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KBLA Talk 1580.
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Got a lot to talk about today for real, and
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I'm glad he's here. He is an award-winning journalist, a
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former leader of the National Association of Black Journalists, LA Chapter.
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He's an author of the award-winning book, Historically Black Phrases,
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from I Ain't One of Your Little Friends to Who
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All Gon.
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Be There.
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A creator of a game, and a graduate of Harvard
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Divinity School. That's just a few of the credentials. Good morning,
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Jerry Hill.
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Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for having me.
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Thanks for coming in. So, there's a lot going on today.
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I mentioned Israel is going to the polls.
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Yes.
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And I feel like I have never tracked an Israeli
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election as much as I'm tracking this one, even though
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it's not like we have, you know... some great progressive
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on the other side of the ticket running against Netanyahu,
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but there's just so many parallels between Netanyahu and Trump.
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Yeah. I've seen a little bit of coverage on the
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Israeli election that's happening today. And I'm kind of fascinated
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to see what happens as, but as you say, like,
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I don't see like a candidate that I'm like enthusiastic about,
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but I also kind of feel like anyone that's not
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BB Netanyahu is probably going to be a little bit better,
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but like, I don't, This is my first time really
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paying attention to an election as real as well.
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Yeah, I mean, and the fact of the matter is,
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you know, he's like Trump in that he's been able
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to stay out of jail by being president. It's a
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unique strategy for evading law enforcement. But, you know, and
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given the genocide, it feels like in Gaza, it feels
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just urgent that even if the guy that's running against him,
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which is a former IDF head, isn't better. it feels
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important for Israel to reject him right now to me.
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Absolutely. I mean, I'm very curious to see what happens
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with this election and then how people respond to it
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in a similar way that I feel that way about
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our election, right? Like I've been thinking this a lot
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about our election and thinking to myself, like I've seen
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different coverage of like the ways Republicans are running here, right?
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And how they're not doing town halls or not going
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out and talking to people. And similarly, I'm like, I'm
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really curious how the people of Israel will go to
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the polls and what the election will look like and
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then what the response to it will look like and
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the way that here in America, we have seen Republicans
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deny the result of every election we've had since Donald
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Trump has been running in the last decade. And so
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as we see them coming into this moment, I find
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myself kind of curious, like, how will they try and
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deny the election this time? Not if they will, because
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we've seen them do it every other time, right? In
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the same way that I'm like, How will we see
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them try and cheat? Because we've seen them try to
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cheat every single time before.
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I mean, that was the whole thing with the Brazilian
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election over the weekend, which thankfully Da Silva won, Lula
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Da Silva won, because Bolsonaro's son, this guy Flavio Bolsonaro,
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is giving Don Trump Jr. His dad is in jail
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for trying to overturn the election, right? Kind of what
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we should have done with our president. But the thing is,
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Trump denied... the result of their election. Trump said they cheated.
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But thankfully, the Flavio Bolsonaro guy has accepted the results
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of the election.
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Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, I believe Bolsonaro,
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his father, is in prison because of the uprising that
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came after that.
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Yeah, his own January 6th. Yeah, so pretty much they
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did what we should have done and we wouldn't be
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suffering through this Trump presidency right now. They held him
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criminally accountable. He's in jail. Had his son won, he
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would have got out.
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Yeah.
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His son did not win, but at least they are
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accepting the results of the election. But the irony is
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exactly what you just said. Trump is not accepting the results.
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He's not Brazilian. He probably hasn't even seen any data,
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but he's just saying they cheated. So preview of coming attractions.
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Yeah. And also like Donald Trump denied the results of
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elections that he allegedly won. So the idea of him
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rejecting the results of elections again is like it's pretty
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on brand at this point after a decade. and some
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change of Donald Trump as an electoral factor here.
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Why do people keep believing? Okay, so let's talk about Obama.
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Former President Barack Obama has been back on the campaign stump,
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and he's going hard. I mean, I feel like he's...
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Does this seem like he's clowning more than usual?
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I saw some of the other coverage, and they were like,
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this seems unusual for President Obama. Did they say that?
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Okay, it wasn't just me.
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And I was thinking to myself, like, is it unusual?
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I mean.
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I feel like we've seen him take hits at Trump
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in ways that like Michelle Obama, for instance, won't who
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won't even say his name. Right. Whereas in this instance,
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we see President Obama going out and talking about all
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of the vanity projects that we've seen coming from this
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current president. Or as you would call him, the resident,
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the seeing all these vanity for different projects and referring
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to it looking like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory.
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I love that.
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I thought A was funny, but B like not too
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much on the Cheesecake Factory because I will roll up
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in there and get my Tex-Mex egg roll.
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Look, I like the Cheesecake Factory too, but they're not,
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you know, known for their interior design aesthetic.
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Certainly not known as world leaders, right?
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Or as world leaders.
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So I've been interested in this moment because I also
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feel like we've seen the president, we've seen President Obama
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come after Trump in this way. And there are various
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different reports on like the ways in which Donald Trump
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was kind of shook by it and spending a lot
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of time responding to it. So I'm fascinated to see
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Obama out. But I'm also I always get nervous whenever
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Obama's out doing too much because I'm like, Donald Trump
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is the president right now.
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Right.
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And we've seen the way that he's dealt with Ilhan Omar.
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We talked last week about Senator Lucas in Virginia, Maryland.
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We've seen various different kinds of political retribution come from
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this president. And so I do get a little anxious
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whenever the Obamas are out saying too much. But I
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also feel like we need them to be out talking,
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especially giving people an address for the election.
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I mean, when you say nervous, are you thinking assassinations?
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Are you just thinking targeted? Because he has talked and
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fantasized out loud a lot about jailing Obama.
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Exactly.
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But so far, it seems like the only people he's
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trying to jail are black women.
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Yeah.
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For the most part, other than James Comey.
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I've been anxious about it because as much as he
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hates Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as much as he
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hates the Obamas, as much as he wants to be
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Barack Obama, because that's really what it is, right? He
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hasn't really gone after Obama in a way that I...
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am happy about, but always cautious around.
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Does this help? Do you think this helps Democrats?
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Obama?
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Yeah, he's out there. He's out there trying to make
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a difference in Michigan. He's out there trying to... Obviously,
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what he's trying to do is help Dems get the
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House and the Senate. Does it help?
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I think we... I think data and I haven't looked
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at this in a while, so don't quote me here,
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but I believe the data shows that like it does
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help with turnout.
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Right.
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And we also kind of see that with Obama, with
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Trump going to different places that it can help turn
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out or sometimes hurt it depending on the city. So I,
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I do think Obama being out on the road is helpful, right? One,
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it brings conversation to these different candidates in the, in
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their various oftentimes down ballot races, but also I think
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it's helpful to, to be having a conversation from Obama, right,
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that is going to get coverage in a different way
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than if it was, you know, someone of a lesser stature.
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So I think it's useful in that way. I'm really
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curious to see how it will be useful when it
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comes to turnout.
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Yeah, and that Honestly, that's probably the number one thing
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right now. I see that in L.A. I don't know.
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I'm sure it's true nationwide. Progressives do better when there's
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more people that vote. That's why they're trying to make
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you not vote. But for some reason, people don't seem
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to be getting the call.
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I mean, how do you mean?
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Well, the June election, the turnout was terrible for the primary.
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And yet, you know, people are suffering with accountability. losing
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their rights. Folks are very scared, very unsettled by what's
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happening in Washington and even in their local governance. But
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they're not voting. And I don't get it. To me,
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if you're that mad about the price of eggs and
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the war in Iran, which is wildly unpopular, you would
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think you would want to come out and vote. I mean,
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we are seeing early voting, strong numbers in Georgia and
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places like that. But The primary, if the primary is
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any indication, we could be in trouble.
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Yeah, I, we talk a lot about the importance of voting.
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And I love that you always frame every day as
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election day, as we're leading up to the last election
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day of this cycle. And I, I'm always really curious
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about turnout in the ways that like we, I've said
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this on this air before. I'm a millennial. I'm, you know,
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I lean elder millennial. At 41, having been born at 85.
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I have been aware of the news, watching the news,
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politically aware since I was a kid.
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Yeah, you're one of those.
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I was a little boy watching 2020 on Friday night
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and catching the evening news every night. You know what
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I mean? And so I've been engaged. And one of
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the things that is always perplexing to me, frustrating to me,
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is how many years, my entire life, I have heard
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every politician talk about the financial system is broken. The
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education system is so broken. Our roads, our infrastructure is
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so broken.
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Immigration is so broken.
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Exactly every system is so broken and I think about
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how we ask people to the to engage with this
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system that is completely broken right that is always broken
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it's always decimated and now it's like it's too much
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money in politics it's too much this is too much
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that and it's like I don't I I I get
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the voter who is like, keep me out of it.
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Y'all got it. And I don't think that's necessarily the
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best answer, but I do get it. So that's when
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I look at turnout, I'm always thinking about the ways
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that the narrative in the country has been moving and
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the ways that people are talking about the country and
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the way that we are. We often look at data
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asking people like, is the country moving in the right direction? And,
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you know, that's always an interesting metric. But I think
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about those things a lot.
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Yeah, that's fair. You know, I just, that's one of
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the reasons I wish we would stop saying we're going
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to hell in a handbasket. Just one of the reasons.
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The other reason is it makes people depressed. It makes
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them feel hopeless. And it's not true. Our roads are great.
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Our roads are very drivable. Yes, there's potholes. Have you
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been to Benin? Well, that's not a good example. Have
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you been to Nigeria? Have you been to Lagos? Benin
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actually has pretty nice roads. But I'm just saying, like,
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We take a lot of things for granted while we're
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sitting here going, oh, L.A. is an ish hole. No,
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it's not.
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L.A.
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Is a beautiful, great place to live. Do we have
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some problems?
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Yes.
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I'm so tired of candidates bashing our cities, our counties,
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our country even, unless you're just talking about the injustices.
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800-920-1580 if you want to join. Jared Hill is here.
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I'm Dominique DiPrima. And this is Unapologetically Progressive KBLA Talk 1580.
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Jared Hill is here. He is an award-winning journalist. And
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we're talking about all kinds of things related to the election.
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The thing that amazes me that every, I feel like
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every day, Jarrett, I am reading about Donald Trump's approval
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ratings at new all-time low. Like, how much lower can
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it go? But yet he keeps winning. His people he's
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endorsing keep winning. And it feels like he's getting more
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and more unhinged. And maybe folks are just ignoring it.
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I mean, the whole thing with Nicki Minaj's butt. It
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was surreal to me. I felt like... How does Saturday
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Night Live even spoof that? How do you even spoof that?
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It's one of the things that I remember in the
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2008 election, I believe it was, when Sarah Palin was
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the vice presidential candidate with John McCain. Tina Fey came
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on playing Sarah Palin and just did exactly the script
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of what she said. Right.
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She didn't have to write anything.
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There was a Katie Couric interview where... Tina literally just
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said every single thing that Sarah Palin said. And I
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think when we look at the present day, number one,
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I think Sarah Palin walked so that Donald Trump could run.
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But that could even go back to Reagan if you
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want to.
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Yeah, for sure.
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But I also, I look at it and I think
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to myself, it shows us the ways that the trouble
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has been coming for a long time. And I think
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with Donald Trump, we see a lot of that.
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Yeah, but I guess the thing that amazes me is
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that it doesn't seem to impact anything.
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Well, but I also want to know, like, you spoke
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about the headline of, like, Donald Trump's approval ratings being
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at record lows.
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Yeah, which is every day.
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I was going to say, I Googled it earlier this year,
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and I was like, how many times have we had
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that conversation this term, right? And it was like six
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times or something like that in the first year and
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a half of the presidency. We've had a conversation about
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his record low approval numbers. which to me now really
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just feels like clickbait from corporate media, right? His number. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
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His approval numbers have never been above 40. I don't
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think ever. And then I could go back and check that,
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but like, they certainly never been above 45 and throughout
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his first term or his second term. So like his
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approval being historically low, it's like, I don't even know
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what that means because it's never been good. He's never
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had much more than a third of the country. I'm really,
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really supporting him.
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Hmm. Well, so what does that tell us? It tells
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us that he's got a passionate base and that they
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show up and they vote and that he has a
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passionate league of followers, of supporters, the Elon Musks, who
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are very rich, that have outsized influence because he doesn't
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have the mass popularity.
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Yeah.
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And also, I mean, I think we could probably distinguish
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a lot of different things from the fact that his
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approval rating has been what it has been throughout the
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time that he's been even just a political candidate. Because
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it's it's even when he was running the first time,
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his approval rating like from his polling has always been
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most people do not like him. Right. Most people do
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not like the thing that he's saying. Most people do
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not like a lot of the ways that he wants
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to implement policy. there have been people who agree with
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him on immigration or agreed with him on the wall
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or agree with him on how we spend our money
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or whatever, but like approval has never been high for him.
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And so I'm, I'm just always kind of intrigued by like,
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what do we do with the information of like historic
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lows in his approval?
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Yeah.
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Well, hopefully vote. Hopefully, hopefully vote.
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Yeah.
