Michael Morisy
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morisy.bsky.social
Michael Morisy
@morisy.bsky.social
1.4K followers 2.2K following 390 posts
civic transparency for a better tomorrow. founder, MuckRock. also caretaker of DocumentCloud, FOIA Machine, and many other internet friends.
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morisy.bsky.social
We need your help! Please take the public records Transparency Alliance survey: forms.gle/mR7FM6LJuBJg...
October 22, 2025 at 1:39 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Don‘t glaze me, Bro.
An idiotic email pitch on how great I am using AI sycophancy in order to try to sell something. Representative sample: You’ve already proven excellence. Now it’s about compounding it as a founder. At TopLeads, we help A-Grade founders build outbound systems that run like infra, not hustle: → 600 sends/day → 8–15 qualified replies/month → $2.1K setup | <$200/month to run
October 16, 2025 at 3:54 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Some Nextar station staff feeling hung out to dry. www.reddit.com/r/Journalism...
Reddit Post Screenshot Reading: Nexstar told stations we wouldn’t run Kimmel tonight, but they didn’t bother to pull the ABC ads which said, “Hey, Kimmel is back on!” We are already producing long newscasts to fill the gap. By the way, no direct word from higher-ups. No company-wide email, just trickled-down half-communications to station managers and news directors. I’d bet they’ll get mad about all the overtime we’re running for this. Our in and out times have been insane, and there has been no guidance to the production side. Hell, half of them today weren’t even informed about the extended newscasts when they began. Aside from all the absolute BS regarding the FCC, this makes me just want to walk away. This has been the worst past week I’ve ever had in my career. How am I supposed to justify myself as a responsible journalist when I’m being told not to run stories about the BIGGEST story of the day? How am I supposed to justify myself when all I can tell people is “it wasn’t our choice”? Emails, phone calls during the show (which I answer if I can catch them), Facebook comments, people angry and under the belief that yes it is indeed our local station’s choice for this crap. We complain to our ND, who is telling the station manager about our complaints, and that’s where it just stops. Our corporate overlords don’t give a shit about us, and while I’ve known that a long time, it’s becoming harder to look away from. I’ve never felt this disheartened in a news job before. I love my job, and I love my community, but with the Kimmel mess, I wonder if it’s even worth it. Anyways, thanks for letting me complain. Fruitful and good news days to all who read.
September 24, 2025 at 2:43 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Google has certified me to be an acceptable purveyor of government documents.
Hi, Thank you for applying to be certified to be excluded from the Government documents and services policy. We’re pleased to inform you that you’ve been approved and the appropriate certificate has been applied to your account for CID(s) 763-756-3007 and the domain(s) you submitted. You will now be able to run ads on keywords related to government documents and services. We thank you for your cooperation in completing the Government documents and services certification process.  Thanks for advertising with Google, gTech Customer Experience
September 20, 2025 at 7:43 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Interesting. Google has a new policy around advertising government documents on their ad network.
To run ads for government documents and services, advertisers must be certified by Google. To determine whether you're impacted by this policy, review our comprehensive list E of all categories of government documents and services in scope of the policy. • Note that several categories have regional or business exclusions and if you believe you qualify for one of these policy exclusions, you also need to be certified by Google. • If you have been impacted by this policy and do not promote government documents and services, you can apply for your impacted ads to be excluded from the scope of the policy. To successfully complete certification for any of the following options under this policy, advertisers must also complete Google's advertiser verification program . See Step 2 from the policy [ for how to complete this program.
September 19, 2025 at 12:31 AM
morisy.bsky.social
Hadn't even thought about the intersection of cell phones/technology in schools & sports gambling at school but in retrospect, I am 100% sure my middle & high school cohort would have been overrun by it. schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/schools-bu...
In fact, cellphone bans are not enough. We also need to curtail the Chromebooks and most other classroom tech. A Chromebook—or especially a Macbook—can easily serve as a big-old phone, allowing kids to cheat, text, and even gamble on sports (happening at my kids’ high school, I hear!) instead of listening to their teacher.
September 16, 2025 at 1:44 PM
morisy.bsky.social
This is why they don't let me touch the code base.
A Mac finder window showing a 110MB HTML file, which is way too much HTML for one file.
September 11, 2025 at 8:33 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Aliens/HR Geiger-inspired cocktail menu. cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/06...
A retro-futuristic schematic of a tiki drink with rum, rum, grapefruit, and more rum. The cocktail is called the "Self-Destruct Sequence."
August 7, 2025 at 3:48 PM
morisy.bsky.social
An old press release I got at the time — defending institutions was "political"; anything beyond capitulation is an attack on the "free and open exchange of ideas." Same playbook, just evolved. Rufo started his career in Intelligent Design and how getting his revenge.
