The Ledes

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~

     ~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

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Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:

~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts. 

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

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Monday
Apr032023

April 3, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Contributor Jeanne is unhappy with CNN & MSNBC fawning all over Trump: "Four cameras reporting on his every move -- 'we should see him soon' and they might as well be sitting on his felonlap patting his felon cheek." Maybe you think Jeanne is exaggerating. She is not. I just tuned into CNN, and they had three anchors staked out in a booth on the street in front of Trump Tower. Meanwhile, flip over to MSNBC and there's a little picture-in-picture of the airport where Trump's plane is supposed to land: "Soon: Trump to Land in NYC," the title said. Appropriately enough, both channels followed with an O.J.-style low-speed chase -- as videographers traveling in helicopters taped Trump's entourage at the moved from La Guardia to Fifth Avenue. Is this a great country or what?

Marie: More bad news on the Trump front: from what I've heard on the teevee, the court will not release Trump's mugshot. And now Andrew McCabe tells CNN that officials will fingerprint Trump electronically, so Trump won't even get his tiny hands dirty.

Another MAGA Attorney. Erica Orden of Politico: "... Donald Trump has hired a top white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, Todd Blanche, as his lead counsel to handle the Manhattan district attorneys criminal indictment of the former president. Blanche, until recently a partner at law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, said in an email obtained by Politico that he was resigning from the firm...." MB: Todd, get a giant retainer up-front and remember, MAGA stands for Make Attorneys Get Attorneys. This may not end well for you.

You be the judge: who wins this back-and-forth? ~~~

Florida. Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics: "Gov. Ron DeSantis has quietly signed permitless carry legislation. The measure eliminates a requirement for Floridians to obtain a license to carry a concealed gun. The Legislature reports the bill (HB 543) was signed at 8:15 a.m. Monday morning. Fox News first reported the bill had become law, but the article contained no statement from DeSantis. The Governor also did not post any social media announcing his signature. Photograph were provided to Fox News by the National Rifle Association, an organization that had representatives at a small signing in DeSantis' office.... Hard-line Second Amendment activists have criticized the bill for falling short of open carry. Many, in fact, had encouraged DeSantis to reject the legislation." ~~~

~~~ The Emperor Strikes Back. Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday requested 'a thorough review and investigation' into an effort by the Walt Disney Company to limit state oversight of development at Disney World. The request came in a letter to Melinda Miguel, Florida's chief inspector general. Last week, Mr. DeSantis and his allies realized that Disney had pushed through a development agreement in early February that would allow the company to sidestep a new oversight board whose members were appointed by Mr. DeSantis."

~~~~~~~~~~

Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Justice Department and FBI investigators have amassed fresh evidence pointing to possible obstruction by ... Donald Trump in the investigation into top-secret documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home, according to people familiar with the matter. The additional evidence comes as investigators have used emails and text messages from a former Trump aide to help understand key moments last year.... Federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession, the people familiar with the investigation said. Investigators now suspect, based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "CNN has confirmed that investigators have emails and text messages from Molly Michael, an assistant to the former president who left her job last year. Those texts and notes, which investigators have had for several months, detail what Trump was doing and who he was meeting with, which could be significant for understanding his whereabouts in relation to the documents."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Rather than hide from the indignity of turning himself into authorities this week, Mr. Trump obligingly sent out a schedule as if for a campaign tour, letting everyone know he would fly on Monday from Florida to New York, then on Tuesday surrender for mug shots, fingerprinting and arraignment. In case that were not enough to draw the eye, he plans to then fly back to Florida to make a prime-time evening statement at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by the cameras and microphones he covets." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Baker suggests that Trump thinks the indictment is a lark, nothing more than a great opportunity to separate his base from their money. But I doubt it. Rather, from the outside peeking in, it looks to me as if Trump is furious and out of control. Who thinks it's a good idea, for instance, to lash out and repeatedly say a Black D.A. is an "animal" controlled by a Jewish international financier? He is insulting two minority groups who are bound to be the "peers" sitting on his jury (unless he gets the change of venue to Staten Island he reportedly may request).