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So I have, this is an unpopular opinion, but I'm,
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I'm happy that Chris Brown is not going to jail.
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Yeah. Really?
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Okay.
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I didn't see that coming.
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I know.
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You're happy that he's not going to jail because... Well, because.
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I think that... I mean, I don't think it's okay
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that he hit a guy in the head with a bottle.
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He hit a music producer. Apparently, it's on video. I
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haven't seen the video. In the head with a bottle.
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I don't think that's okay. But I do think that
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Chris Brown is a target for a lot of people
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because of his early troubles and, and, and, you know,
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the terrible, terrible incident with Rihanna, uh, about which I
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know things that I can't say, but the thing is,
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you know, he went, he went and did the anger management.
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He went and did the, um, counseling. He has since
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done all kinds of charitable, um, missions that people don't
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talk about in the community. And I just feel like
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we have this double standard. If you're, you know, Donald
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Trump or if you're, you know, I don't know, any
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number of politicians and white people in this country, you
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get one outcome. And if you're Chris Brown or anybody black,
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you get another outcome. It doesn't matter how much you apologize,
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pay people. On the other hand, you could help yourself
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by not hitting people in the head with bottles. And
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I do get that. But it's just the way they
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handle them. I remember there was a story about police,
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they said police were having a standoff at Chris Brown's house.
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And what it was is the cops knocked on his
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door and he didn't answer. So they called that a standoff.
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So there's a targeting that happens, you know, in the
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press and in the industry.
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And so, you know, I hope he can stay out. I,
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I hear where you're coming from and I, I disagree
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with you here. I, I, well, the thing I agree
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with you on is he is definitely a target for media, right?
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Having his name in a headline, I absolutely agree with you.
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Media and industry. Industry and even law enforcement. But I
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think the challenge for me with Chris Brown is he's
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never gotten better. He's continued to act out. The Rihanna
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situation kind of kicked his public image in a different trajectory.
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But he's never gotten better. These fights in clubs.
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I remember.
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Shortly after the Rihanna thing, I remember he was at
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Good Morning America and threw a chair through a glass
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window out into Times Square. He's been fighting people at
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the club. He's stalking his ex-girlfriends. He's doing all kinds
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of different things. And so, like, I am always cautious
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around Chris Brown coverage because I do think that the
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media is really good at tipping into racists. when they're
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covering him.
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All right. And I mean, the stalking, what does that
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consist of? Liking their posts, talking about them.
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I mean, he had like showed up where she was.
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He was sending messages with Carucci and things like that.
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And so I'm like, I, I do think that he
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gets covered unfairly in certain kinds of ways. But I
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also think that like, he continues to show out every
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single time he has opportunity. And like, and like this
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sentence was supposed to be eight months and it's been reduced.
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And I'm like, How many times do you get off?
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Three years, three years. And he got eight months. It
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was reduced to eight months.
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Okay.
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But he's, but he, but it's suspended. I don't even
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know what that means. It means maybe you serve it later.
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Yeah. I, and to this point, I'm like, Chris Brown
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has gotten a lot of terrible coverage and, and been
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covered by the police. I mean, it has been, you know,
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a target of the law enforcement for a long time.
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And he's also gotten off a lot, right. He's gotten
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away with a lot. He's, you know, I was thinking
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about this yesterday, washing the dishes. I was like, Chris
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Brown is certainly another one of those people who if
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you have money and the right lawyers, you can stay
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out of jail.
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Right.
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And like I, I, I agree with you that the
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coverage of him can be problematic and that we have
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had a long history with him. But I also feel
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like a lot of this gets brought on by him
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acting out.
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00:19:41.410 --> 00:19:43.849
OK, so it means you serve zero days in jail
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as long as you follow all the rules. So that's
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hanging over his head. All right, we got news, traffic,
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and sports.
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Asterisk, as long as you follow all the rules.
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Big as long as. All right, more straight ahead, only here.
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00:19:55.200 --> 00:20:00.940
I've been talking a lot about this merger. Skydance, basically
404
00:20:00.980 --> 00:20:03.990
Paramount merging with Warner Brothers. I was hoping it wouldn't
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00:20:04.009 --> 00:20:08.130
go through. It has gone through. Basically, the Ellison family,
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00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:13.579
which are hardcore Trump-supporting billionaires, now own a lot, like
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00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:16.720
a lot of not just news media, but also entertainment, right?
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Including CNN, including CBS News, and on and on it goes.
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00:20:22.829 --> 00:20:26.049
And I think it's a big problem. But that merger,
410
00:20:26.170 --> 00:20:29.109
the ink is now dry, and they are making their moves.
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00:20:31.109 --> 00:20:33.829
One of the first things we're hearing now is the
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00:20:33.890 --> 00:20:38.130
layoffs have begun. The predictions were 4,500 people would be
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00:20:38.170 --> 00:20:40.970
laid off. Where are we with that right now?
414
00:20:41.470 --> 00:20:44.269
Yeah. So just in the last day, we're starting to
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00:20:44.329 --> 00:20:48.250
see that Skydance is offering buyouts to people as they're
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getting ready to lay off a lot of people, right?
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00:20:50.690 --> 00:20:52.130
They're getting ready to get rid of a lot of jobs.
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00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:54.119
And I think it's also important to remember the context
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of this. When we think about Skydance, we think about Paramount,
420
00:20:57.859 --> 00:21:01.500
they have already laid off thousands of people across companies, right?
421
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You were talking about the merging of these two companies,
422
00:21:03.259 --> 00:21:06.380
but we'll remember over the last couple of years, Warner
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00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:10.829
Brothers Discovery became Warner Brothers Discovery, right? Discovery was Discovery
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00:21:10.849 --> 00:21:13.109
and Warner Brothers was Warner Brothers. Those two companies merged
425
00:21:13.150 --> 00:21:17.130
and we got HBO Max became Max. And we got like,
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00:21:17.869 --> 00:21:20.269
people will remember like the changing of all of these
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00:21:20.309 --> 00:21:22.970
different names. And now just a couple of years later,
428
00:21:23.069 --> 00:21:26.269
we see Warner Brothers and Discovery that have become Warner
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00:21:26.289 --> 00:21:30.740
Brothers Discovery becoming part of Paramount. Paramount, Warner Brothers Discovery
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00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:34.099
is now Skydance. And like, why does this matter? All
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00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:38.000
of these different businesses had thousands and thousands of people
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working there. A lot of them here in Los Angeles
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00:21:40.180 --> 00:21:42.579
or New York and around the country. A lot of
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those people are losing their jobs. And when I think
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00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:49.160
about Skydance, I think we are going to look back
436
00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:51.589
in history at this moment in a similar way to
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00:21:51.619 --> 00:21:54.170
the ways that we look at Enron or other companies
438
00:21:54.210 --> 00:21:59.390
who have done terribly by their people and done great
439
00:21:59.490 --> 00:22:03.490
harm to the infrastructure of an industry. I think about
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00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:07.000
Paramount right now in this moment as being, Skydance, excuse me,
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00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:09.660
being one of the companies that we will think of
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00:22:09.819 --> 00:22:13.319
as having done real harm to our media ecosystem when
443
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we look at this through the lens of history.
444
00:22:16.819 --> 00:22:20.759
Yeah, well, and I've been saying this. I was hoping
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00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:23.720
it wouldn't go through. You know, that this is an
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00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:29.940
existential crisis for creatives in Hollywood and for people in
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00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.990
our business, journalists. Yeah. Because there's fewer and fewer and
448
00:22:35.029 --> 00:22:38.329
fewer companies to work for. And they are more and
449
00:22:38.369 --> 00:22:43.609
more and more controlled by big conservative players in the
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00:22:43.670 --> 00:22:46.410
political scene. Because they also own TikTok.
451
00:22:46.930 --> 00:22:48.210
Yeah.
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00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:52.779
And Elon Musk just invested a billion dollars in Skydance.
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You know, they've got this big debt because of buying everything.
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So Elon Musk has now anteed up a billion and
455
00:23:00.460 --> 00:23:04.420
he may throw in more. Now we're talking about these
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00:23:05.019 --> 00:23:12.480
ultra conservative, politically active billionaires who, you know, one owns TikTok,
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00:23:12.619 --> 00:23:16.839
one owns Twitter, and they're now colluding.
458
00:23:17.859 --> 00:23:22.039
Yeah, I think about this and ask people like, who
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00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:22.599
is this helping?
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00:23:23.859 --> 00:23:24.059
Right.
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00:23:24.099 --> 00:23:26.339
When I think about Donald Trump, I often think about like,
462
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:31.059
who has really been helped by the policies of Donald Trump?
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00:23:31.670 --> 00:23:36.059
When I think about Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery becoming Skydance,
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00:23:36.099 --> 00:23:39.839
I say, like, who is this helping, right? Other than
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00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:43.720
the Ellisons and the conservative movement to, like, move this
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00:23:43.779 --> 00:23:49.369
country into being a more conservative, more white supremacist country, right? Like,
467
00:23:49.730 --> 00:23:51.849
it's certainly not helping the tens of thousands of people
468
00:23:51.890 --> 00:23:54.410
who've lost their jobs over the last few years. It's
469
00:23:54.430 --> 00:23:58.450
certainly not helping the audience, the consumer, who is looking
470
00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:01.710
for news or information or entertainment, right? When we look
471
00:24:01.730 --> 00:24:04.269
at the number of companies that are a part of
472
00:24:04.730 --> 00:24:10.259
this merger, Paramount already, just as Paramount Pictures, that is
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00:24:10.500 --> 00:24:13.539
half a dozen different studios and networks within it as
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00:24:13.579 --> 00:24:16.200
far as film and television are concerned. When we think
475
00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.529
about Paramount's television group, there are various networks under there.
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00:24:19.569 --> 00:24:24.710
CBS Studios, we think about Paramount Television, we think about Nickelodeon,
477
00:24:24.730 --> 00:24:27.269
we think about various different places. But when we think
478
00:24:27.329 --> 00:24:30.170
about the other places that are a part of this conversation,
479
00:24:30.269 --> 00:24:34.410
it is CBS and CBS News. It is CNN. Even
480
00:24:34.470 --> 00:24:38.230
just thinking about CBS News, there are how many local
481
00:24:38.309 --> 00:24:42.490
television stations here? I would say a couple of dozen
482
00:24:42.779 --> 00:24:46.299
that represent CBS News, right? Between New York, Los Angeles, Boston,
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00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:52.019
Bay Area, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Texas, Sacramento, Baltimore, Miami, Detroit,
484
00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:56.869
et cetera, et cetera. And that doesn't take into account MTV,
485
00:24:57.029 --> 00:25:03.009
Comedy Central, the Country Music Channel, Logo, Paramount Network, Pop TV, Smith,
486
00:25:03.289 --> 00:25:11.150
like channel after channel, Showtime, BET, which there's so many
487
00:25:11.369 --> 00:25:15.769
different pieces of media that are across networks, across platforms,
488
00:25:15.829 --> 00:25:22.220
across genre, across audience that This is a massive, massive
489
00:25:22.460 --> 00:25:24.339
thing that is happening. And I don't think that people
490
00:25:24.420 --> 00:25:27.119
really get it because we're so used to media being corporate.
491
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:29.079
But even in the commercial breaks, as we're looking at
492
00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:31.180
different stories, we were talking about how so much of
493
00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:34.200
the news media that we trust is now behind paywalls
494
00:25:34.380 --> 00:25:39.430
as opposed to being free and having it for people
495
00:25:39.470 --> 00:25:41.730
to be able to have access to the information. If
496
00:25:41.849 --> 00:25:43.569
you are trying to go to the New York Times,
497
00:25:43.950 --> 00:25:49.720
the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times online, or CNN, MSNB, MSNOW,
498
00:25:50.539 --> 00:25:53.240
NBC News, like more and more of all of these
499
00:25:53.299 --> 00:25:56.359
places are behind paywalls and there's less and less competition.
500
00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:59.329
The news was never supposed to be a space that
501
00:25:59.349 --> 00:26:01.329
was making profit. The news was supposed to be a
502
00:26:01.390 --> 00:26:04.170
place to inform the people, right? And when we think
503
00:26:04.230 --> 00:26:08.950
about the ways in which our television and corporate media exist,
504
00:26:08.990 --> 00:26:12.950
I always remember being in school. I was a journalism
505
00:26:13.009 --> 00:26:17.759
broadcast major And I remember one of our professors talking
506
00:26:17.819 --> 00:26:19.839
about like the purpose of corporate media.
507
00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:21.099
Right.
508
00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:24.059
You think about I think about ABC.
509
00:26:24.380 --> 00:26:24.660
Right.
510
00:26:25.019 --> 00:26:28.599
And how I my favorite show on ABC was probably
511
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:32.140
Scandal over the years. Right. And the TGIT of it all.
512
00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:35.839
And like if you think about like why does TGIT exist?
513
00:26:36.619 --> 00:26:39.029
It is not because like ABC is just so committed
514
00:26:39.049 --> 00:26:41.670
to giving you great stories or because they really, really
515
00:26:41.730 --> 00:26:44.630
believe in Shonda Rhimes. It is because they are selling
516
00:26:44.690 --> 00:26:45.849
advertising between 8 and 10.
