WEBVTT - Karol Markowicz Show: The Evolution of Blogging and Media with Ed Morrissey 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:04.720 Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Marco which show 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:05.720 on iHeartRadio. 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:08.119 My guest today is Ed Morrissey. 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.840 He is the managing editor of Hot Air and the 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:12.280 author of Going Red. 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:12.640 Hi. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:14.000 Ed's so nice to have. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:15.280 You on, Carol. 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:16.480 It's great to talk to you again. 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.079 We've known each other a million years, like really a 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:26.200 million in internet in the internet world, way before there 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.200 was a Twitter or an ex We got to know 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:30.800 each other in. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:31.600 The blog world. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.160 And there's been one or two changes since then, would 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:36.880 you say that, couple? 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.000 There have been a few changes over the years. Yeah, 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:39.400 you know. 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:40.880 It. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.280 You know it's been. It's been one heck of a ride. Actually, 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.960 you know it's I wouldn't have traded it for anything else. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:48.600 This is it's been a great experience. 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.519 You've always been very positive and I always enjoyed that 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:53.960 about you. 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:55.720 You've been in Hot Air how long now. 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:58.360 Well, I've been at hot Air now it would be 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:00.680 seventeen years, and say. 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.840 Seventeen years and internet land is like one hundred years. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.919 I'm ancient, Carol. I have reached the old man shaking 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.240 fist at cloud stage of my life and I am 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.640 fully willing to come on here and say get off 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.640 my damn lawn and turn down your radios. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:17.640 And but you don't say that very often. 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:19.840 I feel like, again, I think I see you as 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.160 very like positive, optimistic. 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.240 Just you know, a friend to all. Would would that 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:26.920 be accurate? 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:29.959 I certainly hope. So that would be a lovely way 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.200 to actually have come across in life, so that it's encouraging. 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:34.760 So yes, I mean that's my aim. I don't know 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:36.080 how well I pulled that off. 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.840 Yeah, So how did you get your start in writing 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:40.600 or in media? 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:43.560 Well, I've always wanted to do writing, and it's just 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:45.240 a question of what kind of writing that you want 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.960 to do, right, And so I thought I'd be a 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.560 short story guy, and that didn't work out. Number of 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.200 a number of rejections from all of the leading magazines 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.520 from that era, Yeah, told me that that wasn't going 0:01:58.560 --> 0:01:59.920 to be my path. And then I was trying to 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.760 novels and I wrote three of them, and you know, 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.000 Garth Brooks has this song it says thank God for 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.800 unanswered prayers. Yeah, I am so happy that none of 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:13.440 those three are actually out where anybody because they weren't good, 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:18.360 you know. And then I took up blogging, honestly, Initially 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.160 the thought was I need to be more disciplined about 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.520 writing every day. You know, I was a call center 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:25.760 manager at the time. I was actually not unhappy with 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:27.960 that career. But I don't want to write, and I 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:29.880 thought at some point I want to publish a book, 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:31.640 and I thought, well, the way to do that is to, 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.520 you know, get in the habit of writing every day. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.200 And then blogging came along. I started doing. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.040 That and here did you start? 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:42.799 Late two thousand and three and. 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.440 What was your Your blog was called Captain. 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.239 Captain's Quarters, Captain's Right Up, and it was it was. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:52.840 It was an ongoing thing from two thousand and three 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:54.880 to two thousand and eight. When I came aboard hot Air, 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.880 you know, they required me to shut down the old 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.359 blog and redirect the traffic to hot air. But it's 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.480 still out there. I think right now there's some difficulty 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:06.920 in accessing the archives, but I do pay to have 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:08.920 the archives maintains interesting. 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:12.840 Wow, so I don't have my blog was called Alarming News. 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:14.359 I don't have it anymore. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.840 I let my domain name lap. 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.880 Somebody snapped up that domain name and I don't have 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.840 archives of any of it. And I feel mixed about that, 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.680 because like I would like to go back sometimes and 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:29.600 look at what I maybe wrote in the past. On 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.360 the other hand, I find a lot of the just 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.800 the way I used to speak very embarrassing. Or when 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.440 I see like old Facebook, you know, status messages from 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.080 fifteen years ago, I'm like, oh. 