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Episode Two Hundred Eighty Five: Hollywood Homicide · The Death Of Journalism

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcomed episode two hundred and eighty five of the Deaths
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Journalism podcasts. My name is John Zigler. I'm your host.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: In today's show, it's looking more like President Trump did
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: not think the war in Iran all the way through.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: The MAGA media food fight gets really dirty. My daughter
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Grace takes some message for President Trump. The death spiral
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: for the Academy Awards continues, and journalist Michael Tracy returns
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to the podcast to discuss the media's malpractice on the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein Insanity. The eternal question about Donald Trump when
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: it comes to his presidency in general and the war
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: with Iran in particular, has always been in my mind,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: is he playing chess? Or is he playing checkers? Or
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: is he playing a child's game like shoots and ladders?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And I always like to at first give people the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt, especially if there of those who
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: are in agreement with them that I have some trust in.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: In this particular case, Mark or Rubio is pretty much
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the only person in the administration that would fit into
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: that category. And when it came to the war in Iran,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I was very open minded that, Okay, hopefully they've thought
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: this through and hopefully this is not a terrible idea.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe this will be good for the world, Maybe they'll
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: have residual positive impacts by getting rid of bad actors.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: There's no question whatsoever which I still fervently believe that
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. And
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: it does appear as if the last three weeks have
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: furthered that goal of, at least in the short run,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: making sure that Iron does not get a nuclear weapon.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: But there's an increasing amount of evidence that surprise, surprise,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: at best, Donald Trump was playing checkers here that he
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: did not think this all the way through, and specific
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: getting an enormous amount of attention, understandably so because twenty
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: percent of the world's oil goes through the Strait of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Hormuz and that has been completely shut down since the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: war began. And the part about this, I guess that's
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: most troubling to me because I do think eventually it'll
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: all get fixed. I mean, hopefully. We don't know for sure,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: but I think there's a pretty good chance that in
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the not too distant future, the Straight of Hormuz will
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: reopen and the oil issue will pretty much go back
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to what it was. I don't know how long that's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: going to take. However, in the short run, this is
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: a massive problem that should have easily been anticipated. And
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you might even argue that the Strait of Hormuz and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the issue of oil should have prevented any sort of
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: massive attack on Iran as it has in the past,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: because this is one of those simple math equations. There's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: nothing we can do about this. All the experts have
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: said this time and time again. It is incredibly easy
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: for Iran to shut down the strait because they don't
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: have to control the strait to do that, all they
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: need is the threat of one of these ships or
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: tankers being damaged or destroyed. They don't even have to
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: really have the ability to do it, or even necessarily
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the inclination to do it. It's all a battle of
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: psychology and perception. It's a bit like it was a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: weird analogy, maybe, but I've always felt like the most
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: effective terrorist of all time was actually a failed terrorist.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I'm referring to the shoe bomber. Remember that crazy guy
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I think his name was Read who tried to get
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: on a plane with a lad shoe bomb, and it
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: failed spectacularly, But for the next couple of decades, billions
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: and billions of man hours were lost because we were
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: all taking off our shoes in preparation to get on airplanes.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Now that's effectively stopped now, But I mean that was
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: It had nothing to do with whether not shoe bombs
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: were really going to take down airplanes. It had to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: do with the perception of it and the threat of it.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Well somewhat similarly, that's all around needs because these tankers
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: are worth so much money and the insurance companies are
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: not going to back any sort of risk taking here
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that there's no risk reward ratio for them to try
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: to go through the straight without extreme confidence that it's
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: going to be okay. So this is a massive economic problem.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And one of the other proofs that Trump did not
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: think this through is that he has seemingly been going
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: now hat in hand to some of our NATO allies
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: asking for help. Now, I totally understand why he would
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: think that they would be eager to help, because their
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: economic interest might be even more on the line than
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: ours when it comes to the oil coming from the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: strait of her moves. But so far the NATO allies
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: in general have not been stepping up to the plate
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: in anything close to the way that Trump had expected.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: But don't you think that this would have been agreed
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to prior or or that there Maybe if you're gonna
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: if you know, let's say, okay, you can't tell them
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: because you don't want to break the secrecy and they're
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: not trustworthy. But if you know you're gonna do this,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and you're gonna know you're eventually going to shut down
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the strait of her moves and you know you're going
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to need help from your allies, maybe not shit all
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: over NATO for the for the couple of months before
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you do this, because that's the way you would think
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: about this if you were playing chess instead of checkers
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: or whatever it is that Trump is playing now. Again,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I'm still relatively optimistic that eventually this is all going
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: to get straightened out. It seems clear though, that we're
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: trying to thread a needle here, at least politically that
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: can't be thread and the vast majority of people are
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: not going to be happy with the end result here.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you hate Trump, you're always going to
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: be unhappy with the end result. But if you wanted
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: regime change, if you're extremely in favor of this, you're
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: not going to be happy with the result because there's
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: not apparently even attempt at a regime change. Now politically,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I understand that, but there's a segment of especially the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Iranian population, that was very much hopeful that that would
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: be the result here. And by the way, if you
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: don't get regime change, isn't this like you know, nipping
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the top off of a of a dandelion. I mean,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: it's just going to grow back eventually. Yeah, we're taking
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: out a lot of their leadership. In fact, Trump made
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: a to me what was a very troubling statement where
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: he literally said, we don't even know who to negotiate
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: with because we keep killing their leadership. Now I don't
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: know how true that is, because apparently the new Ayahtola
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: is still alive. There have been reports that he had
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: been potentially, you know, very badly injured, but I'm not
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: seeing proof of that. The biggest story involving him is
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that he might be gay, which apparently amused the hell
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: out of Donald Trump, and of course is rather ironic
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: given the view of homosexuality within radical Islam. But the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: fact that Trump is telling people publicly, we don't even
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: know who to negotiate with is another indication that they
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: didn't think this through properly. There was no plan. I'm
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: reminded of the scene in the Monty Python movie Life
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: of Brian where Brian is pretending to be a prophet
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: at his story is going nowhere, and one of the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: onlookers says, he's making it up as he goes along. Well,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: that's what it feels like. That Trump may be making
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: this up as he goes along, which is very, very
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: troubling because that means we don't really have a plan. Again,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: though I'm still somewhat optimistic, I don't know how long
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: it's going to be Trump's I will say this, Trump's
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: temperament seems to be that of a very confident guy.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Now how credible that is, I don't know, But I
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: don't sense any real worry in him. He seems exceedingly confident.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: He's already talking about taking over Cuba, which is just
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: amazing on numerous levels. But so I'm not sensing any
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: panic on the part of Trump. However, Joe can and
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the top counter terrorism official within the Trump administration, did
