WEBVTT - Understanding Snapchat's Role in Political Coverage With Peter Hamby 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.319 Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, where we speak 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:13.280 with some of the brightest minds working in the media 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:17.920 business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety. I'm really curious 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.439 to see how the political conventions are going to play 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:22.680 out when they begin next week here in the US. 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:25.840 The pandemic will certainly mean a very different kind of 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.120 coverage than we're used to everywhere, from TV networks to 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:34.000 social media, including Snapchat. Home base for my next guest, 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.000 Peter Hamby, is the host of that platform's daily political program, 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.519 Good Luck America. I'm happy to have him here to 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.600 talk about this Bonker's presidential race and Snapchats place in it. 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.640 Thanks for making time today, Peter, Yeah, thanks for having me. So, 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:50.800 if this were a normal year, you might already be 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.240 in Milwaukee the side of the d n C. But 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.880 thanks to the virus this year, there's no convention floor, 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.560 no confetti falling on the frenzy crowds. So tell me 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.080 what can viewers at home even expect to see in 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:08.240 the absence of the usual spectacle. Yeah, no, you're right. 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.399 I mean, like I, my lifeblood is traveling and covering 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.959 this stuff and I and I also personally love Milwaukee 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.759 randomly like some good hotels. Spotted Cow beer is great, 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.440 so I would have loved to be there. Um. Look, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.360 you know, from my conversations with the d n c 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:29.200 UH convention organizers, you know, people my old friends at 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.120 CNN and other places, you know, I think what we're 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.160 just going to have to expect is something extremely boring. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.160 I mean, with all due respect to the convention planners 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.640 who are trying to make the convention you know, fun 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.759 and virtual, and they're trying to innovate. Um, it's going 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.240 to end up looking like a bunch of speeches live 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.960 streamed on television. I mean, that's just what it's going 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.840 to look like. And I think we shouldn't overthink it 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.600 and overcomplicated. It's going to be a lot of dry, 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.480 boring speeches, just sort of live streamed. Um. Does that 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.800 have any implications for the race though, because sometimes the 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.680 convention was the place where this candidate got a boost 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.280 or that candidate dropped. Yeah. No, there's typically a convention 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.560 boost in UH for in the polls for one candidate 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.239 or the other. But that's pretty ephemeral. Um, A lot 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.840 of a lot of there are a lot of atmospheric 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.680 things that happened in a campaign UM debates the selection 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.280 of the vice presidential pick convention um, and they can 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.360 lead to a sugar high. You know. I was covering 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.480 Sarah Palin when she was announced in St. Paul in 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.000 two eight, and McCain jumped like four or five points 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.640 in the polls, but a leveled out because they're just fundamentals. 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.919 And the fundamentals of this race are that Donald Trump 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:51.440 is deeply unpopular, that the pandemic is such a drag 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.600 on you know, him, and the economy, that Joe Biden 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.680 is winning nationally anywhere from six to ten points, and 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.160 then this wing states from due to six points in 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.960 places like Arizona and Texas or now swing states, which 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.600 is wild. Um. So the fundamentals are what they are. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.880 And I would say that the conventions, uh, you know, 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:14.320 and with all the respect to a lot of my 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.280 friends who are working in politics and immersed in this stuff, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.000 they're kind of boring in the first place and didn't 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.360 matter that much in the first place. Um. You know, 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.880 I think Donald Trump in sixteen was such a you know, 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.240 charismatic lightning rod that everyone wanted to hang on his 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.920 every word and his you know, people watched his convention, 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.280 um Hillary and him both had about forty million viewers. 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.480 I mean, Andy, I would be surprised if this commence. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.880 These conventions got sorry, the dumb one at least got 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:45.240 half of that, right. I just think people are less 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:49.560 interested in horse race politics and the atmospherics of the 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.400 campaign trail right now, and are way more concerned with 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.920 their health and the economy and their personal lives and 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.120 staying at home. And a lot of people have just 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.600 kind of rendered a verdict on Trump and are ready 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.200 for this kind of thing to be over. I would say, 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.280 like the VP pick like will get some excitement for 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.000 a few weeks, but it might not even matter that 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.480 much either. You know. That's just people just kind of 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:18.680 want the election to happen, and the usual ups and 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.440 downs of a campaign are just not being covered, and 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.479 they're not being followed except by the obsessives. Well, it 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.479 just seems like the coverage to date, and I assume 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.520 up until November is Trump Trump, Trump and Biden seeming 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.520 to deliberately hang back. Any reason to think it will 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:37.760 be any different as we, I guess head to the 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.760 beginning of the home stretch. I don't think so. I 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:42.880 really don't. I think you're smart to say that he's 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.200 deliberately doing that, because there was an early take in 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.320 the press that you know, Biden was trapped in his basement, 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.960 how will he be able to campaign? And again, back 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.560 in March and April, we didn't really We thought maybe 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.640 the you know, health scare might recede at some point 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.560 in the fall and Biden would be able to get 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.560 back out there. I think they are realizing that just 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.880 kind of a do no harm campaign is actually working. 