A Look at Our New AI Policy; Tom Steyer May Have Paid for That Social Media Post Saying Nice Things About Him–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: May 21, 2026

Indy Digest: May 21, 2026

AI has been one of the hottest topics at every news-publishing conference I’ve attended in recent years.

How should we use it? Should we use it at all? How should we deal with the fact that most of these large language models use/used our content, without our permission? Will AI eventually cost us our jobs or our publications?

Additionally, the use (or, rather, misuse) of AI by some news outlets has led to some big problems. Here are some recent headlines:

• “Reporters at McClatchy Withhold Bylines in Dispute Over A.I. Content.” As reported by The New York Times: “McClatchy, the newspaper chain behind publications including The Sacramento Bee, The Miami Herald and The Idaho Statesman, has started to use a new artificial intelligence tool that can summarize traditional articles and spit out different versions for different audiences. Its reporters aren’t happy about it. Journalists in many of the company’s newsrooms are now withholding their bylines from articles created by the new tool, meaning that those articles will run with a generic credit rather than a reporter’s name, as is customary.”

• “Sports Illustrated Just Deleted Every Article by One of Its Writers After Accusation of AI Plagiarism.” As reported by Futurism: “Sports Illustrated deleted an author—and his entire archive of articles—from its website following allegations of AI plagiarism. … The sports news site Sportico published an article featuring an original analysis of parlay bets made via the prediction market Kalshi. Two days later, on May 15, Sports Illustrated published an article — titled ‘Who is really winning on Kalshi parlays according to the data’—that regurgitated the same figures, without ever attributing the analysis to Sportico, as would be the normal and ethical thing to do.”

Yikes.

To be clear, I don’t think writers/reporters should use AI to write or construct their articles. That said, AI can be very helpful to journalists; for example, many of us use AI interview-transcription services, while some use AI to summarize public meetings.

Therefore, the Independent has finally developed an AI policy, and we’re requiring all of our employees and contributors to agree to its terms. We used the AI policy by The Beacon, a Kansas City-based news outlet, as our inspiration, with their permission.

Here’s our AI policy:

The Coachella Valley Independent is dedicated to being the valley’s source of independent news, arts coverage, commentary and culture.

We, like many news publications, are continuing to explore how we use the fast-evolving tools of our trade—including artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models. Our goal is to use these technologies to improve efficiency while upholding our editorial integrity.

 How we may use AI:

• Transcribing interviews using tools like Otter.ai. Transcriptions are always reviewed by a human for accuracy.

• Transcribing and summarizing public meetings. Transcriptions are always reviewed by a human for accuracy.

• Checking spelling and grammar.

• To brainstorm story angles, possible sources, potential questions and possible headlines— always with oversight and review by reporters and editors.

How we do NOT use AI:

• AI does not write our stories. Every story is researched, written and edited by human journalists. In rare cases where a portion of a story is crafted by AI (such as a public meeting summary), it will be disclosed.

• We do not use AI for fact-checking or editorial judgment. Our reporters and editors are responsible for verification and for all conclusions.

• We do not use AI-generated photographs or illustrations. All visuals used in our reporting are created by human photographers, illustrators or designers.

We are committed to using AI thoughtfully and responsibly. Any uses of AI will be to enhance productivity, and never to replace writing and reporting—while always maintaining the highest standards of accuracy, transparency and editorial independence.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The Google search experience is changing radically. The New York Times (gift link) explains: “On Tuesday, Google said the A.I. shift had inspired it to overhaul the dimensions of its search bar for the first time since 2001. The box is getting bigger and more interactive so that people can ask even longer questions and upload photographs and videos into queries. In addition, people can ask follow-up questions with a chatbot on Google’s main search page. The company will also offer digital assistants, known as agents, to automate searches so that someone who may be apartment hunting can be notified of a new listing without opening a real estate site like Zillow. The search features will be powered by a new artificial intelligence model, Gemini 3.5 Flash. Google said the model had improved on creating software code and performing autonomous tasks, worked faster and was less expensive to run than comparable models.” It’s worth noting that this is terrible news for sites that have depended on Google for traffic, like Zillow, as mentioned … and newspapers, too.

• An update on that ridiculous “settlement” between Donald Trump and his own Justice Department: That “settlement” bars the IRS from auditing Trump, his family or his “affiliates.” Yes, really. Politico reports: “The Justice Department on Tuesday expanded the just-announced settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his tax returns to include a pledge that the IRS will no longer pursue any claims it may have against Trump, his family members and his companies over unpaid taxes. The nine-page settlement agreement DOJ released Monday, setting up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged weaponization of law enforcement, did not mention any resolution of disputes over Trump’s tax returns, which he has repeatedly claimed were under protracted audits by the IRS. However, a one-page document posted on the DOJ website early Tuesday includes a sweeping release under which the IRS is ‘forever barred and precluded’ from pursuing ‘examinations’ of Trump, ‘related or affiliated individuals,’ and related trusts and businesses. The waiver specifically encompasses ‘tax returns filed before the effective date’ of the settlement, which was Monday.”

