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Subbu Vincent

@subbuvincent.bsky.social
576 followers 494 following 30 posts

I direct Journalism & Media Ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Focus: sourcing standards; role of algorithms/AI in news distribution; democratic culture. www.linkedin.com/in/subbuvincent

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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
@alixdunn.com @doriantaylor.com @davekarpf.bsky.social
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
The confidence makes people dismantle safeguards, so watch out. This Y Combinator thread went on a blast over the weekend (T/H my friend Rohit Khare for flagging it to me.) news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4702... And the actual retraction arstechnica.com/staff/2026/0...
news.ycombinator.com
Editor's Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations | Hacker News
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
With secondary work, the smooth and confident responses from AI bots is a removal of friction that slips the brain. Worldwide, tons of writers might be quoting people from secondary text and might simply be falling for how the bots respond so confidently.
news.ycombinator.com
Editor's Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations | Hacker News
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Primary sourcing with people is usually direct line of communication. You may also feel a greater responsibility to your source, and may send their quotes back to them to double-check. More human investment overall. The risk is higher for secondary sourcing because of how AI works.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
For primary sources, precisely because you as a reporter found something your source said was worth quoting, your brain (memory) is also likely to give you at least faint warning that the AI tool is producing a “quote” that you did not *actually hear* when you talked to the person.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
But there is more to this: the risks are not the same for primary and secondary sourcing. When journalists talk to a source directly, it is primary sourcing. Where you pull from a source’s speech already posted elsewhere, in this case a blog, it is secondary sourcing.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
It is a cardinal lesson. The basic safeguard Edwards said he ought to have followed - simply comparing the generated text with the lines he wanted to pull from the blog post verbatim - would have helped catch the quotes error. The key thing is you have to apply that safeguard all the time.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Last weekend, Ars Technica retracted an AI-involved-news story by reporter Benj Edwards because it had fabricated quotes. Edwards has already explained how it happened, taken responsibility, and said that he had asked his boss to pull the piece. bsky.app/profile/benj...
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Yep it is. And this type of inquiry is doable. I don’t know of published datasets that combine source attributions with analysis of language for promotion/PR/framing for tech companies, but that’s a valid hypothesis already.. will check
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
So many people are asking how they can support me.. The best way .. is to support @resistanceschool.bsky.social! I’ll be teaching Race, Media and International Affairs 101 and 102 next month. Sign up for lectures by me and guest speakers! www.resistancesummerschool.com/fall-2025-re...
resistancesummerschool.com
Fall Registration for Race, Media & International Affairs with Karen Attiah — Resistance Study Series
A virtual, seven week beginner and intermediate course on the history of race, mass media, and the modern world order.
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Jeff Stein @jeffstein.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Statement from @postguild.bsky.social on the firing of Karen Attiah:
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rasmuskleis.bsky.social @rasmuskleis.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
"The executive branch cannot be both the arbiter of legality of media content, and the issuer of takedown notices" @subbuvincent.bsky.social says as @reuters.com documents scope of Indian government crackdown - including on inconvenient news, satire, cartoons, etc. www.reuters.com/business/med...
reuters.com
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Derek Barker @dwmbarker.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
All star group on how journalism is failing to respond to authoritarian elites, fake news, and AI--and how it can pivot to meet the moment. @subbuvincent.bsky.social @jayrosen.bsky.social @joelsimonsays.bsky.social and others. www.cjr.org/feature/thir...
cjr.org
Thirteen Journalists on How They Are Rethinking Ethics
We asked newsroom leaders and ethicists what they’re keeping or changing in an era of Trump, “fake news,” AI, and industry decline.
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toptenusernames.bsky.social @toptenusernames.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Great piece by @subbuvincent.bsky.social on avoiding both-sidesism and ignoring fake controversies! "Once you take somebody else’s framing, and you make it part of your controversy, you’ve legitimized the controversy... A better approach is: Determine whether something is a controversy or not."
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Derek Barker @dwmbarker.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Subbu's piece builds on the framework he developed in this June 2024 piece on pro-democracy journalism. kettering.org/to-counter-a...
kettering.org
To Counter Authoritarianism, Can Journalism Promote Democratic Culture?
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Derek Barker @dwmbarker.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
New on our blog: How can news media resist authoritarian efforts to control the narrative? Journalism scholar @subbuvincent.bsky.social shows a new model is starting to emerge in recent coverage of the Trump admin.
