FX and Hulu are partnering with the New York Times to launch The New York Times Presents, a monthly documentary series. FX and Hulu call the show “a series of standalone documentaries powered by the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time.” 

There will be 10 episodes. The first one airs July 10.  

The July 10 episode, “They Get Brave,” is about doctors and nurses in New York during the pandemic. Aug. 7, it’s “This Is Dominic Fike: The Next Big Thing?”, about a young musician who is plucked from obscurity and given a $4 million record deal. 

The series will also feature a documentary about the killing of Breonna Taylor by police in Louisville. 

The New York Times Presents is produced by The New York Times and Left/Right, a Red Arrow Studios company. Executive producers are Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, Mary Robertson, Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick and Stephanie Preiss. The same team produced The Weekly, a collection of 30 half-hour documentaries.

FX debuted the New York Times series The Weekly last June. 

Disney acquired FX and a majority stake in Hulu when it acquired most of the Fox assets last year. 

A U.S. District Court has settled a FOIA dispute between the New York Times and the FCC over the latter's Restoring Internet Freedom Docket, issuing a summary judgment in favor of the Times and saying "[n]one of the agency's defenses to production are persuasive." 

Related: GAO Says Comment Docket Remains Vulnerable

"In this case, the public interest in disclosure is great because the importance of the comment process to agency rulemaking is great," the court said, adding: "If genuine public comment is drowned out by a fraudulent facsimile, then the notice-and-comment process has failed. Disclosing the requested data in this case informs the public understanding of the operations and activities of government in two ways -- at themicro level with regard to the integrity of the FCC’s repeal of the particular net neutrality rules at issue, and at the macro level with regard to the vulnerability of agency rulemaking in general."

The paper back in 2017 had sought server logs related to the comments posted in the net neutrality docket given the volume of bogus filings. After discussing the scope of the request, the Times narrowed its request to IP addresses and device-specific information (User-Agent headers), reducing the amount of information that the FCC would have to produce. 

Related: FCC Net Neutrality Docket Heats Up...Again

After the Times did not get a response to the request, it filed suit in September 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The FCC stated that the information the Times wanted contained material exempt from FOIA and that it was too tough to separate that out from the info that could be provided, and, so, because "producing the requested information is unreasonably burdensome and unreliable," the court summarized the FCC's argument, "FOIA does not require compliance." 

The Times sought a summary judgment from the court--before a trial on the facts--and the FCC filed its own counter petition for summary judgment. Since the facts were not in dispute, said the court, and since summary judgment is the preferred route for FOIA disputes, it made its ruling Friday (May 1). 

The court denied the Times' request for the FCC to pay attorneys fees. The Times is eligible for such compensation and the court said it was free to make the case for why it should get it. 

A spokesperson for FCC chairman Ajit Pai had no comment. 

"Litigation should not have been necessary to get this vital information," said Andrew Schwartzman, senior counselor, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. "I hope the Commission will now comply promptly rather than drag things out with appeals that will not succeed." 

FX will premiere its new news/documentary series The Weekly in June, the network said Tuesday.

The series, which marks the New York Times’ first major foray into TV news, will premiere June 2 on the network. The episodes will then stream on Hulu the day after debuting on FX, said network officials.

Each episode features a Times journalist investigating one of the most pressing issues of the day, said network officials. The Weekly is produced by The New York Times and production company Left/Right, with Mat Skene, Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick, Stephanie Preiss, Ken Druckerman, and Banks Tarver serving as executive producers. 

President Donald Trump waited until Tuesday morning (Jan. 2) before renewing his attacks on the news media, though in this case in the form of a call for better coverage of his Administration.

In a pair ot tweets prompted by the naming of a new publisher for The New York Times, a favorite target, the President suggested it was a chance for the paper, which he has branded failing (and did again Tuesday) and a tool of his Democratic opponents, to "lose" all of its "phony" and "non-existent" sources. The President has railed against unnamed sources in stories critical of him or his Administration.

