Sometimes people ask if I miss being a working journalist. The answer: No. No, no, a thousand times no. I still have major respect, even awe, for people who continue to do it in this environment, but I have zero desire to join them. Every so often I’m inspired to write something for others to read, similar to what I do here but less messy. I have outlets for that. I don’t feel the urge to do it more than every so often.
Forgive me. I’m having a lost day. Slept very very badly last night, missed my workout, feel like shit. Spent much of the day working without much spark or pleasure, feeling gloomy about everything. Stuff like this, from my city’s email newsletter:
Built with AI, probably ChatGPT. It’s simply amazing how quickly this style has taken over the internet. I see it almost every day, and so much of it is ludicrously wrong — the tennis ball about to hit the woman’s head, the weird jewelry hanging from her neck, the fact that isn’t Lake Front Park, the flag with the weird stars (because without them, we might not know where we are, right?) — to name just a few. “Game, Set, Play.” The leaves on the court. The overall busyness of it. Graphic designers are going out of business because you can send ChatGPT a press release, and it will vomit up something like this.
I figure, if you’re going to oppose data centers, and I do, you have to not do the things that require data centers, like turn perfectly understandable words into AI slop flyers.
But creativity isn’t entirely dead. You may remember that back in May or June, I wrote about the revived, very stupid idea to turn Belle Isle, currently a state park, into a commonwealth or protectorate or something, where very wealthy people could live tax-free, in return for being job creators, or something. It was an idea first rolled out in 2013, when the developer who dreamed it up self-published a novella set some years in the future, after Belle Isle had become the Dubai of the Detroit River. It was a very strange book, with an undercurrent of homoeroticism that was immediately evident to any reader smart enough to know the meaning of the word. Also, a monorail. And F1 racing.
Anyway, a local journalist, Jeff Wattrick, wrote several scathing stories about it for Deadline Detroit, back when the site was new and fully staffed. He most memorably called the Commonwealth of Belle Isle something like “the HOA from hell, with police powers.” When the idea was rekindled late last year, pegged to a b.s. poll and Trump’s idea of “freedom cities” and a very compliant media willing to do anything for content, Wattrick was no longer in daily journalism, but still a writer. He started noodling around with a fictional sequel to the original story, and ended up with a 60,000-word novel. He’s started trickling it out on Substack, along with shorter interstitials about related this and that, like the b.s. poll and other stuff.
“Belle Isle 2: Belle Isler” is a slow starter, because he has to deal with the problem any sequel writer has: How much to assume your readers already know about the world you’re building. There are some very niche humorous moments: A discussion of setting up an emergency blood bank goes sideways, because the idea of donating something and not getting fair market value in return is anathema on Belle Isle. But once the action really starts, it’s showing a lot of promise. It’s a Hiaasen-esque first draft, but I’m enjoying it.
I hope I sleep better tonight.
Brandon said on August 19, 2026 at 3:32 am
That looks more like a volleyball.
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ROGirl said on August 19, 2026 at 4:33 am
And it’s coming straight for her head.
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David C said on August 19, 2026 at 6:06 am
If that’s what AI comes up with, I’m all for it. That’s fucking hilarious. It makes you wonder what they put into ChatGPT to have it spit out that and when it did was their reaction “perfect” or “fuck it, good enough for who it’s for”.
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Alan Stamm said on August 19, 2026 at 6:58 am
Six exclamation points also are among pain points on that slop flyer.
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Pam H said on August 19, 2026 at 7:39 am
That graphic is like one of those “What’s Wrong with this Picture?”
I hope they didn’t pay for this. However, it is hilarious, so at least I laughed.
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alex said on August 19, 2026 at 10:19 am
Having begun my career in publishing, I watched things decline over the years, and this is just a new phase in the downfall of the whole shebang. When desktop computers became the norm in the ’80s and ’90s, and then came with enhanced graphics software in the ’00s, the bean counters figured there was no longer a need for proofreaders or typesetters or designers, and the quality of the work has nosedived ever since. Before getting laid off at one publishing house, I remember being told by a semiliterate middle manager that my job was becoming obsolete (“We have spell check now!” “Layout is just drop and plop; any schlub can do that!”). So there are a lot of undiscerning people who probably don’t see anything wrong with crappy ads, and they don’t see it because the ads are so ineffective that nobody would look at them except someone with a critical eye. I’m glad to be out of the game with half-decent retirement savings.
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Julie Robinson said on August 19, 2026 at 11:20 am
After a 15 hour day yesterday at the polls, I’m exhausted and hurting but elated at the gains progressives made in Florida. Here’s an overview from the NYT, gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/us/politics/florida-primaries-takeaways.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6lA.yl3F.UaGGwRTUkHk3&smid=nytcore-android-share
Angie Nixon defeated a carpet bagger who raised 16X the amount she did. With no money for TV, she turned to social media with a series of witty and cogent ads, often featuring her fellow elected reps like Maxwell Frost. TV ads wouldn’t have reached my kids anyway; they watch zero broadcast. Digital natives are so comfortable using social media, and can self-produce on their phones.
The MAGA mom on the school board who is a book banner ran for chair and was soundly defeated. Hooray!
I could usually predict which ballot would be requested by the voter’s age and dress. Younger skews NPA, and in Orange County NPAs outnumber Republicans. I could write for an hour on the changes I’m seeing but need to move on with my day.
