☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: NBC backtracks on Ronna McDaniel hire after outcry
- In other news: Florida bans social media for children under 14
- Looking ahead: Truth Social goes public
- Chart of the week: Americans’ views on whether generative AI programs should give credit to their sources
🔥 Featured story
Within the last week, NBC News hired former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel as a commentator, then reversed that decision after a major outcry from several of the company’s high-profile personalities. MSNBC hosts, including Rachel Maddow and Mika Brzezinski, voiced criticism of the hire, particularly due to McDaniel’s role in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
During the last presidential election cycle, Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to both use and trust MSNBC and NBC News for political and election news. For example, 61% of Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party said they trusted NBC News, compared with just 6% who distrusted it. By contrast, Republicans and GOP leaners were more likely to distrust (40%) than trust (30%) NBC News.
📌 In other news
- Florida bans social media for children under 14
- Evangelical Christian media fire up Trump support
- How Politico is approaching this election year under new management
- LA Times journalists attacked by Minnesota police to settle lawsuit for $1.2 million
- EU requires tech firms to hire fact-checkers ahead of elections
📅 Looking ahead
Former president Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is now a public company after its debut on the stock market Tuesday.
About a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) said in a 2022 survey that they had heard of Truth Social, and only 2% regularly used the site for news. Among those who regularly got news on Truth Social, 57% said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the experience.
Meanwhile, an analysis of 200 prominent accounts on Truth Social in June 2022 found that almost all were individuals (rather than organizations), and about half (49%) had a reference to being right-leaning or pro-Trump in their profile – higher than any other alternative social media site studied.
📊 Chart of the week
Our chart this week highlights Americans’ views on whether generative AI programs should credit their sources.
According to a recent Center survey, three-quarters of Americans say generative AI programs should have to credit the sources they rely on if they provide information that matches what a journalist wrote nearly word-for-word. Roughly six-in-ten (61%) say the same about information that was reported by multiple news organizations.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.
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