More stories

  • in

    Trump Names Karoline Leavitt as His White House Press Secretary

    President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Friday that he had chosen Karoline Leavitt, who worked in his administration and served as his campaign’s press secretary, to be his White House press secretary.Ms. Leavitt, 27, will take on one of the most visible jobs in Mr. Trump’s next administration, fielding questions from reporters in the White House briefing room on behalf of a president with an adversarial relationship to the mainstream media. She will be the youngest person ever to assume the role.“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.”Mr. Trump can be hyper-focused on coverage of himself, complaining both privately and publicly about newspaper headlines and television packages. He made a public show of castigating news outlets over unfavorable coverage and amped up his threats against the media in the final weeks of his campaign.Mr. Trump cycled through four press secretaries during his first four years in office, and Ms. Leavitt will have to manage his expectations while also navigating the demands of the White House press corps. Her position will immediately make her a public figure in a way that few other Trump officials will be.Throughout the campaign, Ms. Leavitt adopted Mr. Trump’s disdain for the mainstream media in frequent appearances on major television networks and conservative outlets. Mr. Trump was pleased with her performance and looked to her as a trusted voice to defend him on television, according to people who worked on the Trump campaign.After working in the White House as an assistant press secretary and in the Office of Presidential Correspondence during the first Trump administration, Ms. Leavitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire in 2022, winning a Republican primary but failing to unseat a Democratic incumbent. She also was a spokeswoman for Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a close Trump ally who has been tapped to be his ambassador to the United Nations. More

  • in

    Craig Melvin Is Named Hoda Kotb’s Replacement on ‘Today’

    By selecting Mr. Melvin, a familiar face on the show, network executives chose to go the steadiest route possible.Craig Melvin, the veteran NBC News host, will succeed Hoda Kotb as an anchor of the network’s flagship morning show, “Today,” the company announced Thursday morning.Mr. Melvin will start in the new role, teaming with Savannah Guthrie, on Jan. 13.The position, one of the most prominent in television news, opened after Ms. Kotb, who has been at the network for more than two decades, announced in September that she would step down early next year. Ms. Kotb, who will remain as a contributor to the show, said at the time that she wanted to spend more time with her young children, and that it was “time to turn the page on what has been a dream book, a dream quarter-century.”Ms. Kotb, 60, will take her final turn as co-anchor of “Today” on Jan. 10.By selecting Mr. Melvin, 45, network executives chose to go the steadiest route possible. He has been the news anchor of “Today” since 2018, frequently joining Ms. Guthrie and Ms. Kotb on the set at some point in the 7 a.m. hour. He is also a co-host of the show’s 9 a.m. hour, and used to be an anchor of the weekend edition of “Today.”Mr. Melvin also was an anchor on MSNBC before leaving his daily 11 a.m. show on the cable network two years ago.“Dreams do come true,” he said in an interview before the news was announced on “Today.”“As someone said to me, this is an obit job,” he continued. “When you die one day, this is the first thing that gets mentioned in an obituary after it mentions you were a husband and a father.”Mr. Melvin said he found out about his selection several weeks ago. (NBC News executives kept it under wraps until after the presidential election.) Ms. Kotb said in an interview that it was such a secret that they had to develop a code term in order to toast his success, since so few people knew of it. The code? “Let’s Go Mets.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Chris Wallace to Quit CNN After 3 Years

    The 77-year-old veteran anchor told The Daily Beast that he planned to venture into streaming or podcasting.Chris Wallace, a veteran TV anchor who left Fox News for CNN three years ago, announced on Monday that he was leaving his post to venture into the streaming or podcasting worlds.Mr. Wallace, 77, told The Daily Beast that he was leaving the network to pursue independent content creation, where, he told the outlet, “the action seems to be.” He mentioned he was still unsure what form of content he would make, but said his career in broadcasting was over.He said his decision to leave CNN at the end of his three-year contract did not come from discontent. “I have nothing but positive things to say. CNN was very good to me,” he said.One of the network’s most recognizable faces, Mr. Wallace started in 2022 as an on-screen commentator and hosted a weekly talk show called “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” He also anchored CNN’s coverage of the U.S. presidential election last week.Before joining CNN, Mr. Wallace worked at Fox News for 18 years and hosted “Fox News Sunday.” He turned heads at the conservative news outlet when he spoke out against President Trump’s “direct, sustained assault on freedom of the press” in 2020. He moderated an unruly presidential debate in 2020 between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr.Mr. Wallace had initially joined the network to be part of its new CNN+ service, which imploded just weeks after its much-promoted release.CNN’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, confirmed Mr. Wallace’s departure in a statement posted by the network.A representative for Mr. Wallace did not respond immediately to a request for comment. More

