The Knight Crier has turned into the knights crying as North Penn High School (NPHS) is set to lose its beloved newspaper staff next school year following supposed financial cuts. As many know, the Knight Crier has been in existence for decades, dating back all the way to the formation of NPHS. The devoted staff of each year has committed countless sleepless hours of their time to writing articles that have kept the high school informed. However, this long-lasting bond seems to have been tossed by the wayside, as now the high school staff seem to believe the Knight Crier has become irrelevant.
“Who reads newspapers anymore? If I wanted to know what was going on in the world, I would just ask ChatGPT or ask Google,” an anonymous source commented.
Despite the removal of its staff, NPHS still plans to keep the Knight Crier around, though not in the form it previously took. It was recently announced that the Knight Crier staff will be replaced with ChatGPT—which is already extremely popular amongst students—and the News Journalism course will now be dedicated to training it to fit the high school’s tastes.
“I was deeply saddened and angered by the announcement of this change,” said Kevin Manero, Director of the Knight Crier. “They claim its due to financial constraints, but I wasn’t even aware we received funding.”
This sudden move by the high school’s staff has left many shocked and disappointed, especially those who were looking forward to writing for the newspaper next year.
“Yes, I was planning on using ChatGPT next year, but I still wanted to receive credit for giving it ideas,” said Abril Tontos, aspiring Knight Crier staff member. “Now I’ll be graded on how well I use it! This doesn’t feel fair.”
With the shocking news finally being broken, many are wondering about the underlying reasons behind the decision. Though high school staff have refused to comment, context clues point toward it being the result of the actions of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DOGE’s actions over the last few weeks have been intentionally publicized in order to gain attention, but now it seems as if they are coming for the publishing industry itself. On the heels of several Knight Crier articles criticizing the President, it makes sense for NPHS’s school newspaper to be one of the first targets for removing journalistic freedom.
So is there any hope for a last minute change? It seems unlikely. Between DOGE’s cuts and the high school staff’s pressure to improve writing efficiency via AI, the future of the staff of NPHS’s newspaper looks bleak. Until stated otherwise, it looks like the Knight Crier will be the first of undoubtedly many NPHS projects to become a victim to DOGE.