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CalMatters/The Markup Guild

@calmattersguild.bsky.social

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We're the journalists, product and development staff of CalMatters and The Markup.

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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

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CalMatters/The Markup Guild @calmattersguild.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

All of our peers in journalism should have the same protections. It's more important than ever that newsrooms protect the integrity and quality of our work. 2/2

● Our outlets will not publish work that is entirely AI-generated, including, but not limited to, text, photos, videos, audio, translations or artwork. When we publish AI-assisted work, it will be clearly labeled as such, will be checked by a human editor and will follow a public ethics policy.
● Management will not strike deals to use our work — or the work of freelancers or contributors — to train AI without both our consent and our compensation.
Many nonprofit newsrooms have already agreed to common-sense AI provisions, and we applaud them. Publications including Grist, the Associated Press, CalMatters/The Markup and the Chicago Reader enshrined contract language that included such guardrails as protecting unit members against being laid off as a result of AI and only implementing new AI tools when the unit consents.
But some nonprofit newsrooms appear set on racing to the bottom.
Management at ProPublica, which stands at the forefront of investigative journalism, has repeatedly refused in negotiations with its workers to agree to even the most basic limits on publishing AI-generated content or laying off media workers as a result. At The Marshall Project, the preeminent source for enterprise reporting on the criminal justice system, management has gone many months without responding to their workers’ contract proposal concerning AI. At VTDigger, which provides vital local news to Vermonters, management has offered insulting AI provisions that would allow them to lay off reporters as a result of AI and that include zero guardrails for unionized journalists on how AI impacts their editorial product. And at The Texas Tribune, a distinguished voice covering the Lone Star State, after previously agreeing to AI guardrails, including layoff protections, management recently rejected these provisions in favor of unchecked discretion to roll out AI.
Our newsrooms’ readers and small-dollar donors have already expressed their displeasure with the poor decisions leaders of t…

Logos: The Freelance Solidarity Project, National Writers Union, Texas Tribune Guild, CVJC Guild, Salt Lake News Guild, New York Focus Union, Marshall Project Guild, Consumer Reports Guild, Jacobin Union, In These Times Union, CalMatters & The Markup Guild, VTDigger Guild, Edsource Guild, Sun-Times Guild, High Country News Union, Spotlight PA Union, MinnPost Union, ProPublica Guild.

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