517
00:26:45.829 --> 00:26:46.059
Right.
518
00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:48.859
And if they get enough people to watch it, they
519
00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:51.000
can sell it at a certain rate. Right. Or they
520
00:26:51.019 --> 00:26:52.940
can sell it at a higher rate. It is not
521
00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:55.299
because they like are really committed to the story of
522
00:26:55.339 --> 00:26:55.960
Olivia Pope.
523
00:26:57.099 --> 00:27:00.039
So does that mean now maybe we'll see the rise
524
00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:02.920
in these nonprofit newsrooms? I mean, I know, for example,
525
00:27:03.029 --> 00:27:05.549
many times I'm going to go to CalMatters now, not
526
00:27:05.630 --> 00:27:09.900
only because it's free. but also because it's not corporate,
527
00:27:10.289 --> 00:27:13.450
and so it seems to have less biased coverage. And
528
00:27:13.490 --> 00:27:15.930
when you get into a Bari Weiss, who's now running
529
00:27:16.109 --> 00:27:20.990
CBS News, under a Larry Ellison, who was sitting on
530
00:27:21.019 --> 00:27:24.980
the dais with Trump during the inauguration and has given
531
00:27:25.660 --> 00:27:29.940
hundreds of millions to his campaign, there's another factor. Yes,
532
00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:33.309
there's paywalls. I mean, CNN was free yesterday. to read
533
00:27:33.329 --> 00:27:36.930
their news until about two months ago. That's a new paywall. NBC,
534
00:27:36.990 --> 00:27:43.720
new paywall. MSNBC, new paywall. So the commercial outlets are
535
00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:49.109
getting more and more profit-oriented, predatory. And so does that
536
00:27:49.170 --> 00:27:53.789
mean the nonprofit news agencies will see a boost, I hope?
537
00:27:54.170 --> 00:27:56.420
I think so. I mean, we've seen like a big
538
00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:59.880
rise in like independent media. And I think like the
539
00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:01.880
big names that we think about when we think about
540
00:28:01.940 --> 00:28:04.420
that is like we think of Joy Reid and we
541
00:28:04.440 --> 00:28:06.180
think of Don Lemon and we see a lot of
542
00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:08.589
people on Substack and we see those kinds of things, right?
543
00:28:08.619 --> 00:28:10.670
And I think there is a lot of use in that.
544
00:28:10.690 --> 00:28:13.930
There's a lot of value in that. And also those
545
00:28:13.970 --> 00:28:17.039
people are not as resourced. Ask CBS or CNN or MSNBC.
546
00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:18.420
I mean, it's a shame you got to go to
547
00:28:18.500 --> 00:28:20.400
Al Jazeera now because they don't have a paywall.
548
00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:23.160
Right. And, like, they do great reporting.
549
00:28:23.180 --> 00:28:24.960
They do great reporting.
550
00:28:25.059 --> 00:28:26.599
Absolutely. Or the BBC or things like that.
551
00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:28.240
Well, the BBC has a paywall now.
552
00:28:28.339 --> 00:28:29.880
The BBC has a paywall now.
553
00:28:29.900 --> 00:28:33.359
And that's also new. That's only the last few months. So, yeah,
554
00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:36.400
it is harder to get the information, and the information
555
00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:37.180
is more skewed.
556
00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:41.119
Well, and I mean, I'll nerd a little bit here
557
00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:45.450
with another journalist, right? I've been really... interrogating with myself
558
00:28:45.650 --> 00:28:50.170
the relationship between newsworthiness which is how we as journalists
559
00:28:50.190 --> 00:28:52.819
decide like whether or not a story is worthy of
560
00:28:52.859 --> 00:28:56.319
being part of the news right there's a relationship between
561
00:28:56.660 --> 00:29:02.750
newsworthiness and profit that is really problematic.
562
00:29:02.730 --> 00:29:05.529
Right it's the clickbait uh Venn diagram.
563
00:29:05.549 --> 00:29:10.130
Yes. That starts to become a circle. I remember working
564
00:29:10.250 --> 00:29:13.470
at NBC Atlanta, WXIA 11 Alive News. Shout out to
565
00:29:13.490 --> 00:29:16.529
the people over there. And like, I remember sitting at
566
00:29:16.549 --> 00:29:18.990
the news desk after a broadcast with our main anchor.
567
00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:21.579
Her name was Brenda Wood. She was at WXIA for
568
00:29:21.579 --> 00:29:23.799
30 years. And I was asking her, like, I keep
569
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:26.019
hearing people always talk about the news is so negative.
570
00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:28.420
I don't watch the news. It's this, it's that, it's blah, blah, blah.
571
00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:30.859
She was like, that is people say that all the time.
572
00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:33.900
But like, what comes on right before our 11 o'clock news?
573
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:37.180
And I was like, law and order? She was like, yeah.
574
00:29:38.069 --> 00:29:39.809
And like, it's one of the highest rated, longest running.
575
00:29:40.180 --> 00:29:42.779
things because people like seeing crime. They like to see
576
00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:45.599
negative news. The whole, it bleeds. If it bleeds, it leads.
577
00:29:45.619 --> 00:29:48.569
That's a thing. She was like at 11 alive at
578
00:29:48.609 --> 00:29:50.690
that time, we had done a long stretch of like,
579
00:29:50.710 --> 00:29:52.950
let's leave with good news. Let's start off with the
580
00:29:52.990 --> 00:29:57.049
great things happening. And the ratings tanked. Right. Nobody was watching.
581
00:29:57.450 --> 00:30:00.450
When we went back to the chase, the murder, the killing,
582
00:30:00.509 --> 00:30:03.500
the kidnapping, whatever, the numbers came back. And there's some
583
00:30:03.539 --> 00:30:06.180
negativity bias that we can talk about psychology there. But also, like,
584
00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:08.920
these are the things that make money. It's not about
585
00:30:08.980 --> 00:30:10.960
whether or not this is something that the public needs.
586
00:30:11.019 --> 00:30:13.079
It's about whether or not it's going to get people
587
00:30:13.119 --> 00:30:15.220
to tune in so they can make money and do sales.
588
00:30:15.319 --> 00:30:17.039
And when I think about this, this feels like this
589
00:30:17.099 --> 00:30:17.859
with the skydance.
590
00:30:18.259 --> 00:30:21.019
I mean, that's true. But also there's which crime are
591
00:30:21.059 --> 00:30:24.069
you covering? And what's your perspective on said crime? I mean,
592
00:30:24.109 --> 00:30:27.650
I think that's where the CBS, you know, um, sort
593
00:30:27.690 --> 00:30:32.460
of ultra conservative agenda comes into play. The Fox news,
594
00:30:32.539 --> 00:30:36.960
ultra conservative agenda comes into play. How are you covering the, um,
595
00:30:37.539 --> 00:30:42.220
supposed smash and grab, you know, wave or the smash
596
00:30:42.259 --> 00:30:46.339
and grab presidency? It depends on the, there is a
597
00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:47.359
point of view issue.
598
00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:50.869
Um, And we see that, I think, about this in
599
00:30:50.910 --> 00:30:53.259
the ways in which we see black folks getting covered.
600
00:30:53.500 --> 00:30:53.759
Right.
601
00:30:53.799 --> 00:30:54.220
Exactly.
602
00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:55.359
Or not getting covered.
603
00:30:55.460 --> 00:30:56.880
Getting covered, not getting covered.
604
00:30:56.940 --> 00:31:00.619
Who's missing? Who's hurt? Who's been shot? Right. Which crime?
605
00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:01.200
Which crime?
606
00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:01.839
Exactly.
607
00:31:01.880 --> 00:31:03.769
Which crime are we covering? You know, if it bleeds,
608
00:31:03.829 --> 00:31:05.890
it leads. But there's bleeding all over the world on
609
00:31:05.930 --> 00:31:08.130
the left, on the right. White people are bleeding. Black
610
00:31:08.170 --> 00:31:11.170
people are bleeding. So there's still bias even in the
611
00:31:11.230 --> 00:31:13.519
so-called negativity area. coverage.
612
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:16.220
And even if you think about like how many stories
613
00:31:16.279 --> 00:31:19.220
of kidnap of a missing woman, how often has that
614
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:21.799
story been about a brown woman, a black woman, a
615
00:31:22.700 --> 00:31:26.960
black girl, right? Oftentimes it is a white woman, usually
616
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:29.000
a blonde white woman. Why does that happen? Is it
617
00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:31.099
just like white women are just getting snatched up everywhere?
618
00:31:31.500 --> 00:31:33.440
It's like, no, look at the data and you can
619
00:31:33.460 --> 00:31:35.660
see how many black women have gone missing and never
620
00:31:35.700 --> 00:31:36.500
got their story told.
621
00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:39.259
All right, let's go to Paul calling us from LA.
622
00:31:39.299 --> 00:31:42.039
Good morning, Paul. You're on the air with Jared Hill
623
00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:43.519
and Dominique DiPrima. Welcome.
624
00:31:44.779 --> 00:31:47.880
Hey, Dominique. Hey, Jared. Great conversation you two are having.
625
00:31:48.259 --> 00:31:49.440
A couple of things. I just want to throw my
626
00:31:49.460 --> 00:31:52.930
thoughts in it. On just what you were talking about,
627
00:31:53.009 --> 00:31:55.490
we've talked about it before on your show, Dominique, that
628
00:31:55.930 --> 00:31:58.369
the Nielsen Report shows that we watch more TV than
629
00:31:58.390 --> 00:31:59.609
anybody else, right?
630
00:31:59.809 --> 00:32:00.829
Yep.
631
00:32:01.289 --> 00:32:04.150
And the main thing that we watch is cop shows
632
00:32:04.490 --> 00:32:08.490
and their news networks. And it's interesting because I always say, well,
633
00:32:09.099 --> 00:32:12.559
why when something happens, our initial reaction is we got
634
00:32:12.579 --> 00:32:16.849
to see what they say or think about us. And it's, it's, it's,
635
00:32:17.220 --> 00:32:21.309
I find that real interesting when we have, for example,
636
00:32:21.349 --> 00:32:25.029
black independent media that we can go to ourselves to
637
00:32:25.089 --> 00:32:29.230
get informative information, factual information, because when we go to
638
00:32:29.269 --> 00:32:33.119
their networks and their mainstream media, we know from after
639
00:32:33.140 --> 00:32:36.140
you guys bought a Reagan and the fairness doctrine, once
640
00:32:36.259 --> 00:32:42.440
that was removed, the, you get a tainted image and
641
00:32:42.500 --> 00:32:46.480
perception and narrative, especially when it comes to us. But
642
00:32:46.500 --> 00:32:50.700
we end up making some of their largest demographic groups
643
00:32:50.759 --> 00:32:54.109
of people that watch their media. And that's just odd
644
00:32:54.140 --> 00:32:54.480
to me.
645
00:32:56.309 --> 00:33:00.730
I think you are hitting on something that is important,
646
00:33:00.750 --> 00:33:02.329
like Black folks who watch a lot of TV. But
647
00:33:02.349 --> 00:33:06.089
I also remind you, Black folks are 13% of this country, right,
648
00:33:06.109 --> 00:33:09.200
when we think about The people who are watching television
649
00:33:09.259 --> 00:33:11.859
and consuming media. But I think also like we are
650
00:33:11.900 --> 00:33:15.200
a culture that has been kind of trained, shown like
651
00:33:15.380 --> 00:33:17.000
this is how we we get information.
652
00:33:17.019 --> 00:33:17.259
Right.
653
00:33:17.319 --> 00:33:19.859
You go search looking for a piece of information, whether
654
00:33:19.900 --> 00:33:22.900
that's on television or radio or what have you. I
655
00:33:22.920 --> 00:33:25.970
don't I don't think that that is inherently bad. I
656
00:33:26.009 --> 00:33:28.829
think when we think about the ways that our media
657
00:33:28.890 --> 00:33:31.599
tends to be inherently racist. I think that is because
658
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:34.730
people are racist, right? When we look at the people
659
00:33:34.769 --> 00:33:37.029
who are running these companies, when we look at the
660
00:33:37.069 --> 00:33:40.069
people who are our managers, our bosses, or whatever, in
661
00:33:40.230 --> 00:33:43.309
a lot of the mainstream corporate media, it is not
662
00:33:43.349 --> 00:33:47.359
like you are an overtly racist, awful human being. It
663
00:33:47.519 --> 00:33:50.200
is you have been conditioned by the same system that
664
00:33:50.339 --> 00:33:52.220
all of the rest of us have been, right? And
665
00:33:52.259 --> 00:33:57.109
so you inherently will have an anti-Black, pro-white, white supremacist,
666
00:33:57.210 --> 00:34:00.410
patriarchal lens on the world. And you report your stories
667
00:34:00.450 --> 00:34:02.509
that way. You choose your stories that way. What is
668
00:34:02.569 --> 00:34:06.970
newsworthy shows up in that way. And again, we oftentimes
669
00:34:07.009 --> 00:34:10.179
see in corporate media the prioritization of missing white women.