Press release reading: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, October 22 – The Intelligent Design Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Club at Cornell is deeply concerned with President Hunter Rawlings' blatant disregard for the facts concerning Intelligent Design in Friday's State of the University Address. In a speech usually reserved for current university business, he spent over two thirds of his time blasting the emerging ID theory as anti-scientific and religious in an unscrupulous, unknowledgeable manner. Intelligent Design (ID) is a scientific theory which holds that certain features of the universe and living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, and are not the result of an undirected, chance-based process such as Darwinian evolution. It follows the principles of the scientific method, scorns the biases of either religion or naturalism, and attempts to follow all the available evidence to a valid conclusion. ID is testable and falsifiable, and so far it's predictions have repeatedly been shown accurate. The IDEA Club at Cornell holds that the problems with Neo-Darwinian evolution can no longer be ignored, and it is time for true research and debate about the issues surrounding the beginnings of life to take place at universities across the country. Attacking ID as a non-scientist and without addressing it's scientific claims, Rawlings states that it is religion masquerading as science and is a religious belief at it's core. This gross misstatement is a disservice to unbiased discourse, besides being an insult to people of faith throughout America. Ad hominem attacks and confusing people's religious beliefs with their scientific research is not befitting a university president. We would hope Rawlings will instead follow Cornell's often lauded commitment to a free and open exchange of ideas.
August 2, 2025 at 2:09 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Going through old emails, found a thread from 2010 where it was considered "weird" for conferences to have an iPhone app.
An email to a mailing list about AS/400 computers with subject line starting "An interesting way to advertise a conference ..." and body text ".. with a iPhone app:" and a link to iTunes.
July 30, 2025 at 4:50 AM
morisy.bsky.social
Seeing variations of this “of course I wrote this post with AI, get over it” more and more. Always gets some pushback, but also gets some people treating it like any other discussion.
Forum post: To anyone saying this post was written by AI—yes, of course it was. That’s how things work now. I speech to text in my own words, then I use ChatGPT to sharpen it into something clearer and more readable. It’s a tool, like any other. If that bothers you, maybe it’s time to stop reading or reconsider how you use the internet. This is modern communication. If you can’t get past the fact that AI helped tighten the language, that’s your problem—not mine. Welcome to the future. Good luck keeping up.
July 14, 2025 at 8:25 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Lots of people charging for email these days. @simonwillison.net doing the smart thing and charging to send *fewer* emails. simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/11/...
An ad reading: Monthly briefing Sponsor me for $10/month and get a curated email digest of the month's most important LLM developments. Pay me to send you less!
July 11, 2025 at 1:07 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Perfect quote for a WSJ column on office fashion. Could be dropped in in any period in the last two decades. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
Several vented their disapproval of colleagues’ wardrobe choices when I stopped them on the street. “Younger people get all their information about everything from crazy people on the internet, and you’ve got crazy people showing up half-naked and thinking that’s the norm,” said Jane Papa, 79.
July 3, 2025 at 12:26 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Looking back at MuckRock's first three requests, we did not get off to a promising start: www.muckrock.com/foi/list/?q=... #FOIA
An image showing public records requests for copies of all records requests received to Boston, Cambridge and Amherst, MA. Only Amherst provided records.
June 25, 2025 at 9:34 AM
morisy.bsky.social
Love this new fundraising tagline from @archive.org Wayback Machine: "We keep the record straight by preserving government websites, news articles, historical data, and more. If you find our archive useful, please CHIP IN."
June 19, 2025 at 1:34 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Ah yes, contracts, famously something you want vaguely summarized with just highlights that may or may not be correct before you sign.
A prompt from Docusign suggesting it can generate an AI summary of an agreement, with a vague disclaimer stuffed behind a link.
June 18, 2025 at 2:17 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Just got a bunch of buggy alerts from DOJ. Nothing to see here.
A string of old FOIA alerts in my inbox.
June 4, 2025 at 2:09 AM
morisy.bsky.social
I still haven't found the heart to left IFTTT know Twitter ain't coming back.
An email from automating service IFTTT: Hi morisy, We still can’t connect to your Twitter, but it should be easy to fix. Click through to reconnect.
April 28, 2025 at 1:21 PM
morisy.bsky.social
I don't usually offer investment advice, but this does seem to be a sub-optimal ROI for the buyers.
Email that reads: Megan Hill <megan@unityteam.co> 8:08 AM (54 minutes ago) to michael Michael, I've been working with multiple buyers specifically targeting the non-profit news space this quarter. Last month, we helped a business owner in your industry complete a successful exit at a valuation that exceeded their expectations. Given the current market interest in non-profit news businesses like Muckrock, would it be worth exploring what opportunities might be available to you? Best, Megan Hill Strategic Partnerships BatonMarket www-batonmarket-com Pls reply 'No Thanks' if it's not a fit atm.
April 21, 2025 at 1:05 PM
morisy.bsky.social
I’ve worked for 5 companies in my career and still wild to me that three of them have merged (to be fair, one merged while I was there).
An article about the merged B2B conglomerate TechTarget Informa, which is not doing great, projected revenue wise.
