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Philip Eil

@phileil.bsky.social
5K followers 4.3K following 11K posts

Journalist. Cat dad. Rhode Islander. Author of "Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the 'Pill Mill Killer.'" philipeil.com

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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 4h
Back in February, the Auschwitz Memorial criticized Facebook in very strong terms for its refusal to act on the problem of AI-generated images of the Holocaust on the platform. Read the Memorial's post here: www.facebook.com/auschwitzmem... Just a dreadful company.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 4h
Good lede: "New England Patriots QB Drake Maye has revealed he isn’t quite sure a famous touchdown really happened. During an appearance on WEEI on Monday, the topic of conspiracy theories came up and Maye said he was skeptical that the United States actually did land on the moon in 1969."
boston25news.com
Patriots QB Drake Maye reveals he is unsure if United States landed on the moon in 1969
New England Patriots QB Drake Maye has revealed he isn’t quite sure a famous touchdown really happened.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 4h
I got to Essex County a bit early for my library talk tonight, which gave me time for a stroll around the Castle Hill Estate, in Ipswich. Nice house + yard.
A selfie on the "Grand Allée" of the Castle Hill Estate, in Ipswich, Mass. A mansion sits atop a hill in the background, with a long rolling lawn below it.The view from the "Grand Allée" of the Castle Hill Estate, in  Ipswich, MA. Bright blue water with trees and bushes in the foreground.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 11h
This doesn't happen in healthy democracies.
theguardian.com
US book bans in public schools reach record annual high of 12,000
Texas tops list with 8,100 bans while Stephen King is again most banned author, PEN America finds
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 11h
Morning listening. Helluva album.
youtube.com
Long Face
YouTube video by BOBBY CHARLES - Topic
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ChicagoVintageTileFloors @chicagovtfloor.bsky.social · 13h
Good Morning BlueSky, user #600,771 reporting for duty.
The corner section of a vintage tile floor circa 1920, with a border of red and green squares trimmed in black and a center of blue, black and browns in a repeating pattern.
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Bodega Cats @bodegacats.bsky.social · 14h
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 14h
Look at this, a nation state, nationing and stating.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 13h
Roses are red, A note can be called an "epistle":
wpri.com
Dead sturgeon found on moored sailboat in Bristol
The Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol had an unexpected visitor on its dock last Friday.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 13h
Speak for yourself!
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 14h
Deep cut? Dan, "Cooler and Warmer" is never far from my mind.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 14h
God forbid a guy has a hobby.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 14h
"Rhode Island: Cooler and Warmer."
A People Magazine headline: "Queen Elizabeth's Final Diary Entry Contained Only Five Words."
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 14h
Here's some info about my "Understanding AI and Misinformation" talk tonight, in Georgetown, Mass.
georgetownpl.assabetinteractive.com
Understanding A.I. and Misinformation
The Friends of the Georgetown Peabody Library will welcome Providence-based journalist Philip Eil as a guest speaker at their annual meeting on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:30PM.  Eil will present
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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 14h
*hits subscribe repeatedly
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Hard to believe this is real life. But here we are.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Me, getting into my Toyota, tomorrow afternoon.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Tomorrow is the day that I venture off into the unknown (Essex County, Mass.). I shall report back what I see there.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
with each passing day it feels more surreal to be an independent journalist. like playing with a toy train while vanderbilt owns the railways.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The accompanying PSA here is that there are a lot of great reasons to write books -- and I'm very glad I wrote mine. But "I'm going to make money from this" should not factor strongly into your decision*. *some exceedingly rare exceptions apply
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I got a royalty check for $34.83 the other day, covering the last six months of sales for my book. This was actually good news, since my previous period's royalty statement was a negative balance, after factoring in books that had been returned. #publishing
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
True, sadly.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This really happened! It wasn't even that long ago!
cnn.com
Megyn Kelly leaves NBC with all of her $69 million contract intact | CNN Business
Two years after she signed with the network amid much fanfare, Megyn Kelly and NBC have officially parted ways.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Semi-regular reminder that NBC signed a contract worth more than $65 million to have this person on the air.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
And you can read @aidanryan.bsky.social's excellent Boston Globe coverage of Uprise RI's pivot to AI -- which inspired my op-ed -- here.
bostonglobe.com
A Rhode Island website was once an influential progressive blog. AI avatars now write most of its stories. - The Boston Globe
The shift at Uprise RI comes at a time when Rhode Island progressives, led by state Representative David Morales, are politically ascendant.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
