'Pick up the phone' plea to police press officers | Election AI fakery yet to factor
And we publish analysis which suggests the voices of women are being overlooked in the UK general election so far
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Friday, 21 June, 2024.
The FINAL deadline for this year’s Press Gazette Future of Media Awards is today. Finalise or submit your entry here.
There are probably a third the number of reporters covering crime that there were 20 years ago, and three times the number of police force press officers. So why are police-press relations so bad?
You would think each crime reporter would be getting a Rolls Royce service.
Unfortunately, because a tiny number of tabloid journalists paid police officers for stories in the pre-Leveson era, no PR officers will pick up the phone. And officers more generally refuse to treat journalists like grown-ups and talk to them on background, meaning that needless speculation is allowed to flourish as in the case of the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.
The Crime Reporters Association has come up with a list of 26 ways that police forces can fix their broke relationships with the media. It’s sensible stuff based on the premise that justice should be seen to be done and the public has the right to know what crimes are being committed in their neighbourhood and what the police officers they pay for are doing about it. But I wouldn’t place any bets on change happening soon.
AI deep fakery has so far failed to be a factor in the UK general election. We spoke to a couple of the UK’s leading fact-checkers to find out the state of play on misinformation and, somewhat reassuringly, so far they have been mainly employed tackling normal human-made fibs.
Also today we publish an analysis of election news content published so far which reveals women’s voices and issues are being overlooked. Luba Kassova has some suggestions on how to put this right with less than two weeks go to until polling day.
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New from Press Gazette
‘Pick up the phone’ is one of 26 fixes offered to police by Crime Reporters Association
“A default response of ‘can you just email in’ will do nothing to build relationships or engender trust.”
Politicians’ claims rather than AI fakes have kept UK election fact-checkers busy
“For all the predictions that this would be the ‘generative AI election’, so far we’ve seen relatively few signs of deepfakes and other such content gaining traction. Instead, our fact checking has focused on what politicians have actually said, and whether it holds up to scrutiny.”
Women’s voices and issues are not being heard in UK general election
“With two weeks of general election-related coverage to go, there are far too many questions that reporters are yet to ask about parties’ plans to improve women’s lives.”
Bad vibrations: Daily Mail publisher suing gym neighbours
Court papers say that vibrations from a neighbouring Equinox gym have been so strong that items, including an air-conditioning unit, have fallen off the walls of offices occupied by Associated.
News in brief
Times Radio says it plans to broadcast "100 hours of non-stop live election programming" stretching from election night to the following Monday evening. Full details of their full election-night line-up, including Matt Chorley, William Hague and Andrew Neil, here.
Dan Neidle has defied legal threats to publish an investigation into the tax affairs of former Loaded magazine owner Paul Baxendale-Walker. (Tax Associates)
The deadline for entries to this year's Rupert Cornwell Award has been extended to 5 July. It offers a £5,000 bursary to a journalist aged under 30 to pursue a foreign writing assignment. Full details on how to pitch here.
Forbes has sent a letter to AI search business Perplexity threatening a lawsuit over what the publisher describes as the "wilful infringement" of its copyright. (Axios)
Previously on Press Gazette
Message from Australia: New UK government facing battle with Google and Facebook
How Total Politics is making un-paywalled political journalism pay
Mystery Barclay loans drive Telegraph to record £245m loss despite underlying profitability
Daily Mail launches ‘blockbuster’ video strategy aimed at home TV viewers
News media job cuts 2024 tracked: 150 jobs expected to go at Evening Standard
Tories have slight lead versus Labour… on BBC general election push notifications
Has Rishi Sunak already lost support of The Sun? Press general election bias tracked
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