Latest / The Death Of Journalism / Episode Two Hundred Three: Demigod

Transcript

Episode Two Hundred Three: Demigod · The Death Of Journalism

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome episode number two hundred and three of the Death
0:03
Speaker 1: of Journalism podcast. My name is John Zigler. I'm your
0:06
Speaker 1: host of today's show. The news media goes bananas and
0:10
Speaker 1: fake outrage over the Puerto Rico garbage controversy. But as
0:14
Speaker 1: President Biden sabotaged the Democrats hopes of cashing in on
0:19
Speaker 1: the issue, the liberals war on jokes continues as CNN
0:24
Speaker 1: bans a conservative guest for making one that was really
0:28
Speaker 1: not very inappropriate at all. Jeff Bezos, of all people,
0:32
Speaker 1: dramatically steps up for media accountability maybe and why I
0:38
Speaker 1: am still very wary of a Donald Trump presidency two
0:44
Speaker 1: point zero In the last episode of the podcast, I
0:48
Speaker 1: was incredulous and confused and baffled and bemused by the
0:54
Speaker 1: media obsession over the Madison Square Garden rally Donald Trump
1:01
Speaker 1: over the weekend, and specifically the fixation over one lame
1:08
Speaker 1: joke by a comedian most people have never heard of
1:12
Speaker 1: before that spoke well before Donald Trump was even on
1:16
Speaker 1: the stage that Donald Trump says, and I believe him,
1:21
Speaker 1: he has never even met, doesn't know him at all.
1:24
Speaker 1: Was one of many many speakers at this event that
1:29
Speaker 1: targeted Puerto Rico as a land mass as a territory,
1:35
Speaker 1: an American territory, and not Puerto Ricans themselves calling it
1:41
Speaker 1: an island of garbage, and that somehow this instantly became
1:48
Speaker 1: the most important thing the entire campaign. And I'm not
1:53
Speaker 1: really exaggerating. I mean, they went nuts over this, and
1:58
Speaker 1: I just did not unders stand at all, and I'm
2:01
Speaker 1: still confused. I realize we've left the gravitational pull of
2:05
Speaker 1: the ratchetal earth. I realize facts and rationality don't mean
2:08
Speaker 1: anything anymore. I realize obviously the news media has totally broken,
2:12
Speaker 1: thus the death of journalism podcasts. But even I I'm like,
2:16
Speaker 1: are you people for real? Seriously, so, how in the
2:22
Speaker 1: world is this remotely relevant to a presidential election. I mean,
2:29
Speaker 1: there's so many layers of absurdity here that it's not
2:32
Speaker 1: even worth going into in my mind. But that's what
2:35
Speaker 1: the media did, and they continue to do it even
2:39
Speaker 1: after I taped the last episode of the podcast. They
2:42
Speaker 1: were not gonna let this bone go. They thought they
2:45
Speaker 1: had something. Now. I've said dozens of times during this
2:50
Speaker 1: campaign that the mainstream news media has acted as if
2:52
Speaker 1: they are the campaign manager for Kamala Harris, and they
2:56
Speaker 1: absolutely did that. Here, and in fact, they were working
3:00
Speaker 1: in cahoots with the Harris campaign on this, because it
3:04
Speaker 1: became this symbiotic relationship, this self fulfilling prophecy of creating
3:13
Speaker 1: outrage over this. You have the Harra's campaign jumping on it,
3:19
Speaker 1: the media amplifying it, the Harri's campaign then amplifying what
3:23
Speaker 1: the media is saying, the media then going out of
3:26
Speaker 1: their way to find people, especially if they happen to
3:29
Speaker 1: be Puerto Rican, who are offended by this. Of course,
3:34
Speaker 1: they don't do a very good job of explaining what
3:39
Speaker 1: was actually said that had nothing to do with the
3:42
Speaker 1: people of Puerto Rico or certainly the race of Puerto Ricans.
3:47
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, that there was some substance
3:50
Speaker 1: of reality to the joke, because, as has been reported
3:55
Speaker 1: many times in the main street news media, Puerto Rico
3:59
Speaker 1: as a territory has a huge trash problem, and so
4:04
Speaker 1: it wasn't even like it was completely made up. I
4:06
Speaker 1: have no idea what the comedian thought was the relevance
4:10
Speaker 1: to going there in a pro Trump rally. I think
4:13
Speaker 1: it was dumb, but I also think it was completely
4:15
Speaker 1: irrelevant and it didn't matter to the news media because
4:20
Speaker 1: they felt like they had something, and I want to
4:22
Speaker 1: play one clip in particular because it will be representative
4:27
Speaker 1: of so many others. This is from ABC and a
4:31
Speaker 1: reporter by the name of Selena Wang. She's out in
4:34
Speaker 1: front of the White House as she provides this. I
4:38
Speaker 1: guess you would call it a report. It's basically her
4:42
Speaker 1: working in cahoots with the Harris campaign. And I love
4:45
Speaker 1: because this is emblematic of other media reports. In fact,
4:50
Speaker 1: CBS did one that was maybe even more blatant than
4:53
Speaker 1: I'm not even going to bother to share with you,
4:56
Speaker 1: but this whole idea that the reporters use the Harris
5:02
Speaker 1: campaign as a source for the alleged impact of the
5:10
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico joke. I mean, holy conflict of interest, Batman.
5:16
Speaker 1: It doesn't get more obvious than that. How can you
5:19
Speaker 1: possibly use that as a credible source. Oh, the Harris
5:24
Speaker 1: campaign is telling us that they're seeing this breaking through,
5:29
Speaker 1: that this is having an impact. How about some actual
5:32
Speaker 1: evidence of that? How about a poll maybe, anything, anything
5:38
Speaker 1: at all that shows that the oh there's a real
5:41
Speaker 1: impact here. No, no, no, with no evidence of this
5:44
Speaker 1: at all, just wish casting. The media jumps on the
5:47
Speaker 1: Harris campaign narrative that not only was this outrageous, but
5:51
Speaker 1: we're seeing real impact here. And so here was Selena
5:55
Speaker 1: Wang of ABC News in front of the White House,
5:58
Speaker 1: effectively as a Heras campaign surrogate on this entire Puerto
6:03
Speaker 1: Rico issue.
6:05
Speaker 2: The Harris campaign sees that whole rally as a fortuitous
6:08
Speaker 2: gift for the campaign. You heard the Vice President today
6:11
Speaker 2: saying that this is just more of the same from
6:14
Speaker 2: Donald Trump, more of this divisive and chaotic language where
6:17
Speaker 2: Donald Trump is seeking to have Americans point fingers at
6:19
Speaker 2: each other instead of trying to come up with practical solutions.
6:23
Speaker 2: And what's really notable is at the exact moment that
6:25
Speaker 2: this rally was underway, where people were comparing Puerto Rico
6:29
Speaker 2: to a floating island of garbage, Vice President Harris was
6:32
Speaker 2: actually at a Puerto Rican restaurant engaging with the local community.
6:36
Speaker 2: And that very morning she had just laid out her
6:38
Speaker 2: economic plan for Puerto Rico, which includes rebuilding some of
6:41
Speaker 2: the energy grid as well as trying to provide more
6:44
Speaker 2: access to affordable housing. And I just spoke to a
6:47
Speaker 2: campaign source, Kira, who is telling me that they are
6:49
Speaker 2: seeing this backlash breakthrough in a way that they have
6:52
Speaker 2: not seen yet this cycle with non traditional media outlets
6:56
Speaker 2: and with celebrities who aren't politically engaged hopping into this conversation.
7:00
Speaker 2: Bad Buddy, who is one of the most influential figures
7:03
Speaker 2: in the Latino community, especially with Latino men and young
7:07
Speaker 2: Latino men. He had reposted a video of Vice President
7:10
Speaker 2: Harris talking about her plan for Puerto Rico. You had
7:13
Speaker 2: other celebrities getting into this conversation as well. I'm told
7:16
Speaker 2: that the campaign is going to continue seizing on this,
7:18
Speaker 2: that they're working on an advertisement around this right now,
7:21
Speaker 2: and they're well aware, Kira that in battleground Pennsylvania, there's
7:24
Speaker 2: some half a million Puerto Ricans. This is an issue
7:27
Speaker 2: that they believe could have a real dent.