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: resign his position. Of course, Trump is saying this is
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: a good thing. There are those who are claiming and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think this is irrational. That part, or maybe
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: even the primary reason why can't resigned is that a
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: lot of his dire predictions for what was going to
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: happen with regard to an attack on Iran have not
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: yet come to fruition. Now, he may eventually end up
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: being right, let's hope not. But he has resigned, and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of speculation he's now going to end
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: up doing an interview with Tucker Carlson, who's been a
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: very strong critic of the war with Iran and the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson issue. I don't really understand what's going on
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: here when it comes to Tucker. I'm often confused over
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the last several years. I will just say that I
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: believe that the events of the last week have once
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: again vindicated my view that I started to express about
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: three years ago that something was very wrong with Tucker Carlson,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: that he was not the same guy that I once
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: had great respect for, who I once thought of as
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the most eloquent and the funniest of all of the
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: conservative commentators. Maybe the smartest of the conservative commentators. But
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that's not that guy anymore. And it's not just because
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I disagree with him with regard to Israel and the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Middle East and his seeming support for Putin and Russia.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: It goes way way beyond that. There's something wrong with
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Tucker mentally psychologically. Is it possible that he's conflicted? I
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: think that is, But it doesn't make sense to me
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: because it's not there's no evidence he needs money, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that would be the number one way someone like that,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: especially after they got fired from Fox News Channel, would
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: be conflicted. He has claimed vehemently that he doesn't need money,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: not interested in money. That doesn't mean and it's not true.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Is it possible his financial situation is worse than we
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: know and that he actually does need money, and that
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that would be a source of possible conflict and explain
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: some of this. That's possible. I have zero information or
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: evidence leading in that direction, but I think it's a
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: possible scenario. But he's been getting a lot of publicity
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: over the last several days because he has claimed that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the CIA is preparing a criminal referral on him regarding
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: conversations that he has had prior to the war with
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: people in Iran, and that he believes he might be
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: accused of being a foreign agent on behalf of Iran.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Now there's a couple possibilities here. Is he in big
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: trouble and he's trying to prepare his audience for it,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: or maybe try to set the narrative before that actually
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: comes down. In irrational world, that would make sense. I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: think that's a possible scenario with Tucker. He's become such
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a drama queen that it's possible that this is mostly bullshit.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, again, I really don't have a good handle
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: on what's going on with Tucker. I just have known
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: for a long time something is very, very off. And
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: consider the fact that Tucker Carlson was literally, as I
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: referred to him many many times, the MVP of Donald
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Trump's primary campaign for president in twenty twenty four. I mean,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that if Tucker Carlson had gone the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: other way and supported Ron De Santis as he should have,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: that the result would have been different. Tucker didn't have
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: that kind of a power, but he absolutely, even while
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: he was still at Fox News Channel, laid the groundwork
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: for Trump's comeback, and Trump has been very, very supportive
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: of Tucker, largely because of that. But we now have
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: this incredibly bizarre situation where because talker Carlson has now
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: said that he has been in communication with effectively the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Iranian leadership or something at least close to the Iranian leadership,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and that he met with Trump in the Oval Office
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: five days before the attack. There are people some of
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the crackpot theories. I mean, this is Epstein level shit
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: that people have been coming up with in both directions.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: But my favorite is maga people giving Trump the credit
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that he knew because the CIA obviously had Tucker Carlston's text.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: This is the theory he knew that Tucker was acting
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: on behalf of Iran. He pretended to be friendly with
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: him in the White House, he gave him bad information
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: that we were never going to attack Iran, that Tucker
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: then went to Iran and told them the United States
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: is not going to attack, and then we attacked five
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: days later, and that somehow this makes Trump this chess
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: playing genius. Well, first of all, this is not at
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: all consistent with the Donald Trump that we have known
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: over the last ten years, and I think a lot
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: of it's fantasy I mean, there's never been a greater
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: disparity between the way that a public figure actually thinks
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and acts and the way that their fervent fan base
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: fantasizes about the way that they think and they act.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Then it comes to when it comes to MAGA and
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. They think he's a four dimensional chess genius,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and I think it best he's playing checkers, and I
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: think the evidence is overwhelmingly on my side. I don't
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: believe that Tucker Carlson was being used as some sort
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: of a fake double agent. And I will be surprised
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: if there's some sort of a criminal allegation against Tucker Carlson.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I'm not even sure I understand what this even means.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: A CIA criminal referral. I don't even know what that means.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: It sounds bullshitty to me. And because Tucker is such
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: a drama queen and does tend to imagine things, I mean,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: he's imagined all sorts of things. Remember, this is a
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: guy you cannot forget, this who on video in an interview,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: talked about being attacked by demons in his bed because
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: he had some sort of claw or bite marks when
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: he woke up and never thought to connect it to
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the fact that he sleeps with multiple dogs in his bed,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: his family pets. Gee. I wonder if there's another possible
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: source of a claw or bite marks or whatever the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: hell they were van demons attacking him in his sleep.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's something off, there's something wrong with Tucker Carlson.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: But I'm open to Edny and all scenarios on that
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: situation other than Tucker Carlson being used by Donald Trump
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: as a fake double agent to set up the war
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: in Iran. But the Tucker Carlson issue has really put
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of focus on this this MAGA food fight
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: that we've discussed many times in the past on this podcast.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: There's no question that Tucker is at the center of
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: what I call the Alliance of Lunacy, which I describe
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: as Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly and Candice Owens, and
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: they have been taking on other elements of the MAGA media,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: specifically Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin. Now, obviously Shapiro and
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Levin are big supporters of Israel and therefore they are
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: supportive of this Iranian war. Kelly and Carlson clearly are
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: not on that side. They're on the opposite side of this,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and in a rational world, I'd say, Okay, that's fine,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: healthy disagreement. I can totally understand why you'd be in
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: favor of this. I can understand why you'd be against this.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I can understand why you be in my possession where
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: you're hopeful that this is the right thing to do,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: but you're skeptical about it, where you're somewhere in the middle.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: So I don't have a problem with the substantive disagreement
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: over such a big issue as going to war with
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Iran and all the negative economic impacts of it and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the potential political ramifications of this. But this thing has
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: gotten way out of control, way out of control, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: it is even resulted. I can't even believe I'm saying this.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: It has even resulted in Megan Kelly, a woman who
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I have had a very complicated view of because I
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: think she is at least I used to think she
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: was smart. She's very articulate, she's obviously beautiful, and that
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: might have had an influence over my perception of hers.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: As a red blooded American man, I can admit that
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a woman's attracted this may cause me to overrate other
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: elements of her personality and characteristics, specifically of her intelligence.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just trying to figure out why
