• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 5, 2023

Clickbait? Creeping bias? Sensationalism? The Messenger, a newly launched media product that claims to champion honest journalism, has formed a strategic partnership with Seekr in an effort to prevent those lapses and others.  

"This partnership is built on a shared ethos that fact-based journalism standards are foundational to reliable news, and that's especially important now, as consumers are being inundated by torrents of information – much of it misleading, incomplete, or false," says Rob Clark, president, and chief technology officer at Seekr, a company that launched the beta version of a search engine in early 2022.

Seekr's AI platform evaluates content, spotting clickbait, title exaggeration, subjectivity, personal attacks and other breaches. It also detects the absence of a byline, inferior sourcing and attribution, and the absence of transparent website ownership information. 

The technology also powers Seekr's consumer-facing platform at Seekr.com

We’ve come full circle in a short time. AI, which can be used to commit these journalistic crimes, is also seen as the solution for preventing them. 

Whatever happened to copy editors, who had the AP style manual on their desks, and hard-nosed editors who could spot a fake or a hole in a story a mile away? They live on in legend. 

"Studies show that journalists acknowledge that the quality, reliability, and objectivity of reporting varies across stories, outlets, and reporters,” says Richard Beckman, president of The Messenger. “As a result, opinion, bias, and subjectivity are bleeding into news and have caused many readers to lose trust in the media."

Even with Seekr, you better have good libel lawyers on hand to vet investigative pieces and risky copy in general. There is no substitute for human eyeballs. 

Still, Beckman adds, "Our mandate is to deliver the news – not shape it. We're doubling down on our commitment to fact-based journalism standards, and we believe Seekr's responsible AI technology will help hold our newsroom accountable to our core mission."