April 19, 2025 at 6:52 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Board game publisher Cephalofair: "Speaking bluntly, our industry, our jobs, and our projects are under attack by volatile, and self-inflicted, U.S. trade policy." Cost of goods sold is up 104% — erasing their entire margin. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/c...
Speaking bluntly, our industry, our jobs, and our projects are under attack by volatile, and self-inflicted, U.S. trade policy. Our manufacturing costs in the last two months have seen an increase of 104% due to U.S. tariffs. (See below for a more thorough explanation of how tariffs work.) The impact that 104% tariffs will have on our industry, and our company, are nothing short of devastating and are already having immediate consequences that will be felt knowingly and unknowingly by everyone who enjoys this industry - from the hobbyist, the retail store owner, the publisher, and ultimately our communities.
April 9, 2025 at 5:13 PM
morisy.bsky.social
A source filed a FOIA request for details on the mass removal of Data.gov data. The response they got was basically a claim that the removals from the data.gov listing were just overdue maintenance of duplicate or no longer existent data sets.
A GitHub notification reading: [GSA/data.gov] O+M 2024-01-13 (Issue #5035) Fuhu Xia <notifications@github.com> Mon, Jan 20, 2025 at 1:50 PM Reply-To: "GSA/data.gov" <reply+AAYWI7MB5JNJKM2ZT2TUJ5GFTJ55ZEVBNHHKL4NHIU@reply.github.com> To: "GSA/data.gov" <data.gov@noreply.github.com> Cc: Hyon Kim <hyon.kim@gsa.gov>, Comment <comment@noreply.github.com> db-solr-sync show 2386 datasets need to be deleted. it is time to manually delete some erroneous datasets. [GSA/data.gov] O+M 2024-01-13 (Issue #5035) Fuhu Xia <notifications@github.com> Mon, Jan 20, 2025 at 1:50 PM Reply-To: "GSA/data.gov" <reply+AAYWI7MB5JNJKM2ZT2TUJ5GFTJ55ZEVBNHHKL4NHIU@reply.github.com> To: "GSA/data.gov" <data.gov@noreply.github.com> Cc: Hyon Kim <hyon.kim@gsa.gov>, Comment <comment@noreply.github.com> db-solr-sync show 2386 datasets need to be deleted. it is time to manually delete some erroneous datasets.
March 26, 2025 at 6:46 PM
morisy.bsky.social
Rewatching “Thank You For Smoking” for the first time in over a decade and the executive producers sure caught my eye.
A title card of executive producers listing Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Elon Musk, and Mark Woolway.
March 22, 2025 at 2:00 AM
morisy.bsky.social
Also one thing I loved learning about: In the 80s, FOIA came under a series of legislative attacks. The publishing industry rallied behind the law and detailed its importance, helping push back against changes like EXEMPTING THE CIA. FOIA solidarity, people.
Article screenshot: In my research, I learned that when the Freedom of Information Act came under attack in the early 1980s, the publishing industry was among those who fought back. One bill introduced in Congress at that time proposed making the Central Intelligence Agency entirely exempt from FOIA requests. Another bill, the “Freedom of Information Improvements Act of 1981,” proposed an array of changes, including banning requests from outside the U.S., allowing agencies to charge higher fees, adding new exemptions, and expanding certain existing exemptions. In testimony before a Senate subcommittee against the proposed changes, the Association of American Publishers named 14 recent or forthcoming books that drew on FOIA-produced documents. The subjects of those books ranged from movie star Erroll Flynn, to the Kennedy assassination, to Cold War-era nuclear arms policy, to U.S. diplomatic relations with China. Authors’ use of FOIA had sparked important debates and assisted the accountability of the CIA and FBI, the group said. And it warned that the proposed changes would usher in a “presumption of secrecy concerning an unprecedented range of important government activities.” In coverage of the testimony, Publishers Weekly noted that “several” FOIA-assisted books had been bestsellers. The proposed cuts to FOIA wouldn’t just be bad for public discourse; they’d also be also bad for business. Thankfully, they never passed.
March 19, 2025 at 6:51 PM
morisy.bsky.social
I don't really make anything of it, as this stuff has come in waves for 15 years, but I'm back to getting a steady stream of unhinged conspiracy in my inbox daily. "Then, journalists multiplied, sprouting everywhere in droves."
Until a few decades ago, Humanity was evolving and progressing at a steady pace, and positive results were already beginning to emerge. Then, journalists multiplied, sprouting everywhere in droves. They began flooding unprepared human beings with immense amounts of sterile daily chronicles—at first slowing down, and now nearly extinguishing, our evolutionary process. If we look around today, we see nothing but a meaningless everyday life. Journalists have, in fact, killed our bright future by perpetually fixating on a filthy present—one that remains unchanged because they keep it firmly anchored to itself. It is, therefore, important to remember that nothing holds absolute value.
February 19, 2025 at 8:21 PM