Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Why Isn't the Media Talking about Hurricane Helene Damage?

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Normally Podcast: Why Isn't the Media Talking about Hurricane Helene Damage? · Normally

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, and welcome to an episode of Normally, the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: show with Normalish takes for when the news gets weird
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and it's always weird. I'm Mary Catherine Ham.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm Carol Marcowitz.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. We've had a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: bunch of people download, and we encourage all of you
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to continue to follow, subscribe, download, comment, rate us. Lovely
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to have you Normies with us today. We're getting into
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: some news, tough news immediately today from my home state. Actually,
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  Speaker 1: I grew up in North Carolina, and Hurricane Helene dumped
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  Speaker 1: so much water on the state of North Carolina, particularly
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  Speaker 1: western North Carolina and East Tennessee, that the flooding and
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  Speaker 1: damn issues and mud slides are absolutely biblical and just
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  Speaker 1: the devastation happening there, and it has for several factors
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  Speaker 1: which we can discuss. It's not gotten a ton of
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  Speaker 1: coverage on now national sort of at least TV news
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  Speaker 1: for sure, some print coverage, but just some stats about
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  Speaker 1: what it looks like there. Dozens of counties are in
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  Speaker 1: a state of emergency. A friend of mine checked the
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  Speaker 1: court system today just to give you an idea. In
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  Speaker 1: twenty two counties just don't have court for the foreseeable
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  Speaker 1: future because no facilities can be reached and nothing can
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  Speaker 1: be done. There are entire communities west of Asheville, which
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  Speaker 1: is the city you will hear a lot about because
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  Speaker 1: it's the medium sized city that's affected by this, but
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  Speaker 1: there are tons of communities west of that that are
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  Speaker 1: completely isolated. We're talking no roads in, no communication, no internet,
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  Speaker 1: no sell no any kind of phone, and they're using
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  Speaker 1: choppers to get supplies there. So that's the scene in
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  Speaker 1: western North Carolina as it stands. Ten to thirty inches
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  Speaker 1: of rain fell across the mountains. Four sixty four thousand
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  Speaker 1: or without power in North Carolina, although a lot of
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  Speaker 1: them have been restored. It was a million at the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: It's been restored, so thank you to the lineman and
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  Speaker 1: other first responders. But that's where we stand at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be a very long recovery from a
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  Speaker 1: Katrina level trauma. There.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, just awful devastation. I think that one of the
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  Speaker 3: main things that I would say about this is that, look,
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  Speaker 3: I don't think the hurricane relief should be a president's
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  Speaker 3: job necessarily, but I do remember very well the absolute
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  Speaker 3: hysteria when George W. Bush did a flyover of New
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  Speaker 3: Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And that's what Kamala Harris did
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  Speaker 3: in North Carolina to absolute silence from the media. Joe
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  Speaker 3: Biden was, of course at his beach house in Delaware.
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  Speaker 2: Let's roll that clip, and a hurricane is for president.
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  Speaker 3: Why weren't she and Vice President.
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  Speaker 1: Harris Jared Washington commanding this this weekend?
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  Speaker 3: I was command.
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  Speaker 1: I was on the fiel for at least two hours
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  Speaker 1: yesterday and the day before as well.
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  Speaker 3: I command call a telephone. It's all my security. It's
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  Speaker 3: not important for the country to see.
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  Speaker 2: Goodbye two whole hours.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, that's a serious workday over there in biden Land.
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  Speaker 3: He is super on it by phone. But of course,
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  Speaker 3: this response was at least better than when Biden was
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: asked about the strikes in Yemen and he said, I've
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  Speaker 3: spoken to both sides. They got to settle the strike.
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  Speaker 3: Worth the collective bargaining effort. I think they'll settle the strike,
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  Speaker 3: which sounds like he thinks the Yemen Nights are.
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  Speaker 2: Picketing outside of their job or something.
