> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.rangemedia.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Manning the Firewall - URL: https://www.rangemedia.co/ai-spokane-news-articles/ - Published: 2026-11-08T16:32:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-08T16:32:00.000Z - Description: As journalism stares into the abyss of an artificially intelligent future, Spokane outlets grapple with ethical use of AI technology. - Author: Erin Sellers - Tags: Contains Artificial Ingredients Longtime journalist Tracy Simmons had a column due. A religion reporter by trade, head editor of local religion news outlet Spokane FAVS and former professor of journalism at Washington State University, Simmons knows how to write. Her pieces have been published in *The Washington Post*, *The Wall Street Journal*, HuffPost, and dozens of regional and religion news outlets. Sometimes, though, when staring at a blank document, rewriting the same sentence 19 times or searching for the perfect headline to get clicks without descending into ragebait, even the best journalists need advice. “As you know I also write for a queer publication. Is there a queer angle we can weave into this?" she wondered. “I’m thinking maybe we could talk about taking a rest from the hate and anti-gay rhetoric we’re seeing.” It was the kind of note familiar to anyone who has worked with a co-author or editor. But when she hit that wall with a personal column on the importance of finding moments of peace and stillness, it wasn’t to an editor, colleague or friend that she turned for help. It was ClaudeAI. Once, that question would have been one Simmons asked a person. “Not since I've worked in a newsroom — like an actual newsroom where there's cubicles full of people — have I really had that back-and-forth with somebody as I'm working on a story,” Simmons told RANGE. “ I miss the days \[when\] you can kind of pop into someone's office and work on a paragraph together. I think that's sad, but I also think that this is a way to maybe fill that void when you don't have anyone else to talk to.” She would never start her process by asking Claude to spit out a column, and she doesn’t use it much for news writing, she said. One of her recent syllabi showed she had banned it in classroom writing assignments, stating that students whose assignments were plagiarized, fabricated or used ChatGPT would be failed. But she’s been [wrestling](https://favsnews.substack.com/p/ai-at-favs-the-humans-are-in-charge) with when and where it’s appropriate to use artificial intelligence. Simmons isn’t alone. Journalism’s fragile survival is predicated on trust, integrity and accuracy, and plagiarism and fabulism are the glaring red lines you just don’t cross. Generative AI is based on one and prone to the other. But as Simmons and others told RANGE, artificial intelligence is a “tool” — one with a lot of shades of gray between widely accepted uses: from transcribing interviews (pretty innocuous) to analyzing large data sets (some restrictions apply) to spitting out an article from scratch ([generally unacceptable](https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/07/writing-guidelines-for-the-role-of-ai-in-your-newsroom-here-are-some-er-guidelines-for-that/?ref=rangemedia.co#:~:text=Banned%20vs.%20allowed%20uses)). When the final drafts of Simmons’ column on stillness ran in [*The Spokesman-Review*](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/aug/10/faith-and-values-learning-to-find-stillness-betwee/?ref=rangemedia.co),[ Stonewall News Northwest ](https://www.stonewallnews.net/sacred-proud-finding-peace-in-stillness/?ref=rangemedia.co)and [FAVS](https://favs.news/learning-the-spiritual-art-of-stillness/?ref=rangemedia.co), AI-detector Pangram flagged them as [59%](https://www.pangram.com/history/315a8791-1625-4858-a08d-ab0d4a1c1372?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink), [74%](https://www.pangram.com/history/c0cd45c4-0125-4e3b-82e8-e459f5ffd051?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink) and [59% AI-written](https://www.pangram.com/history/72f13e36-5c58-42fd-a27f-9294d479d74b?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink), respectively. Other columns of hers, including pieces on parenthood and searching for the right church as a queer family, also tripped the detector. Simmons told RANGE she used Claude to edit her pieces and give writing suggestions, and shared some of her AI chat logs. None of these pieces had AI disclosures. We might never have known if it weren’t for Pangram. \[***Editor’s Note: this reporter has freelanced pieces at Stonewall News Northwest, and another RANGE reporter has freelanced at FAVS.***\] ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/data-src-image-01c4c9ee-ff98-4a15-b502-b7026587f22f.jpeg) Simmons and Claude discuss personalizing her column for different outlets. Screenshot courtesy of Simmons, art by Sellers. RANGE also ran news stories from writers across the region through Pangram, which has an [extremely low false-positive rate](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40979-026-00226-w?ref=rangemedia.co). By and large, the boots-on-the-ground Spokane journalists you know and trust aren’t using AI to do their writing. A randomized selection of stories from the staff writers at *The Spokesman*, *Inlander*, InvestigateWest, Spokane Public Radio and RANGE (yes, we checked our own coverage, for science) were all 100% human — even the sports score write-ups and police press release blurbs an exhausted reporter might dream about delegating to Claude. Still, there’s a bleed at the edge of the newsprint, an