1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:01,080 Speaker 1: Good morning for South Dakota. 2 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:04,680 Speaker 2: Yesterday, during the game, I switched over a halftime to 3 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 2: watch Turning Point US a great show by the way, 4 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:11,280 Speaker 2: But I did record the other halftime show that was 5 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 2: on the during the Super Bowl. Later on, when I 6 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:17,400 Speaker 2: played it back to record it, there must have been 7 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 2: something wrong with my DVR because I think it switched 8 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,040 Speaker 2: over to Telemundo. Did everyone have a great date? 9 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 1: It was? 10 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 3: It was finally taken down today, but the Wall Street 11 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 3: Journal published an editorial as they do every week, from 12 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:42,280 Speaker 3: Peggy Noonan. Peggy Noonan was one of Ronald Reagan's speech writers, 13 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,159 Speaker 3: and I've admired Peggy Noonan from afar. I don't think 14 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 3: i've ever met her for her very unique style of writing. 15 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 3: And when you think of some of the great speeches 16 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,760 Speaker 3: that Ronald Reagan gave, you can thank Peggy Noonan for 17 00:00:56,840 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 3: many of those. So's She's an expert wordsmith. This weekly 18 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:13,000 Speaker 3: opinion piece that she does remained on the front page 19 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 3: of the electronic version of the Wall Street Journal until 20 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,080 Speaker 3: this morning. It was there when I loaded this morning's 21 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal about five thirty this morning, But then 22 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 3: when I went back to the front page to you know, 23 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 3: look at the headlines it had disappeared. Now there's nothing 24 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 3: nefarious about that. I'm just saying that it stayed there 25 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 3: from its publication in the print version. It first appeared 26 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 3: in the electronic version at six o'clock in the evening 27 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:48,280 Speaker 3: on February five. It finally disappears from the front page 28 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 3: of the electronic versions, probably overnight, probably when I refreshed 29 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 3: the page, is whyat disappeared. So it must have disappeared 30 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 3: sometime yesterday evening. I think I last looked at the 31 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,080 Speaker 3: journal sometime last night, probably, I don't know, seven eight o'clock. 32 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 3: She wrote this piece, the headline of which is a 33 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:14,320 Speaker 3: lament for the Washington Post, and the subhead is the 34 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 3: most powerful capital in the world. Washington, DC has no major, 35 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 3: fully functioning newspaper. That's a huge absence. I want you 36 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,959 Speaker 3: to hear what she wrote, and I want to dissect 37 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:38,799 Speaker 3: it for you because I think Peggy Noonan today represents 38 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 3: everything that is wrong with Washington and she if she 39 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 3: was aiming for the bull's eye, she hit something over 40 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:54,080 Speaker 3: her left shoulder. She completely missed. She starts out because 41 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 3: she's so upset about the diminishment, as she describes it, 42 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 3: of the Washington Post, and she says that it hits 43 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 3: her hard because it feels like another demoralizing thing in 44 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:10,800 Speaker 3: our national life. Let me just ask you, is the 45 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 3: Washington Post laying off of reporters, editors, getting rid of 46 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:21,360 Speaker 3: its style section, getting rid of its sports page? Is 47 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,640 Speaker 3: that demoralizing to you? Because if it is, you might 48 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 3: want to see a therapist. 49 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:26,360 Speaker 1: She says. 50 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 3: Our public life is a nation, how we are together, 51 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 3: how we talk to each other. The sound of us 52 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 3: isn't what it was. It's gone down, and we all 53 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 3: feel this, all the grown ups. Well, I feel it too. 54 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,120 Speaker 3: I think we've become much more crass. Our attention spans 55 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 3: have diminished significantly, and I think everyone is run to 56 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:53,040 Speaker 3: their corners. But I don't think the Washington Post ever 57 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 3: ever represented what I considered to be American. 58 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: It was just another new paper. 59 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 3: It has a storied history, just like the New York 60 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 3: Times or the La Times. It had a storied his 61 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 3: history like the Rocky Mountain News did, but which is 62 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:17,080 Speaker 3: no longer in existence. In fact, the founding of the 63 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,039 Speaker 3: Washington Post in eighteen I want to say fifty seven, 64 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 3: I'm not quite sure of the date. Was as a 65 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:30,840 Speaker 3: Democrat newspaper its roots are in Democrat politics. Peggy writes 66 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 3: this the post was a pillar. The sweeping layoffs and 67 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 3: narrowing of coverage announced this week followed years of buyouts 68 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 3: and shrinking sections. None of this feels like the restructuring 69 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 3: of a paper, or rearranging the priorities, but like the 70 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 3: doing end of a paper, a great one, a thing 71 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 3: of journalistic grandeur from some point of the nineteen sixties 72 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,000 Speaker 3: through some point in the twenty twenties. 