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Episode Two Hundred Ninety Six: Broken Nation · The Death Of Journalism

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Speaker 1: Welcome to episode two hundred and ninety six of the
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Speaker 1: Death of Journalism podcast. My name is John Zigler. I'm
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Speaker 1: your hostling today's show. President Trump continues to look like
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Speaker 1: a loser in the war with Iran. The two hundred
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Speaker 1: and fiftieth July fourth celebrations seem like a disaster. The
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Speaker 1: California primary election provides me with plenty of vindication. There
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Speaker 1: is a literal meltdown at CBS's sixty Minutes. I interview
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Speaker 1: my daughter Grace for her fourteenth birthday. She has some
0:27
Speaker 1: interesting things to say, and there is a bill in
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Speaker 1: Congress to try to save college sports. We begin this
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Speaker 1: episode of the podcast, as we have for the last
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Speaker 1: several months, with the latest in the war with Iran,
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Speaker 1: which once again seems to be going very poorly for
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Speaker 1: Donald Trump in his attempt to end it in a
0:45
Speaker 1: way where he can plausibly declare victory. At last check,
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Speaker 1: the Iranians have walked away from the negotiating table. And
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Speaker 1: there was a report, and I'm always skeptical of these
0:57
Speaker 1: kinds of reports, but it was in great detail, with
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Speaker 1: multiple sources. Although the news outlet that reported at first
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Speaker 1: was Axios, a liberal outlet which always makes me a
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Speaker 1: little bit skeptical, but it got a lot of publicity
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Speaker 1: from other news outlets, including Fox News Channel. The report
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Speaker 1: was that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister
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Speaker 1: of Israel, had a very very contentious call where Trump
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Speaker 1: effectively read net Yaho the Riot Act. Again, I'm not
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Speaker 1: one hundred percent sure how accurate this is, although the
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Speaker 1: details were very precise and consistently reported. Sometimes these kinds
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Speaker 1: of things get leaked to make it look like Trump
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Speaker 1: behind the scenes as being a strong man, even when
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Speaker 1: publicly he looks weak. But let's just presume for a
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Speaker 1: second there's at least some truth to this. This is
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Speaker 1: rather telling because by all accounts, it was Netan Yahoo
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Speaker 1: that charmed Trump into going ahead with this war to
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Speaker 1: begin with, and now Trump is looking for a scapegoat
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Speaker 1: now that it's not going at the end the way
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Speaker 1: that he would love. He's got to be very frustrated.
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Speaker 1: He won all the battles, but he can't seem to
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Speaker 1: win the war, mainly because Iran doesn't seem to give
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Speaker 1: a damn and they have really nothing to lose, and
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Speaker 1: their timeline is very different than ours. And I think
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Speaker 1: the implications of this and the midterm elections are looking
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Speaker 1: very very grim for the Republican Party. And much like
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Speaker 1: the Iranians don't seem to care about the things, we
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Speaker 1: give a damn about it. The other peer as if
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Speaker 1: Trump cares about the midterm elections, at least not publicly.
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Speaker 1: So that's a very bad scenario for the Republican Party.
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Speaker 1: But as of this moment, still no real progress in
2:32
Speaker 1: ending the war in Iran. Now there's other fronts where
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Speaker 1: Trump is being embarrassed, and the most dramatic is clearly
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Speaker 1: what's going on with the celebrations of our two hundred
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Speaker 1: and fiftieth birthday July fourth. Obviously, this being twenty twenty six,
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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty years since July fourth of seventeen
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Speaker 1: seventy six and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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Speaker 1: This is really a remarkable development. I think is so
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Speaker 1: very very telling about how broken our entire nation is,
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Speaker 1: especially when it comes to being united. Obviously that's a
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Speaker 1: big part of our branding, where the United States of America,
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Speaker 1: at least we were, and we certainly were during the
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Speaker 1: two hundredth anniversary of the country. I've been seeing a
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Speaker 1: lot of videos that have kind of confirmed my perception,
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Speaker 1: and I always was skeptical of my perception because back
3:26
Speaker 1: in seventeen, in seventeen seventy six, nineteen seventy six, I
3:31
Speaker 1: was only nine years old, but I had a very
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Speaker 1: very strong memory of the bisentennial being a massive deal
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Speaker 1: and a very unified celebration. Now, memories can be hazy.
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Speaker 1: We tend to look at the past with rose colored glasses.
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Speaker 1: But I've been seeing a lot of people of my
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Speaker 1: age group with the exact same memory and perception of
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Speaker 1: what happened in seventeen seventy six, and that is not
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Speaker 1: happening in twenty twenty six. And we now have evidence
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Speaker 1: that it's not going to be anything like in nineteen
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Speaker 1: seventy six with the two hundredth anniversary of the independence
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Speaker 1: of America against Great Britain, because Trump's attempt to do
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Speaker 1: a freedom concert around the July fourth celebrations have completely
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Speaker 1: and totally collapsed in embarrassing fashion. I mean this, You
4:20
Speaker 1: could not possibly have perioded how terrible, how awful, and
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Speaker 1: how pathetic this entire effort was. So there was an
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Speaker 1: announcement of an incredibly weak slate of musical performing acts
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Speaker 1: for the celebrations, for Freedom two fifty. Now there's two
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Speaker 1: different celebrations, but the Freedom two fifty is the one
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Speaker 1: more associated with Trump but still officially part of the
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Speaker 1: United States government. But this isn't the congressional celebration. This
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Speaker 1: is the presidential celebration. And the slate of performers was
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Speaker 1: incredibly weak. Incl voted, among others, Millie Vanilli, Milli Vanilly,
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Speaker 1: the act that was disgraced for being fake, and one
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Speaker 1: of the two guys is dead because of a suicide
5:12
Speaker 1: or drug overdues, whatever you want to call it, many
5:14
Speaker 1: years ago. Somehow Milli Vanilli made the grade. But I mean,
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Speaker 1: Martina McBride was probably the headliner, and she hasn't been
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Speaker 1: a thing for a couple of decades at least, And
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Speaker 1: that was bad enough, that was pathetic enough that for
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Speaker 1: our two hundred and fiftieth celebration, that's the best that
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Speaker 1: the Presidential Committee to celebrate this could do for musical acts.
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Speaker 1: But that was just the beginning. Because Martina McBride, I
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Speaker 1: guess realized that she had been duped. She didn't realize
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Speaker 1: this was going to be a very pro political, pro
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Speaker 1: Trump political event. Now I don't know what she was
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Speaker 1: basing that on other than just history. But at some
5:55
Speaker 1: level she felt as if she had been manipulated into
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Speaker 1: saying yeah to this, and once she abandoned ship, the
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Speaker 1: rats all left the ship. Brett Michaels, who's not a
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Speaker 1: big act anymore. And it was actually on Donald Trump's Apprentice,
6:11
Speaker 1: he bailed. Basically everybody bailed, essentially everybody I think but
6:16
Speaker 1: Vanilla Ice and maybe somebody else bailed from an already
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Speaker 1: pathetic slate of performers, and so instead of trying to
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Speaker 1: bring in somebody to save the day, and it's just
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Speaker 1: astonishing to me, it's absolutely so telling about how pathetically
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Speaker 1: divided we are that you can't find even one major,
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Speaker 1: say country act like a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think that they're conservative, but I
6:41
Speaker 1: don't think they're liberal either. Where you just pay them
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Speaker 1: enough money to headline an event where they would get
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Speaker 1: a lot of publicity and it would be obviously very patriotic,
6:52
Speaker 1: all because it's perceived as being Donald Trump's event. You
6:56
Speaker 1: can't even get that done even with money. Let me
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Speaker 1: get you erectly, he got all sorts of resources to
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Speaker 1: entice someone to participate in this and yet everyone bailed,
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Speaker 1: and so what's the solution. Donald Trump's actually going to
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Speaker 1: do exactly what Martina McBride and others were afraid was
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Speaker 1: going to happen with this event. He's going to make
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Speaker 1: it a Donald Trump centric event. He's going to speak
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Speaker 1: fear not, I'm the greatest entertainer in the world. I
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Speaker 1: will come forward and I will save the day. Bullshit.
