The Sift: Preserving Black newspapers

February 2, 2026

Artificial intelligence Journalism Press freedoms/First Amendment

An educator's guide
to news literacy

Feb. 2, 2026

In this issue

Preserving Black newspapers | RumorGuard slides

Daily Do Now slides

Don’t miss this week’s classroom-ready resource.

Top picks

Here are the latest news literacy topics and tips on how to integrate them into your classroom.

An illustration of three historically Black newspapers: Freedom’s Journal, Colored Tennessean and Knoxville Bulletin.

The first Black newspaper in the U.S. was Freedom’s Journal, established in New York in 1827.

1. Preserving Black newspapers

The Knoxville News Sentinel has a long history as a local newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee, but by its own admission it failed to serve or accurately represent the city’s Black residents for much of its history, like many mainstream newspapers.

Black newspapers filled the gap. There have been over 20 Black newspapers in Knoxville, including the Knoxville Bulletin, the Knoxville Negro World and East Tennessee News.
Preserving Black newspapers: News organizations weren’t the only institution affected by racial bias: the city’s libraries and other archives have historically failed to preserve many of these papers. But a local museum and library are working to correct that by preserving and digitizing the region’s Black newspapers.
Historical significance: Newspaper archives are crucial to our collective understanding of history — and Black papers help tell a fuller story.

💡 Idea: Have students read excerpts from historically Black newspapers in Knoxville in this roundup in the Knoxville News Sentinel. Then use the questions below for discussion.

💬 Discuss:

What kind of news events were featured in these 19th and 20th century papers (like famed civil rights leader Frederick Douglass’ visit in 1881, for example)?
How do these news stories differ from what mainstream newspapers covered at the time?
How does this coverage from the Black press help provide a more complete picture of our nation’s history?

💡 Another idea: Use the “Black press” slide in Week 15 of the Daily Do Now for more on this topic.

⭐ NLP Resources:

“Harm & Distrust” (Checkology® virtual classroom)

🔗 Related:

“‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.” (The Christian Science Monitor)

2. Two journalists arrested following ICE protest

Independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were arrested on Jan. 29 and 30 in connection with their presence at a protest — even though they were there as journalists documenting the event.

Why they were arrested: The Justice Department is investigating the disruption of a Jan. 18 service at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where a local ICE field office employee serves as pastor. Lemon, a former CNN anchor, and Fort said they were there as journalists, not activists. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the protest “a coordinated attack,” and the Justice Department alleges Lemon and Fort, along with two others arrested, were involved.
First Amendment concerns: The arrests have prompted sharp concerns from press freedom advocates. A coalition of Minnesota news outlets said in a statement: “The First Amendment recognizes the press as holding a distinct and protected role in our democracy. In America, we do not arrest journalists for doing their jobs.”
Places of worship: The First Amendment protects freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom to assemble — raising questions about whose rights may have been violated in this situation.

💬 Discuss:

How does this protest and the arrests that followed relate to the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment?
Should journalists have a protected right to document protests no matter where they occur?
In your opinion, were anyone’s First Amendment rights violated by either the protest or the arrests? If so, whose?

⭐ NLP Resources:

Poster: “The First Amendment”
“Press Freedoms Around the World” (Checkology)

3. AI slop contributes to Holocaust misinformation

A flood of AI-generated content about the Holocaust is spreading online and distorting history.

AI slop spreading: Content farms are churning out fabricated content about the Holocaust, either to exploit the atrocity for cheap clicks or to push old Holocaust denial tropes, like using AI images that falsely depict well-fed prisoners to claim that conditions in concentration camps “weren’t really that bad.”
Revising history: In an open letter, Holocaust memorials and historical institutions warned about AI-generated content “minimalizing and trivializing” the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jewish people during World War II.
Groups ask for AI labels: They also called for platforms to label all AI content and work with them to combat Holocaust misinformation.

💬 Discuss:

Why do people seeking revenue from clicks use AI images of the Holocaust? Why do people seeking to sow doubt about the reality of the Holocaust use them?
How might AI slop about the Holocaust cause harms today?

💡 Idea: Use the “AI slop” slide in Week 15 of the Daily Do Now resource to further explore this topic.

