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.

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Page Links
Friday
May202016

Thank You

By Marie

As many of you noticed, safari & Akhilleus kept Reality Chex going while I was on the road. They did a fine job of it, too. I did not specifically ask them to help out; unlike me, I gather they both have real jobs and other real commitments and interests that take up a lot of real time. Nevertheless, both made significant contributions over the past week.

Here's the point where I have to wonder where the hell everybody else was. There are six other contributors who know how to do what safari & Akhilleus did. In addition, everybody who reads Reality Chex knows how to provide links to stories in the Comments section, as a few contributors did.

I'm not sure if you can call yourself a liberal -- and I know you can't describe yourself as a Sanders-style democratic socialist -- if you're happy to regularly take advantage of this site but you're unwilling to support it with a few contributions.  

 

P.S. If you comment on a news story or opinion piece that has not been linked here, for Pete's sake, provide a link. Even if you're commenting on a news event you saw on TV or heard on the radio, it's highly likely the story also made it into print. I used to accommodate "Random Reader Remarks" by trying to track down the stories the writers might have referred to. But I resent having to babysit adult commenters so I've pretty much quit doing that -- although I did it yesterday, and I'll do it again if someone comments or hints at some event that might be newsworthy.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

Marie, I guess I am one of the contributors you are complaining about. To be honest, I was extremely busy this week and every time I got on here, safari and Akhilleus had done such a thorough job of capturing the important news that I didn't have anything to add. But the main reason I have not contributed much lately is that I am so disgusted by the ever worsening political news that I am trying not to spend so much time reading it to avoid being physically sick and depressed. I just can't figure out why this country seems so willing to lose its soul, to give away and reverse everything that has made this country great. How so many people can be supporting Trump is beyond comprehension. I am also disgusted by the way the media is framing the debate between Sanders and Clinton and the way they are treating each other. As a Bernie supporter, I realize his supporters are making the party look bad by acting up in Nevada, but I don't think the DNC is giving the Bernie supporters or Bernie the respect they deserve. Reading about the friction within the party has me scared to death that it will allow Trump to win. To keep sane at this point, I'm limiting my exposure to it. I don't have the energy to visit all the sites I usually do to keep being reminded of how messed up this country is right now.

May 20, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterLT

@LT: I'm not complaining about any individual. You have made many useful contributions in the past, & I'm grateful for them. I know people are busy; so was I -- that's why I didn't contribute much this week.

(The good news: I learned how to back a trailer around a corner. Up till now, I've left that job to handsome men, but I decided if they could do it, so could I. So I checked the YouTubes, & sure enough, there were a couple of videos that explained the principle. It probably took me 50 tries to get the trailer right where I wanted it, where it would have taken the handsome guys only two or three, but now I know how to get to Carnegie Hall.)

Reality Chex has thousands of readers. It's damned discouraging when only a few bother to share what political stories or opinions they've read elsewhere, especially when I made it clear I would not be able to contribute. (I'll admit that page was deleted; I don't know when that happened.) Certainly some of their readings would be of interest to other Reality Chex readers.

Marie

May 20, 2016 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

LT

I hope you have a chance to read Krugman. It may cheer you up a bit in spite of his opening.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/opinion/obamas-war-on-inequality.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

May 20, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

Along with LT, I find it hard enough to just read the news. President Obama said it best at the WHCD, referring to mainstream media: "I think we can all agree that from the start [Trump]’s gotten the appropriate amount of coverage befitting the seriousness of his candidacy. Ha. I hope you all are proud of yourselves."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2016/05/01/the-complete-transcript-of-president-obamas-2016-white-house-correspondents-dinner-speech/

And now Bernie, whom I support(ed), is threatening to use the nuclear option to get his way at the convention. AS IF he's been a Democrat all these years, fer Christ's sake. He ran as a Democrat because it was easier than trying to get on the ballot in all fifty states as an Independent. Now it's his convention to hijack?


Who knew there were so many dim wits in the Republican Party - though we did suspect...


Who knew someone of Bernie's age and experience could forget the lesson of Ralph Nader?


I've been following national politics since 1960 and don't recall a presidential election where BOTH political parties splintered and outsiders dominated going into the conventions.

May 20, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterCaptRuss

@CaptRuss
AS IF he's been a Democrat all these years, fer Christ's sake.

Well, yes he has, sort of. He has caucused or been aligned with the Democrats since he came to Congress in 1991.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/10/politics/bernie-sanders-democrat-or-independent/
The Democratic Party didn't seem to mind when Sanders gave them a 51/49 majority at one time.

May 20, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterDan Lowery

Thank you, Haley, for the positive news. I wish the Obama administration was better at advertising how they've helped the middle class. I've never understood how they, and Dems in general, aren't better at messaging.

May 21, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterLT
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.