7:30
Speaker 1: Now, as I've said, that was not an anomaly. That
7:34
Speaker 1: was representative of a lot of the mainstream news media
7:39
Speaker 1: echoing and amplifying the wish casting by the Harris campaign,
7:45
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just the liberal media. I was really
7:49
Speaker 1: kind of shocked, and I've said this before on the
7:52
Speaker 1: podcast too, where I'm so conflicted by Megan Kelly. Megan
7:58
Speaker 1: Kelly is so right in so many ways and so
8:00
Speaker 1: wrong in so many ways. She's very frustrating to me
8:05
Speaker 1: on multiple levels, But for some reason she decided to
8:10
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was virtue signaling or showing
8:13
Speaker 1: her independence. Maybe she was legitimately angered by the fact
8:17
Speaker 1: that she thought that the Trump campaign had stepped in it,
8:21
Speaker 1: and she I think she referred to it as it
8:25
Speaker 1: was too grotastic or it was too male focused, and
8:29
Speaker 1: that you know, they're having trouble with female voters, and
8:33
Speaker 1: so why would they do a rally that was so
8:34
Speaker 1: male focused, and that this was a big mistake to
8:38
Speaker 1: have this comedian on. I'm like, really, I mean, Megan
8:41
Speaker 1: Kelly's whole brand is she's not offended by anything. She said.
8:44
Speaker 1: She wasn't personally offended by this, but she, more than
8:47
Speaker 1: any other conservative commentator that I saw, was very much
8:53
Speaker 1: playing into the liberal median narrative about what happened at
8:58
Speaker 1: that rally in general, but civically with regard to the
9:01
Speaker 1: quote unquote Puerto Rico joke. And that kind of confused
9:04
Speaker 1: me a bit, because I'm like, really, why why is
9:07
Speaker 1: Megan Kelly playing into this and helping to foster this,
9:11
Speaker 1: Because remember, one of the things that the liberal media
9:15
Speaker 1: does whenever a story like this breaks is they're looking
9:20
Speaker 1: for any evidence at all that the other side amits
9:26
Speaker 1: this was a problem or this was a mistake, because
9:30
Speaker 1: that's the that's the way these bizarre rules work in
9:34
Speaker 1: this modern era. You know, it's a big story when
9:38
Speaker 1: somebody on the other team actually admits there was a
9:43
Speaker 1: fumble or worse, or the other ski team scored a
9:47
Speaker 1: touchdown on a fumble recovery, whatever it is, whatever metaphor
9:51
Speaker 1: analogy you want, you want to use and effectively, Megan
9:55
Speaker 1: Kelly was giving that to the liberal media. So I
9:58
Speaker 1: didn't understand that because I again I think the whole
10:03
Speaker 1: thing was stupid. You know, in the old world, like
10:08
Speaker 1: the pre Trump world, I could see where a comedian
10:13
Speaker 1: making a bad joke that offended people might have an
10:16
Speaker 1: impact on a presidential election. In the last episode, I
10:19
Speaker 1: talked about my own experience making a joke as an
10:23
Speaker 1: MC of a Fred Thompson event during the two thousand
10:26
Speaker 1: and eight presidential primary season. By the way, I have
10:29
Speaker 1: some more information and news reporting about what happened during
10:34
Speaker 1: that event that got reported in the main street news media,
10:37
Speaker 1: where you know, somehow I had made inappropriate jokes on
10:41
Speaker 1: behalf of Fred Thompson I'm going to get to that
10:44
Speaker 1: in just a little bit. But we don't live in
10:46
Speaker 1: that world anymore. So that's the part of this equation
10:49
Speaker 1: that really flummixed me. Have these people been in a
10:53
Speaker 1: coma for the last eight years. That world is gone,
10:56
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to Donald Trump. There's no chance
11:01
Speaker 1: that a comedian making a joke about Puerto Rico, not
11:06
Speaker 1: again the race of Puerto Ricans, but Puerto Rico and
11:10
Speaker 1: their trash problem is somehow going to negatively impact in
11:15
Speaker 1: a very significant way Donald Trump's support. It just goes
11:20
Speaker 1: against everything we've seen for the last eight years. And
11:23
Speaker 1: by the way, and this is I think that I
11:26
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe this is the most important point of this,
11:29
Speaker 1: the most obvious point, but I've never heard anybody other
11:31
Speaker 1: than me make it publicly. All of this is happening
11:36
Speaker 1: in the same time period, basically last couple of weeks
11:41
Speaker 1: where Donald Trump went to Michigan in Detroit, in Detroit
11:50
Speaker 1: and trashed Detroit specifically by name. While there you have
12:00
Speaker 1: Trump himself trashing a major city in a major swing state. Okay,
12:09
Speaker 1: and you know, the Hair's campaign jumped all over that, like,
12:12
Speaker 1: oh my god, we got mad from having folks, this
12:16
Speaker 1: is all we're going to talk about now for a
12:18
Speaker 1: day and a half. And then my sense is that
12:22
Speaker 1: they realized it wasn't working, and it's not working. It
12:27
Speaker 1: didn't work in Michigan. In fact, there are four straight
12:32
Speaker 1: polls that have just come out in the last couple
12:35
Speaker 1: of days where Trump is either winning or tied in Michigan.
12:39
Speaker 1: So much so that later on in this podcast episode,
12:42
Speaker 1: when I get to my Electoral College update, I'm now
12:46
Speaker 1: taking Michigan out of the Harris column. I no longer
12:52
Speaker 1: think we're going to be able to call Michigan for
12:54
Speaker 1: Harris on Tuesday Night. So, if anything, Michigan is going
12:59
Speaker 1: in the other direction, at least based upon the data.
13:03
Speaker 1: So if Trump himself while in Detroit is trashing Detroit,
13:12
Speaker 1: and it has at best, if you're the Harris campaign,
13:16
Speaker 1: no negative impact on Trump's standing in Michigan. In fact,
13:20
Speaker 1: you could even argue it might have helped, which is
13:23
Speaker 1: what I said at the time. I said, this isn't
13:26
Speaker 1: gonna hurt Trump in Michigan because people in Michigan know
13:31
Speaker 1: Detroit has massive problems. It might be improving in some ways,
13:34
Speaker 1: and certainly the Lions are a lot better than they
13:36
Speaker 1: have been in the past, and that matters to some
13:38
Speaker 1: people there, but in general, most people in Michigan know
13:44
Speaker 1: that Detroit is not where you want to be or
13:46
Speaker 1: and is not where it should be. So trashing Detroit
13:50
Speaker 1: in Michigan is not going to hurt him. Well, if
13:52
Speaker 1: that doesn't have any impact, how the fuck is a
13:56
Speaker 1: comedian where Trump wasn't even on the state, taking a
14:01
Speaker 1: shot at Puerto Rico going to possibly have an impact
14:06
Speaker 1: even among Puerto Ricans because who are the Puerto Ricans
14:11
Speaker 1: that are eligible to vote in this country. Well, most
14:15
Speaker 1: of them, either they or their families have fled Puerto Rico.
14:20
Speaker 1: So it's very similar to the Detroit situation. I've just
14:26
Speaker 1: been completely baffled, and to me, it was evidence that
14:30
Speaker 1: we've lost our goddamn minds, that we have completely lost
14:33
Speaker 1: our minds everyone has, and that we're not thinking rationally,
14:37
Speaker 1: and it's too close to this election and everyone's on edge,
14:41
Speaker 1: and the media is desperate to try to stick a
14:44
Speaker 1: fork in Donald Trump and to somehow get Kamala Harris
14:48
Speaker 1: over the finish line. But I will acknowledge that this
14:54
Speaker 1: was getting so much coverage that in this self fulfilling prophecy.
15:00
Speaker 1: It might have had some sort of an impact because
15:03
Speaker 1: there are a lot of stupid people out there that
15:05
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't even do their own research to realize the
15:08
Speaker 1: context of what happened and how Trump had absolutely nothing
15:11
Speaker 1: to do with it, and the reality that Puerto Rico
15:14
Speaker 1: does have a trash problem, a garbage problem. I mean,
15:18
Speaker 1: so I was wary that. Okay, you know, if this
15:20
Speaker 1: continues on somehow for the next several days, maybe there'll
15:25
Speaker 1: be some residual impact on this election. Maybe Trump will
15:30
Speaker 1: be harmed by this, maybe Harris will be helped. But
15:34
Speaker 1: then President Joe Biden stepped into the fray and on
15:44
Speaker 1: what was basically a zoom call, completely changed the narrative
15:49
Speaker 1: about this whole situation. Now, I'm sure lots of people
15:55
Speaker 1: are talking about what Biden said and parsing it and
15:58
Speaker 1: breaking it down, and if you wanted to, you could
16:02
Speaker 1: probably talk for hours about every element of this particular controversy.
