Latest / The Kevin Stone Podcast / Episode #36 "Trump VS Media"

Transcript

Episode #36 "Trump VS Media" · The Kevin Stone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You know what I want from the news? The news.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: That's it. Apparently, I've set the bar way too high.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I don't need somebody on television telling me how I'm
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: supposed to feel about what happened. I don't need somebody
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in Washington telling me which reporter I'm supposed to listen to.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And I don't need either one of them deciding which
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: facts I'm emotionally prepared to handle. Just tell me what happened.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Give me the facts. I'll take it from there. I'm
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a grown man. I pay taxes. I own a house.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I can operate a microwave without supervision. Most of the time.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I think I can handle the news. But apparently President
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump and some of the biggest news organizations in
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: America are now in another fight. And this time it's
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: gotten serious. Trump has banned CNN, MSNOW, that's the network
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: formerly known as MSNBC, and Politico from the White House.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Their reporters have actually been turned away. Their credentials were disabled.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: The three organizations have now sued the Trump administration. And
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: when CNN couldn't perform its scheduled television pool duty, the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: major television networks said they weren't going to replace CNN
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: in the rotation. So now we've got the president fighting
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the press, the press fighting the president, the press going
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: to court, networks refusing pool coverage, and Kevin Stone sitting
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: here in Ozark saying, would everybody please just do their job?
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Kevin Stone Podcast. First, what actually happened?
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Let's separate facts from opinions because we're going to have
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: plenty of opinions before this thing is over. President Trump
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: announced that CNN, MSNOW, and Politico were banned from the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: White House. Trump says these organizations have repeatedly reported false
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: information about him and his administration. The news organizations say
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the president is retaliating against them because he doesn't like
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: their reporting. Those are two very different claims. And I'm
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: deliberately telling you who says what because I wasn't sitting
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: in the Oval Office when the decision was made. Neither
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: was Charlie. Charlie apparently wasn't invited. Another devastating setback for
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the Kevin Stone podcast. The reporters were subsequently denied entry
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: into the White House. Then CNN, MSNOW, and Politico sued
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the administration. So now a federal court is going to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: get involved. And there's another piece of this that I
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: initially didn't completely understand. The White House press pool. The
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: pool exists because you can't cram every reporter in America
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: into the Oval Office every time the president says something.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So a smaller group of journalists cover an event on
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: behalf of the larger press corps. CNN has assigned television
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: pull rotation. The White House wouldn't allow CNN to perform
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that assignment. And the television networks, including Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: and CNN, responded by saying they weren't simply going to
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: replace CNN with somebody else. And that's significant. And notice
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: something else there. Fox News joined that decision. That's important
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: because it makes this harder to dismiss as simply liberal
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: media organizations protecting another liberal media organization. Now here's where
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I get myself into trouble. I believe mainstream news coverage
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of Donald Trump has often been biased against him. That's
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: my opinion. You don't have to share it. There have
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: been plenty of times when I've watched coverage of Donald
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Trump and thought, okay, are you reporting the story or
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: auditioning to argue with the man? Sometimes I can almost
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: hear the dramatic music playing underneath it. But here's the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: other side. Donald Trump doesn't exactly respond to criticism by
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: quietly saying, I respectfully disagree with your assessment. That's not
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: exactly his brain. Trump has an enormous personality. He fights.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: He insults people. He attacks organizations that attack him. And
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: sometimes his own reaction becomes a bigger story than whatever
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: everybody was arguing about in the first place. So we've
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: got two institutions that already don't trust each other. The
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: president believes major media organizations are dishonest. Major media organizations
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: believe the president is trying to punish unfavorable journalism. And
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: standing between them is us, the American people. Remember us?
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: We're supposedly the people everybody involved here is serving. Now
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: here's my problem with the media. Journalists should obviously investigate
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. That's their job. Investigate Republicans. Investigate Democrats. Investigate Congress.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Investigate the FBI. Investigate federal agencies. Investigate the mayor. Investigate
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the city council. Heck, if the Kevin Stone podcast ever
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: gets powerful enough to require investigations, investigate me. That should
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: take about 11 minutes. But there's a difference between reporting
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and commentary, and sometimes those lines have become awful blurry.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Tell me what happened. When did it happen? Who did it?