670
00:34:10.420 --> 00:34:13.820
We see the prioritization of various different kinds of things
671
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:14.280
in that way.
672
00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:18.159
I get that. I think that's right. But we're also
673
00:34:18.179 --> 00:34:22.989
talking about where we get our info and that's what
674
00:34:23.030 --> 00:34:27.090
we're trained to do. And I think the suggestion is
675
00:34:27.130 --> 00:34:30.510
that perhaps we need to support more independent media, support
676
00:34:30.530 --> 00:34:37.730
more black-owned and operated media. But we do watch too
677
00:34:37.789 --> 00:34:40.050
much TV. I mean, I think that's one of the
678
00:34:40.309 --> 00:34:42.780
problems with our educational outcomes, and it's one of the
679
00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:48.380
problems with our political outcomes, because people are buying into
680
00:34:48.500 --> 00:34:52.340
these talking points, not just the talking points from the commercials,
681
00:34:52.989 --> 00:34:55.730
which we're getting right now that are misleading us about
682
00:34:55.809 --> 00:34:58.710
all kinds of things with these propositions, but also the
683
00:34:58.769 --> 00:35:03.289
talking points about ourselves, right? Black people ain't ish. We are,
684
00:35:03.349 --> 00:35:06.630
we're criminals. We better vote for this person that's saying
685
00:35:06.650 --> 00:35:08.760
they're going to lock us up. And I think that's
686
00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:10.619
what you're getting at. I'm not sure, Paul, this is
687
00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:11.940
that kind of where you're going with it.
688
00:35:13.019 --> 00:35:15.820
No, you both make up great points. And I just
689
00:35:15.860 --> 00:35:17.980
like to hit, I'm one of those people that I
690
00:35:18.019 --> 00:35:20.139
could feel I could be open-minded and believe there's two
691
00:35:20.219 --> 00:35:22.679
truths to something, like both sides are making really good
692
00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:27.260
points to this. And when you really critically think about it,
693
00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:32.230
but remember, you talked about earlier these polling and stuff
694
00:35:32.250 --> 00:35:34.690
they put out and the propaganda they put out, his
695
00:35:34.750 --> 00:35:38.170
popularity is low. And we have to remember, going back
696
00:35:38.190 --> 00:35:40.010
to what you were saying, Jared, that 71% of the
697
00:35:40.050 --> 00:35:47.340
electorate is white people, right? And of that 71%, 41%
698
00:35:47.340 --> 00:35:52.260
in the 2024 election were uneducated. And what you're saying, well,
699
00:35:52.699 --> 00:35:56.869
what are these people doing? Well, they basically have radicalized
700
00:35:56.909 --> 00:36:01.110
these people to basically vote based on white fear. And
701
00:36:01.190 --> 00:36:04.329
they're coming to take our country from us. They're taking
702
00:36:04.349 --> 00:36:04.889
your job.
703
00:36:04.969 --> 00:36:08.690
Hold that thought, Paul. We're going to continue this convo
704
00:36:08.710 --> 00:36:11.289
when we come forward, only right here. Tossing the mic
705
00:36:11.349 --> 00:36:14.769
back to Jared Hill and Paul from L.A. because you
706
00:36:14.789 --> 00:36:19.829
guys were chopping it up and we wanted to continue that. Hey, Paul.
707
00:36:21.489 --> 00:36:23.530
And I'll just leave it with this, just tying it
708
00:36:23.570 --> 00:36:28.820
all together. King, when King was in jail, he basically
709
00:36:28.900 --> 00:36:31.539
spoke to those police officers and saying, those white police
710
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:33.860
officers and said, you know we have more in common
711
00:36:33.880 --> 00:36:37.099
than you believe. Fred Hampton spoke across the aisle to
712
00:36:37.119 --> 00:36:38.920
people regardless of the color of their skin and said,
713
00:36:39.389 --> 00:36:41.389
you know the system as a whole and what it
714
00:36:41.429 --> 00:36:44.550
does to divide us. The example I provided for you
715
00:36:44.590 --> 00:36:48.429
guys in real time of what's going on is this
716
00:36:48.530 --> 00:36:52.309
is how they keep people divided based on race, based
717
00:36:52.369 --> 00:36:55.639
on taking while they control the tax code and not
718
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:58.659
pay attention to where all the wealth is being accumulated
719
00:36:59.079 --> 00:37:02.079
and going. So on this last part of it that
720
00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:05.059
I just want to hit on, the problem of the
721
00:37:05.099 --> 00:37:08.699
situation is this. They wanted to break the middle working class,
722
00:37:08.900 --> 00:37:13.079
and that goal started during Reagan's administration. And how did
723
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:17.340
they target it was through deregulations and basically tax cuts.
724
00:37:18.159 --> 00:37:21.599
And they said trickle-down economics wouldn't work and work itself
725
00:37:21.659 --> 00:37:23.989
down to the working class, and it never did. And
726
00:37:24.050 --> 00:37:29.090
people got to look past the boogeyman to understand what's
727
00:37:29.130 --> 00:37:30.769
going on here. It's a class war.
728
00:37:32.110 --> 00:37:35.449
Yeah. I mean, I think we can't underestimate the class piece. Paul,
729
00:37:35.489 --> 00:37:37.599
thank you for calling. I think we do underestimate it.
730
00:37:37.630 --> 00:37:39.610
We don't talk about class a lot in this country.
731
00:37:39.769 --> 00:37:42.179
No, I fully agree. I was going to say, and
732
00:37:42.500 --> 00:37:44.539
then he said it like, this is about race and
733
00:37:44.579 --> 00:37:46.260
it is about class. And those two things kind of
734
00:37:46.579 --> 00:37:48.539
map over each other in a really interesting way. And
735
00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:53.210
I think we've seen a few conversations that I feel
736
00:37:53.230 --> 00:37:56.530
like have gotten a lot of conversation. Excuse me. We've
737
00:37:56.550 --> 00:37:58.909
seen a few pieces of work that have gotten a
738
00:37:58.909 --> 00:38:03.099
lot of public conversation, I think, about Um, uh, Ava
739
00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:06.079
DuVernay did a book on, excuse me, did a film
740
00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:08.599
on the book. The book was called the show. The
741
00:38:08.739 --> 00:38:15.320
film was called, um, God, she did a book. There
742
00:38:15.340 --> 00:38:19.199
was a book. Um, I'm going to try and remember
743
00:38:19.239 --> 00:38:21.510
what it was called there, but it was a conversation
744
00:38:21.570 --> 00:38:24.909
around class, um, and the distinction between race and class
745
00:38:24.949 --> 00:38:28.949
and the ways that we, um, we, we think of
746
00:38:28.989 --> 00:38:30.969
them as similar and the same, but they're not quite
747
00:38:31.010 --> 00:38:36.369
the same. Who is the author of The Warmth of
748
00:38:36.429 --> 00:38:39.010
Other Sons and cast? Isabel Wilkerson.
749
00:38:39.050 --> 00:38:39.849
Wilkerson, yeah.
750
00:38:39.929 --> 00:38:43.110
Yes, she has a book called Cast that talks about... Yeah,
751
00:38:43.630 --> 00:38:46.309
I saw that film. Yeah, and Ava DuVernay made it
752
00:38:46.349 --> 00:38:49.090
into a film. And it really talks about, like, oftentimes
753
00:38:49.110 --> 00:38:51.530
when we're talking about race, sometimes it is about race,
754
00:38:51.690 --> 00:38:53.909
and sometimes it's about class and the way those things
755
00:38:53.989 --> 00:38:56.469
fit together in this country. And I think Paula's right.
756
00:38:56.510 --> 00:39:00.079
We're looking at class warfare and, I mean... You brought
757
00:39:00.099 --> 00:39:01.699
up Dr. King and a lot of folks talk about
758
00:39:01.739 --> 00:39:04.179
how like the reason that they came after him in
759
00:39:04.199 --> 00:39:06.010
the way that they did was because he was also
760
00:39:06.090 --> 00:39:07.199
talking to poor white people.
761
00:39:07.710 --> 00:39:07.949
Right.
762
00:39:08.010 --> 00:39:11.030
Because that was a class conversation to be having. So
763
00:39:11.989 --> 00:39:13.809
I don't think you're wrong.
764
00:39:13.909 --> 00:39:17.230
Also, let's squeeze in Corey. Corey, you know, you've got
765
00:39:17.289 --> 00:39:19.550
like a minute, less than a minute. Time flies on
766
00:39:19.570 --> 00:39:20.389
the radio. Good morning.
767
00:39:21.849 --> 00:39:23.590
Good morning, of course. Thank you for taking my call.
768
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:27.829
I just wanted to add into that conversation democracy now.
769
00:39:27.989 --> 00:39:29.880
I didn't hear the mention of democracy now. and I've
770
00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:33.579
been a huge fan and super grateful for Amy Goodman
771
00:39:33.619 --> 00:39:36.539
and the team since right after 9-11. Thank God for
772
00:39:36.599 --> 00:39:39.880
finding them. I really feel like, you know, using Democracy Now,
773
00:39:39.960 --> 00:39:44.389
a free, independent, hardcore news agency that really, if people
774
00:39:44.429 --> 00:39:46.750
took that in on a regular basis, could really help
775
00:39:46.769 --> 00:39:49.170
their perspective on everything that's happening in the world. I
776
00:39:49.190 --> 00:39:51.489
don't really watch television, but Democracy Now is something that
777
00:39:51.530 --> 00:39:52.500
I catch regularly.
778
00:39:52.519 --> 00:39:54.219
All right. Yeah. Thanks for that.
779
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:57.239
Yeah. I know a lot of friends that are really
780
00:39:57.260 --> 00:39:59.159
big fans of Democracy Now. I don't follow them a
781
00:39:59.219 --> 00:40:01.219
whole lot, but whenever I do see their coverage, I've
782
00:40:01.889 --> 00:40:03.630
really enjoyed it. And I think that we're going to
783
00:40:03.670 --> 00:40:06.829
see more and more independent nonprofit media, to your point.
784
00:40:07.050 --> 00:40:10.429
And also the bigger corporate media, I think when we
785
00:40:10.489 --> 00:40:12.280
are imagining the world that we want to live in
786
00:40:12.340 --> 00:40:14.570
and see We also have to figure out how to
787
00:40:14.670 --> 00:40:17.699
make that model work better because it is better resource.
788
00:40:17.719 --> 00:40:20.539
They are able to cover bigger stories. But the local media,
789
00:40:20.599 --> 00:40:22.719
the independent media is going to be really, really critical.
790
00:40:23.400 --> 00:40:27.659
JarrettHill.com, two R's, two T's. JarrettHill.com, you can get the book.
791
00:40:28.389 --> 00:40:29.570
You can get the game.
792
00:40:29.650 --> 00:40:29.929
Yes.
793
00:40:30.110 --> 00:40:31.840
And you can find out about the podcast. You have
794
00:40:31.860 --> 00:40:32.460
a podcast.
795
00:40:32.500 --> 00:40:34.659
Yes. All of those different things you can find me
796
00:40:34.699 --> 00:40:37.400
on the social media at Jerry Hill, Historically Black Phrases,
797
00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:42.440
our book and game. Go to historicallyblackphrases.com and we'll see you.
798
00:40:42.539 --> 00:40:43.550
I'll be back here next week.
799
00:40:44.010 --> 00:40:47.510
All right. Thank you so much, Jarrett. Reasons to vote next.
800
00:40:47.809 --> 00:40:50.550
We'll be joined by Republican Corinne Rankin. Should be a
801
00:40:50.570 --> 00:40:52.690
good conversation. KBLA Talk 1580.
1
00:00:01.790 --> 00:00:03.830
KBLA Talk 1580.
2
00:00:03.830 --> 00:00:08.029
Got a lot to talk about today for real, and
3
00:00:08.070 --> 00:00:12.349
I'm glad he's here. He is an award-winning journalist, a
4
00:00:12.429 --> 00:00:17.089
former leader of the National Association of Black Journalists, LA Chapter.
5
00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:21.820
He's an author of the award-winning book, Historically Black Phrases,
6
00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:23.420
from I Ain't One of Your Little Friends to Who
7
00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:23.859
All Gon.
8
00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:24.280
Be There.
9
00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:28.260
A creator of a game, and a graduate of Harvard
10
00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:31.160
Divinity School. That's just a few of the credentials. Good morning,
11
00:00:31.219 --> 00:00:31.820
Jerry Hill.
12
00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:33.859
Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for having me.
13
00:00:34.219 --> 00:00:38.929
Thanks for coming in. So, there's a lot going on today.
14
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I mentioned Israel is going to the polls.
15
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Yes.
16
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And I feel like I have never tracked an Israeli
17
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election as much as I'm tracking this one, even though
18
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it's not like we have, you know... some great progressive
19
00:00:52.990 --> 00:00:58.210
on the other side of the ticket running against Netanyahu,
20
00:00:58.250 --> 00:01:01.369
but there's just so many parallels between Netanyahu and Trump.
