WEBVTT - Even More Hyper-Partisan News? Becket Adams on A&G 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.520 This headline from Beckett Adams and The Examiner caught my 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:06.120 eye today We're well past the point of urging the 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:10.039 press to do better. Something is seriously wrong that after 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:12.680 a couple of giants stories in the last four days 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.120 that everybody went crazy with and turned out to be 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.560 completely wrong. And a related headline from Beckett the irony 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.360 of the media going all in on a selectively edited 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.560 video from the March for Life. T Beckett Adams coming 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.080 to your writer for The Washington Examiner, joins us. Now, Beckett, 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.280 how are you, sir? I'm great, Thanks so much for 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:31.320 having me. Oh, it's always our pleasure. I have about 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:33.879 as much hope for the mainstream media as I do 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:38.239 for conservatism in Berkeley, California. But um to be interested 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.720 to hear your perspective from the belly of the beast. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.239 Why so? Why so? Glum? Well, He's the thing is 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.319 that the free press and uniti dates has always been 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.440 a political animal. It's it's members for decades and decades 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.920 have always pulled for one political party or another, sometimes 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.400 more outright, sometimes more subtly. But where we are now 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.800 is beyond sort of the newspaper endorsing a candidate or 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:09.120 a newspaper condemning one party. This is descended our our 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.840 national newsrooms have descended in a sort of hyperpartisan culture 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:17.160 war battles where you know, up as down, white as black, 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.440 and the truth doesn't matter. What matters is getting the victory. 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:23.399 So we had these two big stories. We had the 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.600 BuzzFeed report which claimed that Trump directed Cohen to lie 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.520 to Congress, obviously crime, and then we had the story 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.360 about these teams of Kentucky who supposedly be rated, abused 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.280 and harassed an elder leading of American protester. There was 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.400 not a moment's hesitation among our largest, most powerful newsrooms 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.280 and some of the biggest reporters, the most famous pundits 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.760 who both both of these newsrooms and the pundits just 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.440 grabbed these stories. I mean they sunk their teeth into 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.880 it and they ran with it. There wasn't there was 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.360 not so much as uh at this moment where people said, well, 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.400 these are some interesting allegation, is there any sort of 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.040 co operation? The problem is these stories so perfectly fit 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:10.960 into preconceived notions and worldviews about opposing sites in the 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.440 culture ward that they ran with these stories. And later 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.480 it turns out uh, Special counsel Mueller's team came out 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.560 and dispute at the bus right story. We we've we've 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.920 covered all that and we I think we're everybody's up 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:22.680 to date on the stories that came out and how 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.440 they turned out. But the greater overarching picture of you know, 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:28.840 something needs to be done. What is wrong? I'm just 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.840 wondering there has to be a there has to be 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.200 some sort of push. What would be the mechanism that 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.200 would push back for for all sides? Right now? If 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.799 your audience loves these stories so much, I'm not sure 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.040 they care if you get it wrong. Dang it. I 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.240 was hoping that with true was true? Turned out it 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.640 wasn't tell me the next exciting story? What you know, 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.280 what's the bound side to do in that? Right? That's 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.120 that's exactly the things so sort of self right, just 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.320 as we get from so many in the press when 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.120 the scripture starting a well, at least we try to 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.120 hold ourself accountable. It's important to recognite at the other 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.040 King story was less than twenty four hours after the 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.320 BuzzFeed scroupt. There there was not even they didn't even 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.680 take a break. The next thing and the other thing, 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.119 the other main thing that I think it's been lost 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.560 on people is that these weren't big, complicated mistakes. There 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.560 were obvious red flags in both stories from the get go. 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:19.480 That which is why I actually just finding myself and 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.160 my colleague stayed away from both the bus seed story 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.000 and the coverageing story until we had more information because 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:26.760 the way that they were both initially reported and the 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.120 claims were being made, there wasn't enough proof for that. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:31.640 And here we are. It turned out later like, oh, 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:33.840 I'm glad I held off on this, but I don't understand. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.040 Are these institutions, with their bodies and bodies of fact checkers. 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.520 There was not even a moment to wait, but here 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.280 mentioned but here's the problem. What's going to be the 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:48.240 correcting mechanism? As I said, the exactly. Joan and I 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:50.960 are right, Joan, I ha, Joe and I are in 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.640 your camp where we try to like, if that sounds fishy, 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.360 let's wait and see or do some research. I'm not. 