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The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, attempting to overturn new rules imposed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that have led to most mainstream media outlets being banished from the building. The newspaper said the rules violate the Constitution's freedom of speech and due process provisions, since they give Hegseth the power to determine on his own whether a reporter should be banned. Outlets such as the Times walked out of the Pentagon rather than agree to the rules as a condition for getting a press credential. The Pentagon press room now includes mostly conservative outlets that agreed to the rules, and representatives from those organisations participated Tuesday in a briefing with Hegseth's press secretary. The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, said Charles Stadtlander, spokesman for the Times. The newspaper filed the case with the U.S. District Court in Washington on Thursday. The Pentagon had no immediate
A California judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an Indigenous tribe in the Brazilian Amazon against The New York Times and TMZ that claimed the newspaper's reporting on the tribe's first exposure to the internet led to its members being widely portrayed as technology-addled and addicted to pornography. The suit was filed in May by the Marubo Tribe of the Javari Valley, a sovereign community of about 2,000 people in the Amazon rainforest. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Tiana J. Murillo on Tuesday sided with the Times, whose lawyers argued in a hearing Monday that its coverage last year was fair and protected by free speech. TMZ argued that its coverage, which followed the Times' initial reporting, addressed ongoing public controversies and matters of public interest. The suit claimed stories by TMZ and Yahoo amplified and sensationalised the Times' reporting and smeared the tribe in the process. Yahoo was dismissed as a defendant earlier this month. Murillo wrote in he
Gov Kathy Hochul on Sunday urged New Yorkers to vote Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, giving the Democratic nominee one of his most significant endorsements to date in the contest to lead the nation's biggest city. Writing in the New York Times' opinion section, Hochul said that while she and Mamdani diverged on some issues, they came together on the importance of addressing the affordability crisis in the city and across the state. "But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighbourhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family," wrote Hochul, a Democrat. "I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable a goal I enthusiastically support." The stunning success of Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described democratic socialist, in the race for New York City mayor has exposed divisions within the Democratic Party as it struggles to repair its brand more than half a
OpenAI has publicly released its new artificial intelligence video generator Sora but the company won't let most users depict people as it monitors for patterns of misuse. Users of a premium version of OpenAI's flagship product ChatGPT can now use Sora to instantly create AI-generated videos based on written commands. Among the highlighted examples are high-quality video clips of sumo-wrestling bears and a cat sipping coffee. But only a small set of invited testers can use Sora to make videos of humans as OpenAI works to address concerns around misappropriation of likeness and deepfakes, the company said in a blog post. Text-to-video AI tools like Sora have been pitched as a way to save costs in making new entertainment and marketing videos but have also raised concerns about the ease with which they could impersonate real people in politics and otherwise. OpenAI says it is blocking content with nudity and that a top priority is preventing the most harmful uses, including child sex
New York is offering up to $90 million in tax credits for news outlets to hire and retain journalists in an effort to help keep the shrinking local news industry afloat. The U.S. newspaper industry has been in a long decline, driven by factors including a loss in advertising revenue as outlets have moved from primarily print to mostly digital. That prompted state lawmakers to help in a measure passed in the state budget. New York's three-year program allows some news organizations to tap into refundable tax credits each year, with a single outlet able to receive tax credits of up to $320,000 annually. State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said preserving journalism jobs is vital for the health of democracy. As evidence, he cited the weakened New York news media's failure to research the background of George Santos, a Republican who fabricated many details of his life story, until after he had been elected to Congress. Some of my colleagues have ..
The New York Times and The Washington Post were awarded three Pulitzer Prizes apiece on Monday for work in 2023 that dealt with everything from the war in Gaza to gun violence, and The Associated Press won in the feature photography category for coverage of global migration to the US. Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel and the aftermath produced work that resulted in two Pulitzers and a special citation. The Times won for text coverage that the Pulitzer board described as "wide-ranging and revelatory," while the Reuters news service won for its photography. The citation went to journalists and other writers covering the war in Gaza. The prestigious public service award went to ProPublica for reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy around the US Supreme Court to show how billionaires gave expensive gifts to justices and paid for luxury travel. Reporters Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg were honoured for their work. The Pulitzers ...