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  Speaker 3: So our producer John mentioned that he was flipping through
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  Speaker 3: all the channels on Sunday night to see if anyone
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  Speaker 3: is talking about the hurricane, and he could only find
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  Speaker 3: mention of it on the Weather Channel, no other coverage
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  Speaker 3: at all.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Actually, look, some of this can
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  Speaker 1: be a dropped because in the news industry, you're covering
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  Speaker 1: your all eyes on Florida, right, because Florida, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: are you guys good, You're good?
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  Speaker 3: Right? All good? Our governor is of course just amazing
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  Speaker 3: and completely on it. I didn't hit my coast, which
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  Speaker 3: is the East Coast, thankfully, but you could just you
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  Speaker 3: knew that Florida was well prepared and ready to go.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know that the same kind of coverage it
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  Speaker 3: has been given to Democratic Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper.
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  Speaker 3: I think that if this kind of devastation was happening
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  Speaker 3: in Florida and Governor DeSantis had been sort of unprepared
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  Speaker 3: for it, the media would be doing just a happy dance.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that that's really kind of sick that
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  Speaker 3: they're not covering this at all because they kind of
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  Speaker 3: have to protect their guy, and of course, also the
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  Speaker 3: political implications in North Carolina. Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is
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  Speaker 3: the Republican candidate running against state Attorney General Josh Stein
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  Speaker 3: to replace Roy Cooper. And I you know, Robinson has
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  Speaker 3: been in the news lately. He's had some questionable comments.
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  Speaker 3: The media is definitely not trying to show that the
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  Speaker 3: Democrats are doing a poor job in North Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Desanta's truly has a gift for disaster prep and
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  Speaker 1: it is. It's something to watch the State of Florida
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  Speaker 1: and how things are run. It gives me rare moments
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  Speaker 1: of hope for the idea of government running anything.
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  Speaker 3: He's a problem solver. I would say that's his gift. Actually,
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  Speaker 3: he's like, here's the problem, and he's like, I know
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  Speaker 3: how to solve this. I he just figures out solutions
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  Speaker 3: in a way that I have never seen before. I
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  Speaker 3: quote the Vanilla Ice line, like if you got a problem,
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  Speaker 3: you I'll solve That's him.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it's impressive to watch. And there's just no
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  Speaker 1: nonsense updates coming from his Twitter feed all day with
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  Speaker 1: like this is how many people's power we've restored, this
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  Speaker 1: is the progress on this post Hurricane Ian. Just to
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  Speaker 1: give an idea, my husband was down there as a
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  Speaker 1: first responder and things were really wiped out in so
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  Speaker 1: many areas, particularly the Fort Myers area, and just bridges
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  Speaker 1: that no longer existed between islands that were rebuilt within
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  Speaker 1: days to make sure that supplies could get where they
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  Speaker 1: needed to go. So DeSantis has sent assets to North
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  Speaker 1: Carolina because he's got things handled and he knows what
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  Speaker 1: he needs in Florida. And I think, unfortunately, you're correct, Carol,
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  Speaker 1: that some of this can be innocent, because maybe you
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  Speaker 1: didn't expect western North Carolina to be the place she's hit.
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  Speaker 1: It's Appalachia. There aren't a lot of national reporters or
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  Speaker 1: assets there. Atlanta flooding is going to get a lot
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  Speaker 1: more coverage for that week for that reason. But we
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  Speaker 1: all know if outside of Washington, DC, or New York
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  Speaker 1: or LA or Chicago got this level of devastation, it
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  Speaker 1: would be a twenty four to seven. That's her story. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there isn't a lot of internet coverage, There isn't a
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  Speaker 1: lot of accessibility to these areas. But this is a
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  Speaker 1: great time to have a president who has been briefed
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  Speaker 1: and can go before the American people and bring attention
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  Speaker 1: to something that might not otherwise get a lot of attention.
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  Speaker 1: But as we noted, Biden was on the beach and
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  Speaker 1: Kamala Harris is on the trail.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but there's a bright spot in North Carolina. I
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  Speaker 3: think you're going to tell us about something Elon Musk
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  Speaker 3: is doing.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, so there. I want to give credit also to
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  Speaker 1: just like all the first responders down there and coming
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  Speaker 1: from all other states and you know, going into danger
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  Speaker 1: and washed out roads and doing the hard work. And
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  Speaker 1: one of the things those first responders are using is Starlink,
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  Speaker 1: which is Elon Musk's satellite based internet. It is affordable
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  Speaker 1: and portable, and so you can take it as a
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  Speaker 1: first responder team into areas that don't otherwise have coverage.