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Speaker 1: That's pathetic, it's ridiculous. And while it's disappointing that what
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Speaker 1: should be a great opportunity for the country to get together,
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Speaker 1: come together, be unified, and celebrate our remarkable history of
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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty years, that's bad enough. But to me,
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Speaker 1: the most important part of this is it just exposes
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Speaker 1: one how unbelievably toxic Donald Trump is. I mean, conservatives,
7:53
Speaker 1: mag of people have no idea. They call it Trump
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Speaker 1: derangement syndrome. And yes, some of it's over the top
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Speaker 1: and Iraq national. But at a certain point, it doesn't
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Speaker 1: matter if it's based in rationality or if it's fair
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Speaker 1: that one of the number one jobs of the President
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Speaker 1: of United States is to maintain our unity. I mean,
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Speaker 1: that's what Abraham Lincoln was all about. The Union, the Union,
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Speaker 1: the Union, and Donald Trump has done more to divide,
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Speaker 1: at least socially and culturally and yes, politically, the Union
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Speaker 1: than any other president in modern history. And it's and
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Speaker 1: this is a perfect example of this. Can you imagine
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Speaker 1: if our founding fathers were told two hundred and fifty
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Speaker 1: years ago, look, guys, this is gonna go great for
8:39
Speaker 1: a long time. But two hundred and fifty years to now,
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Speaker 1: we're gonna have a situation where we're gonna try to
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Speaker 1: celebrate what you did today and we're not even gonna
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Speaker 1: be able to get any major entertainment musical acts to
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Speaker 1: participate because they're so afraid of the toxicity of the
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Speaker 1: person who is currently the president of the United States.
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Speaker 1: And the founders would be like, what, what the hell
9:01
Speaker 1: are you talking about? How is that possible? But that's
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Speaker 1: where we are. And it's not just the July fourth celebrations,
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Speaker 1: But that's the most obvious, the most dramatic, maybe the
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Speaker 1: most impactful, because I think a lot of people were
9:16
Speaker 1: looking forward to what this might be like, and now,
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Speaker 1: at least for half of the government funded and sponsored celebrations,
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Speaker 1: it's going to be a complete and total political joke
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Speaker 1: that no one except for MAGA cult members will take seriously.
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Speaker 1: But it's also other areas of life. We're seeing it
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Speaker 1: on almost a daily basis. The quarterback for the New
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Speaker 1: York Football Giants, Jackson Dark, can't even introduce the President
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Speaker 1: of the United States without it causing a complete catastrophe
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Speaker 1: within his locker room. Now, I'm not going to defend
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Speaker 1: the reaction of some including Abdul Carter, former Penn Stater
9:56
Speaker 1: of course PC Penn Stater, who had to come an
10:00
Speaker 1: attack his quarterback publicly, and then you know they had
10:04
Speaker 1: to have a rock pro schma. But the reality is
10:07
Speaker 1: that Jackson Dart was treated as if he had committed
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Speaker 1: some sort of crime by introducing the President of United
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Speaker 1: States of the public event that would never happen previously.
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Speaker 1: That only happens because of Donald Trump's toxicity. Speaking of
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Speaker 1: New York, Trump just even mentions that he wants to
10:23
Speaker 1: go to the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden to
10:26
Speaker 1: watch the Knicks, by the way, his home city, and
10:29
Speaker 1: he's been at Knicks games previously before he was president,
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Speaker 1: and that causes a complete meltdown. Oh my god, Trump's
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Speaker 1: going to hijack the NBA Finals. We can't allow us
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Speaker 1: to happen. I have no knowledge of whether he's actually
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Speaker 1: going to even try to do that now, but that
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Speaker 1: became a controversy. This is the type of thing that
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Speaker 1: would never happen with a normal presidency, and it matters,
10:54
Speaker 1: and it bothers me greatly that the MAGA people they
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Speaker 1: think that this is a sign that liberals just don't
11:02
Speaker 1: get it, that it's liberal's fault. And again, I fully
11:06
Speaker 1: acknowledge that there are people who lost their minds when
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Speaker 1: it comes to Donald Trump. But perception is reality, and
11:15
Speaker 1: this is why you don't have a president that is
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Speaker 1: so divisive, because when it gets to a certain point
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Speaker 1: and he's unpopular because the economy is perceived is not
11:25
Speaker 1: doing well, and he's in a war that most people
11:27
Speaker 1: don't seem to won, and he doesn't appear to be
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Speaker 1: fulfilling his campaign promises, and he promised the world and
11:33
Speaker 1: he's not delivering, and you get a situation where he's
11:36
Speaker 1: got a thirty seven percent approval rating, and by the way,
11:39
Speaker 1: the other sixty some percent don't just disapprove, they hate
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Speaker 1: his fucking guts. That has ramifications where you can't even
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Speaker 1: do a goddamn decent celebration of the two hundred and
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Speaker 1: fifteen anniversary of the greatest country that's ever been created.
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Speaker 1: You can't even have the quarterback of the New York
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Speaker 1: Giants introduced the president of the public event without it
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Speaker 1: being a cat astrophe. I mean, that has implications. And
12:04
Speaker 1: this is one of the many reasons I have never
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Speaker 1: supported a Donald Trump presidency because I view one of
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Speaker 1: our mandates as the United States of America to remain
12:16
Speaker 1: at least somewhat united, at least on the surface. And
12:21
Speaker 1: I get it, trust me, I live through the Bush
12:24
Speaker 1: era where they hated George Bush. They're gonna hate any Republican,
12:29
Speaker 1: but it was never to this leg Yeah, yes, they
12:31
Speaker 1: hated George Bush during the Iraq War, no question about it.
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Speaker 1: But I honestly do not believe it was anything close
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Speaker 1: to what it is with Donald Trump. And Trump revels
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Speaker 1: in it, and his base loves it. They think it's
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Speaker 1: a sign he's doing a good job. When he's hated
12:49
Speaker 1: by the left and they've got TDS at this point,
12:53
Speaker 1: it's way way beyond that, and we've become dysfunctional, literally dysfunctional. Well,
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Speaker 1: we can't even do a decent celebration for our two
13:02
Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth anniversary. So I thought that was very disappointing,
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Speaker 1: very telling, and probably not getting enough attention. It got
13:11
Speaker 1: a lot of attention, but to me, it's incredibly indicative
13:15
Speaker 1: of where we are and how broken we are as
13:18
Speaker 1: a country, and how many negative implications there are to
13:23
Speaker 1: a Donald Trump presidency that have nothing really to do
13:26
Speaker 1: directly with his policies or his performance within the policy
13:31
Speaker 1: realm of the presidency. Now, speaking of politics, I want
13:36
Speaker 1: to at least address what's been going on here in
13:39
Speaker 1: California with our primary elections, although we have no idea
13:43
Speaker 1: as of this taping when the votes will actually all
13:47
Speaker 1: be counted, and that should be the headline talk about
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Speaker 1: beating dysfunctional. How dysfunctional is it that the state of California,
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Speaker 1: where we supposedly embrace new technologies, it's the home of
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Speaker 1: Silicon Valley and AI and all that other stuff. We
14:04
Speaker 1: live in a world where the state of California counts
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Speaker 1: about half the votes at like ten o'clock at night
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Speaker 1: on election night and just says, eh, well, we'll pick
14:16
Speaker 1: it up tomorrow and we'll count a bunch of votes
14:19
Speaker 1: again tomorrow. And we have no idea how long this
14:22
Speaker 1: is going to take us. It might take us days,
14:24
Speaker 1: it might take us weeks. We really have no idea.
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Speaker 1: That's a complete and total joke and should be mocked
14:31
Speaker 1: by the rest of the nation, and it should be
14:33
Speaker 1: much like Trump's failure to put on a July fourth celebration,
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Speaker 1: it ought to be seen as an indication that California
14:41
Speaker 1: is completely, fundamentally, totally broken and not to be emulated.
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Speaker 1: But with that said, based upon what we currently know,
14:49
Speaker 1: which is a little bit more than half of the
14:51
Speaker 1: vote being counted in California, there were two races that
14:55
Speaker 1: got have a lot a lot of attention. The first
14:58
Speaker 1: is the governor's race, and trump toxicity has been seen
15:03
Speaker 1: and his influence has been seen in both of the
15:06
Speaker 1: major races here in California. First is the governor's race,
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Speaker 1: and just as I predicted, Steve Hilton, because of Trump's endorsement,
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Speaker 1: ended up blowing the doors off of the other Republican,
15:19
Speaker 1: Chad Bianco, and it looks like he's going to make
15:22
Speaker 1: the runoff in November against Javier Bishera, who is a
15:28
Speaker 1: guy with absolutely no charisma, no great history. He's a
15:34
Speaker 1: Latino and could be the first likely now the first
15:38
Speaker 1: Latino governor in the history of California, and he's not
15:42
Speaker 1: Tom Steyer. And I made a prediction that Tom Steyer
15:47
Speaker 1: had actually spent so much money on television ads that
15:50
Speaker 1: he was now hurting his campaign. I have no hard
15:53
Speaker 1: data to prove this, it's all anecdotal. But when I
15:57
Speaker 1: posted on social media last night that thank good because
16:01
Speaker 1: it looks like Hilton, thanks to Trump's endorsement, and Bishera,
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Speaker 1: are going to be the two in the California runoff
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Speaker 1: if you will in November, that this will save California
16:12
Speaker 1: from having to endure four or five more months of
16:15
Speaker 1: Tom Steyer's absolutely douchey television commercials. I got a lot
16:20
Speaker 1: of responses from Democrats who said, yeah, that's why I
16:25
Speaker 1: didn't vote for him. I don't know how truthful that is,
16:28
Speaker 1: but I thought that was interesting. It was a vindication
16:31
Speaker 1: of something that I had said that I was picking
16:34
Speaker 1: up on because Stier was actually not making any more
16:37
Speaker 1: headway in the polls. He was spending up the two
16:39
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars on these ubiquitous, terrible television ads, and
16:44
Speaker 1: I felt like they had reached beyond the point of
16:46
Speaker 1: diminishing marginal returns and maybe even actually hurting him at
16:51
Speaker 1: least antidotally. There's some evidence of that, because there were
16:54
Speaker 1: Democrats who responded to my post saying, yeah, I'm very
16:57
Speaker 1: glad I don't have to watch anymore. Tom Steyer ads
17:00
Speaker 1: as well. In fact, that's why I didn't vote for him.