16:07
Speaker 1: I don't expect I'm going to talk that long about it,
16:09
Speaker 1: but I do want to delve into it because one,
16:12
Speaker 1: it's relevant, could be significant, and it's also kind of
16:16
Speaker 1: fascinating because it's a pinball machine. This whole story of
16:21
Speaker 1: points when it comes to every bizarre aspect of this campaign. Now,
16:26
Speaker 1: just to be clear about what was said, because there's
16:29
Speaker 1: been so much controversy over the last twenty four hours
16:33
Speaker 1: or so about what was said and what was intended
16:37
Speaker 1: to be said, and the White House and elements of
16:40
Speaker 1: the news media trying to cover up what Biden said.
16:43
Speaker 1: Here was Biden referencing the controversy over the joke about
16:50
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico and attacking what sounds like Trump's supporters. Obviously,
16:58
Speaker 1: the most important part of this is what Biden says
17:02
Speaker 1: in reference to Trump's supporters being garbage and who he's
17:08
Speaker 1: actually referring to here, which would then spark the controversy.
17:13
Speaker 1: But just for the record, since we have video and audio,
17:16
Speaker 1: here's the audio of the President of the United States
17:21
Speaker 1: trying to pile on on this Puerto Rico issue and
17:26
Speaker 1: in effect maybe saving the day for Donald Trump and
17:32
Speaker 1: ending Kamala Harris's efforts to try to take advantage of
17:36
Speaker 1: this effort because of the controversy this would spark. But
17:39
Speaker 1: here is exactly what Biden did say regarding this issue.
17:45
Speaker 3: Or Puerto Rico. Where I'm in my home state of Delaware,
17:49
Speaker 3: They're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see
17:52
Speaker 3: floating out there is his supporters. His demonizational scene is unconscionable,
17:58
Speaker 3: and it's on American Now.
18:01
Speaker 1: If you know anything about me, you know I am
18:03
Speaker 1: exceedingly fair and objective, especially in this particular case, because
18:09
Speaker 1: I am not a Trump supporter, and I'm definitely not
18:11
Speaker 1: a Hairs supporter. And at times I have even defended
18:16
Speaker 1: Joe Biden and as I have for Donald Trump when
18:21
Speaker 1: things that they say get misinterpreted by their enemies, because
18:26
Speaker 1: there's obvious political gain to be made. And I will
18:30
Speaker 1: fully acknowledge, fully acknowledge that there is an incredibly strong
18:35
Speaker 1: desire in this situation for Trump fans to be able
18:40
Speaker 1: to use what Biden said to not just change the subject,
18:45
Speaker 1: but to take a weakness and turn it into a strength,
18:49
Speaker 1: take the opponent's spear, grab it and stab them in response.
18:54
Speaker 1: That is an extremely strong and understandable desire, which man
19:00
Speaker 1: underline may impact how people are evaluating what Biden said.
19:06
Speaker 1: So I come at that statement I think from about
19:09
Speaker 1: as objective a place as any other commentator could, and
19:14
Speaker 1: I have thought about it. I've looked at it many
19:17
Speaker 1: many times. I've listened to the tape. I don't know
19:19
Speaker 1: at least a dozen times. I have seen what the
19:23
Speaker 1: media reported about it. I've seen what the White House
19:26
Speaker 1: has claimed about it. I've seen what Biden has claimed
19:28
Speaker 1: about it. And my bottom line on this is there
19:34
Speaker 1: is some ambiguity. There is some ambiguity, and you can
19:38
Speaker 1: make some argument that Biden didn't really mean to say
19:45
Speaker 1: that all Trump's supporters are garbage. However, that is what
19:51
Speaker 1: he said. There's no question on my mind that's what
19:56
Speaker 1: he said, and in that moment, that split second moment,
20:02
Speaker 1: I think that's what he meant. Now, there are all
20:07
Speaker 1: sorts of different ways to parse this, and you know,
20:12
Speaker 1: we get into the possessive of supporters. And there's also
20:19
Speaker 1: the issue that he references he after that, which I
20:24
Speaker 1: think is somewhat important context because Biden defenders have been
20:29
Speaker 1: claiming that no, no, no, he's referencing the comedian there.
20:33
Speaker 1: He's not referencing all Trump's supporters. And the proof of
20:38
Speaker 1: that is when he references either he or him I
20:41
Speaker 1: can't remember which, after saying that, you know, the only
20:46
Speaker 1: garbage he sees here is Trump's supporters. And I get
20:51
Speaker 1: where you could make an argument that that means he's
20:54
Speaker 1: talking about one singular person. But in my view, as
21:00
Speaker 1: I try to, you know, parse this through the prism
21:03
Speaker 1: of Biden's thinking, I think he realizes he makes a
21:08
Speaker 1: mistake there, and I think that he or him is
21:11
Speaker 1: in reference to Trump, Trump, not the comedian. And I
21:19
Speaker 1: tweeted this out and I think it's worth referencing. On
21:23
Speaker 1: the podcast, I said this should be obvious, but I
21:27
Speaker 1: haven't seen this mentioned at all regarding the controversy over
21:31
Speaker 1: supporters versus supporters with an apostrophe and the possessive, as
21:38
Speaker 1: if he's referencing just the one person, the supporter's view is,
21:45
Speaker 1: you know, in Biden's words, garbage here. Well, what I
21:48
Speaker 1: wrote is, if Biden had really meant to target only
21:52
Speaker 1: the comedian, he would have referred to him as the
21:56
Speaker 1: comedian or the speaker and as a quote unquote supporter
22:04
Speaker 1: with an apostrophe s so that you're talking about singular
22:09
Speaker 1: possessive of one person being garbage. He would have referenced
22:16
Speaker 1: him differently. And because he realized that he had screwed up,
22:22
Speaker 1: I think he starts to then attack Trump himself at
22:28
Speaker 1: the very end of that statement, because otherwise he would
22:32
Speaker 1: have said comedian or speaker in my view, Now does
22:36
Speaker 1: that prove it? No, I have to acknowledge there is
22:41
Speaker 1: at least some theoretical realm of ambiguity here. And you know,
22:48
Speaker 1: obviously you're going to try and spin this as much
22:50
Speaker 1: as you possibly can, since this is a week out
22:53
Speaker 1: from a presidential election and has potentially the ability to
22:58
Speaker 1: impact the result here in a very very close selection.
23:01
Speaker 1: So I get where political people are going to try
23:05
Speaker 1: to spin this because it looks and sounds really bad.
23:10
Speaker 1: It sounds to the ear very clearly that Biden is
23:16
Speaker 1: referencing all Trump's supporters as garbage. That's what he said.
23:24
Speaker 1: So how do they spin this? How do they try
23:26
Speaker 1: to muddy the water enough to where this doesn't have
23:31
Speaker 1: that much of an impact. Well, they tried their best,
23:35
Speaker 1: and the media, at least elements of the media have
23:37
Speaker 1: tried their best to muddy the water. Politico probably did
23:43
Speaker 1: the best or the worst job, depending on your perspective,
23:47
Speaker 1: because they really went out of their way to do
23:50
Speaker 1: as much clean up as they could for Joe Biden.
23:54
Speaker 1: They had a headline Biden sparks firestorm on right with
24:01
Speaker 1: garbage in quotes Biden sparks firestorm on right. That's a
24:06
Speaker 1: version of Republicans pounce. Oh my gosh, Republicans are pouncing
24:12
Speaker 1: on this, rather than telling the story straight, which is
24:17
Speaker 1: Biden appears. I think this would have been the fair headline.
24:21
Speaker 1: Biden appears to call Trump's supporters garbage, which let's be
24:28
Speaker 1: you know, let's be clear about this. If that's what
24:32
Speaker 1: he meant, and that's clearly what he said, then that
24:36
Speaker 1: is way more significant, or at least should be, than
24:39
Speaker 1: what some unknown comedian said at a Trump rally about
24:43
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. It couldn't be more obvious, which is more
24:49
Speaker 1: politically significant, and which warrants more serious media coverage. So
24:55
Speaker 1: in order to avoid that obvious hypocrisy and to try
24:58
Speaker 1: to protect Biden and Harris as much as possible, Politico
25:02
Speaker 1: wrote the following. A comedian who appeared ahead of Trump
25:07
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday
25:10
Speaker 1: called the American territory and quote island of garbage unquote,
25:16
Speaker 1: which again, to be clear, keep saying, to be clear,
25:20
Speaker 1: I obviously want to be clear, there is a garbage
25:24
Speaker 1: problem in Puerto Rico. But then political goes on to
25:28
Speaker 1: say this is the important part. Biden in a zoom
25:32
Speaker 1: call with the organization vote. Latino, that's important, context said quote,
25:39
Speaker 1: the only garbage was the quote unquote hatred of Trump's
25:44
Speaker 1: supporters who said such things about American citizens. Biden did
25:50
Speaker 1: not say that. That is what Politico wished Biden had said.