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  Speaker 1: You can use it so that people can touch base
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  Speaker 1: with relatives for the first time, which many people in
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  Speaker 1: that's from North Carolina have not been able to update
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  Speaker 1: anyone as to their condition. So you can do that.
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  Speaker 1: And again, so many things in media are so ideologically
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  Speaker 1: driven that I doubt this will be given the credit
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  Speaker 1: it deserves. But it has really been a lifeline in
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  Speaker 1: this crisis. And I just want to note I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if you remember this story, but in twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: the FCC denied Starlink subsidies for a second time. Because
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  Speaker 1: they say starlink has not demonstrated that it would meet
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  Speaker 1: the required download speeds for these rural areas. But I
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  Speaker 1: would just say that having starlink versus having nothing is
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  Speaker 1: actually quite beneficial and it's been working out okay in
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  Speaker 1: a really devastating situation.
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  Speaker 2: They're okay with their download speeds.
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  Speaker 1: You're trying to say, yeah, they are okay with their
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  Speaker 1: download speeds right now. And I think a lot of
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  Speaker 1: that can be idealized driven as well. And it makes
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  Speaker 1: me sad that in these situations, and in an environment
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  Speaker 1: of public trust where you've lost so much trust, and
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  Speaker 1: where people are doing amazing work on behalf of their
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  Speaker 1: fellow citizens in these hardest hit areas that the media
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  Speaker 1: lens is, is there a Republican we can blame for this?
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  Speaker 2: Exactly?
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  Speaker 1: And if not, I'm I'm sure we're going to be
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  Speaker 1: there exactly.
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  Speaker 3: Well, again, going back to Katrina, they blame George W. Bush,
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  Speaker 3: but not all the Democratic officials in Louisiana who did
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  Speaker 3: very little to protect people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I would encourage everyone to just stay alert
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  Speaker 1: to this what I call in the news business, they
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  Speaker 1: call it the second day story right, this happened after.
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  Speaker 1: Flooding happens after. I'll note for you guys a couple
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  Speaker 1: of charities that the indispensable Emily Zanati was suggesting for
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  Speaker 1: western North Carolina and East Tennessee. Samaritans Purse is great.
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  Speaker 1: They're based in western North Carolina, so they know the
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  Speaker 1: area intimately, Appalachia's Service Project, Appalachian Kentucky Water Mission, all
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  Speaker 1: of those, the United Cajun Navy, which is a big
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  Speaker 1: fan of those. Those guys, just some great ways to
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  Speaker 1: help out if you can, because people aren't a bad.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I hope that they get the help that
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  Speaker 3: they need to. Hope that our politicians can maybe act
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  Speaker 3: a little quicker and do a little more for them.
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  Speaker 3: Right now, it's a it's a really tough situation. The
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  Speaker 3: pictures and the videos are just devastating. Praying for all
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  Speaker 3: the people affected by the hurricane.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see, we'll see how the response goes moving forward,
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  Speaker 1: and there are government assets on the ground like doing things.
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  Speaker 1: I just hate this thing where we give people a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of credit for response and empathy that they're not
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  Speaker 1: actually demonstrating. We should we should evaluate based on the
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  Speaker 1: facts of what's happening absolutely well.
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  Speaker 3: Switching gears to politics, politics, Tonight, JD. Vance and Tim
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  Speaker 3: Walls will debate their first and only debate. I believe
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  Speaker 3: both are running as a Midwestern every man, and the
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  Speaker 3: goal tonight will clearly be to rattle each other. I
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  Speaker 3: do not think either of these guys rattles easily. We'll
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  Speaker 3: see and so far as anyone wins or loses these debates,
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  Speaker 3: which is often unclear, I think a win for Walls
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  Speaker 3: will be if he's able to portray Vance as an elitist.
