Reed F. Richardson
LightNews LightNews
banner
reedfrich.bsky.social
Reed F. Richardson
@reedfrich.bsky.social
1.8K followers 980 following 830 posts
Managing Editor, Global Investigative Journalism Network (@gijn.org). Army veteran. Press freedom. Pro-democracy. Past bylines: FAIRMediaWatch, The Nation, TPM, Alternet, Salon, Mediaite, et al.

“Someone has to investigate the bastards” — Chuck Lewis
Posts Replies Media Videos
reedfrich.bsky.social
Genuinely curious how any WaPo editor justifies using "despite" in this headline?
Doesn't a "growing toll of Palestinian casualties" provide pretty clear evidence of one party *violating* the ceasefire?
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
Washinton Post headline with edit clarifying that killing during a brokered ceasefire is actually a violation of said agreement, not "despite" it.
November 20, 2025 at 4:28 AM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Oof, one day on and Grok AI is still misidentifying the person who collapsed in the Oval Office. Only after multiple pushbacks—where Grok keeps admitting it was wrong—does it finally acknowledge it overlooked facts from a reporter *who was at the event & did actual journalism* (and posted it on X!)
Screenshot of Grok falsely identifying the man who collapsed in the Oval Office yesterday. Screenshot of Grok acknowledging that it falsely identified the man who collapsed in the Oval Office yesterday, but then insisting it was some other pharma executive. Screenshot of Grok admitting that it didn't notice a WH reporter who was at the event posted on X that it was an Eli Lilly patient, first name Gordon, who collapsed and NOT a pharma executive. Screenshot of Grok again apologizing for its earlier mistake and admitting that it should give priority in judgment to a WH reporter who was at the event and not vague "context" and "framing" that it says it gleaned from WH statements.
November 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Color me completely unimpressed by this @washingtonpost.com AI 'added context' tool.
Here, it intrudes to a) pose a question that it immediately admits it *can't really answer* &
b) then just repeats info from the story *I was already reading.*
#whowantsthis

www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
Screenshot of Washington Post AI feature that both fails to deliver on the question it itself poses and also just repeats info that is already provided by reading the story it has just side-stepped the reader out of.
November 6, 2025 at 8:13 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Deep dive by @wired.com on an illegal school that Mark Zuckerberg had been running out of his Palo Alto compound for years.
And this detail is a good reminder to always check the LinkedIn profile of your subjects — there could be revealing/damning info in there! #whoops
www.wired.com/story/mark-z...
Screenshot of Wired report that shows how the LinkedIn profile of the headmaster of an illegal school being run out of Mark Zuckerberg's Palo Alto compound was claiming a much larger number for the school's enrollment than the info given to the state.
November 6, 2025 at 1:37 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
This false narrative about Mamdani voters is still continuing today, despite actual voter data showing otherwise
www.mediamatters.org/martha-macca...
Screenshot of Fox News transcript where Fox anchor Martha MacCallum falsely claims that Cuomo won working class New York City voters, when it was actually Mamdani who won a majority of both lower and middle-income voters.
November 5, 2025 at 8:54 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Via the @waybackmachine.bsky.social, this was the conventional wisdom narrative Fox News was offering the day after the 2021 elections, when a Dem candidate lost by <2 pts in Va. & the NJ gov was re-elected by 3 pts.

Tonight, we're seeing Dem candidates win in both states by margins 4-5x larger.
Screenshot of the FoxNews homepage on 11/3/21, the day after the 2021 elections, where a Dem candidate lost by less than two points in Va. and a Dem governor in NJ was re-elected by three points.
November 5, 2025 at 4:16 AM
reedfrich.bsky.social
The latest @gijn.org Data Journalism Top 10 column looks at the state of a devastated Gaza, Trump gutting food aid, Ukraine strikes on Russian energy sites, and (see below) how chipmakers & AI labs have built a self-reinforcing investment loop (don't dare call it a bubble).
gijn.org/stories/data...
October 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Shocking @theguardian.com exposé on the main transit hub of Trump's ICE deportation system.
