One Nation vs the media, AI rip-offs, and privacy pop-up hell

This week, the Heated Debate returns with a question for the newshounds: should Australian media stand with the ABC and other banned outlets by boycotting One Nation press events? Reporter Zac Nikolovski and good friend of the Mumbrellacast Lauren Joyce enter a two-party contest of their own.

Zac argues the affirmative, warning that allowing politicians to exclude journalists over critical coverage creates a dangerous incentive by making access conditional on favourable reporting.

Lauren takes an audience-first view, arguing that a boycott would leave fewer journalists in the room to question and contextualise One Nation’s claims, ultimately giving the party greater control over its message and audiences less information on which to form their own views. As usual, things get pretty heated.

Also this week: the team digs into the case of Australian niche publisher Digital Drummer, whose founder Allan Leibowitz discovered an Israeli AI news startup was allegedly republishing his journalism on an industrial scale.

Is there a silver lining to publishing’s AI reckoning? Maybe. Ask ChatGPT again later.

The team also unpacks proposed changes to Australia’s privacy laws that have marketers bracing for a new era of consent pop-up hell, before picking apart OpenAI’s apology to us, the Australian people, to decide whether the tech giant's sorry letter is actually worthy of our nation's forgiveness.