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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and A, where we

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Speaker 1: ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.

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Speaker 1: I'm Uncle Thompson and good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael Sean.

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Speaker 1: Today, the question that we are digging into is basically

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Speaker 1: how worried should we be about censorship of the press.

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Speaker 1: And this is particularly in the United States. And there's

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Speaker 1: a few incidents that we've seen really over just the

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Speaker 1: last week that have been the catalyst for this conversation.

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Speaker 1: The first being the US President Donald Trump suing or

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Speaker 1: announcing that he is suing the New York Times for

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Speaker 1: the hefty sum of fifteen billion US dollars, accusing them

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Speaker 1: of being a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. The next

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Speaker 1: one really was one that came right towards the end

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Speaker 1: of the week. It was Jimmy Kimmel being taken off

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Speaker 1: over his comments around Charlie and we've spoken about this

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Speaker 1: through the week. The other one was one that involves

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Speaker 1: Australia where we had the ABC reporter John Lyons being

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Speaker 1: essentially roused on by the President for asking a question

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Speaker 1: about whether he should have as many business interests as

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Speaker 1: he does when he is in the White House and

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Speaker 1: the President saying that I'm going to have to talk

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Speaker 1: to Anthony Albanezi about you. They are three incidents, all

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Speaker 1: very separate, but with a pretty disturbing common theme among them,

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Speaker 1: don't you think.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's easy for me in the media to get

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Speaker 2: very caught up in these sorts of stories. So it's

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Speaker 2: worth looking at the context here. Do we care about

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Speaker 2: freedom of the press. Do we care about a free media?

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Speaker 2: Of course we do. The option is China, whereby the

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Speaker 2: press in China just is the mouthpiece for the government.

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Speaker 2: In a country like Australia, you have this tense debates

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Speaker 2: this week. Climate change has been the big one over

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Speaker 2: the last few days anyway, you know, we've had the

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Speaker 2: Greens versus Lives, versus Nats, versus labor. The idea is

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Speaker 2: that the media reports and that creates it, you know,

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Speaker 2: writes opinion on that and helps build debate to come

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Speaker 2: to some sort of consensus. I noticed Barack Obama in

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Speaker 2: the last week or so, he came out and he said,

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Speaker 2: you know, the great thing about America up until now

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Speaker 2: at least, is that you could have a debate and

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Speaker 2: you come to some sort of consensus without political violence.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about then what you outline there. The problem

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Speaker 2: with a government, in this case the Trump White House

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Speaker 2: pressuring the media is that its stymies that debate. Say

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Speaker 2: Jimmy Kimmel, like him or loathe him, He stands there,

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Speaker 2: he gives his monologue. He very critical of Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: at times. His point wasn't well from my reading of it,

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Speaker 2: his point really was that Donald Trump was politicizing the

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Speaker 2: tragic death of Charlie Kirk. And that one in the

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Speaker 2: New York Times one. Donald Trump's point is that he

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Speaker 2: doesn't like what the New York Times is writing. He

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Speaker 2: reckons there are a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, the

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Speaker 2: not on his side. In the John Lyons that instance,

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Speaker 2: he was kind of Donald Trump seemed to be caught

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Speaker 2: off guarded, as you said, just roustled him for asking

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Speaker 2: the question. It was a totally reasonable question. Now Trump's

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Speaker 2: thin skinned, there's no doubt about it. But using his

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Speaker 2: power as president to pressure these organizations is really bad

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Speaker 2: for democracies my take, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then that one. Then it wasn't just a

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Speaker 1: momentary outburst. It then played out that the ABC was

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Speaker 1: essentially barred from attending a press conference in the UK

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Speaker 1: this week, because that's then where Donald Trump was heading

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Speaker 1: off too, and the ABC's accreditation was withdrawn from this

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Speaker 1: press conference. It was ostensibly for capacity reasons, because they'd

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Speaker 1: hit their limits now for international media, and the ABC

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Speaker 1: said that this was logistical reasons, but awfully conveniently timed

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Speaker 1: logistical reasons, And there is a lot of people drawing

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Speaker 1: a link between the two and it may well be

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Speaker 1: the case, and I think that is really quite alarming.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, fundamental to democracy is the free press.

