Bill Adair

A reminder that there are no boundaries in media. Everyone can offer everything.

Helpful transparency in reporting

Searching for ICE at a Raleigh Hilton - 9th Street Journal Rumors about ICE sightings are filling Reddit. We checked out one about agents staying in the Hilton in North Hills.

With rumors flying about ICE sightings, our reporter Gabrielle Lazor went searching in the North Hills Hilton. 9thstreetjournal.org/2025/11/21/s...

Did Jeffrey Epstein edit his own Wikipedia article? I think there's a good chance he did, in 2007 at least.

Some fascinating detective work here by DF Lovett on the edits to Jeffrey Epstein's Wikipedia page. open.substack.com/pub/edithist...

Tremendous story by Duke alum @billmccarthy.bsky.social showing how White House stitched together footage from other cities and claimed they were from Chicago factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....

Jim Jordan Claims Google Censored Conservatives. His Own Committee’s Work Shows Otherwise. Google execs’ interviews before the House Judiciary Committee show no evidence of “censorship” or government coercion - so who’s lying?

Smart and thorough analysis from @ninajankowicz.com: Jim Jordan Claims Google Censored Conservatives. His Own Committee’s Work Shows Otherwise. wiczipedia.substack.com/p/jim-jordan...

Why does Microsoft do this? Every day (???), it sends an "Reaction Daily Digest" email that summarizes the "thumbs-ups" (and, I guess, other emojis) that I have received that day. What value is that email, coming hours after a respondent sent them?

Trump is wrong: Smithsonian does feature success, brightness President Donald Trump attacked the Smithsonian Institution for being “woke” and giving no attention to “success,” “brightness” and the “future.” Visiting several of the most popular museums, we found...

A smart and simple fact-check. To check Trump's claim that the Smithsonian has "nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future," PolitiFact fact-checkers simply toured the museums. Pants on Fire. www.politifact.com/factchecks/2...

Hey Chicago! Come and see me Sept. 6 at Printers Row Lit Fest! I'll be discussing lying in politics and misinformation with @barbmcquade.bsky.social‬! -- moderated by the Chicago Tribune's ‪@jake-sheridan.bsky.social‬!

Three news alerts, three different takes

Alden Global Capital is miffed that The Dallas Morning News won’t offer itself up for disembowelment The hedge fund threatens to shift their takeover bid to shareholders — while trying to sweet-talk the only shareholder that matters.

Great lede here from @joshuabenton.com: "Alden Global Capital just can’t understand. Why would any newspaper not want to be the next to pass through its digestive tract?" www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/alde...

Some thoughts on Google’s announcement ending the use of ClaimReview in search:

2025 census: Fact-checkers persevere as politicians, platforms turn up heat - Reporters' Lab In its annual census, the Duke Reporters’ Lab counts 443 active fact-checking projects, down about 2 percent so far from 2024.

A lot of people believed Meta's decision to end its support of fact-checkers would lead to a dramatic decline. But that hasn't happened, at least not yet, according to the latest census by the Duke Reporters' Lab. reporterslab.org/2025/06/19/f...

Isn't this the result for, like, everything? Every issue, every question that begins, "Do you support President Trump..."

I was watching a video on Spotify today and I realized… that I was watching a video on Spotify. It has become a platform for music + audiobooks + podcasts + now, podcasts with video. It’s the everything platform.

Analysis | Trump’s flip-flop on how easy it would be to end the Russia-Ukraine war The president has gone from a “24-hour” deal to “back away” in just a few months.

From @glennkessler.bsky.social, anatomy of a flip-flop: How Trump has changed his claims that he can end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

A great fact-check by Grace Abels and some other tremendous actors. www.instagram.com/reel/DJo946k...

Brian from Michigan Thirteen years ago, I lied to a guy named Brian on national television. So I decided to find him and apologize.

I lied to a guy on national TV. So I decided to track him down and say I was sorry. This is the story of my search. www.cjr.org/analysis/pol...

Anybody know how long Trump has been in office? I'd love to see some coverage of that...

Ran into John from @themountaingoats.bsky.social exactly where you'd expect a big rock star on a Saturday night, in the parking lot of Target, where he was shopping for Easter candy. What a smart, wonderful guy. Reminded me why I love the Goats.

“I would like to say one more thing,” Chávez said. “Again to our trans students, we see you and we love you.” 9thstreetjournal.org/2025/03/28/d...

Journalists who use "[timely word]gate" in a headline should be suspended without pay for a week. Today's example: "Signalgate."

Not sure how new this is, but the NYT's Athletic now has a button so you can directly bet on teams. The gap between journalism and gambling keeps narrowing.

I watched all 162 crashes at the Can Opener. Here’s what I saw. - 9th Street Journal To understand Durham's most notorious location for crashes, I watched every video. I identified three types: the Curious Cat, the Bullet, and the Barbershop Shave.

My Newswriting students are reading one of my favorite works of student journalism, @carmela.bsky.social's "I watched all 162 crashes at the Can Opener," which then led me to watch way too many YouTube videos. But a fun way to spend an afternoon! 9thstreetjournal.org/2021/04/13/i...

NYT using crowdsourcing for coverage of JFK assassination files.

I always worry when I see an obit for Bill Adair - until I realize it’s not me.

Interesting addition to my Google search results that I haven’t seen before

Literally Every Time Chris Traeger Says "Literally" | Parks and Recreation YouTube video by Parks and Recreation

A student used "literally" in a paper, which gave me an excuse to watch this youtu.be/gYB-dM2Tsd0?...

Eric Deggans Named Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Ethics at W&L Eric Deggans, television critic, media analyst and guest host with NPR, has been selected to serve as the next John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Ethics at Washington and Lee…

This is tremendous news. The amazing @edeggans.bsky.social becoming Knight professor at Washington & Lee. columns.wlu.edu/eric-deggans...

If you’re at SXSW, stop by Monday for my conversation about lying in politics with Nina Jankowicz! We’ll discuss Nina’s ordeal, which I recounted in Beyond the Big Lie, the patterns of lying and ideas to curb our lying epidemic. 11:30 a.m. in the Marriott’s Waller Ballroom D.