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: was I wrong about Megan Kelly. But I have also
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: been exceedingly correct in describing her as a shape shifter
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: who will do and say whatever it is that she
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: perceives to be in her own self interest at that moment.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: I've taken a lot of heat from people because there
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: are a lot of people, even in my very small
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: fan base, who liked Megan Kelly, or at least used
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to like Megan Kelly, who have had a difficult time
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: with that. And you know, to me, all you really
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: need to know about Megan Kelly is that she used
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: her feud with Donald Trump in twenty sixteen to get
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: a very lucrative gig at NBC. She tried to sell
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: out MACA, she tried to sell out Trump, she tried
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: to sell out politics in general, claims she was done
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: with politics. She bombed terribly at NBC, and then, in
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: an effort to try to justify or explain or rationalize
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: why she bombed at NBC, she attacked my friend Matt Lower,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: lying about him, got exposed as lying about him. No
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: ramifications there. She slowly, but surely, somehow worked her way
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: back as an independent journalisted to being one of the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: leaders of the Maga Moo. But how the fuck does
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: that happen? But she's a shape shifter and she's been
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: very good at it, very successful at it. But now
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: here she is going after Mark Levin for having a
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: micro penis. Not making that up. And by the way,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: she did this on multiple occasions. She and Levin got
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: into a spat on X and you know, here she's
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: going after Mark Levin for allegedly having a micro penis. Now,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of course, the hypocrisy here is off the charts. I mean,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: if if a man ever went after a woman in
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: that kind of way, they'd be done for. But I
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: guess it's okay when you're a hot chick like Megan Kelly,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: you can go after a short Jewish guy like Mark
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Levin and claim he had claims he has a micro penis.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I doubt she has any inside knowledge that he has
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: a micro penis. As far as conservative commentators and micro
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: penises go. I mean, you might want to ask Laura
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Ingram about Denesh Dsuza, but that's another story for another day.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: But here we have mega Kelly going after Mark Levin
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: for allegedly having a micropedis. By the way, Kelly and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Ben Shapiro been going at each other pretty hard as
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: well over the last several days, and she's going after
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Shapiro for his height, which I guess is halfway to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: getting to micro penis. And Donald Trump for his part
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: in all this, came out and very strongly backed Mark Levin,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: which of course I found to be particularly bizarre because
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I wrote about in Mediaite Back in the Dark Ages
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: back in twenty sixteen, about how I had an interesting
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: exchange with Mark Levin at a radio conference because I
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: had previously written a column where I described Mark Levin
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: is one of the smart conservative commentators who appears to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: be caving in to Donald Trump. This was during the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: primary campaign of twenty sixteen, and Mark was very nice
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: about it, but you know, he basically said, I don't
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: know if I deserved to be on that list, and
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, Mark, I hope that's true. Well, it
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: turned out obviously I was right, because he did the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: full sellout to Donald Trump. And now here we are
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, ten years later, and Trump is
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: publicly backing Mark Levin in a battle with Mega Kelly,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: although Trump was silent on the issue of whether or
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: not Mark Levin actually has a micropedis, which I'm sure
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: some people were disappointed about, since, based upon the testimony
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: of Stormy Daniels, Trump might be an expert on that
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: particular issue. I can't believe we're even talking about this,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: but this is where we are when it comes to
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the state of the MAGA media and the food fight
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: that has ensued, and the war in Iran has sparked
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: another outburst in this whole situation, and of course the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: whole thing is insanity. And it's not just because we've
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: gotten to the point of going after alleged micropedisis. It's
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: because of all the things that are going on in
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the world right now, of all the challenges we face,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: all the things that the conservative media should be focused on.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: This ain't in the top one thousand. I mean, here
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: we have forget about the war in Iran, which I'm
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: hopeful in a month we're going to have a hard time.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Well we'll remember it, but I mean hopefully in a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: month this is all going to be back to normal.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I'm still hopeful that that's where we're going to be.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I could be wrong about that, I could be being
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: overly optimistic, but I still think that's the most likely
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: scenario in all this. Will we have achieved enough to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: have justified the war? I have no idea. I have
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: my doubts about that, but I do think that a
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: month in a month or so, this thing will be
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: over with and we'll go back to some semblance of normalcy.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: But the conservative media should be focused on, among other things,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: AI and what that's going to do to us, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom and whether or not he's going to be president.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: That should be the focus right now. I mean, and
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the midterms obviously, the midterm elections, AI and Newsome, not
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Megan Kelly going after Mark Levin for allegedly having a
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: micro penis. And now as far as why is it
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: that there's so much dysfunction within the magamedia, And to me,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: this is a pretty simple situation. I mean, there's a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: reason why the Magamedia is so dysfunctional because everyone in
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: it inherently by definition sold out to Donald Try. So
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: it's not that difficult to understand the pool of people
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: we're talking about here. First of all, they're all ego mediacs,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: they're all extreme narcissists, and they're all sellouts, because if
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: you weren't a sell out, you wouldn't be in the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Magamedia group to begin with. Not to mention a lot
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: of these people are crazy at the start. I mean,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Candice Owens is a completely insane person. At best, she's
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: a fraud. At worst, she's worse than a fraud, and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: she may be completely looney tunes. I do believe that
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson has lost his mind. Megan Kelly is saying
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: things that are absolutely ridiculous, some of the things that
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: she's done, just in the last week on the Epstein story,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: claiming now that there's evidence that he was I guess
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: killed in prison, which is just completely ridiculous, as I
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: exposed in the last episode of the podcast. But there's
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: dysfunction here because in order to get into this club,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you had to sell out Trump. He says, We're going
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: to be crude about all this. I think the primary
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: cause for the lunacy within the Magamedia is it must
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: be related to Trump's seamen, because if you suck Trump's cock,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the semen appears to be brain poison. I'm sorry for
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: that analogy, that metaphor that image, but that's the best
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I got if we're going to talk about Mark Levin's
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: micro penis. And to me, Ben Shapiro is still the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: best of a bad bunch, because it seems to me
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: as if Ben draws the line at hand jobs for Trump,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Ben'll give a hand job on a drop of a hat,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: especially if it relates to Israel with Trump. But I
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: don't think he's ever really taken Trump's dick in his
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: mouth like all these other frauds have, and so there
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: must be something to that. And obviously I'm talking figuratively
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: at least I hope here. But that's the reason, that's
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the reason why there's so much dysfunction within the Magamedia.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: They're all a bunch of crazy egomaniacs who sold out
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the Donald Trump. Gee. I wonder why there would be
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: dysfunction in that group because they don't actually believe in
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: anything except their own self interest. They don't really give
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a shit about the truth or the country. And this
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: is obviously a source of passion for me, because I've
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: been trying to tell people about this since twenty twelve.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I actually had a book proposal with a legitimate book
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: agent and told me this was going to be a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: slam dunk where I was going to write a book
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: about the conservative media called a business, not a Cause.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Would have been a great book, but we never got
