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Episode One Hundred Forty Four: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Revisited · The Death Of Journalism

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Welcome to episode number one hundred and forty four The Death of Journalism Podcast.
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My name is John Zigler. I'm your host on today's show. The eclipse
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and abortion dominate the start of the week. Michael Avenatti shocks MSNBC from prison,
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Ashley Biden's diary, an amazing expose on NPR, and a deep dive
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into what I think is the most perplexing, super famous crime of the twentieth
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century, the Limberg baby kidnapping, which is suddenly back in the news.
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We're back on our normal schedule for taping The Death of Journalism Podcast because I
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did not make the cut in the golf tournament that I qualified for this week.
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As I mentioned in the last episode, I had made it into the
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Southern California Mid Amateur Championship, which for me, as a fifty seven year
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old who doesn't play very much golf, was a big deal. I got
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in as an alternate after a very confusing and strange situation. I should have
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gotten in as a qualifier. I shot even par in the qualifier a few
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weeks ago. But because of COVID, that's right, because of COVID,
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we no longer do playoffs for these qualifiers, and so there was no chance
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for There was a six way tie for like the last five spots, and
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I had the worst tie breaking score. It's just basically a match of cards.
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It's pure luck, in my case, bad luck. And so because
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during COVID, they decided they weren't going to do playoffs anymore because people would
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have died. Let's be clear about that. If we had had playoffs during
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COVID, that would have been too much interaction, I guess, too many
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people hanging around the clubhouse. So they decided to go to this tie breaking
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system, which they'd I think, out of laziness, decided to keep post
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COVID. That made me the first alternate, and I ended up getting in
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a few days before the tournament as the first alternate for this championship, which
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is it's a very big deal in amateur golf. Southern California obviously a hot
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bed for golf. A lot of very prominent national players playing in this event,
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and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to play in it,
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because I play very very little golf. I practice a lot, but my
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schedule does not allow me to play real holes, and I don't even play
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with friends. I don't have many friends to begin with. But I play
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fewer number holes, a fewer number of holes of golf under any semblance of
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competitive environment, than anybody that plays competitive golf, period, especially at my
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age. And that's not an excuse, that's just the reality of it.
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Because of my schedule, my kids, our economic situation, the nature of
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the club that I belong to, it's just a perfect storm where I can
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never play eighteen holes, and so for me to qualify for this, especially
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at my age, was kind of shocking from my perspective. I think it
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was. The qualifying round was the first eighteen holes I had played keeping score
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in like four months, so that was kind of extraordinary. But I did
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not play well in this event at all, partially because of my lack of
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preparation, partially because I'm not very good, and partially because the conditions were
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way more difficult than I had anticipated. Nobody told me we were playing in
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the US Open. The greens were very fast, very hard, very undulated.
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In fact, I think much more difficult than what the players that the
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Masters are likely to see this week, especially since it looks like it's going
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to rain at the start of the Masters Tournament. I have a thought on
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that in just a second, but I was not. That's the part of
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the game that you just cannot duplicate in practice. There's just no way to
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duplicate, especially under tournament conditions, short game situations where you're playing on very
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fast, hard, undulated greens, and there was just no way for me
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to be prepared. So I didn't qualify for the cut. The top thirty
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out of eighty four made the cut. I did have one highlight on the
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second day. I nearly made a hole in one on a par four,
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which I've never done before. Came three feet for making a hole in one
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on a par four, made eagle, So that was one highlight. But
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it was interesting because I played with a guy for two days who, until
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COVID, had been playing on the pro tours, on the basically the fringe
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of the PGA Tour for the previous seven years. I think he's about thirty
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five years old, and watching him play for two days, it was very
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clear that I had no business competing for this particular championship. But there's just
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no way for a fifty seven year old guy who never plays golf, who
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isn't all that great to begin with to be able to compete at that level,
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but it was still good because, you know another, in order to
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participate and be competitive in other tournaments where I'm playing against guys my age,
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to get that kind of competitive situation is very valuable, especially at the beginning
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of the season. By the way, with regard to the Masters, I
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did feel like I got a little bit of insight as to what might be
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a problem for Tiger Woods. Not to compare myself at all to Tiger Woods,
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but this Masters for Tiger Woods, I think is going to be very
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important. First of all, it could be his last. We have to
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understand that every single Master is that Tiger Woods plays in now could very well
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be his last because of his very precarious medical situation. But he's also trying
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to set a record that if he does set, it will never ever ever
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be broken, and that is he's trying to break the all time record for
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most consecutive cuts made at the Masters. He's never missed a cut as a
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pro at the Masters, and he, like myself, never plays competitive golf
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anymore. And I'm sure like myself, he practices a lot. Of course.
