iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melanie Schmitz

@melslien.bsky.social

265 followers 446 following 139 posts

Editor, ABC/GMA

Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Thinking a lot about this 2016 Marty Baron speech today "Holding the most powerful to account is what we are supposed to do. If we do not do that, then what exactly is the purpose of journalism?"

Transcript of Marty Baron speech: Many journalists wonder with considerable

weariness what it is going to be like for us during the next four-perhaps eight-years. Will we be incessantly harassed and vilified? Will the new administration seize on on opportunities to try intimidating us? Will we face obstruction at every

turn?

If so, what do we do?

The answer, I believe, is pretty simple. Just do our job. Do it as it's supposed to be done.

Every day as I walk into our newsroom, I confront a wall that articulates a set of principles that were established in 1933 by a new owner for The Post, Eugene Meyer, whose family went on to publish The Post for 80 years.

The principles begin like this: "The first mission of a newspaper is to tell the truth as nearly as the truth may be ascertained."

Transcript of Marty Baron speech: The public expects that of us. If we fail to pursue the truth and to tell it unflinchingly-because we're fearful that we'll be unpopular, or because powerful interests (including the White House and the Congress) will assail us, or because we worry about financial repercussions to advertising or subscriptions-the public will not forgive us.

Nor, in my view, should they.

After the release of the movie Spotlight, I was often asked how we at The Boston Globe were willing to take on the most powerful institution in New England and among the most powerful in the world,

the Catholic Church.

The question really mystifies me-especially when it comes from journalists or those who hope to enter the profession. Because holding the most powerful to account is what we are supposed to do.

If we do not do that, then what exactly is the purpose of journalism?

God forbid we take on the weaker institutions, the weaker individuals, while letting the strongest ones off the hook only because they can forcefully fight back.

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

My favorite moment from the Artemis II launch

Screengrab of Nandor from "What We Do in the Shadows"; he is flying up into space with a GoPro strapped to his head and saying "Hi, it's Nandor here"

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

Wall Street Journal article: "OpenAI has cut ties with one of its top safety executives, on the grounds of sexual discrimination, after she voiced opposition to the controversial rollout of AI erotica in its ChatGPT product.

The fast-growing artificial intelligence company fired the executive, Ryan Beiermeister, in early January, following a leave of absence, according to people familiar with the matter. OpenAI told her the termination was related to her sexual discrimination against a male colleague."

WSJ article: ""The allegation that I discriminated against anyone is absolutely false," Beiermeister said in a statement in response to a request for comment.

OpenAI said Beiermeister "made valuable contributions during her time at OpenAI, and her departure was not related to any issue she raised while working at the company."

Beiermeister served as the vice president leading OpenAI's product policy team, which develops rules for how people can use the company's products and helps design the enforcement mechanisms for those policies.

Her ousting came ahead of OpenAl's planned launch early this year of a mode that will allow users to create AI erotica in ChatGPT. The planned feature, which would permit adult-themed conversation including sexual topics for adult users, has drawn criticism from researchers at the company who have studied the ways some people develop unhealthy attachments to chatbots, according to some of the people. They have raised the prospect that sexual content could intensify the feelings some people have for the AI personas they view as companions.

WSJ article: Members of an advisory council on "well-being and AI" that OpenAI convenes regularly have also expressed opposition to adult mode and urged the company to reconsider plans to launch it, people with knowledge of those discussions said.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman has defended the move to expand the permissible content on his platform as a part of an effort to "treat adult users like adults."

Before her firing, Beiermeister told colleagues that she opposed adult mode, and worried it would have harmful effects for users, people familiar with her remarks said.

She also told colleagues that she believed OpenAI's mechanisms to stop child-exploitation content weren't effective enough, and that the company couldn't sufficiently wall off adult content from teens, the people said.