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: it sold. Well, it would have been Prussian as hell,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: because obviously in the next presidential cycle in twenty sixteen,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: that's where everything fell apart and Donald Trump took over
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the Republican Party for good. And so this is not
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: where the focus should be. And as I said, one
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: of the focuses should be on Gavin Newsome. And you know,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: nobody hates Gavin new some more than I do. I
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: think my record on that is exceedingly clear. We're just
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: on the sixth anniversary of Newsom shutting down the state
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: of California during the COVID panic, which I will go
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: to my death believing was the most impactful act and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the worst act by a governor in the entire history
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: of the United States of America. I've gone through why
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: that is many many times before I was pression about that.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: The day that had happened, I wrote a column for
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Mediait the next morning saying that this was a catastrophic
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: error and that it was based upon a completely ridiculous
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: projection on how many people were actually going to get
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: COVID in the next eight weeks. Newsom was completely and
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: totally wrong about that, and I believe he was at
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: least partially politically motivated and now here he is by
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: all accounts, one of, if not the favorite, to be
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the next president of the United States. And it's clear
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: to me that Donald Trump understands that Newsom is the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: clear favorite at this point to take over for him.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Because Newsom has been the subject of a lot of
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: attacks by Trump, some of which I completely agree with,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: this one I did not because Trump decided to go
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: after Newsom in the Oval office in a press conference
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: for having dyslexia, which he referred to as a learning disability,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: which it is, but he also referred to Newsom as
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: being dumb, seemingly because of his dyslexia, and that dyslexia
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: would be a disqualifier in Trump's mind for being president
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: of the United States. Now. He did this in part
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: because he referenced a clip that I played on this
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: podcast several weeks ago, where I later acknowledged I did
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: not give proper context to it, and Trump clearly is
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: one of those that did not understand the proper context,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the full context, which was this event in South Carolina
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: where Newsom was on stage with a black interviewer and
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: no one saw the crowd, but it was presumed, I think,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: for understandable reasons, that the crowd was majority or at
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: least mostly black, if not entirely black, and that Newsom
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: was telling that crowd that they're no smarter than he's
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: no smarter than they are. In other words, he's dumb
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: just like they are, which you know, based upon societal norms,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: media norms, if a conservative says that to a black audience,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: their toast. So Trump was combining that event which apparently
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the audience was not anything close to one hundred percent black,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and they'refore in theory, you could argue that Newsom wasn't
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: at least subliminally talking about someone's race or shouldn't be
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: attacked for making this into a racial issue, that he
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: was really talking about his learning disability, specifically his dyslexia.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: And Trump made this statement that I thought was completely
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: and totally inappropriate, wrong and factually inaccurate. And here's what
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: that sounded like from the Oval office.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: You know because Gavin Newscomb has admitted that he is
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: that he has learning disabilities. Honestly, I'm all for people
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: with learning disabilities, but enough for my president.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: I don't want I think a.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: President should not have learning disabilities. Okay, And I know
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: it's highly controversial to say such a horrible thing. The
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: president of the United States, Gavin Newscomb admitted that he
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: has learning disabilities, dyslexia. Everything about him is dumb, but
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: that he looked at the audience said said, but I'm
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: smarter than you or something like that.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: That was pretty similar.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: So now, on top of everything else, I call him
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: a racist because it happened to be a black audience.
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: I will tell you this, I think it was the
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: worst interview I've ever seen of.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: Any human being in my life.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: Anybody else have any questions?
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Now, My first reaction to that was, first of all,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: DYSLEXI doesn't make you dumb. Number Two, he's got his
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: facts wrong on the event in South Carolina. Three, it's
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: totally inappropriate for the President the United States to be
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: condemning all people with dyslexia because you're going after Donald Trump,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: especially when that president, Donald Trump has numerous psychological issues
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: that interrational world should disqualify him from being president. He's
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: a malignant narcissist, He's a megalomaniac, I believe, maybe most importantly,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: he has the attention span of a toddler. I mean,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: they probably had to put the daily briefing in cartoons
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: for him, and that's not an exaggeration. His attention span
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: alone ort to disqualify him from being president. I've always
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: said he is uniquely unqualified psychologically to be president. And
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the reason I knew this was because I watched The
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Apprentice on NBC on a regular basis. Anyone that watched
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: The Apprentice and the final decision making in the boardroom
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: at the end of all those episodes would realize this
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: guy can't be president. I mean, who the last person
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: to speak to him always wins because he has no
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: attention spad. This is the exact opposite of what you
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: want from a president and an irrational world, those things
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: would be disqualifying, but instead, he's been the Republican presidential
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: nominee three straight times and he's going to get to
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: pick the nominee for the fourth time. So I had
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: a huge problem with what Trump said there, especially since
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: my almost fourteen year old daughter, seventh grader. Grace has
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: severe dyslexia, and I showed her the video, and as
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I've discussed many times before, she's a big Trump fan.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: And she immediately said to me that she wanted to
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: make a video response. So I said sure, and she
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: almost entirely on her own. She got her props, her
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: maca hat signed by Charlie Kirk, and her Trump teddy bear,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: and she put on her Charlie Kirk shirt and she
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: asked me to record a video to post online in
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: response to Donald Trump, specifically referencing him. So I said sure, fine,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: and so I posted it and people seemed to like it.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: There were some people who thought I was using her
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: for some sort of political agenda, which I don't even
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: know what that would be, because I don't think these
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: people understand that I'm an anti Trumper, so I think
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: they perceived me as having brainwashed her into being a
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Trump fan, when it's actually exactly the opposite. So I
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: have absolutely nothing to do with Grace being a Trump
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: fan other than the fact that I don't influence her thinking.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, I will express my disagreements with Trump, but
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I'm never gonna tell her what the thing. Of course,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: as a teenage girl, that's not gonna have any impact
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: on her anyway. But I have absolutely nothing to do
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: with Grace being a Trump fan. I try to let
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: her come to her own conclusions and hopefully she'll be
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: able to figure it out on her own. But I
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: thought it might be interesting to play the clip that
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: I posted online. This is to be fair, I think
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: this is really only the second take that she did
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: on this. The first take got ruined because her mom
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: slammed the not slammed on like she was angry. But
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: she went out to take a jog and closed the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: door in a way that distracted Grace, so we stopped.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: So I think this was like the second, maybe the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: third take. It's about three minutes long, and I think
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: you'll appreciate it. So here's seventh grader, almost fourteen year
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: old Grace Zigler addressing Donald Trump regarding his comments on
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom and dyslexia.
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: Hello, then, President Trump. My name is Grace Ziggler. I
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: live in California and I am a seventh grader who
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: has been dyslexic her whole life. I've always struggled with it,
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: and although reading and writing aren't my best things. I
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: still think I'm smart, and a lot of people with
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: dyslexia are smart. I've been a Trumper my whole life.
