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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March 23, 2023

Marie: Reposted here from Reality Chex Annex:

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Colby Hall of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump ramped up his inciteful rhetoric in a social media post that pushed back on calls for peaceful protest amid reports of his impending arrest.... Trump called for [Alvin] Bragg to drop the case in an ALL CAPS rant posted Thursday morning[.]... Trump's rejection of those calling for calm -- 'THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!' -- comes as political tensions remain high in the country.... It does not take a genius to see that Trump is suggesting that a violent approach to protest -- like the one that struck the Capitol on Jan. 6 -- is still very much on the table. In classic Trump fashion, however, he is also not saying that." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump made his remarks in two all-caps posts, which Hall republishes here. I am not reproducing them, but both posts are worth reading. He calls Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg "a Soros backed animal" and says the justice system Bragg represents 'is the Gestapo."

Zach Montague of the New York Times: " A Pennsylvania woman who steered a group of rioters toward Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office on Jan. 6, 2021, and directed others inside the Capitol to steal a laptop computer was sentenced in Federal District Court in Washington on Thursday to three years in prison. The woman, Riley June Williams, 24, was convicted in November of several charges including felony civil disorder and impeding officers trying to defend the Capitol Rotunda. The jury deadlocked on whether she had played a role in the theft of the computer, which Ms. Pelosi used for Zoom calls during the coronavirus pandemic, and whether her actions amounted to obstruction of Congress's certification of the 2020 electoral vote." The NBC News report is here.

Florida. Sarah Boboltz of the Huffington Post: "The principal of Florida's Tallahassee Classical School is out of a job after parents complained that their sixth-grade children were shown Michelangelo's 16th century 'David' sculpture, with one parent calling it 'pornographic,' the Tallahassee Democrat first reported. The now-former principal, Hope Carrasquilla, told HuffPost the situation was also 'a little more complicated than that,' noting that the usual protocol is to send parents a letter before students are shown such classical artwork. Due to 'a series of miscommunications,' the letter did not go out to the sixth-grade parents, and some complained, Carrasquilla said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, I sure hope none of those parents ever takes their impressionable children on an educational tour of Italy, because there are naked statues everywhere. Standing in Florence's main square -- the Piazza della Signoria -- right in front of the town hall -- the Palazzo Vecchio -- is a copy of the David, where the original once stood. Both are huge, BTW, but you do have to go into a museum to see the original.

Michigan. CBS/AP: "The parents of a teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school can face trial for involuntary manslaughter, the state appeals court said Thursday in a groundbreaking case of criminal responsibility for the acts of a child. The murders would not have happened if the parents hadn't purchased a gun for Ethan Crumbley or if they had taken him home from Oxford High School on the day of the shooting, when staff became alarmed about his extreme drawings, the appeals court said."

New York Times: "Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are questioning Shou Chew, the C.E.O. of the viral video app. Their main concerns are data privacy and its Chinese ownership." This is a liveblog of the hearing.

From an NBC News liveblog: "The Manhattan grand jury that has been investigating the hush money case involving [Donald] Trump is not expected to consider it today, NBC News has confirmed. The grand jury was set to return to court in lower Manhattan on Thursday, but it is expected to meet about a different case, according to three sources familiar with the matter.... Members of the jury have been meeting Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told them to stay home yesterday." ~~~

     ~~~ Update from the liveblog: "The Manhattan District Attorney's Office sent a lengthy letter today to three House GOP committee chairmen arguing that they are overstepping their bounds in their quest to obtain information related to the hush money case involving [Donald] Trump. General counsel Leslie B. Dubeck, writing on behalf of [DA Alvin] Bragg, said in the letter that the Republican chairmen are embarking on an unprecedented inquiry 'into pending local prosecution.... [Your] letter seeks non-public information about a pending criminal investigation, which is confidential under state law,' Dubeck wrote, adding that 'it is clear that Congress cannot have any legitimate legislative task relating to the oversight of local prosecutors enforcing state law.'"

Arizona. Jacques Billeaud of the AP: "The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to hear most of Republican Kari Lake's appeal in a challenge of her defeat in the governor's race but revived a claim that was dismissed by a trial court. In an order Wednesday, the state&'s highest court said a lower court erroneously dismissed Lake's claim challenging the application of signature verification procedures on early ballots in Maricopa County. The court sent the claim back to a trial court to consider."

