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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at be You.

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Speaker 2: Know, for the years that I lived in New York,

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Speaker 2: I always had visiting Kiwi's and visiting anyone. Really, when

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Speaker 2: you live in New York, there are lots of visitors.

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Speaker 2: I had anyone, anyone crashing on my couch come up

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Speaker 2: with a list of the things that they wanted to

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Speaker 2: do while they were in the city, and more often

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Speaker 2: than not when they came to town and you know, were

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Speaker 2: listing off all the various things, top of the Rock,

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Speaker 2: out to the Empire State, those sorts of things. One

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Speaker 2: of the things I wanted to do in the Big

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Speaker 2: Apple was to get into the audience at one of

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Speaker 2: the late night shows. So over the years that I

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Speaker 2: was there, I went to Lederman, I went to Colbert.

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Speaker 2: I actually bumped into Jimmy Fallon at his studio when

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Speaker 2: I interviewed the leader of his band for this very show,

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Speaker 2: you know, Questlove and the Roots How they are Jimmy

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Speaker 2: Fallon's band. Well, I went into his studio to interview

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Speaker 2: Questlove Quest Not actually had a piece of tomato on

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Speaker 2: me accidentally during that and two, which was a first anyway,

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Speaker 2: That's where I met Jimmy Fallon as well, bumped into

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Speaker 2: him there. So that was what just just over a

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Speaker 2: decade ago. And at that time, late night hosts were

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Speaker 2: more than just megastars, you know, those shows were institutions.

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Speaker 2: Even with social media. It sort of felt like their

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Speaker 2: programs or versions of those late night comedy programs were

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Speaker 2: set to exist in some form for decades to come.

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Speaker 2: But my, how quickly things change. A So, I like,

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Speaker 2: I love the US, I love America, but I'll tell

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Speaker 2: you what, Jimmy Kimmel's suspension just feels like another little

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Speaker 2: moment in which we're watching a superpower destroy itself in

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Speaker 2: real time. To be clear, I'm not like a massive

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Speaker 2: Jimmy Kimmel fan. I mean, he's fine, I guess. I

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Speaker 2: just you know, like I wouldn't seek him out if

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Speaker 2: I was living in America. I wouldn't know what time

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Speaker 2: his show aired. And I thought his common it's about

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Speaker 2: Charlie Kirk's assassination were pretty distasteful, but they were flippant

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Speaker 2: passing comments and they were clearly the opinion of a comedian.

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Speaker 2: And to then see the head of the Federal Communications Commission,

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Speaker 2: a government agency, react by threatening broadcasters for airing Jimmy

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Speaker 2: Kimmel's show was just extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: What did he say?

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Speaker 2: Quote we can do this the easy way or the

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Speaker 2: hard way. Unquote yesh. I mean, first, there's the hypocrisy, right.

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Speaker 2: It's only a few months since Vice President J. D

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Speaker 2: Vance told the Munich Security Conference this quote. I believe

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Speaker 2: that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting

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Speaker 2: down media protects nothing. In fact, it's the most surefire

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Speaker 2: way to destroy democracy. You don't say. Now his government

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Speaker 2: agency is threatening to remove the broadcasting licenses of companies

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Speaker 2: which broadcast views they don't like, because nothing honors the

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Speaker 2: memory of a proud free speech advocate who was literally

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Speaker 2: murdered while speaking by then suppressing, limiting, and punishing the

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Speaker 2: speech of his critics. Perhaps even more remarkable, though, is

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Speaker 2: the way in which these media companies are routinely rolling

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Speaker 2: over and capitulating, I mean, on multiple occasions now, big

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Speaker 2: corporates have wilted under pressure in order to try and

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Speaker 2: curry favor with the President and protect their business interests.

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Speaker 2: Powermount in CBS capitulated with his sixty minutes complaint and

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Speaker 2: then just two weeks later, they fired Stephen Colbert. Personally,

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Speaker 2: I think he was the best comedian on Late night

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Speaker 2: and of course a frequent brutal critic of the president.

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Speaker 2: And for now at least Jimmy Kimmel's gone too. It's

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Speaker 2: just interesting to compare the ways in which media companies

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Speaker 2: have dealt with pressure from the White House and the

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Speaker 2: ways in which other countries have dealt with pressure from

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Speaker 2: the US when it comes to trade tariffs, Because if

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Speaker 2: you think about it, it's actually pretty similar. So instead

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Speaker 2: of organizing a big collective response grouping together with collective

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Speaker 2: resistance to the pressure, the big acronyms in US media,

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Speaker 2: the likes of CBS and ABC are acting in what

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Speaker 2: they think is their own self interest in the short term, right,

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Speaker 2: So they cut a deal and they try to move on.

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Speaker 2: And whether they're international leaders or media executives, everyone is

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Speaker 2: stooping to kiss the ring. But I just don't think

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Speaker 2: there's any evidence it works. I mean, think about it.

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Speaker 2: If you give a bully your lunch money, does the

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Speaker 2: bully then leave you alone in the future or does

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Speaker 2: he come back for more. See, they think it's in

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Speaker 2: their self interest to acquiesce. But one capitulation inevitably leads

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Speaker 2: to another, and then another, and then another. It's snowballs, right,

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Speaker 2: and before you know it, the president of the United

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Speaker 2: States is deciding which comedians are allowed on TV. He

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Speaker 2: now says that some networks that are critical of him

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Speaker 2: should have their licenses taken away, And like everything, it's

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Speaker 2: hard to know if he's being hundred percent serious about it, right,

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Speaker 2: It's hard to know if it's a one hundred percent

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Speaker 2: serious idea. But the mere suggestion is so profoundly undemocratic,

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Speaker 2: It is so profoundly Unamerican.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks at B from nine am Saturday, or

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