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.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Wednesday
Jan192011

The Commentariat -- January 20

On the 50th anniversary, E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post recalls John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. Here it is:

Sargent Shriver. Art by Justin Gabbard for the New York Times.In a New York Times op-ed, Bono remembers Sargent Shriver. ...

Scott Stossel of The Atlantic, who is also Shriver's biographer, remembers his subject:

Even as the disease[Alzheimer's] robbed him of his memory, and sometimes of his logic, it did not rob him of his spirit -- warm, ebullient, devout, inspiring -- which was essential to all that he achieved.

 

 

Michelle Obama endorses Wal-Mart's promise to phase more healthful foods into their product line. Getty image.New York Times: "Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, will announce a five-year plan on Thursday to make thousands of its packaged foods lower in unhealthy salts, fats and sugars, and to drop prices on fruits and vegetables. The initiative came out of discussions the company has been having with Michelle Obama, the first lady, who will attend the announcement in Washington and has made healthy eating and reducing childhood obesity the centerpiece of her agenda. Aides say it is the first time Mrs. Obama has thrown her support behind the work of a single company." ...

... Debbie Wilgoren & Ylan Mui of the Washington Post say Michelle Obama gave Wal-Mart "a glowing endorsement" today for promising to sell healthier food. But Karen Garcia sees the connection between the First Lady & Wal-Mart as long and murky.

... AND when she wasn't doing that... Washington Post: "Visitors touring the White House got more than they bargained for Thursday when first lady Michelle Obama and the family dog, Bo, dropped in to welcome them on the second anniversary of President Obama's inauguration." You might want to watch part of the video, which runs an hour.

Right. Michelle & Barack Obama await the arrival of China's President Hu in advance of the state dinner. Reuters picture.

Cathy Horyn of the New York Times on the dress.

If, like me, you thought Michelle Obama looked stunning at the state dinner last night, you're not a right-winger. Media Matters has a roundup of the usual loons who are all upset because the First Lady wore a communist red dress.

 

 

Peter Finn of the Washington Post: "A recently completed investigation of the killing of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan nine years ago makes public new evidence that a senior al-Qaeda operative executed the Wall Street Journal reporter.... The new report which was prepared by faculty members and students at Georgetown University, U.S. officials have concluded that vascular technology, or vein matching, shows that the hand of the unseen man who killed Pearl on video is that of [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed. The report also says Mohammed told the FBI that a senior al-Qaeda operative advised him to take control of Pearl from his original kidnappers." The report is here.

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "When the conservative financier Charles Koch sent out invitations for a political retreat..., he highlighted past appearances at the gathering of 'notable leaders' like Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court. [Common Cause,] a leading liberal group, is now trying to use that connection to argue that Mr. Scalia and Mr. Thomas should disqualify themselves from hearing campaign finance cases because they may be biased toward Mr. Koch, a billionaire who has been a major player in financing conservative causes.... Common Cause filed a petition with the Justice Department on Wednesday asking it to investigate potential conflicts by Justices Scalia and Thomas and move for their disqualification from the landmark Citizens United case...."

Patrick Coolican of the Las Vegas Sun: "The robust firearms economy is showing striking defiance of the recession, as well as the ritual condemnations of gun violence in the wake of the recent shooting of 19 people ... in Tucson." ...

... Whither Obama? Glenn Thrush of Politico: "Gun control is a perilous issue for President Barack Obama ... so the push for new restrictions following the Tucson shootings puts the president in an especially tricky political predicament.... White House officials have remained noncommittal about an effort by liberals in the House and Senate to restrict access to the kind of high-capacity ammunition magazines that allowed suspect Jared Lee Loughner to inflict mass casualties in a matter of seconds using a single, legal handgun. Gun control advocates say Obama ... has the moral responsibility to make some kind of statement on the issue...." ...

... Nicole Santa Cruz & Ashley Powers of the Los Angeles Times: Arizona "Gov. Jan Brewer, long a champion of services for the mentally ill, reluctantly agreed to cut funding amid a budget crisis. It's just one example of the battle mental health advocates across the U.S. face as cash-strapped legislatures chop services." ...

... Michael Powell of the New York Times: "As state governments struggle with the fiscal damage caused by the recession, an income tax increase has become a rarely used remedy." ...

... Right. But some states have other great budget-balancing ideas:

Charles Mahtesian of Politico: "By the geriatric standards of the Senate, the retirement of 68-year-old Sen. Joe Lieberman comes at a relatively young age. But Wednesday’s news that the Connecticut Democrat plans to leave the stage in 2012 surprised no one: It was clear the role he played was outdated and even clearer that he was thoroughly unsuited for the modern political era." ...

... Gail Collins: "Lieberman has reached a point in his public career when every single thing he does, including talking about his grandparents, is irritating." ...

... Lieberman's eulogy to Lieberman was narcissistic even by Washington standards. If he had started lip-synching Piaf doing 'Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien' nobody would have been surprised. -- Karen Garcia (#11) ...

... Peter Applebome of the New York Times: two Senators from Connecticut -- Chris Dodd & Joe Lieberman -- how is one not like the other? ...

... At least Lieberman is better than Utah's new loony Sen. Mike Lee, who thinks "child labor laws, the minimum wage, and bans on race and gender dicrimination are unconstitutional." And, BTW, so is federal disaster assistance. Ian Millhiser's Think Progress story is here; it includes audio. Thank you, Utah. ...

... AND former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) continues to move up the race for worst Senator ever. Washington Post: "In an interview with the conservative CNS News, [Santorum] linked President Obama's race to his position on abortion."

For a host of reasons, my friends don't care for Rep. Anthony Weiner, but for stuff like this, I do:

Leslie Gelb in the Daily Beast: in the war of wills Hu won the summit, without having to do much but stand up and smile. ...

... "The Rise of the Chinese Cheneys." Nicholas Kristof: "China today resembles the Bush era in America: Hard-liners are ascendant. Brace yourself."

Good luck running against me, Amb. Huntsman!

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is preparing to increase the use of military commissions to prosecute Guantánamo detainees, an acknowledgment that the prison in Cuba remains open for business after Congress imposed steep new impediments to closing the facility."

Anne Kornblut & Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Obama is moving his political operation outside the White House and will launch his reelection campaign in March or April. With the biggest parts of a staff reshuffling behind him, Obama has approved some more moves for his political team, shifting his political director to the Democratic National Committee and sending two key operatives to serve as deputy campaign managers in what will be his campaign headquarters in Chicago."

AP: "In the latest milestone in Gabrielle Giffords' recovery from a bullet wound to the brain, the congresswoman stood up and looked out a window even as preparations got under way for a move to Houston, where she'll undergo extensive mental and physical rehabilitation. Her swift transition from an intensive care unit to a rehab center based on the latest research, which shows the sooner rehab starts, the better patients recover."

     ... New York Times Update: "Representative Gabrielle Giffords continues to recover remarkably well from a gunshot to the head and is likely to be moved to a Houston rehabilitation hospital on Friday, her doctors and her husband said on Thursday."

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