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☆ Two Universities Cancel Speeches by U.N. Ambassador
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | More About Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the span of less than a week, two universities have rescinded commencement speaking invitations to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the United Nations, because of student opposition to the United States’ support of Israel during the war in Gaza. Xavier University, an historically Black institution in New Orleans, withdrew its invitation to Ms. Thomas-Greenfield earlier this week, saying in a statement that “a number of students” had objected to her giving a commencement address. The president of Xavier, Reynold Verret, indicated that he was concerned about the possibility of disruptions during the graduation ceremony this weekend, and came to the conclusion that Xavier could no longer host her — a situation he said was “regrettable.”Mr. Verret added that he looked forward to having Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, one of only two Black women to hold the U.N. ambassador post, visit the school and speak “in the future.”The University of Vermont announced last week that Ms. Thomas-Greenfield would not be speaking there, agreeing to a key demand from by student demonstrators who set up an encampment on the campus in Burlington. The school’s president, Suresh Garimella, notified the student body last week that Ms. Thomas-Greenfield would not speak at graduation, and wrote, “I see you and hear you.”

Persons: Linda Thomas, Greenfield, Thomas, ”, Xavier, Reynold Verret, Mr, Verret, Suresh Garimella, “ Organizations: United Nations, Xavier University, ”, University of Vermont Locations: American, United States, Israel, Gaza, New Orleans, Burlington .

☆ It’s Not Just Gaza: Student Protesters See Links to a Global Struggle
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | More About Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Talk to student protesters across the country, and their outrage is clear: They have been galvanized by the scale of death and destruction in Gaza, and will risk arrest to fight for the Palestinian cause. But for many, the issues are closer to home, and at the same time, much bigger and broader. In their eyes, the Gaza conflict is a struggle for justice, linked to issues that seem far afield. They say they are motivated by policing, mistreatment of Indigenous people, discrimination toward Black Americans and the impact of global warming. In interviews with dozens of students across the country over the last week, they described, to a striking degree, the broad prism through which they see the Gaza conflict, which helps explain their urgency — and recalcitrance.

Organizations: Black Locations: Gaza

☆ Jewish Viewers Find a Refuge in Fox News
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | More About Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Since September, Fox News’s audience has grown by a larger percentage than CNN and MSNBC in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington and Miami. And in the New York market — the nation’s largest — Fox has lately beaten its left-leaning rival, MSNBC, by a few percentage points. In September, Fox was drawing 16 percent fewer viewers than MSNBC in New York. Fox News — with the largest audience in all of cable television in recent years — draws a sizable number of Democratic and liberal-leaning viewers. “My Jewish liberal friends will text me and they’ll say, ‘Oh, this is where you go in the afternoon?’ because they never watched Fox before,” she said.

Persons: Israel, Fox, ”, “, Jessica Tarlov, Bill Maher ” Organizations: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox, Democratic, Nielsen, The Free Press Locations: Gaza, Israel, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Los Angeles , Philadelphia, Washington, Minneapolis

☆ Dana Perino of Fox News Is About to Face Her Biggest Test as a Journalist
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | More About Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dana Perino can punch and parry with the best of them. But she could be better at ducking. In 2008, when Ms. Perino was the White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, she got clocked in the face with a boom microphone in the scuffle that broke out after a journalist threw his shoes at Mr. Bush. “I had a black eye for six weeks,” Ms. Perino, now an anchor for Fox News, said in an interview last week from her sun-dappled Upper West Side apartment. It will be the biggest moment for Ms. Perino at Fox News since she began co-hosting “The Five” in 2011.

Persons: Dana, parry, Perino, George W, Bush, “, ” Ms, —, Donald J, Trump Organizations: White House, Fox News, Bush Republican Locations: Simi Valley, Calif

A new biography of Elon Musk portrays the billionaire entrepreneur as a complex, tortured figure whose brilliance is often overshadowed by his inability to relate on a human level to the people around him — his wives, his children and those on whom he relied to help build the space exploration and electric car businesses that made him the wealthiest man on Earth. Mr. Musk’s life so far — his difficult childhood in South Africa, his stormy romantic relationships, his success as a visionary who created SpaceX and Tesla, and his impetuous decision to buy Twitter — is detailed through scores of interviews with his family, friends, business associates and Mr. Musk himself. The book, which will be released on Tuesday, is by Walter Isaacson, the journalist whose previous works have chronicled the lives of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin. It opens with a quote from Mr. Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, who once said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Jobs, “, ” Organizations: SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, Apple Locations: South Africa

The former president has told aides that he has made up his mind not to participate in the debate and has decided to post an online interview with Tucker Carlson that night instead, according to people briefed on the matter. Upstaging Fox’s biggest event of the year would be provocation enough. The decision is a potential source of aggravation for the Republican National Committee chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, who privately urged him to attend, including in her own visit to Bedminster last month. But Mr. Trump’s primary motive in skipping the debate is not personal animosity toward Ms. McDaniel but a crass political calculation: He doesn’t want to risk his giant lead in a Republican race that some close to him believe he must win to stay out of prison. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the campaign.