17:03
Speaker 1: And tom Steyer. It appears it's not one hundred percent,
17:07
Speaker 1: but it's well into the ninety percent tile of percentages
17:10
Speaker 1: that tom Steyer is not going to make the runoff
17:12
Speaker 1: and it's going to be Hilton and Beshera, and then
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Speaker 1: Beshera will win easily so ser but Shera, with no
17:19
Speaker 1: base of support, not a whole lot of money really
17:22
Speaker 1: behind him, didn't run a great campaign, doesn't really seem
17:26
Speaker 1: to care that much, which I'm actually very happy about.
17:29
Speaker 1: I think for Shera, well, it'll be a terrible governor,
17:32
Speaker 1: will be far less bad than tom Steyer would have been,
17:36
Speaker 1: because tom Steyer would have felt like he had to
17:39
Speaker 1: virtue signal on everything that he is a white man,
17:44
Speaker 1: a straight man, a rich white man. The fact that
17:49
Speaker 1: the Democrats might have elected a billionaire, straight white male
17:54
Speaker 1: with no experience I always thought was freaking hilarious and
17:57
Speaker 1: seemingly unlikely, and it does not appear is if that's
18:00
Speaker 1: going to be the case, but Buschero will kick the
18:03
Speaker 1: crap out of Hilton. The only scenario that could have
18:07
Speaker 1: possibly happened where Republicans had a chance and it would
18:10
Speaker 1: be theoretically a certainty to win in November, is if
18:15
Speaker 1: they had two candidates in the final two. And the
18:18
Speaker 1: only way that was even theoretically going to happen was
18:21
Speaker 1: if Donald Trump did not get involved in the race.
18:23
Speaker 1: So I was right about that that Trump endorsing Hilton
18:27
Speaker 1: would cause Hilton to go way ahead of Bianco, but
18:30
Speaker 1: that would eliminate any chance of Bianco getting second place.
18:34
Speaker 1: Now mathematically it doesn't look like that was ever a
18:37
Speaker 1: real possibility anyway, because it appears as if Pesherro is
18:41
Speaker 1: going to be at least in the twenty five to
18:42
Speaker 1: twenty six point range, and there was no possible way
18:46
Speaker 1: for two Republicans to beat that. So, as I said
18:49
Speaker 1: many times, it was only theoretical, but it ended even
18:53
Speaker 1: the theoretical chance of two Republicans advancing when Donald Trump
18:57
Speaker 1: got involved in the race. But at least it looks
19:00
Speaker 1: like we're not going to have Tom Steyer, and to me,
19:03
Speaker 1: that's something to celebrate, if only for the fact that
19:05
Speaker 1: we won't have to endure his television commercials for the
19:08
Speaker 1: next four or five months, assuming things turn out the
19:11
Speaker 1: way that they currently look like they will. That leads
19:14
Speaker 1: me to the mayoral race in Los Angeles, which got
19:17
Speaker 1: a ridiculous amount of publicity. The media loves this story
19:22
Speaker 1: because Spencer Pratt is a former reality TV show star allegedly,
19:29
Speaker 1: and he gives off Trump vibes, and you know, he's
19:34
Speaker 1: done great things on social media, and Macaworld thinks he's
19:38
Speaker 1: one of theirs, and he's going to pull off a
19:40
Speaker 1: miracle and win the mayor's race in Los Angeles because
19:45
Speaker 1: you know, he's exposing the corruption of the democratic establishment
19:50
Speaker 1: and he's got righteous anger over his home being burned
19:53
Speaker 1: down in the wildfires a year and a half ago.
19:56
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, really, people, seriously, we're really going
20:01
Speaker 1: to do this. I mean, the media loves this narrative.
20:03
Speaker 1: It gives them something to talk about. It's a story
20:06
Speaker 1: that people can understand, and it engages both the left
20:09
Speaker 1: and the right. But I have been very outspoken on
20:12
Speaker 1: social media, and in two different television appearances on News Nation,
20:16
Speaker 1: including one earlier this week, where I have out and
20:19
Speaker 1: out said there is no chance that Spencer Pratt is
20:22
Speaker 1: going to be the next mayor of Los Angeles unless
20:24
Speaker 1: he makes the runoff and Karen Bass dies or gets
20:28
Speaker 1: embroiled in some sort of massive scandal. So it's a
20:32
Speaker 1: non zero chance. I mean, she could die or you know,
20:36
Speaker 1: there could be I don't know what the level of
20:38
Speaker 1: scandal would have to be. It'd have to be pretty
20:39
Speaker 1: damn large, but at least it's at least theoretically possible
20:43
Speaker 1: that that could happen. But he's not going to win
20:46
Speaker 1: by getting fifty percent plus one in the primary election,
20:51
Speaker 1: which is you could win automatically without a runoff in
20:53
Speaker 1: Los Angeles in the mayor's race. That was never going
20:56
Speaker 1: to happen, despite the fact that Pratt essentially predicted that
20:59
Speaker 1: that would. That was never on the table for Spencer Pratt,
21:03
Speaker 1: and he's exceedingly unlikely to win a November matchup for
21:09
Speaker 1: very logical reasons. To me, it's this basic math, basic logic,
21:14
Speaker 1: and it's amazing to me the pushback and telling to me,
21:17
Speaker 1: the pushback that I get on social media, and when
21:20
Speaker 1: I went on News Nation and they had on with
21:23
Speaker 1: me a conservative female who is a huge fan of
21:27
Speaker 1: Spencer Pratt and who believes that I'm totally wrong or
21:30
Speaker 1: being too negative, and I just don't get it. I
21:34
Speaker 1: really don't get it. And the part of it I
21:37
Speaker 1: really don't understand is how many people think that this
21:40
Speaker 1: means that I am trying to sabotage Spencer Pratt's campaign
21:44
Speaker 1: or I'm against Spencer Pratt or in favor of Karen Pass,
21:48
Speaker 1: the incumbent mayor, which is just ridiculous. I can't stand
21:53
Speaker 1: Karen Pass. I would be happy if Spencer Pratt won,
21:56
Speaker 1: even after my predictions. We would to be a pain
21:59
Speaker 1: in the ass to have to deal with everyone dunking
22:01
Speaker 1: lem Me shure or whatever. But I would be thrilled
22:04
Speaker 1: if somehow we lived in the world where the city
22:07
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles might elect somebody other than a Karen Bass,
22:11
Speaker 1: and somebody who at least has some common sense behind them,
22:14
Speaker 1: even if he has no experience. In Spencer Pratt, I
22:17
Speaker 1: would be happy about that. I'm in the business of
22:21
Speaker 1: telling people not what they want to hear, but what
22:23
Speaker 1: the truth is. That's what this podcast is all about
22:26
Speaker 1: the truth, be damned, and the truth is Spencer Pratt.
22:30
Speaker 1: There's no indication whatsoever in any logical or math based
22:34
Speaker 1: world where he can win. Well. So far, the results
22:38
Speaker 1: are one thousand percent consistent with my analysis here, because
22:43
Speaker 1: while it appears at least in perception that Pratt will
22:46
Speaker 1: make the runoff, just as I predicted that he would
22:49
Speaker 1: on this podcast and on those two News Nation television appearances,
22:55
Speaker 1: there is no way to interpret the current results in
22:59
Speaker 1: a way that we indicate that he has any chance
23:01
Speaker 1: in November. Now, I want to make something clear, there
23:05
Speaker 1: is still a school of thought as of this taping
23:08
Speaker 1: that Spencer Pratt may not make the runoff. He currently
23:13
Speaker 1: is it like thirty percent, and Bass is it like
23:16
Speaker 1: thirty five percent, and Raman is at like twenty two percent,
23:21
Speaker 1: And so it looks on paper as if Pratt is
23:23
Speaker 1: safe to make the runoff. And frankly, I will be
23:26
Speaker 1: the first to acknowledge that the incumbent mayor Bass, you know,
23:30
Speaker 1: lingering around thirty four to thirty five percent at this
23:32
Speaker 1: point with sixty two percent of the vote counted, is
23:35
Speaker 1: ridiculously pathetic. I one hundred percent agree with that, but
23:41
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter because let's say Pratt makes the runoff,
23:46
Speaker 1: which again is not one hundred percent, because there is
23:50
Speaker 1: a school of thought, and I can't figure out how
23:52
Speaker 1: accurate this is. I've been watching the betting markets pretty carefully.