The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, “to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved.” Get...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent “sources,” and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you won’t have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

The president's attacks on the media have led to reporters groups branding him a threat to a free press here and abroad and raised issues about how his administration would treat the proposed merger of AT&T and CNN parent Time Warner.

CNN has been the most consistent cable news target of the President's twitter ire, as the Times has been on the print side. The Justice Department is trying to block the merger. Though Justice argues that is because of the incentive and opportunity to favor must-have programming, the President's vow as a candidate to block the merger, combined with his attacks on CNN, have raised questions about Justice's move.

CNN says it was banned from a White House briefing with press secretary Sean Spicer and is reporting the same went for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Politico. The New YorkTimes and Politico confirmed online that they were not allowed to be part of the post-briefing gaggle.

President Donald Trump has said the mainstream media are the enemies of the American people, including taking particular aim at CNN, which he has called "very fake news," and the New York Times, which he has branded "failing" and disgraceful." He  repeated the “enemies” characterization at the conservative CPAC conference Friday. "We are fighting the fake news," he told CPAC. "They are the enemy of the people. They have no sources. They just make them up  when there are none." The President challenged the media to stop using unnamed sources.

RELATED: Trump Brands Media 'Enemy of the American People'

CNN said Breitbart News (its former editor is a top Trump advisor), the Washington Times and One America News Network were allowed to participate in the off-camera briefing, as were other TV news outlets, CNN said.

"The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House," the White House Correspondents' Association said in a statement supplied to CNN. "We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not. The board will be discussing this further with White House staff." 

“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” said Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times, in a statement. “We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”

Lynn Walsh, national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, suggested the move was out of line.

"Information coming from the White House Press Secretary should be expected to be on the record and open to all news organizations," she said. "The position, by title and purpose, is to share information with journalists and the public so insight and answers can be obtained from the White House and the President regarding policy, decisions and procedures."

RELATED: Trump: Press is Dishonest and Out of Control

She said that while President Obama and other presidents had allowed one-on-one access to some hand-picked reporters, but said that was different from "a Press Secretary not allowing specific news organizations access to a briefing meant for groups of journalists."

“President Trump's calls for an end to anonymous sources was alarming. It is not the job of political leaders to determine how journalists should conduct their work, and sets a terrible example for the rest of the world, where sources often must remain anonymous to preserve their own lives,” said Committee to Protect Journalists  Executive Director Joel Simon. “We are concerned by the decision to bar reporters from a press secretary briefing. The U.S. should be promoting press freedom and access to information.”

David Carr, the New York Times media columnist whose coverage ranged from television and film to the decline of print and the rise of digital media, died Thursday night (Feb. 12) in Manhattan at the age of 58. According to the Times, he collapsed in the newsroom before 9 p.m. and was pronounced dead shortly after at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan.

The cause of his death was not immediately known. Earlier in the day, Carr had moderated a "Times Talks" panel discussion for the film Citizenfour that featured subject Edward J. Snowden, director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Carr joined the Times in 2002. He began as a business reporter, and originated the paper's Hollywood awards-season feature "The Carpetbagger." He went on to write deeply reported pieces of massive scope — notably his 2010 piece on the ransacking of Tribune Company under mogul Sam Zell, featured in the 2011 documentary Page One (see photo) — as well as celebrity profiles typically featured on the front of the arts-and-leisure section. His column "Media Equation" documented the tension between legacy and digital media as the latter ascended and the former struggled to adapt.

Prior to the Times, Carr worked at Twin Cities Reader in Minnesota, Washington City Paper and Inside.com, and wrote for The Atlantic and New York magazine. In his 2008 memoir The Night of the Gun, he documented his path to the Times and his struggles as a recovering crack cocaine addict. .

Of joining the Times, Carr wrote in his memoir: “I got a call from Dave, the media editor at The New York Times, who had read some of my work at Inside, and he asked if I was interested in talking about a job. I thought it was the most preposterous thing I had ever heard.”

The Times published Carr's obituary on its front page this morning (Feb. 13).

Read more, including the reaction on Twitter, at broadcastingcable.com.