Fact-checking-for-all scheduled at Crandall Library July 29
Tickets on sale now at Capital Rep for 'The Last American Newspaper'
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There was once a world where we all opened our daily community newspaper to start our day. That world no longer exists. We get our news from different channels, different websites and sometimes entirely by accident because we are inundated with too much news.
Welcome to 2026.
But if we still believe in being good neighbors, good friends, informed voters and stand-up citizens, we have to acknowledge we all need to do better.
It starts with knowing what information to trust.
Even the best of us - including retired newspaper editors - find it challenging to know what is true and what is not in news reports, on social media and in random conversations.
Here’s part of the new compact to be a good citizen: It’s not just about voting anymore, it’s about being informed. We need to embrace our civic responsibility to be informed with reliable and truthful information, know how to recognize it and discern it from misinformation.
How to do that can be confusing and time-consuming, but there is an opportunity to get help and enhance your skillset.
Mary Miller, an educator with the New York News Publishers Association, will be giving a presentation at Crandall Public Library on Wednesday, July 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on how to tell the difference between authentic news and misinformation.
This has never been more important for our democracy.
Every single one of us needs to be better at recognizing what is factual and what is not, regardless of your political beliefs or affiliations.
You want to be a good citizen? You need to be informed.
Want to be accurately informed? You have to be able to sort through what is real news and what is fake news.
Miller estimated she does 40 or so presentations a year for groups of all ages. Some are as young as third grade, others are senior citizens.
“One of the first things I talk to them about is what is a fact and what is a feeling,” Miller said. “Sometimes, the kids get it better than some adults.”
Miller will go over how to recognize trustworthy news sources and how to spot scams, but she demands we all be open to the possibility that we may not be as good as we think at spotting misinformation.
“I’m totally nonpartisan,” she said. “I’m just looking for them to listen to me.”
For decades, while national new sources struggled with trust issues, local news proved to be an exception. Majorities of Republicans and Democrats in local communities rated their local newspaper and TV stations favorably.
That is changing dramatically.
Where 82 percent said they trusted local news in 2016, just 70 percent do today. It’s still good, but slipping.
Not only is trust dropping in local news outlets, consumers are saying they don’t see local news outlets playing as important a role in their lives.
The Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation - two respected journalism advocates - found that the importance of local media in communities is also slipping.
The number of Americans who say news outlets are “extremely or vey important to their well-being” dropped 10 points to just 34 percent in the past year. Just 26 percent of Republicans believe news outlets are important.
For a retired editor like me that is shocking.
I’m hoping Miller can help restore the faith, at least in this little corner of the world, with this presentation.
As our communities have become more partisan - and divided - Miller told me that her presentations have become less popular, not more.
“People are just afraid of what I’m going to say,” Miller said.
For those of us who peruse social media, it doesn’t take long to come across memes or posts of questionable accuracy. I’ve lashed out at acquaintances and relatives and chastised them for sharing information that is not true.
Then, they do it again.
The research by Pew and Knight found that most U.S. adults say it is extremely or very important for people to avoid sharing inaccurate information and they should always check the news with multiple sources.
The first step is knowing when the information is inaccurate.
The second step, since so many of us don’t have the time to do that, is to find a trustworthy news source and pay for it.
The study found people overwhelmingly believe (94%) it is important for you to do your own research to check the accuracy of the news. Two-thirds said it was “extremely” important.
And most are confident they know what steps to take to fact-check a story, but doubt others can.
“I think ideally you can ... absorb the information and then do your own kind of research into understanding what they’re delivered,” a man in his 30s said. “And it helps you become more informed. I don’t think others do that, though. I think that’s a problem.”
Maybe the bigger problem is that most Americans no longer get their news from a standard daily news source, but more often than not stumble onto the news on social media.
While I was organizing this event, Assemblyman Matt Simpson, Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner and Bob Henke, chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors all showed support for it and planned on encouraging colleagues to attend.
This event is for people who want to be better informed, to be better citizens and I’m hoping we get a good cross-section of our communities.
But Miller says she has had people walk out on her presentations. She said she asks people up front: Are you open to changing your mind if the facts don’t correspond with what you believe?
“If the answer is no, you might as well leave,” she said. “We’re going to have an honest, open discussion. It’s so easy to vehemently disagree with someone online, but when talking to your neighbor across the fence, we’re looking each other eyeball to eyeball, and it’s different. We’re so much better in person than when we hide behind our personas.”
That’s what we need now more than ever.
Face to face dialogue and debate.
Mary Miller will provide the tools to do that on July 29 at Crandall Public Library.
The Front Page - this Substack newsletter - and Crandall Public Library are sponsoring the event.