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: I got a Maga hat signed by Charlie Kirk himself,
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: Charlie Kirk shirt which I know you love Trump he
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: was one of your friends. And I got a happy
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: Trump pin and the best of them all. I have
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: a Donald Trump there. But to get that out of
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: the way, I think I can prove that I am
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: a Trumper pro America as well. And also to add
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: onto the pile, since I live in California, I really
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: know that GAVM. Newsom more like Gavin poosum reeks of Pooh.
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: If anyone should not be president, it should be Gavin Newsom.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: He will drag this.
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: Country into a trash band. He is definitely not the
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: right candidate for this president see and all that aside.
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: Even though he's dyslexic, and even though he is not
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: the best candidate for president, it does not mean that
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: those things go sat handed hand.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: Just because he's dumb does.
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: Not mean the dyslexia triggers that it's just another thing
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: to add.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: On to the pile.
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: Really of course he shouldn't be president, but that's not
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: because of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a condition where people can't
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: understand letters properly.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: They just don't mix well on their head.
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: One word could be one thing one day, and another
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: word could be another thing another day. I know that
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: I struggled with the till I was in third grade,
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: and all that aside. Just because you're dyslexic doesn't mean
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: that you struggle.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: With other things.
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: I know since I'm making this video, I'm pretty good
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: at speaking.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: It's a talent I've had for a long time.
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: And I'm good at art and all sorts of things
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: and dealing with crowds. Now, of course I have the
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: spelling to deal with, but I think I'll get the
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: hand of it one day. And I think having a
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: dyslexic president would be wonderful. They think in different ways
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: than other people outside of the box.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: Heck, maybe they could be one of the greats, just.
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: Like you, Donald Trump, and I just need to have
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: everyone's know that dyslexia, even though Donald Trump thinks it's dumb,
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: which it's not, is a strength and Donald Trump maybe
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: should think before he speaks sometimes. I love him, but
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: you should think, thank you so much, Don Trump for
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: everything you've done, just letting you know that dyslexia.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Is not being done.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: I thought Grace did a really nice job with that.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: And I don't think Donald Trump has seen the video.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: It's not gone viral, although it's gotten a lot of comments,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of comments, a lot of very positive comments
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: for how Grace did. I thought she did a really
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: nice job, and I do think the point is very valid.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was completely inappropriate for the President the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: United States to say that, and I was glad that
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Grace stood up against it. But still is a Trump supporter.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, I thought that was that was god. I mean,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: she didn't get emotional about it and say, oh, I'm
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: never supporting Donald Trump again. She was trying to be
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: constructive here her criticism and trying to help Trump understand reality.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Of course, that's a very high hill to climb, but
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I admire her effort. When it comes to Gavin Us,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to keep the gaven Us and fear
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: factor at seven point zero, but I feel like it's rising.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I do it for a number of reasons. I mean,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: we're very close to getting it back up to seven
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: point five out of ten when it comes to the
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: fear of Gavinus and becoming the next president of the
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: United States. I want to turn now to the Academy
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Awards of the OSCARS, and I find this to be
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: a difficult subject to discuss because I actually have a
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: lot to say about this, but my sense is that
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: no one wants to hear it, not because of me,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: just because I now believe that there's not just apathy
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: about this once great cultural event, the Academy Awards. In
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: a large portion of the population, maybe half the population,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: there's extreme animus, almost hatred towards the event. And what
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: I mean by that is when I comment like on
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: x either prior to the awards or during the awards,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: which I was watching partially because I felt like I
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: need to comment on it for this podcast, and too
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: because my girls, including my wife, were all at Disneyland
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: this past Sunday, so I was a bachelor and I
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: went over to my friend Cyrus ne Rasta's house. Cyrus
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: is a movie director and his wife is a screenwriter,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: and they've done many many movies together and some of
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: which I've consulted on. So you know, we decided to
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: have dinner and watch the Academy Awards. When I post
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: about it, I get that you're gonna have conservatives say, ah, wow,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: you know I don't I'm not watching. No, you know,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I don't care. That's fine. But what I've noticed is
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of comments with people saying why the fuck
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: are you watching, like angry at me for watching, including
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: our own executive producer by gag Gafito was like, why
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the hell are you watching this thing? And that was
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: not an aberration. Mike's comment to me, I was like, Wow,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: people really fucking hate the Academy Awards now, which to
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: me is sad because we have so few communal events
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: in our country and the Oscars are no longer one
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: of them. In fact, it's maybe the opposite of a
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: cumunal event. It's a divisive event, and it's never gonna
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: be anything close to what it was before. I mean,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: it is remarkable. There has not, been, in my view,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: an annual cultural event that has disintegrated more dramatically or
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: more quickly than the Academy Awards. They have lost now
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: at least sixty percent of their television audience in just
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the last twelve years. That's all. It took twelve years,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: down sixty percent. This past weekend Sunday Night ABC had
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: less than eighteen million viewers for the Academy Awards. Let's
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: put that in perspective. The average Sunday Night football game
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: during the regular season during twenty twenty five for NBC
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: averaged twenty three point five million viewers. That's the average,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: and there were some clunkers on Sunday Night Football this
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: year average twenty three point five million versus seventeen point
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: nine million. There was only one Sunday Night football game
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: this past season that had a smaller viewership than the
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Academy Awards, and that game was up against the World Series,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: which was, you know, the best World Series in many,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: many years, maybe in the modern history of the sport. So,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is a pathetic number given all of
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the attention, all the energy that gets put into it.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, the Academy Awards. I'm amazed. As someone who's
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: lived in Los Angeles now for like twenty two years
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: and so I've seen this up close. You know, there
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: used to be an entire economic ecosystem surrounding the Academy Awards.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, all these other awards shows, the only reason
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: they exist is to preview or to get people ready,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: or to promote the pot of gold at the end
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: of the rainbow, which is the Oscars. I mean, you know,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: it's a lot like using the NFL. The NFL's pot
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: of gold is the Super Bowl. So because that pot
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: of gold is so rich, so deep, so lucrative. With
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty million people
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: watch to National Holiday, everything the NFL does leading up
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: to that inherently has value, credibility, importance, significance. Well, that
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: used to be the way it was with the Hollywood ecosystem,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: but now that's completely dried up. I mean there's a drought.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I have no idea how the rest of this system
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: even exists today because there is no pot of gold
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: at the end of the rainbow. I mean, the Academy
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Awards used to survive on big box office, which got
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: people invested in how a particular movie that they liked
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: might do in the awards. Stars who would show up
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: where you didn't see them all the time on commercials
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: or social media or podcast interviews or whatever. You might
