1 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:08,440 Speaker 1: There is a great deal of political commentary and social 2 00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: commentary that examines the collapse of trust between institutions and 3 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:20,919 Speaker 1: the American people through a static lens. It observes the 4 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:27,160 Speaker 1: existence of the breach without much pondering about why it occurred. 5 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:33,559 Speaker 1: Why has there been such a fraying of the bonds 6 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: of respect, of the capacities for trust between companies and 7 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:46,159 Speaker 1: the American people, Between brands and the American people, Between 8 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: political parties and the American people, Between high political officeholders 9 00:00:52,440 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 1: and the American people. Institution after institution has lost trust. 10 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 1: Now most of the media coverage focuses on a specific 11 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:15,319 Speaker 1: dimension of the collapse of trust, a quarter of it, 12 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: if you will, if you think about it like a 13 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:27,320 Speaker 1: pizza round and sliced, And that portion is the collapse 14 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: of trust between the American people and their government, between 15 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: the American people and their candidates, between the American people 16 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,520 Speaker 1: and the Senate, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And all 17 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 1: of that is true, deeply so. But there is also 18 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: a corresponding collapse of trust, for example, with big tech. 19 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 1: Giant tech companies were once deeply admired. Today they are 20 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly distrusted and broadly feared. There is a wide consensus 21 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:13,360 Speaker 1: understanding the capacity of these companies to reak true havoc 22 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:20,080 Speaker 1: while returning little benefit. The days of Google proclaiming itself 23 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: as doing no evil and Facebook being a happy place 24 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: and social media being benign are long gone. The American 25 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: people know that trust was breached. But it's not just 26 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: with big media, or the big insurance companies, or big 27 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:49,919 Speaker 1: medicine or big agriculture. The list goes on. It includes 28 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts, where there are seventy eight thousand allegations 29 00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:01,640 Speaker 1: of sexual abuse. It includes the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, 30 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:09,839 Speaker 1: the Southern Baptist Convention. Everywhere there is a powerful institution, 31 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:19,800 Speaker 1: it seems there is hypocrisy, malfeasance, and wrongdoing everywhere, including 32 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:26,800 Speaker 1: the media. America's media companies have become reviled by the 33 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:33,079 Speaker 1: American people. The American people do not believe them because 34 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: what they see is the daily production of conflict, Its 35 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: manufacture division for division's sake, for billions in profit. The 36 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,040 Speaker 1: American media, of course, is not monolithic. There is a 37 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: material difference between the Fox News and the New York Times, 38 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: we're told, and there is in many ways, But there 39 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: are also similarities that must be talked about because they 40 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: speak to the corruption of a national spirit and a 41 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: degradation of the American people and their ability to tell 42 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:23,360 Speaker 1: what is real from what is not, what is up 43 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: from what is down, what is read from blue and 44 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:32,159 Speaker 1: blue from green. On the election evening, Brett Baer was 45 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,960 Speaker 1: terrified to tell the Fox News audience that, in fact, 46 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,359 Speaker 1: Donald Trump had lost. It helped set in moment a 47 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:49,919 Speaker 1: national crisis. It helped inflame and extremism that threatens the 48 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:57,039 Speaker 1: existence of the republic. Fear of the mob can be 49 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: that powerful, and it can be that degrading to both 50 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:11,920 Speaker 1: truth and any sense of journalistic integrity. James Bennett is 51 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: the former New York Times reporter, opinion page editor, an 52 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: editor of The Atlantic magazine. He is a towering figure 53 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:28,359 Speaker 1: in the modern era of American journalism. He is a 54 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: reporter who has traveled to every corner of the world 55 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:40,000 Speaker 1: and every inch of America. He has covered every type 56 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: of issue, from the elderly as he explains, to conflict 57 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 1: and war in the most dangerous places on Earth. He 58 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:59,279 