73 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: So at least. 74 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,040 Speaker 3: She admits that even at its fee it wasn't a 75 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:00,720 Speaker 3: great newspaper. Its foundings and were in the night. In 76 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Speaker 3: the twenty twenties, it began to lose its prestige. She says, 77 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:10,120 Speaker 3: I feel it damaged itself when under the pressure of 78 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 3: the pandemic, George Floyd and huge technological and journalistic changes, 79 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:20,600 Speaker 3: it wobbled, and not in the opinion section but on 80 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 3: the news side. But I kept Oh, she's so so virtuous. 81 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,719 Speaker 3: But I kept my subscription because that is a way 82 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,560 Speaker 3: of trusting, of giving a great paper time to steady itself, 83 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 3: and there should there would always be an important, dave, 84 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:40,040 Speaker 3: ignacious column or a great scoop on some governmental scandal 85 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 3: that made it worth the cost. Well, governmental scandals they 86 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:47,160 Speaker 3: really covered, since you know Watergate. But the post diminishment 87 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,880 Speaker 3: use the word twice now, which looks like its demise 88 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:56,760 Speaker 3: is not just a media story. Reactions should not break 89 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 3: down along the ideological lines in which the left feels 90 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:04,200 Speaker 3: journalism is its precinct and is sad, and the right 91 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:06,720 Speaker 3: feels journalism is its hulking. 92 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: Enemy and isn't sad. 93 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:10,919 Speaker 3: Treat it that way and will fail to see the 94 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:13,840 Speaker 3: story for its true significance. The capital of the most 95 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 3: powerful national earth appears to be without a vital, fully 96 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,680 Speaker 3: functioning newspaper to cover it. This isn't the occasion of jokes. 97 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 3: It's a disaster, no, ma'am, it is not. And you 98 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:34,720 Speaker 3: go on in your very stylish wordsmithing way of trying 99 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:38,839 Speaker 3: to explain to us peons out here why you think 100 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 3: this is a disaster. This is a quintessentially great example 101 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 3: of the elitism that exists on the Eastern seaboard and 102 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,599 Speaker 3: on the left coast. But it's the elitism that somehow 103 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:01,839 Speaker 3: thinks they need to explain to us that we with 104 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 3: the way we do things is the only way to 105 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 3: do things. What she fails to understand is that the 106 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 3: way we consume our news today is entirely different, and 107 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 3: the reason for it is, yes, partly technological, It is 108 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 3: partly because of old, outdated business models. It is a 109 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:30,120 Speaker 3: function of many different things. But it's not a function 110 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 3: of us peons failing to understand or failing to recognize 111 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 3: that what we're being fed is a bunch of bull crap. 112 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 3: She writes, I fear sometimes that few people really care 113 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 3: about journalism. You know what, I don't care about newspapers. 114 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:49,080 Speaker 3: I do care about journalism, I truly do. I'm not 115 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 3: a no don't remember now, I mean, don't forget. I 116 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:56,800 Speaker 3: am not a journalist. I am an opinion person. I 117 00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 3: give you my opinion on my perspective about things I 118 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 3: don't report I talk about. She says, I I fear 119 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,640 Speaker 3: sometimes that few people really care about journalism. But we 120 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:14,560 Speaker 3: are dead without it. Someday something bad will happen, something 121 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 3: terrible on a national scale, and the thing we'll need 122 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:22,680 Speaker 3: most literally to survive is information, reliable information, a way 123 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 3: to get it and to get it to the public. 124 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 3: That is what journalism is getting the information. Let that 125 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:31,720 Speaker 3: think in for a moment, She thinks that the only 126 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:36,679 Speaker 3: way for us to get information is through the Washington 127 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:39,120 Speaker 3: Post or the New York Times, or the Los Angeles 128 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:42,400 Speaker 3: Time or the Wall Street Journal for that matter. She says, 129 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 3: you have to think of it as part of your 130 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 3: country survival system. Maybe the government will or won't tell 131 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:48,839 Speaker 3: you the truth about what's going on, or maybe the 132 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:51,320 Speaker 3: Pentagon will er won't. But if you know you've got 133 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 3: this fabulous island of broken toys, professional professional journalists working 134 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:00,560 Speaker 3: for a reputable news organization, you've got a real learning 135 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 3: what's true. Wow, I've got more chance of learning what's 136 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 