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: only see them a couple times a year. But now
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: there are no stars and the few stars that still exist,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: they don't not even there. I mean, this particular Academy
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Awards had one suddenly aging star and Leonardo DiCaprio didn't
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: win anything individually, and one budding star and Timothy shallomeh.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: You know that's about it. I mean, nobody else that
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: people would tune in to see except during the Immemorium.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: I mean when when more people, way more stars are
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: dying in the Immemorium or obviously being shown to have
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: died in the last year than are actually at the awards,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: that's a massive fucking problem. And that's absolutely what happened
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: this year and it's going to continue to happen because
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the entire star assystem star creation system is broken. Not
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: just a little broken, it's caput. And by the way,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the Academy Awards is part of that. The Academy Awards
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: used to be able to create stars. Well now it can't.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: A great example, probably the best moment from the standpoint
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: of a winner's speech by far, was from this Irish actress,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Jesse Buckley, who won for Best Actress. This was like
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: a throwback. I mean, here she is youngest attractive unknown
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: from a foreign country, excited to win. She gives a
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: speech about motherhood, not just a little bit about motherhood,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: but the most pro motherhood speech you're going to see
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: you on network television in this decade. Probably in the
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: olden days, she'd be an instant star, especially in Red
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: State America. She seems likable. It was real, but no
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: one watched, certainly not in Red State America. So you know,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: while within Hollywood circles her career will probably be improved,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: it's not going to be the same life changing experience
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: that it would have been, certainly a decade ago, because
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: the the show isn't big enough to create a star.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: So when the Immemoriam, which was very good, although it
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: was greatly expanded this year because of all the high
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: profile deaths, I did think the Barber Streisand tribute to
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Robert Redford was a bit weird and narcissistic on Streisand's part,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: But in general I thought the im memoriam was very,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: very good. I also thought that there was a great
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: bit that Conan O'Brien did where he kind of mocked
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: the Netflix mo for making movies for people that are
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: watching their cell phones while they're watching movies at home
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: and therefore you have to keep repeating yourself constantly. They
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: did a bit about what Casablanca would be like in
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: today's era, where you have to repeat the plot every
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: two minutes, and it was hilarious and very I thought important,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: especially for that audience to understand what's happening here. You
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: can't make a great movie under those rules. You also
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: can't make a great movie when you have to adhere
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: the ridiculous DEI standards just to get nominated for an
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Academy Award, which you absolutely have to do, which was
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: proven once again this year when Sinners won all sorts
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: of awards that they never would have won. That movie
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: never would have won. I don't care how good it is.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen it. Some people love it, some people
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: hate it. It's a horror movie which generally would never
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: get awards in an Academy Awards ceremony, but it did
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: very well. Didn't win Best Picture, but it did very
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: very well because it's a black movie. There's no chance
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: that if that horror movie was mostly wider Asian or
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: even Hispanic, probably that it wins nearly the same number
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: of awards. But because it's a black movie. Michael B.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Jordan wins Best Actor, and it wins all sorts of
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: other awards, you know. And it's because of the whole
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: dei element of the Academy Awards, which is partially why
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: State America has become so adverse to the Academy Awards.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's the antithesis of everything that read State
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: America believes in. I mean, it used to be that
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: the Academy, the Academy Awards was a celebration of movies
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: with life changing drama on the line. Because Jesse Buckley's
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: life might change forever she somehow won an Academy Award. Well,
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: it's no longer a celebration of the movies, except for
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the people that died in the past year. That there's
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a celebration of what they did,
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: but it's more of a celebration of wokeism and dei
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: or in the case of this ceremony in the last couple,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: it's also a celebration of anti Trumpirism. Anti Trumpism is
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: a huge part of the content, both from the standpoint
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: of Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel came on and took
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: some shots. I mean, everybody took their their Trump shots
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: without actually trying to name his name, and so I
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: totally get why Red State America is completely turned off
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: by the Academy Awards. It's a lot like this is
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: partially why I'm fascinated by this as the host of
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: the Death of Journalism podcast. The death of the Academy
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Awards is so much like the death of the mainstream
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: news media. It's incredibly similar. The business model shattered at
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: the very same time where trust was lost. If trust
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: was not lost within a huge portion of the population,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: a huge segment of the population, then they might have
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: been able to survive the breaking, the shattering, the destruction
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: of the business model. But when you have the business
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: model imploding and you've lost the trust of a massive
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: portion of the public, now you're in big, big trouble,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: and the theater experience is dying. Hollywood is dying. It's
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: going to get worse with the merger of Paramount and
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Discovery, assuming that goes through, which seems to
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: be a done deal because Trump is so much likes
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: the Ellison family that owns Paramount, which is a massive
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: conflict of interest that if it was happening under a
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: democratic administration, and you had a liberal that was a
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: rich dude that was about to buy a company that
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: owned Fox News Channel, which is effectively what's happening with
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Warner Brothers and CNN. People would have their hair on
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: fire in the right wing media, but we're not hearing
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: anything about that because of the massive hypocrisy, because it
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: seems like it's good for their side, at least in
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: the short run. Although I'm not convinced that once Trump
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: is gone that paramount isn't going to turn into something very,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: very different politically. But there's no question that Hollywood is
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: in huge, huge trouble. It might be even worse than
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: people are finally starting to realize. And I want to
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: take a moment to talk about the theater experience. Since
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: movies are intended to be put into theaters, that's where
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: the magic happens. I always talk about you got to
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: protect the magic at all costs, right, And it's amazing
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: to me how many times when institutions get magic, they
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: take it for granted. And the theater experience is what
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: separates It's really the only thing that separates a movie
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: now from watching something on your phone or on YouTube,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: and in the younger generations, they don't seem to give
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: a shit other than with the really big, you know,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: blow them up blockbuster superhero movies. Maybe they don't really
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: care about going to the theater because they become used
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: to watching everything on their phones. Technology plays a huge
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: role in people's perception of media. I mean, let me
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: use newspapers as an example. Newspapers have died an unbelievably
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: quick death similar to Hollywood, and I don't know that
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: newspaper outlets, media outlets fully appreciated the power of having
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: that newspaper in your fingertips, or having that magazine that
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: sports illustrated cover in your fingertips. That was the magic
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: of it. I think they thought the magic was in
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: the content. And while it was, you know, that's too
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: bad that we're going to lose the newspaper. But we
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: still you know, people are still going to read us online.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: It's still going to be the same thing. No, it's
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: not gonna be the same thing. You know why because
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: now the difference between you the New York Times and
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: some crack pot who's telling people what they want to
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: hear on an Internet page that can be made to