  • in

    El equipo de Trump veta a algunos medios de su fiesta electoral

    Varios reporteros fueron vetados tras realizar una cobertura crítica de la campaña.La campaña del expresidente Donald Trump ha impedido el acceso de varios periodistas a su evento de resultados del martes por la noche en su club Mar-a-Lago de Florida.Tara Palmeri, corresponsal política sénior de Puck, dijo que tenía previsto asistir para transmitir desde el evento como parte del especial de la noche electoral de Amazon con Brian Williams. Pero, dijo en su pódcast el martes, la campaña de Trump la vetó después de que ella escribiera un artículo sobre la ansiedad interna en torno los números de votación temprana en Pensilvania.“Resulta que he molestado al jefe de campaña de Trump con mis reportajes y han decidido denegar mis credenciales”, dijo Palmeri en el pódcast, Somebody’s Gotta Win, y añadió: “He sido honesta y justa todo este tiempo cubriendo estas elecciones.“Chris LaCivita, uno de los directores de campaña de Trump, calificó a Palmeri de “columnista de chismes” en una publicación en las redes sociales el 31 de octubre, el día en que se publicó el artículo sobre la ansiedad de la campaña, y confirmó que se le habían negado las credenciales.Un portavoz de la campaña de Trump no respondió inicialmente a una solicitud de comentarios.El equipo de Trump celebrará un evento VIP en Mar-a-Lago el martes por la noche. También se espera que Trump se dirija a la multitud en un acto más amplio en el Centro de Convenciones de Palm Beach. A otros periodistas se les permitió asistir a los actos de campaña.La campaña de Trump revocó la entrada a un equipo de periodistas de Politico después de que su revista publicara el lunes un artículo en el que se decía que un director de campo de Trump era un nacionalista blanco que compartía sus opiniones en internet bajo un nombre diferente. Un portavoz de Politico declinó hacer comentarios. Sophia Cai, reportera nacional de Axios, también fue excluida del evento, según una persona con conocimiento de la medida.Aja Whitaker-Moore, editora en jefe de Axios, dijo en un comunicado que Cai era “una excelente reportera” que había hecho “cobertura esencial, clínica para Axios.“Trump ha criticado regularmente la cobertura de los medios de comunicación, y sus amenazas contra los periodistas se han intensificado durante esta campaña. More

  • in

    Resultados electorales y la aguja del Times: esto es lo que necesitas saber

    Así te traeremos los últimos totales de votos y cálculos del resultado en las contiendas electorales.Llevamos meses preparándonos para informar sobre miles de contiendas federales, estatales y locales el día de las elecciones, entre otras cosas recopilando resultados y otros datos sobre el recuento de votos de los distritos electorales y condados de todo el país. Este año, un equipo de casi 100 periodistas, ingenieros, estadísticos, expertos en datos e investigadores del Times colaboran para ofrecer resultados actualizados al minuto, que se muestran en directo en nytimes.com con una completa gama de mapas y gráficos interactivos para que puedas ver lo que está ocurriendo en las contiendas más importantes de la noche.Esos datos también alimentan la aguja, nuestro modelo estadístico de la noche electoral, que calcula el resultado final basándose en los resultados parciales de las elecciones, ayudando a los lectores a entender qué pasa con los votos que se han contado hasta ahora.La publicación de la aguja en directo la noche electoral depende de sistemas informáticos mantenidos por ingenieros de toda la empresa, algunos de los cuales están actualmente en huelga. La forma en que mostremos nuestra previsión electoral dependerá de esos sistemas, así como de los datos que recibamos, y solo publicaremos una versión en directo de la aguja si estamos seguros de que esos sistemas son estables.Si no podemos transmitir los resultados de la aguja en directo, nuestros periodistas tienen previsto ejecutar su modelo estadístico periódicamente, examinar sus resultados y publicar actualizaciones en nuestro blog en directo sobre lo que vean, dando a nuestros lectores una idea de la situación real de la contienda a lo largo de la noche.Presentamos la aguja en 2016 y la hemos estado perfeccionando desde entonces. A continuación te explicamos cómo funciona:Preguntas sobre la aguja electoral y los datos que la alimentan¿Por qué tener la aguja?¿Cómo funciona la aguja?¿Cómo se lee la aguja?¿Utiliza la aguja Inteligencia Artificial?¿Cómo calcula el Times quién gana en cada contienda?¿De dónde proceden los datos de la aguja y qué tipo de datos recogemos?¿Qué tipo de contacto tenemos con los funcionarios electorales?¿Son frecuentes los errores de datos en la noche electoral? ¿Cómo se detectan y solucionan?¿Por qué a veces se tarda tanto en saber quién ha ganado?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    How Uvalde’s Newspaper Kept Going, Despite Unimaginable Loss

