It’s Tuesday, September 22. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Alex Berenson on why he’s fearful of AI—and what we can do about it. Jed Rubenfeld on the three media outlets suing Trump for shutting them out of the White House. Arthur Brooks on why relying on AI writing will make you unhappy. And much more.
But first: Nikole Hannah-Jones’ school experiment.
In 2014, Nikole Hannah-Jones made a decision: She would send her daughter Najya to a bad school. The New York Times journalist, who would later become known as the face of the newspaper’s 1619 Project, explained in an essay soon after that she was doing so to help fight inequality and segregation. On Sunday, Hannah-Jones published an update on her experiment, which has been a disaster by her own admission. The education Najya, now 16, received at multiple schools was appalling, and it left her furious and feeling betrayed by her mother.
“So you had money to send me to one of the best schools, and you chose not to?” she yelled at Nikole on one occasion. “Because other kids are disadvantaged, you didn’t want to put me in a great school?”
It’s tempting to kick an ideological opponent when they’re down, writes Coleman Hughes of the admission, but it’s far better to learn from their mistakes. What, then, are the takeaways from Hannah-Jones’ decision to put ideology ahead of her daughter’s best interests? Coleman breaks that down in his piece for us today.
—Oliver Wiseman
Alex Berenson: “I Didn’t Fall for the Covid Fearmongering. I’m Worried About AI.”
I read Alex Berenson’s writing pretty closely, and why wouldn’t I? He’s someone who thinks for himself and has been proven right on the problems with cannabis, why public health wildly overreacted to Covid, and why mRNA vaccines were not the silver bullet they were sold as. So when I saw him laying out his fears of AI, I wanted to better understand his thought process. I asked him to write a piece for us about why he has gone from an AI skeptic to someone who worries about the harm it could cause. The piece he turned in is lucid, thoughtful—and, to my thinking, persuasive. I think you’ll agree. —Joe Nocera
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
Coming Up from The Free Press
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Bari Weiss and Simon Sebag Montefiore. Live in New York City. Thursday, October 1, at 7 p.m. Tickets here—selling fast!
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Virtual Book Club meeting. Zoom call to discuss East of Eden with other Free Pressers in the Forum. October 8 at 7 p.m. Sign up for updates.
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Upcoming Supper Clubs. Break bread with Free Pressers in your neighborhood. October 22 and November 12 at 6:30 p.m. Reserve your seat.
THE NEWS
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The United Nations General Assembly will begin today in New York City, bringing together hundreds of world leaders and foreign diplomats. President Trump is scheduled to meet today with the leaders of Persian Gulf nations to speak about the future of the Iran war, two officials told CNN.
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Paramount Skydance has reached a deal with a group of U.S. states, addressing antitrust concerns and clearing the way for its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount, the parent company of The Free Press, threatened last week to leave California amid antitrust lawsuits from 12 state attorneys general. The new deal, which settles those suits, bars Paramount from closing its studios in Los Angeles for at least five years.
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Thousands of flights were delayed or canceled on Monday across several major airports on the East Coast due to a telecommunications error. The loss of connection was caused by a circuit failure in a Philadelphia air traffic control center and prolonged by the accidental severing of a backup fiber line in New Jersey, one FAA official said.
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A jury on Monday found a Vermont man guilty of attempted murder in the 2023 shooting of three Palestinian students who were walking in his neighborhood. The verdict rejected the assailant’s insanity defense, which hinged on claims that he believed he was doing the bidding of U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies.
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An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Sunday shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, who had illegally entered the U.S. and “had a final order of removal,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. The man is in stable condition and “in federal custody pending removal,” officials said.
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Cindy Crawford’s son Presley Gerber died on Sunday at 27 in a rehabilitation facility following a yearslong struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues, the Associated Press reported. A cause of death has not yet been determined, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
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Lindsay Clancy’s lawyers have requested an investigation of the lone juror who wanted to convict the Massachusetts mother of murder in the deaths of her three children. The motion, made public Monday, asks the court to probe the juror about alleged cell phone use during deliberations and his truthfulness on a questionnaire filled out during the jury selection process.