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.880 I think there's more money, more viewers, more licks, more eyeballs, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.160 more ears, and just going with whatever serves your side 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.320 that seems. And you know, Jill Abernsman, she's got a 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:08.640 new book out. She was the editor of The New 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.200 York Times. She's come out and said The New York 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.120 Times is doing better than ever um with subscribers and 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.000 everything like that. While they have lost their way, they 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.240 now have opinion in their news stories, So what's the 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.200 correcting mechanism. They're making more money this way than they 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.799 were the old way, so i'm too. I'm two minds 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.360 on this. One is that at some point I think 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.479 there will be a sort of countermeasure. There's always a 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.880 counteraction too, super sort of cultural movements. Right now, I 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:35.480 think we're in the middle of a cultural movement where 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.440 newspapers have decided that they are in the business of 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.240 resisting and not on the business of reporting. At some point, 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:42.480 I like to think that the pendum is going to 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.720 swing back because I hope my my hope is that 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.919 the like overeating the press, the polic will eventually feel 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.320 like it has gorged itself on nonsense and wants to 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.200 return to just a plain, simple, tidy diet of just 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.839 fact reporting. I'm not sure overeating is the best examples 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.760 You've been to the Walmart recently, but that's really what 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.880 this is. It's gorging on like partisan operative thing. Yes, 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.000 but you said the pendulum is gonna swing back like 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.839 the eating and it hasn't just keep getting the other mine. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:14.560 It is that kind of what I feel like, maybe 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:16.599 it's time to go full Colonel Kurtz on this and 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.159 just burn all the old institutions to the ground and 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.200 rely on on the ground independent reporters, because I feel 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.240 like the old institutions are so broken down, these old 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:30.000 dinosaur networks are so entrenched that I don't know if 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:31.880 you can come back from this now. I think you're 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.440 right about that. Beckett Adams is a commentary writer for 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:38.520 The Washington Examiner. You know, I think the pendulum, if 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.400 it's going to swing back to calm, reasonable, cheery reporting, 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.200 we'll do so when there's a progressive president, and I 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:49.599 think they'll they will rediscover their you know, they're they're 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:51.640 even handed tone and the rest of it. I just 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.800 justper times call for desperate measures, and media is desperate 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.080 right now, so you're seeing them do desperate things. I 0:05:58.120 --> 0:05:59.920 think that's part of the institute, is that a lot 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.080 the reporting that's going on is directly proportionate to the 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.760 tone from the White House. That seems natural to me. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:07.480 But this is also part of the reason why I 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.240 avoid the calls to join these sort of unions of 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.840 civility and let's have a banded stavility where left and 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.119 right reached across the aisle and will stand together, because 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.880 I am pretty certain that that will last for exactly 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.320 four or eight years before people go back to being 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.440 in a coma and not caring about what the executive 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.920 is doing. I'm in a band called Unions of Civility. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:33.760 We play all it's very mellow better it sounds just so. 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:37.080 Are you hopeful or hopeless? I'm hopeless. I'm completely hopeless 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:41.080 that this is going to get better anytime soon. I'm hopeless. 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.800 I thought it would actually take a bit longer for 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:45.960 the press to go from scrounging through a Supreme Court 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.119 nomine yearbook for proof of wrongdoing to scrounging through random 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.599 teenagers from Kentucky yearbook for proof of wrongdoing happening about 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.440 two or three months. But here we're well said, yeah, indeed, 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:59.159 so Beckett a different topic. It strikes us and taking 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.520 in the media over the last well, let's say, from 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.920 Friday to today, a real change in tone even among 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.960 the left leaning media about the whole shutdown controversy, and 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.720 we're hearing a lot more. Boy, both sides look terrible 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:18.920 commentary even from the CNNs and MSNBC's signaling perhaps a 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.120 coming to the table in the offing. I think there 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:23.960 might be some of that. I think Trump's address on 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.520 Saturday kind of moved the needle and not necessarily in 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.880 his favor, but away from democrats favor, and he offered 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.880 temporary protections for Dreamers in return for funding. And I 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.960 think it's not being lost on people that the hold 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.080 up here is that he's asking for funding and they 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.240 are refusing to come to the table so far as 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:41.640 to you know, turn down the invitation to come to 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:43.800 the White House for lunch to discuss it, which is 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.400 funny because later they back to Democratic leaders backtrack and 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.960 well he didn't specify what he wanted to talk about. 