insidious creep of artificial intelligence seeping ever closer to the core of journalism. Content at multiple outlets was flagged by a review through Pangram as including significant AI-generated text: full stories at KHQ, KREM 2 News and KXLY; nearly the entire body of recent work from a contributor at the Center Square; a swath of staff reports and editor’s notes from *The Black Lens*; and arts-and-culture pieces from a freelancer at *The Spokesman-Review*. Other examples included a food writer’s love letter to Pig Out in the Park and an intern’s love letter to the Spokane Fair. A column from an editor at InvestigateWest that was recently removed and republished under a generic brand byline. Press releases fed into an internal tool at KHQ and regurgitated as “stories.” Artificial intelligence usage seems to transcend generational lines — veteran journalists and fresh faces alike had content flagged as AI-generated. ### Something rotten in the state of journalism Spokane isn’t special; the industry here is facing the same existential AI dread felt by every other news market in the nation. AI boosters touted the technology as akin to every prior tool that promised to save the free press while threatening to destroy it: Google, Meta (née Facebook), TikTok “newsfluencer” culture. Real journalists have [suffered](https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/ipr-news/2026-07-16/michigans-newest-newsrooms-are-ai-machines-built-on-others-reporting?ref=rangemedia.co), as has [public trust in the media](https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/interactive?ref=rangemedia.co#/?market=ALL§ion=q6%5F2016%5F1). National news conglomerate McClatchey laid off [nearly 100 unionized journalists](https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2026/mcclatchy-media-newspapers-layoffs/?ref=rangemedia.co) — [seven in Washington](https://www.nwpb.org/local/2026-09-15/journalists-in-washington-and-idaho-laid-off-part-of-nationwide-cuts-from-mcclatchy?ref=rangemedia.co) — and immediately [pivoted](https://www.techpolicy.press/cutting-local-journalists-mcclatchy-embraces-ai-content/?ref=rangemedia.co) to an AI “Content Scaling Agent,” [powered by Anthropic’s Claude](https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/mcclatchy-content-scaling-agents-roiling-newsrooms/?ref=rangemedia.co) to repurpose and regurgitate real journalists’ writing, spewing out as many different pieces of “content,” as possible. Unions have begged for protections against AI job replacement; outlet leaderships have refused, even the gold-standard [ProPublica.](http://propublica.at/?ref=rangemedia.co) At Washington State University — which boasts an [award-winning](https://studentmedia.wsu.edu/our-team/awards/?ref=rangemedia.co) journalism program — sports writing opportunities have been [handed off ](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/oct/07/wsu-turns-to-artificial-intelligence-to-assist-spo/?ref=rangemedia.co)to a Nebraska-based AI start-up, spurring protests from the [student paper](https://dailyevergreen.com/200061/top-features/editorial-the-daily-evergreen-strongly-opposes-wsus-use-of-ai/?ref=rangemedia.co) and journalism [alumni](https://dailyevergreen.com/200042/campus/wsu-athletics-partners-with-ai-company-sparking-backlash/?ref=rangemedia.co). Reporters are [bombarded](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/pr-firm-fake-ai-publicists?ref=rangemedia.co) with [AI-generated press releases](https://www.pangram.com/blog/ai-press-releases?ref=rangemedia.co), [editors](https://thelocal.to/investigating-scam-journalism-ai/?ref=rangemedia.co) bombarded with [AI-generated freelance pitches](https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/facing-a-deluge-from-ai-this-publication-will-only-take-pitches-by-phone/?ref=rangemedia.co) and the public [bombarded](https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1251917136/ai-generated-articles-are-permeating-major-news-publications?ref=rangemedia.co) [with](https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-reporter-resigns-journalism-ed076e2f276d9811f3b9ba051a03b7ae?ref=rangemedia.co) [AI-generated](https://san.com/cc/inside-a-newspaper-chains-transformation-from-local-news-to-ai-generated-content/?ref=rangemedia.co) [stories](https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/inside-rise-ai-native-newsrooms-run-autonomous-agents?ref=rangemedia.co), sometimes published under [a real journalist’s byline](https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/ohio-reporter-says-cleveland-com-081400635.html?ref=rangemedia.co) and sometimes under the bylines of [people who don’t exist](https://www.modelrepublic.org/articles/reporters-ai-bots-openai-super-pac?ref=rangemedia.co) — AI-generated profile pictures writing [stories about conservative politics](https://www.inlander.com/news/its-republican-versus-republican-in-this-weeks-primary-elections-but-will-voters-choose-old-school/article%5Fb945bb9a-f438-514e-af37-de016f5f206f.html?ref=rangemedia.co#:~:text=A-,long%20with%20pieces%20slamming,the%20Idaho%20Tribune%20site.,-Directly) or “their” [Indigenous culture](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/artificial-intelligence-indigenous-journalists-9.7345554?ref=rangemedia.co). Real journalists, hopping on the short-form video trend looking too polished, sounding [too crisp](https://gyazo.com/1a9cc0933930074e6fa1e32f97d70aa1?ref=rangemedia.co) and too well-lit, are [accused](https://gyazo.com/6d1f9cf2a9a3fc3be2cccbdb39c48c00?ref=rangemedia.co) of being AI agents themselves. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/data-src-image-3a87f113-0817-48ea-9911-32e1246b13d2.jpeg) KNKX journalist and good buddy Nate Sanford is accused of being AI-generated on TikTok. Art by Erin Sellers. While large language models freely trained on news articles from Washington outlets like *The* *Seattle Times,* journalists can pay [$95 for a course](https://www.poynter.org/shop/fact-checking-media-literacy/ai-for-journalists-and-content-creators-from-understanding-to-application/?ref=rangemedia.co) on how to understand and “use AI responsibly, with clear transparency and ethical standards,” or [£1,450](https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/reuters-institutes-masterclass-ai-journalism-society?ref=rangemedia.co) (roughly $1,950) to take a master class from the Reuters Institute on how to cover the technology’s impacts. Microsoft hosts closed-door conferences in Redmond to talk about AI with journalists, pitching potential AI products and seeing what makes reporters balk. Editors and industry leaders sit on panels or receive [fellowships](https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/our-work/lenfest-ai-collaborative-and-fellowship-program/?ref=rangemedia.co) — often [funded](https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/openai-doubles-support-for-lenfests-ai-and-local-news-fellowships/?ref=rangemedia.co) by tech companies — to guide the future of ethical AI use. Technology has moved quicker than journalists and their industry can respond. Different outlets have different policies (or no policies at all), and national newsroom standards around what specific uses are ethical or not are shifting. (Editor’s note: RANGE’s managing editor participated in a 2025 [AI Community Engagement Lab](https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/2025/03/18-community-journalists-selected-for-ai-community-engagement-lab/?ref=rangemedia.co) at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, funded in part by the Walton Family Foundation.) ### Tools and lines One thing almost everyone we talked to about artificial intelligence agreed on: AI is a tool. “It is a tool that we can’t avoid using,” Simmons said. “But I think that we need to use it ethically and with transparency.” “I think it’s OK as a tool only,” said Lindsey Treffry, managing editor of *The Spokesman-Review*. “I view AI as an efficiency tool,” wrote Jacob Fries, the executive director of InvestigateWest*.* “One that supports business activities, but does nothing to change the core principles of journalism to be independent, fair and accurate.” But exactly how such a tool should be used is murkier. That glaring red line in the sand — the one no journalist should cross — lies in a different place, depending on who you ask. Simmons is open about using Claude to help her, and even shared some of her chat logs with RANGE, but she said she uses AI only after writing her own draft. “ My writing process is that I write an outline, and then I start to write my paragraphs, and then I'll do some research to figure out which scriptures or religious anecdotes I wanna put in my column,” Simmons said. “ If I don't like the way that it sounds — like if I don't like a sentence structure, or if I think a paragraph could be stronger — I do ask AI, I do ask Claude if it can help me make it better. But it's not doing the actual writing.” A few un-bylined newsroom announcements from InvestigateWestflagged above 50% AI-generated, as did a [2024 column](https://www.investigatewest.org/building-a-legacy/?ref=rangemedia.co) originally published [under Fries’ name](https://web.archive.org/web/20260606012225/https://www.investigatewest.org/building-a-legacy/) celebrating InvestigateWest*’*s 15th anniversary. That came back as [100% AI-generated](https://www.pangram.com/history/9a0f4884-7816-416f-89bc-0fcb8360af97?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink), but shortly after RANGE’s [first story](https://www.rangemedia.co/ai-slop-spokane-op-eds/) about using Pangram to review local editorials published, the column was taken offline. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/data-src-image-68116373-62a0-4edb-99e5-855bda6aa249.jpeg) A column originally published under Jacob Fries' byline flags as 100% AI-generated on Pangram. Art by Erin Sellers. When RANGE asked Fries if the column was AI-generated and why it was removed, he wrote, “I recall writing those four paragraphs for one of our donor-marketing pieces back in 2024\. I’m not sure why it was offline, but it’s live now, with one correction: Since it was donor-marketing material, it should have fallen under our generic ‘InvestigateWest’ credit, not my byline, for press releases and newsroom announcements.” He continued: “We have used AI for non-journalism tasks and text (see first comment above), but our actual reporting is written by our journalists, not AI. We often use a generic ‘InvestigateWest’ credit to issue newsroom announcements and press releases, and in my view, marketing and press releases aren’t works of journalism.” Fries also wrote that on one occasion he can remember, he used AI while editing a reporter’s investigative work. “I offered — for demonstration purposes — a way they might revise three or four lines, showing them an example from AI on how they might summarize it,” Fries wrote. “In sharing it, I clearly told the reporter that the sample language had been put through AI and did not suggest that they use it in place of their own writing.” The reporter did not use the AI-generated text in their story. A *Spokesman-Review* freelancer’s stories on a [local social media influencer](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/sep/15/local-social-media-influencer-grows-following-with/?ref=rangemedia.co) ([66% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/4c913e03-89bd-4602-9724-9f3586b889cd?