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Bad Bunny really said "God Bless America* 😏"

Image of a Cool Cat drinking tea with sunglasses on, a looming, jealous shark in the background

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Politico article about Heritage Foundation's "expanded view of government’s role in lives of Americans":

"The ultimate guidance in the new Heritage report is that U.S. policy 'encourage and protect the formation of families, not mere fertility,' recommending against any policies 'that undermine marriage and the formation of families, or reward or encourage needless delay in marriage and out-of-wedlock births.'"

"Tax codes, Heritage writes, 'should not penalize marriage and encourage single parenthood,' and education policy 'should not coax young Americans to delay marriage while pursuing needless credentials.'"

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

"In their sentencing memorandum, Valdivia and White used only two sentences to detail Taranto's involvement in the Jan. 6 attack."

Screenshot of an ABC News article: The two prosecutors, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, were locked out of their government devices and informed Wednesday morning they will be placed on leave, just hours after they filed a sentencing memorandum in the case of Taylor Taranto, the sources said.

Taranto was pardoned by President Donald Trump over his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol but faced a separate conviction for firearms and threat charges related to a June 2023 arrest near the home of former President Barack Obama where he was found in possession of two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as a machete.

A day before Taranto's arrest, he claimed he would use a car bomb to drive into the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

In their sentencing memorandum, Valdivia and White used only two sentences to detail Taranto's involvement in the Jan. 6 attack.

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Thank goodness I didn't get on Bad Step

An escalator step with white letters scrawled across it reading "Bad Step"

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

I just need you all to see this freaking adorable ghost one of the producers just left by my desk (she made one for everyone, all by hand 😭) Happy best month of the year, folks

Photo of a desk nameplate with a handmade paper ghost name tag next to it

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

"the West" abcnews.go.com/US/live-upda...

SCREENSHOT OF AN ABC NEWS LIVEBLOG POST:

Stephen Miller delivers heated remarks: 'We are the storm'

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller delivered heated remarks, as the several Trump administration officials begin to speak at the service.

"We are the storm," Miller said.

SCREENSHOT OF AN ABC NEWS LIVEBLOG POST:

"They cannot imagine what they have awakened. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble," Miller said. "And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing."

"You have no idea the dragon you have awakened," Miller added. "You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic."

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

"politics is over"

A social media post from President Donald Trump: "Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing. More seats equals less Crime, a great Economy, and a STRONG SECOND AMENDMENT. It means Happiness and Peace. But Republicans, there is one thing even better - STOP MAIL-IN VOTING, a total fraud that has no bounds. Also, go to PAPER BALLOTS before it is too late - At one tenth the cost, faster, and more reliable. If we do these TWO things, we will pick up 100 more seats, and the CROOKED game of politics is over. God Bless America!!!"

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

when I walk too fast to the metro

Screenshot of a text message that reads "cramb."

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

"Joseph Checklick Jr. was arrested for reckless driving and may face additional charges, police said."

Report from ABC News: Man arrested for driving car into 'No Kings' rally in Virginia

A 21-year-old man allegedly accelerated his SUV into a crowd of people at a "No Kings Day" rally in Virginia, hitting at least one person, according to Culpeper police.

No injuries were reported, police said.

Joseph Checklick Jr. was arrested for reckless driving and may face additional charges, police said.

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

"[Police round] up Communists, pacifists, clergymen, lawyers, artists, writers-anyone they judge likely to be hostile to the Nazis...[who] carry out [arrests] of their own. [They] have lists, too, but they do not register their prisoners officially." -Benjamin Carter Hett "The Death of Democracy"

Excerpt from Benjamin Carter Hett's "The Death of Democracy": The first signs of something happening come a few minutes past nine o'clock on an icy winter evening in Berlin. Hans Flöter, a theology student, is walking home from an evening of study at the State Library on Unter den Linden. Crossing the square in front of the massive Reichstag, he hears a window breaking. Flöter alerts Karl Buwert, a police officer walking his beat in front of the building. Civic duty done, Flöter continues on his way home. Werner Thaler, a typesetter at the Nazi newspaper the Völkischer Beobachter (Nationalist Observer), also approaches Buwert: moving closer to the building and looking through a first-floor window, the two men think they see someone inside carrying a torch. Buwert fires his revolver at the glow, but without much result.