3: true on my own accord than I ever do from 137 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 3: reading the Washington Post. 138 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:11,120 Speaker 1: She says. 139 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 3: It takes years to make good reporters, people who are trained, 140 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:16,240 Speaker 3: who love getting the story so much, who love the 141 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 3: news so much that they will wait into the fire, 142 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 3: run to the sound of guns. They are grown only 143 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,640 Speaker 3: in newsrooms, not at home with laptops. They are taught 144 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 3: by old craftsmen and professionals through stories and war. The 145 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:33,040 Speaker 3: Post greatness and expertise can't easily be replaced, and perhaps 146 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 3: can't be replaced at all, or at least not for 147 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:39,560 Speaker 3: decades of committed building. It is possible what we're witnessing 148 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 3: is an owner Jeff Bezos, deciding that his newspaper is 149 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:49,800 Speaker 3: a twentieth century structure in a twenty first century world, 150 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:54,200 Speaker 3: that it cannot be changed or gradually moderated. So he 151 00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:56,600 Speaker 3: and his executives are tearing it down to the studs. 152 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 3: Maybe he'll sell it, maybe he'll keep it and rebuild it. 153 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:01,640 Speaker 3: But that will take a long long time. And you 154 00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:03,880 Speaker 3: can't immediately get a whim back the statue of a 155 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:07,640 Speaker 3: thing that presents the professionalism. You can't snap your fingers, 156 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:10,000 Speaker 3: wash away a whole world, direct a new one and 157 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,280 Speaker 3: have it work well and quickly. And this, she says, 158 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:19,199 Speaker 3: is going to have an impact in our democracy. How well, 159 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 3: letter tell you? Why is the end of a great 160 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:26,040 Speaker 3: newspaper not good for democracy? This journey back to Thomas 161 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 3: Jefferson in Paris in seventeen eighty seven, as our first 162 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 3: minister to France. Back home, they were debating the US Constitution. 163 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 3: In a letter dated January sixteenth to his friend Edward Carrington, 164 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:39,600 Speaker 3: a member of the Continent of Congress, Jefferson thoughts, quote, 165 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:42,280 Speaker 3: were it left to me to decide whether we should 166 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 3: have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government. 167 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:49,520 Speaker 3: I should not hesitate to prefer the latter, newspapers without 168 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 3: a government. He wasn't being flipped, she writes, He understood 169 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 3: journalism was a defense against tyranny. Now, it's a little 170 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:00,760 Speaker 3: sneak of where I may be going on this. If 171 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,400 Speaker 3: she thinks that journalism is a defense against tyranny, what 172 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:08,440 Speaker 3: are we to believe when journalism becomes a defender of tyranny? 173 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:10,320 Speaker 1: What about that? 174 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,320 Speaker 3: She said that government, by its nature always wants to 175 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 3: accumulate power and use it. I agree, she says. A 176 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:23,960 Speaker 3: watchful press slows this process, sometimes stops it by exposing 177 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:24,839 Speaker 3: its abuses. 178 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:27,120 Speaker 1: Now, again a little hint of where I'm going. 179 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:32,880 Speaker 3: What's one of the major abuses in the news today? 180 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:42,160 Speaker 3: Are you thinking Minnesota, at a minimum at the floor, 181 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 3: is at least nine billion dollars in fraud? Maybe it's 182 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 3: highest fifty four billion. And if it's in Minnesota, it 183 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:54,560 Speaker 3: may be in every other Blue states too. Now, how 184 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 3: did we find out about that? 185 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:00,199 Speaker 1: Oh? A whistleblower that the Washington. 186 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 3: Did not want to report about, and in fact, to 187 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 3: some degree tried to ignore the story, if not outright buriant. 188 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:13,320 Speaker 3: And then we had a freelance journalist go out and 189 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:18,280 Speaker 3: actually knock on doors. Hey, can we see the kids 190 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:19,040 Speaker 3: in your child care? 191 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:20,360 Speaker 1: Can? 192 00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 4: You can't? 193 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: Can? 194 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:24,120 Speaker 3: Can someone answer the door? It looks like I'm just 195 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:26,160 Speaker 3: in a strip mall next to a doughnut shop. But 196 00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:29,160 Speaker 3: this is this says where your daycare center is? Can 197 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 3: I can't? 198 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 2: Can we? 199 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:31,720 Speaker 3: Can you come? Tell how many kids you got in there? 200 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:34,440 Speaker 3: And just went from place to place to place to 201 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:42,559 Speaker 3: place to place. Now the next sentence, she writes, if 202 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:45,920 Speaker 3: citizens are informed, they can self govern from a rough 203 00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:49,520 Speaker 3: baseline of realism. Quote the good sense of the people, 204 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 3: Jefferson Road is always the best army. True, they can 205 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,679 Speaker 3: be led astray, but their mistakes will be limited and 206 00:12:56,280 --> 00:12:59,200 Speaker 3: can be corrected through information. They can penetrate the whole 207 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:02,560 Speaker 3: mass of the people. When the public is uninformed, those 208 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:07,680 Speaker 3: running government shall all become wolves. You know Jefferson was right. 