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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Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Tuesday
May242011

The Commentariat -- May 25

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, for a reciprocal dinner at the Winfield House in London. Getty image.President Obama addresses the British Parliament:

     ... Here's the full text of his speech, via the White House.

President Obama & British Prime Minister Cameron hold a joint press conference:

Maureen Dowd: "Obama had to take a foreign trip to seem less foreign to Americans." ...

... I've posted a comments page on Off Times Square for Dowd. Karen Garcia and I have added our comments.

While making baseless claims might be shrewd tactics for those who want to undermine the bureau’s work, they are flatly wrong. -- Elizabeth Warren, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee

Ben Protess of the New York Times writes a plain-vanilla report on yet another committee grilling of Elizabeth Warren, the head of the not-yet-operational Financial Consumer Protection Bureau. ...

... Karen Garcia is less sanguine, comparing the hearing to the Spanish Inquisition, as Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) repeatedly accused Warren of lying under oath & ironically, seldom let her finish a sentence. You can watch the hearing on C-SPAN. Here's the final exchange -- my guess is that twit McHenry doesn't consult his own staff:

     ... Video via Dave Weigel. Ari Berman of The Nation has more on the hearing.

Unretouched photo of David Brooks in London by renowned celebrity photographer Lord Driftglass of High Mockeryshire.Glenn Greenwald does a nice job of whacking Our Oligarchical Mister Brooks in his Adoration of the Elites. ...

... AND so, of course does Driftglass. ...

... Update. Commenter P. D. Pepe recommends this commentary on Brooks' column by British writer Daniel Knowles. So do I. Here's a taste: "... his column is laughably ignorant of British history and bizarrely naive about British political culture.... This self-indulgent ego-boosting nonsense is just what we need to get away from. While our politicos go around slapping themselves on the backs about how utterly indescribably and uniquely brilliant they all are, the British public hates them more than ever."

... An American Disgrace. Glenn Greenwald on reaction to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's speech yesterday before a joint session of Congress: "... the super-patriots of the American Right..., the same faction that spent the last decade demanding fealty to the Commander-in-Chief in a Time of War upon pain of being accused of a lack of patriotism (or worse) now openly sides with a foreign leader over their own President.  The U.S. Congress humiliates itself by expressing greater admiration for and loyalty to this foreign leader than their own country's."

You know, we don't do elaborate things.... We are very frugal. -- Newt Gingrich

Here are a few Gingrich frugalities: "His flagship political operation, a tax-exempt conservative group called American Solutions for Winning the Future, has spent at least $2.2 million over the past two years on private jets and executive chauffeur services"; a million-dollar-plus home; dining at the chic La Sponda in Amalfi; dining at the upscale Cafe Milano in Georgetown; the Newt wearing a $15-20,000 Patek Philippie Calatrava watch; "a $450 bottle of 1983 Chateau Latour." More to come, I'm sure.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "To the long list of rich-guy foibles that turned into defining campaign moments — John Edwards’s $400 haircut, John Kerry’s kite-surfing,* John McCain’s inability to remember how many homes he owns — let us now add Newt Gingrich’s $500,000 revolving line of credit at the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Company.... The way some voters out in the rest of America might see it, he’s a guy who paid more for jewelry than some people pay for their houses." ...

... Time has a slideshow of Callista's Tiffany trove. ...

... Jeff Stein of SpyTalk: " At the same time Tiffany & Co. was extending Callista (Bisek) Gingrich a virtual interest-free loan of tens of thousands of dollars, the diamond and silverware firm was spending big bucks to influence mining policy in Congress and in agencies over which the House Agriculture Committee -- where she worked -- had jurisdiction, official records show."

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker was "puzzled by his claim that he [Gingrich] had a 'standard, no-interest account' at Tiffany & Co." Uh, there's no such thing. Tiffany's "standard" account charges 21 percent interest. Read Kessler's whole article. It's a hoot. Kessler has an update here, the crux of which is that Tiffany's confirmed that the Gingriches now have a zero balance at Tiffany's. Kessler doesn't change his three Pinocchios rating.

* A friend writes, "Wind-surfing is like a half-million dollar Tiffany's account? Really? A friend writes, "... the Kerry thing is just stupid. You know what? I've gone wind surfing. It was a blast. I'm an ocean guy, and I like doing stuff like parachuting and para-sailing and wind surfing....when I get a chance to do it and I'm on vacation and I have an extra $50 to do it. It is NOT something restricted to rich guys. In no way could you ever mistake me for a rich guy."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Jared L. Loughner was not mentally competent to stand trial on charges of opening fire at a constituent event for an Arizona congresswoman in January, killing 6 and injuring 13."

Slate: "Goodwin Liu, President Obama's nominee for a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, sent a letter to the president ... officially withdrawing his name from consideration. Liu's nomination was filibustered in the Senate last week, when Republicans (and one Democrat) refused to give Liu an up-or-down vote."

New York Times: "The Justice Department plans to move ahead with criminal charges against John Edwards, the former senator and presidential candidate, contending that he misused campaign funds to cover up an affair, a person close to Mr. Edwards said on Wednesday morning."

NBC News: "As residents in three states picked through rubble, looking for victims and belongings buried by storms that killed 14 people, twisters were reported in the Kansas City area and an even broader round of severe weather was expected throughout Wednesday." With video.

PM & Mrs. Obamas spent their second day in London today.

Reuters: "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was offering 'nothing we can build on' for peace and that without progress he will seek U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood in September." ...

... Washington Post: "Top Democrats have joined a number of Republicans in challenging President Obama’s policy toward Israel, further exposing rifts that the White House and its allies will seek to mend before next year’s election." CW: ... evidently because "top Democrats" and "a number of Republicans" claim not to know Netanyahu agreed to Obama's stated terms last November.

Washington Post: "... when pressed to name their biggest concern, nearly half of [American] respondents say they are alarmed by the prospect that the debt could grow beyond its current limit of $14.3 trillion, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll. Only 35 percent say they are more worried about the risk of default and economic destabilization if Congress does not raise the debt limit." CW: the President has utterly failed to explain to the American people why raising the debt ceiling is necessary. He hasn't even addressed it.

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