25:58
Speaker 1: But that is a complain fabrication. That is wishcasting. That
26:03
Speaker 1: is the imaginary version of what Biden said. That's in
26:07
Speaker 1: an actual news article. Again, just to repeat, this is
26:12
Speaker 1: what they wrote. Biden in a zoom call with the
26:15
Speaker 1: organization vote, Latino said, quote, the only garbage unquote was
26:21
Speaker 1: the quote unquote hatred of Trump's supporters who said such
26:26
Speaker 1: things about American citizens. Again, that is not what Biden said,
26:33
Speaker 1: not even close to what Biden said. Biden himself realized,
26:38
Speaker 1: or at least someone close to him realized that he
26:40
Speaker 1: had stepped in it in a big way, because he
26:43
Speaker 1: tweeted out a clarification. I guess you would call it.
26:47
Speaker 1: He said earlier today, I referred to the hateful rhetoric
26:50
Speaker 1: about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter. This is someone
26:57
Speaker 1: who wrote this knew what they were doing, because this
26:59
Speaker 1: is this is the best argument that they could possibly make,
27:02
Speaker 1: even though I don't think it's legitimate spewed by Trump's
27:07
Speaker 1: supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage, which
27:13
Speaker 1: is the only word I can think of to describe it.
27:17
Speaker 1: His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. See now that I
27:22
Speaker 1: think was actually a mistake that phrase right there, because
27:27
Speaker 1: that goes to my view that when Biden says he
27:32
Speaker 1: or him, after seemingly calling Trump's supporter's garbage, he's referencing
27:40
Speaker 1: is referencing Trump, Okay, I mean, then he goes in
27:45
Speaker 1: and say that's all I meant to say. The comments
27:48
Speaker 1: at that rally don't reflect who we are as a nation.
27:53
Speaker 1: So again, you could even argue that Biden's statement there
27:58
Speaker 1: is ambiguous as to who he's reference and seeing as
28:01
Speaker 1: his why he's not more clear, why doesn't he say
28:05
Speaker 1: the comedian? I mean that to me is the key
28:09
Speaker 1: to this whole thing. If Biden really meant what he's
28:12
Speaker 1: claiming to say, he would say the comedian or the speaker.
28:18
Speaker 1: But it's ambiguous as to when he's talking about the
28:22
Speaker 1: speaker or the comedian or the supporter, as he keeps
28:26
Speaker 1: calling him and Trump in a weird way. All of
28:31
Speaker 1: this helps the Biden cause, because anything that muddies the
28:35
Speaker 1: water at this point is about as good as the
28:39
Speaker 1: Harris campaign could hope for. But the White House really
28:43
Speaker 1: was caught in effectively a cover up here. This is
28:48
Speaker 1: another news report that's a lot more fair. The White
28:51
Speaker 1: House initially provided a transcript to Biden's remarks that purported
28:55
Speaker 1: to show him saying supporters a plural possis of a
29:01
Speaker 1: few hours later, the White House distributed a new transcript
29:05
Speaker 1: that used supporters with an apostrophe, a singular possessive word
29:11
Speaker 1: that apparently refers to the comedian alone. And again, one
29:17
Speaker 1: more time, why does any reference comedian? Why didn't he
29:21
Speaker 1: reference speaker? That to me is really the number one
29:27
Speaker 1: question here that doesn't make any sense. Of course, there's
29:31
Speaker 1: the other part of this whole equation, which is everyone
29:34
Speaker 1: knows Biden is senile. He's not a particularly good speaker
29:37
Speaker 1: to begin with. I think that will also help the
29:41
Speaker 1: Harris campaign wiggle out of this, because everyone knows that
29:46
Speaker 1: Biden's not with it. Therefore, it's really kind of hard
29:49
Speaker 1: to get into a deep argument over which version of
29:55
Speaker 1: supporters Biden intended to use, but just to finish off
29:59
Speaker 1: this news story. The change came after White House staff
30:04
Speaker 1: talked to the President, who conveyed that he meant to
30:07
Speaker 1: say the comedian's language was garbage. According to a person
30:13
Speaker 1: familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of
30:16
Speaker 1: anonymity to discuss internal dynamics, well why didn't he say that?
30:23
Speaker 1: Why didn't he say the comedian? I get that if
30:28
Speaker 1: he had said the comedian, the Trump comedian, then obviously
30:33
Speaker 1: we would be clear, it would be sure that Biden
30:37
Speaker 1: was referring to one person rather than all Trump's supporters.
30:42
Speaker 1: Of course, there's the other context of this, especially as
30:46
Speaker 1: a Trump supporter, is the twenty sixteen election where Hillary
30:50
Speaker 1: Clinton referred to Trump supporters as deplorables. Now that was
30:56
Speaker 1: taken a little bit out of context, not much, but
30:59
Speaker 1: the basket of the Flaorivill's thing is real, and it
31:02
Speaker 1: hangs over this entire conversation. So it's not unprecedented. It's
31:07
Speaker 1: I think you have to at least think about that
31:11
Speaker 1: when interpreting what Biden really meant. But the bottom line
31:16
Speaker 1: here is, to me, it's pretty obvious that Biden, at
31:20
Speaker 1: least in that moment, said, and probably intended that he
31:26
Speaker 1: was referring to all Trump's supporters as garbage. Now, there
31:31
Speaker 1: was another mainstream reporter, not a conservative god, named Alex
31:37
Speaker 1: Thompson who tweeted out about this. I also asked the
31:44
Speaker 1: White House how they knew Biden only meant supporters with
31:49
Speaker 1: an apostrophe possessive as they have it in this transcript.
31:54
Speaker 1: Did they talk to Biden to ask him what he meant?
31:57
Speaker 1: The spokesperson asked to go off the record, we declined.
32:03
Speaker 1: They didn't comment further. So that's not exactly a great
32:10
Speaker 1: timeline of events when it comes to the White House
32:13
Speaker 1: reaction to this. If they really were sure about this,
32:17
Speaker 1: and if they really had a strong argument, they would
32:20
Speaker 1: go on the record. But they weren't willing to go
32:23
Speaker 1: on the record. So what does all this really mean? Look,
32:27
Speaker 1: people are gonna decide for themselves. I think that in
32:31
Speaker 1: a pre Elon Musk owned Twitter world, I think the
32:38
Speaker 1: Democrats and the media get away with this, because that's
32:42
Speaker 1: the way I was feeling about it when it happened.
32:44
Speaker 1: I'm like, Wow, this might really put an end to
32:49
Speaker 1: this whole Puerto Rican narrative and could even harm Harris.
32:55
Speaker 1: But I'm also pretty confident that the news media is
32:58
Speaker 1: going to do everything they possibly can and to try
33:01
Speaker 1: to muddy the water, push this aside, rationalize it, lie
33:07
Speaker 1: about it, go with the White House's change in the transcript,
33:11
Speaker 1: say he didn't really mean Trump's supporters, even if that's
33:14
Speaker 1: what it sounded like, and that they would be able
33:16
Speaker 1: to get away with that. Let's you know, they would
33:20
Speaker 1: mention it and move on. However, because Elon Musk now
33:25
Speaker 1: owns Twitter or X, it's clear that it's much more
33:29
Speaker 1: difficult because this has absolutely dominated X over the last
33:35
Speaker 1: twenty four hours, and there are just too many people
33:38
Speaker 1: now that are privy to this that would not have
33:43
Speaker 1: been before Elon Musk own Twitter. So, you know, Elon
33:48
Speaker 1: Musk owning Twitter has changed the media landscape in so
33:54
Speaker 1: many ways. And I think this is one of those
33:56
Speaker 1: situations where we see it in real life where a
34:01
Speaker 1: counter narrative, a conservative view of what Biden has said,
34:07
Speaker 1: or a pro Trump view of what Biden has said,
34:09
Speaker 1: gets way way more traction, And it gets enough traction
34:16
Speaker 1: to where the mainstream news media can't totally ignore it.
