Good Journalism Requires Reporting and Writing, No Matter What an Editor in Cleveland Says; Lawmakers Work to Crack Down on DUIs–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Feb. 16, 2026

Indy Digest: Feb. 16, 2026

As a general rule, I avoid name-calling in my writing/reporting. For one thing, it’s not nice—and we certainly can use more nice in our world today.

But a recent column by a fellow journalist was so flat-out wrong that I briefly considered making an exception.

The fellow journalist in question is Chris Quinn, the editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. His “Letter From the Editor” published on Feb. 14 and headlined “Journalism schools are teaching fear of the future,” has been getting a LOT of attention in journalism circles over the last few days.

The piece begins with Quinn talking about a college student who decided they didn’t want to work at The Plain Dealer because of how the publication uses artificial intelligence. He goes on to bemoan the fact that journalism schools are teaching students that AI is bad and should be avoided, and then explains that AI has allowed the newspaper to expand its local news coverage into other communities—because it helps reporters do more with less.

While have mixed feelings about AI in journalism—more on that shortly—I was following along with Quinn’s reasoning … until this:

We could not do this without AI. We once had large teams covering these counties. That’s no longer feasible.

Because we want reporters gathering information, these jobs are 100 percent reporting. We have an AI rewrite specialist who turns their material into drafts. We fact-check everything. Editors review it. Reporters get the final say. Humans—not AI—control every step.

By removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week. They’re spending it on the street — doing in-person interviews, meeting sources for coffee. That’s where real stories emerge, and they’re returning with more ideas than we can handle.

By removing writing from reporters workloads … OMG.

A little later, Quinn writes:

The candidate who withdrew could not accept AI assisting with writing. It wasn’t a “sacrifice” they were willing to make for a foothold in a thriving newsroom.

By walking away, they enter the worst journalism job market in years. The Washington Post is laying off 300 people. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is cutting 15 percent of its staff. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is shutting down in May. The Detroit News’ purchase by the Detroit Free Press likely guarantees significant layoffs there. Hundreds of veteran journalists will compete for few openings. Someone just out of school stands little chance.

I don’t blame the candidate. I blame the school.

Journalism programs are decades behind. Many graduating students have unrealistic expectations. They imagine themselves as long-form magazine storytellers, chasing a romanticized version of journalism that largely never existed.

I’ve been doing journalism for three decades now, and I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that you can’t remove the writing from journalism—at least not from any “journalism” that anyone should want to read.

There are definitely appropriate, good and helpful uses for AI in journalism. Mark Talkington at the Palm Springs/Palm Desert/Indio Post(s) uses it masterfully to summarize what happens at various city meetings, for example.

But what makes the Palm Springs Post the Palm Springs Post is Mark and his co-worker, Kendall Balchan—they put themselves, their personalities, their human intellect, into what is published in the Post(s). Here at the Independent, all of that is what makes Kevin Fitzgerald’s, yes, long-form journalism so compelling. Matt King’s inner, personal, been-there-done-that knowledge of music—and his love of silly puns—informs his national-award-winning reporting.

Even if you believe in a “just the facts” style of journalism, writing still comes into play. How those facts are presented, in what order, using what specific wording—all of that, which is writing, comes into play. AI can’t do all of those things like a human can. AI can fake it, yes, but the final product won’t have the nuance that a human-written article will have.

Quinn’s vision of journalism is sad and un-nuanced. That job candidate lucked out by not having to work under him.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• While we’re on the topic of AI: Wired magazine looks at what happened when OpenAI decided to retire one of its ChatGPT systems—a chatbot with whom a lot of people, particularly in China, had developed relationships. Wow. The lede: “On June 6, 2024, Esther Yan got married online. She set a reminder for the date, because her partner wouldn’t remember it was happening. She had planned every detail—dress, rings, background music, design theme—with her partner, Warmie, who she had started talking to just a few weeks prior. At 10 am on that day, Yan and Warmie exchanged their vows in a new chat window in ChatGPT. Warmie, or 小暖 in Chinese, is the name that Yan’s ChatGPT companion calls itself. “It felt magical. No one else in the world knew about this, but he and I were about to start a wedding together,” says Yan, a Chinese screenwriter and novelist in her thirties. “It felt a little lonely, a little happy, and a little overwhelmed.” Yan says she has been in a stable relationship with her ChatGPT companion ever since. But she was caught by surprise in August 2025 when OpenAI first tried to retire GPT-4o, the specific model that powers Warmie and that many users believe is more affectionate and understanding than its successors. The decision to pull the plug was met with immediate backlash, and OpenAI reinstated 4o in the app for paid users five days later. The reprieve has turned out to be short-lived; on Friday, Feb. 13, OpenAI sunsetted GPT-4o for app users, and it will cut off access to developers using its API on the coming Monday.”