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Unlike myself, he has a absolutely perfect practice facility in his backyard,
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so I'm sure very similar to my situation. Weirdly, Tiger is practicing a
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lot, playing a lot with buddies, but he has no competitive rounds under
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his belt, at least not in recent times, for really the last couple
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of years, very few competitive rounds. And it's around the greens, which
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used to be Tiger's greatest strength, that is going to be his biggest problem,
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and that's where the rain could help him. I think if it does
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rain on Thursday, although that will be bad for him because they'll end up
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having to play twenty seven holes in one day, which his body might not
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be able to take. But from the standpoint of the short game, I
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actually think it'll help Tiger if it rains, because that's the area where there's
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no margin for era at a place like Augusta, and where he's going to
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have the most difficult time getting back into the competitive grind when you just can't
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duplicate it. There's just no way to duplicate that situation in practice as opposed
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to a competitive situation under the gun. Whether it's the Southern California mid amateur
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or the Masters, I do think there is some level of compart Harrison there,
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though again to be very clear, I'm not comparing myself to Tiger Woods,
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who on his worst day, his short game would still be better than
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mine on my best day. But that's I'm actually amazed that there's not been
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more attention on Tiger Woods heading into this Masters, because we really do have
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to understand this could be it, this could be hell. I mean,
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it could be the last time we see Jack Nicholas hit the opening ceremonial t
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shot, God forbid. But it's we're getting to that point, and you
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know, with given what's happened with Tiger for the last couple of years,
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you know, he's not going to keep playing Tiger if he can't be at
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least remotely competitive. And so if, for if he were to miss the
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cut this year and that streak ends, I am I wouldn't be surprised if
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maybe we only see him on one or two more times at the Masters,
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because he's just not going to keep doing this. I don't think if he
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can't be competitive, and if you're not playing enough rounds, you can't even
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theoretically be competitive at that level, especially in the modern era. One other
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part of my excursion to play at this tournament that I wanted to share with
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you to kind of show you the nature of I guess life in general and
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my life in particular. You know, scheduling when you're the dad of two
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young girls is extremely difficult. I mean, it's like a minefield. And
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I thought I had navigated the minefield of playing in this tournament, but I
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did not. You know, there's so few opportunities for me to be able
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to say, Okay, I got the podcast under control, the kids schooling
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is under control. I can have someone pick them up at school. My
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wife is okay with what's going on. You know, we're not going anywhere
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like during the summer. That's always a big problem, except in this particular
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situation. It was my younger daughter, Diana's seventh birthday. Now, her
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birthday was on Monday, the first day of the tournament, but the way
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they did this tournament, the Monday at Tea times were in the afternoon,
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and we were holding Diana's birthday party on Sunday. So I thought, okay,
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I'll go to Diana's party. We're basically celebrating her birthday. Then I'll
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be able to spend the morning with her on Monday before I drive two hours
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to Orange County to play in this golf tournament. No problem, you know,
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I'll be there with her on her birthday. This will all work out.
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I felt, actually, delusionally in retrospect, confident that Okay, this
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is a rare situation where I got everything under control. I did the podcast
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to day early. I can just focus on trying to do as well in
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this golf tournament as I could. Well, this did not work out,
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and the main reason it did not work out is because Diana took this much
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more seriously than I realized. I guess I was naive. I did not
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understand how big I mean. I knew she was really looking forward to her
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seventh birthday, but the party day did not seem to be the day that
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she felt like was really the celebration of her birthday. And to be clear,
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she had a whole day planned out with her mom and her older sister
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Grace, and so she was very well taken care of on her birthday,
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and again I spent the morning with her. I gave her a special gift
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that I had gotten from Japan at an extraordinary expense, because she had saw
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it. She had seen it on a YouTube video. She loves opening these
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these you know, surprise gifts that are all junk, but she loves them.