34:20
Speaker 1: They can try to downplay it, they can try to
34:22
Speaker 1: come up with explanations for it. They can try to
34:25
Speaker 1: muddy the waters, but they can't ignore it like they
34:29
Speaker 1: could have or as easily as they could have before
34:32
Speaker 1: Elon Musk own Twitter, and so I think the bottom
34:37
Speaker 1: line of this, I think the result here is going
34:41
Speaker 1: to be the Puerto Rico narrative is dead. I think
34:45
Speaker 1: that's where this is gonna all come out. I think
34:48
Speaker 1: that we are gonna see a situation where never mind,
34:53
Speaker 1: let's move on, Let's not talk about this Puerto Rican
34:57
Speaker 1: situation any longer, because it's just too problematic for them
35:02
Speaker 1: now because now they have to reference what Biden said.
35:07
Speaker 1: They have to. Some will try not to, but the
35:10
Speaker 1: hypocrisy is just too obvious. It's just too rich. It's
35:15
Speaker 1: just too insane to be focused on what an unknown
35:19
Speaker 1: comedian said when Trump wasn't even there while ignoring what
35:25
Speaker 1: the president of the or at least the alleged president
35:28
Speaker 1: of the United States, said about this. It's just too much.
35:33
Speaker 1: It's just too obvious. They can't get away with that,
35:38
Speaker 1: even in this broken media era. So my guess is
35:43
Speaker 1: this ends the narrative in totality. We're just gonna move on.
35:48
Speaker 1: We're just we're not gonna obsess anymore about what Biden said.
35:51
Speaker 1: We reported it, you can decide for yourself. But we're
35:54
Speaker 1: also kind of gonna drop our obsession in the last
35:58
Speaker 1: few days of the campaign with this whole issue of
36:01
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico because it's just not helpful, and so we're
36:04
Speaker 1: just going to hope that Biden hasn't done any more damage. Now.
36:08
Speaker 1: The damage that Biden has done goes beyond just stepping
36:13
Speaker 1: all over the Puerto Rico narrative. It's a stark reminder
36:18
Speaker 1: of how Harris got the nomination to begin with, that
36:22
Speaker 1: Biden clearly shouldn't be president. That you know, why did
36:28
Speaker 1: he drop out of the race and not resign from office?
36:31
Speaker 1: I mean because to make the argument that he didn't
36:34
Speaker 1: really mean Trump supporters, part of what you have to
36:37
Speaker 1: do is you have to acknowledge that he's senile, that
36:40
Speaker 1: his brain is mushy, that he doesn't really even understand
36:44
Speaker 1: what he's saying, and reminding the American public of that
36:48
Speaker 1: is probably as unhelpful to the Arris campaign at this
36:52
Speaker 1: stage as stepping all over their Puerto Rico narrative that
36:57
Speaker 1: they were I believe way too confident was actually helping
37:02
Speaker 1: them in the final days of the campaign. So bottom
37:06
Speaker 1: line of all this, I think this is all much
37:09
Speaker 1: to do about nothing. I think this is all going
37:11
Speaker 1: to be a wash in the end. I do not
37:14
Speaker 1: think this is going to impact the election in either direction.
37:19
Speaker 1: But it has been very interesting from a media perspective
37:22
Speaker 1: to see the overreaction I mean the colossal overreaction to
37:27
Speaker 1: what the comedian said, to trying their best to spin
37:33
Speaker 1: what Biden said, which obviously should be way more significant.
37:38
Speaker 1: The President United States seemingly calling half the country garbage
37:44
Speaker 1: is obviously way, way, way more important and a way
37:49
Speaker 1: bigger news story than some unknown comedian making a lame
37:53
Speaker 1: joke at a Trump rally where Trump wasn't even on stage. Now.
37:58
Speaker 1: I referenced in the last episode of the and earlier
38:01
Speaker 1: in this podcast that I have a personal experience in
38:05
Speaker 1: this realm to a much much, much much smaller degree
38:11
Speaker 1: when it comes to being at a political event and
38:15
Speaker 1: making a joke that caused some controversy or negative news coverage.
38:20
Speaker 1: And this occurred back in late two thousand and seven
38:24
Speaker 1: during the two thousand and eight Republican presidential primary, where
38:28
Speaker 1: I was a Fred Thompson supporter, I was asked to
38:31
Speaker 1: MC an event for him in I think it was
38:35
Speaker 1: an Orange County. It was an Orange County and he
38:38
Speaker 1: was running like third or fourth at the time. Things
38:41
Speaker 1: weren't going particularly well, but he was still in the hunt.
38:44
Speaker 1: There's still hope, and I was basically trying to come
38:51
Speaker 1: up with some way to entertain the crowd because Thompson,
38:54
Speaker 1: as happens all the time in politics, was late for
38:57
Speaker 1: the event. And then the last episode that ever, researching
39:02
Speaker 1: It's funny how your memory plays tricks on you a
39:04
Speaker 1: little bit. Although my memory is pretty darn good, I
39:07
Speaker 1: didn't stupidly, I didn't research what actually transpired at that event,
39:14
Speaker 1: and I went on memory because I had made two jokes,
39:18
Speaker 1: not just one. In the last episode of the podcast,
39:21
Speaker 1: I referenced that I had joked that I admired Fred
39:24
Speaker 1: Thompson because for a number of reasons, but one of
39:28
Speaker 1: them was that his ex girlfriends and he had had
39:31
Speaker 1: a very you know, famous dating life as an actor
39:34
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, that all of his ex girlfriends had publicly
39:38
Speaker 1: endorsed him. And I then followed that up by saying, well,
39:43
Speaker 1: why haven't any of Hillary Clinton's ex girlfriends publicly endorsed her?
39:49
Speaker 1: People thought that was funny, and you know, I understood
39:53
Speaker 1: that could be controversial, especially in the pre Trump era,
39:57
Speaker 1: and it was my memory that that was what the
40:01
Speaker 1: media coverage focused on. And I know for a fact
40:05
Speaker 1: that CBS Evening News reported negatively on what I had
40:10
Speaker 1: said as the MC of this Fred Thompson rally. But
40:14
Speaker 1: now I'm not one hundred percent sure that that was
40:17
Speaker 1: the joke that caused the negative media coverage, because there
40:22
Speaker 1: was a second joke that was more timely and required
40:28
Speaker 1: less explanation, and also didn't have an implication that somehow
40:33
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton might be a lesbian, which the news media
40:37
Speaker 1: was obviously going to run away from as fast as
40:40
Speaker 1: they possibly could. By the way, for the record, I
40:42
Speaker 1: don't believe Hillary Clinton was a lesbian. It was a joke.
40:45
Speaker 1: It was a joke, and people laughed at it. But
40:50
Speaker 1: there had been something that occurred the day before this
40:54
Speaker 1: Fred Thompson rally that was in the news that I
40:58
Speaker 1: used a different joke that I did find mainstream news
41:05
Speaker 1: media coverage of. In fact, it was ironically enough, on
41:08
Speaker 1: Fox News Channel. I did a quick Google search, which
41:12
Speaker 1: admittedly I should have done before the last episode. But
41:14
Speaker 1: this might surprise you. When you have no producers that
41:19
Speaker 1: work with you, you know, directly on the content of
41:23
Speaker 1: your show, and you do two and a half hours
41:25
Speaker 1: without a script, and you're just one guy. Sometimes you
41:30
Speaker 1: just wing it. And so that's what I did in
41:33
Speaker 1: the last episode, and I know, I remembered that joke
41:36
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. I still think that that might have
41:39
Speaker 1: been part of the negative media coverage. But as I
41:42
Speaker 1: researched this again, I should have done this earlier, but I,
41:46
Speaker 1: you know, it was still a topic, this Puerto Rico joke,
41:49
Speaker 1: so I figured it was still relevant to the podcast.
41:52
Speaker 1: I remembered that the day before this Fred Thompson event,
41:56
Speaker 1: some nutjob had broken into the Clinton campaign office, took
42:02
Speaker 1: hostages and was threatening to blow himself up unless he
42:08
Speaker 1: got to speak to Hillary Clinton. And I thought, okay,
42:11
Speaker 1: this will be this is perfect for a joke as
42:14
Speaker 1: we're trying to, you know, entertain the crowd before Fred
42:18
Speaker 1: Thompson shows up. So I told a joke and here
42:22
Speaker 1: was how Fox News Channel reported on it at the time.
42:26
Speaker 1: Former radio talk show host John Zigler also made an
42:30
Speaker 1: off color Clinton comment Saturday while introducing GOP candidate Fred
42:34
Speaker 1: Thompson at an event in California, and then this is
42:37
Speaker 1: how they quote me, and I think this is an
42:40
Speaker 1: accurate quote. In case you missed it, some nutjob broke
42:45
Speaker 1: in Clinton's campaign office and took hostages and apparently threatened
42:50
Speaker 1: to blow himself up unless he got a chance to
42:53
Speaker 1: speak to Hillary. Zigler said, Now, I found this rather
42:58
Speaker 1: odd because I always feel like blowing myself up after
43:03
Speaker 1: I hear Hillary Clinton speak. I thought that was pretty good.