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.760 I mean, every every piece of evidence points to that. Um. 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.880 The entire political environment, with or without the pandemic was 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.000 was about Donald Trump and Biden being a safe alternative, 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.480 which was his bet going into the primarias even before 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.479 coronavirus turned out to be actually pretty sharp. UM. And 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.960 so I don't I don't see that changing. I think 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:34.919 this has disrupted, um, the sort of usual strategies of 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.000 a campaign, and kind of an interesting and useful way 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.320 if you work in politics, right like why you know, people, 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:44.400 you definitely lose access to voters and local media markets 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.279 when you can't travel little Columbus, Ohio in Las Vegas 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:51.599 and do these campaign rallies. But you know, increasingly. Unlike 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.880 state and local campaigns, presidential campaigns were already virtual. They 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.880 were already happening on your screens at all times. It 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.520 was all about who could command attention in in the 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:04.120 era of social media and earned media. And you know, 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.039 do you need to be out there shaking hands every 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:08.640 day when you can just zoom into Raleigh and do 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:13.320 some local TV um, you know back you know, in 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:18.000 the in the veeps, in the veep stakes chatter. A 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:23.000 criticism of Susan Rice was that she couldn't she hasn't 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.800 run a campaign before, and that would be a challenge 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:27.599 for her. And I remember reading a column in l 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.000 A Times about that and thinking, what campaign trail right? 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.839 Like like, it's clear that you don't necessarily need to 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.080 be traveling and meeting voters and being on the road 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.360 to win a campaign. The thing that's lost, of course, 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.880 is voter contact, which is incredibly important right now. People 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.320 aren't really you know, amped to answer their doors when 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.960 people knock and ask them if they're supporting Biden her rump. Uh. So, 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:53.560 campaigns need to innovate and find ways to reach voters. 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.640 But I don't see the campaign changing that much between 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.719 over the next few months. Well, and what about the 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.720 John Cable News. Because you come to this, you've been 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.799 at SNAP now for over five years, you come from CNN. 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:11.560 You have that background. When you look at your former employer, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.840 cable news in general, how much has it changed from 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.920 when you were there last When you when you see 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:21.000 the Trump centric coverage, do you see it as appropriate 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.080 or as others criticize it for focusing too much on 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.600 him to boost ratings. Honestly, I think it's more a 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.040 louder like I I don't think it's any surprise that 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.800 in the last four years we've seen on all cable 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:39.080 networks a move away from uh, sort of in the 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:45.200 field news coverage back to sort of the panel focused chatter, 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.520 right Like an a block of a cable news show 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.000 will generally be like roundup of the news. Then they'll 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.320 bring in some guests in prime time. It's increasingly you 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.880 know four people or you know six people in some 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:02.440 cases arguing with each other. There there's deliberate provocations thrown 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:04.800 in the mix. Um, you know. I remember I was 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.880 in South Carolina for the primaries this year, and I 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.320 remember seeing a CNN photographer. I did a hit on 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.240 CNN with John King UH, which is one of my 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.640 favorite shows. He's one of my favorite guys there, and 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.160 he was sort of observed to me that there were 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.600 no satellite trucks down in the state in South Carolina. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.280 And to put that in context, I had covered two 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.800 previous presidential campaigns with CNN, and you go to Iowa, 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.120 good New Hampshire, go to Ohio, wherever CNN will be 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.600 all in on this stuff. Um, they would have reporters 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.800 in the field on primary nights, on election nights that 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.520 have a bunch of satellite trucks and on these states 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.040 to support their reporting cast out in the field, and 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.520 this time they only had a couple. The rest were 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.720 down in UM Charleston doing these big CNN town halls, 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.679 which have actually been really educational and the ratings drivers 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.640 for CNN UM and it's been a good innovation on 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:59.480 their part. But UH, it just represented to me that 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:05.080 a lot of the energy, UH and of coverage was 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.520 just going through the studios and panels at the bureau 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:10.640 in New York in DC and not in the field. 