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:51.840 What else are you thinking about? So I think a 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.160 lot of this it isn't I think that the cars 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.400 are still in the Democrats favor because the longer this 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.880 goes on, it does hurt Trump, who did claim response 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.400 before it even happen. If you're calling that that Oval 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.680 Office meeting, so it is to their benefits stretched it out, 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:07.640 But I do believe that some of its shifting away 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.880 because it just keeps going on and it's clear that 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.400 both sides aren't budging, and then that will only benefit 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:15.600 one side for so long before people just say, both 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:17.920 of you know you don't stop this fighting right now, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.240 I'm gonna turn this car around. You know. I love 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.280 you Beckett, and I love your writing. But the whole 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.160 Trump set in advance, he'd take a responsibility thing I 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.360 think is overrated. That is, that's a in the know, 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.600 uh chattering classes. And I'm including myself in this description 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.800 a piece of information as it becomes more and more 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:39.040 about blue collar people t s A inspectors, for instance, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.160 who can't pay their childcare costs and they can't pay 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:43.679 for the gas to commute to work. I mean, a 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.400 lot of the calling quote unquote calling and sick. It's 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:48.680 not just a protest, it's that I got I can't 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.920 pay for childcare for my kid. Um As that narrative 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.000 grows and grows and grows, and Donald J, for all 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.559 his false is saying I have an offer on the table. 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.320 I'm willing to compromise. Can you come and we'll talk 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.120 and compromise, And Nancy and chuck stick, dude, No, we 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.880 won't discuss it at all until you reopen the government. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.640 I don't think. I don't think Middle America is worried 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:11.720 about what Trump said a couple of months ago. But 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.720 as long as I squeeze is on, like I was saying, 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.000 like that, the White House, You're absolutely right, the White 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:17.840 House meeting is it is in the weeks, but that 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:22.400 is something that they constantly bring up in fundraising supporters. Sure, 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.440 you are right. As long as this is it's continued 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.360 and people start to actually feel the squeeze, I don't 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.400 think any amount of well he said it was his 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.640 and all that their problem is gonna matter at the end. 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.199 It's just noise and I don't care who's that fault. Again. 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.079 It kind of feels like a parent with noise of kids. 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.800 I don't care who's a fault. Just stop scriting. Okay, 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:40.920 you know I said that the other day on something. 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:42.760 I said, if you're getting a fight over this, I 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.040 don't care who started it. We're not gonna get to 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:50.360 do blank doesn't make any difference. Just have it. Um Uh. 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:52.160 I had one more on the other topic because I 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.480 can't let it go. Here's what It's confusing to me. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:56.480 If I'm at the New York Times of the Washington 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.960 Post and I hate Trump, how do you not recognize 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.680 that when you get these big stories wrong, you have 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.160 handed Trump such a tool, such a hammer, and given 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.839 him so much help. How do you not standing in the 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.520 the newsroom and say, people, we can't get any more 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.960 stories wrong at all, or we're gonna get Trump reelected 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.800 the years I've been saying that for the last three years, 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.280 I don't know. This is the thing that makes that 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:24.440 I find so funny is that you have we have 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.640 this over and over and over and over again. Newsroom 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.720 comes up with a big, thinly sourced story, everyone rushes 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.320 to it, it falls apart, and then frum goes see 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.800 and then they go, well, how dare you point that out? Sir? 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.839 We try like, well, look that works maybe the first 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.240 or or you know, first, second, or third time this happened. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.320 We're on like the eighteenth iteration of this story, and 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.319 it keeps happening. And the thing is that probably all 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.600 these these stories that are thinly sourced and fall apart, 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.520 they all go in one direction, and they are all 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.080 stories that point to wrong doing by Trump. At some 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.080 point if this were this is where the conspiratorial side 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:58.719 of me getting engaged at some point. If these were 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.360 just honest mistakes that all of Averages stated would state 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.920 that at least one would go in Trump's favor them 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:06.520 do and then he all he has to do is 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.200 come out and go see And you're like, well, you 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.360 make a compelling argument. I don't know what to say 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.400 to that. Yeah, no kidding, Beckett Adams, he's a secret 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.400 after truth. Imagine that coming to your writer for The 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.560 Washington Examiner, Beckett, it's always fun. Thanks a bunch, Thanks 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.280 so much, good to talk to. You're right, if it's 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.560 just mistakes, you would think there'd be the occasional goal 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.400 in the other direction. No, it's it's not. It's enthusiasm 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.520 run wild. And the enthusiasm is entirely to take from town. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.400 But if you hate Trump, as Jack points out, your out. 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.920 But I'm the Captain from Captain and Sinil died what 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.400 about a week ago? God rest his soul, and we 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.880 appreciate a service to our country. You're listening to the 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:48.920 arm is Strong and Getty show conscious of the nation.