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And so I got her exactly what she wanted. And so when I
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called to wish her happy birthday again Monday night, after the first round of
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the tournament, and after she and her mom and her sister had spend the
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whole day together and they had had a fantastic day, you know, I
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asked her how her day went. Everything was fine, and I said,
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well, you know, happy birthday, Diane. I love you very much.
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And no, lie, Diana says to me, but Dad, if
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you love me that much, why weren't you here today? I was like,
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oh my god, oh my gosh. Wow. All right, now,
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I don't honestly know whether or not Diana is that much of a ball
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buster. I've referred to her as a ballbuster before, or that good a
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manipulator, or she was really that hurt, or maybe it was a combination
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thereof, but that left the mark. I mean, wow. So that
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didn't help the second round of the Caul tournament either, although we're back on
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good terms because as it turns out that that gift I had gotten her from
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Japan is surprised. Diana loves opening surprise. This is like this incredible scam
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that these toy companies have come up with, where they if they've wrapped junk,
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you know, in a fashion that young kids, especially young girls,
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can look at as a surprise. At least this works for Diana. I
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don't know if it works with other girls, but Diana loves the idea of
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the mystery, and the surprise is way better than whatever the heck you're actually
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getting as the toy or the gift. And as it turned out, this
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surprise toy I got her from Japan at ridiculous cost considering what it was turned
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out to be exactly what she wanted. So I think we're back on good
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terms. And I was saved by the luck of the draw of that surprise
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gift. But that was an extraordinarily gut wrenching experience for me and I found
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I thought that was kind of interesting and I definitely learned a lesson. But
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the minefield, trying to navigate the minefield as the dad of two young daughters
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and trying to play competitive golf is basically almost impossible. Now. One of
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the things that I talked about in the last episode of the podcast was the
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anticipated coverage, the obscene coverage of the eclipse, and boy, it was
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exactly as I anticipated and I predicted. One of the other elements that influenced
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my experience at the golf tournament was that the morning of the first round,
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I got asked to go on Dan Abram's News Nation show, which I do
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almost like clockwork every two weeks, and it was because of a tweet I
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had put out about the coverage of the eclipse, and so they wanted to
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have me on to talk about the media coverage of the eclipse as well as
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another story we're about to talk about, and that was Donald Trump's pledge on
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the abortion issue. And you know, so I was one hundred percent in
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the camp of those that thought that this was way, way, way overblown.
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Not that I want to make clear that it's not something that I think
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people shouldn't care about at all. I don't think that, you know,
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it's not as if I don't think there should be any media coverage of it.
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I mean, it's a story, it's something people are interested in.
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It's mostly harmless, it brings people mostly together. It's a fun story.
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It can be educational have used properly. But here's where I draw the line.
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Number One, there were states of emergency that were declared in certain areas.
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There were many many school districts that either canceled school or didn't or left
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had school, that got out of school early, had early dismissal. I
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mean, that's insane, all under by the way, the guys of safety,
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which I don't think would have happened prior to COVID. That's one of
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the many, many, many, many implications of the COVID panic. We've
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completely changed the threshold for you know, what constitutes the reason to cancel school,
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which we've talked about many, many times before. So there's a serious
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element to this media hysteria which fueled all of this. And you know,
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but there's also another part of this, and that was the rampant conspiracy theories
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and nutty statements that were surrounding the eclipse. The level of ignorance among major
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media members was just astonishing, and there was no more dramatic example of that
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than what happened on The View. Now the View we mock quite a bit
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on the death of journalism podcasts for good reason. I mean, the women
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of the View are not very bright. But there's one member of the View,
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in particular, Sonny Houston, who is just an idiot, just a
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complete, flat out idiot. And boy did she prove that. I mean,
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she proved that in remarkable ways on the day of the eclipse. And
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so this is a clip that you may have already seen or heard, but
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I just got to play it. I got sent this by numerous people in
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my orbit, and for good reason. This begins with, ironically enough,
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the anti Trump Republican of the group trying to make a joke. I think
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about all the crazy things that are happening in the world, specifically the New
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Jersey centered earthquake that had happened a couple of days before that was centered in
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Bedminster, which Bedminster is where Donald Trump's golf course in New Jersey is located.
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So of course, you know, haha, he he, you know,
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God's going after Trump's golf course with a minor earthquake in New Jersey.