Speaker 1: writes about the crisis at the New York Times and 59 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:07,479 Speaker 1: a collapse of journalistic integrity and absolute immolation of the 60 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:15,039 Speaker 1: time zone standards and a rising tide of dishonesty and 61 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: intolerance and ends justify the means double standards in the 62 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:31,960 Speaker 1: pursuit of ideological conformity and dogma in an institution in 63 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 1: the United States that is part of the United States 64 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:45,760 Speaker 1: inextricably so that exists because of the First Amendment that 65 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:52,600 Speaker 1: has turned so utterly hostile towards it. With James Bennett 66 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:57,120 Speaker 1: shows and demonstrates is that The New York Times has 67 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: become so broken that it actually takes clear language and 68 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: distorts its meaning, changes the clear understanding in English of 69 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:23,120 Speaker 1: what it says to fit a narrative that conforms to 70 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: the sensibilities of what is a mob of New York 71 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: Times journalists who are aggrieved, brittle, and hostile to the 72 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 1: expression of any thought, opinion, or idea that does not 73 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: conform ideologically to the mean of the mob. It helps 74 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:04,680 Speaker 1: me understand some things so much better, such as the 75 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: years I spent on television, and at the second the 76 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: camera would go off and we would go to commercial break, 77 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: how many of the reporters and all of the ones 78 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:21,720 Speaker 1: at the New York Times would pick up their phone 79 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: and look at it. Staring at the Twitter, no doubt 80 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: reading what is the mob saying? Enforcing? How do I conform? 81 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:44,319 Speaker 1: What James Bennett tells is a tale of utter madness. 82 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:48,160 Speaker 1: He tells the tale of what happened when he dared 83 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 1: to print an opinion stupid, although it was by United 84 00:08:57,559 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: States Senator Tom Cotton. What happened? What happened with the 85 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:11,080 Speaker 1: words are violence, crowd that an idea is a physical attack. 86 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: Let me explain clearly, with this type of smug arrogance 87 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:26,559 Speaker 1: and hostility to truth, embrace overtly of double standards, and 88 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:34,960 Speaker 1: the despising of any idea, it isn't ideologically rooted in 89 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:42,679 Speaker 1: the dogma of identity politics. I'll explain what it has wrought. 90 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:51,800 Speaker 1: There are no people who can claim credit more so 91 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:59,240 Speaker 1: than Arthur Salzburg and deemed back At with their access 92 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:09,040 Speaker 1: journalism and intolerance and smugness that have been more of 93 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:17,960 Speaker 1: a wind beneath the fascist wings of the Trump eagle. Truly, 94 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:26,120 Speaker 1: it is amazing, and I encourage everybody to sit down 95 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:35,160 Speaker 1: and read read the details about the gravest journalistic scandal 96 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 1: of our time, and that is the shattering of the ethic, 97 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: the ethos, the tolerance and the embrace of Americanism at 98 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 1: the New York Times. Read it, understand it, Appreciate it 99 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: for what it is. It is a warning about a 100 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: growling authoritarianism of spirit. It demonstrates a weakness in our 101 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:22,160 Speaker 1: democratic fiber. If The New York Times doesn't respect the 102 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:29,000 Speaker 1: integrity of dissent and the power of the First Amendment, 103 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: If The New York Times is filled with brittle children 104 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:43,080 Speaker 1: who need trigger warnings to confront the mob, then American 105 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:52,440 Speaker 1: journalism stands on a line of near irredeemability. It is 106 00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:59,160 Speaker 1: certainly facing a deep crisis. It says a lot that 107 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:09,000 Speaker 1: mister Saltzburg decided to directly address mister Bennett's descriptions and journalism, 108 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:15,440 Speaker 1: not with participation, not with responsiveness to the questions in 109 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:23,840 Speaker 1: the story, but after the fact, denunciations and clarifications. Who 110 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:29,360 Speaker 1: else does that remind you of? It looks like the 111 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:33,720 Speaker 1: publisher of The New York Times has embraced the fake 112 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:41,679 Speaker 1: news strategy. It's not surprising because in the end he 113 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:49,040 Speaker 1: shares something with Donald Trump, just like Deane Baguette, and 114 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:53,960 Speaker 1: that is a deep contempt for the American people.