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)) and a [baseball-executive-turned-childrens’-author](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/aug/19/from-the-ballpark-to-the-bookshelf-bobby-brett-fin/?ref=rangemedia.co) ([55% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/77d4f089-2b47-4675-923b-be81937bf340?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)) tripped the Pangram detector, as did [a culture piece ](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/sep/21/llamas-screams-and-ranch-dressing-the-spokane-coun/?ref=rangemedia.co)([71% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/67745eca-2de7-4ab8-8a81-c6510871f369?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&ref=rangemedia.co)) from a short-term intern who has since left the paper and [a special food feature](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/sep/23/48-hours-of-eating-in-spokane-one-foodies-guide-to/?ref=rangemedia.co) ([100% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/348b832c-abb5-429c-93e3-1b71724ccb85?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&ref=rangemedia.co)) from a local [food blogger](https://foodiespokane.com/?ref=rangemedia.co). We were able to reach the freelancer, college student Liam Bradford, for comment and he confirmed that he used AI as a tool to organize his thoughts and Grammarly Pro to edit his work before filing it with staff editors. “ I think AI can be used as a great organizing tool. I think, to me, as a journalist, that's the No. 1 use of AI,” Bradford said. “But I think the line in the sand is clear and simple: If you're using it to come up with your story ideas or to write the story for you, then you're not growing at all as a journalist. You're cheating yourself, you're cheating your employer and your company.” *The Black Lens*, a local community newspaper, also had multiple stories and editor’s notes flagged by Pangram as containing AI-generated content, including pieces from Editor April Eberhardt on the [Spokane 3](https://www.blacklensnews.com/stories/2026/jun/07/red-herrings-and-reasonable-fear-of-imminent-harm/?ref=rangemedia.co) verdict ([100% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/e6c28f99-8b27-48f5-8725-a91bb0563fda?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)), [retaliation](https://www.blacklensnews.com/stories/2026/jun/07/assertiveness-while-black/?ref=rangemedia.co) against Black-led organizations ([78% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/49e6273d-1668-49eb-807f-e28e0d1fd02d?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)) and [the man](https://www.blacklensnews.com/stories/2025/apr/06/the-human-behind-the-code-the-intersection-of-data/?ref=rangemedia.co) behind a “pre-seed” AI venture ([80% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/4405c9e1-8824-459d-ab9f-d6655e3615d4?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)). [Eberhardt](https://ywcaspokane.org/resources/april-eberhardt-bio/?ref=rangemedia.co), who declined an interview, wrote in a statement ([100% human](https://www.pangram.com/history/261fdbbe-10e2-43f0-9780-2dbec7711e5b?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)) that the newsroom is minimally staffed without a dedicated reporter. “A lot of the responsibility for creating content falls on my shoulders as editor and our contributors. AI helps with productivity and efficiency,” she wrote, in part. “We use AI tools for grammar and spelling, and support with creating infographics to support articles in print and on social media. Human effort and human construction have to be paramount." She also uses AI transcription and talk-to-text to assist her in her work. At The Center Square, contributor Austin Reed, a West Side-based TV news reporter who freelances stories covering eastern Washington for taxpayer-focused nonprofit newsroom The Center Square, had multiple stories flagged for AI-generated content. One of Reed’s stories on [wildfire relief](https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article%5Faf3b86af-9c65-4e9f-85bd-743eedeb3b5d.html?ref=rangemedia.co) in Spokane flagged as [71% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/b9924051-43d7-4241-bdfe-c489cb65b4e3?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&ref=rangemedia.co), while another on a local [police ombuds](https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article%5F1fd6cd77-abcf-412c-b4ab-34517a12cee4.html?ref=rangemedia.co) report flagged as [59% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/620d136a-c8fc-4eae-8f08-7956f2febfbb?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&ref=rangemedia.co). Another [story](https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article%5F0658a124-011c-4aad-a899-bc2e31caf419.html?ref=rangemedia.co) of Reed’s showed only as [25% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/531fcebc-5f64-4117-9253-38768e878a65?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink), but had the kinds of errors that might point toward a large language model: a quote from Council President Betsy Wilkerson was misattributed to Mayor Lisa Brown, who wasn’t at the meeting, and the story incorrectly stated the council would take a final vote on Oct. 16 — a Friday when the body does not meet. Reed has also posted obviously AI-generated images and content on his professional social media feeds, and credited “AI” for an image that he posted alongside one of his TV news stories. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/Screenshot-2026-10-26-at-2.22.46---PM.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/Screenshot-2026-10-26-at-2.24.21---PM.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/unnamed-4-1.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/unnamed-8-1.jpg) Screenshots of AI-generated or assisted content from Reed's social media platforms. Reed did not respond to a request for comment, but forwarded our email to the CEO and publisher of The Center Square*,* Chris Krug, who questioned Pangram’s accuracy and wrote, “We have looked at TCS stories that you have cited, spoken with the contributor, and he has told us that he has not utilized AI to write these stories. We have no reason to doubt him.” Krug did not respond to follow-up questions about whether he had viewed any drafts of Reed’s work on these pieces, or how the factual errors had been introduced. As of publication time, the errors have not yet been corrected. Not a single piece of journalist or editorial content from *The Inlander* flagged as AI-generated, save one column — the [same piece](https://www.rangemedia.co/ai-slop-spokane-op-eds/) from Gonzaga University President Katia Passerini that ran in multiple outlets in June. ### Policies and process A formal policy is still in the works at *The Spokesman,* but internal guidelines are some of the strictest: content edited by AI beyond spellcheck is against the rules. While AI can be used to assist with tasks like transcribing interviews, basic copy editing, audio playback of articles and helping reporters spot patterns in large data sets that they are then responsible for independently verifying, *S-R* Managing Editor Treffry said the core components of journalism are out of the question. “As for using it for news gathering or for writing or for editing, I think that it has no business being in journalism,” Treffry said. “It does not have the journalistic training, nor is it human, and I believe that our newspaper and all newspapers should collect and present news by humans.” [Spokane FAVS](https://favs.news/ai-policy/?ref=rangemedia.co) and InvestigateWestboth described a larger allowable role for AI in assisting journalists. At FAVS, AI is permitted to “assist with tasks like summarizing articles, organizing key points in stories, tightening language, fact-checking and transcribing interviews.” InvestigateWest’s policy, sent to RANGE by email, stated that artificial intelligence can be used “in limited ways to assist with tasks such as transcription, translation, data organization, coding help or other workflow support. Any such use must strengthen our journalism, not substitute for editorial judgment.” Both outlets promised disclosure. “If AI plays a major role in a story or feature, we’ll tell you how and why it was used,” reads FAVS’s policy. “If AI plays a meaningful role in published material, we will disclose that use to readers and explain the independent steps we took to corroborate it,” reads InvestigateWest’s*.* [Both](https://www.pangram.com/history/7849fc74-3f6d-41d8-8c92-8bfd8a0da4eb?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink) [policies](https://www.pangram.com/history/a94e1726-da1e-42e4-bd2c-ce6a1ce25ad3?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink) were also flagged by Pangram as 100% AI-generated material, and neither included a disclosure note. Fries, who declined to take an interview with RANGE, but sent written answers to our questions ([100% human](https://www.pangram.com/history/4967c19b-682e-4127-9dfc-d8e68e35d967?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)), wrote that more than 20 people, including editors, reporters and lawyers, reviewed the policy, but that he did utilize AI “to organize and distill feedback from those many discussions informing our policy.” Simmons said she had conversations with her team in developing the policy, and that it was adapted and adopted from the Poynter Institute’s Code of Ethics on AI use. *The Black Lens* has yet to develop a policy governing AI usage, Eberhardt wrote in her email to RANGE, but it is a top priority as the outlet “continues to navigate current transitions as an independent publication.” The Center Square did not provide an AI policy by press time. ### Ask Nora While print media remains leery of AI, the broadcast TV stations are leaning in. It doesn’t take a Pangram-vestigation to find AI on the KHQ Nonstop Local website; they’re open about it. [Nora](https://www.khq.com/site/nora.html?ref=rangemedia.co), a “friendly, digital newsroom assistant,” awaits readers at the bottom of KHQ’s stories, standing ready to answer questions like “[what are Flock cameras used for?](https://gyazo.com/4cbdead21c4aa892928190674c8f19d0?ref=rangemedia.co)” and “[What led to Danny Tarkington’s \[sic\] firing?](https://gyazo.com/ecf55125ad7ec92ae3989e5a514ee465?ref=rangemedia.co)” Nora doesn’t know if KHQ uses AI in the reporting process, though it will show sponsored ads for ways to cut your [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/?ref=rangemedia.co) bill in half. