There was a time when local sources were the only sources of news when all towns were what today we would call small, where farmers, prospectors, trappers and hunters would exchange information. The telegraph, a then expensive technology, was dedicated to news and not free speech for its own sake.

Since then, we have stepped through telephony, radio, television and the Internet, recognizing while using them all that information can be slanted, but until not many years ago, barring governmental propaganda, individuals largely refrained from manufacturing “news.”

Then the First Amendment was rediscovered. Some facts, excused as “alternative facts,” became legitimate news features attractive to segments of the public. Whole blocks of voters are now mentally marching in lockstep.

And at this point, we meet artificial intelligence, or AI, a means of composing language in a manner and from sources not disclosed to the public. AI has assisted in drafting briefs that cite nonexistent cases submitted by New York lawyers to judges whose clerks actually check references. And there, things unravel.

I have learned that even The Guardian, my last major bastion of information and a long-trusted source of news and opinion, has laid off writers and is using AI. How can you rely on a medium that can generate or anonymize its own sources?

My answer is to look increasingly to local sources that I personally know and trust, to whom I can say, “Where’d you get that?” AIs and large media cannot be embarrassed.

Join me in supporting your local news source. Small ‘zines, the only sources we can actually lean on for accuracy, are winking out. Climb back on board and reclaim honest news! Local papers please copy!

Bill Appel

Friday Harbor