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.360 God, that was awful. I talk like that. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:45.920 I don't understand why you feel that way, because I 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:47.880 loved Alarming News, and I thought you did a great 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:48.440 job there. 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:50.360 But but you know that when you when you read 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.400 the past, you the way like just the way I 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.360 would turn a phrase or yes, I don't. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:57.920 Know very yah. 0:03:58.160 --> 0:03:59.600 Yeah, I go through the same thing looking at my 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.360 old stuf too, But but I mean, Alarming News was great. 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:05.200 I loved the Alarming News and it was great domain name, 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:06.880 which is the reason why I got snapped up. I 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:11.360 don't think anybody's going to snap up Captain's quartersblog dot com. 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:12.960 But you know, you never know. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.839 I use it for some email purposes, to personal email purposes, 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.640 so I just keep the I keep the site running, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.200 and I think I need to alert them that it's 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.240 not coming up. You know, it was like a few 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:27.120 months ago I realized that there was some issues with it. 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.520 It's a high priority for me that I still haven't 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:34.039 filed AATA, of course, but eventually I will because I 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:35.200 do like to go back and look at it from 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:35.719 time to time. 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:37.960 So what do you see as like the major change 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:38.880 from those days. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.680 Well, I think, you know, it's more professional, right. I 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:47.440 think substack has a little bit of what the blog Yes, right, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.640 substack is kind of what the old blog is beer 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:52.120 was like. But I got professional and the reason was 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.719 because we all got better at what we do. You 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.640 got professional. I got professional, and it's because we we learned. 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.119 And you know, those of us who survived that era 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.600 exactly so, because you know, we we were able to 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.040 improve ourselves over time and remain dedicated to it. A 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.960 lot of people just had lives, right they were, but 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:14.960 they just had lives. 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.479 Yeah they had data, Yeah, no lives. That was life. 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:21.880 But I remember that. 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.760 Era of when bloggers started going professional and they just 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.600 they like the major you know what we call the 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:35.479 mainstream news outlets started MSM started hiring bloggers and that 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:37.919 was the end of it, really, and it was for me. 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.560 It was actually w n y C Public Radio in 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.360 New York. They needed like a token conservative and they 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.080 hired me and the Post hired me from there, and 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:49.280 it was, you know, kind of the end of that 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.040 for me. But yeah, it was the people that were 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.800 really good got snapped up. I'm not saying I was 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:56.120 really good. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.480 I'm just saying that's that's. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.640 Kind of how it was really good because you were 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:02.120 really good. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:02.479 Thank you. 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.679 But Hot Air has been so instrumental for so long 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.919 and so in the mix of the conversation. 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.640 Is that hard to maintain? Just just the sheer length 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.360 of time that you guys have been around is impressive. 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:22.400 Well, thank you. First off, I appreciate that. It's it's 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.880 you know, it takes an effort, right, and from time 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.360 to time we fall back a little bit. From time 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:30.480 to time we catch up a little bit. And I 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:32.960 think that you know, we were brought up by again, 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.360 we were brought up by Salem fifteen years ago, just 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.120 a little over fifteen years ago, and which is great. 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.040 I love Salem. I was working with Salem prior to 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.760 that and local radio, and then now I work for 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.520 Salem and I'm very happy about that. And they've challenged 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.000 us from time to time and they said, you know, 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:56.560 one of the things that made hot air. So I'm 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.320 trying to think of the word that they use. But 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.280 basically what us was the fact that we were able 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.000 to react fast to it, right. 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.360 Right, I'm going to say timely, But that wasn't quite 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:07.320 the I knew what you were looking for. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:12.040 Yeah, that we could jump on emerging stories with you know, 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:17.440 some basis of already acquired knowledge and comments on it 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.120 intelligently immediately. 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:19.720 Right. 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.520 Sometimes we forget that and we get a little bit 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.320 too lost in our think pieces. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:29.480 Sure, right, there. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.840 Is something about that immediacy that we've we've lost. I mean, 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:34.680 I guess we have it on X now, but then 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.600 it's not quite the same as as the blog post 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:39.560 of the of that era and what. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:40.160 Hot air does. 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.840 It's like I'll see something that I want to write about, 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.280 I'll write it, and then four days later it comes 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:48.040 out you know in some some outlets. 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:50.000 That's that's a lag. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.840 You know, that's not the immediacy of getting it up 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:57.200 on your site and having people react right away exactly. 0:07:57.360 --> 0:07:59.720 And sometimes we have to sometimes internally we have to 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.000 remind ourselves of that is that the thing pieces are great, 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.680 but stuff that could run today tomorrow or that are 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.480 you know later in the week generally aren't what is 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.680 driving eyeballs to the site right now. And so I 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.800 mean you have to have a mix because I think 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.920 that those thing pieces are incredibly important, so that we 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.720 can to a certain extent philosophies about what our approach 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.680 is going to be when breaking news stories actually come up. 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:26.920 We've kind of firmed up in our minds that, you know, 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.160 how we're going to approach things. Yeah, but you still 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.000 have to be on top of the news cycle. And 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.800 that's that's the trick. You know, it's hard to stay 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:36.360 on top of a new cycle, especially lately. 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.320 Well, yes, that's like a mile a minute. 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:44.000 Israel is still under attack. Missile fire has resumed from 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:49.240 Huti's has Bulah and Hamas enemies teeking Israel's destruction. Here 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:53.040 in America, we cannot imagine living under a constant threat 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.760 of terrorism and rocket attacks. This is the reality in Israel. 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.560 Parents taking their children to school, falling to the ground 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.600 to lay on top of their small children, trying to 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.360 comfort them as sirens blair. The next attack against Israel 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.840 is happening now with little time to prepare, So we 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.800 must act now. That's why I'm partnering with the International 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.720 Fellowship of Christians and Jews to help provide life saving 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:23.040 aid and security essentials. Your urgently needed gift today will 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:27.840 help provide security essentials like bomb shelters, black jackets, and 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:33.840 bulletproof vests for first responders, armored security vehicles, ambulances and more. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.239 Join me in standing with Israel. Call to make your gift. 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:43.040 At eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ that's eight 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:47.040 eight eight four eight eight four three two five, or 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:53.160 online at SUPPORTIFCJ dot org to give one word support 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.320 IFCJ dot org. 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:00.760 What do you consider your be You know, for me, 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.320 I consider myself a generalist, right. I try to write 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:06.600 about lots of different things because lots of different things 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.679 interest me. But I think, you know, hot era. I mean, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.400 I think the beat is really the breaking news cycle, right, 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.920 and that's again we have to kind of attune ourselves 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.240 to that. But I like to write about the economy. 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.000 I like to write about you know, policy, Policy is 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.560 really what matters most to me. I'm not big on 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.120 the personality driven type of stuff in politics. I'm more 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:31.280 driven by policy and philosophy, you know, ideology, whatever you 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:36.080 want to call it. And then you know, I do 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.200 other things to amuse myself. I used to write quite 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.560 a few more film reviews than I have lately, just 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:44.040 because I just haven't had time to go out to 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.680 the movie theaters. 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:46.720 Not because films are bad. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.920 Now, well, it's kind of fun to write reviews for 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.840 bad films, I have to admit, but. 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:55.360 Not the watching of the bad film I watched that. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.439 My movie watching has like plummeted to zero, just because 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.120 every movie I watch is so bad. 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:02.240 And then I and. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.959 It's always like the critically acclaimed movies that I watch, 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.240 and they're just terrible, and I can't do it anymore. 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:11.760 Don't even get me started on the Shape of Water. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.200 It was so bad when I when I got back 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.320 to my house and wrote the review, which I did 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.280 the night I watched. 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:20.839 That, like giggling as you wrote it. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.520 I was more grinding my teeth as I wrote it. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.120 And I wrote in there, this is so bad. I 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.080 predict it's going to win a lot of awards this 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.880 coming season. Of course, one's Best Oscar, Best Picture Oscar, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.600 and I actually pulled that forward after it won just 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.560 to say I told you so. But it's kind of 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.280 fun too. It's kind of fun to be that critical 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.000 to feel the release of being that critical. Sometimes when 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.199 you really love a movie, you're kind of defending it 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.720 to a certain extent. Yeah, So, I mean that's a trap. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.679 I mean you have to recognize that if you're going 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.040 to write criticism, you have to recognize that that's a trap. 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.959 You have to be fair, right, right. You can't just. 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.640 You know, I love this movie, the act on stuff 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:04.880 that you. 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.520 Don't like and this, oh you know, just skip the 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.760 fact that this film I really love doesn't have an 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.760 act two and half of it. Act three is missing 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:12.200 as well. 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:17.440 I overlooked it. Why can't your actly? Yeah, what do 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:18.240 you worry about? 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.200 You don't worry about being wrong, you know. To me, 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.280 it's I mean, everybody's wrong. Everybody makes mistakes. I'm not 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.559 so much worried about making a factual mistake, although that's 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.959 always embarrassing when you have to go correction. I'll tell 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.079 you what I did just recently was kind of fun. 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.240 I had written something about what Tara Palmery wrote. She 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:41.320 had interviewed Michael Rosa, who was a Biden aide, and 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.400 he was He admitted in a public forum while she 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.680 was interviewing that that they were kind of gaslighting people 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.959 about Biden, right, And she had written this thing at 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.640 Puck saying, wow, this is kind of a big deal, right, 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.120 and I wrote this thing. I said, well, she didn't 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.400 really get the context, right, that wasn't just about twenty 0:12:57.440 --> 0:12:59.120 twenty four where their gaslighting thing, and go all the 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:00.719 way back to twenty nineteen and this and that and 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.120 the other thing. She ends up dming me on Twitter 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.160 and asked just so that she she asked if I 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.760 could include her YouTube thing that went with it. I 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:11.840 was like, oh, yeah, sure, and we ended up. She 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.280 ended up. I ended up interviewing R and QQ a 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.120 few days later and it was great. But I realized 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.800 while I was adding the YouTube that I had misspelled 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.760 her name throughout the entire post as Paul Meery. Right. 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.200 So I said, by the way, I apologize, I've misspelled 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:29.800 your name all the way through this, And she said, 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.640 did you, Jennifer pauiery me. This is all you know, 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:36.800 I particularly this is sort of off the record, but 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.839 we discussed it on air, so I'm assuming she's fine 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.600 with this. It was all in good humor, and I 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.680 said yes, and you know, I tweeted it yes, and 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:46.760 then Hank's head in shame, you know, in parenthesis. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.040 Right, So you're such a good guy, like I just 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:50.440 you're too. 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.000 Good for all of this, honestly, you know, it's it's 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.640 those kind of human moments that sort of make it fun, 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.719 you know, And then you have the people who are 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.600 pills who you just decide that I'm just not going 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.839 to I'm just not going to engage people that are 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.640 miserable and and I don't want to. I don't want 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.120 to talk about those examples because it's you know, that 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.040 person should be those people should be on this podcast 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.400 if we're going to have that conversation. So I'll just 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.200 see that it happens, it happens, and you just move on. Yeah. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.760 So have you been wrong a lot in your career? 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:25.520 Well, I don't know about a lot. I hope not 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:27.880 a lot, right, I mean I've been wrong. I mean 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.400 I've gotten some things wrong. We're've had to go back. 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.680 I guess the big the biggest example was the you 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:37.600 know polling analysis in twenty twelve, which enraged when when 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.080 when Obama ended up winning that year, our readership was 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.480 furious with us and a lot of them left them 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.200 didn't come back. Yeah. Well, and I I said, we 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.160 blew it. You know, we were doing that whole unskewed 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.680 the polls thing. Sure, and it turned out that the 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.680 polls really didn't need to be unskewed, but sometimes they do. 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.040 You're sort of like, it's a it's a tough spot 0:14:59.080 --> 0:14:59.800 to find yourself. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.239 Sometimes the poles really are skewed well. 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.400 And they have been right, they were before, they've been since. 