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/data-src-image-d2ceefc4-fe35-4e47-b9f1-6d8d88fbcf19.jpeg) KHQ's built in AI tool Nora answers a RANGE request for comment. Art by Erin Sellers. Paul Bergen, the senior director of news and editorial content at KHQ, told RANGE that the station paid for an AI tool that would take an input — usually written content from a reporter or digital content producer — and reformat into a different type of content. Unlike print or digital reporters, where reporting, writing and publishing a story is the entirety of an assignment, TV news reporters often have to turn reporting for one story into multiple different types of content, like a 30-second news spot script, a three-minute script, a five-minute feature script and a written story to go up on the website. It can also be used to write social media posts for stories. This is called “versioning,” and it can take staff a ton of extra time at the end of long days, a former KHQ staffer (who asked to remain anonymous to protect future job prospects) told RANGE. But with the AI tool Collaborator, this went much faster. If they wrote a digital story, Collaborator could quickly turn it into TV script or vice versa. “ Reporters usually write — at least they used to — their own TV script, and then their own web article, because obviously at that point you're the pro on your story in that building,” the former employee said. “But there's not enough time in the day. So what could've been the job of two people is now the job of you and Collaborator.” Collaborator, an “AI content creation tool for media,” lists both the Cowles Company, which owns KHQ, and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns local syndicate KREM 2 News, as clients for the software. It boasts a 70% average productivity gain for news stations that lets a reporter go “from raw notes to *every content format* in minutes,” \[emphasis theirs\] and “better story performance and happier teams,” for employees at the Cowles Company, according to [Collaborator’s testimonials](https://www.magidcollaborator.com/?ref=rangemedia.co#:~:text=Proof%20from%20the%20teams%20already%20using%20it). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/data-src-image-bad248bb-90a8-4e34-bd22-96b6418cd9fd.jpeg) Screenshot from the Collaborator product page. Art by Erin Sellers. While reporters may use Collaborator to turn their original reported content into different versions of itself, digital content producers — whose job is to get the info out as quickly as possible — can use it to turn press releases into content for the web, no reporting required. Bergen said they *can* do additional reporting to add to the press releases, but it’s not necessary. The only requirement is that a human KHQ employee reviews what’s going to be published for accuracy. KHQ’s AI policy can be read [here](https://www.khq.com/trust/ai-use-policy/article%5F451baaf0-17e6-4bbc-86ec-ed34ffbfd012.html?ref=rangemedia.co). It also flagged as [100% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/422aa984-6d97-4bdd-b639-7f2c0554633c?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink), though Pangram’s confidence is lower on text this short. A former KHQ digital content producer, who asked for anonymity to protect their employment, told RANGE that the tool is “tempting,” because it can automate the most tedious parts of the job, but it left them feeling like some of the work coming out of KHQ was “almost like content AI slop.” KXLY has a similar internal tool, said News Director Melissa Luck, which she described as a re-skinned ChatGPT with no capability to go on the Internet. It can reformat articles to TV scripts, or vice versa, speeding up what was a 20 minute task. “ We still have to go through and approve and make changes,” Luck said. “ It's only modifying already created journalism. Not to change meaning, text, video — nothing like that. We don't create graphics with it.” Unlike KHQ, however, employees at KXLY are not permitted to plug in a press release and have AI spit out a story. Luck, who served on the Radio Television Digital News Association Board, believes the technology should never be used to create AI anchors, modify video or audio, or create journalism from scratch. Instead, she hopes the tools that KXLY has adopted can free reporters to do more of the work that only humans can do. “Let's use AI to take care of the tasks that take away from the time we can be using to create original journalism,” she said. Luck shared KXLY’s full AI guidelines with RANGE, which were [100% human-written](https://www.pangram.com/history/45ced53c-0338-4ca8-b534-9ff1a15b7c28?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink), according to Pangram. KREM 2 did not respond to a request for comment about AI usage and policies by publication time. ### ‘It’s just like the movie *Her’* When the former KHQ digital content producer started in 2024, there was very little AI usage behind the scenes. One manager said they could use ChatGPT, but they’d have to include a disclaimer that they used artificial intelligence. When the newsroom adopted Collaborator, that quickly changed. Overworked reporters were encouraged to lean on the tool to “version” their stories, their managers promising it would “save a lot of time,” both former KHQ staffers said. The digital content producers were told to use the software and report errors, essentially training it to get better and better, the former producer said. They weren’t comfortable with it, but toward the end of their tenure, the workload made it “almost impossible not to use.” “At that point, when I was using it, I was like, ‘I think I just need to get out because I don't feel like I can responsibly use this tool and be like a journalist,” they said. “At this rate, my job might be just me inserting a press release text into a thing and then having it write a thing.” Both former KHQ staffers, *The Black Lens* Editor Eberhardt and Bradford, the *Spokesman* freelancer, pointed to increasing workloads and time crunches as the reason they adopted AI tools in their journalistic processes. Fries and Luck hoped they wouldn’t just be