21
00:01:02.210 --> 00:01:05.000
Yeah. I've seen a little bit of coverage on the
22
00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:09.280
Israeli election that's happening today. And I'm kind of fascinated
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to see what happens as, but as you say, like,
24
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I don't see like a candidate that I'm like enthusiastic about,
25
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but I also kind of feel like anyone that's not
26
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BB Netanyahu is probably going to be a little bit better,
27
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but like, I don't, This is my first time really
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paying attention to an election as real as well.
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Yeah, I mean, and the fact of the matter is,
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you know, he's like Trump in that he's been able
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to stay out of jail by being president. It's a
32
00:01:31.989 --> 00:01:36.870
unique strategy for evading law enforcement. But, you know, and
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given the genocide, it feels like in Gaza, it feels
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00:01:41.489 --> 00:01:45.989
just urgent that even if the guy that's running against him,
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which is a former IDF head, isn't better. it feels
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important for Israel to reject him right now to me.
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Absolutely. I mean, I'm very curious to see what happens
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with this election and then how people respond to it
39
00:02:00.090 --> 00:02:01.629
in a similar way that I feel that way about
40
00:02:01.709 --> 00:02:05.650
our election, right? Like I've been thinking this a lot
41
00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:09.530
about our election and thinking to myself, like I've seen
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00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:12.780
different coverage of like the ways Republicans are running here, right?
43
00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:15.180
And how they're not doing town halls or not going
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00:02:15.189 --> 00:02:18.189
out and talking to people. And similarly, I'm like, I'm
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really curious how the people of Israel will go to
46
00:02:22.150 --> 00:02:24.509
the polls and what the election will look like and
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then what the response to it will look like and
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the way that here in America, we have seen Republicans
49
00:02:30.939 --> 00:02:33.240
deny the result of every election we've had since Donald
50
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Trump has been running in the last decade. And so
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as we see them coming into this moment, I find
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00:02:38.979 --> 00:02:42.039
myself kind of curious, like, how will they try and
53
00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:44.620
deny the election this time? Not if they will, because
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we've seen them do it every other time, right? In
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the same way that I'm like, How will we see
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00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:51.379
them try and cheat? Because we've seen them try to
57
00:02:51.419 --> 00:02:52.800
cheat every single time before.
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I mean, that was the whole thing with the Brazilian
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election over the weekend, which thankfully Da Silva won, Lula
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Da Silva won, because Bolsonaro's son, this guy Flavio Bolsonaro,
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00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:08.099
is giving Don Trump Jr. His dad is in jail
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00:03:08.139 --> 00:03:11.819
for trying to overturn the election, right? Kind of what
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00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:15.210
we should have done with our president. But the thing is,
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Trump denied... the result of their election. Trump said they cheated.
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But thankfully, the Flavio Bolsonaro guy has accepted the results
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of the election.
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Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, I believe Bolsonaro,
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his father, is in prison because of the uprising that
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00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:34.520
came after that.
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00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:38.099
Yeah, his own January 6th. Yeah, so pretty much they
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did what we should have done and we wouldn't be
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00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:43.439
suffering through this Trump presidency right now. They held him
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criminally accountable. He's in jail. Had his son won, he
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00:03:46.439 --> 00:03:47.139
would have got out.
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00:03:47.710 --> 00:03:47.889
Yeah.
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His son did not win, but at least they are
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accepting the results of the election. But the irony is
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exactly what you just said. Trump is not accepting the results.
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He's not Brazilian. He probably hasn't even seen any data,
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00:04:01.340 --> 00:04:04.139
but he's just saying they cheated. So preview of coming attractions.
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00:04:04.259 --> 00:04:07.069
Yeah. And also like Donald Trump denied the results of
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elections that he allegedly won. So the idea of him
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00:04:12.169 --> 00:04:14.909
rejecting the results of elections again is like it's pretty
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on brand at this point after a decade. and some
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change of Donald Trump as an electoral factor here.
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00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:24.060
Why do people keep believing? Okay, so let's talk about Obama.
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00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:30.110
Former President Barack Obama has been back on the campaign stump,
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and he's going hard. I mean, I feel like he's...
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Does this seem like he's clowning more than usual?
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00:04:35.930 --> 00:04:38.410
I saw some of the other coverage, and they were like,
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this seems unusual for President Obama. Did they say that?
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Okay, it wasn't just me.
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And I was thinking to myself, like, is it unusual?
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I mean.
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I feel like we've seen him take hits at Trump
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in ways that like Michelle Obama, for instance, won't who
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won't even say his name. Right. Whereas in this instance,
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we see President Obama going out and talking about all
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of the vanity projects that we've seen coming from this
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current president. Or as you would call him, the resident,
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00:05:02.589 --> 00:05:06.160
the seeing all these vanity for different projects and referring
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to it looking like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory.
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I love that.
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I thought A was funny, but B like not too
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much on the Cheesecake Factory because I will roll up
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in there and get my Tex-Mex egg roll.
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Look, I like the Cheesecake Factory too, but they're not,
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you know, known for their interior design aesthetic.
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Certainly not known as world leaders, right?
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Or as world leaders.
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So I've been interested in this moment because I also
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feel like we've seen the president, we've seen President Obama
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come after Trump in this way. And there are various
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different reports on like the ways in which Donald Trump
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was kind of shook by it and spending a lot
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of time responding to it. So I'm fascinated to see
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Obama out. But I'm also I always get nervous whenever
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00:05:47.019 --> 00:05:49.360
Obama's out doing too much because I'm like, Donald Trump
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is the president right now.
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Right.
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And we've seen the way that he's dealt with Ilhan Omar.
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We talked last week about Senator Lucas in Virginia, Maryland.
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00:05:58.189 --> 00:06:03.430
We've seen various different kinds of political retribution come from
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this president. And so I do get a little anxious
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whenever the Obamas are out saying too much. But I
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also feel like we need them to be out talking,
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especially giving people an address for the election.
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I mean, when you say nervous, are you thinking assassinations?
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00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.540
Are you just thinking targeted? Because he has talked and
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fantasized out loud a lot about jailing Obama.
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Exactly.
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But so far, it seems like the only people he's
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trying to jail are black women.
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Yeah.
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For the most part, other than James Comey.
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I've been anxious about it because as much as he
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00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:40.639
hates Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as much as he
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00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:43.939
hates the Obamas, as much as he wants to be
139
00:06:43.980 --> 00:06:47.259
Barack Obama, because that's really what it is, right? He
140
00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:50.329
hasn't really gone after Obama in a way that I...
141
00:06:51.660 --> 00:06:55.120
am happy about, but always cautious around.
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00:06:55.879 --> 00:06:58.699
Does this help? Do you think this helps Democrats?
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Obama?
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00:06:59.959 --> 00:07:03.149
Yeah, he's out there. He's out there trying to make
145
00:07:03.170 --> 00:07:07.009
a difference in Michigan. He's out there trying to... Obviously,
146
00:07:07.069 --> 00:07:10.870
what he's trying to do is help Dems get the
147
00:07:11.589 --> 00:07:14.060
House and the Senate. Does it help?
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00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:16.899
I think we... I think data and I haven't looked
149
00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:18.540
at this in a while, so don't quote me here,
150
00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:20.779
but I believe the data shows that like it does
151
00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:21.540
help with turnout.
152
00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:21.939
Right.
153
00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:23.879
And we also kind of see that with Obama, with
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00:07:24.259 --> 00:07:26.930
Trump going to different places that it can help turn
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00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:30.470
out or sometimes hurt it depending on the city. So I,
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I do think Obama being out on the road is helpful, right? One,
157
00:07:33.790 --> 00:07:36.709
it brings conversation to these different candidates in the, in
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their various oftentimes down ballot races, but also I think
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00:07:40.089 --> 00:07:44.550
it's helpful to, to be having a conversation from Obama, right,
160
00:07:44.629 --> 00:07:46.589
that is going to get coverage in a different way
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00:07:46.649 --> 00:07:49.709
than if it was, you know, someone of a lesser stature.
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00:07:50.420 --> 00:07:53.879
So I think it's useful in that way. I'm really
163
00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:56.019
curious to see how it will be useful when it
164
00:07:56.060 --> 00:07:57.100
comes to turnout.
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00:07:57.939 --> 00:08:01.680
Yeah, and that Honestly, that's probably the number one thing
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right now. I see that in L.A. I don't know.
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I'm sure it's true nationwide. Progressives do better when there's
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more people that vote. That's why they're trying to make
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you not vote. But for some reason, people don't seem
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to be getting the call.
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I mean, how do you mean?
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Well, the June election, the turnout was terrible for the primary.
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And yet, you know, people are suffering with accountability. losing
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their rights. Folks are very scared, very unsettled by what's
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happening in Washington and even in their local governance. But
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they're not voting. And I don't get it. To me,
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if you're that mad about the price of eggs and
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the war in Iran, which is wildly unpopular, you would
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think you would want to come out and vote. I mean,
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we are seeing early voting, strong numbers in Georgia and
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places like that. But The primary, if the primary is
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any indication, we could be in trouble.
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Yeah, I, we talk a lot about the importance of voting.
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And I love that you always frame every day as
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election day, as we're leading up to the last election
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day of this cycle. And I, I'm always really curious
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about turnout in the ways that like we, I've said
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this on this air before. I'm a millennial. I'm, you know,
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I lean elder millennial. At 41, having been born at 85.
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I have been aware of the news, watching the news,
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politically aware since I was a kid.
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Yeah, you're one of those.
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I was a little boy watching 2020 on Friday night
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and catching the evening news every night. You know what
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I mean? And so I've been engaged. And one of
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the things that is always perplexing to me, frustrating to me,
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is how many years, my entire life, I have heard
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every politician talk about the financial system is broken. The
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education system is so broken. Our roads, our infrastructure is
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so broken.
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Immigration is so broken.
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Exactly every system is so broken and I think about
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how we ask people to the to engage with this
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system that is completely broken right that is always broken
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it's always decimated and now it's like it's too much
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money in politics it's too much this is too much
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that and it's like I don't I I I get
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the voter who is like, keep me out of it.
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Y'all got it. And I don't think that's necessarily the
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best answer, but I do get it. So that's when
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I look at turnout, I'm always thinking about the ways
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that the narrative in the country has been moving and
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the ways that people are talking about the country and
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the way that we are. We often look at data
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asking people like, is the country moving in the right direction? And,
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you know, that's always an interesting metric. But I think
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about those things a lot.
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Yeah, that's fair. You know, I just, that's one of
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the reasons I wish we would stop saying we're going
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to hell in a handbasket. Just one of the reasons.
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The other reason is it makes people depressed. It makes
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them feel hopeless. And it's not true. Our roads are great.
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Our roads are very drivable. Yes, there's potholes. Have you
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been to Benin? Well, that's not a good example. Have
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you been to Nigeria? Have you been to Lagos? Benin
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actually has pretty nice roads. But I'm just saying, like,
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We take a lot of things for granted while we're
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sitting here going, oh, L.A. is an ish hole. No,
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it's not.
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L.A.
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Is a beautiful, great place to live. Do we have
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some problems?
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Yes.
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I'm so tired of candidates bashing our cities, our counties,
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our country even, unless you're just talking about the injustices.
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800-920-1580 if you want to join. Jared Hill is here.
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I'm Dominique DiPrima. And this is Unapologetically Progressive KBLA Talk 1580.
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Jared Hill is here. He is an award-winning journalist. And
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we're talking about all kinds of things related to the election.
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The thing that amazes me that every, I feel like
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every day, Jarrett, I am reading about Donald Trump's approval
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ratings at new all-time low. Like, how much lower can
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it go? But yet he keeps winning. His people he's
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endorsing keep winning. And it feels like he's getting more
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and more unhinged. And maybe folks are just ignoring it.
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I mean, the whole thing with Nicki Minaj's butt. It
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was surreal to me. I felt like... How does Saturday
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Night Live even spoof that? How do you even spoof that?
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It's one of the things that I remember in the
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2008 election, I believe it was, when Sarah Palin was
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the vice presidential candidate with John McCain. Tina Fey came
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on playing Sarah Palin and just did exactly the script
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of what she said. Right.
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She didn't have to write anything.
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There was a Katie Couric interview where... Tina literally just
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said every single thing that Sarah Palin said. And I
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think when we look at the present day, number one,
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I think Sarah Palin walked so that Donald Trump could run.
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But that could even go back to Reagan if you
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want to.
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Yeah, for sure.
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But I also, I look at it and I think
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to myself, it shows us the ways that the trouble
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has been coming for a long time. And I think
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with Donald Trump, we see a lot of that.
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Yeah, but I guess the thing that amazes me is
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that it doesn't seem to impact anything.
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Well, but I also want to know, like, you spoke
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about the headline of, like, Donald Trump's approval ratings being
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at record lows.
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Yeah, which is every day.
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I was going to say, I Googled it earlier this year,
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and I was like, how many times have we had
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that conversation this term, right? And it was like six
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times or something like that in the first year and
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a half of the presidency. We've had a conversation about
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his record low approval numbers. which to me now really
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just feels like clickbait from corporate media, right? His number. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
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His approval numbers have never been above 40. I don't
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think ever. And then I could go back and check that,
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but like, they certainly never been above 45 and throughout
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his first term or his second term. So like his
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approval being historically low, it's like, I don't even know
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what that means because it's never been good. He's never
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had much more than a third of the country. I'm really,
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really supporting him.