Ha Ha. Trump's Legal "Team" in Disarray. Josephine Harvey of the Huffington Post: "According to a new Rolling Stone report, some of Donald Trump's lawyers have raised concerns about Joe Tacopina, the attorney co-leading the former president's defense in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office case. In the lead-up to the indictment..., Tacopina made a spate of sometimes contentious media appearances to discuss the case.... Rolling Stone reported that Trump's other current lawyers had privately described Tacopina as 'dumb' and a 'loudmouth.' Trump's attorneys and advisers have warned the former president to be wary of Tacopina and that he can't trust his loyalty, the sources said. Another source familiar with the matter called him 'such a frickin' idiot' Rolling Stone reported." ~~~

~~~ Azi Paybarah, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina said Sunday he doesn't believe the judge who oversaw Trump's indictment is biased, contradicting days of Trump's attacks in which he declared that the judge 'HATES ME.'"

Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) defended calling Democrats 'pedophiles' in a new interview with CBS's '60 Minutes' Sunday, eliciting eye-rolls from correspondent Lesley Stahl." ~~~

     ~~~Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Heather of Crooks & Liars: Even before it airs, "... 60 Minutes is already being ripped apart for doing what appears to be a fluff piece on MAGA Republican nutjob Marjorie Taylor Greene."

Presidential Race 2024. Alisa Wiersema of ABC News: "Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson made his 2024 White House bid official on Sunday in an exclusive sit-down interview with ABC 'This Week' co-anchor Jonathan Karl." Hutchinson told Karl the indicted, twice-impeached, defeated ex-president* should drop out of the presidential primary race. (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Finland. Steven Erlanger & Johanna Lemola of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Sanna Marin and her Social Democratic Party lost a tight election in Finland on Sunday to a center-right party that focused on economic concerns. The National Coalition Party, led by Petteri Orpo, 53, captured the most votes in the parliamentary election, followed by the right-wing Finns Party and the Social Democrats. But no party is near a majority in the 200-seat body, and Mr. Orpo is going to have a complicated task pulling together a governing coalition. With almost 100 percent of the vote counted, late Sunday night, Mr. Orpo's party had 48 seats with 20.8 percent of the vote, just ahead of the populist Finns, led by Riikka Purra, with 46 seats and 20.0 percent. Though Ms. Marin has been the closest Finland has to a political rock star, her center-left Social Democrats came in third, with 43 seats and 19.9 percent of the vote.... Given the tightness of the race, forming a new coalition government is expected to take many weeks of negotiations among the parties...." (Also linked yesterday.) The Guardian's story is here.

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "The number of people injured in an explosion at a St. Petersburg cafe has risen to 32, according to Russian state media. The blast killed Vladlen Tatarsky, a prominent Kremlin-aligned military blogger.... Russian authorities said they were investigating Tatarsky's death as a murder.... Russian authorities on Monday detained a woman they accused of being involved in the deadly cafe blast.... Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed his counterpart in Moscow to immediately release Evan Gershkovich, the American journalist detained in Russia last week. In a rare call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Blinken also appealed for the release of Paul Whelan, an American who the United States says was wrongfully convicted on espionage charges."

Vatican. Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times (March 30): "The Vatican formally repudiated on Thursday the 'Doctrine of Discovery,' a legal concept based on 15th-century papal documents that European colonial powers used to legitimize the seizure and exploitation of Indigenous lands in Africa and the Americas, among other places. The decision comes after decades of demands from Indigenous people to rescind the doctrine, which was used for centuries to 'expropriate Indigenous lands and facilitate their transfer to colonizing or dominating nations,' according to one United Nations forum.... Some opponents of the doctrine had a chance to deliver their message to Pope Francis during his visit to Canada, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his office said." MB: My guess is that the Pope himself has indigenous ancestors.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

"Rolling Stone reported that Trump’s other current lawyers had privately described Tacopina as 'dumb' and a 'loudmouth.' "

A Marred-a-Lago cocktail party from Hell? Rudy in the midst of a roomful of other Pretender lawyers(,!) and the boss himself...

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Speed reading the Rolling Stone article, thought they were
describing trump, loudmouth, dumb, psychopath, etc.

Memo to DJT: I called 16 friends and neighbors yesterday and
not a single one was crying over the fact that you were indicted.

Must admit, didn't call the Ohio in-laws. I hate hearing grownups
