My prediction is this will be one of the lesser-read “Pub Chats” I’ve produced in a while, but I want to touch on a couple of developments that are important to our industry: Protection of the press under the First Amendment and the proliferation of artificial intelligence.

I’m only half-joking when I say that it won’t be well-read. But as much as I enjoy writing about family situations and sports and favorite concerts and things like that, sometimes the publisher needs to chat about things that affect publishing a community newspaper.

One of those things was the raid by the local police department last August on the small Marion County Record in Kansas. You may or may not remember that I called it a “chilling episode” when the local cops, armed with a judge-signed warrant, confiscated electronic equipment, computers and cellphones. One reporter was injured when the police chief forcefully pried a cellphone out of her hand. The private home of the paper’s 98-year-old owner also was raided, and when she died a day later, her son, the publisher, said the stress of the situation had contributed to her demise; he has filed a federal lawsuit claiming as much.

At issue was an accusation by a local business owner who claimed that the newspaper used illegal means to get information on her, including a drunk-driving conviction. The paper said the tip had been received anonymously and its reporters were simply attempting to verify it through public internet records.

Press........

© Finger Lakes Times