When CBS News 24/7’s union approved a three-year contract this past week, the deal came with AI safeguards, including requirements to notify staff about new generative AI systems and to allow staffers to withhold bylines on AI-produced work.
“The CBS News 24/7 unit showed unshakeable solidarity which won them the strongest contract this unit has ever earned,” said Beth Godvik, the WGA East’s vice president of the Broadcast/Cable/Streaming news sector, adding: “They won meaningful protections that will matter for years to come.”
The CBS deal follows ProPublica employees staging a walkout this month as their union negotiates a new contract, with AI provxisions emerging as an issue, and as AI has become a flashpoint in the New York Times’ ongoing contract talks.
The flurry of newsroom negotiations involving AI may be a trend, but it’s not a fleeting one.
“I think every single newsroom contract going forward will mention artificial intelligence,” Jon Schleuss, president of NewsGuild-CWA, told TheWrap.
AI has proven valuable for dives into voluminous legislative records and the Epstein files, and newsrooms are experimenting with innovative ways of harnessing the technology to produce deeply reported journalism — all as many journalists have introduced AI into their workflows.
But some newsrooms have rankled staffers by introducing tools to write articles or improve efficiency. For instance, Corbin Bolies reported this week about concerns inside McClatchy newspapers like the Miami Herald and Charlotte Observer over a new “content scaling agent.”
Given fears of job loss and the further erosion of public trust — especially after recent instances of AI misuse — journalists are increasingly seeking additional safeguards at the bargaining table.
Schleuss said that newsroom unions have been grappling with technological advances for decades, pointing to negotiations around computer use in the 1980s and 90s. And to be clear, AI isn’t the only issue coming up in negotiations. But since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, there’s more discussion of the rapidly evolving technology in the culture — along with more concrete demands from workers.
Environmental news site Grist hammered out a contract in 2023 that addressed AI in its current context, and there have been more than 70 since, according to Schleuss. Given the lack of regulations at the federal level, and few at the state level, he added, “the only way to regulate it is in our workplace.”
OpenAI’s purchase this month of tech chat show TBPN was the most high-profile collision of AI and the media, but debates on effective and ethical use of the technology are playing out in newsrooms around the country. Breaker noted Thursday that members of the New York Times Guild held a silent protest during a company all-hands.
The Times journalists held up newspapers highlighting demands that could’ve been straight out of 19th-century labor organizing (“Fair Wages”) and one that’s decidedly 21st: “Real A.I. Guard Rails.”
DC dinner drama
When President Donald Trump takes the stage on April 25 at the White House Correspondents Dinner, he’ll look out on a sea of journalists — some he’s mocked, others he’s sued, and at least one his administration has targeted for prosecution.
The Guardian has invited independent journalist Georgia Fort, who — along with former CNN anchor Don Lemon — was charged with conspiracy and interfering with the rights of worshippers while covering an anti-ICE protest in January at a St. Paul, Minnesota church.
Guardian U.S. editor Betsy Reed told TheWrap that the outlet invited journalists like Fort and other press freedom advocates to “show their support for a free and independent press during a presidency that has seen unprecedented threats to journalists and numerous instances of capitulation to Trump by billionaire-owned media outlets.”
Lemon, for one, will not attend: “I’m not interested in dressing up in a tuxedo, sipping champagne, and pretending everything is normal with a president and a regime that spends every day attacking, undermining and trying to discredit journalists and journalism.”
Check out my full piece on the controversy ahead of this annual press tradition: White House Correspondents’ Dilemma: Toasting the First Amendment as Trump Tramples Over It | Analysis
Meanwhile: Paramount CEO David Ellison to Host Dinner Honoring Trump, CBS News White House Reporters
Fox’s Trump chronicler
President Donald Trump’s tempestuous relationship with the press is on full display in his frequent jabs at journalists.
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman is “Maggot Haberman,” while ABC’s George Stephanopoulos is “George Slopadopoulus.” Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich is not only “absolutely terrible,” as the president put it last year, but “should be working for CNN.”
“You might as well stab me in the heart,” Heinrich joked to TheWrap’s Corbin Bolies in an interview about her role covering the president and soon leading the White House Correspondents’ Association.
It’s all here: Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich on Covering Trump — and Leading a White House Press Corps Under Attack
Plus: Paramount CEO David Ellison to Host Dinner Honoring Trump, CBS News White House Reporters
Hegseth’s Biblical press-bashing
Pete Hegseth has been bashing the media throughout the Iran conflict, calling out coverage and accusing the press of playing up casualties to make Donald Trump “look bad.”
Hegseth took his attacks to a new Biblical level on Thursday as he reached back to the New Testament to compare the press corps to the Pharisees who opposed Jesus. That same morning, a video spread raising questions about Hegseth’s authority on Biblical matters..
“Hegseth gave what appeared to be words from the Good Book during his appearance, but instead recited the modified version of Ezekiel 25:17 that Samuel L. Jackson’s character Jules Winnfield iconically delivers to a man just before fatally shooting him in the Oscar-winning feature,” writes Raquel Calhoun.
CBS’s Stephen Colbert feasted on the video, as Alyssa Ray notes.
“So, please join me in prayer,” Colbert said, before rattling off his own movie quote-filled prayer. “God, I’m talking to you. You talking to me? Are you talking to me? War is like a box of chocolates. I am tired of these motherf–kin’ sins on my motherf–kin’ soul.”
Also on TheWrap
Condé Nast Shutters Self Magazine, Folds Wellness Coverage Into Allure and Glamour
UK Clears Axel Springer’s $770 Million Telegraph Deal
Ari Shapiro Joins CNN, Launches Podcast With Audie Cornish
On my radar
“Inside the fallout of the Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel photos” (Ben Strauss, ESPN)
“The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine” (Noah Shachtman, Robert Silverman, Wired)
“The Economist Is Putting Names (and Faces) to Its Magazine (Ben Mullin, The New York Times)
“Can the traditional British tabloid survive the digital age? (Daniel Thomas, Financial Times)
“What I Saw Inside the Kennedy Center” (Joseph Palermo, The Atlantic)
“A journalist filmed an ICE protest at a Minnesota church. Then federal agents showed up at her door” (Rachel Leingang, The Guardian)