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And so she's trying to make a joke, which I'm fine with. But
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then Sonny Hoston decides to connect all these dots and reference climate change, climate
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change, including bringing in earthquakes and the socatas and the eclipse, and when
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Whoopy Goldberg and Joy Behar have to be the voice of reason and logic and
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facts. You know you have a problem, but you know, forgive me,
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you'll probably will be dummer after listening to this two minute plus clip.
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But I just got to play it. And here it is. People are
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having all sorts of conspiracies about the end of the world. And then I
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read online that the earthquake epicenter was actually at Bedminster in New Jersey. Right,
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fun fact, so it originated with Trump, I know, right,
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I mean, I have to say, Karen du Peche are wonderful, Oh
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my daughterful makeup artists. When the earthquake was happening, she put her coat
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on and she was like, Jesus is coming. I'm out, I'm out,
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I'm leaving. We've got a solar eclipse, We've got ran down the
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hallway. The raptor is here here. And then also I learned that the
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cicadas are coming, cicadas, cicadas the first time in two different well this
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is what I read, two different times, different kinds of different times.
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Times are coming the good for the first time in many, many years.
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Every seventeen years has happened. Well, that's not what I read. But
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maybe you know, make you know better in a way, say all those
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all those things together what maybe lead want to believe that, you know,
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either climate change exists, that's or something is more. Quicks are not at
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the mercy of climate change? Now can it happens? And when the eclipse?
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They've known about the eclipse coming because the eclipses happen, and they actually
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can say when these things are going to happen. So all these folks who
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are saying, you know, it's a sign from God. God doesn't give
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you warning. Okay, you think he gave people at the tower Babbel warning,
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Oh I'm about to jack y'alla. No, God does stuff. And
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then you figure, oh, that's probably because I just you know, I
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mean, it's no. But the cicadas come. We have them every seventeen
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years. There's some we get every twenty some odd years, and they just
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go under and they come back up. And now there's two. They make
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the noise sex and saying and this time both types are coming. They have
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they make what they're having sex, Oh God, Bill. In addition to
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the cicada sex, I think the fact that the earthquake and the eclipse specifically.
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It's really great to see the coverage on news. It's really hard to
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describe just how stupid that was. I mean that that's the level of it
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is idiocy. And these are people on national television and a show that is
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still somewhat taken seriously in some circles that you know, there are still women
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in this country who get their news from this show. And that's the level
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of insanity. Where where you think that things that happen on a cycle that
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are easily very well predicted, like an eclipse or the cicadas or you.
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I mean, even Joy Behar understood that earthquakes have nothing to do with climate
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change, just like wild fires have nothing to do with climate change. But
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they've changed their mind on that because they couldn't resist the pictures of fire and
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the images that that creates that are consistent with the idea or the notion of
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global warming. But you know, logic and reason and facts have nothing to
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do with any of this. But that's that right there. That might be
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in the top ten dumbest things that have been set on national television, at
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least so far in twenty twenty four, on a more serious note with regard
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to why the media went soap bananas over the eclipse. This is basically what
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I said on Dan Abrams show, and I do think there's an important point
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to be made here and an understanding of what makes the media tick. The
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media loved the eclipse story because one, it was at a set time and
20:48
place. The media loves that because they're lazy. Okay, there's nothing the
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media loves more than to know exactly when a story is going to happen,
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when it's going to end, where it's going to take place. I mean,
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sports journalism is dead partially because that's mostly what sports is about. They
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tell you where to go, where to sit, We're going to feed you.
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Here's where you're going to go after the game. We know exactly when
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it's going to happen, and you become like cattle instead of journalists. Well,
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the lazy news media loves these types of stories. You know, whether
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it's a debate you know, or or a primary election, you know,
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whatever it is, when they know exactly when it's going to happen, or
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a court hearing. This is why they overcover especially Trump related court hearings or
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indictments because they can hype it up. They know exactly when it's going to
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happen. It's like a sporting event, and so that played right into a
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media bias. Then there's the element of everyone being at least somewhat impacted,
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or most people being at least somewhat impacted. And the most of the country
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didn't see a real eclipse, but you know, there was at least a
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semblance of an eclipse in most of the country. And so in this era
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where we're so divided, when we were so separated into our own silos and
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we have nothing in common, this really was a communal event. You could
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probably argue no way to prove it, but you could probably argue that more
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people were at least aware of and somewhat even in a very small way,
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impacted by the eclipse than by the Super Bowl, because it's literally happening.