209 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:10,600 Speaker 3: What do you think Jefferson would think about that kid 210 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:14,079 Speaker 3: in Minnesota? I say kid, young man, That young man 211 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:18,880 Speaker 3: in Minnesota that really brought to light and forced the 212 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 3: Washington Post to deal with the corruption. She goes on 213 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,079 Speaker 3: to write that I don't understand the figure of mister Bezels. 214 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:31,280 Speaker 3: He's a nice man met him, always treated as a 215 00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:33,960 Speaker 3: kind of business visionary and fair enough. But what is 216 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,360 Speaker 3: he about right now? I can't believe the fourth wealthiest 217 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:39,960 Speaker 3: person in the world and in history would dash his 218 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,520 Speaker 3: own historic reputation to curry favor with the Trump administration 219 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:47,160 Speaker 3: and bing gona we get it, Oh, Bezos is is 220 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 3: not making a business decision. Bezos is doing this because 221 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:54,240 Speaker 3: he wants to kiss Trump's ass. Really, you got to 222 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,600 Speaker 3: be getting me, she writes, for what more contracts? He's 223 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:04,280 Speaker 3: got enough contracts? Oh so, Peggy, do you think that 224 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:09,600 Speaker 3: if Jeff Bezos has what enough contracts or too many contracts? Well, 225 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,520 Speaker 3: that tells me a lot about your thinking right there, 226 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 3: she says. This is so small time, so penny, any 227 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 3: what matters is honor. That's the thing that lasts. What 228 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:21,960 Speaker 3: history says of you, how you helped your country. So 229 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 3: what because he's a bazillionaire, he should lose money, and 230 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 3: somehow that's going to help the country. He might be 231 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:31,960 Speaker 3: doing the country a favor by actually whittling down the 232 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:37,080 Speaker 3: Washington Post, she says, finally losing the one major newspaper 233 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 3: left in the great nation's capital. And during the Trump administration, 234 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,520 Speaker 3: no less. Oh my gosh, there we go again. What 235 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:47,320 Speaker 3: if we were losing the Washington Post during the Obama 236 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 3: administration or during the Biden administration? And in fact, when 237 00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 3: I think about that, where was the Washington Post during 238 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:58,040 Speaker 3: the Biden administration? Where were the journalists during the Biden administration? 239 00:14:58,120 --> 00:14:59,440 Speaker 3: Where were they asking questions? 240 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:01,880 Speaker 1: They were too? Is he taking notes by the book? Afterwards? 241 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,800 Speaker 3: Finally, she says, losing the one major newspaper left from 242 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:11,160 Speaker 3: the great nation's capital and during the Trump administration, no less, 243 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 3: during a time of the easy abuse of standards and 244 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,440 Speaker 3: traditions of inching up to and then inching over the 245 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:18,760 Speaker 3: law in a pattern that promises not to get better 246 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:21,600 Speaker 3: but worse. Is more than a Jeffersonian nightmare. It's a 247 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:27,200 Speaker 3: kind of sin, the kind history doesn't easily forgive. Wow, 248 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:33,120 Speaker 3: she's really upset over Jeff Bezos and what he's doing. 249 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 3: Has your life changed? Do you feel that in terms 250 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:43,560 Speaker 3: of journalism, do you have a place to get the 251 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:47,040 Speaker 3: news now? I know, you know, maybe you don't like 252 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:51,560 Speaker 3: Kyle Clark, that's fine. Maybe you don't like me, maybe 253 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 3: you don't like any of the local reporters. There are 254 00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 3: a lot of places to get local news, state news, 255 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:11,000 Speaker 3: national news. It is her thesis is this. The collapse 256 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:15,400 Speaker 3: of the Washington Post is a democracy threatening tragedy because 257 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 3: institutional newspapers are irreplaceable guardians of truth, and the reporters 258 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:26,000 Speaker 3: can only be grown in newsrooms by older farts, older craftsmen, 259 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 3: and we're entering a dangerous information void. You do us, funny, 260 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 3: here's the problem. She's writing from inside a burning institution 261 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:41,920 Speaker 3: and declaring that fire itself has died. There's fire all 262 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:47,120 Speaker 3: around her, but there's oh, fire's dead. She completely misses 263 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 3: so many things. I want to walk through them, because 264 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:54,520 Speaker 3: I truly do want you to think about where you 265 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:59,000 Speaker 3: consume your news and whether what Jeff Bezos is doing. 