• This Los Angeles Times headline should not come as a surprise to anybody: “Social media, manifesto of San Diego mosque shooters rooted in white nationalism.” Details: “The gunmen who killed three people at the San Diego Islamic Center left behind a 75-page document that preached hate, anti-Islam ideology and antisemitism and promoted violence and chaos, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told The Times. The manifesto was titled ‘The New Crusade: Sons of Tarrant’ and made reference to Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people and injured 89 more in an attack on a mosque and an Islamic center in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, according to the sources. The FBI confirmed Tuesday that it is examining a manifesto, but did not verify the one circulating online that purports to be the attackers’ writings. The Times has reviewed those writings, which espoused hate toward Muslims, Jews, Black people and Latinos and the LGBTQ+ community. The Times also identified social media accounts believed to be used by one of the shooters that idolized school shootings, the white nationalism movement and neo-Nazi terrorism and were flush with memes from the online far-right extremist community.”

• Social-media influencers are being paid to tout political candidates—and not disclosing that their posts are actually paid advertising. Our partners at Calmatters report that gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer is using this campaign tactic, which is indeed illegal … sort of: “Jaz Roche, also known to nearly 11,000 Tiktok followers as @spo0kymom, hawks facial cleansing bars, baby wagons and AI tools in short social media videos. On a website where clients can pay her to post videos about their products, she says she’s based in Pennsylvania. Yet the content creator has taken an interest in the California governor’s race lately. Tiktok and Instagram accounts linked to Roche have posted 34 times in the past 10 days to boost the campaign of billionaire Tom Steyer or to criticize his main Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra. … What she didn’t say was that Steyer’s campaign is paying her to (post) Steyer, who has poured nearly $200 million into the most expensive primary campaign in state history, is under scrutiny for using paid social media influencers to post favorable things about him. Is that legal? Gov. Gavin Newsom three years ago signed a law meant to bring transparency to the increasingly intertwined world of politics and content creators, enacting a law requiring influencers to be upfront in their posts about being paid by a political campaign. In one of the first tests of the law, regulators have opened an investigation into one of the Steyer influencer videos. But experts and transparency advocates aren’t optimistic: The law was intentionally designed with no real penalties, and the agency responsible for enforcing it sometimes takes years to resolve investigations.”

• Rupert Murdoch’s son James is buying New York magazine and Vox. Hmm. The Associated Press reports: “The deal with Vox, widely seen as liberal-leaning, represents a major move toward his own media empire for the 53-year-old younger son of Rupert Murdoch, who himself owned New York Magazine from 1976 until 1991. And it comes less than a year after the Murdoch family reached a deal on control of the 95-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death, ensuring no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for conservatives, under Rupert’s chosen heir, Lachlan Murdoch. Under the new deal, expected to close within weeks, Lupa Systems, James Murdoch’s media company, acquires the three divisions—about half of Vox Media. Neither Vox Media nor Lupa was disclosing the sum. The New York Times cited people familiar with the matter saying it was more than $300 million. The acquired divisions will operate, according to a statement, as a subsidiary of Lupa—called Vox Media. … Not included in the deal are the Vox brands Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation, The Dodo, and The Verge. But the deal does include, along with New York magazine, its verticals The Cut, Vulture, Intelligencer, The Strategist, Curbed, and Grub Street.”

• California’s last-resort homeowners’ insurance plan is significantly raising its rates this fall. KTVU says: “California’s FAIR Plan, considered the state’s insurance of last resort, has announced it will raise rates by an average of 30% starting Oct. 15. … The FAIR Plan offers policies to individuals who cannot secure private insurance because their properties, often located in high-risk wildfire zones, are deemed too risky by traditional carriers. Across California, nearly 670,000 homes are currently covered under the plan. ‘This is really going to hit hard for a lot of people,’ said Karl Susman, an insurance agency owner and industry expert.”

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … toys! Because they may contain asbestos! Fox Business explains: “More than 120,000 Orb Funkee squeeze toys have been recalled after it was discovered that the sand filling inside the toys may contain fibrous tremolite, a form of asbestos. Imported by the Canadian company The Orb Factory Limited, the toys were sold nationwide at major retailers, including Walmart and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, according to an alert from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. If the sand inside the toy is inhaled, it can cause adverse and potentially serious health issues.”

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