Facebook issues the latest in a long string of apologies.YouTube shooter and the lure of fame. Apple plans its own chips for 2020, Mac Pro for 2019. Is Amazon spending too much on video? Terry Myerson out at Microsoft - the end of the Windows era. FBI seizes Backpage.com.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Trump’s Personal Lawyer Under Scrutiny | The New York Times
The F.B.I. has raided the home of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen — the same man who acknowledged paying $130,000 to a pornographic film actress who said she had a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.
What are investigators looking for?
On today’s episode:
• Matt Apuzzo, who covers law enforcement for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• The F.B.I. raid against President Trump’s longtime personal lawyeropens a new front for the Justice Department in its scrutiny of Mr. Trump and his associates.
• Mr. Trump angrily denounced the raids as “disgraceful” and “an attack on our country.” Read an annotated transcript of his remarks.
It kills me that we don’t have the morality and common sense people had in the 1990’s even. Thank goodness there are some solid institutions in the country left to handle these things.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: A ‘Big Price to Pay’ in Syria | The New York Times
After a suspected chemical attack in Syria, President Trump said Iran and Russia were responsible for backing “Animal Assad.” But Damascus may view the United States as being focused on a different fight.
President Trump has warned that there will be a “big price to pay” after yet another suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria.
But the suspicion that Syria continues to use those weapons suggests it views the United States as being focused on a different fight.
On today’s episode:
• Ben Hubbard, who covers the Middle East for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• Dozens suffocated in Syria after a reported chemical attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.
• Trump sought a way out of Syria, but the latest attack is pulling him back in.
• There have been similar deadly assaults for years, including one in 2013 that killed more than 1,400.
Listening to this a few days on it sounds more like Trump has even more bluster than Obama, but he’s doing roughly the same thing. Yet again, small countries that should know far better are continuing to trod on their own people. Sadly, America is doing it to, just with far more sophisticated weapons. If we can’t figure out the right and wrong at the big obvious scale, how can we have proper morality at the smaller and more subtle scales?
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Taking Over Local News | The New York Times
On local TV stations across the United States, news anchors have been delivering the exact same message to their viewers. “Our greatest responsibility,” they begin by saying, “is to serve our communities.”
But what they are being forced to say next has left many questioning whom those stations are really being asked to serve.
On today’s episode:
• Sydney Ember, a New York Times business reporter who covers print and digital media.
• Aaron Weiss, who worked several years ago as a news director for Sinclair in Sioux City, Iowa.
Background reading:
• Anchors at local news stations across the country made identical comments about media bias. The script came from their owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group.
• David D. Smith, the chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, said his stations were no different from network news outlets.
• The largest owner of local TV stations, Sinclair has a history of supporting Republican causes.