43:08
Speaker 1: It's that you know, all these years later that still works.
43:13
Speaker 1: I found it odd because I always feel like blowing
43:16
Speaker 1: myself up after I hear Hillary Clinton speak. And my
43:20
Speaker 1: recollection was that the crowd liked it, and that might
43:24
Speaker 1: have been the actual joke that caused more of the
43:28
Speaker 1: media's stir, to whatever extent it existed, than the ex
43:33
Speaker 1: girlfriend joke that I made about Hillary Clinton. By the way,
43:37
Speaker 1: important context, this is early December of two thousand and seven.
43:41
Speaker 1: Everyone is still presuming that Hillary Clinton is going to
43:44
Speaker 1: be the Democratic presidential nominee, and that's who Fred Thompson
43:48
Speaker 1: would have been going up against had he instead of
43:50
Speaker 1: John McCain, won the Republican presidential nomination that year. So
43:54
Speaker 1: that's my experience with creating negative news coverage when making
44:01
Speaker 1: jokes at a political rally for a Republican presidential contender.
44:07
Speaker 1: I still may say that both those jokes, regardless of
44:10
Speaker 1: which one created the news coverage, were funny. First of all,
44:16
Speaker 1: that's the important part. When you tell a joke, it
44:18
Speaker 1: should at least be somewhat funny. And I don't think
44:21
Speaker 1: they were completely inappropriate either given the context of the event,
44:26
Speaker 1: And if a Democrat had made them or a liberal
44:31
Speaker 1: commentator had made them at a Democratic event, there would
44:34
Speaker 1: have been no media coverage at all, whether it was
44:37
Speaker 1: on Fox News Channel or on CBS Evening News or
44:41
Speaker 1: what have you. That's just the reality. That's the double standard,
44:44
Speaker 1: and we have seen that in obvious and stark ways
44:49
Speaker 1: during the news cycle this week in the aftermath of
44:52
Speaker 1: that Madison Square Garden rally for Donald Trump. Now, speaking
44:56
Speaker 1: of jokes and controversies and liberals getting their panties all
45:01
Speaker 1: in a bunch over jokes that really are not that inappropriate,
45:05
Speaker 1: and in fact, the reason why liberals are getting so
45:09
Speaker 1: upset about them is that they're not just not inappropriate,
45:13
Speaker 1: they're actually funny and biting and telling. That's really where
45:17
Speaker 1: you can get in trouble when you tell a joke
45:20
Speaker 1: that exposes a reality or a truth that makes liberals
45:24
Speaker 1: very uncomfortable about themselves, that's when you're going to really
45:28
Speaker 1: pay a price. And we saw that happen at CNN
45:33
Speaker 1: in a controversy that erupted when there was an argument
45:37
Speaker 1: between Ryan Gerdusky, who is a conservative pro Trump author
45:44
Speaker 1: who we've played at least one clip of previously on
45:47
Speaker 1: this podcast, because Gurdusky did a great job going basically
45:52
Speaker 1: one on five on a racial issue. And Girdsky is
45:57
Speaker 1: he's not a minority. I don't know if he's white.
46:00
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know what his race is. But he
46:02
Speaker 1: was in a situation on CNN on a show that
46:05
Speaker 1: is hosted by a black female by the name of
46:08
Speaker 1: Abby Phillip, where he was completely outnumbered, and I thought
46:11
Speaker 1: he handled himself about as well as he possibly could
46:14
Speaker 1: have against you know, horrendous odds on CNN. And so,
46:20
Speaker 1: you know, I like Gradusky. He's you know, I think
46:24
Speaker 1: he's a pretty darn good commentator and at times he
46:27
Speaker 1: can be pretty funny. Well, he got into it with
46:32
Speaker 1: mehdi Asan, who is extremely liberal, and you could argue
46:37
Speaker 1: pro Palestinian or maybe even pro Hamas and this caused
46:43
Speaker 1: there to be a dust up on the air. Now,
46:49
Speaker 1: before I get to what actually happened between Gurdusky and Asan,
46:54
Speaker 1: I want to do a little bit of a thought experiment.
46:56
Speaker 1: I want to go in reverse here. This is unusual,
47:00
Speaker 1: but I think this is the best way to attack
47:03
Speaker 1: this situation. Before we go into the actual clip between
47:08
Speaker 1: Gurdusky and Asan that created all of the controversy, I
47:13
Speaker 1: want to play a clip from Abby Philip, the host
47:17
Speaker 1: of the show, that happened after they came back from commercial.
47:24
Speaker 1: So what you're about to hear is the black female host,
47:28
Speaker 1: Abby Philip, coming back on the air after a commercial
47:34
Speaker 1: after the dust up that you will hear in just
47:37
Speaker 1: a moment. And the reason why I want to play
47:40
Speaker 1: this in this reverse order is I want you to
47:44
Speaker 1: think about if you know nothing, this is the thought experiment.
47:48
Speaker 1: If you know nothing about what happened between Gurdusky and Hassan,
47:53
Speaker 1: I want you to think about or imagine what would
47:56
Speaker 1: have had to have transpired to warrant and facilitate this
48:03
Speaker 1: level of commentary from Philip immediately afterwards after a commercial,
48:11
Speaker 1: where she apologizes to Hassan and Gurdusky has been literally
48:17
Speaker 1: removed from the studio. So I want you to think,
48:21
Speaker 1: as you're hearing this, especially if you haven't heard the
48:24
Speaker 1: original clip, what could possibly have happened to facilitate this,
48:30
Speaker 1: which is in my experience, unprecedented in the history of
48:36
Speaker 1: cable news television. Maybe something similar has happened, but it's
48:40
Speaker 1: not in my memory, and it's certainly not in recent times.
48:44
Speaker 1: But here's what it sounded like on CNN when Abby
48:48
Speaker 1: Philip came back from commercial and felt compelled to issue
48:55
Speaker 1: this apology to Hassan and this message to her audience.
49:00
Speaker 4: We're back here, and before we get started, I want
49:02
Speaker 4: to just address what happened in the last segment. First,
49:05
Speaker 4: I want to apologize to Medi Hassan for what was
49:07
Speaker 4: said at this table. It was completely unacceptable. When we
49:11
Speaker 4: get this discussion started, you'll see that Ryan is not
49:13
Speaker 4: at the table. There is a line that was crossed
49:16
Speaker 4: there and it's not acceptable to me. It's not acceptable
49:20
Speaker 4: to us at this network. We want discussion, We want
49:23
Speaker 4: people who disagree with each other to talk to each other.
49:26
Speaker 4: But when you cross the line of a complete lack
49:29
Speaker 4: of civility, that is not going to happen here on
49:33
Speaker 4: this show. It's a heated time. We're in the middle
49:36
Speaker 4: of a political season, we are eight days from a
49:39
Speaker 4: presidential election. But we can have conversations about what is
49:42
Speaker 4: happening in this country without resorting to the lowest of
49:47
Speaker 4: the lowest kind of discourse. I want to address that,
49:50
Speaker 4: and I want to apologize to the viewers at home,
49:53
Speaker 4: because we want to be able to hear each other.
49:55
Speaker 4: We want to be able to talk to each other,
49:57
Speaker 4: and we plan to do that in this next secment.
50:01
Speaker 1: Wow, now that's something else, right. I mean, if you
50:05
Speaker 1: had no idea what it transpired before that. Let's say
50:08
Speaker 1: you were just, you know, channel searching, and you flip
50:14
Speaker 1: that on and that's the first thing that you saw,
50:17
Speaker 1: you would have thought, holy crap, what happened to cause that?
50:25
Speaker 1: That escalated quickly? Holy cow? Did what did your dusky do?
50:31
Speaker 1: Did he physically strike Hassan? Did he kill Hassan? Did
50:36
Speaker 1: he call him a racial slur? Did he wish him dead?
50:43
Speaker 1: I mean, all that's what you would be thinking, right
50:46
Speaker 1: in a rational world, that's what you would be thinking.
50:49
Speaker 1: That's the only way that an anchor person on CNN
50:54
Speaker 1: would come out of a commercial and say we need
50:56
Speaker 1: to apologize to one of our guests, and our other guest,
51:01
Speaker 1: Ryan Gerdusky, has been removed. We don't know if he
51:05
Speaker 1: has been removed in handcuffs or by armed guards, or
51:09
Speaker 1: you know, whether he went voluntarily, but he is gone. Wow.
