There is no guest on this week’s edition of the Fridays With Larry podcast. Personal matters have taken up much of my time recently, so this one is just me — and three subjects worth your time.
The first is about journalism, and the lines I believe reporters should not cross.
When I studied the craft in the late 1960s and early ’70s, two competing ideas were on the table: the libertarian approach — publish and let the chips fall — and the social responsibility approach. Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers and Watergate made the first one look like the American model. My teachers told me otherwise, and once I got into the business in the 1970s, I understood why.
Here is what most people never realize: reporters know far more than they report.
That came back to me reading longtime Indianapolis sports columnist Bob Kravitz on his Substack. Kravitz wrote about a self-styled online sleuth who disclosed on social media that Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Ed Oliver had lost his 2-year-old son in a drowning accident in June — something the family had kept private. The credentialed reporters in that locker room all knew. Every one of them held it. Kravitz called the disclosure a breach of journalistic ethics, and I agree.
I share a story of my own on the podcast about a local official I learned was under investigation, why I did not report it, and what happened next.
The second subject is Meta.
Eight days into a federal trial in Oakland, California, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram agreed to settle claims brought by 29 state attorneys general — Indiana’s among them — that it designed its apps to hook children. The headline number is up to $17.1 billion over 10 years, but only about $12.1 billion is guaranteed. Indiana’s guaranteed share is $296 million, rising to as much as $419 million if a contingency triggers.
Nobody has said where Indiana’s money goes. That will be decided by state officials and the General Assembly, and Hamilton County families have a stake in it.
The product changes may matter more than the money. Beginning under this agreement, teen accounts get a two-hour daily default cap, the apps go dark from midnight to 6 a.m., and push notifications shut off from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days. Hamilton Southeastern went bell-to-bell on phones this month under Senate Enrolled Act 78. The district and the settlement are now pushing in the same direction.
Finally, Dolly Parton, who died this week at 80. The fourth of 12 children raised in a one-room East Tennessee cabin, she became a songwriter, an entertainer and a shrewd businesswoman who understood that ownership outlasts fame. I close the podcast with what I think is the finest part of her legacy.
Fridays With Larry is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.
Use this link to watch the video or just listen using this link.
