AIBRIEF
Durbin told X she 'didn't write a word' of the 'Express Desk' piece on a county law director's step down; Cleveland.com called the byline 'in error.'
Cleveland.com removed reporter Kaitlin Durbin's byline from an "Express Desk" story about Cuyahoga County Law Director Rick Manoloff's planned Sept. 11 step-down, after Durbin wrote on X on Sept. 7 that she had been on her honeymoon and had not written or reviewed the article.
Durbin, a Cleveland.com government reporter, said on X that "I didn't write a word. I didn't review a word" and that the story "doesn't pull from any of my prior reporting" (Futurism; Durbin's post).
"Express Desk" is Cleveland.com's AI-assisted section, described by the outlet as using AI tools to produce content that is then reviewed and edited by staff. The Manoloff item was a brief local government story about the county law director's office (Cleveland.com).
Cleveland.com updated the piece to drop Durbin's byline and added a correction note that a reporter's byline had been added "in error." The note does not explain how her name ended up on the article or whether the same byline-attribution step has affected other Express Desk pieces.
The incident sits inside a wider debate over Cleveland.com's AI workflow. Editor Chris Quinn wrote in February that AI is "the future" of newsrooms. Public-interest editor Leila Atassi told CJR that Express Desk stories are still "the work of a real reporter." Cleveland.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.