23:55
Speaker 1: There's there's certainly some betters that believe that Pratt is
23:59
Speaker 1: going to collapse as these votes continue to get counted,
24:03
Speaker 1: and that it's possible that Ramen, the essentially the female
24:06
Speaker 1: Mandani of Los Angeles, the socialist, is going to at
24:11
Speaker 1: least catch up to him, maybe pass him. My gut
24:15
Speaker 1: tells me that we're going to see a situation where
24:17
Speaker 1: it becomes pretty close between Pratt and Ramen, and that
24:22
Speaker 1: Pratt probably pulls it out. That's my guess. That's purely
24:26
Speaker 1: a guest because there's so little transparency. They don't even
24:30
Speaker 1: tell you where the votes have come from, where they
24:32
Speaker 1: still have to be counted. But my guess is Pratt
24:35
Speaker 1: does make the runoff. But it's not a certainty. I
24:39
Speaker 1: want to make that clear. It is certainly it is
24:41
Speaker 1: still possible that this is the disaster scenario for Pratt
24:45
Speaker 1: and his supporters. I'm not there yet. I'm not convinced
24:49
Speaker 1: of that. I believe that is a possibility. I am
24:52
Speaker 1: not convinced that it is a probability at this point.
24:54
Speaker 1: But let's just presume that Pratt makes the runoff right
24:58
Speaker 1: and that the number stay even close to where they
25:00
Speaker 1: currently are at every point in accounting so far. When
25:05
Speaker 1: you add up Bass and Ramen, who are basically two
25:09
Speaker 1: different versions of the same people, They're both women of
25:13
Speaker 1: color who are extremely liberal. Ramen has perceived as maybe
25:16
Speaker 1: a little bit more liberal than Bass. Bass is the incumbent.
25:19
Speaker 1: But when you add up Bass and Ramen at all
25:23
Speaker 1: points in the balloting, they add up to at least
25:26
Speaker 1: fifty seven percent of the vote. Fifty seven percent of
25:31
Speaker 1: the vote. That means, in a remotely logical world, only
25:36
Speaker 1: forty three percent of the electorate is even open to
25:41
Speaker 1: voting to us for a Spencer Pratt. And there's plenty
25:43
Speaker 1: of reasons for why many of that forty three percent
25:47
Speaker 1: are not going to vote for Spencer Pratt. And I
25:49
Speaker 1: keep going back to what happened in twenty twenty two.
25:52
Speaker 1: We already have a blueprint for this electorate. The electorate
25:55
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles is basically the same with twenty twenty two,
25:59
Speaker 1: and we had Rick Caruso run against Karen Bass Rick
26:02
Speaker 1: Caruso with way more money than Spencer Pratt, way more credibility,
26:07
Speaker 1: way more executive experience. He was a Democrat, former Republican,
26:13
Speaker 1: but at least plausibly a current Democrat, unlike Pratt who's
26:18
Speaker 1: claiming to be a Republican and going on Fox News
26:21
Speaker 1: Channel and not disavowing Donald Trump and having Donald Trump
26:24
Speaker 1: endorse him again. This goes to the toxicity of Donald Trump.
26:28
Speaker 1: The fact that Pratt did those things, which to me
26:31
Speaker 1: is an indication all he really wanted to do was
26:33
Speaker 1: make the runoff because it would help his career and
26:36
Speaker 1: his brand, and maybe, you know, he becomes some sort
26:39
Speaker 1: of a maga like commentator because he has no job.
26:43
Speaker 1: Before this, he had no house, no job, nothing, And
26:47
Speaker 1: so now he's got another bite of the celebrity apple
26:49
Speaker 1: and he wants to be able to use it for
26:51
Speaker 1: his benefit into the future. And making the runoff, you know,
26:54
Speaker 1: gives him another four months, five months of free publicity
26:57
Speaker 1: before he gets his ass kicked. I actually think if
27:00
Speaker 1: he was trying to win, he would not be going
27:03
Speaker 1: on Fox News Channel. He would be disavowing Donald trumpet
27:07
Speaker 1: at every effort. He would not be calling himself a Republican.
27:10
Speaker 1: But my point here is there's all sorts of advantages
27:12
Speaker 1: that Rick Caruso had over Spencer Pratt other than having
27:17
Speaker 1: a national social media presence. But a national social media
27:22
Speaker 1: presence means nothing in a local city election where the vast,
27:27
Speaker 1: vast majority of the voters are very liberal and aren't
27:32
Speaker 1: even open to voting for a Spencer Pratt for a
27:36
Speaker 1: variety of reasons. And Rick Caruso ended up losing the
27:41
Speaker 1: general election by ten points after way out performing Spencer
27:46
Speaker 1: Pratt in the primary. By every standard, Rick Caruso did
27:51
Speaker 1: better in the primary eight four years ago than Spencer
27:55
Speaker 1: Pratt has and Caruso still lost the general election by
27:59
Speaker 1: ten points. And I believe Crusoe looked around even post wildfires,
28:05
Speaker 1: did the research and decided, you know what, it's not
28:09
Speaker 1: worth me spending another fifty million or one hundred million
28:12
Speaker 1: dollars because this is a situation where I'm banging my
28:15
Speaker 1: head against the wall. It's not a winnable race in
28:17
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Now, I disagree with that decision. Actually think
28:22
Speaker 1: Crusoe might have had a shot, And I think Bass
28:24
Speaker 1: being so weak in this primary election so far as
28:28
Speaker 1: an indication that that was the case, but by no
28:31
Speaker 1: measure is Pratt doing better than Caruso, despite the fact
28:36
Speaker 1: that Pratt has gotten massive amounts of free publicity. And
28:40
Speaker 1: by the way, it's not going to get any better
28:42
Speaker 1: for Pratt going forward. If he makes the run off,
28:45
Speaker 1: he's going to get attacked. They're going to All they
28:47
Speaker 1: got to do is show a commercial of him saying
28:50
Speaker 1: he's a Republican, going on Fox News channel and being
28:52
Speaker 1: praised by Donald Trump, game set match. It's over in
28:57
Speaker 1: a city like Los Angeles. It doesn't matter what the
29:00
Speaker 1: reality is. That's the world in which we live. And
29:04
Speaker 1: so it's just incredibly frustrating to me because I deal
29:08
Speaker 1: with these people constantly on social media. I don't know
29:10
Speaker 1: why I do. It's not good for my blood pressure,
29:12
Speaker 1: it's not good for my mental health, but it's very telling.
29:17
Speaker 1: I learn a lot about humanity. I learn a lot
29:20
Speaker 1: about Maget world. They're terrible at math, they're terrible at logic.
29:25
Speaker 1: And the results so far are one hundred percent consistent
29:29
Speaker 1: with my analysis of the Spencer Pratt situation. When it
29:33
Speaker 1: comes to the Los Angeles mayor's race. And again, I'm
29:37
Speaker 1: sure we'll have more information on this in the next
29:38
Speaker 1: episode of the podcast, there is a possibility, I don't
29:41
Speaker 1: know what number I would put it at. I'd probably
29:44
Speaker 1: put it at twenty percent, maybe fifteen percent chance that
29:48
Speaker 1: the race for second place becomes so close that Pratt
29:53
Speaker 1: may not actually make the runoff in November. Of course,
29:57
Speaker 1: the Pratt people will then say, Aha, voter fry. It's
30:00
Speaker 1: voter fraud, because any result that they don't like or
30:04
Speaker 1: goes against their predictions, it's always a conspiracy in Maga world.
30:09
Speaker 1: I want to turn now within the realm of politics
30:12
Speaker 1: to a book that has just been written by Jill Biden,
30:15
Speaker 1: former First Lady Jill Biden, obviously wife of President Joe Biden.