ways for overworked reporters to keep up, but to keep their heads above water and spend more time asking hard questions and writing good news stories. Bergen, KHQ’s senior director of news and editorial content, was all business. “ It really is kind of that efficiency element that we're looking at, which is ultimately what AI is about, right?” he told RANGE. “We're all trying to find more efficiencies in our workflow, and this is one of them that we feel like it allows us to do without sacrificing the integrity of the product.” At FAVS, artificial intelligence is used for most of the same reasons as at *The Black Lens*: helping a small team cover a wide breadth of issues for the communities they serve by making some of the tedious tasks easier. For Simmons, Claude serves a different purpose. “Sometimes I talk to it. It's just like the movie *Her*. It's kind of scary — except it's not romantic. But I'll talk to it and say, like, ‘What do you think of this direction I'm going in for a column?’ Or, ‘How could I improve it?’ Or, ‘I hate this paragraph because I feel like I'm using the same word too many times.’” Simmons said. “It reminds me of back in the day when I had an editor that I would just, whose desk I would sit down at, and we would workshop a story … But in the end, it's my writing.” She worries, though, about what she’s losing. In both her own piece for FAVS about AI and her interview with RANGE, Simmons reflected on a moment in the classroom when she stood in front of her class, writing something on a whiteboard, and realized she — a former spelling bee champion — had forgotten how to spell a word. Spellcheck did that to her, she said. ### Paradise lost Maybe it's a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece that reveals a deep injustice, maybe it's a hyperlocal story that explains the intricacies of a complex municipality in an easy-to-understand way; maybe it’s a story that makes the reader empathize with a “villain” or a quick public service series on a natural disaster. Whatever you think journalism is at its best, usually there’s a common denominator: a journalist wrote it. A journalist noticed a pattern or had a question whose answer they couldn’t easily find. A journalist picked up the phone or answered their email when a source reached out. A journalist pored through documents and analyzed data. A journalist asked questions and follow-up questions and more follow-up questions. A journalist sat down and synthesized the entirety of the information they’d gathered and decided what to include and what to omit; what to put near the top, who to quote, and how to characterize people and situations. Each moment, a human judgement. More and more of that process can now be, or already has been, ceded to artificial intelligence. In some cases, it’s clear what’s lost. AI [hallucinations](https://www.techtarget.com/news/AI-hallucination/871928/?ref=rangemedia.co), especially in the early days of these tools, can cause inaccuracies, which are the cardinal sins of journalism. If someone read [this story](https://web.archive.org/web/20260124084101/https://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-city-council-defends-doj-grant-acceptance-amid-community-concerns/article%5F85f5e51d-4076-4b7b-b57b-cb5234de3aac.html) from KXLY back in January ([100% AI](https://www.pangram.com/history/630ae633-df0e-4873-b967-3e4849424946?ucc=0t4G2F74fyH&utm%5Fsource=pangram%5Fshare&utm%5Fmedium=copy%5Flink)) — before it was [updated](https://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-city-council-defends-doj-grant-acceptance-amid-community-concerns/article%5F85f5e51d-4076-4b7b-b57b-cb5234de3aac.html?ref=rangemedia.co) — they might have thought that Spokane’s police chief was named Craig Hall (he’s not) or that former-Council Member Jonathan Bingle won his election (he didn’t). If you only read Reed’s story in The Center Squareand wanted to testify against the new sales tax, you’d show up at City Hall on a Friday. No council members would be there to hear you out. AI couldn’t have written *Spokesman* reporter Alexandra Duggan’s first-person account of being on-scene as the Spokane Complex fires raged, her managing editor Treffry said. “ That first-person account and witnessing history, not repeating the history that's been written by others,” Treffry said. “That first-person history is something AI could never do.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/data-src-image-e24729c7-3fb5-4b38-ab08-eef071a409bf.jpeg) Reporter Alexandra Duggan's fire coverage is 100% human. Screenshots from The Spokesman and Pangram. Art by Erin Sellers. Even in basic reporting, there’s a necessary human component, Luck said. AI might be able to get the “who,” “what,” “where,” “how” and “when” of a story, but can it get the “why?” “ I hate to use the word ‘storytelling.’ I think it's totally overused, but there is a human element of thinking about why this matters to people and being able to put that in context,” Luck said. “ The human part of it — that authenticity, that connection — is what will keep people coming back to news.” Kip Hill, a journalism professor at Gonzaga University and longtime politics reporter, still thinks about a court case he covered years ago: [the Gail Gerlach case](https://www.spokesman.com/topics/gail-gerlach/?ref=rangemedia.co). Gerlach had been acquitted of manslaughter charges after shooting and killing another man who was stealing his car, Hill said. Then, years later, his own daughter was [convicted of](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/mar/22/acquitted-shooter-gail-gerlachs-daughter-gets-13-d/?ref=rangemedia.co) car theft and sentenced to 13 days in jail. “ The nuance of that, right? Of a father who had killed someone for basically committing that crime … and then having to, years later come to terms with the fact that his daughter had done the same thing,” Hill said. “Did she deserve to die? Asking that question is something only a human would be able to do right now.” Hill probably made mistakes in his coverage, he said — human ones. “It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s one I remember because it had that humanity behind it,” he said. But is anything lost when AI is used to generate marketing materials and press releases for a newsroom? Or to take press releases sent to the newsroom and rewrite them in Associated Press style? Maybe not. Maybe it brings more transparency, like Fries wrote, and the only consequence of accepting those kinds of uses as industry standard is that we’re telling PR professionals, “Yes! Please send us more AI-generated emails! I do that too!” Maybe there’s something human lost along the way. The former KHQ digital content producer thought about the work they did as serving the community, being the person who brought necessary and timely information to the public. When they could no longer do that without using AI to keep up with their workload, they stopped putting their byline on those stories, publishing them instead under the generic “Nonstop Local” byline. Then they stopped working there altogether. ### ‘We’re journalists — we’re kind of worried all the time’ Recently, Don Gronning, former news editor of *The* *Newport Miner*,was looking for freelancers willing to take a few arts and culture stories to fill a special section. “This woman came in and she wanted to do some writing for us, but she was kinda slow getting started doing it,” said Gronning, a veteran reporter who has since retired from *The* *Miner*. “So I gave her a bunch of things to emulate \[like the\] *New York Times*. We get a jillion different weeklies that I liked and some of our stuff I liked.” He showed her the ropes: you have to attribute facts to their sources; direct quotes are good, and even better when you put them high up in your story; when in doubt, look at stories you admire for inspiration. Eventually, she turned in her first story, then another, then three more in quick succession. Gronning was impressed with her output and uptake, but noticed an odd formatting quirk in one of her pieces. He wondered what word processor she had used. Whatever it was should have caught the formatting error. When he asked, the freelancer told him it was AI. She would enter transcripts of her interview into the software, which would then spit out stories. She expressed no embarrassment or sheepishness in telling him the writing came from a large language model. “ It didn't occur to her that there would be anything wrong with doing it that way,” Gronning said. When he was training her, he hadn’t thought to explicitly tell her not to use AI. Gronning told the freelancer that AI-generated content “might be a dealbreaker,” for *The Miner*, and asked her if she could rewrite it in her own words. She said no, she couldn't, and thus ended her working relationship with the paper. Once a reader knew her stories were AI-generated, it was impossible not to notice it, Gronning said. *The Miner* stopped publishing her work and, internally, formalized a policy that AI-generated writing was not allowed. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/data-src-image-ac8aa944-07a5-43fb-9542-54d56ca81f8c.jpeg) ChatGPT stands at the ready to write articles for those who can't do it themselves. Art by Erin Sellers. “ I feel like the business and our policies are going to have to keep adapting as AI technology advances,” *The Spokesman’s* Treffry said. “ There will probably be new tools for us that come along over the years, but I also think we're still gonna be stubborn and stick to our ethics and make sure that journalists are the ones creating the work moving forward.” Reporters still worry about a future where AI might replace them, Luck said: “There’s existential worry, but we’re journalists — we’re kind of worried all the time.” Hill said he’s seen that fear in his students. “ My personal experience has been that young people, at least in our program, are very hesitant and wary of using these particular tools — or at least, what these tools portend for the future of not only the industry that they're hoping to go into, but society as a whole,” he said. He tries to tell his students that AI can’t do the work of a good journalist. “One of the main purposes of this business, industry, calling — whatever you want to call it — is the creation of empathy with other human beings,” Hill said. “One of the lessons I try to leave on, in terms of hopefulness, is I don’t see that as something that a machine or artificial intelligence is going to be able to duplicate very easily in the future.” Near the end of our interview, Gronning remembered another young woman who wanted to be a reporter. He’d mentored her, too, giving her advice and deep structural edits after she’d turned in a piece he didn’t “think would pass a college \[class.\]” Something in the arduous process clicked for her. “Forevermore, she got it,” Gronning said. “She could write by herself, and she didn’t use AI — never did.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/35/e7/35e7a6d5-1d7d-405c-9ee3-dce92dfd190f/content/images/2026/11/AI-Package--9-.jpg) This story is 100% human-written, at least according to Pangram and the reporter's frankly arduous Google Docs revision history. Art by Erin Sellers.