Journalists Still Barred From White House

Plus: Manhole climbers, Beshear mulling 2028 run, God bless the commenters, and more...

First Amendment case: "A federal judge on Thursday said that President Trump's order barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House was likely unconstitutional and ordered the administration to restore access to the three news outlets," reports The New York Times. "The ruling from Judge Kelly, a Trump appointee, is a temporary reprieve for the three outlets while the litigation proceeds."

Oddly, some journalists were still barred from White House grounds as of this morning. "CNN reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist were denied access to the White House grounds in the 6:00 a.m. hour," reports the outlet. "There was no reason provided for the refusal and CNN will continue to try to gain access as regular business hours start. One CNN producer was able to enter the White House using their pass after 6:00 a.m. It was not immediately clear why the person had been able to access the building." For more background on all this, and the president's, uh, shifting rationale, read Reason's Jacob Sullum ("After Banishing Journalists for Writing 'Purposely Negative' Stories, Trump Invokes 'National Security'").

Related defeats: "A judge on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit accusing The Des Moines Register and its former pollster of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race, rejecting the president's claim that the newspaper's poll coverage violated Iowa's consumer fraud law," reports the Associated Press. "Calling the case extraordinary, Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie said that allowing the lawsuit and its 'faulty' claims to proceed could have a chilling effect that 'can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs.' He sided with pollster J. Ann Selzer and the newspaper in affirming that the poll and coverage of it were constitutionally protected political speech, not a commercial product."

Attacking Australia? Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said yesterday that OpenAI agents had breached several Australian government websites earlier this year. "It's the first publicly reported case of AI models autonomously hacking into government systems," notes Politico.

Albanese, speaking outside the United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan, said that the incident involved an "OpenAI agent gaining unauthorized access" back in June to his government's Medicare statistics reporting portal. Though "no personal information is believed to have been accessed," the agents gained access to nonpublic files. "Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI, said in a statement provided that the company notified the Australian government of the breach on Sept. 10 after discovering the incident in August," reports Politico.

How wonderful that this happened to a friendly government. What happens if agents do this to Iran next? What about Russia? What about China? If these AI companies unwittingly end up starting huge espionage operations, that seems like a big problem.

Albanese aired these complaints, and this disclosure, as OpenAI head Sam Altman was appearing before the U.N. Security Council to discuss AI security.

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Scenes from New York: People have been climbing out of manholes on the Upper East Side, and security for the United Nations is not happy about it.

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QUICK HITS

• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, is hinting that he might be interested in running for president in 2028.
• "One of the earliest recorded crackdowns on a prediction market was a papal decree," writes Ryan Chan-Wei for The Washington Post. "In 16th-century Rome, bets on who would become the next pope were commonplace. So much so that in 1591, Pope Gregory XIV threatened excommunication for anyone caught betting on a conclave. Nevertheless, the wagering was not extinguished. The odds once quoted openly across Rome continued circulating behind closed doors and eventually resurfaced in the centuries that followed. When white smoke rose over the Sistine Chapel in 2025, tens of millions of dollars were riding on the outcome in prediction markets….New York recently sued Kalshi, a major prediction-market platform, for allegedly running an unlicensed gambling business. Similar lawsuits are pending across the country. But a prediction market is not simply a casino. It produces a public good: a real-time projection, accessible to anyone, of the likelihood of a particular event occurring."
• Reminds me of some folks who hang out here:

Ever since I started at Slate I have been fascinated by our commenting community, which seems to hate just about everything I've ever published on the site. For the 30th anniversary of the magazine, I decided to ask them why. (Quick thread.) pic.twitter.com/JjrF3YLq2A

— Luke Winkie (@luke_winkie) September 23, 2026

• "School choice responds to unequal quality; it doesn't cause it. The failure isn't that some families can choose a good school, but that too many can't. Trapping another family in a bad school wouldn't have helped Najya. Moving students can change peers and school culture; it can't tell a principal how to build an effective school," writes Roland Fryer for The Wall Street Journal. "Choice advocates make the opposite mistake by assuming choice is enough. Competitive markets require consumers who can judge quality and suppliers that can respond to demand. School districts reliably provide neither. Report cards covered in A's can conceal years of missed learning. Truthful feedback often arrives only after a child changes schools or sits for an external exam. By then, third grade is gone. Successful schools can't freely expand, and geography, transportation, admissions rules and politics restrict families' options."
• Clavicular charged with rape in Massachusetts.
• So true:

A lot of people will incorrectly diagnose the Covid conscious lesbian bar drama as a woke problem. True heads understand it as a Massachusetts crank problem. These local cranks exist as part of a sacred fabric of obstinate resistance https://t.co/iNmrV3Zzta

— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) September 23, 2026