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  Speaker 3: And I think a win for Vance will be if
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  Speaker 3: he's able to portray Walls as the far left as
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  Speaker 3: he is and generally out of touch with Midwesterners.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think, Yeah, I think you've made a
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  Speaker 1: great point about this. Look at me. I'm just going
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to steal one of your points to on this podcast
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  Speaker 1: that Walls, to a certain extent is not allowed to
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  Speaker 1: say much. That's right because he's a good Both of
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  Speaker 1: these guys are good talkers. Let's both Let's give both
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  Speaker 1: of them credit for that. They can put together lots
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  Speaker 1: of sentences, and I think Walls can probably speak to substance,
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  Speaker 1: but he's not allowed to in this campaign because this campaig,
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  Speaker 1: the Harris Walls one, wants to sort of float above
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  Speaker 1: the idea on a cloud of joy to election day.
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  Speaker 1: And so because he can't speak to substance of policies
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  Speaker 1: that she's either endorsed in the past or repudiated through
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  Speaker 1: a mouthpiece in recent days, what does he say? I
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  Speaker 1: guess he goes pretty personal, that would. I guess that's
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  Speaker 1: where they go. If you talk about substance.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to hear about cat ladies for sure. That's
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: going to be a topic that he absolutely.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Will bring up. Yeah, you know, that's the thing.
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  Speaker 3: I think this is a very Siginfeldian campaign that they're
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  Speaker 3: running a campaign about nothing because they can't run on
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  Speaker 3: any of the issues as they truly believe them, so
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: they have to run on vibes and listen, it's not
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  Speaker 3: that I don't think a ViBe's election could win. I
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  Speaker 3: just don't think it's particularly good for the country if
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  Speaker 3: it does.
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  Speaker 1: I agree. I think hard questions and dealing with we
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: are good and that is something that Vance is good at.
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  Speaker 1: And you can look at the likability differential between these
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  Speaker 1: two candidates, and you must admit that Walls comes out
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  Speaker 1: on top of that. However, when I've watched Vance on
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  Speaker 1: various Sunday shows where he gets just about his hostile
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: questioning as you can get in that venue, he is
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: pretty much unfailingly like Deft, has a pretty soft touch,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: can find openings, which is, by the way, the thing
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  Speaker 1: that Trump lacked in the last debate, where there were
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: wide openings to critique and he just didn't see them
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  Speaker 1: because he's distracted by something else. Vance is not like that.
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  Speaker 1: Whether any of it matters, yeah, it's a VP debate,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. He's going to be.
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  Speaker 3: Hard to get off his game. But I think the
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  Speaker 3: VP here does matter. I think what we just went
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: through with Biden makes the VP debate more important. People
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  Speaker 3: are like, hmm, actually it does matter who the vice
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  Speaker 3: president is. So I think that it will matter in
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  Speaker 3: a way that maybe it hasn't before in terms of
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: the structure of the debate. They're not going to be
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: fact checking in real time, apparently. The New York Times
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: reports that there will be a QR code, and The
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: New York Times says that it will appear on screen
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: for long stretches of the CBS telecast. Now viewers will
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: scan the code be redirected to the CBS News website,
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: where a squad of twenty CBS journalists will post fact
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  Speaker 3: checks of the candidate's remarks in real time. I'm going
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: to say that twenty CBS journalists are probably still going
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  Speaker 3: to fact check jd Vance and let Tim Walls have
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  Speaker 3: much of a walk.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think?
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  Speaker 1: I think you're correct, and I think there's evidence for
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: this in that. First of all, I'm glad they're not
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: doing it on stage. They shouldn't because you can't be
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent and you therefore should not try absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: Margaret Brennan in her Sunday Show interview with Vance. Margaret
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Brennan is one of the the moderators. A couple of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: weeks ago, she fact checked him, not live, but added
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a taped segment to fact checked him, and she got
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: it wrong. So it's like, please do the checking, but
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: do the checking correctly. And they're so often blinded by
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: their own inability to listen to the other side that it's, uh,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: it's problematic.