~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, moving forward with its fight against high inflation after taking dramatic steps to contain a banking crisis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story, by Jeanna Smialek, is here. ~~~

~~~ Alan Rappeport, et al., of the New York Times: "Two of the nation's top economic policymakers on Wednesday said they were focused on determining how the failure of Silicon Valley Bank had happened and suggested changes to federal regulation and oversight might be needed to prevent future runs on American banks. The discussion of stricter oversight by Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen came as lawmakers, the financial industry and investors are working to figure out why Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed and as policymakers try to ensure other firms don't suffer the same fate. At a news conference following the Fed's announcement that it would raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point, Mr. Powell said he was focused on the question of what had gone wrong at Silicon Valley Bank, which was overseen by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.... Ms. Yellen echoed his comments at a Senate hearing on Wednesday afternoon...."

"Ready for His Perp Walk," Ctd.

Katelyn Polantz & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump's defense attorney Evan Corcoran is scheduled to testify Friday before the grand jury investigating classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago after a new order from a federal appeals court, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals said that Corcoran must provide additional testimony and turn over documents about the former president as part of the criminal investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents. The source said Trump's side is unlikely to appeal to the Supreme Court." ~~~

     ~~~ Katherine Faulders & Alexander Mallin of ABC News: "D.C. district judge Beryl Howell [had] ruled [last Friday] that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith's office had made a 'prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations,' according to sources who described her Friday order, and that attorney-client privileges invoked by two of his lawyers, [Evan] Corcoran and Jennifer Little, could therefore be pierced. Sources ... further described to ABC New the six topics that Corcoran was ordered by Judge Howell to testify about, over which he had previously sought to assert attorney-client privilege. The topics indicate that Smith has zeroed in on [Donald] Trump's actions surrounding his response to a May 11 DOJ subpoena that sought all remaining classified documents in his possession -- which investigators have described as key to Trump's alleged 'scheme' to obstruct the investigation...."

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "After forcing Department of Justice attorneys to burn the midnight oil, the D.C. Circuit quickly affirmed that ... Donald Trump's legal team must turn over 'documents' to special counsel Jack Smith. Details of the ruling are sparse, as it was filed pursuant to an appeal of a sealed case. The public portion makes clear, however, that it will fuel the special counsel's ongoing investigation into the former president's possession of highly classified documents, which sparked last year's FBI search at Mar-a-Lago." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

      ~~~ Update: The Washington Post's story by Josh Dawsey & others, is here: "The panel of three judges issued a brief order Wednesday afternoon directing the parties 'to comply with the district court's March 17, 2023, order to produce documents' and ending an emergency hold on a ruling last week by a lower-court judge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "The Manhattan grand jury that has been hearing evidence about Donald J. Trump's involvement with a hush-money payment to a porn star will not meet on Wednesday, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, suggesting that any indictment of the former president would come Thursday at the earliest."

Chris Stokel-Walker of BuzzFeed News: "Many are envisioning -- some gleefully -- what a Trump arrest would look like. Among them is Eliot Higgins, best known as the founder of open-source investigative journalism website Bellingcat. This week, Higgins used the AI image generator Midjourney to depict Trump's arrest. He shared 50 images on Twitter, and they quickly went viral. As a result, he said on Wednesday, Midjourney appeared to have banned him from the service." To see Higgins' images, many of which are fairly convincing, click on the second link above (at "shared 50 images on Twitter").

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. DeSantis Plans to Expand "Don't Say Gay." Anthony Isaguierre of the AP: " Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis′ administration is moving to forbid classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, expanding the controversial law critics call 'Don't Say Gay' as the Republican governor continues to focus on cultural issues ahead of his expected presidential run. The proposal, which would not require legislative approval, is scheduled for a vote next month before the state Board of Education and has been put forward by the state Education Department, both of which are led by appointees of the governor.... The initial law that DeSantis championed last spring bans those lessons in kindergarten through the third grade." MB: Once you get a horrible idea, don't drop it. Expand it.

Mississippi. Sarah Fowler of the New York Times: "As residents [of Jackson, Mississippi,] had to boil their tap water and businesses closed because their faucets were dry, [a water-main] break at [a country club golf course] squandered an estimated five million gallons of drinking water a day in a city that had none to spare. It is enough water to serve the daily needs of 50,000 people, or a third of the city residents who rely on the beleaguered water utility.... Newly appointed water officials say the city discovered the broken mainline pipe in 2016 and left it to gush.... [Another recently-discovered leak] is spewing water 30 feet in the air like a geyser and losing the city as much as one million gallons a day.... In Jackson, the city's problems with leaks are so extensive, its systems so antiquated, its chronic staffing problems so overwhelming, that many leaks, seemingly of any size, have gone undetected or unaddressed.... Outside the country club on Tuesday afternoon, construction crews were preparing to begin repairs, which are expected to take a couple of weeks."

