Last week, I turned on the TV, and surprise – I saw no bloviating blonds and bombastic brunettes pontificating on the future. I saw no “experts” predicting the political demise of our beloved republic.

We saw no former prosecutors and defense lawyers explaining (and mansplaining) the ins and outs of the criminal justice system.

Best of all, there were no screaming politicians doing or saying anything about the 2024 election or Jan. 6.

Instead, we saw federal, state and local officials doing what they were supposed to do: Keep us safe from danger.

Of course, I am speaking of the folks in the Southland responding to the threat of a hurricane.

After the meteorological teams downloaded the satellite images, crunched the data through the computers, and spat out a projected track of the storm they called Idalia, they were able to warn officials to get moving. And officialdom, the real deep state, the thousands of hard-working emergency planners, first responders both military and civilian, mobilized their people.

They got out the plans they had prepared long ago, called the media, and told the public to ready their homes and businesses for the onslaught of wind and water, grab their loved ones (and pets), and evacuate.

After Idalia’s furious winds, driving rains, and surging surf subsided, they rescued stragglers and nay-sayers, cleared debris, plugged the wires back in, and began the long process of turning Florida and the Southland back into a mecca for residents, vacationers and retirees.

Even the 46th president and the Florida governor, two men decidedly not on the same political page, touched base and assured each other that they were committed to doing what they could for the public.

And they did it without polling data, focus groups, and “consultants” of one stripe or another.

They did the job we elected them to do, and it looks like they did it pretty well.

And for once, our friends in the national press sent us stories of how well the government was working. For once, we didn’t see scoops of how this or that government screwed up or worse. And it was kind of cool to see the anchors, usually dressed in suits that don’t wrinkle and designer frocks that sparkle, standing in the driving rain.

For an old dog who raised a family on a newspaper reporter's salary, it was nice to see reporters, well, reporting rather than going out of their way to spin it for one side or the other.

That leads me to one of my favorite topics.

My friends (?) at Gannett announced they will no longer use AI to write sports stories. You know Gannett, the owner of 217 daily and 175 weekly papers, including my former home, The Indianapolis Star. According to the Washington Post, rather than hire a human to cover high school sports, they used an app called Lede AI, to take the raw score and generate a short wrap-up.

Other than my admitted bias in using an AI robot to take away the job of a human being, the results won few fans. For example, The Post said an AI story about a game between two Ohio high school teams was a "close encounter of the athletic kind.”

In Wyoming, an AI story claimed the scoreboard: “was in hibernation in the fourth quarter." Another AI masterpiece said a "team avoided the brakes and shifted into victory gear.” In another case, according to PR Daily, a story was published with a space for the human editors to insert the name of the winning team, and mascot. I am not making this up.

Not exactly the way Red Smith, Jimmy Breslin, Bob Collins, or Mike Royko might have knocked out on an old Royal typewriter.

Needless to say that goofy language triggered a backlash from readers who actually can read, and the geniuses at Gannett pulled the plug.

And, just for the record, Kevin Burnham and Susan Johns, the editors at my favorite newspapers, would have kicked back any story that dared to use the words close encounter of the athletic kind.

Beware, dear reader, we are just seeing the beginning of media use of AI, and it can be dangerous. Last week The New York Times reported Chinese law enforcement was behind a February story claiming the USA was behind the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea. That post was quickly posted, in five different languages, to 7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Facebook pages, 15 Facebook groups, and 15 Instagram accounts, before Meta took it down, the NYTimes reported.

Welcome to the new world, Pilgrim. The Old Scribbler suggests that you put on your thinking cap and fasten your seat belt.

It is going to be a rough ride.