266 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:01,160 Speaker 3: First of all, I do all the ins and outs. 267 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:05,119 Speaker 3: I don't see their financials. I don't sit down and 268 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:08,680 Speaker 3: talk with his editors. I've known some of them. I've 269 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:11,000 Speaker 3: been interviewed by some of them. I've talked to Washington 270 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:14,840 Speaker 3: Post reporters numerous times. I understand the Washington Post. I've 271 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:17,640 Speaker 3: been in their offices. I've been in their editorial boardrooms. 272 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:20,520 Speaker 3: I've been there. I get the Washington Post, and it 273 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,719 Speaker 3: is kind of for DC anyway, the paper of record. 274 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:28,240 Speaker 3: Jeff Bezos sees a cheap asset that he can buy 275 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:30,760 Speaker 3: for pennies on the dollar, and now he tried to 276 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 3: make something of it and it's not going too well. 277 00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 3: So now he's going to try to cut his costs. 278 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 3: And what he's gonna do with it, I don't know, 279 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:43,960 Speaker 3: and guess what. Unlike Peggy, I don't care. But she 280 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:49,840 Speaker 3: misses so many things. First, there's been a seismic shift 281 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:54,199 Speaker 3: in news distribution. She operates this if it's still nineteen 282 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,399 Speaker 3: eighty seven and she's working for Ronald Reagan, or when 283 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:02,679 Speaker 3: Jefferson wrote about newspapers the Washington Post decline as somehow 284 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:07,040 Speaker 3: creating an information vacuum in DC. But here's what she ignores. 285 00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:11,000 Speaker 3: That's where I mean, that's her perspective. But she's ignoring 286 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:16,520 Speaker 3: so many things. Independent journalists are breaking major news stories 287 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:21,159 Speaker 3: that the legacy media, the dominant media, won't touch or 288 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:25,800 Speaker 3: they botch. You got Matt Tayibi, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Schellenberg, 289 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:29,840 Speaker 3: Berry Wise. They're doing the kind of fearless reporting that 290 00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:33,960 Speaker 3: the Washington Post is simply abandoned. You got substack, you 291 00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:38,119 Speaker 3: got podcasts, you got YouTube, They've all created direct journalists 292 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 3: to audience relationships and those bypass the institutional gatekeepers entirely. 293 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:47,960 Speaker 3: When you can subscribe directly to a reporter you trust, 294 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:51,800 Speaker 3: why would you need an institutional rapper around that reporter. 295 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 3: Citizen journalism and open source intelligence communities are now literally 296 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:04,760 Speaker 3: brain making stories faster than legacy media. Look how the 297 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:09,000 Speaker 3: Twitter files were released, or if you're on X and 298 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 3: you follow OSI in T open Source Intelligence, those analysts 299 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 3: track global conflicts in real time. 300 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:18,240 Speaker 1: I make. 301 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 3: My endorsement of OSI INT. Open Source Intelligence is an 302 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:29,359 Speaker 3: account you should follow because they really do. They track 303 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:33,359 Speaker 3: and quite frankly this they do analysis, but oftentimes they 304 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:36,160 Speaker 3: will just tell you here's what open source reporting here, 305 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,000 Speaker 3: here's what the intel agencies are seeing that's open source, 306 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:43,760 Speaker 3: and what do they do? They consolidate that down into 307 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 3: posts that you can put on a list an X 308 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:48,680 Speaker 3: and if you want to see what the intel agencies 309 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 3: are reading, you can go to OSI in T and 310 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:51,880 Speaker 3: look and see the same thing. 311 00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:53,400 Speaker 1: It's the same thing. 312 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,359 Speaker 3: That an OP center out at Langley would see, or 313 00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:59,320 Speaker 3: that an OP center that at FEMA would see, or 314 00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 3: any place else else would see. You can now get 315 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 3: it on your feet on Twitter or EPs and I 316 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,320 Speaker 3: got to tell you. Noonan's framing assumes that there's an 317 00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:14,000 Speaker 3: information scarcity. We live in information abundance. The question is 318 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:20,119 Speaker 3: not who will report, who will report? Honestly, this is 319 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 3: our chance when that thousand bucks is coming up in 320 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,719 Speaker 3: the next five minutes. Thanks to Mercedes Bens at littletoon 321 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 3: Mercedes at Littleton. 322 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:31,280 Speaker 4: Dot com, Michael, I had a fun super Bowl party 323 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 4: at my house and all I can say is bad 324 00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:43,840 Speaker 4: bunny who. We watched the TPUSA Alternative super Bowl halftime 325 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:49,359 Speaker 4: show and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, if we can just 326 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,200 Speaker 4: get somebody that knows how to sing the national anthem 327 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:54,160 Speaker 4: like it was written. 