30:20
Speaker 1: And this book tour has been really interesting on a
30:23
Speaker 1: couple of different levels. Obviously, the most attention has been
30:27
Speaker 1: focused on the debate performance that Joe Biden put on
30:31
Speaker 1: that was so bad that he was ending up being
30:35
Speaker 1: forced out of the race three weeks later in the
30:37
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four election and replaced without a vote being
30:40
Speaker 1: cast by Vice President Kamala Harris. And there's a couple
30:45
Speaker 1: of things I want to say about this. The first
30:47
Speaker 1: is that Jill Biden is delusionly rewriting history, and virtually
30:52
Speaker 1: everybody with a brain understands this. The headline out of
30:56
Speaker 1: the book is that she thought, while watching the debate
31:00
Speaker 1: that Joe Biden was having a stroke. She actually said
31:04
Speaker 1: that she wondered whether or not he was having a stroke.
31:06
Speaker 1: She claims she had never seen him like that before
31:09
Speaker 1: or since. Now the stroke thing makes no sense to
31:12
Speaker 1: me because under her scenario, she thought he was having
31:16
Speaker 1: a stroke. She then claims that immediately after the debate,
31:20
Speaker 1: the doctors checked him out and said he was fine,
31:23
Speaker 1: and she immediately went to a situation where she was
31:27
Speaker 1: praising him. Remember those pathetic statements that she made like
31:32
Speaker 1: he was a child, where you answered all the questions
31:36
Speaker 1: and you had all the facts, And I mean, to me,
31:40
Speaker 1: it was almost as bad as the debate itself, where
31:44
Speaker 1: she was treating her husband as if he was a toddler, almost,
31:48
Speaker 1: And I think that really resonated. But I've never understood
31:52
Speaker 1: in all these interviews that Joe Biden is doing about
31:55
Speaker 1: her book, how she squares this circle. So we went
31:59
Speaker 1: from stroke to quick doctor's checkup to immediately praising him
32:04
Speaker 1: on stage, he did several events. I mean, if you
32:08
Speaker 1: really believed that your husband and had a stroke, right,
32:11
Speaker 1: wouldn't you get him home immediately, get him to a
32:16
Speaker 1: real situation, whether it was a hospital or otherwise. He's
32:19
Speaker 1: president the United States, where he could be given a
32:22
Speaker 1: thorough checkup. I mean, you can't just look at somebody
32:25
Speaker 1: I don't believe and say, oh, no, he's perfectly fine
32:27
Speaker 1: if you really thought he had a stroke. I just
32:30
Speaker 1: don't believe that. It doesn't make any sense. It also
32:33
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense, and this is the only time
32:35
Speaker 1: she ever saw him like this. But from a media perspective,
32:39
Speaker 1: I'm struck by two things. Number one is the media
32:43
Speaker 1: treatment of Jill Biden. Well, it's been respectful, has not
32:47
Speaker 1: been fawning at all, not by liberal media standards. I mean,
32:50
Speaker 1: she's going on very very pro Biden media outlets, pro
32:56
Speaker 1: liberal media outlets, and she's still being treated not with
33:01
Speaker 1: kid gloves, she's still being treated somewhat harshly. And within
33:05
Speaker 1: the liberal media, the commentary about her has been rather harsh.
33:11
Speaker 1: And the reason for that is it's very simple. One.
33:14
Speaker 1: They're pissed off that they believe that Biden handed the
33:18
Speaker 1: election to Donald Trump. But in conjunction with that, I
33:23
Speaker 1: think this goes to the way that our society now works.
33:27
Speaker 1: It's all about what people perceive you can do for
33:30
Speaker 1: them in the future, and there is nothing that Jill
33:34
Speaker 1: Biden or Joe Biden can do for any of these
33:39
Speaker 1: people in the future, which is why Joe Biden has
33:42
Speaker 1: raised almost no money a pathetic amount of money for
33:45
Speaker 1: his presidential library, because there was never a president who
33:50
Speaker 1: became an ex president in modern history of America who
33:53
Speaker 1: was older and more impotent literally and figuratively politically than
33:57
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. Anger over the fact that he ran the
34:01
Speaker 1: race he shouldn't have run, stayed in too long, created
34:04
Speaker 1: a situation where Kamal Harris couldn't possibly win, at least
34:09
Speaker 1: that's the perception among Democrats, causing Donald Trump to get
34:12
Speaker 1: another term in office. Plus he's in bad health and
34:17
Speaker 1: he's old and he's going to die soon, so there's
34:20
Speaker 1: nothing he can do for us, and there's nothing Joe
34:23
Speaker 1: Biden can do for us. So under those circumstances, they're
34:26
Speaker 1: not going to treat her with kid gloves. But the
34:30
Speaker 1: part of this situation that I think is missing, and
34:33
Speaker 1: I'm really kind of astonished by this, and I don't
34:35
Speaker 1: have a good explanation for it, and I've tried to
34:37
Speaker 1: look for it. It's possible I've missed it in the
34:40
Speaker 1: interviews that she's done. But how is it that there's
34:43
Speaker 1: been almost zero focus on what is still the most
34:47
Speaker 1: mysterious and I believe most interesting element of this entire equation,
34:52
Speaker 1: which is how did Joe Biden go from I'm not
34:55
Speaker 1: getting out of the race, I'm staying in Well after
35:00
Speaker 1: the debate disaster, You remember that interview with George Stephanopholis
35:05
Speaker 1: where and we pinpointed this at the time on this podcast,
35:10
Speaker 1: where Biden said, you know, I'm not getting out and
35:13
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be forced out and no one
35:15
Speaker 1: wants me to get forced out, And George Stebannopolis says
35:18
Speaker 1: to Joe Biden, are you sure? And it was that
35:23
Speaker 1: moment I knew, okay, I didn't think Joe Biden would relent.
35:28
Speaker 1: I was wrong in that part, but I was right
35:30
Speaker 1: in picking up that there were major forces within the
35:33
Speaker 1: Democratic Party that had told George Stevenopolis, is obviously as
35:36
Speaker 1: well connected as a former Clinton advisor as anyone could
35:39
Speaker 1: possibly be, had already told George Stepanopolis, We're getting rid
35:43
Speaker 1: of Joe, and he was basically trying to warn Joe Biden,
35:47
Speaker 1: and Joe Biden didn't seem to get it. He was
35:50
Speaker 1: either that out of it or that naive, or some
35:52
Speaker 1: combination thereof, and something happened. Now most of the perceptions
36:00
Speaker 1: rounds Nancy Pelosi, But who did it and how did
36:04
Speaker 1: they do it? And that issue, to my knowledge, has
36:08
Speaker 1: been completely absent when it comes to the analysis of
36:12
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's book and her interviews that she's done to
36:15
Speaker 1: promote it. That's what I'm most interested in, How and
36:18
Speaker 1: why did that happen? And I don't think we're ever
36:20
Speaker 1: going to get an answer to that. We're never going
36:22
Speaker 1: to get it from Joe Biden. And by the way,
36:24
Speaker 1: where is Joe Biden. He's not with her on this
36:28
Speaker 1: book tour. Why because he's got cancer and apparently very
36:31
Speaker 1: serious cancer that's gone into his bones, and no one's
36:35
Speaker 1: happy about that. But I do think that that should
36:37
Speaker 1: at least be part of the equation that here we
36:40
Speaker 1: are in, you know, not even the middle yet of
36:43
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, and Joe Biden was running for an
36:47
Speaker 1: office where he would be President of the United States
36:50
Speaker 1: right now, and he's not even capable of even one
36:53
Speaker 1: time accompanying his wife on a book tour that's almost
37:00
Speaker 1: entirely about him. Isn't that an incredibly damning indictment of
37:05
Speaker 1: the entire situation? We're how absurd it was for Joe
37:10
Speaker 1: Biden to decide to run in twenty twenty four. Now,
37:14
Speaker 1: nobody can one hundred percent predict what's going to happen
37:17
Speaker 1: to you physically in a couple of years. But with
37:20
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's age, this is not a surprise. This is
37:25
Speaker 1: the way it generally works. And the fact that Joe
37:30
Speaker 1: Biden is physically incapable, apparently of joining his wife in
37:36
Speaker 1: any of these interviews when it comes to this subject,
37:39
Speaker 1: I think is very very telling, and it really just
37:42
Speaker 1: shows that the core sin here, if you're a Democrat,
37:47
Speaker 1: was that Joe Biden had no business running for reelection
37:51
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. But no one had the balls,
37:54
Speaker 1: including Jill Biden, who clearly wanted to be first Lady
37:57
Speaker 1: still to tell him, Joe, you can't do this. For
38:01
Speaker 1: the good of the country, for the good of the party,
38:03
Speaker 1: you can't do this. Nobody had the balls, and they
38:07
Speaker 1: paid a very very stiff price for it. But we're