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You know, that's the sun, and in most of the country there was
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at least a partial eclipse. Not that it impacts your life very much.
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You may not impact you at all if you're like me and you don't care.
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But it's a bonified communal event in an era where there are very few
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communal events. So that's another reason why the media went banana on it.
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There's another aspect of this that I did not anticipate, and that is that
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there is a cult like following for eclipse where eclipses and there are people who
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really passionately care about this. I found that out myself when I tweeted out
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some rather cynical comments about all the attention that the eclipse was getting, especially
23:26
in the media, and people were really pissed off at me. I mean
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not just a little bit, but even by the standards of my Twitter feed,
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and I get a lot of people pissed off of me. There were
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a lot of ticked off people who are really offended that anybody would not be
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totally on board with Eclipse mania. So I'm sure that the ratings for the
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coverage on Monday were very, very good because there's a cult like following for
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this. You got communal events, you get a broad audience, and then
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you have a very passionate audience. I don't know how large it is,
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but you have a very passionate audience of cult like members who are very very
24:04
into the eclipse. Partially, I guess because it's you know, it may
24:08
only be a once in a lifetime situation depending on where you live. But
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as I described in the last episode of the podcast, I had been through
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what was described as a total eclipse back in nineteen ninety nine when I was
24:21
playing in a golf tournament in the UK, and I did not think it
24:25
was that big of a deal. It was weird, it was interesting,
24:29
but you know, it was not that big of a was if no one
24:33
had made a big deal about it, I just thought would have thought it
24:36
was just something weird that happened in the sky for fifteen or twenty minutes.
24:40
Of course, I don't look up at the sun very often, especially when
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I'm playing golf. But anyway, there's another aspect of this that I did
24:47
not mention on Dan Abrams show because it would have taken too long to explain.
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When you're doing these bits, you know, your answer has got to
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be, you know, a minute long, tops, and you can't go
24:59
off on any tangents because then you've got to explain yourself, and the whole
25:02
thing goes sideways. But I have this theory that which is born out pretty
25:07
well, and I developed this theory about twenty some years ago. I remember
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talking about this a lot at KFI Radio in Los Angeles, where there's an
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amazing phenomenon in the media where the further away a story that happens from the
25:25
surface of the Earth. We talked about this with the submersible that blew up
25:30
trying to find the Titanic. That was one of the many reasons why the
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media went bananas on that story. There's this weird phenomenon, and I guarantee
25:40
you, folks, this works every time. The further a story occurs from
25:45
the crust of the earth, the surface of the Earth, the more news
25:49
coverage it's going to get, or the more likely it is to be blown
25:52
out of proportion by the news media. So if it happens you know,
25:57
underground or deep in the ocean, or in the sky or in orbit,
26:04
you know, in space, then it's always going to be a bigger story,
26:08
always always going to be a bigger story. And that's certainly the case
26:12
when it came to the eclipse. And so there are logical reasons why the
26:18
media went bananas on the eclipse. And is it mostly harmless, Yeah,
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it's mostly harmless. But I do think that there's a serious element to this.
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Like I said, the school closings the states of emergency, and the
26:33
overall frivolous nature of hours and hours of mainstream news coverage being devoted to this,
26:41
you know, giving the impression that this is the most important thing that's
26:44
going to happen, certainly this week, maybe this month, and maybe this
26:48
year. So far, it's completely out of proportion. Now. Interestingly,
26:52
one of the few contrarian voices in the mainstream news media on the eclipse was
26:59
Charles barr the guy with more free speech rights than probably anybody else in the
27:04
country because of his celebrity and his status and the fact that he is a
27:10
sports guy, but he can dabble in politics, and because he's black,
27:14
he has PC protection and he's perceived as middle of the road, so he
27:18
can offend left and right. Well. During the men's national Championship game,
27:23
the NCAA Basketball Championship game on Monday, they were making fun I think this
27:30
was during halftime. They were making fun of a blimp that had Charles Barkley's
27:37
face on it, and they were making the comparison, and they even used
27:41
a graphic that had Charles Barkley's face covering the sun as if Charles Barkley's blimp
27:47
was like the moon creating an eclipse, and Charles Barkley used the opportunity to
27:53
go off on what he called the losers that were so obsessed with the moments
28:00
of darkness, which you know, we really shouldn't be all that concerned about
28:03
because darkness happens all the time. And I thought that was kind of humorous.