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  Speaker 3: Well, they have their rooting for a team, and it's
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: hard to see clearly when you're rooting for a team.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I think that that's the case for a
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: lot of people. I think that they're unable to assess
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: what's really going on because they so want one side
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: to win. Speaking of that, there is a we're only
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: gonna talk about this for a minute or two, but
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: there is a pull out this week out of Florida,
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: and it has Trump only leading Harris by two percent,
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: and it has Rick Scott only leading his Democratic opponent
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: by one point. And I think that this relates to
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: what we talking about with the debate or with the
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: way people feel the way that it gets covered. This
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: poll is a bunch of nonsense, but it's ricocheting around
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: the democratic world because they so want to believe. Now,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: as a Floridian and as a conservative.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: I want them to believe too.
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  Speaker 3: Go ahead, spend money in Florida, run some ads.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Why not? But this unable to.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: See things clearly because you need things to be a
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: certain way.
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  Speaker 2: It's not journalism. I don't know what it is, but
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: it's definitely not journalism.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: No, And I think that's one of the things that
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I appreciate about being a right of center person in
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: media is that I have my priors checked all all
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the time, constantly. I have to be on guard for
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: like am I just assuming too much here, and that's
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: actually quite healthy. And the problem is that much of
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the media does not have that force in their lives right,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And to the extent that I can provide it, I'm
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: glad to but it's it's not enough and the priors
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: are confirmed far too often for them. There was there
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: was also some polling recently that was close out of
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Texas for Ted Cruz for Senate versus Colin Allred, who's
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: a pretty far left former legislator from the state of Texas.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And again, if you want to throw money at it,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I'm happy for you to.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Ted Cruse was also happy to say, like, please send
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: me more money. They're really coming after me down here, right.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: But yes, I think you're right that a lot of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: this is can be wish casting. Also, can we move
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: from the idea of the most consequential election of all
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: time to the most confusing election of all time because
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the mixed signals from the polling are wild.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think Nate Silver is under a
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: lot of pressure to produce polls that show Kamala ahead,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: and you just see every time he finds one, he's like,
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: well look at this, stop yelling at me because here's ooh,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: and they are yelling at him.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Nate Silver is a famous status who has a model
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: for who might win the election. He's been formally employed
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: by The New York Times, has been a liberal darling
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: at times, has gotten a lot of stuff really right.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: And man, there is freedom, Carol in watching Nate Silver
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: give you facts and understand that you don't need him
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to be quote on your team. He's just giving me information.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I can evaluate it as needed. But a lot of
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: my people do not feel that way.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: And he says he wants Kamala to win. It's not
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: like he's you know, unbiased in his personal opinions. He's
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: just saying this is what the numbers are producing, and
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Democrats are like, you've sold out.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Like this reminded me to do. This reminds me very
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: briefly of the insane period of twenty twenty, during which
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: several liberals were basically canceled pretty harshly for pointing out
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: that moments of social upheaval and sort of riots in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the street and anything along the lines of what we
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: were seeing in twenty twenty can be politically electorally beneficial
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to Republicans, just as a just as a fact of history.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: And everyone was like, we don't want that information. Please
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: see the door don't work for anyone anymore.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Oh, twenty twenty, it was a heady time of you know,
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: people getting cut off like that.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: It was, well, you know who's still sort of living
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in the vibe of twenty twenty, Oh the WNBA. And
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: let me tell you why. So I know you everyone
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: knows of Kaitlyn Clark, because everyone knows of Kaitlyn Clark,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the Iowa standout generational talent basketball player who has brought
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: tons of attention to women's basketball, women's sports, and the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: WNBA that's not particulate.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Well, ebody wants that.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: You'd think it would be, because you know, it increases
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: the money they can make on endorsement deal, it increases
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the money that they're making at the stadiums, It increases
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: all the good things, the number of fans. It turns
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: out that the WNBA isn't really into that. I have
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: never seen a league try to torpedo its own success
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: like this league has. Because I'm interested in watching in
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: ways that i haven't been before.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I can't say that I'm interested in watching,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: but I'm definitely I know who Caitlin Clark is. I
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: don't think I've ever been able to name a different
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: female basketball player WNBA. Listen, not to be sexist about it.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: I'm not really into the NBA either. I find basketball
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: just one of my least favorite sports to watch. But
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: she's definitely out there in a way that normies like
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: me have heard of her and maybe would leave it
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: on if she's playing, just to see the phenomen you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: do it right.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: So this has caused some I think not a small
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: amount of professional jealousy within the WNBA. Has been a
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: desire by other players to sort of put her in
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: her place. There's been a lot of football level hip
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: checking and fowls of Caitlin Clark, who nonetheless has remained
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: extremely calm under fire. Does not go off on people
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: in press conferences, does not talk a lot of junks.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: She's a tough competitor on the court, but she hasn't
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: reacted to this.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: Is there an ipoke recently or something?