ICYMI: Over the summer, a Rhode Island news site began publishing stories by AI reporters with human-sounding names, human-looking faces, and vaguely human-sounding bios. I shared some thoughts on Uprise RI's venture into LLM-driven journalism in an op-ed for @rhodeislandcurrent.com.
rhodeislandcurrent.com
Commentary: Can AI agents produce real news reporting in Rhode Island? A human journalist has some thoughts. • Rhode Island Current
A human journalist shares thoughts about Uprise RI’s use of AI-generated “LLM reporters,” which raise broader questions about transparency, trust and what it means when machines begin reporting the ne...
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Miranda Yaver @mirandayaver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Two minutes after I took this picture, she tried to convince me that she was positively dying of hunger, just withering on the vine.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"Mr. Ellison now controls...Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Skydance...Paramount+, HBO Max...CBS News, CNN...Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TNT, TBS, HBO, MTV, [and] Food Network."
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Great reporting, Ed and @amandamilkovits.bsky.social!
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"'Our rescue crews come back and tell us that the people that work there say that they can’t call in sick, or they’ll risk being fired,' [Johnston] Fire Chief Calci said. 'So they come to work sick and then call us, and the rescue has to go pick them up.'”
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 06/10/2026
ICE has detained more than 500 U.S. citizens.
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
January 6th is another example I cite of the harms of misinformation. PolitiFact has done great reporting on the role misinformation played in J6.
politifact.com
How election misinformation fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection
Editor’s note: PolitiFact has reviewed court filings and other information for hundreds of defendants facing charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in an ongoing effort to document wha...
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It's not that we don't have effective vaccines for measles -- we do. It's not that we lack access to those vaccines -- we do. It's an information problem: people aren't trusting the safe, accessible treatments that exist.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
When I give library talks about misinformation, the rise/return of measles is one of the first examples I cite of the stakes.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Providence.
A tree with brightly colored leaves along the Providence River. The pedestrian bridge and iconic three-smokestack power plant are visible in the background.
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Jesse @requiemarm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
it’s been ten years easily but the song title “Take a Knee My Ass (I Won’t Take a Knee)” is still the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life and I think about it weekly
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This specific Providence block -- Bowen Street, between Brook and Thayer -- always puts on a show in the Fall. I love it. Photo from today.
A tree-canopied street on the East Side of Providence. The trees are in various stages of colorful leaf-changing.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Indeed!
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Wow. If this goes through, that'll mean that both the Providence mayor and city council prez will be 28 years old.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
My latest.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
No fun sounds. But I do feel lighter with each one closing.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
lol this gif is incredible
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Just submitted a feature I've been working on for a while. Which means I get to hold a Closing Of The Tabs ceremony.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
She was mad I didn't give her editing privileges in the Google Doc. 🐾
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I printed out a draft of a feature for some final copy-edits before submission. But someone has other plans.
A calico kitty -- Jill -- sitting on a short stack of papers on top of a laptop.
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
As always, when a devastating new report about book bans in America is published, I challenge you to think less about the most banned author — Stephen King is fine — and more about the banned authors who are trying to scrabble together a living from their art. pen.org/report/book-...
pen.org
A Spotlight on School Book Bans
Nearly 12,000 books were banned in public schools during the 2025-2026 school year, according to PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans.
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Man Drunk and Falling Down
Alt: Man Drunk and Falling Down
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
**speaking softly to myself** "She grew up in East Greenwich."
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Philip Eil @phileil.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Don't forget this instant classic.
nytimes.com
Olivia Nuzzi Did It All for Love
The former political journalist has written a combustive portrait of America, President Trump and the scandal with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that upended her career.
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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 05/10/2026
I’d suggest the genre of profile journalism has some shortcomings
The cover of Fortune Magazine that calls the convicted fraud Sam Bankman-Fried “the next warren buffet” because of his crypto-scamThe cover of Forbes, where Elizabeth Holmes holds a capsule of blood for a cover story extolling her genius, shortly before she was convicted for fraud and sentenced to a long prison sentence.A glossy photo spread extolling the glamour and taste of Asma al-Assad, weeks before her husband committed multiple war crimes and eventually had to flee to Russia to avoid being hacked apart by an enraged rob.
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