38:10
Speaker 1: never going to get to the bottom of what those
38:12
Speaker 1: decisions were made, and specifically how or why Joe Biden
38:16
Speaker 1: was forced out of the race. And I find that
38:19
Speaker 1: to be amazing and an indication of just how totally
38:21
Speaker 1: broken the news media is, because even when the news
38:25
Speaker 1: media is willing to go after somebody because they can't
38:27
Speaker 1: do anything for them in the future, in this case
38:30
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, they're still incapable of getting to the bottom
38:33
Speaker 1: of the story. And this goes to something I constantly
38:37
Speaker 1: talk about in the news. The bigger the story, the
38:40
Speaker 1: more likely it is that we're never going to know
38:42
Speaker 1: what really happened. And you can't get a bigger political
38:46
Speaker 1: story than a sitting president after saying he's not getting
38:51
Speaker 1: out of the race after the first presidential debate, suddenly
38:54
Speaker 1: deciding on a weekend, Hey, I'm out, and we'll never
38:59
Speaker 1: really know for sure how or why that happened. That
39:02
Speaker 1: to me is absolutely remarkable. Speaking of liberal media outlets
39:07
Speaker 1: and those that had a major impact on what happened
39:10
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty four election. For other reasons, there
39:13
Speaker 1: has been a lot of news surrounding CBS's sixty minutes
39:17
Speaker 1: in the last couple of days, almost a literal meltdown
39:22
Speaker 1: internally that has resulted in the firing of Scott Pelly,
39:27
Speaker 1: former CBS Evening News anchor, the face of sixty minutes
39:32
Speaker 1: for quite a while, the guy who clearly felt as
39:36
Speaker 1: if it was his moral obligation to carry the flag
39:41
Speaker 1: for what he perceives to be the tradition of sixty
39:46
Speaker 1: minutes journalism. And this new guard, led by Barry Weiss,
39:50
Speaker 1: who we've talked a lot about on this podcast, who
39:52
Speaker 1: is now the head of CBS News, and the person
39:56
Speaker 1: that she has brought in to essentially oversee sixty and
40:00
Speaker 1: it's a guy by the name of Nick Bilton who's
40:02
Speaker 1: more of a technology guy. And this all came to
40:06
Speaker 1: a head when there were several firings about a week
40:09
Speaker 1: or so ago at sixty minutes that Scott Pelly and
40:13
Speaker 1: a lot of the staff there strongly disagreed with. This
40:17
Speaker 1: was done essentially by Barry Weiss, and there was then
40:20
Speaker 1: a team meeting to deal with the dissension within the
40:24
Speaker 1: ranks at sixty minutes, and Scott Pelly, I believe went
40:30
Speaker 1: on a suicide mission. He either lost his mind or
40:33
Speaker 1: this is a concerted effort to die on this hill
40:38
Speaker 1: in the waning moments of his career, that he's made
40:42
Speaker 1: enough money. He knows that future is bleak, and he
40:46
Speaker 1: can't stand what he believes is happening to sixty Minutes,
40:49
Speaker 1: and he's going to go out in a blaze of
40:51
Speaker 1: glory and sacrifice himself for the team. I don't know
40:56
Speaker 1: for sure which happened. Maybe it's a combination thereof Maybe
40:59
Speaker 1: he overestimated his value, maybe he committed suicide from a
41:04
Speaker 1: career perspective, But this meeting was extraordinary by all accounts.
41:09
Speaker 1: This was if the reports of the net Yahoo Trump
41:14
Speaker 1: phone call are accurate, this is maybe more dramatic and
41:19
Speaker 1: crazy than that was. Because here we're dealing with a
41:22
Speaker 1: situation where people have very high degrees of job in security.
41:28
Speaker 1: To begin with, they just saw that several of their colleagues,
41:32
Speaker 1: high profile colleagues, got fired. They know that the industry
41:36
Speaker 1: in general is in grave, grave jeopardy. Yes, sixty Minutes
41:40
Speaker 1: still has a lot of prestige. Yes it still makes
41:43
Speaker 1: a lot of money. You know, it has a sterling
41:46
Speaker 1: reputation among liberals, although conservatives no longer trust it. For
41:50
Speaker 1: good reason, and despite that environment, Scott Pelly went on
41:55
Speaker 1: the war path against his bosses, apparently being so imported
42:00
Speaker 1: by much of the staff. Now, this was such a
42:03
Speaker 1: remarkable meeting and got leaked to the press, apparently by
42:08
Speaker 1: Pelly himself and maybe by others who were there, in
42:13
Speaker 1: such a remarkable fashion that even other news outlets reported
42:18
Speaker 1: on the confrontation in this meeting, including NBC News, And
42:24
Speaker 1: I thought that was probably the best way to provide
42:28
Speaker 1: you with some context for what happened in this very
42:30
Speaker 1: contentious meeting by playing a clip from NBC News and
42:35
Speaker 1: their coverage of this meeting that happened among CBS sixty
42:40
Speaker 1: Minutes staff and sixty Minutes CBS management.
42:45
Speaker 2: Veteran correspondent Scott Pelly blasting CBS News leadership in a
42:49
Speaker 2: fiery meeting Monday, accusing editor in chief Barry Wise of
42:53
Speaker 2: murdering the revered show. According to a source in the
42:55
Speaker 2: room and an audio recording obtained by NBC News, the
42:59
Speaker 2: tense excha came during a staff meeting with the brand
43:02
Speaker 2: new sixty Minutes executive producer, technology journalist and documentary maker
43:06
Speaker 2: Nick Bilton, who was tapped by Weiss's last week despite
43:10
Speaker 2: never having worked in traditional broadcast news, and Monday's meeting
43:14
Speaker 2: built in warrenstaff that broadcast is an ice cube that
43:17
Speaker 2: is melting and the show must adapt, but added that
43:21
Speaker 2: weiss loved sixty minutes. According to the recording. At that
43:24
Speaker 2: Pelly interrupted, saying firmly, she does not love this place.
43:27
Speaker 2: She was brought in to kill it and she's been
43:30
Speaker 2: doing exactly that, adding she has no qualifications for her job,
43:34
Speaker 2: and telling his new boss directly, you have slender qualifications
43:38
Speaker 2: for this job.
43:39
Speaker 1: Now, I don't care what line of work you're in.
43:41
Speaker 1: That is a remarkable meeting between employers or bosses and employees,
43:49
Speaker 1: particularly in the news media, particularly for the reasons I've
43:52
Speaker 1: already stated, because this is not a world where people
43:56
Speaker 1: at sixty minutes have a lot of job security. There
44:00
Speaker 1: was a time back in the heyday of sixty minutes,
44:03
Speaker 1: like the seventies of the eighties, where sixty minutes would
44:07
Speaker 1: have been untouchable. And you know what, the management would
44:10
Speaker 1: have been afraid to go into a meeting like this.
44:14
Speaker 1: And if you know, somebody from the good old days,
44:18
Speaker 1: Mike Wallace or whatever, had said go fuck yourselves, the
44:22
Speaker 1: management probably would have run away, but they probably would
44:25
Speaker 1: have been too afraid to even have the meeting to
44:27
Speaker 1: begin with. So just the fact that there was this
44:29
Speaker 1: meeting is an indication that management is no longer afraid
44:34
Speaker 1: of the staff at sixty minutes. But we're long past
44:37
Speaker 1: that world. We're long past that world from the standpoint
44:40
Speaker 1: of the power of news personalities, the power of individual
44:45
Speaker 1: news outlets, the job security, and also the public credibility,
44:51
Speaker 1: because I don't want to make I want to make
44:53
Speaker 1: sure we don't lose that part of this equation. The
44:55
Speaker 1: Scott Pellis of the world effectively reaped what they sowed.
45:00
Speaker 1: They lost half the country or thereabouts because of lack
45:04
Speaker 1: of trust. So when you lose the trust of the country,
45:09
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you're more vulnerable. Yes, you still do occasionally
45:14
Speaker 1: great work, and I recently praised some of the things
45:17
Speaker 1: that Scott Pelley has done on sixty Minutes. His interview
45:22
Speaker 1: with Ben Sass, who is a former Republican senator from
45:25
Speaker 1: Nebraska who appears to be close to death, was a
45:29
Speaker 1: remarkable piece of journalism. Of course, there's nothing that liberal
45:33
Speaker 1: media outlets like more than a dying Republican. But the
45:36
Speaker 1: point is, I like some of the things that sixty
45:39
Speaker 1: minutes does. I want sixty minutes to be healthy. We
45:42
Speaker 1: were a better country when people were afraid of screwing
45:46
Speaker 1: up because if they went on sixty minutes, they knew
45:48
Speaker 1: they were toast. Because that's the way it was in
45:50
Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties. If sixty minutes went after you, you
45:54
Speaker 1: were done, you were cooked. But that's no longer the
45:57
Speaker 1: case now because even though it's incredibly post popular show
46:00
Speaker 1: in comparison to other television shows in this era, the
46:03
Speaker 1: audience is nothing in comparison to what it used to be.