328 00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 3: About to Peggy Noonan. So as I'm deacon, I can't 329 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:03,240 Speaker 3: even think about Peggy Noonan. I get an email during 330 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,160 Speaker 3: the middle of the break. In the middle of the break, 331 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:08,119 Speaker 3: let me share just a short bit of this email 332 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,760 Speaker 3: with you, because well, you're hollor, I'd like. 333 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:12,440 Speaker 1: To rest my case. 334 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 3: It comes from Matt Tayebe's Racket News, which I don't 335 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:22,080 Speaker 3: subscribe to, but I do read his emails, and the 336 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:24,600 Speaker 3: subject of this email is from the new editor, a 337 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:28,040 Speaker 3: message from Emily Copp. You may recognize that name. She 338 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 3: is a former investigative journalist. But anyway, she writes this, 339 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:38,440 Speaker 3: citizen journalists have pierced the priggish facade of the corporate press, 340 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:44,560 Speaker 3: revealing the hollowness inside. Document diggers, open source intelligence sluice, 341 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:49,359 Speaker 3: and YouTube steakhouts are fettering out the inconvenient facts that 342 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:53,720 Speaker 3: old media stifles. That's exciting, but it's the standards light 343 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,240 Speaker 3: wild West out there. Readers shouldn't have to spend hours 344 00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,280 Speaker 3: waiting through social media swap and the hackening narrator of 345 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,680 Speaker 3: legacy media just to cobble together enough fragments of information 346 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,760 Speaker 3: to approximate a sense of reality. It was once fashionable 347 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:09,920 Speaker 3: for corporate media to prescribe what to think and for 348 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:11,560 Speaker 3: big tech to clamp down. 349 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:12,359 Speaker 1: And free speech and debate. 350 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:15,879 Speaker 3: These days, it's in vogue to embrace a relativest attitude 351 00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:19,760 Speaker 3: toward the truth. No journalists can promise truth, a slippery 352 00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:22,919 Speaker 3: metaphysical thing that's especially loose even the first moments of 353 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,439 Speaker 3: a crisis. The only thing we can promise is to 354 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:28,920 Speaker 3: try for it the truth. That's why we're bringing old 355 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:33,840 Speaker 3: school journalistic standards to the new school. Wide open the 356 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:37,240 Speaker 3: Overton window. If we do our jobs well, we'll provide 357 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:42,280 Speaker 3: occasional relief from the cacophony. Now that's a pretty interesting 358 00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 3: take on what they're trying to accomplish. So let's go 359 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:49,679 Speaker 3: back and let's think about what Peggy misses in that piece. 360 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:56,719 Speaker 3: Freelance journalists, freelance reporters literally dying for the truth. 361 00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:58,600 Speaker 1: And this is where. 362 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:04,440 Speaker 3: Peggy's institutional bias winds her completely. She writes there, they 363 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:09,240 Speaker 3: are grown only in the reporters are grown only in newsrooms, 364 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,040 Speaker 3: not at home with laptops. They are taught by older 365 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:15,360 Speaker 3: craftsmen and professionals whose stories and lore. 366 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:18,000 Speaker 1: Really piggy. 367 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:24,160 Speaker 3: Tell that to the freelance conflict reporters in Syria, Ukraine, 368 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:29,880 Speaker 3: Gaza who risks death without any institutional backing whatsoever. Tell 369 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:35,000 Speaker 3: that to independent investigatory of journalists who've exposed everything from 370 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:39,119 Speaker 3: Epstein to government surveillance without a major newsroom behind them. 371 00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:43,360 Speaker 3: Tell that to the citizen journalists who live streamed George 372 00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 3: Floyd's murder January sixth, and tell us other stories that 373 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:54,960 Speaker 3: institutional media either missed or misreported. I think that most 374 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:59,600 Speaker 3: dangerous journalism today is often being done by people working 375 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:05,480 Speaker 3: outside the institutional news rooms. Why because those institutions have 376 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:09,200 Speaker 3: become risk averse and they've been captured by their own 377 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,440 Speaker 3: ideological commitments. The Washington Post is a great example. They're 378 00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:18,360 Speaker 3: leading true to their to their origins. This is why 379 00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:21,720 Speaker 3: the Post lost trust, and this is why it matters 380 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,919 Speaker 3: for us. Peggy Noon even a myths that the Post 381 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,480 Speaker 3: wobbled and not in the opinion section but on the 382 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,679 Speaker 3: news side during both the pandemic and George Floyd. 383 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:34,199 Speaker 1: But then she just moves on. 384 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,880 Speaker 3: She doesn't interrogate what that wobbling was, let me feel 385 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,320 Speaker 3: in what she won't tell you. The Washington Post news 386 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:48,600 Speaker 3: side became indistinguishable from advocacy journalism. They didn't just report 387 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:51,040 Speaker 3: the news. They decided what the news should be and 388 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:54,640 Speaker 3: what you should think about it, and then branded descending 389 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:59,800 Speaker 3: voices as misinformation. And then they what's ironic is they 390 00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:03,040 Speaker 3: did join and not necessarily Jeff Bezos, but they then 391 00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:07,520 Speaker 3: joined the likes of the other tech giants at Google 392 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 3: and at the time Twitter, and Zuckerberg over at Facebook. 