\/p>\n

Perhaps such coverage is still to come; certainly Sulzberger\u2019s call to arms warrants the attention of any specialist outlet focused on the news media. And maybe there are executive conversations taking place right now that will result in other newsrooms joining Sulzberger\u2019s movement. After all, his speech did invite journalists and news executives to get in touch, offer their own ideas, and explore possible collaborations.<\/p>\n

Covering Climate Now<\/em> welcomes this opportunity, and we urge fellow journalists around the world to consider pursuing it as well. We find Sulzberger\u2019s analysis of the dangers facing our industry and our society persuasive, and highly pertinent to our core concern of how journalism reports on the climate emergency and its solutions.<\/p>\n

AI, in case it isn\u2019t obvious, is bad for the climate because its data centers demand gargantuan amounts of scarce water and costly electricity, but it is also bad because building AI chatbots, among other things, sucks away revenue that rightfully belongs to news outlets. That theft is one reason why, as Sulzberger noted, the US has \u201clost 75 percent of its journalists and more than 3,000 newspapers\u201d over the last two decades. That\u2019s 3,000 newspapers that will never tell the climate story.<\/p>\n

Even for news outlets that remain in business, shrunken revenue makes it challenging to cover even routine subjects, much less a story like climate change. AI is no friend to a free press or a livable climate, and it\u2019s time journalists grapple with how we respond.<\/p>\n

Read more The Man Who Could Keep Colombia\u2019s Left in Power<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covering-climate-now"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Aren\u2019t Newsrooms Covering This AI Speech? - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=371\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Aren\u2019t Newsrooms Covering This AI Speech? - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=371\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-18T14:41:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=371#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=371\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Why Aren\u2019t Newsrooms Covering This AI Speech?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-18T14:41:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=371\"},\"wordCount\":817,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=371#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/736fede6e7598326f388a884c2eaa637.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Covering Climate Now\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=371#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=371\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=371\",\"name\":\"Why Aren\u2019t Newsrooms Covering This AI Speech? 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