⭐ NLP Resources:

Lesson plan: “AI or not”
Infographic: “6 things to know about AI”

🔗 Related:

Video: “Holocaust Memorial Day: Schoolchildren speak with survivors using AI” (BBC News)

These classroom-ready slide decks provide a comprehensive walk-through on how to debunk false rumors.

False voter fraud claims misrepresent registrations at homeless shelter

A social media post reads, “There are 26 registered voters at this toilet in California. I’m not kidding. I have the voter records. See for yourself. The only thing here is a stinky port-a john inside an empty parking lot. No homes. No mailboxes. Yet TWENTY SIX ‘people’ are casting ballots here. Straight-up voter fraud out in the open. This just a glimpse of what’s happening under Gavin Newsom. This is why California desperately needs Voter ID — NOW” and includes a video of right-wing influencer Benny Johnson near a parking lot. The News Literacy Project has added a label that says “NOT EVIDENCE OF FRAUD.”

❌ NO: Dozens of people are not casting ballots from an empty parking lot in California.

✅ YES: These registrations belong to people who registered to vote at a temporary housing shelter before it closed in December 2024.

✅ YES: Mike Sanchez, a Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder spokesperson, told PolitiFact that the “ballots cast by voters associated with these records are subject to the same verification and security as all ballots, including signature verification and the statutory notice-and-cure process.”

✅ YES: Similar falsehoods misrepresenting the number of voter registrations at a location as unusual or suspicious have previously circulated online.

⭐ NewsLit takeaway:

False claims about voter fraud can undermine the integrity of the electoral process. These claims often use tricks of context to make them feel true, but they quickly fall apart under scrutiny. Check out these Google Slides for some tips on spotting these divisive and dangerous claims.

AI image distorts reality of Minnesota shooting

A social media post reads, “This is a photo of Alex Pretti frozen. Notice his right hand holding a gun” and includes an image that appears to show Pretti holding a gun while kneeling in front of three armed federal agents. The News Literacy Project has added a label that says “AI-MANIPULATED.”

❌ NO: This is not a genuine video still of the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti by federal agents on Jan. 24.

✅ YES: This image was “enhanced” with AI, which resulted in visual distortions and anomalies, including changing the appearance of the phone he was holding in his hand to an object that resembles a gun.

✅ YES: This manipulated image was shared online by people justifying the shooting by falsely claiming that it showed Pretti holding a gun as well as by people condemning the shooting by pointing to the fact that he was kneeling.

✅ YES: Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois displayed the image on the Senate floor during his remarks condemning the killing on Jan. 28.

⭐ NewsLit takeaway:

Viral misinformation often aims to distort our perception of current events. This is especially true when a breaking news event is shocking and politically divisive. After the fatal shooting of Pretti by federal law enforcement officers, a number of false rumors circulated on social media, including the false claim that he was holding his gun along with the manipulated image featured in this entry. Check out these Google Slides for some tips on spotting these kinds of claims and the false evidence that often accompanies them.

➕ A high school teacher in San Francisco who was removed from his journalism class after his students published a controversial story must be reinstated, according to a recent court ruling. A state judge ruled the punitive reassignment illegal under California’s Journalism Teacher Protection Act.

➕ Local news reporters live day-by-day among the people, places and events they cover. For reporters at the Minnesota Star Tribune, local expertise of their communities has added nuance and impact to their news coverage of immigration enforcement in their area.

➕ Is social media addictive? A landmark trial against tech companies Meta, YouTube and Snap will test whether they cause personal injury or harm through addictive platforms.

➕ Where do you get weather updates? More people are turning to social media and following weather influencers like “Ryan Hall, Y’all,” who has over 3 million YouTube subscribers.

➕ Free speech activist Maria Ressa and other researchers predict that swarms of AI bots spreading misinformation could affect the 2028 U.S. presidential election. “By adaptively mimicking human social dynamics, they threaten democracy,” they wrote.

➕ Buss it down. Mid. GOATed. This 77-year-old museum curator ate when she presented artifacts using Gen Z lingo.

➕ English teacher Chanea Bond, of Fort Worth, Texas, is going analog in the classroom. Her students start class journaling by hand and they use dictionaries to look up words. When people ask her if she’s afraid of her students falling behind from not using AI or other tech, she says, “I know that when my students leave my class that they know how to think and they know how to write.”

➡️ How do you use AI in your classroom? Hit reply and let us know. We may share your response in the next Sift issue.