The Sift: Press freedom views

An educator's guide
to news literacy

Sept. 21, 2026

In this issue

Press freedom views | RumorGuard slides

Daily Do Now slides

A week’s worth of do-nows, just for you.

Top picks

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

A higher percentage of Americans are concerned about press freedom restrictions.

1. Americans support press freedom — with conditions

Most Americans (73%) say press freedom is extremely or very important, according to a new Pew Research Center study. Here are more takeaways:

• Increased concern: More Americans (46%) are extremely or very concerned about potential restrictions on press freedom than they were in 2024 (41%).
• Restrictions: Most Americans say the government should be able to take down a news story if it poses a risk to national security (60%) or contains false information (51%). 
• Partisan differences: More Democrats (64%) are highly concerned about restrictions on press freedom compared with Republicans (29%). 
• Shifting attitudes: More Republicans (41%) said the media is completely free to report the news compared with Democrats (18%). This partisan outlook was reversed in 2024, when Joe Biden, a Democrat, was president.

💬 Discuss:

• What could go wrong if the government were allowed to force news organizations to take stories down due to national security concerns? Or due to false information, including honest mistakes?
• How does a free press support a healthy democracy? How might the removal of press freedoms affect the public?
• What kinds of factors make the press in a given country more or less free?

💡Idea: Use the “Press Freedoms” slide in Week 4 of the Daily Do Now resource to further explore this issue.

⭐ NLP Resources:

• Interactive lesson: “Press Freedoms Around the World” 
• Poster: “The First Amendment”

🔗 Related:

• “Trump targets more news outlets, saying he will ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House” (The Associated Press)
• “White House TV pool suspends coverage of Trump after ban of CNN” (CNBC)

2. News outlets ‘interview’ AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood

Imagine an actor who speaks 30 languages and can hold 75 conversations simultaneously. No human could do that — but AI “actor” Tilly Norwood can.

• News interviews: Several news outlets, including NBC News, CBS News, CNN and ITV in the United Kingdom, are facing backlash for interviewing Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated “actor,” during a promotional tour of a new movie featuring this AI personality.
• Not a person: Norwood is designed to appear as a 24-year-old British woman and is created by the AI division of Particle6, a British production company. 
• Journalists react: The Hollywood Reporter characterized its Zoom interview with Norwood as “absurd.” A CBS News reporter said the interview “creeped” her out. NBC News noted the interview was “glitchy” and “robotic.” Journalists interviewing an AI “actor” is a watershed moment — and as Fox News says, “Norwood is essentially on a press junket where journalists are trying to figure out if it should be taken seriously.”

💬 Discuss:

• What is the purpose of journalists conducting interviews? How do journalists choose who (or what) to interview?
• Do you think there was legitimate news value in “interviewing” Tilly, or did news organizations fall for a PR stunt?
• What are the hazards of treating an AI bot like a human being?

💡Idea: Play NLP’s Two Truths and AI game to explore AI-generated video detection with students.

🔗 Related:

• “‘Very harmful’: website uses AI to generate northern Indigenous news ‘correspondents’” (CBC News)

3. Russian disinfo targets U.S. midterm elections

Disinformation researchers have uncovered what they say is a Russian disinformation campaign to use AI-generated videos of celebrities to influence the U.S. midterm elections.

• Celebrity deepfakes: The videos feature stolen videos of celebrities — including Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts and others — appearing to smear Democratic candidates and repeating conspiracy theory tropes and disinformation narratives. Some attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Posing as news: The videos were branded with a CNN logo (presumably to lend them an air of credibility) and experts say they fit the style of Matryoshka, or “Operation Overload,” a Kremlin-sponsored disinformation campaign designed to flood and overwhelm verification systems. 
• AI-generated ads: Operation Overload isn’t the only source of fake election videos. It’s becoming more common in the U.S. for candidates to run AI-generated political ads — which some say are nonconsensual and deceptive.

💬 Discuss:

• Some claim that AI is just “another tool” for political campaigns, while others say it’s deceptive and unethical. What do you think? Why?
• Should the use of generative AI in political campaign ads be banned?
• The Russian campaign used a CNN logo in some videos. Do you think this is an effective tactic? How could someone figure out that these aren’t authentic CNN clips?

⭐ NLP Resources:

• Infographic: “Three types of election rumors to avoid” (also in Spanish)
• Infographic: “6 things to know about AI”
• Lesson plan: “Is it news?”

🔗 Related:

• “NewsGuard Launches Midterm Elections False Claims Tracker” (NewsGuard)

These interactive slide decks help students think carefully and critically about viral claims in the digital age.

Image of damaged Apple Duo is AI-generated

❌ NO: This is not an authentic photograph of a defective Apple iPhone Duo, visibly creased from normal use.

✅ YES: This is an altered image that was likely created with AI tools.

✅ YES: Apple introduced the iPhone Duo, a new folding device, on Sept. 9, the day before this AI-generated image went viral.

⭐ NewsLit takeaway:

AI images can appear convincing at first glance, especially when they are created and shared to grab our attention by exploiting trending topics. Check out these Google Slides for a few tips to spot these realistic fakes.

No, Henry Cavill was not cast as new Bond

❌ NO: Actor Henry Cavill was not officially cast as the next James Bond.

✅ YES: This rumor originated with a parody account.

⭐ NewsLit takeaway:

Content from impostor accounts frequently gets shared online as if it were genuine because their posts are often designed to imitate genuine news sources — or because people miss labels and disclaimers. The account in question here (@DiscussingFake), for example, uses the same color scheme, a similar logo and an account name resembling that of the entertainment news site Discussing Film. While it is labeled as “parody account” on X, the label might be easy to miss, especially for people who react quickly to the post.

Check out these Google Slides for a few tips on spotting these impostors.

➕ Addicted to doomscrolling? Singapore is paying its citizens to read books as part of a larger effort to make social media less harmful, especially to young people.

➕ News sites are losing views as more people are turning to AI summaries. As a result, the Mirror and Express newspapers in the U.K. recently cut 220 editorial jobs.

➕ Ask an AI chatbot a question, and the answer you receive may be a sponsored answer or advertisement in the future, according to marketing professors.

➕ In a recent Physicians Foundation survey of over 1,000 doctors, nearly all of them (99.9%) said they had patients influenced by false or inaccurate medical information.

➕ Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano — who has lived in Florida after applying for political asylum in 2019 — was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sept. 14. The detention has drawn alarm from press freedom advocates and members of Congress.

➕ An Indigenous journalist has started a podcast exploring American history — and the Indigenous stories that have traditionally gone untold.

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Your weekly issue of The Sift is created by Susan Minichiello, Dan Evon, Peter Adams, Hannah Covington and Pamela Brunskill. It is edited by Lourdes Venard and Mary Kane.

You’ll find teachable moments from our previous issues in the archives. Send your suggestions and success stories to thesift@newslit.org.

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Check out NLP's Checkology virtual classroom, where students learn how to navigate today’s information landscape by developing news literacy skills.