The Cleveland Plain Dealer's editor is mad that journalists don't want to become assistants to AI writing the stories

[highplainsdem]

“We plan to hire an AI rewrite specialist to ingest the reporting by Hannah and others and use AI to convert it into stories.”

The editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it will use AI to ‘write’ its articles.

www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...

— Nathan Kalman-Lamb (@nkalamb.bsky.social) 2026-02-16T12:13:36.565Z

A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.

Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”

You can’t make this shit up.

www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...

— Nathan Kalman-Lamb (@nkalamb.bsky.social) 2026-02-16T12:16:26.429Z

Bio. Apparently never did anything writerly like features, interpretative or investigative reporting.

Suspicion: white men DEI.

columbusmetroclub.org/speaker/chri....

— Clio2 (@clio2.bsky.social) 2026-02-16T13:10:58.226Z

Another reply in that thread, which won't show up here because that account is set so their Bluesky posts don't appear elsewhere, mentioned that Quinn "was hired to bust the plain dealer union, which he did, the rest is gravy."

So I did some quick googling and found this article from 2020, which is definitely worth reading:

https://www.clevescene.com/news/chris-quinn-is-the-most-powerful-media-figure-in-northeast-ohio-and-he-wont-tell-the-truth-33073993/

Good for that journalism grad for turning down the job of becoming a chatbot's proofreader.

I found out about this thanks to Greg Pak commenting on it:

Worth noting: this is also a great way for an autocratic editor/publisher to keep writers from inserting perspectives/angles into stories that the editor/publisher doesn't want to see.

— Greg Pak (@gregpak.net) 2026-02-16T18:36:07.139Z

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. If they want AI to write

the goddamn stories the AI can go out and do the actual goddamn leg work.

[PatSeg]

2. This is really getting scary

Nothing seems real anymore and it is only going to get worse.

How many more jobs will "progress" eliminate? Who is going to buy the goods and services these companies provide when so many people can't earn a living wage?

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Cleveland Plain Dealer is notoriously right-wing.

My Dad traveled to Cleveland on a business trip and said he couldn't believe how viciously the articles were written in the local paper.

[Prairie_Seagull]

4. Will textbooks be next?

WTF.

Maybe time for another amendment to the constitution.

[SheltieLover]

5. I hope they start their own paper

Fucking ai.

[ret5hd]

6. this is called a "blame dump" or...

“responsibility dump”.

1) fire five, keep one
2) use AI
3) make the “one” edit, fact check, rewrite all the AI slop that replaced the five.
4) blame the one when something is wrong.