Perfect example
As an example of why we all need to hear what Mary Miller has to say about misinformation, Politico reported that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman used AI to show a very real-looking Gov. Kathy Hochul being offered crack by a gentleman she refers to as a “nice young man.”
It was an AI.
In another Blakeman ad, the AI-created Hochul offers an “illegal immigrant” an “amazing hotel room” for free.
Politico reported that both ads met the legal standard in that they acknowledged AI was used in the creation of the ads.
Legal, but unethical in my opinion.
Politico wrote “It’s part of a broader political communications strategy that has veered into the unusual. As Playbook previously reported Blakeman’s campaign had briefly teamed up with communications firm HeraldPR, which was sending out cold pitches to reporters, promoting Blakeman as someone `available to speak’ on recent political happenings. City & State reported the firm had previously handled communications for Harvey Weinstein and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.”
These “deepfakes” will continue to muddy the waters for all candidates.
It’s happening
Capital Repertory Theatre began selling single-performance tickets for my play The Last American Newspaper on Thursday.
A quick perusal of available seats shows that 75 percent of the weekend seats are already sold, although there is more availability later in the run.
The play, adapted from my book of the same name, celebrates the journalism The Post-Star did over a two-decade stretch from 1999 to 2020. And its eventual decline.
The play opens on Sept. 25 and runs through Oct. 18 at Capital Rep’s downtown theater in Albany.
Hope to see you there.
Detention center
New York Focus reported that ICE is adding 100 beds to a detention center in Batavia, N.Y.
ICE said it is expanding the 650-bed Buffalo Detention Facility to get around a recent state law in New York that forbids the agency from detaining people in county jails.
“ICE is constructing a new hard-sided detention facility on federal property,” a spokesperson told New York Focus and did not respond to questions about what it means by “hard-sided.”
The state law meant that eight counties that already entered into contracts with ICE would be in violation of the new law.
The Times Union reported those counties are: Rensselaer, Nassau, Broome, Niagara, Madison, Steuben, Otsego and Cattaraugus. The villages of Camden, Allegany, Wayland and Mohawk also had agreements with ICE.
Now playing
Documentary filmmaker - and occasional contributor to The Front Page - Aaron Woolf will be showing his film King Corn tonight at Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls.
The event runs from 6 to 8:30 and will include a discussion with Woolf after the film.
The film was released in 2007 and chronicles the effects of government subsidies on farmers and their effect on the food economy.
Doctor weighs in
One of our readers who is a pediatrician weighed in on the barber shop conversation I chronicled on Friday and wrote:
As a pediatrician, I’ve noted vaccine-preventable diseases that we saw years ago have begun to return because of this skepticism. Those years were nightmares, as we saw many kids die. The vaccines made all the difference. I’m happy to accompany you for your next haircut and have a conversation with these skeptics !
Another sad reality.
Warren speaks
Taking some literary license, Warren County celebrated the Fourth of July with a ceremony outside the Municipal Center that featured Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren - played in full period costume by Queensbury Supervisor John Strough - reciting excerpts of the Declaration of Independence.
Historically, it never happened, since Warren - who never actually visited Warren County - was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill before the declaration was even signed.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and his play “The Last American Newspaper” is being produced by Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany Sept. 25 to Oct. 18 . He currently lives in both Queensbury, N.Y. and New Orleans, La.
The people who go to any media literacy probably already understand... so I invite republicans to try something new... try learning about facts
Hard to have any respect for people who claim to be republicans who support the current state of gQp. From the use of AI to the lack of morals and supporting a rapist/felon.. one of the things that just occurred to me that Putin is wanted for war crimes, genocide, etc (https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/vladimir-vladimirovich-putin )
But many of the same accusations could be leveled against hmpy (eptstein) trmPedophile (from his genocide in Gaza to war in Iran and Venezuela).
And when it comes the gQp rank and file.. it is embarrassing what they don't know and their willing ignorance.. who really thinks a republican would attend a media literacy.. or when they see an A.I. Video.. when told it is fake, I sense they will say: "Maybe, but it is true."
The point, often the people who need education are the ones who resist it. On this note one of the things I find the most fascinating about the coverage of trmpEDOhile or trony conTEENie is when they spout out, no news person says.. either: "that isn't true" (well aside from Kaitlan Collins) or "pleas prove that with sources"
On an extended note.. the only thing republican supporters have gleaned from pos-tfnKKK, alex disGRACCe, trmpEDOhile and trony conTEENie is the acceptance of immorality and lack of civility.. if asked what the state bird was, they would give you the finger.
(r.i.p. fattie)
Congrats on the play