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Ethics & Journalism Initiative @ NYU @ethical-news.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
News headlines are the first and most important interface between readers and journalists, but few news organizations address the mechanics of headline writing in their ethics codes. Read our latest with @subbuvincent.bsky.social on his new guidance for newsrooms balancing ethics and SEO:
ethicsandjournalism.org
How to Write Fairer, More Accurate Headlines - Ethics and Journalism
New guidance from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics lays out three principles for ethical headline writing and offers guidance for newsrooms that want to achieve them.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Yes Andy, and thank you. I forgot to give Paul and Burt the link to insert into the schedule. I’ll do that today. DM me your email and I’ll send you the deck anyway.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
I’m looking to leading this session and meeting fellow Hacks/Hackers summiteers at Baltimore soon!
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John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford @jskstanford.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
JSK alum Paulette Brown-Hinds and her team at Mapping Black California build data visualization tools that expose systemic inequalities and hold institutions accountable. How they give communities the necessary information to push for real change...
buff.ly
How a Black-led journalism project uses technology to address systemic inequalities in California
By Nevin Thompson, Hacks/Hackers Marketing & Communications Lead In the years following the 2020 murder of Black American George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, racism was…
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Julie Cohen ❌👑 @filmmakerjulie.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
I've resigned from the jury for the duPont-Columbia Journalism Awards in response to Columbia's capitulation to Trump. www.poynter.org/commentary/2...
poynter.org
Oscar-nominated filmmaker resigns from duPont-Columbia journalism awards over school’s concessions to Trump - Poynter
Julie Cohen, co-director of ‘RGB,’ resigned from the duPont-Columbia Awards committee, saying, ‘In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up.’
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Great Q. There is no openly and transparently justified value-add, it just isn't in the premise. It seems to come from a misplaced assumption about the worth of journalistic power itself. That reflexive neutrality to describe power is a higher norm than using democratic culture as the yardstick.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
And that unfinished sentence is still there this afternoon, March 17th, 2025. Perhaps they find the sheer acts of documenting executive orders and actions in plain written word too bothersome?
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
And I wrote about this very thing here. And I explained why journalistic practice owes democracy every day. kettering.org/to-counter-a... t/h @carlamurphy.bsky.social
kettering.org
To Counter Authoritarianism, Can Journalism Promote Democratic Culture?
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Hi Surya, would you DM me you email? I saw the CITP article on your work (Feb 14) and liked the rare point you made about giving people agency. Would like to check in with you more, and include your views in stuff I might write. I am an engineer like you who got into journalism and much later ethics
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
UT Dallas tried to squelch the students who ran the campus newspaper. They decided to do their own thing and launch an independent counter-news outlet. American muckraking at work? www.texastribune.org/2025/02/07/u...
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
This feels like eons ago now, and so much water down the rivers since then!
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Thank you for the reply Eric. This is a chronic editorial ethics issue that plagues journalism.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Eric, did they allow you to sign off or veto the final edited version of your piece? I.e. did you have the option to say NO to running such a piece with your name on it, given the editing? (I'm considering making this a use case for my work on editorial policy and I wanted to ask you this first!)
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Kettering Foundation @kettering.org · 13/01/2025
Neutrality has a role in journalism when the facts are legitimately in dispute. Fact-finding and diverse sourcing need to determine the truths on the ground.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
None. 😅
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
t/h @iethics.bsky.social
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
I see this very vague line at the bottom: "Update 12/16/24 9:15am ET: This article has been updated to clarify language that had been changed in the editing process." @wired.com editors, you need to be more accountable. What (all) did you update? And was it in response to the authors' post here?
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Julia Angwin @juliaangwin.com · 05/12/2024
Second part of our three-part series on the climate impacts of AI just dropped! 👇🏻
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Derek Barker @dwmbarker.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
What is the role of newspapers when the threats to democracy are not equivalent? New piece on our blog by @subbuvincent.bsky.social. kettering.org/what-jeff-be...
kettering.org
What Jeff Bezos Missed: Newspapers Cannot Be Neutral About Democracy
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Jarle Hetland @jarlehetland.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Really enjoyed this conversation between @soumayakeynes.bsky.social and @kclausing.bsky.social about what trade and tariffs might look like under Trump 2.0. Lots of great question and lots of great answers. open.spotify.com/episode/0ah9...
