Lecture delivered by veteran congressional correspondent and Johns Hopkins University Lecturer Matt Laslo at NPR’s Washington HQ on June 7, 2024 at the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) annual conference, "Local News, Strong Democracy.”

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Audio & Video: AnaBelle Elliott

Event coordinator: Caroline Pierce

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ai resources for journalists, from Matt Laslo & The LCB

Sitter to Speaker

“Right after Speaker McCarthy became Speaker McCarthy, Hannity took over an entire room…right off the House floor. The crazy thing about it was there was, like, what, 50 or 60 chairs set up, and all these House Republicans sat in back. And I'm like, ‘Wait. You're lawmakers, you're policymakers and you're just being a prop for this TV program?’ It is a strange new world.”

— Prof. Laslo

Hannity’s House?

Sneak peek: Slide I…

“These days, I don't think the problem is hyper-partisanship. We literally have lawmakers living in two different universes,” Laslo — who wrote his MA thesis at Johns Hopkins on hyper-partisanship — tells the local news directors, reporters and producers from across the nation. “They're not disagreeing with each other. They're not talking to each other. And that's what really worries me.”

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Laslo’s lecture slides, images & tip sheets*

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Jake Tapper “was a press secretary for a Democrat. Stephanopoulos worked for Clinton. The criticisms from Republicans aren't wildly inaccurate. There's a lot of freaking Democrats who get slid into the media industrial complex, especially at the TV level.”

— Prof. Laslo

“Trust in the media kind of evaporated for at least with half the population. So yeah, I'm not very proud of what has become of this great experiment,” Laslo bluntly tells his peers. “Generative AI, think of it as a mirror, because it's literally just mining our recent past. And I think that's where we're f*****, because hanging out in the Capitol and being there in January 6 — which I'll get into — knowing that generative AI is gonna be a reflection of our society, should terrify us all.”

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“Adapt or die. The herd’s rushing to the slaughter. This is where I think you all can really stand out — enterprise pieces,” Laslo encourages the local journalists assembled in the nation’s capital. “But don't mimic us in the Washington press corps. Do the opposite of what we're doing. Like, we're terrible and a big reason that 50% of the nation doesn't trust [the media] — actually, the polls are better for us [regional outlets] — but the media industrial complex is killing America.”

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Just over a month ago, this July, I asked House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, “Is impeachment now just the way of Washington?”

“If it is, it's because the Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice, and I blame this impeachment craze on the Democrats,” Comer replied, before adding. “So, we're in this situation—talking about impeachment—because the Democrats abused their impeachment power.”

Audio attached. Rough transcript below of Rep. James Comer (R-KY) at the US Capitol on July 20, 2023. Slightly edited for clarity.

Matt Laslo: “How does your party, on impeachments, avoid becoming the party that cried wolf? Because one of your members on Oversight [Committee] had ‘Impeachment Week’—that where every day she announced another member of the cabinet…”

James Comer: "Look, we've got a lot of members that want to impeach, and we've got some members that would probably rather not go down that route for the simple reason that they don't think the Senate’s going to do anything and it gobbles up valuable floor time.

"But, look, [Speaker Kevin] McCarthy’s gonna make that call. I think, you see that in recent days he's taken steps to move forward with impeachment on both [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas and [Attorney General] Merrick Garland. And I think they're waiting to see what more evidence we come up with in the Oversight Committee with respects to Biden."

Laslo: “Is impeachment now just the way of Washington?”

Comer: “Well, you know—if it is, it's because the Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice, and I blame this impeachment craze on the Democrats. And, I think, a lot of Republican voters are like, ‘you know, they impeached Trump twice, we should impeach Biden.’ And, again, that's irresponsibility on the Democrats' part. I think that Biden's committed a lot more suspicious activity than Donald Trump ever did. So, we're in this situation—talking about impeachment—because the Democrats abused their impeachment power.”

Laslo: “What about the idea of trying to make Congress better? And not being the lowest common denominator and doing what they did?”