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.280 But I've learned not to assert data that I don't 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:16.080 actually have. And you know, we were re manipulating the data, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.440 assuming that had been manipulated in the first place, and 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.480 we were just flat out wrong, right, So I wrote 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.920 at least two, you know, apologies to readers for that, 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.240 and I end up writing a book about that sort 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:33.440 of tangentially right, and you know, that was an enjoyable 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.840 experience too. But yeah, that would be one of the 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.360 bigger things that I've gotten wrong. And I mean, I 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.960 spent months getting that wrong, so you know, I should 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:43.640 own it since I spent months getting it wrong. I 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:45.240 put a lot of hard work into getting that wrong. 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.200 Very fair though, I mean, again, I think that so 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:52.080 long ago, and I you know, there's been again opportunities 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.640 for the polls to be and skewed since then. But 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:59.720 it's very noble of you to take that blame responsibility, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.200 however you want to say it. 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.560 You know how noble it is when it's really patently 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:05.560 obvious to everybody and you're just owning up. 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.480 You can let people forget it. Nobody will ever, you know, Well, yeah. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.440 Yeah, I guess, yeah, I mean, but I mean you asked, 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:13.360 And so that's a pretty good example of it. I've 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.240 gotten factually thinking things factually incorrect that on a couple 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.440 of occasions, I negated the entire point of a post 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.920 that I wrote from which point you just put, you know, update, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.720 I got this wrong. Everything below here is no sense 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:27.800 you know you got that? 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:33.480 Yeah, yeah, And so the beauty of blogging versus publishing 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.240 in a newspaper right there. 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:39.440 Though, right right, you know. And honestly, I've gotten columns 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:42.000 early on. I think I got one really wrong for 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.520 The New York Sun, and I I actually just quit 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.120 writing the column. I was so embarrassed by it. And 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.880 this is early in my blogging career. Yeah, they didn't 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.880 ask me to stop. They were kind of unhappy with 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.600 the fact that I'd gotten something pretty significantly wrong. It 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.960 colored the conclusion of the whole point of my column, 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:02.560 and I wrote back, and I, you know, it was 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.399 abjectly apology, you know, abjectly apologizing for it. And they 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.760 were nice about it. This is not The New York 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.840 Sun's issue. But I was so embarrassed by that it 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:13.520 just I just decided I didn't want to write a 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.240 column for a while, and later on I picked up 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:16.640 I picked up columns. 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:17.879 Down the road, so too good. 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.240 What advice would you give your fifteen year old self 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:22.679 for sixteen year old self. 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.000 Oh, my goodness, you know, I have a joke answer 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.320 for that, which is to stay, which is to say, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.320 either be a left handed relief pitcher or a police 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.760 kicker for football, because you can. You can. You can 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.360 spend twenty years doing that in your uniform will never 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:38.879 get dirty. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.520 But I feel like you like getting your uniform dirty. 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.600 I know I do kind of even back in those days. 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.320 I kind of like getting the uniform dirty, you know, 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.240 you know. And then the obvious answer is finished college, 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:53.000 which I didn't do. 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:53.560 Wow. 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:55.600 I don't think I would have listened to that, though, 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:57.280 because that was the same advice that my dad was 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:02.240 giving me constantly during that same period. I was and 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:06.159 I've written about that a couple times. I think at 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:13.040 hot air, and I think that if I was, you know, 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.199 to seriously address this question, what I would say is one, 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.600 connect to your faith, because God is going to be 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.080 very important to you, and the sooner you connect to that, 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:27.520 the better off you're going to be. And the second 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.280 thing would be I would say, don't And this is 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.800 something I've told people. There's two things to remember in life. 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.840 It's never as bad as it seems, and it's never 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.640 as good as it seems. And you know, when you're 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:41.520 sixteen years old, you're going to spend the next ten 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.159 years going through really difficult highs and lows. And you 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.359 look back and you go, why was I you know, 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.240 why was I despairing over that situation sort of thing? 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:54.920 And the moment it's everything. 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:56.960 It's everything, and that's part of just growing up to 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:58.840 you just learn that. And I don't think I don't 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.840 think you can hear that advice, and sure anybody actually 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:03.879