The Briefing
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In today’s email:
- Featured story: The FCC, The View and what it means to be “news”
- New from Pew Research Center: Shifts in how Americans perceive local news
- In other news: Federal judge throws out Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post
- Looking ahead: Can AI chatbots help people decide how to vote?
- Chart of the week: Majority of U.S. adults support banning social media for kids under 16
🔥 Featured story
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission ordered an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses. The FCC is also investigating whether The View – one of the network’s flagship shows – has violated the so-called equal time rule, which requires broadcast programs to give the same amount of airtime to opposing candidates for public office.
A recent analysis by Semafor found that since the investigation was announced, The View has not featured any guests who are candidates in a competitive midterm race. At the same time, ABC maintains that the FCC has long deemed The View a “bona fide news program,” which exempts it from the equal time rule.
There is not a one-size-fits-all answer to how Americans define “news” these days, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center study. Several attributes of information – including its topic and source – and people’s own identities and attitudes play a role in how they determine (knowingly or not) whether something counts as news to them.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
This week, we published a new analysis in Nieman Lab about the shifts we’ve observed in how Americans view local news, based on data from the Pew-Knight Initiative.
While local news organizations have long been trusted by majorities of both Republicans and Democrats, this may be starting to change. Americans’ trust in local news has recently dropped, along with the the share who say local news outlets are highly important to the well-being of their community.
📌 In other news
- Federal judge throws out Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post
- Hungarian state television suspends broadcasting after Orban’s departure, apologizing for “lies”
- Nigeria to investigate tech companies over use of news content; French regulator orders Meta to negotiate with news publishers
- How Wikipedia’s new leader, a former diplomat, is navigating challenges posed by politics and AI
- Prince Harry loses privacy case against the Daily Mail
- Supreme Court allows fines to continue against former Fox News reporter who refused to reveal sources
- New Jersey judge orders local news outlet to remove video of school lockdown
- Oregon attorney general asks court for 60-day pause on Paramount-Warner Bros. merger to review records
- Telemundo gets huge ratings boost from World Cup
📅 Looking ahead
Are voters increasingly turning to AI chatbots to help them make voting decisions? A recent New York Times article explores this question, observing that while many major chatbots are trained to avoid answering political questions, users are finding ways to bypass these restrictions.
Chatbots’ convenience and efficiency for this purpose may appeal to voters – especially in an environment where many say it is not easy to find the information they need to make voting decisions. But some people also express concerns about the accuracy of information that chatbots provide.
Americans are wary about AI’s role in elections: In a 2024 survey, 51% predicted AI would have a negative impact on U.S. elections in the next 20 years, while 9% said AI would impact elections positively. An additional 17% expected the impact would be equally positive and negative, and 23% said they weren’t sure.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart comes from a new Center analysis of Americans’ views on social media bans for kids under 16, as recently proposed or enacted in the U.K., Australia and elsewhere. A majority of U.S. adults (56%) support this idea, while 21% oppose it. About half of adults or more in each age group support this type of ban, with those ages 30 to 49 and parents of children under 18 most likely to favor it. The idea also has bipartisan backing: Republicans and Democrats are both much more likely to support than oppose such a ban.
| Group | Support | Oppose | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. adults | All | 56 | 21 |
| Ages 18-29 | Age | 52 | 26 |
| 30-49 | Age | 63 | 19 |
| 50-64 | Age | 57 | 20 |
| 65+ | Age | 49 | 19 |
| Parent of child <18 | Parental status | 65 | 17 |
| No child <18 | Parental status | 52 | 22 |
| Rep/Lean Rep | Party | 59 | 19 |
| Dem/Lean Dem | Party | 54 | 23 |
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Christopher St. Aubin, Emily Tomasik, Joanne Haner and Sawyer Reed. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Anna Jackson.
Do you like this newsletter? Email us at journalism@pewresearch.org or fill out this two-question survey to tell us what you think.
Facts Only
* The FCC ordered an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses.
* The FCC is investigating whether *The View* violated the equal time rule.
* A recent analysis by Semafor found *The View* has not featured guests who are candidates in a competitive midterm race since the investigation was announced.
* ABC maintains that the FCC has deemed *The View* a "bona fide news program," exempting it from the equal time rule.
* A 2025 Pew Research Center study indicates that how Americans define "news" is not uniform, depending on topic, source, identity, and attitudes.
* An analysis of the Pew-Knight Initiative data shows recent drops in American trust in local news and its perceived importance to community well-being.
* A federal judge threw out Trump’s defamation lawsuit against *The Washington Post*.
* Hungarian state television suspended broadcasting after Orban’s departure and apologized for "lies."
* Nigeria is investigating tech companies regarding the use of news content.
* French regulator ordered Meta to negotiate with news publishers.
* The Supreme Court allowed fines against a former Fox News reporter to continue.
* A New Jersey judge ordered a local news outlet to remove video of a school lockdown.
* A majority of U.S. adults (56%) support banning social media for kids under 16, while 21% oppose it.
| Group | Support | Oppose |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. adults | All | 56 | 21 |
Executive Summary
Full Take
The juxtaposition of institutional regulatory action concerning broadcast standards with the fragmented public understanding of what constitutes news reveals a tension between formal definitions and lived experience. The disparity between the FCC's view—that *The View* is a "bona fide news program"—and external scrutiny suggests that official categorization does not automatically align with audience perception, which the Pew research indicates is shifting away from local sources. This highlights how systemic structures (broadcasting rules) interact with subjective realities (what people consider news).
The concerns surrounding AI in voting decisions and social media regulation reveal a pattern where technological convenience clashes with epistemic responsibility. The public's hesitation regarding AI's impact on elections, coupled with the observed public support for youth social media restrictions, suggests an underlying resistance to systems that operate opaquely or lack transparent, shared civic understanding. When entities like AI move into spheres of high-stakes decision-making, the existing mechanisms of trust—whether in media or technology—become critical vectors for cognitive sovereignty.
The pattern observed is a friction between formal authority and public consensus regarding information integrity. The legal and regulatory actions involving media entities are set against a backdrop where audiences are actively re-evaluating their sources. This suggests that governing systems must account not only for the content they regulate but also for the evolving, often divergent, ways citizens internally define reality.
Bridge Questions: If formal regulatory standards fail to align with public perception of news value, what mechanisms should be established to bridge this gap? How can the public develop a shared framework for evaluating AI-driven information against established benchmarks of trust? What historical precedents exist for when shifts in media consumption correlate with shifts in social regulation?
Sentinel — Human
The text exhibits the structure and tone of professionally curated news analysis, strongly suggesting human editorial oversight synthesizing various data points.