46:06
Speaker 1: The credibility is nothing like what it used to be,
46:09
Speaker 1: especially in conservative circles, and that's because they overplayed their
46:13
Speaker 1: hand like liberals always do. And Scott Pelly himself, I
46:18
Speaker 1: agree with those who say he's a pompous ass. I
46:21
Speaker 1: mean he loves himself from Scott Pelly. He really does.
46:24
Speaker 1: Scott Pelly loves himself some Scott Pelly. That doesn't mean
46:28
Speaker 1: he's not at times a good journalist or better than normal,
46:32
Speaker 1: or at least seems to care about the things that
46:33
Speaker 1: I care about when it comes to journalistic integrity. However,
46:38
Speaker 1: there's a showboting element of this, and that's why I'm
46:41
Speaker 1: very suspicious that what Scott Pelly did here was effectively
46:45
Speaker 1: career suicide because they ended up having another meeting between
46:50
Speaker 1: management and Scott Pelly the next day because management didn't
46:54
Speaker 1: want this to end this way. I don't think. I mean,
46:57
Speaker 1: Barry Weiss is already under siege. She's already perceived as
47:00
Speaker 1: a right wing wacko of what she's doing with the
47:03
Speaker 1: CBS Evening News with Tony Dikoppol is not working from
47:07
Speaker 1: a ratings perspective, even though I like Tony a lot,
47:11
Speaker 1: and I predicted it would not work from a ratings
47:13
Speaker 1: perspective because it can't work. You can't try to go
47:17
Speaker 1: down the middle anymore. Because your audience that you used
47:21
Speaker 1: to have was liberal. They're gonna perceive that you're becoming
47:24
Speaker 1: right wingers, especially when all these liberal outlets are telling
47:28
Speaker 1: them that Stephen Colbert got fired because Donald Trump ordered
47:31
Speaker 1: Paramount to do that, and Paramount is your parent company.
47:35
Speaker 1: So they're in a no win situation. They're gonna lose
47:39
Speaker 1: what audience they have, will not gaining anything because conservatives
47:43
Speaker 1: have no trust for CBS yet or any mainstream outlet.
47:48
Speaker 1: They've been trained that the only people they should trust
47:51
Speaker 1: is Fox News Channel and conservative independent media. So you're
47:56
Speaker 1: not going to gain anybody in the ratings, at least
47:59
Speaker 1: not in the short run. And that's what's happened with
48:02
Speaker 1: the CBS Evening News. And I'm sure that Barry Weiss
48:04
Speaker 1: didn't want this. And my guess is that what happened
48:08
Speaker 1: here is a combination of Scott Pelly overplaying his hand,
48:13
Speaker 1: believing that Barry Weiss would be so hesitant to get
48:17
Speaker 1: rid of him after having already gotten rid of other
48:21
Speaker 1: people at sixty minutes, knowing the perception that she's some
48:25
Speaker 1: sort of right winger picked by paramount to do Donald
48:28
Speaker 1: Trump's bidding, which is ridiculous. I mean, she's married to
48:32
Speaker 1: a wobit and she doesn't even believe in the Second Amendment.
48:34
Speaker 1: This is the right winger. I mean so, But the
48:38
Speaker 1: reality is I think that Scott Pelly, probably like all
48:41
Speaker 1: liberals do, overplayed his hand because he's got a massive ego.
48:45
Speaker 1: But I also think because I don't think he's dumb,
48:48
Speaker 1: and in judging the way he handled this, where even
48:52
Speaker 1: when he got the meeting, he apparently still said go
48:55
Speaker 1: fuck yourself, that he wanted this, that at some level
48:59
Speaker 1: he committing career suicide. He wanted this to be the
49:03
Speaker 1: hill he was going to die on he wants to
49:05
Speaker 1: be seen as the guy who died for journalism, that's
49:09
Speaker 1: my guess. And that's not the full story of what
49:13
Speaker 1: transpired here. It's a very complicated tale. I believe I've
49:17
Speaker 1: already outlined a lot of it. But this isn't going
49:21
Speaker 1: to help CBS or sixty Minutes anyway, shape or form,
49:24
Speaker 1: because what happens from here, I really don't know what
49:28
Speaker 1: CBS's plan is. I think this is bad for Barry Weiss,
49:32
Speaker 1: and maybe that was part of what Scott Pelly's motivation
49:36
Speaker 1: was here. Maybe he thought, Okay, I'm going to jump
49:39
Speaker 1: on this hand grenade and it's going to cause the
49:43
Speaker 1: end of Barry Weiss. I actually think it was a
49:46
Speaker 1: dumb move on Scott Pelly's part unless he wanted to retire,
49:50
Speaker 1: unless he really wanted to be fired, because he could
49:52
Speaker 1: do a hell of a lot more good by being
49:56
Speaker 1: the voice that stood up against what he perceives to
49:59
Speaker 1: be rightly or wrongly, this intrusion on sixty minutes journalism
50:06
Speaker 1: and still have a lot more influence and provide the
50:09
Speaker 1: institutional memory of what sixty minutes has been, which is
50:13
Speaker 1: fast going away. I mean, you know, sixty minutes was
50:18
Speaker 1: glacial in its change of personnel over the years, and
50:21
Speaker 1: that created a situation where you had institutional memory. Well
50:25
Speaker 1: that's almost all God Anderson Cooper recently left. Well, Scott
50:31
Speaker 1: Pelly was basically it, And if you really cared about
50:34
Speaker 1: the institution, he would have stuck around so that he
50:37
Speaker 1: could be the voice that pushes back to a degree
50:40
Speaker 1: without getting fired, and be that source of institutional memory
50:46
Speaker 1: to where the outlet that you claim to love doesn't
50:50
Speaker 1: become something and completely different than what it was that
50:54
Speaker 1: made it great in the first place. So I don't
50:56
Speaker 1: agree with the way Pelly handled this. And I'm someone
50:59
Speaker 1: who's been fired many times partially in situation. I've been
51:02
Speaker 1: in situations where whether consciously or subconsciously, I triggered my
51:06
Speaker 1: own firing. I'm well aware of this, so I feel
51:09
Speaker 1: like I'm a bit of an expert on this situation.
51:11
Speaker 1: Two things can be true at the same time. He
51:14
Speaker 1: can be a little bit right, he can be a
51:17
Speaker 1: little bit wrong. He can maybe partially be committing career suicide.
51:21
Speaker 1: He maybe wants to be dying on this hill. But
51:24
Speaker 1: I've never been in a situation nearly as powerful as
51:27
Speaker 1: Scott Pelley, and if I was, especially at this point
51:30
Speaker 1: in my life, when I'm a little bit more mature,
51:32
Speaker 1: less immature, and look at the big picture a bit better,
51:36
Speaker 1: I think than I did when I was younger, I
51:39
Speaker 1: would have probably stuck it out. I would have pushed back,
51:42
Speaker 1: but not to the point where I ended up getting fired.
51:44
Speaker 1: Because at this point, this is a disaster. I mean,
51:49
Speaker 1: when you lose the people they lost last week, and
51:53
Speaker 1: then you lose Scott Pelly and Anderson Cooper, as I've
51:55
Speaker 1: already said, has gone that audience is an old audience
51:59
Speaker 1: and they're I think gonna have a big problem with this.
52:03
Speaker 1: You're gonna lose a significant portion of your audience, at
52:07
Speaker 1: least their trust. They're gonna be far more skeptical. And
52:10
Speaker 1: this is going to create a perception within CBS that
52:13
Speaker 1: everything they've been told within CBS News, everything they've been
52:17
Speaker 1: told about Barry Weiss, is true. So I think this
52:20
Speaker 1: may end up sowing the seeds for Barry Weiss's destruction,
52:23
Speaker 1: especially as they decide, Okay, who's gonna lead CBS and
52:28
Speaker 1: CNN together. I don't think that's gonna be Barry Weiss.
52:31
Speaker 1: If the merger eventually goes through between Paramount and Warner Discovery.
52:37
Speaker 1: So I don't know who the winners are here. I
52:39
Speaker 1: don't think Scott Pelly wins. I don't think Barry Weiss wins.
52:42
Speaker 1: I don't think sixty Minutes wins. I don't think CBS
52:45
Speaker 1: News wins. I think everybody's a loser here, except for
52:49
Speaker 1: maybe the mag of people who love seeing their enemies
52:53
Speaker 1: destroy themselves. And I can understand that, but I'm always
52:57
Speaker 1: more conflicted in this the destruction of the liberal media. Yes,
53:02
Speaker 1: I get that there's some joy to take in that
53:04
Speaker 1: as a conservative who has been railing against liberal media
53:08
Speaker 1: bias for many decades. But this is a bigger problem.