Virginia. Laura Vozzella, et al., of the Washington Post: "Newly released surveillance video shows a group of law enforcement officers in Virginia enter Irvo Otieno's cell in the Henrico County Jail, and at least one appears to throw several punches in an encounter just hours before Otieno’s death at a mental hospital. Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, died at Central State Hospital as sheriff's deputies from Henrico County and hospital staff piled on him for approximately 11 minutes on March 6.... Mark Krudys, a lawyer for the family, has said that video of the jail shows Henrico County sheriff's deputies beating and pepper-spraying Otieno."

Wyoming. Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming -- at least temporarily -- after a judge on Wednesday ordered that a newly enacted ban be blocked until further court proceedings in a lawsuit challenging it. After a three-hour hearing, Judge Melissa Owens of Teton County District Court granted a temporary restraining order, pausing a law that took effect Sunday. The law would make providing almost all abortions a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The lawsuit ... also challenges another law, scheduled to take effect on July 1, that would make Wyoming the first state to explicitly ban the use of pills for abortion. Now, the medication abortion ban and the overall ban will be considered at a hearing where the plaintiffs will seek an injunction to suspend both laws until the full lawsuit can be heard."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels for a two-day summit, which will include continued E.U. support for Ukraine, measures to increase 'collective pressure' on Russia, and decisions on sending more ammunition to Kyiv. The United Nations' Secretary-General, António Guterres, will also attend.... Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu handed out medals to the two fighter pilots responsible for dumping fuel and then hitting the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea, according to the Russian state news agency, Tass.... Lawmakers in Sweden formally voted to allow the country to join NATO.... Russia and Belarus have been barred from the ice hockey world championships, the international federation announced.... The International Olympic Committee cannot be a referee in global political disputes, the president of its ruling body Thomas Bach said, after backlash for refusing to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Games...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Marc Santora, et al., of the New York Times: "Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, made a rare and defiant trip near the front line on Wednesday, personally thanking soldiers who have been fighting in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become a potent symbol of Ukrainian resistance. The trip to the Bakhmut area came on a day when air and seaborne drones attacked the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea and a Russian missile ripped into a nine-story apartment complex in Zaporizhzhia, in the south, killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others. At least seven other people were killed, including an ambulance driver, and nine others wounded when a drone strike hit a college in Rzhyshchiv, about 50 miles southeast of the capital, Kyiv, military officials said on Wednesday."

Ron the Uncertain. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida this week clarified his description of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a 'territorial dispute' and said that Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, was a 'war criminal' who should be 'held accountable.' Mr. DeSantis, a Republican who is expected to announce a presidential campaign in the coming months, made his latest comments in an interview with the British broadcaster Piers Morgan, who shared them with The New York Post and Fox News, both owned by Rupert Murdoch." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No, DeSantolini did not "clarify" his position. Instead, he tried one tack and when that bombed, he tried another. Like most tin-pot dictatorial types, Ron has no principles, so he just test-runs crap and has no qualms about contradicting himself. He is trying to define himself as a "winner," as he said elsewhere in his interview with Morgan, and "winning" means "whatever works." ~~~

     ~~~ David Kihara of Politico: "... during an interview with Morgan set to air this week, DeSantis called Putin ... 'a gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons,' repeating a similar line he had used in early March.... Both lines echoed a 2014 quip from then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in which he said, 'Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.'" MB: What DeSantis lacks in gravitas, he makes up for in banality.

U.K. Rob Picheta & Luke McGee of CNN: "Boris Johnson admitted he misled lawmakers but claimed he did so unintentionally, as the former British prime minister fought to save his political career at a tense and combative hearing into the 'Partygate' scandal that contributed to the collapse of his government. Johnson, flanked by lawyers in a packed committee room, sparred with lawmakers during a heated three-hour grilling at the hands of members of parliament (MPs) on the Privileges Committee on Tuesday afternoon. He was rebuffed by members of the panel, whose televised interrogation of Johnson is the major spectacle of a months-long investigation...."

The following link belongs in "Infotainment," but I don't have an Infotainment section today, so here ya go:

Gina Kolata of the New York Times: "By analyzing seven samples of hair said to have come from Ludwig van Beethoven, researchers debunked myths about the revered composer while raising new questions about his life and death."

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