Story reveals numerous medical emergencies, stays of detainees beyond the statutory three-day limit, and a secret waiver allowing the contractor to avoid health standards.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Screenshot of Guardian investigation discussion ICE contract with private company GEO Group granting the company a waiver on health standards for detainees and a note attempting to hide this fact from the public.
September 12, 2025 at 1:35 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
NYT investigates telehealth programs—including a company founded by a current advisor to HHS Sec'y RFK Jr.—where people can quickly claim ailments & then purchase a wide range of consumer items (earbuds, bidets) or food (ground beef, hot dogs) as a "medical necessity"
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/b...
Screenshot of NYT story investigating telehealth programs that lets people claim medical ailments with almost no documentation and then purchase a wide range of consumer products and food at partly gov't subsidized rates
July 18, 2025 at 1:49 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Remember when a certain oil giant pivoted to a "beyond petroleum" PR blitz and then was responsible for a mass pollution event? Today, the Financial Times gets right to the point about how that transition is going…

This is why investigative journalists should expose corporate greenwashing.
Screenshot of two headlines about the oil giant BP. One from the Financial Times today, 7/18/25, detailing how the company is reverting back to its fossil fuel roots, the other a Harvard Business Review analysis from 2014, on how the company used a greenwashing "beyond petroleum" marketing blitz for damage control after its massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
July 18, 2025 at 1:12 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Texas governor's office refuses a previously approved FOIA request about months of emails between it and Elon Musk about his companies (that was already paid for by the newsroom) citing a blanket "common law privacy" exemption — a flimsy excuse to avoid transparency.
www.kut.org/politics/202...
KUT News headline showing that the Texas governor's office refused a previously approved FOIA request about communications between the office and Elon Musk (that was already paid for by the newsroom) citing a blanket "common law privacy" exemption, that is a flimsy excuse to avoid transparency.
July 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
In fact, it looks like the location of the new offices would *still be inside* the original District of Columbia, before Virginia took back its portion.
Archival map showing the original District of Columbia that was carved out of portions of both Viriginia and Maryland. What is Alexandria, VA is in the bottom corner.
June 27, 2025 at 1:39 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Seems like a fairly big omission for the Times to leave out the fact that Polymarket, whose CEO just attended a meeting as a possible big Eric Adams campaign supporter, also lets users bet on political elections, including the race for NYC mayor.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/n...
Excerpt from NYTimes article on wealthy business leaders rallying around disgraced NYC Mayor Eric Adams, including a note that the CEO of Polymarket, a site that lets users bet on political races, was at a meeting of potential Adams campaign supporters. Screenshot of Polymarket betting site's page for wagering on the outcome of 2025 NYC mayoral election.
June 26, 2025 at 7:57 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
It is genuinely rare for a politician to so unambiguously make a promise like ending a war by a specific date and then so callously dismiss his own inability to make good on that promise.
Trump's utter failure to achieve peace in Ukraine (and Gaza) should be atop every US foreign policy news story.
CNN fact check that found 53 separate occasions where Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine within one day of taking office as president. Last month, Russia launched its worst drone attack on civilian sites since its invasion in February 2022 and there is no end in sight to the war.
June 4, 2025 at 5:53 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Took all of one minute to find that a child of Italian immigrants, SSG Arthur DeFranzo, was one of the 10 Medal of Honor winners (posthumous) for gallantry during the D-Day invasion.
www.cmohs.org/recipients/a...
Historical story on D-Day Medal of Honor winner (posthumous) SSG Arthur DeFranzo, who was born in Massachusetts but whose parents were immigrants from Italy.
May 16, 2025 at 5:40 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Great investigation into the tenure of former UMich. President Santa Ono by the @chronicle.com, over accusations he was routinely checked out of his job.
But this university spox's over-the-top sycophantic quote defending Ono stood out—and reminded me of something…
www.chronicle.com/article/at-u...
Comparison of sycophantic quotes from the UMich. spokesperson defending former college president Santa Ono and the absurd Jan. 2021 White House schedule statement posted by Trump's comms team as he was privately stewing over having lost the 2020 election (and as he was scheming to overturn Biden's win).
May 16, 2025 at 1:37 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
There's a reason why Elon Musk has such antipathy for Reuters — it really does own the Tesla-accountability beat like no other news outlet.
