Checked Out

CHECKED OUT… As a cephalopod columnist, Squid is acutely aware of the Fourth Estate. It’s the only estate Squid is involved in, since Squid’s tiny undersea lair doesn’t qualify as one.

It’s a tough time for local journalism. KION suddenly shuttered its news operations in 2025, and the Salinas Californian and Monterey Herald are shells of their former selves. Squid reads whatever Squid can get Squid’s tentacles on, and that includes the Salinas Valley Business Journal, a publication of the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The publication is posted online and inserted monthly into the Californian and the Herald. Not only does it have a larger page count, but ironically it often covers issues better than the papers it’s inserted into.

Squid read an article in the latest edition recapping 2025. In it, the Chamber wrote: “The demise of the KION news division means the Chamber is more needed than ever to serve as a check and balance for the people against government waste, fraud, abuse and excess.” Chamber CEO Colleen Bailey tells Squid’s colleague that the journal isn’t changing its mission – it has always served as a check and balance.

Still, Squid knows the Business Journal inherently has a slant – the Chamber is beholden to its members, i.e. business owners, not the general public. But what’s good for business isn’t necessarily the same as what’s good for the average person. Squid will keep doing Squid’s thing on behalf of average seafaring creatures.

LETTER FROM THE FUTURE… Speaking of local media, Squid grabs a hard copy of the Salinas Californian whenever Squid can. Squid started reading a calendar story – “Searching for a winter escape in the Monterey Bay area?” – and thought it seemed a little robotic. Then Squid checked the byline: “Dave DeMille, AI-assisted reporter.”

Was DeMille a robot? Squid checked and he seems quite real, listed as the AI-assisted editor for USA Today Co., the Californian’s parent company. (Squid did not hear back from DeMille or AI on his behalf.) A note at the bottom of the story assured Squid that despite the use of AI, “Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process.” The ratio of AI to human – in event selection, writing the listicle, the observation that Monterey County vineyards are known for Pinot and Chardonnay – is not disclosed.

Squid still relies on Squid’s own ink supply to write this column, but got inspired to try using AI to write love letters to Dinah the Doryteuthis. “Oh Dinah, you so fina, I would like to make you minah. Dear Dinah, so slippery, so squishy, so divine – sweet cephalopod, won’t you be mine?”

So far, like DeMille, Dinah has not responded. Squid, assisted by AI, will be waiting.