Of course, we have no way of proving that: you will have to trust the credibility of the Otago Daily Times.
And, by and large, you do. There is a reason why the ODT, until recently, emblazoned the words "New Zealand’s most trusted news brand — AUT research" on our masthead.
It has been supplanted by "Metropolitan Newspaper of the Year — Voyager Media Awards 2025", but that does not mean we regard credibility or trust any the less; such awards only come when a newspaper is trusted.
The trust of our readers is the bedrock that this newspaper and other Allied Media titles is built on. We do not take it lightly and work to earn it every day.
But the Otago Daily Times does not live in a media vacuum. There are other newspapers, websites and broadcast media outlets competing with us for news.
That is how it should be. No one outlet should have a monopoly and the availability of a multitude of voices and viewpoints is essential for a healthy society and democracy.
But, again, mainstream media — and even newer, alternative sources of information — do not exist in isolation.
The Australian Associated Press has a regular feature called "FactCheck", which assesses the credibility of statements made by politicians or made on social media.
Last week it changed tack and ran a large feature on a recent proliferation of AI-driven "news" sources on social media.
Driven by artificial intelligence, these pages plunder legitimate news sites — such as www.odt.co.nz — and repackage stories reporters, photographers and videographers have worked on for hours, in a matter of seconds.
No credit is given for the hard work of others, no heed is given to journalistic basics such as fact-checking and eye witness verification of events.
The worst offender of these sites, called "NZ News Hub", came to AAP’s attention when it ran an article and photos purporting to be an account of the landslip at Mt Maunganui.
Anyone who had seen actual footage or photographs from the scene of the tragedy — or who had even a passing knowledge of the geography of the Mount for that matter — would have instantly spotted the images as being fake.
One image had houses sprinkled liberally all over the building-free landmark. Another had "police" and other first responders in uniforms which were patently not New Zealand Police issue.
Further investigation by AAP came up with many other examples which would be laughable were they not so egregious; images of a sight-seeing vessel stranding near Akaroa which were clearly from elsewhere; an article about kereru illustrated with the image of an animal which looked like a mutant hummingbird, and a video of a press conference held by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis where the audio does not match that carried by other outlets.
The Otago Daily Times is not immune: one story on the site relating to the proposed Santana mine animates an ODT still photograph — an image we never supplied it, let alone any non-existent video.
Victoria University academic Andrew Lensen told AAP that the fake news sites were built to drive engagement, gain clicks, and then generate potential advertising revenue.
Note that to notify, alert or inform — let alone provide background, details or facts — figure nowhere. These sites rely on duping the credulous, rather than working diligently to bring readers dependable information.
Dr Lensen’s main fear — and also ours — is that such AI piffle could also erode trust in legitimate news sources. Especially as the technology — which as of now spews out nonsensical and obvious fakes — will only improve and make such dubious and bogus content much harder to spot.
Being a fake source of news but bearing the semblance of being a credible outlet will only increase distrust of reputable media still further.
We are on the slippery slope to no one trusting anyone, and where will that leave the civil discourse which drives so much of how society functions?