crying.

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

So Lesley Stahl rolls her eyes at MTG’s declaration that all Democrats are pedophiles??

Rolls.Her.Eyes?

Why not serve her milk and cookies? Eye rolls are a Neville Chamberlain response to a dangerous traitor and irresponsible fabulist and liar. Why is 60 Minutes, the eminence grise of television news, giving a platform to this…this thing? This is the sort of normalization the MSM did with Trump and the Nazis on the Supreme Court and idiots like Gym Jordan.

Stahl should have ordered her mic removed and kicked her off the set.

Or better yet, don’t invite known liars and dangerous lunatics on in the first place if you’re just going to sit there and ROLL YOUR FUCKING EYES!!

No way this is not a huge win for the forces of anarchy, white supremacy, and Christian nationalism, courtesy of 60 Minutes, thank you all so very much.

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

AK: the question is why 60 minutes would interview the Green bean in the first place and I suppose because she's a mover and shaker now and it's good copy. And I imagine that there was an agreement before that the interview would not be contentious so a roll of the eyes would have to do––-did you notice that even that gesture made Margie's mouth go all tight and angry looking. I, myself, was throughly entertained ––got to see more of this female's ways and means and I can't wait till she crashes and burns–––she will, won't she?

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

Yet ... if Stahl rolls her eyes in the forest and nobody sees it, did she make a face?

I only know about this event because I read about it here.

I used to watch 60 Minutes occasionally.

Now, never, and for reasons evident today.

Does it still have viewers?

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Next week on 60 minutes:

https://democraticunderground.com/100217786910

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Glad I didn't tune in to 60 Minues. The networks sure cover themselves with glory, don't they? I just tuned in to MSNBC and CNN and tuned out immediately. Four cameras reporting on his every move-- "we should see him soon" and they might as well be sitting on his felonlap patting his felon cheek. We are going to have two more years of this licking of his fat feet and the breathless announcing and featuring of his obscenely huge airliner. I am trying to avoid him at all costs, so I am sticking with HGTV and Hallmark and The Closer and Major Crimes and Rizzoli and Isles, old favorites...I also have lots of good books to read. And it's a beautiful day. The daffodils and forsythia are a brilliant yellow, the tulips are almost popping their colors, and the always-fabulous flowering trees are doing their level best to seduce me outside again this afternoon. Maybe pull some weeds, get some leaves outta the beds. Yes, Unwashed, I am trying to ignore all of it. So far, so good! Not bad for a "pedophile." Thanks, Perjury Traitor Greed!

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Funny thing about the Disney-DeSantis fight,
" This Declaration shall be deemed effective as of the Effective Date and continue to be effective in perpetuity unless all or certain portions of the provisions of this Declaration are expressly terminated as provided elsewhere herein; provided, however, that if the perpetual term of this Declaration is deemed to violate the “Rule Against Perpetuities,” or any similar law or rule, this Declaration shall continue in effect until twenty one (21) years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England living as of the date of this Declaration.

That's right, bitches! They said, "We're taking back control of this board forever. And if DeSantis and his goons go and change Florida law so that this is deemed to violate the Rule Against Perpetuities, then fine, we'll peg this document to the lives of King Charles's five grandchildren."

So in case you didn't catch that ... Disney staked its claim to the Magic Kingdom on a LITERAL PRINCESS, since the youngest of Charles's descendants born at the time of this Declaration is Harry and Meghan's daughter Princess Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, the only member of the British Royal Family born in America.

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Apologies for two typos, maybe more...you'd think I could be more careful. Apparently not.

I am thinking Disney has cleverly handled the heavies of the Florida Fire Hydrant Official (DeSatan...) and it is pretty cute! I am not a huge Disney fan (only been there once, maybe 25 years ago--) and I am having a hard time congratulating my baby grands who have been to CA Disneyland twice in the last five months, but I do appreciate anyone managing to have a reasonable life with liberties etc in the police/deSatan state of Floriduh. Two more reasons to never show up at St. Pete Beach again. As if we need more. Guns and forced birth. I feel sorry for the residents of the liberal frame of mind...

Thanks, Marie. I did turn it all off when they OJed the motorcades, after he trudged down the gangplank.

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Disneyland/World is just Las Vegas for kids and gullible parents. All fake...

April 3, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed
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