A newspaper publisher called immigrants ‘parasites’ on July 4th. A priest criticized him for publishing racist AI ‘slop’
In an Independence Day editorial, the newspaper in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania — yes, that Gettysburg — referred to undocumented immigrants as “parasites” and called for a return to “the American spirit.”
Now, the publisher of the Gettysburg Times, located in a city with deep ties to the Union’s Civil War victory, is feuding with a priest. Not just over the subject of the July 4 column that leaned in on white supremacist tropes — but about the role artificial intelligence played in its publication.
“I was appalled by the apparently AI-generated editorial,” Rev. Pamela Cooper-White of the Prince of Peace Episcopal Church in Gettysburg wrote in a letter to the editor published in the paper late last week. Not only was the article “poorly written,” wrote Cooper-White, the priest associate, but it featured “two glaring errors that were not fact-checked and are downright offensive.”
As media outlets nationwide increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to research — and in some cases write — news stories, the ordeal highlights technology’s implications for both accuracy and public trust.
Publisher Wayne Lowman acknowledged that he wrote the article, but, in a phone call with Straight Arrow, declared Cooper-White’s characterization of his AI use to be fake news. He didn’t comment on the op-ed’s content before hanging up.
Gettysburg publisher calls for ‘national unity,’ with a caveat
The July 4 editorial, which lacks a byline other than being written “for the Gettysburg Times,” notes the nation’s 250th anniversary provided a “unique opportunity” for Americans to reflect on its principles, achievements and sacrifices.
“Countless citizens” have devoted their lives to patriotism and have “repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to place the common good above personal interest,” Lowman wrote. Among them are the soldiers who fought for America’s independence and those who went to war to preserve the Union “during times of division,” likely a Civil War reference in which Gettysburg played a central role.
Then, the column took a hard turn, relying heavily on well-documented xenophobic, white supremacist tropes. Too many of the country’s inhabitants are selfish and “care only for their enclave of non-citizens,” and are stripping the nation’s wealth “from U.S. citizens,” Lowman wrote.
“These aren’t patriots, they are parasites,” wrote Lowman, referring to immigrants with terminology reminiscent of Nazi propagandists. “In our opinion,” Lowman wrote, such individuals are “tearing down this nation from the inside,” and should be deported.
Lowman went on to warn of the “dangers of widespread nonpatriotism” and the “rise of democratic socialism, communism and Islamification inside the Democratic Party” and called for the rejection of “ideologies antithetic to the core values of the Founding Fathers.”
Publisher called out for publishing offensive AI ‘slop’
Cooper-White, the local priest, called into question not just the editorial’s thesis — but also its author.
In her July 9 editorial, she wrote that the “dehumanizing” immigration commentary failed to note that undocumented residents contribute more in Social Security and other taxes than they consume through social services and “provide the backbone for many of the industries in this country.”
She also took issue with the newspaper’s characterization of democratic socialism as being “nonpatriotic,” and for erroneously conflating the burgeoning movement with communism. The paper’s comment about Muslims, she wrote, “is egregious.”
The story wasn’t just erroneous, she wrote — it was jank.
While the article without a formal byline “gives the appearance of representing an official opinion of the Times’ editorial staff,” Cooper-White wrote, its author wasn’t even human.
“The Gettysburg Times is blessed with talented and conscientious reporters and editors,” Cooper-White wrote. “Please utilize their abilities and due diligence, and don’t let AI ‘slop’ degrade the quality and reputation of this otherwise fine local newspaper.”
What constitutes AI slop?
Cooper-White, the author of the book “The Psychology of Christian Nationalism,” said she suspected the article was AI-generated when she noticed it carried the byline “for the Gettysburg Times,” and that “readers have observed that this byline is sometimes used by the Times when a news story is mostly AI generated.”
“Also because it was not well organized, a few verbs were misused and it cited things that are prominent in the news currently in somewhat random fashion,” she told Straight Arrow in an email. She questioned whether the publisher of a newspaper should play a role in producing content.
Her feedback highlights a dilemma faced by news publishers nationally, as they increasingly embrace AI to improve efficiency despite accuracy concerns and reluctance from readers.
In prompts about current events, AI chatbots routinely serve up misinformation.
A small but growing share of people rely on AI-generated content for news, multiple surveys reveal.
While AI use has divided the industry, mainstream news outlets are increasingly integrating AI into their workflows and, in some cases, to write stories. The Associated Press, for example, uses AI to produce routine content, such as corporate earnings reports and sports box scores. Bloomberg and The Washington Post use it to create summaries that accompany news stories.
Straight Arrow uses AI to help produce features such as Media Miss and Media Landscape, which analyze coverage from multiple news outlets. However, editors review all AI content, and AI is never used to write news articles.
AI adoption by news outlets, however, could come at the expense of reader trust. More than a third of respondents in a recent Gallup survey said their trust in information would suffer if a news outlet disclosed that the article was written with the help of AI. Just 7% said such disclosures would improve their trust.
In a 2024 Pew Research Center report, 41% of respondents said they believed AI would do a worse job writing articles than reporters. Two-thirds said they’re concerned that AI would provide them with inaccurate information.
So was the Gettysburg Times editorial written by a chatbot? Probably not, at least not entirely. Straight Arrow ran its text through the AI detection tool GPTZero, which found the article was “AI Polished.” The tool said it was “highly confident” the editorial was “human written and polished with AI.”
An publisher defends his tech use — and blasts his critics
Lowman said as much in a “publisher’s note” at the end of Cooper-White’s letter to the editor. Lowman wrote that he “utilized AI-generated information,” and that the newspaper’s editorial page contains commentary from people across the political spectrum.
“The Times consistently presents different opinions from the left and the right,” Lowman wrote. “They are to be acknowledged and respected not denigrated simply because they do not fall in line with one’s personal ideology.”
When Straight Arrow reached Lowman by phone, he said that “AI was used in the research,” of the article, “but that was it.” In a follow-up email, he called AI “a fantastic tool” that the newspaper uses “to enhance and support its reporting.”
“We never use AI for traditional municipal, police and court coverage or those stories that require a source response or verification,” he said. “We have clear guidelines regarding the use of AI,” including that content must be verified as accurate through human oversight and free of “AI-invented quotes, sourcers, interviews, documents or eyewitness accounts.”
In this particular case, he concluded, the criticism was simply about a difference in opinions between him and the wife of a frequent Gettysburg Times columnist whose work appears on the same page.
“The editorial is written with a conservative-leaning viewpoint as a commentary on patriotism and July 4,” Lowman told Straight Arrow. Cooper-White, who has spoken publicly against the rise of Christian nationalism, “has demonstrated a strong progressive-leaning bias and is among the many progressives who respond strongly to opinions that differ from their own.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