open.spotify.com
Would Trump’s tariffs really be that bad? With Kimberly Clausing
The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes · Episode
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More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Thousands of Amazon workers across 20 countries are going to protest or strike this Black Friday. Workers from the US to India to Brazil to Japan and beyond plan to take action to demand workers’ rights and climate action from the corporate giant. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Amazon workers in 20 countries to protest or strike on Black Friday
Workers and their representatives to press US retailer to respect their rights and take action on the climate crisis
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
The proper academic page with most recent work is here: www.scu.edu/ethics/about...
scu.edu
Subramaniam Vincent - Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
Subramaniam (Subbu) Vincent is the director of the Journalism and Media Ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
On how political journalism might promote democratic culture to counter authoritarianism. (Kettering Foundation's "From Many, We" series.) kettering.org/to-counter-a... 4/
kettering.org
To Counter Authoritarianism, Can Journalism Promote Democratic Culture?
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Two pieces on covering the real swing voters of America. Covering Low-Income and Poor Americans as Multifaceted People www.forbes.com/sites/subram... The Missing ‘Swing Voters’ Whose Voices We Need To Hear www.forbes.com/sites/subram... 3/
forbes.com
Elections: Covering Low-Income Voters As Multifaceted, Whole People
US Journalism leaders offer lessons and moral framing to help political reporters better cover low-income and poor Americans as voters.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I connect journalistic and democratic cultures in my writing, strategizing, training, and consulting. Some recent writing. On Explaining Black Women Voters better www.forbes.com/sites/subram... 2/
forbes.com
How Journalists Can Better Explain Why Black Women Vote The Way They Do
Why did the affordability crisis, misinformation, immigration chaos, and endless wars not split the Black women’s vote? Civic duty and protecting hard-won freedoms.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Hello! This is a brief thread to (re)introduce myself to all of you as BlueSky takes off. My everyday work is building clarity in media ethics, policy, and sourcing standards. I went from internet engineering to civic media entrepreneurship before ethics and policy. bsky.app/profile/scue... 1/
bsky.app
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Ben Lennett @benlennett.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Great article on the digital ad marketplace and the DOJ case against Google. As a former marketing executive, Lisa Macpherson has insider perspective and provides a helpful discussion of the tech stack for digital ads and why they are problematic for publishers, the public, and advertisers.
techpolicy.press
Why the DOJ’s Google Ad Tech Case Matters to You | TechPolicy.Press
Digital ads erode privacy and hurt publishers. DOJ’s antitrust suit exemplifies Google’s role in creating and sustaining these issues, writes Lisa Macpherson.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Black women have consistently voted for the Democratic party for decades. Why did the affordability crisis, misinformation, immigration chaos, and treasury-draining endless wars not split the Black women’s vote? Hear what a range of Black women have to say! www.forbes.com/sites/subram...
forbes.com
How Journalists Can Better Explain Why Black Women Vote The Way They Do
Why did the affordability crisis, misinformation, immigration chaos, and endless wars not split the Black women’s vote? Civic duty and protecting hard-won freedoms.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I would go with the lovely rainbow tie-die like one on the right, if he’s up for the color splash!
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Black women have consistently voted for the Democratic party for decades. Why did the affordability crisis, misinformation, immigration chaos, and treasury-draining endless wars not split the Black women’s vote? Hear what a range of Black women have to say! www.forbes.com/sites/subram...
forbes.com
How Journalists Can Better Explain Why Black Women Vote The Way They Do
Why did the affordability crisis, misinformation, immigration chaos, and endless wars not split the Black women’s vote? Civic duty and protecting hard-won freedoms.
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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 21/06/2024
It's FOIA Friday from @jasonleopold.bsky.social: Read the FOIA'd text messages from Dr. Fauci's government-issued mobile phone in the early days of the Covid pandemic — but don't expect any bombshells
bloomberg.com
Anthony Fauci's Covid Text Messages Revealed
Don’t expect any bombshells. Fauci appeared to be aware that his correspondence would be scrutinized and avoided saying anything controversial.
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Subbu Vincent @subbuvincent.bsky.social · 19/06/2024
Which book is this? Thx for posting
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 19/06/2024
Only a tiny portion of Black Americans were granted the land they were owed after the civil war. And then, almost immediately, the government took it back. Here’s where the people, and the land, ended up. Remarkable investigative reporting from the Reveal folks here:
motherjones.com
40 Acres and a Lie
40ACRES AND A LIE A government program gave formerly enslaved people land after the Civil War, only to take nearly all of it back a year and a half later. We used artificial intelligence to track down...
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