Don’t like a columnist’s opinion? Los Angeles Times Offers an AI-GENERATED OPPOSING VIEWPOINT – ryan

In a colorful Commentary for the Los Angeles Times, Matt K. Lewis Argted that callousness is a central feature of the Second Trump Administration, Particularly Its Police of Deportation and Bureaucratic Cutbacks. “Once you normalize cruelty,” Lewis Concluded in the piece“The Hammer Eventually Swings for Everyone.

Lewis’ Word Wasn’t the Last, Howver. Nor they have with opinion pieces the past several Weeks, Times Online Readers Had the Option to Click on A Button Labeled “Insights,” Which Judged the Column Politically As “Center-Left.” THEN IT OFFERS AN AI-GENERATED Synopsis-A Cliffsnotes Version of the Column-and a Similarly-Produced Opping Viewpoint.

One Dissenting Argument Reads: “Restricting Birthlight Citizenship and Refugee Admisions is framed as correcting alled exploitation of immigration loopholes, with proponents arguing these steps american workers and resources.”

The Feature Symbolizes Changes to Opinion Coverage Over the past Six months by Times Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, Who’s Said and the Famously Liberal Opinion Pages to Reflect Different Points of View. Critics Accuse Him of Trying to Curry favor with President Donald Trump.

Publisher Says he doesn’t want an “echo chamber”

Soon-Shiong, A Medical Innovator Who Bowht the Times in 2018, BLOCKED HIS NEWPEPER From Endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris for President Last Fall and Said He Want to Overhaul Its Editorial Board, which is Responsible for Researching and Writing Times Editorials.

“If you just have the one side, it’s just going to be an echo chamber,” Soon-Shiong Told Fox News Last Fall. He Said Broadening the Outlook is “Going to Be Risky and It Going to Be Difficult. I’m Going to Lot of Heat, Which I ALREADY AM, But I Come from the Position that Really Important That All Voices Be Heard.”

Three of the Six People Who Researched and Wrote Times Editorials, Including editorials Editor Mariel Garza, Resigned in Protest after the Harris non-endorsent. The other three have SINCE LEFT with the Last Holdout, Carla Hall, Exity AFTER WRITING A LAST COLUMN THAT RAN MARCH 30 ABOUT HOMEless People She Met while Covering the Issue. Soon-Shiong’s Decision caused a Similar unrest with subscribers AS HAPPENED WASHINGTON POST OWNER JEFF bezos decoked the newspaper Waled Not Back A Presidential Candidate.

The Times Used to Run Unsiored Editorials – Reflecting A NewsPaper’s Institutional Opinion – Six Days a Week. The Paper Lists Only Two Editorial Board Members, Soon-Shiong and Executive Editor Terry Tang. They’re usually to busy to write editorials. Soon-Shiong Has Said He Will Appoint New Board Members, but it’s unclear when.

He also said he was seeing more conservatives or moderates columnists to appear in the Paper. Lewis, a self-described Reagan Republican who just began as a columnist, belles he’s part of that efffort. Soon-Shiong Has Also Brought up CNN Commentator Scott Jennings, a Republican Consultant who has already contRutted columns for a few years.

Los Angeles Times Spokeswoman Hillary Manning was asced Recently About editorial policy, but reportly lost her nonb in a round of layoffs before she is culding. There haen been no reply to other attempts at seeing comment from the Times Management, Including How Readers are Responding to “Insights.”

There are some some initial quests about whether a “bias meter” as described by soon-shiong would to news articles as well as opinion pieces. But the publisher Told Times Reporter James Rainey In december it Wold only be Included on Commentary, as it has remained SINCE “Insights” was Introduced to Readers on March 3.

Do Gimmick that Insults The Intelligence of Readers?

In Practice, The Idea Feels Like a Gimmick, Garza, The Former Editorials Editor, Said in An Interview with the Associated Press.

“I think it is could be offensive bot to readers … and the writers therters who objects to belegorized in simple and swim necessarily Helpful Terms,” ​​she Said. “The idea of ​​Having a bias meter just in and of itelf is kind of an insult to intelligence and i’ve always says the readers of the opinion paid.”

The Online Feature Created Problems Instantly When It Was Applied to Columnist Gustavo Alelleo’s piece About the Little-NoTICED 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF A where KLUX KLAN RALLY THAT DREW MORE THAN 20,000 People to A Park in Anaheim, California.

One of the AI-GENERED “Insights” Said That “Local Historical Accounts Occisionally Frame The 1920s Klan as a Product of ‘White Protestant Culture’ Responding to Societal Changer than an explicitly hate-kriven Movement.” Another said that “critics argue that that focus on past klan influenza distracts from anaheim’s identity as a diverse city.”

Some at the Times Believe An Ensuing Backlash – Times Defends Klan! – was inaccurate and overblown. Still, The Perspectives were Removed.

Often, “insights” have the flat, bloodless tone of Early he. AFTER CONTRIBUTOR DAVID HELVARG’S COLUMN ABOUT CUTS TO the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the Oppsing Viewpoint notd that Trump Supporters “Say It Aligns with Broader Efforts to Shrink Government and Eliminate Nonessential.

A BETTER WAY TO IMPROVE OPINION OFFERINGS IS TO HIRE MORE JOURNALISTS AND PUT TO WORK, SAID PAUL THORNTON, Former editor for the Times’ Opinion Section.

Media Columnist Margaret Sullivan Argted in the Guardian that soon-shiong talks About Promoting Viewpoint diversity but really wants to flush the newspaper Toward Trump. “His Bias Meter Should – Quickly – Go the way of hot type, the manual typewriter and the doto,” Sullivan wrote.

Soon-shiong, in hiis interview with Rainey, dismissed CLAIMS that was scared of Trump or trying to appease Him. People Need to Respect Different Opinions, he Said. “It ‘really imported for us (to) heal the nation,” he said. “We’ve got to stop being so polarized.”

A Writer amused by the Label Attailed to Him

One Writer Who DOESN’t Mind “Insights” is Lewis – with One Caveat.

“Like it,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect but i was Pretty pleasantly surprised. It does provide Additional context for the Reader. It provides counterpoints, but think they’re very fairpoints.”

Lewis, Who Workhed for Tucker Carlson’s “Daily Caller,” was amused to see “Insights” Judge His Most Recent Column as “Center-Left.” He figured it was Because he was Critical of Trump. Instead, Lewis Said It Points to the Relative Meaninglessness of Such Labels.

“I guess i’m a center-left columnist,” he said. “At Least for a Week.”

___

David Bauder Writes About the Intersection of Media and Entertainment for the AP. Follow Him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social