53:13
Speaker 1: Sixty minutes in its heyday, performed an important function and
53:18
Speaker 1: now that's gone, and journalism suffers because of it, and
53:24
Speaker 1: we're seeing that everywhere. That's why we do the Depth
53:27
Speaker 1: of Journalism podcast every week. The journalism is just completely dead,
53:33
Speaker 1: even at the highest levels like a sixty minutes. So
53:37
Speaker 1: if it can't survive at sixty minutes, how could it
53:39
Speaker 1: possibly survive at lower level outlets? And I wanted to
53:44
Speaker 1: provide a really remarkable example of this that happened in Atlanta, Georgia.
53:51
Speaker 1: Now this story has not gotten nearly, in my opinion,
53:54
Speaker 1: enough attention, not because of the reasons I'm going to
53:57
Speaker 1: talk about it. It's because of the stature of the
53:59
Speaker 1: story self. But what essentially has happened is that a
54:03
Speaker 1: federal judge, it turns out this is an Obama appointee,
54:07
Speaker 1: although they're not going to tell you this in the
54:09
Speaker 1: story I'm about to play for you, a a federal
54:13
Speaker 1: judge has been caught having a multi year extramarital affair
54:18
Speaker 1: about which she lied with apparently a police officer that
54:24
Speaker 1: includes trists within her office during working hours, and and
54:33
Speaker 1: and all that happened is that she's been reprimanded. Now,
54:37
Speaker 1: the reason I'm going to play this clip from the
54:40
Speaker 1: Fox affiliate in Atlanta, Okay, this is this is an
54:45
Speaker 1: Atlanta based judge. The reason I'm going to play this
54:48
Speaker 1: Fox clip is I want you to think about what
54:52
Speaker 1: the most important detail is in a story like this.
54:57
Speaker 1: I mean, it's such an important detail that you might
55:00
Speaker 1: may not even think about it because it would be
55:02
Speaker 1: so obvious that it would be part of any story
55:05
Speaker 1: that involved a subject like this. What I'm referring to
55:10
Speaker 1: is the name of the judge, The name of the judge, right,
55:17
Speaker 1: the name of the judge would be the most important
55:20
Speaker 1: detail in a story like this, especially when if you
55:24
Speaker 1: listen carefully to the clip I'm about the play. This
55:27
Speaker 1: is from an actual broadcast from the Fox affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia,
55:31
Speaker 1: where they claim that the reporter is going to provide
55:34
Speaker 1: them with quote, all the details on the story, all
55:41
Speaker 1: the details. That's a direct quote from the newscast, except
55:46
Speaker 1: they never tell you the most important detail, who is
55:51
Speaker 1: the judge? What is her name? And in case you
55:56
Speaker 1: don't believe me, here's one of multiple stories I could play,
56:00
Speaker 1: multiple stories that I have from this Fox affiliate in Atlanta,
56:03
Speaker 1: where they refused to tell you the name of the
56:07
Speaker 1: federal judge being accused of lying and obvious impropriety and
56:13
Speaker 1: is not apparently going to be removed from her position,
56:17
Speaker 1: has only received essentially a reprimand, but they refused to
56:20
Speaker 1: provide her name in a news story. And here's one
56:25
Speaker 1: example of that. Remarkable medium malpractice and a police.
56:30
Speaker 3: Are looking at allegations that one of their officers had
56:33
Speaker 3: sex with an Atlanta Federal District Court judge in her chamber. Yeah,
56:36
Speaker 3: the Judicial Council reprimanded the judge. This was back in February,
56:40
Speaker 3: and last week a committee affirmed the order. Good Day's
56:43
Speaker 3: Lendsay Tuman is live outside the Federal courthouse. She joints
56:45
Speaker 3: now with all the details lensy, good morning, good.
56:49
Speaker 4: Morning to you, Buck and Natalie, and that judge does
56:51
Speaker 4: remain on the bench. According to a report, she initially
56:54
Speaker 4: denied those allegations, but later admitted to what happened. So,
56:59
Speaker 4: according to the Associated Press, this judge had an extramarital
57:03
Speaker 4: affair with a high ranking Atlanta police officer. The pair
57:06
Speaker 4: reportedly had sets in the judge's chambers. Long clerks reported
57:10
Speaker 4: overhearing multiple encounters, and security footage and lawns also confirmed
57:14
Speaker 4: the officer frequently visited the judges chambers in uniform around lunch.
57:18
Speaker 4: While the judge first denied the allegations, calling them outrageous,
57:22
Speaker 4: she later recanted and admitted to what happened, and a
57:24
Speaker 4: committee issued a private reprimand of the judge, which included
57:27
Speaker 4: writing apology letters. The committee also said she was unlikely
57:31
Speaker 4: to do this again and noted her otherwise exemplary service
57:34
Speaker 4: to the court. Now the federal judge that appointment is
57:37
Speaker 4: a lifetime appointment, so The only way that she would
57:40
Speaker 4: be removed from the position is if she was impeached
57:42
Speaker 4: by Congress. No word on if that would actually happen.
57:46
Speaker 4: In the meantime, Atlanta Police says it's investigating whether or
57:49
Speaker 4: not that officer in question is an employee of the
57:52
Speaker 4: Atlanta Police Department. We'll keep you updated on that as well.
57:55
Speaker 4: Reporting live in downtown. I'm Lindsay Tuman for Good Day Atlanta.
57:58
Speaker 3: We really appreciate it when thank you.
58:01
Speaker 1: Now. When I saw that, I'm like, is this a parody?
58:05
Speaker 1: I had excited to check to make sure this was
58:07
Speaker 1: a real news story. How do you do a news
58:11
Speaker 1: story and not say the name of the judge? And
58:17
Speaker 1: then I thought, okay, is there some ambiguity about who
58:22
Speaker 1: she is? So I went and researched other news outlets. Nope,
58:28
Speaker 1: there appears to be no other no ambiguity because other
58:30
Speaker 1: news outlets were actually reporting her name Eleanor Ross. Eleanor
58:37
Speaker 1: Ross was the woman's name, and Obama in point D
58:42
Speaker 1: And yes, you're probably already presuming this at this point.
58:46
Speaker 1: She's a black woman. Now is that relevant to this?
58:53
Speaker 1: I think it is. I think it's very relevant. I
58:56
Speaker 1: think it's the only rational explanation for how in the
59:00
Speaker 1: world you could possibly with a straight face, claim that
59:03
Speaker 1: you're going to provide all the details on this story
59:06
Speaker 1: and not provide the name. There's no ambiguity as to
59:12
Speaker 1: who the person was. By the way, in the online version,
59:15
Speaker 1: I should point out of the Fox Atlanta story, they
59:20
Speaker 1: actually reference that they know the name, but they are
59:23
Speaker 1: deciding to withhold it without any explanation for why they're
59:27
Speaker 1: withholding it. And I'm not being able to find any
59:30
Speaker 1: reason for why they would unless they just don't like
59:36
Speaker 1: the optics of the story. A black female judge having
59:40
Speaker 1: sex with some sort of law enforcement official in her
59:44
Speaker 1: chambers for multiple years and then lying about it. To me,
59:50
Speaker 1: this is the only explanation that makes any sense. Is
59:52
Speaker 1: the soft bigotry of low expectations that we can't we
59:56
Speaker 1: can't do this to a black female judge. Now, if
1:00:00
Speaker 1: there's some other explanation, I would love to hear it.
1:00:03
Speaker 1: I've asked Chad Gpt and Grock for possible explanations, and
1:00:08
Speaker 1: I did not get a remotely satisfactory explanation. And I've
1:00:12
Speaker 1: researched this as much as I possibly get. But to me,
1:00:15
Speaker 1: this was a classic example of where if the judge
1:00:20
Speaker 1: was white and hot, I can assure you there would
1:00:23
Speaker 1: be no hesitation about showing her picture and also providing
1:00:29
Speaker 1: her name. But that's the world of which we live,
1:00:31
Speaker 1: and I mean, that's as bad a journalism as you
1:00:35
Speaker 1: can get. The most basic part of any story, the
1:00:40
Speaker 1: key detail, especially when you're going to claim to provide
1:00:43
Speaker 1: all the details, is what's the name of the person
1:00:47
Speaker 1: who has acknowledged this isn't even an allegation, has acknowledged
1:00:52
Speaker 1: the wrong doing in a rather salacious way. But we're
1:00:56
Speaker 1: just going to move on because without even telling you
1:01:00
Speaker 1: that this happens to be a black female, because that's
1:01:03
Speaker 1: just not a narrative that we like very much. Thanks
1:01:06
Speaker 1: for listening to today's free drop of the abbreviated show.
1:01:09
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