393 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,080 Speaker 3: And if you had a descending opinion, you were you 394 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:17,159 Speaker 3: were an anathema to the truth. Oh you can't let 395 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:22,960 Speaker 3: you can't let you talk, so you become misinformation. Examples 396 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:27,960 Speaker 3: that Peggy Noonan won't mention as the Washington Post wobbling 397 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:34,119 Speaker 3: the Covington Catholic kids story where they settled a lawsuit 398 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:40,720 Speaker 3: for millions of dollars for defamation. The fine people hopes, Oh, 399 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:46,080 Speaker 3: they're fine people. Oh, on both sides. They perpetrated that 400 00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:51,720 Speaker 3: hoax for years. The Russia collusion coverage that won won 401 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 3: pulledzer prizes, but then felt completely apart. The Hunter Biden 402 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:03,360 Speaker 3: lap stop laptop story. They dismissed that as Russian disinformation 403 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,720 Speaker 3: or the Lablik theory that they called a racist conspiracy 404 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:11,040 Speaker 3: until the division became respectable and then will adopt it. 405 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:11,240 Speaker 2: Then. 406 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 3: People didn't abandon the Post because they hate journalism. People 407 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:22,840 Speaker 3: abandoned the Washington Post because the Washington Post abandoned journalism 408 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:28,639 Speaker 3: for narrative management. That's what news today from those institution 409 00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:36,600 Speaker 3: has become. Let's manage the narrative. Where she cites Thomas Jefferson, 410 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:42,520 Speaker 3: she really gets my hackles up, primarily because she gets 411 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:48,920 Speaker 3: the Jefferson argument backwards. She quotes Jefferson, were it left 412 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:51,640 Speaker 3: to me to decide whether we should have a government 413 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:56,040 Speaker 3: without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not 414 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,119 Speaker 3: hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. 415 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:01,720 Speaker 1: So what does she miss? 416 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:07,960 Speaker 3: Jefferson wasn't arguing for institutional media monopolies. He was arguing 417 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,720 Speaker 3: for a free and a diverse press. In Jefferson's day, 418 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:20,560 Speaker 3: that meant hundreds hundreds of small independent newspapers, of small 419 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:28,679 Speaker 3: independent monographs, of small independent announcements posted on a tree somewhere. 420 00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:34,680 Speaker 3: But they were all independent, They were free, they were diverse, 421 00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 3: and they had wildly different viewpoints. What we're seeing now 422 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,800 Speaker 3: is actually closer to Jefferson's vision. We're now seeing a 423 00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:48,439 Speaker 3: proliferation of independent voices, direct to consumer publication, and actual 424 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 3: competition in the marketup place of ideas. The decline of 425 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:57,200 Speaker 3: legacy institutional media is not the death of journalism. It's 426 00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:02,600 Speaker 3: the death of the journalism cartel. So what's the real 427 00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:04,239 Speaker 3: story about Bezos? 428 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 1: She clutches her pearls. 429 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:10,200 Speaker 3: About Bezos, she writes, I can't believe the fourth wealthiest 430 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,800 Speaker 3: person in the world would dash his own historic reputation 431 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:15,880 Speaker 3: to curry favor with the Trump administration. 432 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,960 Speaker 1: Really, beg you completely missed the actual story. 433 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:24,439 Speaker 3: Bezos bought The Washington Post in twenty thirteen, during peak 434 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,399 Speaker 3: legacy media influence. And when he did, he bought it 435 00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:30,360 Speaker 3: because it was pennies on the dollar and he had 436 00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,600 Speaker 3: plenty of money to you know, if it's there's some 437 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,960 Speaker 3: value in some assets there somewhere. And then he discovered, oh, 438 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,640 Speaker 3: this is a rotting hole. The business model was already dead, 439 00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:46,840 Speaker 3: the editorial product it was already ideologically captured, the audience 440 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 3: was fragmenting. His crime isn't that he's tearing it down. 441 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,719 Speaker 3: It's that he's finally admitting what's already obvious. The emperor 442 00:28:53,760 --> 00:29:00,160 Speaker 3: has no clothes. So Newtan's thesis that the washing In 443 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 3: Post with somehow a pillar of democracy, institutional of journalism 444 00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:08,160 Speaker 3: is irreplaceable, and we're entering some sort of dangerous information void, 445 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:13,400 Speaker 3: an information void. Are you freaking kidding me? The reality 446 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:15,840 Speaker 3: is that the Washington Post, actually most papers like it, 447 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:22,000 Speaker 3: they have forfeited public trust by abandoning objectivity for activism. 448 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:26,440 Speaker 3: They're being replaced not by silence. They're being replaced by 449 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:30,040 Speaker 3: a more diverse, more dynamic, and an often braver ecosystem 450 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:34,360 Speaker 3: of independent journalists and citizen reporters. The danger isn't too 451 00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,360 Speaker 3: little journalism. It's that the old gatekeepers are just pissed 452 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:40,959 Speaker 3: off that they're no longer controlling the gates. It's simply 453 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 3: amazing to me. And we've got the receipts to prove that. 454 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:48,240 Speaker 4: I got your theme song boys, Peace, Peace, Peace, Peace, 455 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:52,880 Speaker 4: eating goober Peace, getting this out delicious eating uber Peace. 