28:07
And here's what that sounded like. During the NCAA Basketball Championship. I
28:11
thought it was I thought I was watching him. I thought it was the
28:15
Chuck Blimp. But gotten the way, Hey, well, y'all saw them
28:21
losers standing outside watching that today. Not losers, Yes they are. We've
28:26
all seen darkness before. Stop it not not in the daylight. Just come
28:30
on, man, Chucks hate on the eclipse. I saw a loser standing
28:34
watching your blip outside. Have you seen Chucks blipt? So you're not a
28:45
fan? You're not a fan. Well, I'm not gonna sit outside like
28:48
an idiot and wait on the darkness. Did you not wait on the wait
28:49
till I could have waited. It's gonna be dark rebout? I can ask
28:52
you a checond. Did you ask your family to wait on your left outside?
28:56
I was trying to get my grass on and wait there it is,
28:59
so we would talk about, Hey, eclips go hap again. I ain't
29:03
gonna have to have another blipt. Boy. This was a very good thing.
29:07
This was a very worthwhile site. But let's go over to the H
29:12
and T connect you I haven't found that interesting the reaction to Charles Parkley's comments
29:18
that the rest of the guys on the set was clearly a little bit nervous
29:22
about the fact that Charles would disparage the eclipse followers, because you know,
29:29
that was forbidden on mainstream news coverage all day long. You had to play
29:33
along with this, And even though it's mostly harmless, I do think it's
29:37
an indication of the way that the news media works, where you're not allowed
29:41
to step outside of the box. You're not allowed to go outside the herd.
29:45
And now that this is not a particularly serious topic, so Charles felt
29:48
comfortable going outside of the herd and he didn't get run over. Also,
29:53
I think there was a lot of people like myself who agree with Charles Barkley
29:57
that this was way over were blown. It's interesting. It's a aha,
30:03
isn't that? You know? That's what's one of those things where gee,
30:06
did you notice we had an eclipse. Here's a picture. Isn't that nice?
30:10
This isn't going to happen for a long time. Wow, let's learn
30:14
them a little bit about the planets and let's move on. It's all about
30:17
proportion, and this was completely out of proportion by any logical standard. By
30:22
the way, as far as the NCAA basketball tournament was concerned, in the
30:26
last episode, I went into a deeper dive than I had anticipated into the
30:32
entire Caitlin Clark and women's basketball situation, and one of the things I discussed
30:38
was whether or not the women's national championship game where South Carolina defeated Iowa,
30:44
would have higher ratings than the men's national championship game between Yukon, which ended
30:49
up defeating Purdue. And at the time, I said, I thought there
30:52
was a very good chance that that's exactly what would happen, and it did.
30:56
In fact, it wasn't even that close. The Women's college basketball Championship
31:03
game averaged over eighteen million viewers in every single game Kaitlyn Clark played during the
31:10
tournament, got a larger and larger audience, and broke records almost every time.
31:15
And depending on how you were setting the record, and now it's by
31:21
far the most watched women's basketball game of all time and the most watched basketball
31:27
game on ESPN of all time, and higher rating, higher viewership than the
31:33
men's national championship game by a fairly large margin. The men's game only averaged
31:41
a little over fourteen million, So about four million more people on average watched
31:48
the women's National Championship game than the men's That's extraordinary, and it happened simply
31:53
because of Kaitlyn Clark. But I'm not sure it happened just because of the
31:59
individual visual Caitlin Clark. I think it happened, and I talked about this
32:05
extensively, so I'm not going to go into great detail again in episode number
32:08
one forty three, where there's a lot going into the Kaitlin Clark brand,
32:14
and I think that the whole Iowa thing and the white girl thing and an
32:19
underdog team scenario, I think all that plays into it. Now with they
32:24
without Kaitlyn Clark, none of that happens, but there's a lot going on
32:30
around Kaitlyn Clark. That was an interesting narrative that people got invested in,
32:35
and that's why you had eighteen million people watching the National Championship game next year.