Alarming news keeps coming. A young man wearing high military- style boots and a black coat appears at the Brandenburg Gate police sta- tion at 9:15 to report that the Reichstag is on fire. The police carefully note the time and the message, but in the excitement, they forget to take the man's name. His identity remains a mystery to this day. Within a few min- utes the glow of flames is clearly visible through the glass cupola over the Reid Reichstag's plenary chamber. At 9:27 the chamber explodes. Firefighters and police find themselves faced with a catastrophic fire at the heart of the building.

Excerpt from Benjamin Carter Hett's "The Death of Democracy": Two minutes before this, the police have arrested a strange young man lurking in a corridor near the burning chamber. His papers show that he is Marinus van der Lubbe, journeyman mason, age twenty-four, of Leiden, Holland. Van der Lubbe is naked to the waist and sweating profusely. He arsonist. No one at the time thinks he gladly confesses to being the arsonist inks he could be the only one.

...Even as the fire is spreading, Germany's leaders arrive at the Reichstag. The first is Hermann Göring, the Nazi interior minister of the state of Prussia. A few minutes later, a black Mercedes limousine delivers the new chancellor, Adolf Hitler, and his chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. The urbane, aristocratic vice-chancellor Franz von Papen is there, immaculately dressed as always, and seemingly unruffled. Rudolf Diels, the handsome 32-year-old chief of the secret police, was disturbed while on a date ("a most unpolice-like rendezvous," as he will later put it) at the elegant Café Kranzler on Unter den Linden. As Diels tells it, he arrives in time to hear a tirade from the new chancellor. Hitler already seems to know who has set the fire. Standing on a balcony looking over at the burning chamber, his face reflecting the glow of the flames, the chancellor rages, "There will be no mercy now... Every Communist official will be shot where he is found. The Communist deputies must be hanged this very night!"

Soon, Göring puts out an official press release reflecting Hitler's wishes. After describing the extensive damage to the building, Göring's statement calls the fire "the most monstrous Bolshevik act of terror in Germany to date," and the "beacon for a bloody uprising and civil war."

Excerpt from Benjamin Carter Hett's "The Death of Democracy": But a dramatically different explanation begins to spread just as quickly as the official story. It is not yet midnight when an Austrian reporter named Willi Frischauer, Berlin correspondent for the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung (Vienna General News), cables his shis paper: "There can be little doubt that the fire which is consuming the Reichstag was the work of hirelings of the Hitler Government." Frischauer thinks that these "hirelings" probably made their way into the Reichstag through a tunnel connecting the building to the official residence of the speaker of the Reichstag. The speaker of the Reichstag is Hermann Göring.

Reporters tell stories about crimes. Governments make arrests. Even as the firefighters struggle with the burning chamber, two separate waves of arrests begin. The Berlin police, working from carefully prepared lists, begin rounding up Communists, pacifists, clergymen, lawyers, artists, writers-anyone at all whom they judge likely to be hostile to the Nazis. The police bring their prisoners to Berlin's police headquarters at Alexander- platz and book them, everything proper and official. At the same time, though, the Nazi Stormtroopers of Berlin carry out an arrest action of their own. The Stormtroopers have lists, too, but they do not register their prisoners officially. They bring them to abandoned basements, warehouses, even a water tower, where the prisoners are beaten and tortured in a hundred different ways, in many cases killed. Soon Berliners have a new name for these places: "wild concentration camps."

It is Monday, February 27, 1933. We might say it is the last night of the Weimar Republic, the last night of German democracy.

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Melanie Schmitz @melslien.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

New pope

A gif of Nick Miller from "New Girl" saying, "Thin-crust pizza? No, thank you. I'm from Chicago."

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