456 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:55,800 Speaker 1: That's a real song from the Civil War. 457 00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:01,440 Speaker 3: Look it up in the early sixties during the centennial 458 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 3: of the Civil War. 459 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: That's a song we learned in grammar school forget hail. 460 00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:15,880 Speaker 3: So when when you start playing it, my mind immediately wonders, too, 461 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,640 Speaker 3: what's going on in your brain? And then I realized, oh, 462 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,320 Speaker 3: maybe a talk back let you down a rabbit hole, 463 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 3: and then we get the talk back. Yes, makes perfect 464 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 3: sense now, doesn't It makes perfect sense now? But uh, 465 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:39,120 Speaker 3: goober peas peanuts, black eyed peas, no idea I don't need. 466 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:41,640 Speaker 3: I'm not sure what a goober pee is. I mean 467 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,920 Speaker 3: Goober's peanuts, goober Pee's peanuts, I don't know, or black 468 00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:45,440 Speaker 3: eyed peas. 469 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:46,600 Speaker 1: What do I know? 470 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 3: Could be yeah, it could be right, or I could 471 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 3: look it up, but you know, I'm just too lazy 472 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 3: to do that. Exactly do you want us to do work? 473 00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:57,320 Speaker 1: Why would we do work? 474 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:05,120 Speaker 3: Noonan's thesis goes back to this idea that somehow the 475 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:10,040 Speaker 3: Washington Post was this pillar of democracy and that institutional journalism, 476 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:14,360 Speaker 3: as I said, is irreplaceable, and we're entering this dangerous 477 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 3: information void, which I just find hilarious. An information void. 478 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,440 Speaker 3: I have a hard time sifting out all of the information. 479 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,000 Speaker 3: Now there are unintended consequences of this new model that 480 00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:34,520 Speaker 3: we're living with. You really have to be discerning about 481 00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:35,760 Speaker 3: the sources. 482 00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:41,000 Speaker 1: That you use. But I can make the counter. 483 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:47,720 Speaker 3: Argument that just relying on say the Washington the Washington Post, 484 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,120 Speaker 3: or the Denver Compost, or for that matter, even the 485 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:53,880 Speaker 3: old now dead in the grave Rocky Mountain News, where 486 00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 3: the Denver Gazette or the LA Time, whatever, pick a newspaper. 487 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:02,640 Speaker 3: I don't care by a little hometown newspaper, any newspaper. 488 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:10,240 Speaker 3: I should never ascribe to them any less scrutiny than 489 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:14,760 Speaker 3: I subscribe to anybody else that's out there acting as 490 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,840 Speaker 3: a free lance journalist. I keep picking on Matt Tayibe 491 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,720 Speaker 3: simply because of that email. But whether it's Matt Tayibe 492 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,200 Speaker 3: or Michael Shellenberg or Barry Rice Weiss or any. 493 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,360 Speaker 1: Of the others, there's just so many. 494 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,080 Speaker 3: But even then I still have to be a deserting 495 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:35,160 Speaker 3: consumer of whatever it is that they write, the Post 496 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 3: and all these other newspapers I just mentioned, and for 497 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 3: that matter, not just you know, when we think about journalism, 498 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:49,520 Speaker 3: we shouldn't just think about newspapers, because journalism ostensibly resides 499 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:57,800 Speaker 3: within electronic media. Also, whether it's television or radio newscasts 500 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:03,080 Speaker 3: or any others. They're being replaced not by a void 501 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 3: and not by silence. They're being replaced by a more diverse, 502 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:12,520 Speaker 3: more dynamic, and quite frankly, in my opinion, a braver 503 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:17,560 Speaker 3: ecosystem of independent journalists and citizen reporters. So the danger 504 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:23,400 Speaker 3: isn't too little journalism. I still maintain that those old 505 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:27,280 Speaker 3: gatekeepers are just poed that they no longer control the gates. 506 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:32,800 Speaker 3: The gatekeepers have been run over more investigator. Here's what 507 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:37,120 Speaker 3: I would argue is my evidence, more investigative journalism is 508 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,320 Speaker 3: happening outside the legacy institutions than inside them. Freelance and 509 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 3: independent reporters are taking greater risks and breaking bigger stories, 510 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:49,680 Speaker 3: direct reader to journalist relationships, think Substack, Patreon. Any of 511 00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:55,960 Speaker 3: those platforms are economically viable. The legacy media's audience collapse 512 00:33:56,040 --> 00:34:00,680 Speaker 3: correlates with their credibility collapse, and the Jefferson quote supports 513 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,880 Speaker 3: a diverse free press, not institutional monopolies. So Peggy Noonan 514 00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:08,440 Speaker 3: is mourning the loss of her guild's power, not the 515 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:13,000 Speaker 3: loss of journalism itself. The Washington Post is not democracy's loss. 516 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:17,640 Speaker 3: It's democracy's lesson about what happens when institutions forget that 517 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:20,800 Speaker 3: they serve people and not the other way around.