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: What evidence supports it? What does the other side say?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: What don't we know yet? Those are useful questions. But
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: once journalism starts telling me what I'm supposed to conclude
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: from those facts, we're moving into commentary. Now, commentary isn't
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: necessarily bad. You're listening to commentary right now. But I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: tell you it's commentary. This is the Kevin Stone podcast.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: It's literally my name on the thing. You're getting the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: world through my eyes. I'm not pretending otherwise. But President
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Trump has a responsibility too. Here's where some people on
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: my side of the political spectrum may disagree with me.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Being treated unfairly doesn't automatically make every response appropriate. The
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: First Amendment isn't there to protect speech the government likes.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: That wouldn't require much protection. And there's legal precedent concerning
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: White House press access. A federal appeals court ruled decades
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: ago that when the White House establishes press facilities for
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: bona fide journalists, access can't simply be denied arbitrarily. There
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: are legitimate reasons for restricting access. Security would be an
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: obvious example. But whether disagreements with an organization's reporting is
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: enough justification is precisely the constitutional question that is now
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: going to court. And I'm not going to play Supreme
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Court Justice Kevin Stone and announce the verdict. I didn't
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: go to Harvard. I didn't go to Yale. Heck, I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: We'll let the actual courts handle that one. But here's
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: what both sides need to understand. The American people already
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: don't trust you. Gallup reported last year that only 28%
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: of Americans said they had a great deal or fair
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: amount of trust in mass media to report the news fully, accurately,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and fairly. 28%. We're getting dangerously close to the Kevin
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Stone podcast listener numbers here. And that distrust isn't even
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: distributed politically. Republican trust was extraordinarily low. Independent trust was
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: also low. Even Democratic trust wasn't overwhelming. That should concern journalists.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Not because journalism should become conservative. Not because it should
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: become liberal. Because journalism should become trustworthy. And government has
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: exactly the same problem. When government officials decide which journalists
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: deserve access based on whether officials approve their coverage, Americans
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: have another reason to wonder whether they're getting the whole story.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: See the problem? The media says, don't trust him, trust us.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Trump says, don't trust them, trust me. And Kevin says,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: how about I don't automatically trust any of you? Show me.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Give me the evidence. Give me the documents. Give me
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the complete quote. Give me the context. Give me the
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: other side. And then let me decide. How do ordinary
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: people sort through the BS? Here's what I'm trying to do. First,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: separate reporting from opinion. If somebody says Trump banned CNN, MSNOW,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and Politico from the White House, that's something we can verify.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: If somebody says Trump did this because he hates democracy,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: now we're talking about somebody's interpretation of his motives, unless
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: they have evidence supporting that conclusion. Same thing going the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: other direction. If somebody says CNN deliberately lies because they
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: hate Trump, show me the specific report. Show me what's false.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Show me the evidence. Then I'll decide. Second, go to
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the original source when you can. Read the court filing.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Watch the complete press conference. Read the executive order. Look
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: at the legislation. Read the transcript. That's one thing I've
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: learned doing this little podcast. Sometimes what somebody actually said
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and what the headlines say they said aren't quite the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: same thing. Third, read people you disagree with. I know
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: that's uncomfortable. Do it anyway. If you're conservative, occasionally read
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the liberal argument. If you're liberal, occasionally read the conservative argument.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Not because you're required to agree, but because you need
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to know whether the argument you've been told the other
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: side believes is actually what they believe. And fourth, be
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: willing to say three words that apparently cause physical pain
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: in modern America. I don't know. There are things about
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: this case that we don't know yet. There's nothing embarrassing
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: about that. And now, the conspiracy theory. You knew I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to get through this episode without one. There's
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: an old political saying, the left wing and the right
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: wing belong to the same bird. So here's today's Kevin
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Stone conspiracy theory. And notice I said conspiracy theory. I'm
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: labeling the box before we open it. What if all
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: this fighting benefits everybody involved? Trump attacks CNN. CNN covers
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Trump attacking CNN. Trump responds to CNN covering Trump attacking CNN.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: CNN covers Trump responding to CNN covering Trump attacking CNN.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: What was that, not a tongue twister or what? And
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: somewhere an advertising executive buys another boat. Now, do I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: have evidence that Donald Trump and CNN are sitting in
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a secret room planning this together? No. None. Zero. So
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: don't go telling people, Kevin Stone uncovered the conspiracy. Kevin
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Stone did no such thing. What I'm asking is whether
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: our modern political media system rewards conflict. Politicians get attention
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: from fighting journalists. News organizations get attention from fighting politicians.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Social media gets engagement from everybody fighting everybody. And American
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: people get a headache. That doesn't require a conspiracy. It
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: may simply require incentives. Sometimes you don't need a secret
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: meeting in a smoke-filled room. Sometimes everybody can genuinely dislike
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: everybody else and still benefit from the fight. And frankly,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: that's more interesting to me than the conspiracy theory. Here's
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: what I want. I want Donald Trump to answer difficult questions.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I want reporters to ask difficult questions. I want reporters
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to challenge Republican presidents. I want them to challenge Democrat presidents.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I want government officials to correct journalists when journalists get
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: something wrong. I want journalists to correct themselves when they
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: get something wrong. I want politicians to admit when they
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: get something wrong. I know. now we're getting completely unrealistic.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing. The press doesn't have to like
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. Donald Trump doesn't have to like the press.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: They're not Dayton. Nobody has to send flowers. Nobody needs
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: an olive branch ceremony on the White House lawn. They
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: need a functioning professional relationship. Because this isn't ultimately about CNN.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: And it isn't ultimately about Donald Trump. It's about whether
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: ordinary Americans have access to enough reliable information to decide
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: for ourselves what our government is doing. That's the part
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I care about. Don't protect me from the information. And
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: don't select my opinions for me. Don't tell me who
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to trust. Give me the facts. Show me
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the evidence. Correct the record when you're wrong. And let
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: me make up my own mind. I don't think that's
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: asking too much. Although judging by Washington lately, apparently it is.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I'm Kevin Stone, and this has been the Kevin Stone Podcast.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Spreaker.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: That's right, we're big time now. Three listeners, and if
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: each one of those listeners brings one friend, Joe Rogan
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: better start updating that resume. Until next time, question your government.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Question your media. Heck, question me. And every once in
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: a while, question yourself too. Because none of us gets
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: everything right. And maybe admitting that would be a pretty
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: good place for everybody to start.