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.440 And I think that's you know, there are some exceptions. Obviously, 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.960 the anti racism protests that erupted recently it was a 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:21.240 real showcase of reporting muscle from CNN and MSNBC. I 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:22.840 had plenty of friends who are out in the field 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.680 covering those things. But yeah, I mean it's just everything 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.480 reverts back to Trump all the time. And you saw 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:30.920 that in early phases of the pandemic, when this was 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:35.800 a story about public health and uh, you know, the 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.200 chaos that this virus was reaking on not just this 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.280 country but the world. But it very quickly became on 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.440 cable TV like a Trump story, like what has he done? 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.080 And you can't separate Trump from the coronavirus, of course, 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:51.880 But I noticed early on a big lack of stories 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:54.000 that a lot of these TV networks were equipped to cover, 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.160 going to different countries, different parts, you know, of the world, 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.600 sort of showcase how this was impacting real humans and 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.720 not just the politics of it. Um. So that's you know, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.160 cable news has always been about politics. It was when 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.240 I worked there. But I do think Trump is still 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.160 the the puppet master of these places in a lot 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.120 of ways. Well, of course, now you're you're sitting and 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.600 covering this from a very different seat at Snapchat with 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.439 your show good Luck America. I want to give listeners 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:23.160 a taste of that. So let's just listen to a 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.440 clip here. Dr Anthony Faucci is America's point man on 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.040 the science of coronavirus. Yes, I mean obviously. Today he 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.680 joined us on good Luck America to talk COVID nineteen 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.120 conspiracy theories and whether football season is actually going to 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:40.679 happen blue. Hey, Dr Fauci, the first thing I want 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.560 to ask you about is there's this theory spreading around 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:48.240 the Internet that five G towers are weakening the immune 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:54.560 system and forcing people to get COVID nineteen poisons. Yeah, 0:10:54.600 --> 0:11:00.160 that's easy. That's thoroughly preposterous, untrue, and actually ridiculous. So 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.120 for good Luck America, for those who have not seen it, 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.960 how would you describe your approach because it is very 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.480 different from a lot of the political programming out there, 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:13.880 primarily because you're speaking to snapchats gen z crowd. Yeah, 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.960 and that there that that cuts two ways. So in 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:22.320 the United States, Snapchat reaches of all thirteen year olds, right, 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.440 So sometimes people talk about millennials, like, I think our 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.559 audience is more primarily gen Z. It's it's young, um. 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:34.520 And when I started at Snapchat in presidential campaign was 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:38.359 happening then. Uh, and that's sort of when we conceived 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.360 of the show. Um, you know, through some conversations with 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.640 Shawn Mills, my boss who runs content for us. It's 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:50.480 now just started to think about what a show would 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.480 look like on a mobile screen. And you know, mobile 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.520 video and social media, that stuff had been out there, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.439 but you know, no one had really thought deeply about 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:03.000 how to make it really engaging for vertical screen and 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.320 to fit inside Snapchat, which is really tactile. You can 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.080 swipe around and swipe up and like you're competing with 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.319 attention for your best friends, right, Like that's what Snapchat is. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.520 So the show has to really grab you. Um. So 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.360 the kind of interesting thing we found when we're piloting 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.199 the show and shooting it again way back at the 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:24.200 end of out in Iowa during the last campaign, was 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:29.319 the format itself has to change drastically. We were shooting 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.840 in vertical video to the point which was confusing for 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.040 other cameramen who are out in the field with us 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.959 in that campaign. We're telling my crew that their cameras 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:42.320 were tilted sideways. Are like, yeah, I know, man, that's 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:47.440 what we're doing on purpose. Um, So, you know, pacing music, humor. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.960 A lot of things that in the again attention economy 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.000 of the internet needs to happen to grab a viewer 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.839 are really important for our show. But the other thing 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.440 that we found is there's just not a lot of 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.120 trust out there in the world. Um. And that's true 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:05.080 for many things. It's true of universities, it's true of churches, 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:07.439 it's true of politics. Uh, and it's true of the 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.679 news media. And Uh. We have really worked hard to 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.280 kind of develop a lot of trust with our viewers. 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.200 And part of that is, you know, I I'm probably 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.040 maybe I'm one of the older hosts on Snapchat, but 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.640 I do bring credibility to the table. I can book 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.920 guests like Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci and Lindsey Graham 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:32.000 and Ted Cruz from both parties. I have experience covering politics. Um. 