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Speaker 2: It is as simple as that. And what we're seeing

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Speaker 2: is impingements on freedom of the press when the White House,

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Speaker 2: I mean the White House has done this ever since

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump got there. So remember there was a bunch

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Speaker 2: of the big news organizations who weren't allowed into the

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Speaker 2: White House briefings, and then influences were allowed in. Influences

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Speaker 2: sympathetic to Donald Trump were allowed in. So the impingement

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Speaker 2: on freedom of the press has been going on ever

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Speaker 2: since he got the job. It's just this week. The

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Speaker 2: Jimmy Kimmel case is because that is opinion. So one

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Speaker 2: of the big arguments you have in media land is

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Speaker 2: fact verse opinion, and so often deformation cases rely on

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Speaker 2: whether what someone was writing or saying was a fact

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Speaker 2: or an opinion. Now, in Jimmy Kimmel's case, that is

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Speaker 2: pure opinion. He's a comedian. No one is saying that

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Speaker 2: everything he says is one hundred percent true, and no

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Speaker 2: one would ever argue that. So to actually kick him

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Speaker 2: off the show because someone doesn't like his opinion, as

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Speaker 2: in Donald Trump doesn't like his opinion, that is totally

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Speaker 2: outrageous because not for a moment everyone knows it's an opinion.

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Speaker 2: Not for a moment was he saying this is factually correct.

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Speaker 2: It's kind of what he thought. And I find that

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Speaker 2: one particularly upset, to be honest.

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Speaker 1: Now, there is also a distinction to be made here

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Speaker 1: between essentially picking and choosing media favorites, because that has

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Speaker 1: happened forever right where particular leaders like talking to particular

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Speaker 1: people within the media, and it happens. It happens in

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Speaker 1: Australia and has happened for a very long time, where

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Speaker 1: for instance, you might have conservative prime ministers that like

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Speaker 1: talking to particular radio stations. And I'm thinking I used

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Speaker 1: to work previously at two GB, and there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of appearances by prime ministers like Tony Abbott Scott

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Speaker 1: Morrison on that kind of station. But you also then

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Speaker 1: have leaders that would deliberately avoid particular interviewers. Daniel Andrews,

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Speaker 1: for instance, refused to speak to Neil Mitchell on three

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Speaker 1: AW and so there is a lot of kind of

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Speaker 1: picking and choosing and a lot of but this does

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Speaker 1: feel like it is now crossing a line in terms

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Speaker 1: of what is happening in the US compared to what

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Speaker 1: we have seen what we see play out, And if

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Speaker 1: Dan Andrews was holding a press conference, there were still

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Speaker 1: plenty of critical questions being aimed at him from all

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Speaker 1: over the media, and there would still be a reporter

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Speaker 1: there from three AW asking some of these other questions

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Speaker 1: as well. It wasn't as though threew was just banned entirely,

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Speaker 1: but it does feel like this has now taken it

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Speaker 1: upper notch in the US.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you wonder what's going through the minds of the

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Speaker 2: executives at ABC who sacked Jimmy Kimmel. Because they're running

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Speaker 2: a business for shareholders, so presumably they can argue they

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Speaker 2: want better access to the White House, they want to

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Speaker 2: make sure that there's government spending and advertising to keep

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Speaker 2: the station going. I'm sure they could rationalize it in

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Speaker 2: some way as a good financial decision to listen to

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump's views and get rid of Jimmy Kimmel. And

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Speaker 2: that certainly is an argument. And the problem with that

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Speaker 2: argument is that media outlets actually are in a privileged position.

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Speaker 2: Through licensing, they are allowed to reach millions of people

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Speaker 2: that most of us can't reach. Now, influencers can reach them,

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Speaker 2: but there's not many of those out there, So they

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Speaker 2: really do have this responsibility in a democracy to do

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Speaker 2: the right thing. The fact that ABC has caved to

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump and sack Jimmy Kimmel and this is all opinion, well,

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Speaker 2: I think that's really poor reflection on that organization.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right anyway. I think that's a

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Speaker 1: good place to leave it as well. I do not

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Speaker 1: think it is a problem that we're going to solve

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Speaker 1: right here.

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Speaker 2: We're not.

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Speaker 1: Wonder if I wonder if fear and Greed would be

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Speaker 1: banned by the White House after this episode. I suspect

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Speaker 1: we would be.

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Speaker 2: I think Donald Trump likes fear and greed. Fear and

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Speaker 2: greed it speaks to markets.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, Thank you very much, Sean. Thanks Remember if you

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Speaker 1: have a topic, an issue, a question that you would

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Speaker 1: like us to delve into and discuss and analyze. Then

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Speaker 1: please send it on through via the website Fearangreed dot com,

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Speaker 1: Doday You, or any of the social media platforms LinkedIn Facebook, Instagram.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and this is Fear and Greed Q

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Speaker 1: and A