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: look pretty much as polished as the New York Times
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: Internet page. Especially in this data age, the difference between
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: those two to the average person is not existent. That
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: difference was clear when there was a newspaper because the
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: crackpot in their basement couldn't put out a newspaper to
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: millions of people every single day. They didn't have the magic. Now,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: to the average person, they can't tell the difference. I
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: really don't think media lits fully understood that. I know
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: this because I've talked many times about the interaction I
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: had with the head of photography at Sports Illustrated, who
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: thought going online was going to be great for the magazine.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: I told him it was going to be the death
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: of the magazine, and I was one hundred percent right
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: about that. And the death of the Washington Post is
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: a great example effectively, the death of the Washington Post.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: And by the way, the Washington Post has lost a
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: ton of subscribers since they laid off over thirty percent
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: of the workforce and got rid of their sports section.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: So relating that to the theater experience, I will at
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: least say that there are some people within Hollywood who
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: understand that that's where the magic is and that that
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: needs to be somehow maintained, although they don't have a
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: clue about how to do it, partially because they don't
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: understand that they've destroyed the trust of the public, at
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: least a huge portion of the public that would still,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: I believe, like to go to the movies. I believe
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: that people would still like to go to movie theaters.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: The numbers are terrible in comparison to what they used
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: to be pre COVID, but they're not catastrophic yet, especially
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: given the crap that is the product. I mean, I
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: truly believe if there was a good product, people would
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: still go back to the movie theaters, maybe not in
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: the numbers that they used to but at least in
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: a reasonable facsimile. And I want to play this clip,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: which I found interesting in a couple levels. I hope
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: you will as well. It was put up by sag Aftra.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: The Actors' Union After is actually the union I'm technically
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: a part of, although I haven't worked in after it
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: many many years. Supposedly I'm going to get some sort
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: of a pension from a I believe it when I
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: see it. But the head of the union is actor
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Sean Aston, who was most well known for his role
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: in Rudy, which is a movie that's very close to
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: my experience, one because I was a huge Notre Dame fan,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: and two because it somehow became an integral part of
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the Hall Mike mcquerie story and the Jerry Sandusky Joe
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Paterno Penn State saga. And also because I know personally
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: from having researched it, that the movie Rudy is a fraud.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: But anyway, Sean Aston is the head of SAG after it,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: and he's doing an interview with Harrison Ford, obviously legendary actor.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: And here we have two old white guys. I mean,
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: this is the saddest I wish you could watch this video.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: These are two old white guys lamenting about how screwed
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: Hollywood is, especially when it comes to the theater experience.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: And I agreed with almost everything that they say here,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: except for their lack of acknowledgement of Hollywood having broken
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: the trust with the theater going audience. But here is
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: the head of the Saga after a union and Harrison
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: Ford discussing this issue. The culture has changed and.
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: The business has changed remarkably, and we don't have the
• 57:22
  Speaker 6: support of movie theaters as much as we used to have,
• 57:25
  Speaker 6: and that is a damn shame that community experience produces
• 57:32
  Speaker 6: positive effects. I think in the culture we've been disaggregated
• 57:39
  Speaker 6: into serviceable economic units, but there's not the general feeling
• 57:47
  Speaker 6: of community that we used to have. When movies were
• 57:55
  Speaker 6: more they had captured the zig heist of the culture
• 58:00
  Speaker 6: and they were feeding that zigheist. They were needed, they
• 58:03
  Speaker 6: were needed, yeah, and they were telling a story that
• 58:06
  Speaker 6: was needed, and that story was a positive contribution to
• 58:14
  Speaker 6: the culture.
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: It's still possible.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: You're doing it. You're doing it. You're breaking through to
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: reaching other people. I mean maybe they're watching their phones
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: to see it, or they're something. I mean, I know
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: so many families were.
• 58:25
  Speaker 6: But when you're home, you're home. Yeah, you're not in
• 58:29
  Speaker 6: a dark room with people that you don't know who
• 58:36
  Speaker 6: you begin to know because your experience a common humanity.
• 58:43
  Speaker 6: That's a very powerful effect.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Now to me, that was a really interesting and important discussion. Again,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: they leave out the breaking of the trust and the
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: responsibility that Hollywood needs to take for why it is
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: that so much of the audience has abandoned them, Specifically
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the theater going experience. But here's
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: how little power and influence Hollywood has in this modern
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: media era. So the clip that I just played for
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: you was posted on the sag After x Slash Twitter page. Right,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: this is an interview with Harrison Ford. This is exclusive
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: content that they have. Harrison Ford doesn't do that many interviews.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: That clip has less than three thousand impressions. Now, I
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: know you're probably not aware of what that means. My
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: worst post, my worst post, my worst performing post on
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: my ex account, which has seventy one thousand followers, we'll
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: get around three thousand impressions. Here's the sag After Union
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: with an interview with Harrison for talking about an incredibly
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: important issue, less than three thousand impressions. To me, that
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: was an indication of just how totally screwed they really are.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: And of course I haven't even mentioned AI yet. I
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: mean AI could be a crushing blow, crushing blow to
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: what is still remaining of the last vestiges of Hollywood greatness,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: which was joked about several times during the Academy Awards
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: by Conan O'Brien. I'll give Conan O'Brien at least a
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: little bit of credit. He does seem to understand was
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: willing to acknowledge just how totally screwed the whole system is.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: In fact, at the very very very very end of
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: the broadcast, after the awards were over, they did this
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: bit that I'm sure most people didn't even understand because
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: it was relating to a scene in the movie that
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: won the Academy Award that you know, as I did
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: the calculations, only six million Americans had seen in the theater,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: so about ninety eight percent of the adult population. I'm
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: not saying ninety eight percent of the audience watching the Oscars,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: but ninety eight percent of the adult population had no
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: idea what the hell Conan O'Brien was doing, which is,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: I think another indication of just how totally broken everything is.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: Once movies don't reach the threshold of everyone knowing about them,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: then you can't even make a joke about it without
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: turning off an enormous number of people watching. But anyway,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: the point of all this is at the very very
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: end of the bit, Conan O'Brien's name is taken off
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: of the door as the host for life for the
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Academy Awards and replaced with mister Beast. Now, I don't
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: know if you know who mister Beast is, but mister
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Beast is the guy who has the most followers on
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: YouTube by far, like tens and tens of millions followers,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: and he's kind of like the poster child for this
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: changing media world where you know, most people over the
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: age of thirty five have no idea who he is,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: but if you're under the age of thirty five, he's
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: probably the biggest celebrity in media. So this is the
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: world we're now living in. And I do I do
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: think that AI is going to further accelerate all of
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: these problems because I think Hollywood is going to totally
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: sell out to AI. They're talking a good game right now.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: We're seeing this in radio where some people are talking
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: a good game. I mean, iHeartRadio says guaranteed human. The
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: reality is the business model is broken. So the moment
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: that these assholes realize that they can make three more
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: dollars for the next quarterly statement for their shareholders, they're
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: going to sell out to AI. They don't give a
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: shit about humans, they don't give a shit about the
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: way things have been or maintaining some semblance of Hollywood's
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: former greatness. They're going to go and sell out if
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: it makes sense for them economically. The only thing holding
