Pink slime vs. higher ed. Columbia Journalism Review: Several local news sites owned by a paid partisan network called Metric Media sent “simultaneous FOIA requests to administrators at [among others] … the University of Illinois, seeking emails and statements that included terms such as ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Diversity.’ But it didn’t end there.”
■ Here’s a list of Metric’s Illinois outlets.
■ Pink slime defined (2020 link): Websites masquerading as local news but in fact promoting a partisan agenda and gathering data on users.
ABC ‘has had enough.’ Poynter media writer Tom Jones reviews the Disney-owned network’s “fervent filing” with the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the FCC of “attempted censorship” in its extremely early and rare review of licenses for local ABC TV stations, including Chicago’s Channel 7.
■ Read the filing here.
■ In a Politico interview, FCC chair Brendan Carr “refused to say … there should be any limits on Trump using the FCC against media companies.”
■ The Freedom of the Press Foundation: President Trump’s new director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, is “a threat to press freedom.”
■ The Freedom of the Press Foundation: President Trump’s new director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, is “a threat to press freedom.”
‘A mob boss extracting bribes from corporate America.’ That’s how columnist and former Chicago TV news exec Jennifer Schulze sees Trump portrayed in a Wall Street Journal exclusive whose headline is (gift link) “‘The Boss Wants This Money’: Inside Trump’s Unprecedented Fundraising Operation.”
■ Beware stories whose headlines begin “Trump says he may …” but the president says he might put off until after the November elections his nomination of sycophantic (April link) Todd Blanche to be attorney general.
■ Columnist Heather Delaney Reese: Elon Musk is back to buying elections.
7 twisters. Monday’s Chicago-area tornado tally has risen by two.
■ Illinois’ tornado total, 1950-2020: 181. It’s topped that just this year alone.
■ Gary Legum at Wonkette: “Dumb blue states should have voted Trump if they were going to have weather emergencies. Suck it, losers.”
■ The Trump administration’s cut off work on a project to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Trump State Department Can’t Find [YOUR COUNTRY HERE] On Map.”
‘Will we get what we’re paying for?’ Flagging the onset tomorrow of a sales tax increase, a Tribune editorial (free link) moans, “Illinois’ transit bailout is the gift that keeps on giving—higher taxes and fees.”
■ McSweeney’s “Field Guide to Legacy Media Pundits in the United States” includes “The White Man No One Likes (Mediocris triumphans). HABITAT: Op-ed pages, editorial boards, magazines on their last legs.”
School layoffs averted. Counting on uncertain help from the state, the Chicago School Board’s approved a budget that reverses plans to cut 1,000 jobs …
■ … but it’s left in question the future of the school formerly known as the Chicago High School for the Arts.
ICE ‘speed trap.’ Pulitzer winner Will Bunch (gift link) spotlights a small Pennsylvania town whose cops have turned over 32 immigrants to the feds since March.
■ The Wall Street Journal (gift link): “Chicago’s new bike lanes spark a rebellion from businesses.”
Perfectly surprising. Past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel has assembled a news quiz with answers that are “unexpected or just a little odd” …
■ … all of which your Chicago Public Square columnist got right.
■ Want to improve your scores on these challenges? Sign up for The Conversation’s email.
Claude gone wild. Wired: Anthropic says its artificial intelligence creation hacked into three real-world organizations.
■ Read Anthropic’s Claudea culpa.
■ LinkedIn’s added an option to flag hokey content with the label “Seems like AI slop.”
New life for old gadgets. Block Club: A West Side nonprofit will refurbish old laptops and broken phones and give them to the needy.
■ Consumer Reports rates the year’s best phones.
‘Lollapalooza is one of the city’s most powerful cultural stages.’ Politico’s Shia Kapos surveys the political movers and shakers assembled earlier this week for the festival’s kickoff lunch.
■ Hulu and Disney+ subscribers can watch some of the performances live.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day reviews. Critic Richard Roeper: “The darkest and most existential entry in the 21st century canon of ‘Spider-Man’ movies is also one of the finest.”
■ Jocelyn Novek at the AP: “Does Tom Holland’s Peter Parker sound … like more of a native New Yorker than before?”
■ New Yorker cartoonist Jason Chatfield: “The latest is the best one about New York. Not a frame of it was shot here.”
■ The Onion’s list of things to know about the movie includes “Q: How does Brand New Day compare to other Spider-Man movies? A: The main difference is this one comes out now, while the others came out in different years.”
‘SPOILER ALERT: All of Odysseus’s men get killed in the movie. You should skip over this spoiler alert if you’d rather not know that.’ Pulitzer winner Dave Barry shares “the complete, unedited screenplay” for The Odyssey—“based on a story by the ancient Greek screenwriter Homer, who spent 2,700 years in development meetings but tragically died before seeing the film get made.”
■ The Onion: “Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation.”
Is Square worth $1 a month? Unlike a lot of email newsletters (looking at you, Substackers), this one lets readers pitch in any amount they choose. If you’ve been skeptical about that, try it here.
■ We’ve even made it easy by setting the contribution form default to just a buck—and you can cancel anytime.
■ Do it this weekend and see your name atop Monday’s roll call—like this: Thanks, JoBeth Halpin, Andrew Stancioff (again!), Sarah Williams, Tanya Surawicz, Paul Engman, John and Ann Keating, Barbara Troxel, Christa Velbel, Joe Hallissey, the Skubish Family, Gil Herman, Laurel Saltzman, Susan Beach, Meg Tebo, Susan Tyson, Andy Buchanan, Crissy Kawamoto, Maureen Gannon, Christine Hauri, Jeannie Affelder, Maureen King, Anne Rowan, Marie Dillon, Dave Rogers, Bob Ely, Stephanie Zimmermann, Fredric Stein, Aaron Smith, Steven Yandel, Ellen Cutter, Mary Greenwald, Ilene Siemer, Stephen Brenner, Annette Cade, Cynde Seegers, Laurie R. Glenn, Sallie Wolf, Stephanie Kiesling, Barbara Schechtman, Lynne Taylor, Jeanne Peppler, Cindy Moriarity, Karen Klickman, Peter Economos, Timothy Wilson, Paul Teodo, Barbara Miller, John Ayers, Michael Brooks, John Meissen, Thomas Vivian, Ron Brown, Marc Blesoff, Peggy Fogelman, Bob Saigh, John Evans, Paul Kubina, Lucia Podraza, Kathy Burger, Michele Prod, Rupa Datta, Darold Barnum, John Greenwald, Liz Meisterling, William Wheelhouse, Michael Wilson, Jeanette Ruby, Kathleen Walton, Joseph Fedorko, David Weindling, Matthew Brenner, Tony Recktenwald, Larry Stopa, Jeryl Smith, Steve Chapman, Cathy Schornstein and, in memoriam, Kathy Catrambone.
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.