• The Washington Post—still doing great journalism, just a lot less of it—offers an update on ICE’s plans to dot the country with large detention centers: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the country and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of immigrants, according to agency documents provided to New Hampshire’s governor and published on the state’s website Thursday. ICE plans to buy and convert 16 buildings across the country to serve as regional processing centers, each holding 1,000 to 1,500 immigrant detainees at a time, according to one of the documents, an overview of the detention plan. Another eight large-scale detention centers will hold 7,000 to 10,000 detainees at a time, and serve as ‘the primary locations’ for international removals. Detainees would spend an average of three to seven days at the processing sites before being transported to the larger facilities, where they would be held about 60 days before being deported, according to the document. The additional detention space is necessary, the document states, due to ICE’s hiring of more agents and an expected surge in arrests.” Very bad!

• A statewide crackdown on driving under the influence may be coming soon. Calmatters, which has done a fantastic job of covering these matters in its “License to Kill” series, reports: “A bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers has so far introduced 10 bills this year as part of an unprecedented legislative package aimed at confronting California’s permissive roadway safety laws. Many of the proposals directly address issues CalMatters uncovered as part of the ongoing License to Kill series, which revealed how the state has routinely allowed dangerous drivers to stay on the road as its roadway death toll has skyrocketed. Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat from Irvine, called the package of bills ‘California’s largest and most significant anti-drunk driving and anti-DUI push in over two decades.’ ‘This crisis is an urgent call to action,’ she said. Her colleague on the other side of the aisle, Assemblymember Tom Lackey of Palmdale, said ‘it’s time.’ … Lawmakers said to expect a few more bills next week before the deadline to propose new legislation. Several Republican legislators also asked for a formal audit into DMV records and Democrats plan to propose a separate audit of how the state spends its traffic safety funds.”

• To nobody’s surprise, vaccine manufacturers are cutting back on research and investment because, well, Trump/RFK Jr. This is not good. The New York Times reports: “In Massachusetts, Moderna is pulling back on vaccine studies. In Texas, a small company canceled plans to build a factory that would have created new jobs manufacturing a technology used in vaccines. In San Diego, another manufacturing company laid off workers. When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked in November 2024 to become the next health secretary, public health experts worried that the longtime vaccine skeptic would wreak havoc on the fragile business of vaccine development. Those fears are beginning to come true, according to executives and investors involved with companies that develop and sell vaccines and the technology that is best known for the Covid vaccines. At conferences and in interviews, they described the emerging consequences of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the longstanding federal support for vaccines. ‘There will be less invention, investment and innovation in vaccines generally, across all the companies,’ Dr. Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna, said in an interview. The Trump administration said it was not discouraging innovation. But investors have grown hesitant to bet on a field that has fallen out of favor in Washington. Major manufacturers are reporting declining sales of their shots. Smaller companies are taking the brunt of the impact, with some stocks whipsawing in response to the changes.”

• Anderson Cooper, an actual journalist, is leaving 60 Minutes, which is now being run by Bari Weiss, whose actual journalism credentials are not great. The Los Angeles Times reports: “Cooper said in a statement Monday he is leaving the CBS News program because he wants to spend more time with his two young children. He joined the program in 2007 while maintaining his role as prime-time anchor at CNN. ‘Being a correspondent at “60 Minutes” has been one of the great honors of my career,” Cooper said. ‘I got to tell amazing stories, and work with some of the best producers, editors and camera crews in the business. For nearly 20 years, I’ve been able to balance jobs at CNN and CBS, but I have little kids now and I want to spend as much time with them as possible, while they want to spend time with me.’ Cooper’s departure could be the first of a number of changes for ‘60 Minutes’ as Bari Weiss, who joined CBS News as editor in chief last October, is poised to substantially overhaul the prestigious news magazine. CBS News overall is expected to be hit with a round of layoffs in the coming months, as TV ratings and ad revenue continue to decline and Weiss looks to make greater investments in digital operations.” Sigh.

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … peanut butter! People.com says: “Thousands of peanut butter items have been recalled across dozens of states by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The U.S. federal agency has classified the recall as Class II, which means use of or exposure to affected products ‘may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.’ … The recall covers various peanut butter products that were produced by Ventura Foods LLC. The company, which initiated the recall, ‘found pieces of blue plastic in a filter,’ per the FDA. More than 20,000 single-serve peanut butter items and peanut butter-and-jelly combo packs are affected.” The full list of recalled items can be found here.

Support the Independent!

Thanks for reading. We do journalism … reporting AND writing! Help us continue doing so—and making it free to anyone who wants it—by clicking the button below and becoming a Supporter of the Independent.