51:15
Speaker 1: In order to have that happen, you would think that
51:19
Speaker 1: there had to be at least either a physical altercation
51:24
Speaker 1: or a racial slur, or at the very least, at
51:28
Speaker 1: the very least he wished him physical harm. Except none
51:33
Speaker 1: of that happened. In fact, nothing like that came close
51:37
Speaker 1: to happening. In fact, technically, if we're gonna parse words
51:43
Speaker 1: like we're supposed to do with Biden so that we
51:47
Speaker 1: don't think that Biden called half the country garbage, can
51:51
Speaker 1: we at least take a look at what Gurdsky actually said,
51:56
Speaker 1: which is he makes a joke about beepers. Remember the
52:03
Speaker 1: story where the Massad, the Israeli Mussad, had this incredibly
52:09
Speaker 1: intricate plot where they rigged the beepers of the hamas
52:17
Speaker 1: agents to go off all at the same time. This
52:21
Speaker 1: killed a lot of people. This was incredibly masterful and
52:27
Speaker 1: really remarkable. It's absolutely amazing that the Massad pulled this off,
52:32
Speaker 1: but was completely caught off guard by October seventh. I'll
52:35
Speaker 1: never understand that, but that's another story for another day. Anyway,
52:39
Speaker 1: Gurdsky references the beeper because he views Hassan rightfully as
52:47
Speaker 1: at least a hamas sympathizer. And he doesn't say I
52:53
Speaker 1: hope your beeper goes off. He says, I hope your
52:57
Speaker 1: beeper doesn't go off. So he's literally saying, I hope
53:03
Speaker 1: you don't get killed. Now I fully acknowledge, fully acknowledge.
53:07
Speaker 1: He's making a joke, a pretty good one, pretty funny
53:10
Speaker 1: one about where Hassan's sympathies lie, and Hassan's record makes
53:17
Speaker 1: it clear that this is a legitimate view on Gradusky's part.
53:22
Speaker 1: But he's not saying I hope your beeper goes off.
53:25
Speaker 1: He's saying the opposite. And then when he realizes he
53:30
Speaker 1: stepped in it because he's in the lions Den and
53:33
Speaker 1: everybody else on this panel goes bananas. He apologizes, So
53:38
Speaker 1: he makes a joke where he's doing the opposite of
53:41
Speaker 1: wishing Hassan harm, and then he apologizes and all hell
53:47
Speaker 1: breaks loose. The apology clearly does nothing for him. In fact,
53:50
Speaker 1: it probably hurt him because he acknowledged he was wrong,
53:54
Speaker 1: and that I think made it a lot easier for
53:57
Speaker 1: those in that room to act and kick him out
54:00
Speaker 1: of the studio before the next segment began. But here
54:04
Speaker 1: is what actually facilitated that apology by Abbey Philip and
54:10
Speaker 1: then eventually CNN releasing a statement saying that Gerdosky is
54:15
Speaker 1: now banned from ever appearing on CNN, you know, theoretically
54:20
Speaker 1: into perpetuity because of his grave sin. This is what
54:23
Speaker 1: it sounded like on CNN.
54:26
Speaker 2: If you don't want to be called Nazis, stop doing.
54:32
Speaker 5: Table and people by me.
54:35
Speaker 1: I never called you.
54:36
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not saying her saying.
54:37
Speaker 1: I'm one of the Palestinians. I'm used to it. Well,
54:39
Speaker 1: I hope your beeper doesn't go off.
54:41
Speaker 3: The thing is is that.
54:43
Speaker 1: You should know you just said I should be kill No,
54:46
Speaker 1: I did not say.
54:49
Speaker 4: Let me look, let me let me just Guysian?
54:58
Speaker 3: Are you?
54:59
Speaker 2: I said I'm I a racist.
55:05
Speaker 1: At Ryan right? That is completely that the first block
55:10
Speaker 1: say the Muslim guy should be blown up.
55:11
Speaker 4: I apologize, don't say don't say then I apologize. You literally,
55:15
Speaker 4: I thought you.
55:16
Speaker 6: Said you didn't think I said I said supportive Palestinian.
55:20
Speaker 1: Because what's funny is Rudy Julian. He said, you're a
55:23
Speaker 1: great guest to be here.
55:27
Speaker 6: Ninety one today, and so this is where we're in there,
55:30
Speaker 6: this is America.
55:32
Speaker 1: Forget the racism that's which I should die. I didn't
55:35
Speaker 1: say that. He said, what does BEPA mean? Don't give
55:38
Speaker 1: me a sho Why did you say? What did you
55:42
Speaker 1: mean by the beeper? What did you mean by the people?
55:45
Speaker 1: You didn't you said people doesn't know?
55:47
Speaker 4: Ryan stopped.
55:48
Speaker 1: At least have the guns to support your racist from
55:51
Speaker 1: bring it back.
55:51
Speaker 6: This is why, this is why yesterday's rally was discussed.
55:56
Speaker 1: Don't call us Nacheese, but I'm going to threaten the
55:58
Speaker 1: brown guys a terrorist and.
55:59
Speaker 6: Kill him because I didn't ever say Donald Trump was hitler.
56:03
Speaker 6: But do you know who sat on a stood on
56:05
Speaker 6: a stage yesterday and said I want to come to
56:08
Speaker 6: the Nazi rally. I don't have to make up words
56:10
Speaker 6: and call you something. You're saying it for yourself and
56:13
Speaker 6: what you just said apologize, But I will tell you
56:16
Speaker 6: I don't accept that apology.
56:17
Speaker 3: And you didn't even say it for you.
56:18
Speaker 6: That is disgusting. But I can be offended when you
56:21
Speaker 6: don't even stay to me, I'm not Puerto Rican, but
56:23
Speaker 6: I was offended by what he said yesterday, and I'm
56:25
Speaker 6: offended that the former president and potentially future president would
56:29
Speaker 6: allow it and go for twelve hours and not say
56:32
Speaker 6: I don't care because you know what, when Kamala Harris
56:34
Speaker 6: put out statements about switching up opinions, it wasn't good
56:37
Speaker 6: enough for a Republican you said it.
56:39
Speaker 1: Take this now, does any of that? Does any of
56:45
Speaker 1: that come close to warning what Abby Philip did and
56:50
Speaker 1: said to start the next segment after that. That's why
56:54
Speaker 1: I played the clips in reverse order. To a rational person,
56:59
Speaker 1: I don't think it's even close. Look, is it possible
57:03
Speaker 1: that what Gurdsky said was not appropriate? Yeah? Okay, I
57:09
Speaker 1: mean depends on how you view these shows and how
57:13
Speaker 1: you view humor and criticism and where the lines are.
57:19
Speaker 1: But this is not a scripted situation. This is part
57:22
Speaker 1: of what has always driven me crazy because I've had
57:24
Speaker 1: more experience in this than almost anybody I know during
57:27
Speaker 1: my media career getting in trouble for things that you say,
57:31
Speaker 1: and to me, there ought to be an inherent, inherent
57:37
Speaker 1: and massive difference between the way that scripted comments are evaluated,
57:45
Speaker 1: especially for punishment and ad libbed comments are evaluated because obviously,
57:54
Speaker 1: if it's scripted, you've thought this through. Your intent is clear.
57:59
Speaker 1: It wasn't spur of the moment situation, you didn't misspeak.
58:05
Speaker 1: Ad living is totally different. You have a split second
58:10
Speaker 1: to decide, okay, I want to say something. Is this
58:12
Speaker 1: actually appropriate for this context and for this environment, for
58:16
Speaker 1: this outlet. You're trying to be funny. It's impossible to
58:21
Speaker 1: be funny if you're second and third guessing yourself and
58:26
Speaker 1: you're afraid of offending somebody. So this was obviously not
58:31
Speaker 1: a scripted comment. This was as impromptu as it gets.
58:36
Speaker 1: That ought to be judged and evaluated very differently than
58:41
Speaker 1: a scripted comment. But that got thrown out the window
58:45
Speaker 1: in all this, as did the apology. And I really
58:50
Speaker 1: do believe that the apology hurt Gerdsky here because when
58:54
Speaker 1: he apologized as profusely as he did, he's essentially wave
59:00
Speaker 1: the white flag. And when you give these liberals who
59:03
Speaker 1: want to be offended an inch, they will take a mile.
59:06
Speaker 1: He's acknowledging he was wrong. Kill him. That's essentially what happened.