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Hmm. Well, so what does that tell us? It tells
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us that he's got a passionate base and that they
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show up and they vote and that he has a
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passionate league of followers, of supporters, the Elon Musks, who
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are very rich, that have outsized influence because he doesn't
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have the mass popularity.
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Yeah.
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And also, I mean, I think we could probably distinguish
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a lot of different things from the fact that his
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approval rating has been what it has been throughout the
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time that he's been even just a political candidate. Because
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it's it's even when he was running the first time,
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his approval rating like from his polling has always been
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most people do not like him. Right. Most people do
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not like the thing that he's saying. Most people do
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not like a lot of the ways that he wants
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to implement policy. there have been people who agree with
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him on immigration or agreed with him on the wall
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or agree with him on how we spend our money
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or whatever, but like approval has never been high for him.
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And so I'm, I'm just always kind of intrigued by like,
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what do we do with the information of like historic
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lows in his approval?
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Yeah.
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Well, hopefully vote. Hopefully, hopefully vote.
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Yeah.
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So I have, this is an unpopular opinion, but I'm,
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I'm happy that Chris Brown is not going to jail.
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Yeah. Really?
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Okay.
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I didn't see that coming.
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I know.
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You're happy that he's not going to jail because... Well, because.
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I think that... I mean, I don't think it's okay
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that he hit a guy in the head with a bottle.
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He hit a music producer. Apparently, it's on video. I
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haven't seen the video. In the head with a bottle.
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I don't think that's okay. But I do think that
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Chris Brown is a target for a lot of people
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because of his early troubles and, and, and, you know,
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the terrible, terrible incident with Rihanna, uh, about which I
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know things that I can't say, but the thing is,
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you know, he went, he went and did the anger management.
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He went and did the, um, counseling. He has since
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done all kinds of charitable, um, missions that people don't
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talk about in the community. And I just feel like
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we have this double standard. If you're, you know, Donald
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Trump or if you're, you know, I don't know, any
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number of politicians and white people in this country, you
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get one outcome. And if you're Chris Brown or anybody black,
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you get another outcome. It doesn't matter how much you apologize,
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pay people. On the other hand, you could help yourself
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by not hitting people in the head with bottles. And
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I do get that. But it's just the way they
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handle them. I remember there was a story about police,
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they said police were having a standoff at Chris Brown's house.
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And what it was is the cops knocked on his
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door and he didn't answer. So they called that a standoff.
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So there's a targeting that happens, you know, in the
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press and in the industry.
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And so, you know, I hope he can stay out. I,
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I hear where you're coming from and I, I disagree
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with you here. I, I, well, the thing I agree
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with you on is he is definitely a target for media, right?
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Having his name in a headline, I absolutely agree with you.
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Media and industry. Industry and even law enforcement. But I
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think the challenge for me with Chris Brown is he's
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never gotten better. He's continued to act out. The Rihanna
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situation kind of kicked his public image in a different trajectory.
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But he's never gotten better. These fights in clubs.
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I remember.
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Shortly after the Rihanna thing, I remember he was at
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Good Morning America and threw a chair through a glass
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window out into Times Square. He's been fighting people at
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the club. He's stalking his ex-girlfriends. He's doing all kinds
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of different things. And so, like, I am always cautious
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around Chris Brown coverage because I do think that the
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media is really good at tipping into racists. when they're
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covering him.
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All right. And I mean, the stalking, what does that
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consist of? Liking their posts, talking about them.
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I mean, he had like showed up where she was.
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He was sending messages with Carucci and things like that.
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And so I'm like, I, I do think that he
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gets covered unfairly in certain kinds of ways. But I
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also think that like, he continues to show out every
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single time he has opportunity. And like, and like this
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sentence was supposed to be eight months and it's been reduced.
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And I'm like, How many times do you get off?
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Three years, three years. And he got eight months. It
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was reduced to eight months.
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Okay.
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But he's, but he, but it's suspended. I don't even
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know what that means. It means maybe you serve it later.
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Yeah. I, and to this point, I'm like, Chris Brown
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has gotten a lot of terrible coverage and, and been
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covered by the police. I mean, it has been, you know,
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a target of the law enforcement for a long time.
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And he's also gotten off a lot, right. He's gotten
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away with a lot. He's, you know, I was thinking
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about this yesterday, washing the dishes. I was like, Chris
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Brown is certainly another one of those people who if
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you have money and the right lawyers, you can stay
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out of jail.
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Right.
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And like I, I, I agree with you that the
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coverage of him can be problematic and that we have
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had a long history with him. But I also feel
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like a lot of this gets brought on by him
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acting out.
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OK, so it means you serve zero days in jail
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as long as you follow all the rules. So that's
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hanging over his head. All right, we got news, traffic,
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and sports.
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Asterisk, as long as you follow all the rules.
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Big as long as. All right, more straight ahead, only here.
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I've been talking a lot about this merger. Skydance, basically
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Paramount merging with Warner Brothers. I was hoping it wouldn't
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go through. It has gone through. Basically, the Ellison family,
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which are hardcore Trump-supporting billionaires, now own a lot, like
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a lot of not just news media, but also entertainment, right?
408
00:20:17.859 --> 00:20:22.160
Including CNN, including CBS News, and on and on it goes.
409
00:20:22.829 --> 00:20:26.049
And I think it's a big problem. But that merger,
410
00:20:26.170 --> 00:20:29.109
the ink is now dry, and they are making their moves.
411
00:20:31.109 --> 00:20:33.829
One of the first things we're hearing now is the
412
00:20:33.890 --> 00:20:38.130
layoffs have begun. The predictions were 4,500 people would be
413
00:20:38.170 --> 00:20:40.970
laid off. Where are we with that right now?
414
00:20:41.470 --> 00:20:44.269
Yeah. So just in the last day, we're starting to
415
00:20:44.329 --> 00:20:48.250
see that Skydance is offering buyouts to people as they're
416
00:20:48.329 --> 00:20:50.619
getting ready to lay off a lot of people, right?
417
00:20:50.690 --> 00:20:52.130
They're getting ready to get rid of a lot of jobs.
418
00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:54.119
And I think it's also important to remember the context
419
00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:57.279
of this. When we think about Skydance, we think about Paramount,
420
00:20:57.859 --> 00:21:01.500
they have already laid off thousands of people across companies, right?
421
00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:03.200
You were talking about the merging of these two companies,
422
00:21:03.259 --> 00:21:06.380
but we'll remember over the last couple of years, Warner
423
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:10.829
Brothers Discovery became Warner Brothers Discovery, right? Discovery was Discovery
424
00:21:10.849 --> 00:21:13.109
and Warner Brothers was Warner Brothers. Those two companies merged
425
00:21:13.150 --> 00:21:17.130
and we got HBO Max became Max. And we got like,
426
00:21:17.869 --> 00:21:20.269
people will remember like the changing of all of these
427
00:21:20.309 --> 00:21:22.970
different names. And now just a couple of years later,
428
00:21:23.069 --> 00:21:26.269
we see Warner Brothers and Discovery that have become Warner
429
00:21:26.289 --> 00:21:30.740
Brothers Discovery becoming part of Paramount. Paramount, Warner Brothers Discovery
430
00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:34.099
is now Skydance. And like, why does this matter? All
431
00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:38.000
of these different businesses had thousands and thousands of people
432
00:21:38.059 --> 00:21:40.119
working there. A lot of them here in Los Angeles
433
00:21:40.180 --> 00:21:42.579
or New York and around the country. A lot of
434
00:21:42.619 --> 00:21:46.000
those people are losing their jobs. And when I think
435
00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:49.160
about Skydance, I think we are going to look back
436
00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:51.589
in history at this moment in a similar way to
437
00:21:51.619 --> 00:21:54.170
the ways that we look at Enron or other companies
438
00:21:54.210 --> 00:21:59.390
who have done terribly by their people and done great
439
00:21:59.490 --> 00:22:03.490
harm to the infrastructure of an industry. I think about
440
00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:07.000
Paramount right now in this moment as being, Skydance, excuse me,
441
00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:09.660
being one of the companies that we will think of
442
00:22:09.819 --> 00:22:13.319
as having done real harm to our media ecosystem when
443
00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:15.940
we look at this through the lens of history.
444
00:22:16.819 --> 00:22:20.759
Yeah, well, and I've been saying this. I was hoping
445
00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:23.720
it wouldn't go through. You know, that this is an
446
00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:29.940
existential crisis for creatives in Hollywood and for people in
447
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.990
our business, journalists. Yeah. Because there's fewer and fewer and
448
00:22:35.029 --> 00:22:38.329
fewer companies to work for. And they are more and
449
00:22:38.369 --> 00:22:43.609
more and more controlled by big conservative players in the
450
00:22:43.670 --> 00:22:46.410
political scene. Because they also own TikTok.
451
00:22:46.930 --> 00:22:48.210
Yeah.
452
00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:52.779
And Elon Musk just invested a billion dollars in Skydance.
453
00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:57.099
You know, they've got this big debt because of buying everything.
454
00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:00.420
So Elon Musk has now anteed up a billion and
455
00:23:00.460 --> 00:23:04.420
he may throw in more. Now we're talking about these
456
00:23:05.019 --> 00:23:12.480
ultra conservative, politically active billionaires who, you know, one owns TikTok,
457
00:23:12.619 --> 00:23:16.839
one owns Twitter, and they're now colluding.
458
00:23:17.859 --> 00:23:22.039
Yeah, I think about this and ask people like, who
459
00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:22.599
is this helping?
460
00:23:23.859 --> 00:23:24.059
Right.
461
00:23:24.099 --> 00:23:26.339
When I think about Donald Trump, I often think about like,
462
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:31.059
who has really been helped by the policies of Donald Trump?
463
00:23:31.670 --> 00:23:36.059
When I think about Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery becoming Skydance,
464
00:23:36.099 --> 00:23:39.839
I say, like, who is this helping, right? Other than
465
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:43.720
the Ellisons and the conservative movement to, like, move this
466
00:23:43.779 --> 00:23:49.369
country into being a more conservative, more white supremacist country, right? Like,
467
00:23:49.730 --> 00:23:51.849
it's certainly not helping the tens of thousands of people
468
00:23:51.890 --> 00:23:54.410
who've lost their jobs over the last few years. It's
469
00:23:54.430 --> 00:23:58.450
certainly not helping the audience, the consumer, who is looking
470
00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:01.710
for news or information or entertainment, right? When we look
471
00:24:01.730 --> 00:24:04.269
at the number of companies that are a part of
472
00:24:04.730 --> 00:24:10.259
this merger, Paramount already, just as Paramount Pictures, that is
473
00:24:10.500 --> 00:24:13.539
half a dozen different studios and networks within it as
474
00:24:13.579 --> 00:24:16.200
far as film and television are concerned. When we think
475
00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.529
about Paramount's television group, there are various networks under there.
476
00:24:19.569 --> 00:24:24.710
CBS Studios, we think about Paramount Television, we think about Nickelodeon,
477
00:24:24.730 --> 00:24:27.269
we think about various different places. But when we think
478
00:24:27.329 --> 00:24:30.170
about the other places that are a part of this conversation,
479
00:24:30.269 --> 00:24:34.410
it is CBS and CBS News. It is CNN. Even
480
00:24:34.470 --> 00:24:38.230
just thinking about CBS News, there are how many local
481
00:24:38.309 --> 00:24:42.490
television stations here? I would say a couple of dozen
482
00:24:42.779 --> 00:24:46.299
that represent CBS News, right? Between New York, Los Angeles, Boston,
483
00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:52.019
Bay Area, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Texas, Sacramento, Baltimore, Miami, Detroit,
484
00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:56.869
et cetera, et cetera. And that doesn't take into account MTV,
485
00:24:57.029 --> 00:25:03.009
Comedy Central, the Country Music Channel, Logo, Paramount Network, Pop TV, Smith,
486
00:25:03.289 --> 00:25:11.150
like channel after channel, Showtime, BET, which there's so many
487
00:25:11.369 --> 00:25:15.769
different pieces of media that are across networks, across platforms,
488
00:25:15.829 --> 00:25:22.220
across genre, across audience that This is a massive, massive
489
00:25:22.460 --> 00:25:24.339
thing that is happening. And I don't think that people
490
00:25:24.420 --> 00:25:27.119
really get it because we're so used to media being corporate.
491
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:29.079
But even in the commercial breaks, as we're looking at
492
00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:31.180
different stories, we were talking about how so much of
493
00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:34.200
the news media that we trust is now behind paywalls
494
00:25:34.380 --> 00:25:39.430
as opposed to being free and having it for people
495
00:25:39.470 --> 00:25:41.730
to be able to have access to the information. If
496
00:25:41.849 --> 00:25:43.569
you are trying to go to the New York Times,
497
00:25:43.950 --> 00:25:49.720
the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times online, or CNN, MSNB, MSNOW,
498
00:25:50.539 --> 00:25:53.240
NBC News, like more and more of all of these
499
00:25:53.299 --> 00:25:56.359
places are behind paywalls and there's less and less competition.