    Craig Garnett, the publisher of The Uvalde Leader-News, opens up about covering a tragedy that was — and is — too close to home.Craig Garnett played many roles as he drove around Uvalde, Tex. in his white pickup truck.He was a proud father, pointing to the stadium where his son played football before switching to golf. He was a local historian, describing how farmers sold angora fiber to be spun into mohair at a mercantile near the main drag. He was an amateur lepidopterist, gently waving away swarms of monarch and snout butterflies that were migrating through town for the second time this year.But, approaching Robb Elementary School, where 19 students and two teachers were gunned down in their classrooms on May 24, 2022, Garnett slipped into the role he’s best known for, as publisher and owner of The Uvalde Leader-News.Calmly, candidly, with a journalist’s eye for detail and a citizen’s disbelief, Garnett narrated the view: There was the drainage ditch where the shooter crashed his grandmother’s Ford F-150 before firing through the windows of the fourth grade wing. There was the door he walked through. The funeral home survivors fled to. The driveway where 376 law enforcement officers mobilized for 73 minutes before ending the carnage. The street where parents waited. The white crosses, one for each victim.“Devastating,” Garnett said. He pulled away from the gated, partially boarded-up building in silence.The offices of the Uvalde Leader-News are on the town square, across from a small park with a fountain.Christopher Lee for The New York TimesA memorial in a central plaza is bedecked with flowers, mementos and pictures of victims.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    James Ledbetter, Media Critic and Business Journalist, Dies at 60

    He wrote the Press Clips column for The Village Voice, held top jobs at Inc. magazine and Slate, and wrote a book about how the startup magazine The Industry Standard fizzled.James Ledbetter, a former media critic who wrote the Press Clips column for The Village Voice in the 1990s, led Inc. magazine as its editor in chief and started an online financial technology newsletter, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.His sister Kathleen Ledbetter Rishel confirmed the death but declined to specify the cause.At The Village Voice, where Alexander Cockburn had originated Press Clips, Mr. Ledbetter was a keen observer of local and national news media.“Week after week, perhaps no one tops James Ledbetter’s razor-sharp dissection of the nation’s print media,” Seth Rogovoy of The Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts wrote in 1995.Michael Tomasky, the editor The New Republic and a friend, said Mr. Ledbetter “was a voracious reader of the tabloids, all four of them at the same time,” adding, “He wrote Press Clips at a time when media criticism exploded into an industry.”In a column about The New York Post in 1998, Mr. Ledbetter castigated New York State for approving a $12.9-million economic development grant to the newspaper to keep it from moving to New Jersey.“Why, taxpayers want to know, should part of our hard-earned paychecks pamper the pockets of the paper that’s always complaining about everyone else’s welfare check?” he wrote. “Especially since that paper is owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Photographing Every President Since Reagan

    Doug Mills reflects on nearly 40 years of taking photos of presidents.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Through his camera lens, Doug Mills has seen it all: George H.W. Bush playing horseshoes. An emotional Barack Obama. A shirtless Bill Clinton. And he’s shared what he’s seen with the world.Mr. Mills, a veteran photographer, has captured pictures of every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. His portfolio includes images of intimate conversations, powerful podium moments and scenes now seared into the American consciousness — like the face of President George W. Bush, realizing that America was under attack while he was reading to schoolchildren.Mr. Mills began his photography career at United Press International before joining The Associated Press. Then, in 2002, he was hired at The New York Times, where his latest assignment has been trailing former President Donald J. Trump. In July, Mr. Mills captured the moment a bullet flew past Mr. Trump’s head at a rally in Butler, Pa., and then a photo of Mr. Trump, ear bloodied, raising his fist.Over the past four decades, cameras and other tools have changed the job considerably, he said. While he once used 35mm SLR film cameras (what photographers used for decades), he now travels with multiple Sony mirrorless digital cameras, which are silent and can shoot at least 20 frames per second. He used to lug around portable dark rooms; now he can transmit images to anywhere in the world directly from his camera, via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable, in a matter of seconds.But it’s not just the technology that has changed. Campaigns are more image-driven than ever before, he said, thanks to social media, TV ads and coverage that spans multiple platforms. Not to mention, it’s a nonstop, 24-hour news cycle. He likens covering an election year to a monthslong Super Bowl.“It consumes your life, but I love it,” Mr. Mills said. “I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.”Mr. Mills, who on election night will be with Mr. Trump at a watch party in Palm Beach, Fla., shared how one image of each president he’s photographed throughout his career came together. — Megan DiTrolioWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More