Comer: “We represent the people and there are a lot of people out there that want impeachment.”

Laslo: “Yup. Preciate ya sir!”

NOTE: My wire service, The LCB, sold exclusive first publication rights of this interview to Raw Story, which published it on the day of the interview, July 20, 2023.

FREE: Lights, Cameras, Memes! Everything you thought about Washington was wrong...

ME: Congressional reporter since 2006 for many outlets, but Lights, Cameras, Memes! is more WIRED magazine contributor me.

Since 2016, I’ve lectured on new media’s impact on government at Johns Hopkins University (MA in Gov’t). I’ve also been an op-ed contributor with Reuters, the Guardian, NBC Think and On Tap (craft beer). @MattLaslo on most social media.

The US Capitol is one big game of telephone — and the press corps plays the cables, as you’ll hear in my interview with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) where he reacts to my description of the AI positions of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).*

Hawley comes out swinging, but not so much at his fellow Republicans — he’s dumbfounded by the notion of anyone trusting Silicon Valley firms to be good actors after years and years of them breaking their promises to policymakers as they trade our private data as if it’s stock.

*Rebuttal: Hawley is reacting to what Rubio told me in Ep. 2 of Laslo Lecturing Lawmakers, which is here. That Rubio interview turned into this feature for WIRED magazine, The Ghost of Privacy Past Haunts the Senate’s AI Future.

I’m a WIRED magazine congressional correspondent. Since 2016, I’ve lectured on new media’s impact on government at Johns Hopkins University (MA in Gov’t). @MattLaslo on most social media.

This exchange in the basement of the Senate with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was the lightbulb that transformed into my latest WIRED magazine feature, The Ghost of Privacy Past Haunts the Senate’s AI Future.

My job, as a journalist, is to listen. So I do. But I guess I can’t stay totally mum at this pivotal AI moment.

“AI is going to take all of our personal data that they have in Silicon Valley right now, because y’all haven’t acted,” I had to inform the senator.

The exchange occurred during the first classified all-Senators AI briefing in American history, according to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Both Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) left partway through — which was noticed by their colleagues — and both came out sounding a similar tune.

A tune that, as you hear in the podcast, their fellow Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley, literally laughs out loud upon hearing.

In WIRED we delve into how Silicon Valley is now everywhere. Hell, they all but replaced NASA. A mere trophy.

Upon hearing his fellow Republican’s positions, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) literally laughed out loud, as I reported and as you can hear for yourself in our next episode of LLL.

“Ha. I don’t know that we’re gonna be able to hermetically seal it like that,” Hawley tells me. “This idea that we can just trust Google and Meta to be good actors, you know—not gonna happen.”

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WIRED magazine congressional correspondent. Since 2016, I’ve lectured on new media’s impact on government at Johns Hopkins University (MA in Gov’t). @MattLaslo on most social media.

Just before Congress left Washington for lawmaker’s monthlong August recess, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) was being interviewed by Bloomberg Government journalist Jonathan Tamari (who only recently served with me on the board of the Regional Reporters Association).

I waited in the wings — while eavesdropping, of course — until they wrapped. Then I politely pounced.

“I’ve got a random one for you,” I tell Cramer.

“You never do have a random one,” Cramer laughs. “He’s always never random. Weirder than a three dollar bill.”

“This guy always does!” Tamari quips.

“That’s professor! Take one of my courses,” I reply.

“I'd like to take one of your courses,” Cramer says.

“Mark Meadows told me that,” I recount of my last conversation with Meadows in the Speaker’s Lobby — as a wood burning fireplace crackled and the hours ticked down to a government shutdown Meadows helped orchestrate — weeks before former President Donald Trump tapped him to be his chief of staff. “I was like, ‘If you come to my course, you’re going to have to speak a little bit, sir.’”

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I’m a veteran congressional correspondent. Since 2016, I’ve been a Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University (MA in Gov’t). On most social media I’m @MattLaslo.

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