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.360 But I tried to at least talk like a normal 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.520 human being. Uh. And that was my m O back 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:41.320 at CNN was how do you explain stuff that sounds 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.320 kind of opaque and noisy to your grandma, to your 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:49.280 you know, seventeen year old cousin. Most people, most people 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.800 in this country do not follow politics in the way 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:54.559 that you and I do, and the way that Twitter 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.600 users do. And I fundamentally held on to that for 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:02.280 a very long time, and I ink that it's snap Um. 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.400 This goes back to one of my very first conversations 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.600 with Evan Spiegeler founder. There's just this belief that a 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.280 lot of people using Snapchat are young. They're accessing the 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:15.960 world through their phones and through Snapchat, and you can't 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.720 talk down to them. Um. And at the same time, 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.600 you can't be like that Steve Bushemy gift where he 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.760 shows up in the school with the skateboard and he's like, 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.960 how do you do fellow kids? Just this is this 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.400 is a sort of a word that's become a little 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.840 bit of a fetish and news and talent world, but like, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:35.880 you just have to be authentic. You just have to 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.200 be yourself. There's been times when I've been shooting in 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.440 an episode and my producer like asked me to say 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.520 some word like like lit or savage, right, which is 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.800 maybe the vernacular of that generation at least a few 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.480 years ago. But that's not a word I Peter would 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.680 normally say, and they just I went back to talking 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.280 like a normally would. Um, we should point out by 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.280 the way, you're thirty eight, which is relatively young. Let's 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:02.880 also be honest, you might as well be Methuselah given 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:09.600 Snapchat's demographic. Thanks for calling me out. Uh. I have 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.560 one other note on that, though, which is, you know, 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.880 I was just looking at this yesterday. People sort of 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:22.120 think young folks are um, you know, radical, or you know, 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:26.000 they only care about climate change and like marijuana, and 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:30.480 it's just not true. Um. Young people are incredibly earnest. 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.600 They are very skeptical politics, and like very much more 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:38.600 disassociated with political parties than older generations. Um. At the 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.160 same time, the top issues for quote unquote young people 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:46.240 are healthcare, in the economy. Um, it takes different forms, right. 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.200 I try to on my show talk a lot about 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.960 things right now, like debt and rent evictions. Right, those 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.040 are things that I think young people care about, um, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.600 you know, going back to school, college campuses. But those 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.800 are under the umbrella of the economy. It's not just 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:10.560 doing shows about you know, Bernie Sanders and you know, uh, 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.080 Greta Tunberg, like those are things that are important, but 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.320 they're just of a piece. Uh. You know. We we 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.400 interviewed Anthony Faucci, Joe Biden, Um, you know, this week 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.440 we had an interview up with Jamie Harrison, who's running 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.680 for Senate in South Carolina against Lindsey Graham. You know, 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.920 these are things that would appear on national news too, 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.400 they just have a different look and feel about them. Well, 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.840 anyone who's making a career out of trying to connect 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.680 with young people about something as important but challenging for 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.080 them to follow us politics. As far as I'm concerned, 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.640 that's you're doing the Lord's work. But you know, in 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.560 terms of at the end of the day, you're I 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:48.080 still think you're kind of serving spinach on a platform that, 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.880 with all due respect, is a candy shop. So is 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.640 there a risk that you can sort of, you know, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.480 mash the bitter pill a little too much to the 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.480 point where it's it's not neutral shows anymore. Yeah, that's 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:03.600 a fair question. I mean, like and I think like 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.600 all of media, you know, Discover has it's fun stuff 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:09.080 and the stuff you want to share and talk about 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:14.200 with your friends. Um, and uh, you know, more serious stuff. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.479 My dad always talked about. My parents both worked in 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.640 television news as well, and growing up in the house, 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.920 we would always have long you know, the local news 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.439 in Richmond, Virginia, and then like NBC Nightly News, and 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.840 then what comes on after that, it's like Entertainment Tonight 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.159 and Access Hollywood and like that's dessert. Like that's the 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.960 stuff my my parents would would watch too, and that's 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.840 fair like not like everyone has their interests beyond the spinach. Uh. 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.920 So again, I think that we really try to make 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:46.240 this stuff not entertaining, but just a little more accessible. 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.560 I know we're competing for attention with other platforms that 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.800 you know, sorry, other content that might be more interesting 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.159 in the moment, and like the Daily Mail and ESPN 0:17:55.160 --> 0:18:00.000 and BuzzFeed are all right there coexisting alongside. Good Luck America. Um. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.880 But you know, we reached ten million people on election 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.680 night in that's a huge number. NBC News Stay tuned 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.120 does very very well. That's NBC News is news show. Again, 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.440 I do think there is a This is something I've 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.199 noticed a little different too from the election of Donald Trump. 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:25.200 UM activated young people into politics on on in both 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.720 political parties and in neither political party. But there's kind 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.520 of like an earnestness and seriousness about politics now that 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.680 I detect among viewers versus when I first started, when 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.120 I first started, and frankly, the tone of the show 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:41.879 was like this too. Politics was still sort of a 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.840 little bit of a game and a circus, right, Like 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.600 that show on Showtime is called the Circus Um still, 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.520 which feels kind of cynical actually, but that's how a 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.800 lot of us in political media covered politics before Donald 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.920 Trump came along. Now people do want to know about 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.600 um immigration reform, and they do want to know about 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:05.879 social justice, like these are things that are part and 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:09.800 parcel with people's lives. You know. Uh, some days, sure, 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:11.840 we'll do a show and it won't do as well 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:13.280 as we like, and then some day, as we do 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.639 a show, four million people watch it. Um, Good Luck 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.199 America has two points over two point three million subscribers, 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.240 and we do it daily. Like that's a not insignificant 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:26.760 amount of people who are tuning in to hear about polls, 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:28.880 and they're tuning in to hear about activism, and they're 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:33.000 tuning in to hear about um you know these days 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.880 like you know, Joe Biden and swing states like those 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.159 are things that used to be very nerdy and now 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:44.240 they're kind of mainstream. Um. So I'm confident just based 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:45.679 on the fact that I'm still here and doing this, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.639 and people are watching that. There's a hunger for this 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.600 stuff alongside things that are fun, which is normal. I mean, 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.520 like we all want escapism from this moment too, sure, 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.000 and Snap's got plenty of that. A lot of other 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.040 digital platforms have that. You know, you talk about the 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.800 scale of your show of the platform. It's interesting, you know, 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.240 I think people have sort of lost sight, frankly, of 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.439 how big Snap is. It's got more daily users in 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.960 Twitter and TikTok combined. I mean, but it seems to 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.440 have a lower profile, and it's almost in a good 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:21.399 way because I think it's avoided a lot of the 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:26.520 controversies that have engulfed the big tech platforms. How do 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:31.040 you describe the perch that Snap is? Does it differ 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.760 in any way from the other digital platforms? How's it 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.040 really kind of escaped the harsh glare that a lot 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.000 of the other digital platforms seem to be under right now. Like, 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.280 I agree with you that I want to get into 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.800 that that we are sort of forgotten in some ways. Again, 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:50.800 this is more like a press insider thing, um, But 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:57.000 I don't think we've escaped attention or notoriety. UM. On 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.919 some of the misinformation, sort of fake news, privacy safety 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:04.760 stuff that other platforms have because we're sort of forgotten. 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.040 It's because I think we have the right values around 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:12.040 these things. I mean, there's nothing like stopping these subcommittees 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.840 on the Hill from pulling Snapchat up in front of 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.880 them to testify. We don't get caught up there because 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.960 we don't have the same problems the other platforms do. 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:22.640 You know. Part of that is the way the platform 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:26.720 is constructed. You know, it's not it's it's constructed to 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.280 be sort of a more at least on the on 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:33.240 the quote unquote social media side, more connective between your 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.639 close friends rather than broadcasting outwards, so we're not suffering 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.760 from the kind of like algorithmic virality problems that other 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.000 people are um And then on the other side, on Discovery, 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:49.600 we've taken like a curated approach to news and content. 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.480 We work with trusted partners, not just in news but 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.600 in media. We act as gatekeepers for them and we 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.639 work with them to make sure the content is not 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:02.119 only good and compelling, but it follows our guidelines. And 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.280 you don't see that with the other platforms who are 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.119 just sort of playing whack a mole according to the 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:14.639 news cycle and whatever happens to them outside. Um, so again, 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.520 I'm a journalist. I came here from CNN after a decade. 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:20.919 There's a reason I came to work here. Wasn't just 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.359 like to work at a cool tech company. Is because 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:28.879 I believed in the vision around news and content and 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:31.399 the idea of what I just said earlier, that we 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:35.199 have a unique opportunity to reach an entire generation of 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.560 people that are disconnected from news cycles. That adults are, older, 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.840