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, there was an ipoke recently, and I'm glad you
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: brought that up because I'm going to take a rare
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: moment to defend the media against the WNBA here's what
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: happened the other day. Christine Brennan, who is a really
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: longtime sports journalist works for USA Today, asked one of
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the players involved in this I poking incident, which resulted
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: in a bruised eye for Clark. You can see the injury.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: As I said, she's been subject to a lot of
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: harsh treatment during the season this year. A player is
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: asked about that because it's a controversial play, and you
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: ask people about that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: But sure.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: The WNBA sort of union of players put out a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: statement saying that Christine Brennan had quote abused her privileges
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and does not deserve the credentials issue to her.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Because she asked about it.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: But why, what's the the what is that? I mean again,
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: let's put ourselves in the leftist media mindset or in
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: the leftist you know, organization mindset.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: What okay, I'll read you the last very flowery paragraph
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of their statement that so called interview in the name
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: athlete into participating in a narrative that is false and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: designed to here it is fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: vitriol on social media. You cannot hide behind your tenure.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: So her question about a foul was an attack on
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: the identity of many people within the WNBA or something.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: That feels very twenty twenty, shutting down conversation by calling
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: the person a racist.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: I feel like that's very familiar.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Yep. Brittany Griner also joined in by telling a reporter
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: the other day when she was asked about new fans
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: to the sport, which you would think you'd be like,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: We're excited to have new fans. No, no, no, she's
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: mad at the fans because the fans, she claims. She's like, yeah,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: am I happy about fans who come here to yell
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: racial slurs at us?
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: I was like, is that happening?
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of cameras at w NBA games and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: yet we have not seen that.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Right. That would be all over the news, it would
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: be everywhere.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Again, this is just an attempt to smear Clark and
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: then by extension, her fans, without any real reason to
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: do so, aside from like, I don't know, you just
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: don't want anyone to watch the sport.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: It's just it's crazy. I just think about you know,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: the you always want an oddity in the sport, right,
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: you always want somebody who's different, because it does attract
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: new people. I think that Tiger Woods opened up golf
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: in a lot of ways to Black Americans in a
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: way that they maybe didn't think of it as a
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: sport for them before.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: What's wrong with that?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Why is that bad?
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Why wouldn't we want that? It's crazy?
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Well, and I'm also open to the idea that women
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: can compete very toughly and that's fine, and they should
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: let them, you know, let them play, as they say,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: But some of these at the beginning, I was pretty like, ah,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: you know, let let the gals play. They're they're competitive too,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: And then you watch a couple of these and you're like, Okay,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: this is really kind of off the charts. But I
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: think that a healthy competition between all these women. Angel
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Reese is incredibly talented too, and they had a rivalry
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: in college, could be a wonderful thing. But we have
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: gone way beyond that. Somebody joked the other day I
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: didn't I don't remember who who it was, so I
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: can't credit them. But like, I didn't have the w
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: NBA players as the most whiny demographic in all of sports, right,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: but here we are.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you think that they would have a tougher skin.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: But you know it would. It'd be better for everyone,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: be better for the sport, better for women like I
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: don't know.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I will continue not watching the WNBA. I will
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: send a message. Nothing you do can attract me to
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: your sport.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Well, they're certainly not trying.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: That's right. But thank you so much for tuning in.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: We are Carol Markowitz and Mary Katherine Ham. The show
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: is normally Please subscribe, Please tell your friends, and we'll
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: see you on Thursday.