The Guild Eagle: Buyouts, AI blowback

Buyouts hit newsroom hard, irreplaceable institutional knowledge lost

Hi everyone: 

This is Laura Nelson, a reporter in the Times’ California section and a steward in the Los Angeles Times Guild. You’re receiving this message because you’ve signed up for updates from the union that represents Times journalists.

I wanted to open this edition of our newsletter by recognizing and thanking the 48 journalists, 40 of them members of the Guild, who are leaving our newsroom in our latest round of buyouts.

These editors, reporters, photojournalists, columnists, copy editors, news librarians and other staffers have amassed hundreds of years of shared institutional knowledge and service to The Times and our community. They’re also cherished colleagues and friends. We will really miss them.

Notably, these buyouts will further hollow out the Times’ Editorial Board, which, starting in April, will have no writers left. Our Opinion section has also shrunk dramatically. Meanwhile, the size of our Washington, D.C. bureau has been reduced by more than half, with the departure of five Guild reporters and editors.

We’d like to offer a special thank you to the departing journalists who served in Guild leadership, including unit chair and editorial board member Carla Hall, at-large unit council member and assistant editor Paloma Esquivel, and a half dozen Guild stewards. 

Now, on to other news items:

Some kick-ass journalism
Even as we faced a shrinking newsroom, The Times’ journalists continued to produce outstanding work. Libor Jany and Richard Winton broke the details on the racist, sexist and homophobic comments uttered by officers in the LAPD’s recruitment office. Jack Harris in Sports wrote about Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ recent visit to the Pacific island of Okinawa, the place of his birth, and his embrace of his Japanese heritage.

Julia Wick pressed Mayor Karen Bass on the deletion of her texts from the week of the Palisades fire. And our entertainment team produced masterful work covering the Oscars, including the winners list, the story stream and the best and worst moments.

Brittny Mejia shared a harrowing tale from the operating room of a leg-lengthening procedure. 

Adam Tschorn talked to actor-comedian Joel McHale about how to have the best Sunday in L.A., which late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel asked McHale about in a recent interview.

Laurence Darmiento exposed the challenges L.A. fire victims insured through State Farm General are facing from California’s largest home insurer. Those interviewed said they’ve tried to get environmental testing to determine their homes’ damage and have been denied.

Finally, the LAT's Jeanette Marantos looked into the question: why did some trees burn in the Jan. 7 fires, while others survived? Some trees lived, she writes, because they have "thick bark, a shape that sheds embers and higher moisture content." Give it a read!

— David Zahniser

Insulting our artificial intelligence
Now, some less encouraging news. Earlier this month, The Times unveiled a new AI bot called "Insights," whose content is now attached to the online edition’s editorials, op-eds and columns. 

The reviews were mostly unkind.

Touted as a counterweight to partisan bias, the Op-Bot set off alarms in its first day, after it appeared to many readers that the AI tool, while assessing Gustavo Arellano’s column on the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Orange County, was defending the KKK. CNN concluded that the new AI tool was offering “pro-KKK arguments.” Futurism simply wanted to know: "Seriously — who asked for this?"

Margaret Sullivan, writing in the Guardian, told readers there's "one firm rule about the use of AI in journalism" — that a human should be in the loop before publication. "Because AI, at least at this point, is often wrong on the facts, and because many news consumers are suspicious of it," she wrote.

Arellano, in a follow-up piece, called the controversy more nuanced, saying the AI tool used “fuzzy and clumsy phrasing” but did not defend the KKK. He also noted that his piece, which called for readers to remember the KKK’s history in Anaheim, was branded as a politically “left” viewpoint by the AI tool.

The Times swiftly removed the AI analysis from Arellano’s piece. Matt Hamilton, the Guild’s unit vice chair, argued that without human safeguards, such AI tools will undermine trust in the work of our members.

“The money for this endeavor could have been directed elsewhere: supporting our journalists on the ground who have had no cost-of-living increase since 2021.”

— Sonja Sharp 

Marking the calendar
Speaking of cost-of-living increases, here’s another unsettling milestone: Contract negotiations at The Times recently passed the two and a half year mark.

The Guild began bargaining with management on a new contract for salaries, benefits and worker protections on Sept. 6, 2022. The contract was expected to cover three years.

A final Guild reminder
Despite the losses to our newsroom and new concerns over AI, The Times still has 235 unionized human journalists who are dedicated to bringing you the news you need.

We promise to remain vigilant in our newsroom and in our communities. That means producing strong accountability journalism on such topics as the recovery from the recent wildfires, Trump’s impact on California and the Democrats’ differing responses. But we also intend to speak up when our newspaper’s owner makes moves that threaten the quality of our own journalism.

If you believe in the need for critical reporting in our city and state, led by people who live here, then please continue to follow us as we seek your help in our fight for a fair contract and job protections. More on that soon.

— James Queally