{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Media Copilot","title":"Local news, AI, and the fight for accountability","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2255,"description":"How veteran editor Rick Hirsch sees AI helping journalists do more with less, while protecting the trust that investigative reporting depends on.\n\nThis episode is sponsored by: Adobe Acrobat\n\n\nWhat happens when artificial intelligence meets one of journalism's most important missions: holding power accountable?\n\nIn this episode of The Media Copilot podcast, host Pete Pachal speaks with Rick Hirsch, director of the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability at the University of Florida and former Managing Editor of the Miami Herald. After more than four decades in journalism, Hirsch has witnessed nearly every major transformation in the media industry, from the rise of the internet and social media to today's AI revolution.\nTheir conversation explores how AI is changing investigative and accountability journalism, not as a replacement for reporters, but as a powerful tool for uncovering stories, analyzing massive datasets, and helping newsrooms stretch increasingly limited resources.\n\n\"I think that's what motivates most people who do this work. We have the ability to highlight wrongs and give people the information to try to right them.\" — Rick Hirsch\n\nHirsch shares insights from a recent survey of journalists, discusses emerging AI-driven accountability tools being used by organizations like CalMatters, and explains why local government reporting may be one of the areas where AI can make the biggest positive impact.\nAt the same time, the conversation tackles difficult questions about trust, misinformation, newsroom economics, audience fragmentation, and whether journalism can sustain itself in an AI-mediated information ecosystem.\n\nWhy this mattersWhile much of the AI conversation in media focuses on content generation, traffic disruption, and business models, accountability journalism presents a different challenge.\nInvestigative reporting relies on verification, judgment, sourcing, and public trust. AI can accelerate research and surface patterns that...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/4EiFqLM4OC9vg9_Tigcvzf0FJU4e68DVprGgpAUDU4M/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zZGY3/ZTlmNDY3NDc0NjVm/NmNjMjNmZGM1ODNh/Y2JiYS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}