500
00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:59.329
The news was never supposed to be a space that
501
00:25:59.349 --> 00:26:01.329
was making profit. The news was supposed to be a
502
00:26:01.390 --> 00:26:04.170
place to inform the people, right? And when we think
503
00:26:04.230 --> 00:26:08.950
about the ways in which our television and corporate media exist,
504
00:26:08.990 --> 00:26:12.950
I always remember being in school. I was a journalism
505
00:26:13.009 --> 00:26:17.759
broadcast major And I remember one of our professors talking
506
00:26:17.819 --> 00:26:19.839
about like the purpose of corporate media.
507
00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:21.099
Right.
508
00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:24.059
You think about I think about ABC.
509
00:26:24.380 --> 00:26:24.660
Right.
510
00:26:25.019 --> 00:26:28.599
And how I my favorite show on ABC was probably
511
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:32.140
Scandal over the years. Right. And the TGIT of it all.
512
00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:35.839
And like if you think about like why does TGIT exist?
513
00:26:36.619 --> 00:26:39.029
It is not because like ABC is just so committed
514
00:26:39.049 --> 00:26:41.670
to giving you great stories or because they really, really
515
00:26:41.730 --> 00:26:44.630
believe in Shonda Rhimes. It is because they are selling
516
00:26:44.690 --> 00:26:45.849
advertising between 8 and 10.
517
00:26:45.829 --> 00:26:46.059
Right.
518
00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:48.859
And if they get enough people to watch it, they
519
00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:51.000
can sell it at a certain rate. Right. Or they
520
00:26:51.019 --> 00:26:52.940
can sell it at a higher rate. It is not
521
00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:55.299
because they like are really committed to the story of
522
00:26:55.339 --> 00:26:55.960
Olivia Pope.
523
00:26:57.099 --> 00:27:00.039
So does that mean now maybe we'll see the rise
524
00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:02.920
in these nonprofit newsrooms? I mean, I know, for example,
525
00:27:03.029 --> 00:27:05.549
many times I'm going to go to CalMatters now, not
526
00:27:05.630 --> 00:27:09.900
only because it's free. but also because it's not corporate,
527
00:27:10.289 --> 00:27:13.450
and so it seems to have less biased coverage. And
528
00:27:13.490 --> 00:27:15.930
when you get into a Bari Weiss, who's now running
529
00:27:16.109 --> 00:27:20.990
CBS News, under a Larry Ellison, who was sitting on
530
00:27:21.019 --> 00:27:24.980
the dais with Trump during the inauguration and has given
531
00:27:25.660 --> 00:27:29.940
hundreds of millions to his campaign, there's another factor. Yes,
532
00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:33.309
there's paywalls. I mean, CNN was free yesterday. to read
533
00:27:33.329 --> 00:27:36.930
their news until about two months ago. That's a new paywall. NBC,
534
00:27:36.990 --> 00:27:43.720
new paywall. MSNBC, new paywall. So the commercial outlets are
535
00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:49.109
getting more and more profit-oriented, predatory. And so does that
536
00:27:49.170 --> 00:27:53.789
mean the nonprofit news agencies will see a boost, I hope?
537
00:27:54.170 --> 00:27:56.420
I think so. I mean, we've seen like a big
538
00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:59.880
rise in like independent media. And I think like the
539
00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:01.880
big names that we think about when we think about
540
00:28:01.940 --> 00:28:04.420
that is like we think of Joy Reid and we
541
00:28:04.440 --> 00:28:06.180
think of Don Lemon and we see a lot of
542
00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:08.589
people on Substack and we see those kinds of things, right?
543
00:28:08.619 --> 00:28:10.670
And I think there is a lot of use in that.
544
00:28:10.690 --> 00:28:13.930
There's a lot of value in that. And also those
545
00:28:13.970 --> 00:28:17.039
people are not as resourced. Ask CBS or CNN or MSNBC.
546
00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:18.420
I mean, it's a shame you got to go to
547
00:28:18.500 --> 00:28:20.400
Al Jazeera now because they don't have a paywall.
548
00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:23.160
Right. And, like, they do great reporting.
549
00:28:23.180 --> 00:28:24.960
They do great reporting.
550
00:28:25.059 --> 00:28:26.599
Absolutely. Or the BBC or things like that.
551
00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:28.240
Well, the BBC has a paywall now.
552
00:28:28.339 --> 00:28:29.880
The BBC has a paywall now.
553
00:28:29.900 --> 00:28:33.359
And that's also new. That's only the last few months. So, yeah,
554
00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:36.400
it is harder to get the information, and the information
555
00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:37.180
is more skewed.
556
00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:41.119
Well, and I mean, I'll nerd a little bit here
557
00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:45.450
with another journalist, right? I've been really... interrogating with myself
558
00:28:45.650 --> 00:28:50.170
the relationship between newsworthiness which is how we as journalists
559
00:28:50.190 --> 00:28:52.819
decide like whether or not a story is worthy of
560
00:28:52.859 --> 00:28:56.319
being part of the news right there's a relationship between
561
00:28:56.660 --> 00:29:02.750
newsworthiness and profit that is really problematic.
562
00:29:02.730 --> 00:29:05.529
Right it's the clickbait uh Venn diagram.
563
00:29:05.549 --> 00:29:10.130
Yes. That starts to become a circle. I remember working
564
00:29:10.250 --> 00:29:13.470
at NBC Atlanta, WXIA 11 Alive News. Shout out to
565
00:29:13.490 --> 00:29:16.529
the people over there. And like, I remember sitting at
566
00:29:16.549 --> 00:29:18.990
the news desk after a broadcast with our main anchor.
567
00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:21.579
Her name was Brenda Wood. She was at WXIA for
568
00:29:21.579 --> 00:29:23.799
30 years. And I was asking her, like, I keep
569
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:26.019
hearing people always talk about the news is so negative.
570
00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:28.420
I don't watch the news. It's this, it's that, it's blah, blah, blah.
571
00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:30.859
She was like, that is people say that all the time.
572
00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:33.900
But like, what comes on right before our 11 o'clock news?
573
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:37.180
And I was like, law and order? She was like, yeah.
574
00:29:38.069 --> 00:29:39.809
And like, it's one of the highest rated, longest running.
575
00:29:40.180 --> 00:29:42.779
things because people like seeing crime. They like to see
576
00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:45.599
negative news. The whole, it bleeds. If it bleeds, it leads.
577
00:29:45.619 --> 00:29:48.569
That's a thing. She was like at 11 alive at
578
00:29:48.609 --> 00:29:50.690
that time, we had done a long stretch of like,
579
00:29:50.710 --> 00:29:52.950
let's leave with good news. Let's start off with the
580
00:29:52.990 --> 00:29:57.049
great things happening. And the ratings tanked. Right. Nobody was watching.
581
00:29:57.450 --> 00:30:00.450
When we went back to the chase, the murder, the killing,
582
00:30:00.509 --> 00:30:03.500
the kidnapping, whatever, the numbers came back. And there's some
583
00:30:03.539 --> 00:30:06.180
negativity bias that we can talk about psychology there. But also, like,
584
00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:08.920
these are the things that make money. It's not about
585
00:30:08.980 --> 00:30:10.960
whether or not this is something that the public needs.
586
00:30:11.019 --> 00:30:13.079
It's about whether or not it's going to get people
587
00:30:13.119 --> 00:30:15.220
to tune in so they can make money and do sales.
588
00:30:15.319 --> 00:30:17.039
And when I think about this, this feels like this
589
00:30:17.099 --> 00:30:17.859
with the skydance.
590
00:30:18.259 --> 00:30:21.019
I mean, that's true. But also there's which crime are
591
00:30:21.059 --> 00:30:24.069
you covering? And what's your perspective on said crime? I mean,
592
00:30:24.109 --> 00:30:27.650
I think that's where the CBS, you know, um, sort
593
00:30:27.690 --> 00:30:32.460
of ultra conservative agenda comes into play. The Fox news,
594
00:30:32.539 --> 00:30:36.960
ultra conservative agenda comes into play. How are you covering the, um,
595
00:30:37.539 --> 00:30:42.220
supposed smash and grab, you know, wave or the smash
596
00:30:42.259 --> 00:30:46.339
and grab presidency? It depends on the, there is a
597
00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:47.359
point of view issue.
598
00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:50.869
Um, And we see that, I think, about this in
599
00:30:50.910 --> 00:30:53.259
the ways in which we see black folks getting covered.
600
00:30:53.500 --> 00:30:53.759
Right.
601
00:30:53.799 --> 00:30:54.220
Exactly.
602
00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:55.359
Or not getting covered.
603
00:30:55.460 --> 00:30:56.880
Getting covered, not getting covered.
604
00:30:56.940 --> 00:31:00.619
Who's missing? Who's hurt? Who's been shot? Right. Which crime?
605
00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:01.200
Which crime?
606
00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:01.839
Exactly.
607
00:31:01.880 --> 00:31:03.769
Which crime are we covering? You know, if it bleeds,
608
00:31:03.829 --> 00:31:05.890
it leads. But there's bleeding all over the world on
609
00:31:05.930 --> 00:31:08.130
the left, on the right. White people are bleeding. Black
610
00:31:08.170 --> 00:31:11.170
people are bleeding. So there's still bias even in the
611
00:31:11.230 --> 00:31:13.519
so-called negativity area. coverage.
612
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:16.220
And even if you think about like how many stories
613
00:31:16.279 --> 00:31:19.220
of kidnap of a missing woman, how often has that
614
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:21.799
story been about a brown woman, a black woman, a
615
00:31:22.700 --> 00:31:26.960
black girl, right? Oftentimes it is a white woman, usually
616
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:29.000
a blonde white woman. Why does that happen? Is it
617
00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:31.099
just like white women are just getting snatched up everywhere?
618
00:31:31.500 --> 00:31:33.440
It's like, no, look at the data and you can
619
00:31:33.460 --> 00:31:35.660
see how many black women have gone missing and never
620
00:31:35.700 --> 00:31:36.500
got their story told.
621
00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:39.259
All right, let's go to Paul calling us from LA.
622
00:31:39.299 --> 00:31:42.039
Good morning, Paul. You're on the air with Jared Hill
623
00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:43.519
and Dominique DiPrima. Welcome.
624
00:31:44.779 --> 00:31:47.880
Hey, Dominique. Hey, Jared. Great conversation you two are having.
625
00:31:48.259 --> 00:31:49.440
A couple of things. I just want to throw my
626
00:31:49.460 --> 00:31:52.930
thoughts in it. On just what you were talking about,
627
00:31:53.009 --> 00:31:55.490
we've talked about it before on your show, Dominique, that
628
00:31:55.930 --> 00:31:58.369
the Nielsen Report shows that we watch more TV than
629
00:31:58.390 --> 00:31:59.609
anybody else, right?
630
00:31:59.809 --> 00:32:00.829
Yep.
631
00:32:01.289 --> 00:32:04.150
And the main thing that we watch is cop shows
632
00:32:04.490 --> 00:32:08.490
and their news networks. And it's interesting because I always say, well,
633
00:32:09.099 --> 00:32:12.559
why when something happens, our initial reaction is we got
634
00:32:12.579 --> 00:32:16.849
to see what they say or think about us. And it's, it's, it's,
635
00:32:17.220 --> 00:32:21.309
I find that real interesting when we have, for example,
636
00:32:21.349 --> 00:32:25.029
black independent media that we can go to ourselves to
637
00:32:25.089 --> 00:32:29.230
get informative information, factual information, because when we go to
638
00:32:29.269 --> 00:32:33.119
their networks and their mainstream media, we know from after
639
00:32:33.140 --> 00:32:36.140
you guys bought a Reagan and the fairness doctrine, once
640
00:32:36.259 --> 00:32:42.440
that was removed, the, you get a tainted image and
641
00:32:42.500 --> 00:32:46.480
perception and narrative, especially when it comes to us. But
642
00:32:46.500 --> 00:32:50.700
we end up making some of their largest demographic groups
643
00:32:50.759 --> 00:32:54.109
of people that watch their media. And that's just odd
644
00:32:54.140 --> 00:32:54.480
to me.
645
00:32:56.309 --> 00:33:00.730
I think you are hitting on something that is important,
646
00:33:00.750 --> 00:33:02.329
like Black folks who watch a lot of TV. But
647
00:33:02.349 --> 00:33:06.089
I also remind you, Black folks are 13% of this country, right,
648
00:33:06.109 --> 00:33:09.200
when we think about The people who are watching television
649
00:33:09.259 --> 00:33:11.859
and consuming media. But I think also like we are
650
00:33:11.900 --> 00:33:15.200
a culture that has been kind of trained, shown like
651
00:33:15.380 --> 00:33:17.000
this is how we we get information.
652
00:33:17.019 --> 00:33:17.259
Right.
