A cautionary tale on news judgment and AI
A funny thing happened on the way to writing this column.
Well, maybe not so funny. Maybe a little scary. Hopefully, a little funny. You decide.
It starts with a morning editors’ news meeting. As we are discussing potential story ideas, one editor remarks that he received a pitch from a public relations agent regarding a local person who is about to accomplish a rare feat of physical endurance. It is a rare feat, indeed, but not an isolated one. In fact, we’ve profiled individuals who have accomplished it before, and it becomes harder to make such stories sound fresh.
Once you have profiled a suburbanite who has climbed Mount Everest, for example, it’s harder to expect readers to be impressed by the third or fourth who has done it. We had a similar discussion recently regarding a person reaching 100 years old. Thirty years ago, turning 100 was an accomplishment that practically in itself merited reporting. Today, centenarians, while still remarkable, are so commonplace that it takes some other feature of one’s life to really capture the interest of the public.
I asked whether there was such an enhancement in the PR person’s story, then had a memory of a similar discussion in popular culture more than 60 years ago and thought bringing it up might raise a laugh.
“Wasn’t there a Dick Van Dyke Show episode where some guy was walking across the country on his hands to try to become famous and no one seemed interested in his story?” I asked.
No laugh. It seems my memory of classic TV sitcoms was either faulty or solitary.
Whatever the case, the situation struck me as an opportunity for a column about the nuances in news judgment when evaluating stories of unusual achievements. I decided to try to find the “hand-walking” episode, and lo and behold, an AI search tells me this:
“Yes, the scenario you're describing is likely from the The Dick Van Dyke Show episode ‘The Man with the Power,’ where a man tries to get famous by walking on his hands over a long distance. The episode aired in 1965 and featured the character, and not Rob Petrie, as the person attempting the feat.”
The response said the program was Season 5, Episode 12 and aired on Dec. 15, 1965. I was off and running. I had my column theme and figured that by freeloading on a few Dick Van Dyke jokes, I could put together something different, entertaining and informative.
But a problem quickly emerged. When I went to a site that includes every Dick Van Dyke Show episode, Season 5, Episode 12 was not “The Man With The Power,” it did not run on Dec. 15, 1965, and included nothing about a man walking on his hands.
Thus began a determined search for the episode - and perhaps most important some stolen laughs along with vindication of my memory.
But the search, and neither news judgment nor validation, became the story. First, another check from AI said there was no DVD episode called “The Man With The Power.” That was the name of an “Outer Limits” episode. Yet, another search said the episode really was from DVD and ran in Season 1. “The man desperately tries to convince Rob to help him get an audition on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was a major venue for variety acts at the time. The running gag throughout the episode involves the man repeatedly showing up and performing his hand-walking routine to Rob, who tries various ways to politely (and sometimes not so politely) get rid of him.”
OK, now we’re running, I think. But further searches uproot at least four different DVD titles claiming to bear the hand-walking story line. Some are actual titles. Some are in complete error. None includes the anecdote or the humor I am increasingly craving. I will go on to spend way more time than is reasonable (the desperation of deadline becoming increasingly profound) only to ultimately have to surrender, surprised not so much that AI got so much wrong but that it seemed repeatedly to describe, without coaching from me, a detailed story line similar to what I was seeking.
Thus endeth a drama that may seem disappointing, but actually serves to provide an important object lesson in the risks and uncertainties of artificial intelligence. I’m sorry I don’t have much humor to offer, but hopefully the lesson is valuable.
And truly, I do harbor the hope that somewhere out there, someone else will remember the episode, identify it specifically and let me know. If you’re that person, I will be grateful to hear from you. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful feeling to learn that good old-fashioned analog newspapering succeeded where modern technology failed so miserably?
I do hope to hear from you. Together, we’ll find a way to make something funny.
• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge The World: Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper,” a finalist for the Chicago Writers Association 2025 Book of the Year, available at eckhartzpress.com.