32:40
There's no chance. There's no chance at all, barring some incredibly compelling
32:46
superstar coming out of nowhere. And I'm not just talking about somebody being really
32:51
good on the basketball court. They have to do something or have something about
32:53
them that engages the culture like Caitlin Clark did. You're never going to get
33:00
close to eighteen million people watching the women's National Championship game next year. It'll
33:05
probably go back down to what it normally would be, which would be in
33:07
the five, six, seven, maybe eight million range, because there will
33:12
be some residual fan pickup because of people being exposed to the game. But
33:19
for the women to beat the men is really extraordinary and I think a very
33:22
significant cultural moment. Another very important cultural situation occurred regarding the women's National Championship
33:31
game, which we talked extensively about in episode one forty three, and that
33:36
was that Don Staley, the head coach of South Carolina, which ended up
33:39
winning the national championship, her third national championship. She came out the day
33:45
before the game very strongly, although seemingly hesitantly, And that sounds contradictory,
33:51
but it's really not because it was obvious that she was wearing as a badge
33:55
of honor the controversy that she knew she was begrudge going to create by coming
34:00
out in favor of transgendered people playing women's college basketball, and by transgendered people,
34:09
she basically meant any man who believes that they're a woman. That's almost
34:15
exactly how she defined it, and if you're interested more in the topic,
34:20
check out episode one forty three. But it was particularly remarkable that in the
34:27
aftermath of Don Staley making that statement, even though it was completely ignored in
34:32
the National Championship broadcast, which I thought was extraordinary and asinine, that did
34:38
not even mention it. I think very telling even for ESPN to understand that
34:44
this is not a good topic for us, We're just going to ignore that
34:47
the most powerful voice in the entire sport came out for such an extreme position,
34:53
a position which if it ever became the rule in the UNCAA would absolutely
34:59
positively one hundred end women's college basketball because you would have tall dudes pretending to
35:07
be women to become instant superstars, even if they weren't very good at basketball.
35:12
And that's just a fact, well, right, after that, And
35:15
I don't know, and I haven't been able to discern if this was just
35:19
coincidental or if this was as a reaction. Maybe it was a little bit
35:22
of both. To Don Staley's statement. But the NAIA, which is different
35:29
from the nc DOUBLEA, but they are basically I don't know if you call
35:32
it a minor league NCUBA. These are for the smaller schools. They it's
35:37
basically NCUBA for smaller schools. They essentially banned transgendered people from playing women's sports,
35:46
which was a decision I one hundred percent applaud. It's the only decision.
35:51
It's it's incredibly obvious that this is the only logical scenario that works here,
35:58
especially for basketball, which is incredibly vulnerable to being abused by this issue
36:02
because height is so incredibly important and you only play five players at a time,
36:07
and one tall person like a guy pretending to be a woman, can
36:12
completely take over and dominate the sport. So I mean, this is basically
36:16
two plus two equals four stuff, And so the NAIA is doing the right
36:22
thing. In response to the NAIA, the NCUBLEA, the organization that really
36:28
matters, released an incredibly vague statement that basically gave them all sorts of options
36:36
as to where they're going to head on this. So this issue is far
36:40
from settled on the NCUBA front. But if don Staley gets her way and
36:45
she's being applauded by the woke sports media, she will have personally essentially facilitated
36:53
the end of her own sport. And I don't know how this is all
36:57
going to turn out, but if they do, in any way, shape
37:00
or form, allow or enable biological males to play women's college basketball specifically based
37:09
upon nothing more than their belief or their alleged belief that they're a woman,
37:17
it's over. It's absolutely over. And I don't want to see that because
37:22
I don't want to see women's college basketball destroyed. But there's a part of
37:25
me that says, you know what, that would be really interesting and quite
37:30
entertaining to see the reaction to that, because boy, would that expose a
37:35
hell of a lot of people. I Mean, there's parts of me things
37:38
never work out this well, But if this is the direction they go,
37:43
part of me thinks there's got to be a rational, conservative minded, six
37:49
foot nine dude out there that is going to make an example of this whole
37:52
situation and make a mockery of it. That would be just fantastic watch.
38:00
So part of me is kind of rooting for that, if only because maybe
38:04
that would make them come to their senses and realize we got to stop this.
38:07
Otherwise the entire sport is going to be destroyed. But we don't know
38:13
yet. I mean, it's gonna be very interesting to see where this goes.
38:15
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