☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Major TV networks to push for Biden-Trump debates
- In other news: NPR defends its journalism amid criticism of “bias”
- Looking ahead: CBS is overhauling its news streaming service
- Chart of the week: Americans’ views of election information from ChatGPT
🔥 Featured story
Five major broadcast and cable news networks – ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News – are reportedly preparing a letter urging President Biden and former President Trump to participate in televised debates ahead of Election Day. It is unclear whether the two will debate before November’s election.
Presidential debates remain among the most watched events on TV, although the Trump-Biden debates in 2020 did not attract as many viewers as the debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. In each presidential election from 2000 to 2016, at least six-in-ten voters said the debates were very or somewhat helpful in deciding which candidate to vote for, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center analysis.
📌 In other news
- NPR defended its commitment to diverse views after veteran editor’s criticism of “bias”
- X promoted a fake headline generated by its AI chatbot Grok, claiming Iran attacked Israel
- Kremlin documents reveal Russian trolls stoking anti-Ukraine sentiment in the U.S.
- A Brazilian Supreme Court ruling fuels journalists’ concerns over press freedom in the country
- A look into States Newsroom’s rapid expansion to all 50 state capitals
- South Korean president and his allies target journalists for “fake news”
📅 Looking ahead
CBS News is planning to overhaul its streaming service, the latest in a series of moves by network news companies seeking to expand their reach to digital audiences by creating or revamping streaming services. CBS News 24/7 will be a “whip-around” program that incorporates coverage from national and local journalists.
In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 58% of Americans said that they prefer to get their news from digital devices, up from 52% in 2020. This compares with 27% of Americans in 2023 who said they prefer to get their news from TV, down from 35% three years prior.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart highlights Americans’ views of ChatGPT as a source of information about the 2024 presidential election.
Just 2% of U.S. adults say they have a great deal or quite a bit of trust in election information from ChatGPT, according to a recent Center survey, while 10% say they have some trust in this information and 38% have little to no trust. About half of Americans either say they are not sure (15%) or that they haven’t heard of ChatGPT (34%).
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by David Kent.
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