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: the back right now is that AI isn't quite ready.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: But when it becomes ready, assuming that it does, we're
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: gonna see it explode. And then once the first movie
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: does well that is mostly AI. They're not gonna do
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: totally AI right away. It's going to be slow. They're
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: gonna ease you into it. You know, they're gonna lube
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: you up first before they really go full AI. But
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: that's what's going to eventually happen here in one way
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: or another. And so I you know, I'm a pessimist
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: by nature, but I'm generally inclined to try to see
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: some sort of an optimistic path, some way to get,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: you know, something salvageable out of a bad situation. And
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: I'm really struggling when it comes to Hollywood, and I'm
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: more in the death of Hollywood and this death spiral
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: that it's in. I realized that most conservatives seem to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: be taking joy in this. Look. I totally get that
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: many of these people richly deserve their demise. These are
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: people I don't like, I don't agree with that have
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: done some really bad things and have taken this tremendous
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: American institution and destroyed it. But I think if Hollywood
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: really does die, that's bad for America. It's bad for America.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: It is from the standpoint of our entertainment and you know,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: communal moments. My God, think about if you're over the
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: age of forty, think about how your life would be
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: different without all the most memorable movies and all the
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: movies that in the seventies and eighties virtually everyone who
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: gave a damn was at least somewhat exposed to because
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: we had that communal experience of all having seen you know,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: Rocky or Star Wars or you know, et or whatever
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: it was. I mean, these are iconic movies. I saw
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: a video the other day on TikTok that was really
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: well done, the top one hundred movie lines in Hollywood history. Now,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: it's impossible to make a list that's comprehensive and fair
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: and complete of the top movie lines, but this video
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: was pretty darn good. Someone had done a really excellent job.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: You know, there were a few omissions and a couple
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: in there that I wouldn't have put in there, but
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: by and large, this was really good, and I don't
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: think any of them were from the last twenty years.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know. If there was more than two or
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: three from this century, I would be surprised. And that's
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: not a coincidence. That's not just someone who was a
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: boomer creating the list, because it's just not possible anymore
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: to make a movie that qualifies. You can't make a
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: good movie, you can't do anything that's truly artistic or
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: groundbreaking or dangerous. And there's no chance that a movie
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: is going to become iconic enough for people to remember
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: the line so that it becomes one of the top
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: one hundred in the history of Hollywood. But I think
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: this is a terrible thing, and I also think it's
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: a cautionary tale. I would love to know whether or
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: not anybody at the NFL is at least a little
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: concern about the Super Bowl. My guess is not. I
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: don't think they have the self awareness. And I get
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: that the Super Bowl is at a level that the
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: even the Academy Awards never were. I mean, the the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Academy Awards topped out at like sixty million viewers during
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: a time period with a slightly smaller population than today.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Actually fairly significantly smaller population. But let's just say the
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: Academy Awards probably never got to much more than half
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: of what the super Bowl audience currently is. The super
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: Bowl has become a national holiday, and it seems inconceivable
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: that the super Bowl could ever fall from that per
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: But I don't think it's impossible. I really don't the
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: reality of the super Bowl and why I think it
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: is vulnerable. It's not just because we've seen other situations.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, not a good example, really, but
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: take New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is nowhere near
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: the event that it used to be. Culturally, Certainly, the
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: Academy Awards is not. Christmas seemingly has hung in there,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: and the super Bowl has hung in there. But I
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: think that the super Bowl is somewhat vulnerable, not because
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: of the wokeism. And there's this parallel, there's some parallels
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: here between what happened with Hollywood and what's going on
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: with the NFL. They've abandoned their base, they've become woke,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: they've embraced the political agenda that's very liberal. Those are
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: all very similar situations and circumstances to what happened with Hollywood.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: In general, and the Academy Awards in particular, but and
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: the Bad Bunny halftime show and Frederick Lamar. I mean,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of comparisons I think are rational that
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: the NFL has so far gotten away with, which is
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: why I'm not sure that they're even aware that they're
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: in this situation. But here's why I think that the
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: super Bowl actually is vulnerable. I would suggest at least half,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: at least half, maybe more than that, of the super
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: Bowl audience is only watching because it's the thing to do,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: because their friends are doing it, because they got invited
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: to a party, because it's what you do on Super
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: Bowl Sunday. It's like a holiday. They're not really interested
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: in the game or even the halftime show at all.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: They just do it because it's the thing to do. Well,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: what if all of a sudden it was no longer
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: the thing to do, like the Academy Awards are no
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: longer the thing to do. I mean, here, even in
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, in my time living here, just over twenty years,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: the Academy Awards used to be mandatory watching, and everybody
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: had parties for it because obviously Los Angeles is a
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: movie town, so you know, it's like having our local
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: super Bowl that is long gone, and if it can
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: happen in Los Angeles to the Academy Awards, I think
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: that could happen to the super Bowl. I'm not suggesting
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: this guy, but next year or the year after that,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying that when you don't protect the magic,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: and the NFL has done a really lousy job of
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: protecting the magic, protecting the shield, it is not inconceivable
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: at all to me that you know, ten years from now,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: the super Bowl is not the event that it once was.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: And then once it falls from that perch, once it
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: falls from the perch of basically being Christmas or the
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: fourth of July, there's a long way to fall, just
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: like what happened with the Academy Awards. Once it was
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: no longer must watch, then a whole lot of people
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: who were on the fence decided, I'm not going to
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: bother with it anymore. And then it's a death spiral
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: because now it no longer has the ability to change
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: anyone's life all that significantly, like a Jesse Buckley. In fact,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: I would argue that winning an Academy Award in recent
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: years has actually not been a positive for many people's career.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, just to go for yourself and look at
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: the winners, the Best Actor and Actress or Supporting Actor
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: and actress. There's not a lot of evidence that it's
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: great for your career. Oftentimes it can be bad for
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: your career. Because I think this is my theory. I
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: actually think that people are still living in the dark
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: ages about what it means, and they overestimate their value
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: or their management over estates overestimates their value after they
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: win the Academy Award, and then they make really bad
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: decisions going forward. They basically overplay their hand, thinking that
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: we're still living in an era where oh I'm an
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Oscar winner, now I'm at a completely different level. No,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: you might not be. In fact, you now may have
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: overestimated your worth and you may be unemployed for a
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: couple of years. So anyway, that's probably more than you want.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: Based upon my social media reaction, that's more than you
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: wanted on the Academy Awards. But I actually could have
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: talked about this for probably two hours, so you might
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: want to thank me that I decided not to do that.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's free drop of the abbreviated show.
• 1:11:35
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• 1:11:38
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• 1:12:02
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