653
00:33:17.319 --> 00:33:19.859
You go search looking for a piece of information, whether
654
00:33:19.900 --> 00:33:22.900
that's on television or radio or what have you. I
655
00:33:22.920 --> 00:33:25.970
don't I don't think that that is inherently bad. I
656
00:33:26.009 --> 00:33:28.829
think when we think about the ways that our media
657
00:33:28.890 --> 00:33:31.599
tends to be inherently racist. I think that is because
658
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:34.730
people are racist, right? When we look at the people
659
00:33:34.769 --> 00:33:37.029
who are running these companies, when we look at the
660
00:33:37.069 --> 00:33:40.069
people who are our managers, our bosses, or whatever, in
661
00:33:40.230 --> 00:33:43.309
a lot of the mainstream corporate media, it is not
662
00:33:43.349 --> 00:33:47.359
like you are an overtly racist, awful human being. It
663
00:33:47.519 --> 00:33:50.200
is you have been conditioned by the same system that
664
00:33:50.339 --> 00:33:52.220
all of the rest of us have been, right? And
665
00:33:52.259 --> 00:33:57.109
so you inherently will have an anti-Black, pro-white, white supremacist,
666
00:33:57.210 --> 00:34:00.410
patriarchal lens on the world. And you report your stories
667
00:34:00.450 --> 00:34:02.509
that way. You choose your stories that way. What is
668
00:34:02.569 --> 00:34:06.970
newsworthy shows up in that way. And again, we oftentimes
669
00:34:07.009 --> 00:34:10.179
see in corporate media the prioritization of missing white women.
670
00:34:10.420 --> 00:34:13.820
We see the prioritization of various different kinds of things
671
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:14.280
in that way.
672
00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:18.159
I get that. I think that's right. But we're also
673
00:34:18.179 --> 00:34:22.989
talking about where we get our info and that's what
674
00:34:23.030 --> 00:34:27.090
we're trained to do. And I think the suggestion is
675
00:34:27.130 --> 00:34:30.510
that perhaps we need to support more independent media, support
676
00:34:30.530 --> 00:34:37.730
more black-owned and operated media. But we do watch too
677
00:34:37.789 --> 00:34:40.050
much TV. I mean, I think that's one of the
678
00:34:40.309 --> 00:34:42.780
problems with our educational outcomes, and it's one of the
679
00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:48.380
problems with our political outcomes, because people are buying into
680
00:34:48.500 --> 00:34:52.340
these talking points, not just the talking points from the commercials,
681
00:34:52.989 --> 00:34:55.730
which we're getting right now that are misleading us about
682
00:34:55.809 --> 00:34:58.710
all kinds of things with these propositions, but also the
683
00:34:58.769 --> 00:35:03.289
talking points about ourselves, right? Black people ain't ish. We are,
684
00:35:03.349 --> 00:35:06.630
we're criminals. We better vote for this person that's saying
685
00:35:06.650 --> 00:35:08.760
they're going to lock us up. And I think that's
686
00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:10.619
what you're getting at. I'm not sure, Paul, this is
687
00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:11.940
that kind of where you're going with it.
688
00:35:13.019 --> 00:35:15.820
No, you both make up great points. And I just
689
00:35:15.860 --> 00:35:17.980
like to hit, I'm one of those people that I
690
00:35:18.019 --> 00:35:20.139
could feel I could be open-minded and believe there's two
691
00:35:20.219 --> 00:35:22.679
truths to something, like both sides are making really good
692
00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:27.260
points to this. And when you really critically think about it,
693
00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:32.230
but remember, you talked about earlier these polling and stuff
694
00:35:32.250 --> 00:35:34.690
they put out and the propaganda they put out, his
695
00:35:34.750 --> 00:35:38.170
popularity is low. And we have to remember, going back
696
00:35:38.190 --> 00:35:40.010
to what you were saying, Jared, that 71% of the
697
00:35:40.050 --> 00:35:47.340
electorate is white people, right? And of that 71%, 41%
698
00:35:47.340 --> 00:35:52.260
in the 2024 election were uneducated. And what you're saying, well,
699
00:35:52.699 --> 00:35:56.869
what are these people doing? Well, they basically have radicalized
700
00:35:56.909 --> 00:36:01.110
these people to basically vote based on white fear. And
701
00:36:01.190 --> 00:36:04.329
they're coming to take our country from us. They're taking
702
00:36:04.349 --> 00:36:04.889
your job.
703
00:36:04.969 --> 00:36:08.690
Hold that thought, Paul. We're going to continue this convo
704
00:36:08.710 --> 00:36:11.289
when we come forward, only right here. Tossing the mic
705
00:36:11.349 --> 00:36:14.769
back to Jared Hill and Paul from L.A. because you
706
00:36:14.789 --> 00:36:19.829
guys were chopping it up and we wanted to continue that. Hey, Paul.
707
00:36:21.489 --> 00:36:23.530
And I'll just leave it with this, just tying it
708
00:36:23.570 --> 00:36:28.820
all together. King, when King was in jail, he basically
709
00:36:28.900 --> 00:36:31.539
spoke to those police officers and saying, those white police
710
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:33.860
officers and said, you know we have more in common
711
00:36:33.880 --> 00:36:37.099
than you believe. Fred Hampton spoke across the aisle to
712
00:36:37.119 --> 00:36:38.920
people regardless of the color of their skin and said,
713
00:36:39.389 --> 00:36:41.389
you know the system as a whole and what it
714
00:36:41.429 --> 00:36:44.550
does to divide us. The example I provided for you
715
00:36:44.590 --> 00:36:48.429
guys in real time of what's going on is this
716
00:36:48.530 --> 00:36:52.309
is how they keep people divided based on race, based
717
00:36:52.369 --> 00:36:55.639
on taking while they control the tax code and not
718
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:58.659
pay attention to where all the wealth is being accumulated
719
00:36:59.079 --> 00:37:02.079
and going. So on this last part of it that
720
00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:05.059
I just want to hit on, the problem of the
721
00:37:05.099 --> 00:37:08.699
situation is this. They wanted to break the middle working class,
722
00:37:08.900 --> 00:37:13.079
and that goal started during Reagan's administration. And how did
723
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:17.340
they target it was through deregulations and basically tax cuts.
724
00:37:18.159 --> 00:37:21.599
And they said trickle-down economics wouldn't work and work itself
725
00:37:21.659 --> 00:37:23.989
down to the working class, and it never did. And
726
00:37:24.050 --> 00:37:29.090
people got to look past the boogeyman to understand what's
727
00:37:29.130 --> 00:37:30.769
going on here. It's a class war.
728
00:37:32.110 --> 00:37:35.449
Yeah. I mean, I think we can't underestimate the class piece. Paul,
729
00:37:35.489 --> 00:37:37.599
thank you for calling. I think we do underestimate it.
730
00:37:37.630 --> 00:37:39.610
We don't talk about class a lot in this country.
731
00:37:39.769 --> 00:37:42.179
No, I fully agree. I was going to say, and
732
00:37:42.500 --> 00:37:44.539
then he said it like, this is about race and
733
00:37:44.579 --> 00:37:46.260
it is about class. And those two things kind of
734
00:37:46.579 --> 00:37:48.539
map over each other in a really interesting way. And
735
00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:53.210
I think we've seen a few conversations that I feel
736
00:37:53.230 --> 00:37:56.530
like have gotten a lot of conversation. Excuse me. We've
737
00:37:56.550 --> 00:37:58.909
seen a few pieces of work that have gotten a
738
00:37:58.909 --> 00:38:03.099
lot of public conversation, I think, about Um, uh, Ava
739
00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:06.079
DuVernay did a book on, excuse me, did a film
740
00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:08.599
on the book. The book was called the show. The
741
00:38:08.739 --> 00:38:15.320
film was called, um, God, she did a book. There
742
00:38:15.340 --> 00:38:19.199
was a book. Um, I'm going to try and remember
743
00:38:19.239 --> 00:38:21.510
what it was called there, but it was a conversation
744
00:38:21.570 --> 00:38:24.909
around class, um, and the distinction between race and class
745
00:38:24.949 --> 00:38:28.949
and the ways that we, um, we, we think of
746
00:38:28.989 --> 00:38:30.969
them as similar and the same, but they're not quite
747
00:38:31.010 --> 00:38:36.369
the same. Who is the author of The Warmth of
748
00:38:36.429 --> 00:38:39.010
Other Sons and cast? Isabel Wilkerson.
749
00:38:39.050 --> 00:38:39.849
Wilkerson, yeah.
750
00:38:39.929 --> 00:38:43.110
Yes, she has a book called Cast that talks about... Yeah,
751
00:38:43.630 --> 00:38:46.309
I saw that film. Yeah, and Ava DuVernay made it
752
00:38:46.349 --> 00:38:49.090
into a film. And it really talks about, like, oftentimes
753
00:38:49.110 --> 00:38:51.530
when we're talking about race, sometimes it is about race,
754
00:38:51.690 --> 00:38:53.909
and sometimes it's about class and the way those things
755
00:38:53.989 --> 00:38:56.469
fit together in this country. And I think Paula's right.
756
00:38:56.510 --> 00:39:00.079
We're looking at class warfare and, I mean... You brought
757
00:39:00.099 --> 00:39:01.699
up Dr. King and a lot of folks talk about
758
00:39:01.739 --> 00:39:04.179
how like the reason that they came after him in
759
00:39:04.199 --> 00:39:06.010
the way that they did was because he was also
760
00:39:06.090 --> 00:39:07.199
talking to poor white people.
761
00:39:07.710 --> 00:39:07.949
Right.
762
00:39:08.010 --> 00:39:11.030
Because that was a class conversation to be having. So
763
00:39:11.989 --> 00:39:13.809
I don't think you're wrong.
764
00:39:13.909 --> 00:39:17.230
Also, let's squeeze in Corey. Corey, you know, you've got
765
00:39:17.289 --> 00:39:19.550
like a minute, less than a minute. Time flies on
766
00:39:19.570 --> 00:39:20.389
the radio. Good morning.
767
00:39:21.849 --> 00:39:23.590
Good morning, of course. Thank you for taking my call.
768
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:27.829
I just wanted to add into that conversation democracy now.
769
00:39:27.989 --> 00:39:29.880
I didn't hear the mention of democracy now. and I've
770
00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:33.579
been a huge fan and super grateful for Amy Goodman
771
00:39:33.619 --> 00:39:36.539
and the team since right after 9-11. Thank God for
772
00:39:36.599 --> 00:39:39.880
finding them. I really feel like, you know, using Democracy Now,
773
00:39:39.960 --> 00:39:44.389
a free, independent, hardcore news agency that really, if people
774
00:39:44.429 --> 00:39:46.750
took that in on a regular basis, could really help
775
00:39:46.769 --> 00:39:49.170
their perspective on everything that's happening in the world. I
776
00:39:49.190 --> 00:39:51.489
don't really watch television, but Democracy Now is something that
777
00:39:51.530 --> 00:39:52.500
I catch regularly.
778
00:39:52.519 --> 00:39:54.219
All right. Yeah. Thanks for that.
779
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:57.239
Yeah. I know a lot of friends that are really
780
00:39:57.260 --> 00:39:59.159
big fans of Democracy Now. I don't follow them a
781
00:39:59.219 --> 00:40:01.219
whole lot, but whenever I do see their coverage, I've
782
00:40:01.889 --> 00:40:03.630
really enjoyed it. And I think that we're going to
783
00:40:03.670 --> 00:40:06.829
see more and more independent nonprofit media, to your point.
784
00:40:07.050 --> 00:40:10.429
And also the bigger corporate media, I think when we
785
00:40:10.489 --> 00:40:12.280
are imagining the world that we want to live in
786
00:40:12.340 --> 00:40:14.570
and see We also have to figure out how to
787
00:40:14.670 --> 00:40:17.699
make that model work better because it is better resource.
788
00:40:17.719 --> 00:40:20.539
They are able to cover bigger stories. But the local media,
789
00:40:20.599 --> 00:40:22.719
the independent media is going to be really, really critical.
790
00:40:23.400 --> 00:40:27.659
JarrettHill.com, two R's, two T's. JarrettHill.com, you can get the book.
791
00:40:28.389 --> 00:40:29.570
You can get the game.
792
00:40:29.650 --> 00:40:29.929
Yes.
793
00:40:30.110 --> 00:40:31.840
And you can find out about the podcast. You have
794
00:40:31.860 --> 00:40:32.460
a podcast.
795
00:40:32.500 --> 00:40:34.659
Yes. All of those different things you can find me
796
00:40:34.699 --> 00:40:37.400
on the social media at Jerry Hill, Historically Black Phrases,
797
00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:42.440
our book and game. Go to historicallyblackphrases.com and we'll see you.
798
00:40:42.539 --> 00:40:43.550
I'll be back here next week.
799
00:40:44.010 --> 00:40:47.510
All right. Thank you so much, Jarrett. Reasons to vote next.
800
00:40:47.809 --> 00:40:50.550
We'll be joined by Republican Corinne Rankin. Should be a
801
00:40:50.570 --> 00:40:52.690
good conversation. KBLA Talk 1580.