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annie said on August 19, 2026 at 11:55 am
what does NPA mean? can everybody please stop using initials like this assuming everyone knows what they mean?
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Dave said on August 19, 2026 at 12:15 pm
No Political Affiliation, I think. Is that right, Julie?
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Julie Robinson said on August 19, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Sorry, Annie. Yes, No Political Affiliation. Many despise both parties, though they tend to skew left.
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Deborah said on August 19, 2026 at 1:09 pm
As a graphic designer with many, many years of experience, that ad is beyond horrible, it’s like trying to listen to someone screaming a story at you in a conversation. You can’t even read the thing because it’s so blaring. It does the opposite of informing, all it does is grab attention and the attention is negative, like Trump.
And why does AI imagery all look the same? Colors are always too saturated and they have an eerie glow when you look at them onscreen. Can the color intensity not be controlled? They always screw up anatomy and publishers still use them with no editing. Probably because it takes time and money to fix of course.
I never had to design ads in my design career, which I am forever grateful.
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Hank Stuever said on August 19, 2026 at 2:23 pm
I’ve heard at least twice here in New Orleans that there’s bit of an emerging ethic going on with this, that people refuse to go to any event for which the flyer is obviously AI slop.
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Julie Robinson said on August 19, 2026 at 3:57 pm
The Murphy Brown hair and 90’s tennis attire are also suspect.
I forgot to tell the Fort Wayne folk that former FW news guy Ryan Elijah moved to Orlando and was on the local Fox station, but resigned to run for Congress in the district to the north of us. He won the R primary over the incumbent, execrable human being Cory Mills. Mills has a long history of violence toward women in his personal life for starters but kept getting elected.
Elijah is one of those clean cut Christian types so I don’t believe his politics will be any better. But I do think he has more integrity.
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alex said on August 19, 2026 at 4:35 pm
Ryan Elijah. So what was his birth name? Hugh Stankowicz? I guess with the thin resume of a mid-market TV talking head and no documented history of embarrassing public commentary, he’d be a shoo-in for political office in Florida. I’d totally forgotten about him, he was so bland, but that manufactured-for-TV name is still etched in my memory.
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alex said on August 19, 2026 at 5:30 pm
btw, Julie, they’re merging Fort Wayne’s Fox and ABC affiliate newsrooms into one. The ABC and NBC newsrooms already merged a couple of years ago because they were bought up by the same owner and I guess it has recently taken over Fox too. It’s called Gray Media. At least it’s not Sinclair. The CBS affiliate is owned by NexStar and runs content from NewsNation, a former WGN property that pretends to be politically and journalistically neutral while peddling manufactured outrage with disgraced hosts like Bill O’Reilly and Chris Cuomo, kind of a Fox News Lite.
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Suzanne said on August 19, 2026 at 6:09 pm
I was listening to this podcast today: an interview with the author of a new book called The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Scary stuff.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gaslit-nation/id1400926647?i=1000784219248
I saw that former Fort Wayne news guy Ryan Elijah won his primary. Once again, government experience to run for a government position doesn’t seem to matter, as witnessed by Lindsey Graham’s sister completely flaming out in a debate with another candidate, claiming to basically know nothing about foreign relations but that she trusts Trump.
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Julie Robinson said on August 19, 2026 at 6:47 pm
Don’t forget she supports the military, Suzanne. That’s all she really knows, according to her testimony. Great. I support the military too. I support them being well paid, well provided for during deployment and not being left on a ship for over eight months. I also support them being taken care of in retirement. What does our darling Darline support?
21 and 33 merging happened before I left the Fort, and I had read about the Fox station going belly up. But who watches anyway? For me, the TV is just a way to magnify whatever show I’m streaming.
I know next to nothing about Ryan Elijah and it’s not my district anyway, but Cory Mills is awful beyond imagination. And if a reporter is good, they’ll understand the issues of an area much better than the “I run a business” politician. My dad covered every single municipal meeting and was at the police department every morning gathering news. I’d make an argument he was the best informed person in the county. He was even asked to run for mayor, although he didn’t affiliate with that party. Not defending Elijah, just pointing out another consideration.
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Suzanne said on August 19, 2026 at 7:15 pm
That makes sense, Julie! Maybe Ryan E does know what he’s doing! Also, I had heard that the guy he ran against was awful to the core.
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alex said on August 19, 2026 at 10:12 pm
This kind of media consolidation used to be verboten under FCC regulations and antitrust laws, and it was widely understood that the public interest could only be served by a competitive marketplace and a diversity of viewpoints. I guess “the flooding of the zone with bullshit” in the digital age qualifies as such, so no need to regulate the monopolization of legacy media anymore.
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Sherri said on August 20, 2026 at 4:17 pm
The Seattle Times is a leans right newspaper, family-owned, and the only daily in the area. Matt Calkins has been a mediocre sports columnist there for 11 years; I tried to read him when he first started, and just found him pointless and annoying.
Now he’s resigned because the Times spiked one of his columns; it wasn’t the first time they’d spiked a column, but he decided it was the last. The spiked column was about how wanting to keep trans athletes out of sports didn’t mean you were a transphobe. I mean, all of the people he interviewed said they didn’t have anything against trans people!
Another column that was spiked was questioning whether the US Women’s Soccer team was really being discriminated against (when the team had sued US Soccer over a number of discriminatory practices.) But, hey, he’s just asking questions and trying to have a discussion!?!
He’ll probably end up at Barstool or Outkick, since they eat up that schtick.
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