The Ledes

Thursday, July 17, 2025

New York Times: “Connie Francis, who dominated the pop charts in the late 1950s and early ’60s with sobbing ballads like 'Who’s Sorry Now' and 'Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You,' as well as up-tempo soft-rock tunes like 'Stupid Cupid,' 'Lipstick on Your Collar,' and 'Vacation,' died on Wednesday. She was 87.” 

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INAUGURATION 2029

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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The Commentariat -- November 12

Paul Krugman couldn't be more disgusted with the draft proposal presented by the chairmen of the catfood commission. After lambasting it's major provisions, he concludes, "The deficit commission should be told to fold its tents and go away." ...

... CW: in The New Republic, economist Dean Baker teaches Econ 101 to Simpson & Bowles (and, frankly, to me, too). Baker excoriates the Catfood Boys on a number of basic, basic points, but this one stands out: Social Security is none of their goddamned business.

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "By putting deep spending cuts and substantial tax increases on the table, President Obama’s bipartisan debt-reduction commission has exposed fissures in both parties.... Among Democrats, liberals are in near revolt against the White House over the issue, even as substantive and political forces push Mr. Obama to attack chronic deficits in a serious way. At the same time, Republicans face intense pressure from their conservative base and the Tea Party movement to reject any deal that includes tax increases, leaving their leaders with little room to maneuver in any negotiation and at risk of being blamed by voters for not doing their part." ...

... ** Steve Kornacki of Salon: the public doesn't really care about the deficit; never has. It's a Repubican talking point that Republicans, including Republicans who call themselves independents, parrot.

Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post: "Frustrated by the banks' response to the foreclosure mess, a growing number of public officials - including chief judges, attorneys general and sheriffs from jurisdictions big and small - are pushing the boundaries of their powers to slow down foreclosures in their areas." CW: it is just shocking that local sheriffs & judges must do this job because the federal government won't do it. The result, of course, is a completely slapdash, iniquitous method of handling foreclosures. Fire HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Please.

     ... Patrick O'Connor of the Wall Street Journal reports on the highlights of the Pelosi interview.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post finds another reason to despise Joe Lieberman: Lieberman's "incoherent intransigence" in killing what would have been a popular and cost-effective plan to allow 55+-year-olds to buy into Medicare probably cost Democrats seats in the midterm elections.

Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "Democratic activists Thursday sharply criticized White House officials after a published report indicated that President Obama is likely to back a temporary extension of tax cuts for households with income over $250,000 a year."

Rachel Maddow interviews Jon Stewart (the full interview, runs 50 min.):

     ... James Poniewozik of Time: "I was disappointed that so much of Maddow's questioning — like the earlier complaints from Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher — boiled down to: 'But the other guys are worse, right? Say that they're worse than we are.'"

In GQ, Wil Hylton tries to write a positive piece on Attorney General Eric Holder. Hylton presents Holder as conflicted over the concessions he has made to political expediency. CW: but it's impossible not to see Holder as a sell-out.

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, participates in a campaign against bullying gay teens:

     ... as Ben Smith notes, "This is pretty sharp language. [Cindy] McCain isn't just opposing the [DADT] law -- she's attacking the politicians who support it." CW: one of those "politicians who support it"; in fact, the leading opponent to repeal is John McCain. ...

     ... Update: even the Gray Lady takes note.

Katy Steinmetz of Time: Niccolò Machiavelli assesses the midterms.

Mitch McConnell -- Even Worse than You Thought. The editors of the Louisville Courier-Journal read Dubya's book & find that in September 2006, even as he was excoriating Senate Democrats for asking the President to reduce troop levels in Iraq, McConnell privately urged Bush to bring home some troops to reduce the risk of Repubicans losing seats. "This incident," the editors write, "This incident, which Sen. McConnell's office has not denied, shines brightly on the contemptible hypocrisy and obsessive partisanship that have come to mark the senator's time in office."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times finds another Bush "misremembery" in Decision Points. Bush claims he "... resolved that I would not pardon anyone who went outside the formal channels." But Savage notes that Bush pardoned at least five people "who had gained special access to the White House," one of which he rescinded when it became a huge embarrassment.

Robert Mackey of the New York Times: "An English politician was arrested on Thursday for joking on Twitter that a columnist he disagreed with should be stoned to death. Gareth Compton, a 38-year-old member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party who serves in local government in Birmingham, was suspended by the party following his arrest...." CW: a certain former governor & current reality TV star had better not move to England where her incendiary language could earn her a place in gaol. 

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