Molly Jong-Fast will make you
laugh, cry—and RSVP
We’re thrilled to invite you to a special luncheon featuring journalist, author, and outstanding cultural commentator Molly Jong-Fast, who will speak candidly about her memoir, How to Lose Your Mother, which chronicles her unconventional upbringing as the daughter of literary icon Erica Jong, and her journey through privilege, rebellion and loss.
This intimate conversation will explore what it was like growing up in the shadow of Fear of Flying, and the complexities of mother-daughter relationships in the public eye.
Molly Jong-Fast has emerged as an outstanding writer and commentator. Her mother Erica Jong, is the pioneering author of Fear of Flying, the mega-best seller that spoke to a generation of women and men and, among other things, spawned the phrase "zipless f**k".
Now Molly has written How to Lose Your Mother,
a memoir that is both raw and tender—and also mesmerizing—but not before earning her bona fides as a journalist . She is a political analyst at MSNBC, the host of a podcast called Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast and other works, including, recently, a witty New York Times op-ed about why we should not wish for another Gilded Age even as we enjoy the popular HBO series.
Join us on
Wednesday, Sept.17, 11:30 a.m-2 p.m. to hear Molly talk about her book, her singular life and today's wild political scene.
News Media News
Anthropic settles class action from US authors alleging copyright infringement
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic said in a court filing on Tuesday that it has resolved a class action lawsuit from a group of U.S. authors who argued that its AI training infringed their copyrights, marking the first settlement in a string of such major industry lawsuits.
AI startup Perplexity Is Launching a New Revenue-Share Model for news articles used in its search results.
Perplexity says it expects to pay publishers from a $42.5 million revenue pool initially, and to increase that amount over time, The money will be distributed when its AI assistant or search engine uses a news article to fulfill a task or answer a search request.
SHORT VIDEO: AI news videos blur line between real and fake reports
7-minute video from
NBC News shows how hyper-realistic AI-generated news videos are flooding social media, making it harder to tell real reports from fakes. Experts warn the technology spreading misinformation before it’s verified, raising new concerns about trust in what we see online.
SHORT VIDEO:
How the New York Times uses AI in its investigations | AI and the Future of News 2025
In this 5-minute video, Dylan Freedman, a New York Times Machine Learning Engineer and Journalist, show how the newspaper is using AI tools to help in investigative reporting research. Freedman appeared in conjunction with the Reuters Institute.
The good, the bad, and the completely made-up: Newsrooms on wrestling accurate answers out of AI
For many, AI and journalism remain an unholy marriage. Can a machine really atomize the entire journalistic process down into database-friendly chunks and vectors? What gets lost in the process of summarization?
AI-powered search tools threaten the survival of the online news industry
With AI-powered tools now summarising articles directly within search results, users are less inclined to visit the original news sources, threatening both advertising revenue and subscription-based models that publishers rely on for survival.
Amazon to Pay New York Times at Least $20 Million a Year in AI Deal
Terms of the multiyear deal, which haven’t previously been disclosed, offer a window into how publishers and AI companies are valuing news content in midst of seismic changes in how consumers seek information online. The annual payment amounts to nearly 1% of the Times’s 2024 revenue.
Trump Says He’s ‘Getting Rid of Woke’ and Dismisses Copyright Concerns in AI Policy Speech
“You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for,” Trump said. “We appreciate that, but just can't do it— because it's not doable.”
Axel Springer CEO: “Digital is the new print. AI is the new digital.”
Speaking to more than 100 world-wide executives, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner warned, "Dependence on search and Social is a weakness. Owning the audience is a strength.”
AND THE AWARDS GO TO...
The 80th Annual Silurians Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards Honor Local Reporting On Crime, Sex Trafficking, Migrants, Brain Surgery and More
The Excellence in Journalism Awards was celebrated with a festive dinner on June 18 at the historic National Arts Club in New York City, honoring outstanding work across 16 categories spanning print, broadcast, and online journalism. The event showcased the enduring strength and diversity of New York-area journalism.
Dominating the evening were The New York Times, Newsday, and The Record (NorthJersey.com), which collectively earned the majority of Medallions and Merit awards. Yet, the spotlight was also shared by powerhouse teams at Bloomberg News, ProPublica, and NBC’s I-Team, all of whom took home top honors. Notably, smaller but influential newsrooms such as NJ.com, THE CITY, and STAT News also earned Medallions, affirming the vital role of local and specialized journalism.
from the June 2025 Silurian News, Page 6
Gossip to Gospel: When Is It News?
Should gossip columnists have to apologize to the journalism community—and to the public—for their craft (and their livelihood)? Here, one veteran of that niche explains why justification is not necessary, and contrasts her craft with today’s rancorous world of social media.—The Editors
By Karen Feld
Gossip is fun when not malicious. It’s always been part of American culture, but more acceptable today than ever before.
People magazine took it mainstream, and Donald Trump has taken it beyond where most ever imagined. When I started out it was a predominantly feminine trade, relegated to the back sections of papers, considered “unserious.”
However, in politics, then as now, much of what originates as “gossip” quickly graduates to “gospel” seen on front pages around the world. The lines between public and private life have always been complicated, but in today’s climate, they’re almost nonexistent.