Its latest is how the car company misled its lease customers with perennial vaporware claims about its robotaxi business.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Screenshot of paragraph from Reuters story on how Tesla misled its lease customers and used perennially false promises about its robotaxi business as an excuse.
May 15, 2025 at 1:31 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Incredibly easy to debunk his (obviously unsourced) claim.
Cheapest gas in Florida is $2.39 according to Gas Buddy, roughly 25% higher than he claims: www.gasbuddy.com/gasprices/fl...
And the average gas price for the country is up since Trump's inauguration (Florida hasn't changed).
Gas Buddy chart showing average gas prices are up slightly nationally since Trump's inauguration and Florida's average price is unchanged.
May 1, 2025 at 4:15 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Really important for #datajournalists to get the math right on Trump's latest auto parts tariff change.
Don't confuse readers into thinking he's rolling back the 25% tariffs by roughly half. The WH's "10% to 15% offset" is a *percent of the percent* — so they're only cutting a tiny amount (2-3%).
Screenshot of The Hill article on the Trump White House announcing a 10-15% price "offset" from the 25% tariffs, which confusingly sounds like a rollback of roughly half of the tariff, when it's not. Doing the math here shows that the 10-15% figure is a *percent of a percent* figure, so 10-15% off of 25%, which is only 2-3% in total. This means the WH could still be adding thousands of dollars to every new car that includes foreign-made auto parts.
April 29, 2025 at 7:21 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Rule 1 for journalists: be skeptical of — and do not parrot — any claims by those in power, especially when no evidence substantiates the claim & DOUBLE ESPECIALLY when the politician in question has a longstanding pattern of making vaporware policy promises that he conveniently forgets & ignores.
Bloomberg social media post that repeats as its headline Trump's unsubstantiated claim that he will wrap up all the promised 90+ trade deals in the next month, which included a claim that China's Xi Jinping has been calling him about a deal which Xi has directly denied. Round-up of just a few headlines pointing out how Trump, FOR YEARS, during his first term, promised that he would release a Affordable Care Act replacement plan in the "next two weeks" and never did, including during the 2024 presidential campaign.
April 25, 2025 at 6:54 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
But it's not just reporters at the @nytimes.com that can do this! In fact — and this is why investigative reporters should be reading @gijn.org every day — back in 2023, GIJN covered this exact methodology, which uses the Epieos Reverse Image Search tool.
gijn.org/stories/new-...
Screenshot from 2023 GIJN article that discussed the Epieos Reverse Email Search tool, which can be used to digitally track a person's past movements in real life via an email they use to post Google business reviews.
April 25, 2025 at 2:17 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Very revealing detail in today's @nytimes.com, with yet another story in the annals of Defense Secy. Pete Hegseth's sloppy + dangerous digital opsec.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/u...
Passage from NYTimes story on how the reporters were able to track his movements (and possibly his home address) by linking his personal cell phone number to an email address to a Google Maps profile that left numerous reviews for businesses.
April 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
Interesting data point for journalists covering the impact of the Trump’s tariffs.
This, of course, could be partly savvy marketing/opportunism by the dealership, but still, connecting this signature trade policy to an overnight 30% hike on car parts seems like an ominous sign for the White House
April 25, 2025 at 1:57 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
As of yesterday, Trump had been president for 93 days, but spent 42% of that time at a resort/golf property. Most of these weekend getaways are at his own properties, like Mar-a-Lago, which cost US taxpayers millions of dollars per visit.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
WaPo graphic showing Trump has spent 23 of 26 weekends as president so far at a golf/resort property, most of which were his own, where he charges the US gov't millions of dollars per visit.
April 23, 2025 at 1:31 PM
reedfrich.bsky.social
If you care about #datajournalism, there a warning sign buried in our round-up: Reuters' piece on Myanmar's quake feature extensive data from the US Geological Survey, which the Trump WH wants to gut with budget cuts as well as eliminate similar seismic monitoring programs in the US. #datablackout
Reuters data journalism story on the magnitude and devastation of the earthquake in Myanmar relied on extensive data from the USGS. A USGS program for monitoring and measuring data as part of a preventative alert system for the US Northeast has been targeted for elimination by the Trump White House.
April 18, 2025 at 2:11 PM