Good Morning,
The Kennedy Center found time this week to order Trump’s name scrubbed from every email signature, voicemail, and letterhead (Politico) — but still hasn’t approved the National Symphony’s budget, leaving the orchestra unable to book venues, announce a season, or sell subscriptions (The Washington Post). An institution that can manage symbolism but not operations is telling you what it’s actually for. What to do with the Kennedy Center? I explore some ideas in Diacritical.
Elsewhere, the people institutions serve keep doing institutions’ job for them. Arkansas viewers raised the dues themselves to keep PBS in the state, and officials backed down from their destructive notions (Arkansas Advocate). SAG-AFTRA actors ratified a contract whose centerpiece is protection against synthetic performers. The workforce is writing its own AI policy because nobody else is doing it (AP). And the music business, per one sharp analysis, doesn’t have a streaming problem, it has plenty of superfans but no infrastructure for treating them as customers (Music Business Worldwide).
Meanwhile, the people best positioned to spot AI prose — literary editors — may be the worst equipped to do it, because they’ve read so little of it and don’t recognize the stylistic tics (London Review of Books).
Finally, the West End gets its first phone-ban production, sealed pouches and all (The Guardian). Progress like it’s 2007.
Doug