59:12
Speaker 1: When they see blood in the water, Kill him. If
59:15
Speaker 1: he had stood strong. I think he might have had
59:18
Speaker 1: a chance. Maybe not, but he would at least have
59:21
Speaker 1: had a chance to get away with this because what
59:24
Speaker 1: he said again to be you know, not to be repetitive.
59:29
Speaker 1: But it's important that the CNN panels seemed to think
59:33
Speaker 1: and Hassan acted as if inaccurately he was saying, I
59:39
Speaker 1: hope you die. Well now, no, he was saying the opposite,
59:43
Speaker 1: I hope your beeper doesn't go off. Do have meaning
59:47
Speaker 1: or not? He was saying, I hope it doesn't go off. Now.
59:52
Speaker 1: Maybe he was saying it because he doesn't want to
59:54
Speaker 1: be residual collateral damage to the beeper going off that joke.
1:00:00
Speaker 5: Who knows. But this is an instantaneous statement being made
1:00:05
Speaker 5: that's intended to be funny and highlight where Hassan's sympathies are,
1:00:12
Speaker 5: which was accurate and legitimate. That's legitimate commentary in this
1:00:17
Speaker 5: particular situation. Well, none of this went down the way
1:00:23
Speaker 5: that it should have, and these things tend to spiral
1:00:27
Speaker 5: out of control. You have this immediate reaction within the
1:00:30
Speaker 5: studio where Abby Phillip, a very liberal black female, has
1:00:36
Speaker 5: decided that she is going to ban Gerdusky from the
1:00:39
Speaker 5: rest of the show, kick him out of the studio,
1:00:43
Speaker 5: and then that puts CNN in a very difficult spot
1:00:47
Speaker 5: because they have to back the black female host and
1:00:52
Speaker 5: all the other liberals who got their panties in a
1:00:55
Speaker 5: bunch because of what happened here. So then CNN puts
1:00:59
Speaker 5: out a statement in response to this dustop, and it
1:01:04
Speaker 5: read as follows, there is zero room for racism or
1:01:09
Speaker 5: bigotry at CNN or on our air.
1:01:16
Speaker 1: Where was the racism or bigotry? That there's nothing racist?
1:01:21
Speaker 1: It's actually some similar to the to the Puerto Rico situation.
1:01:26
Speaker 1: There's no racism in that joke because nobody was calling
1:01:30
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican's garbage. They were calling the territory, the physical
1:01:38
Speaker 1: place garbage. Now, obviously there's a connection to the people there,
1:01:43
Speaker 1: but that's not racial, that's not racist. So I don't
1:01:47
Speaker 1: understand how implying that Hassan is a Hamas sympathizer with
1:01:52
Speaker 1: a beeper joke is racist or bigoted. But that's what
1:01:57
Speaker 1: CNN roae. We aim back to their statement, we aim
1:02:01
Speaker 1: to foster thoughtful conversations and debate, but no impromptu jokes. Please, no, no,
1:02:08
Speaker 1: we can't have any of that. They want to foster
1:02:11
Speaker 1: thoughtful conversations and debate, including between people who profoundly disagree
1:02:16
Speaker 1: with each other, in order to explore important issues and
1:02:19
Speaker 1: promote mutual understanding. But we will not allow guests to
1:02:26
Speaker 1: be demeaned or for the line of civility to be crossed. Well,
1:02:34
Speaker 1: where was the line crossed? And this has been a
1:02:37
Speaker 1: problem that I've had for thirty some years in the business.
1:02:41
Speaker 1: What is the line? Tell me when it was cross
1:02:44
Speaker 1: so that I know not to cross it myself in
1:02:47
Speaker 1: the future. Where was that line? Because he didn't say,
1:02:53
Speaker 1: I hope your beeper goes off. He said, hope it
1:02:56
Speaker 1: doesn't go off. So I don't know what that line is.
1:03:00
Speaker 1: I get if you're wishing physical harm on somebody, that's
1:03:03
Speaker 1: a legitimate line, but that's not what happened here. Well,
1:03:09
Speaker 1: the CNN statement finished, Ryan Gradusky will not be welcomed
1:03:13
Speaker 1: back at our network. So gee, I wonder if that's
1:03:19
Speaker 1: going to have a chilling effect on thoughtful conversations and debate,
1:03:25
Speaker 1: including between people who profoundly disagree with each other, because
1:03:30
Speaker 1: I have no idea where that line is there? What
1:03:33
Speaker 1: where was that line crossed? Exactly? I acknowledged that that
1:03:39
Speaker 1: was unusual verbiage to use in a CNN debate, But
1:03:44
Speaker 1: I don't think it was inherently inappropriate, and I don't
1:03:48
Speaker 1: think the way it was handled was remotely appropriate. I
1:03:51
Speaker 1: don't see how Hassan gets to be the victim and
1:03:55
Speaker 1: the good guy here and Gurdowski, Gurdusky gets banned essentially
1:04:00
Speaker 1: for life from CNN. That doesn't make any sense to me.
1:04:05
Speaker 1: And no one will say what exactly was the offense,
1:04:10
Speaker 1: what was the sin, Where exactly did the sin take place?
1:04:15
Speaker 1: And why is that the sin? They'll just assume it because, oh,
1:04:20
Speaker 1: well there was enough outrage. Well it must have been raceed, sister, bigoted,
1:04:23
Speaker 1: and therefore inappropriate for our network, and we're going to
1:04:27
Speaker 1: ban Gurdusky forever because of it. Now, this got so
1:04:31
Speaker 1: much publicity that Gurdusky's probably going to be fine. I'm
1:04:34
Speaker 1: sure he'll be picked up by some conservative media outlet.
1:04:37
Speaker 1: I don't even know for sure. If he was an
1:04:39
Speaker 1: employee of CNN that seemed to be ambiguous, he might
1:04:42
Speaker 1: have been a contributor. But you know, I don't think
1:04:45
Speaker 1: this is going to be all that bad for Girdusky
1:04:47
Speaker 1: in retrospect. I'm sure he wishes he hadn't apologized, because
1:04:50
Speaker 1: then he'd be in even better shape in Trump world.
1:04:54
Speaker 1: But this was a mistake by CNN, in my opinion,
1:04:58
Speaker 1: and an indication that any rumors that they may be
1:05:02
Speaker 1: shifting to the middle or to be more moderate are
1:05:06
Speaker 1: very likely untrue. And if they are true, boy, is
1:05:11
Speaker 1: there a much higher mountain to climb than I think
1:05:14
Speaker 1: anybody realizes, because that is an indication of the core,
1:05:20
Speaker 1: the core of what is making CNN tick, which is
1:05:26
Speaker 1: in my view, far more broken than maybe even I realized.
1:05:31
Speaker 1: I mean, I have to say I was surprised by
1:05:35
Speaker 1: the nature of the CNN reaction, and my explanation for
1:05:39
Speaker 1: it is that it was one of those situations that
1:05:42
Speaker 1: spirals out of control. You have the people in that
1:05:45
Speaker 1: room that overreact, and Abby Phillip really with that statement
1:05:49
Speaker 1: that I played put CNN in basically an impossible situation,
1:05:54
Speaker 1: and then no one ever thinks about the ramifications of
1:05:57
Speaker 1: this or what line was actually crossed. Reality no longer matters.
1:06:02
Speaker 1: It's all about perception. It's all about making the people
1:06:07
Speaker 1: in the room or in the office or in the
1:06:10
Speaker 1: newsroom feel as if they are on the right side,
1:06:14
Speaker 1: that they have been protected, and we have drawn a
1:06:17
Speaker 1: line for civility and against racism and bigotry, and they
1:06:21
Speaker 1: all feel good. I guarantee you they all the people
1:06:25
Speaker 1: who are directly involved this in this at CNN feel
1:06:29
Speaker 1: very good about what they did. They they stood up
1:06:31
Speaker 1: for justice and stability and against racism and bigotry. But
1:06:36
Speaker 1: in my view, that's not at all what has happened.
1:06:39
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's free drop of the abbreviated show.
1:06:43
Speaker 1: If you're interested in listening to the entire show, you
1:06:46
Speaker 1: must become a patron. Please go to Patreon. That's p
1:06:51
Speaker 1: A t R e O N dot com. Patreon dot
1:06:55
Speaker 1: com slash the Death of Journalism with John Ziggler. My
1:07:01
Speaker 1: name is j H h N z I E G
1:07:04
Speaker 1: L e R. That's patreon dot com slash the Death
1:07:10
Speaker 1: of Journalism with John Ziggler. Good luck to you on that.
1:07:15
Speaker 1: But that's how you can subscribe.