Persons: Tucker Carlson, Upstaging, Carlson —, Trump, Ronna McDaniel, McDaniel, that’s, Fox —, Rupert Murdoch — Organizations: Republican National, Republican, Fox Corporation Locations: Bedminster

☆ Report on Anti-Gay Slur Could Put Local News Site Out of Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | More About Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Other prominent Republicans have followed his lead, including Devin Nunes, the former Republican congressman Mr. Trump hired to run his social media network, Truth Social. Mr. Nunes has sued several outlets, including The Washington Post and CNN, for publishing stories that were unfavorable to him. For small local news organizations, many of which are barely getting by financially, the suits threaten to put them out of business. This case, he added is not a “he-said/she said” matter but “a ‘three-said,’ and more.”Through his lawyer, Mr. Tomczyk declined to comment on the case. The lawyer, Matthew M. Fernholz, said his client was “categorically denying that he used the word,” or any derivative of it, during the meeting.

Persons: Devin Nunes, Trump, Nunes, Phil Bryant, Tomczyk, ”, Rodney Smolla, Matthew M, Fernholz Organizations: Republican, The Washington Post, CNN, Wausau, Vermont Law School Locations: Mississippi, Wisconsin

☆ Fox General Counsel Will Depart
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | More About Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Fox Corporation’s chief legal officer, Viet Dinh, is departing, the company announced on Friday, in a major shake-up at the company after the landmark $787.5 million settlement it paid to Dominion Voting Systems in April. Mr. Dinh, a former official in the George W. Bush White House who amassed considerable power inside Fox, will stay on through the rest of the year, Fox said. Mr. Dinh gave what some inside the company considered flawed advice during the Dominion suit, which exposed a pattern of deceptive coverage by Fox News after the 2020 election. He insisted that Fox was on firm legal footing and could take the case, if need be, all the way to the Supreme Court, where he believed the company would prevail on First Amendment grounds. Check back for updates.

Persons: Fox, Viet, Dinh, George W, Bush Organizations: Dominion Voting Systems, Mr, Bush White House, Fox, Dominion, Fox News Locations: Viet Dinh

☆ White House Condemns Fox News Over Host’s Holocaust Comments
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | More About Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Did you ever read ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’?” Mr. Gutfeld said. “Vik Frankl talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful. Utility kept you alive.”Ms. Tarlov did not address Mr. Gutfeld’s question directly, instead saying she was concerned about middle school children being taught what Florida had set in its new curriculum. A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, released a statement on Tuesday condemning Fox News for broadcasting Mr. Gutfeld’s comments, calling them “a horrid, dangerous, extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of Americans who suffered from the evil of enslavement.” He added, “There was nothing good about slavery; there was nothing good about the Holocaust.”Fox News has not commented on Mr. Gutfeld’s statement.

Persons: Greg Gutfeld, “, Mr, Gutfeld, Ron DeSantis, Jessica Tarlov, Viktor Frankl, “ Vik Frankl, Ms, Tarlov, Andrew Bates, Gutfeld’s, ” Organizations: White, Fox News, Fox, Florida, ” Fox

Mr. Epps can be seen on video encouraging demonstrators to march with him and enter the Capitol at one point. But in May, the lawsuit says, the Justice Department notified Mr. Epps that it was planning to file criminal charges against him related to his role in the Capitol attack. It is difficult to hear what Mr. Epps says in the video. But promoters of the conspiracy theories about him have used that moment to accuse him of uttering some kind of command. Mr. Epps has said he called the F.B.I.’s National Threat Operations Center shortly after the alert went up, and his phone records show he spoke to agents there for nearly an hour.

Persons: Epps, “, Fox, Trump, goad Trump Organizations: Fox, Washington D.C, Justice Department, Capitol, Justice, Threat Operations Locations: Washington, “

He can be seen moving past a line of Capitol Police at the barricades, but never actually goes inside the Capitol. Federal prosecutors have not charged Mr. Epps with a crime, focusing instead on the more than 1,000 other demonstrators who acted violently or were trespassing in the Capitol. The Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into the attack remains open, however, and Mr. Epps could still be indicted. Yet for more than 18 months, Mr. Carlson insisted that the lack of charges against Mr. Epps could mean only one thing: that he was being protected because he was a secret government agent. There was “no rational explanation,” Mr. Carlson told his audience, why this “mysterious figure” who “helped stage-manage the insurrection” had not been charged.

Persons: Tucker Carlson, Donald J, Trump, Ray Epps —, Epps, Carlson, Mr, “, ” Organizations: Fox News, Capitol, Trump, Capitol Police, Federal Locations: Arizona, Washington

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