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The Dangers of Being a Journalist · Question Everything

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. A weird, kind of scary thing has been
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: happening to me in the last week. Someone started sending
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: me messages threatening me and my family. I had to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: get the FBI involved. I know lots of journalists have
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: dealt with this. This is my first time. I hope
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: it's the last. I'm being assured everything will be okay,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: but I'm not going to front. It's been unnerving and distracting.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So we're taking a little breather this week. Also, it'll
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: just give us some time to catch up on the news.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Question Everything may be a show that is often about
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the news, but we're not a news show. We're always
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: trying to bring you deeper insights and stories and conversations,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and these often take a little time to bake. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: right now, there is so much in the oven on
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the journalism media tech beat that our show focuses on.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Instead of chasing every little thing, even if the things
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: aren't little at all, if they're super important, We're trying
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to get our bearings and glean some meaning about what's
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: happening right now. We want to figure out what we
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: can say or dig up that's additive. Whether it's the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: never-ending developments in the Jeffrey Epstein saga, or Jeff Bezos'
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: gutting of the Washington Post, or everything that's happening in Minnesota,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: including the arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: for reporting at an anti-ice protest there. The story we've
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: actually been heads down on for a while that you're
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: going to hear next week, the next two weeks actually,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: it's a special series, It's about another journalist who was
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: arrested for reporting at an anti-ICE protest last year. His
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: name is Mario Guevara. He's an immigrant from El Salvador
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: who was locked up after covering a No Kings protest
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: in the summer and incarcerated by the Trump administration for
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: his journalism for more than 100 days, despite the fact
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that Mario was a Trump supporter.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I think he's a very intelligent man. I think he
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: is extremely clever for business. I also think that he's
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: very charismatic. A lot of people don't like him, but
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I think he's very charismatic.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: There's also a lot happening with one of my current obsessions,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Section 230, the 1996 law that protects Internet platforms like Facebook,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Google and TikTok and others. from getting sued. The law
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: says those companies can't be held liable for content that
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: other users post on their sites. Those of you who
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: listen a lot will know that we've been digging into
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the many tentacled impacts of this law, Section 230, on
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the ways we all communicate and get information, and why
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I think the law should change. The 30th anniversary of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Section 230's enactment was actually on Sunday, and I did
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: an interview with Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois tied to it,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Durbin has been one of the most vocal lawmakers calling
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: for the repeal of Section 230. If you had to
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: think of your top 20 issues, where does this fall?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Is it in the top 20, you know, like the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: things that are on your brain as priorities?
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Top five.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: This is top five.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Top five. I'm in an unusual or curious position. I've
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: announced my retirement, so I have this calendar year to
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: achieve whatever I'm going to achieve at this point in
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: my Senate career. And this is one of the top
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: five issues that I think could make a real difference
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: in this country.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Durbin's a Democrat, but there's a lot of bipartisan support
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: to go after Section 230. Republican Lindsey Graham has proposed
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: repealing it with Durbin, along with others in both the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Senate and the House who've pushed for Section 230 reform.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Though one of the interesting things Senator Durbin told me
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: is that behind the scenes, not all these lawmakers are
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: singing the same tune as they are in public.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Members of The Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats and Republicans, wanted
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: to be on record in trying to clean up these platforms.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Then some of them went to the leadership in the
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Senate and basically said, make sure this never gets considered
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: on the floor. We have a record vote, but we
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: don't want to be passing anything to change it. You see,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: this industry, big tech, has grown from virtually nothing to
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: a major player in A lot of money, a lot
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: of authority, a lot of power. And my colleagues in
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: the Senate don't want to take them on.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I asked Senator Durbin to tell me which lawmakers exactly
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: have been talking out of both sides of their mouths.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: We're going to share the entire interview on our sub stack.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: We videoed it so you can see his answer there.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And also you can judge what you think of his
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: responses to the criticism I put to him about his
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: hope to fully repeal Section 230, which a lot of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: people think will lead to mass censorship. Our Substack is questioneverything.substack.com.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Sign up for the newsletter. In addition to the interview
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: with Durbin, we also have reporting on Substack this week
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: on some of the major lawsuits that are moving forward
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: against social media companies right now. There is one being
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: argued in New Mexico this week where the state set
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: up a sting operation with fake accounts to see how
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Meadow was doing at stopping sexual exploitation of children. Spoiler,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: not very well. And another case that just had opening
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: arguments on Monday in L.A., where there was a big
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: ruling about Section 230 that came in over the weekend.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify next week. He tried
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to get out of it, but the judge is forcing
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: him to. Check it all out on questioneverything.substack.com. And one
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: last thing, a little favor. Our partners at KCRW have
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a survey going about Question Everything. They want to know
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: who's listening, how you listen, what you think about the show.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: It doesn't take long, and it'll help us know what
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: you're digging, what you're not digging, and just how to
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: make the show better. If you have a few minutes,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: please go to kcrw.com slash surveys and take the question
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: everything one. I really appreciate it. That's kcrw.com slash surveys.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: We'll put it in the show notes. Thank you for
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: listening to this show. Hang in there with everything that's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: happening in the world. We'll see you next Thursday with
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: our story about Mario Guevara.