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Good morning, everybody, Happy Tuesday.
We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal, indeed we do so.
We've got confirmation hearing set to start today. Pete Hegseth is up first, the nominee for Secretary of Defense. We're also taking a look at the way that some of Trump's nominees have changed their tune on key issues in an attempt to get across the finish lines. This very interesting stuff. There got a bunch of media news for you. Jen Rubin is leaving the Washington Post and starting a new venture with the very interesting launch video, so I'll show you that.
The big news though.
Is MSNBC Rachel Maddow is being put back in on a nightly basis, at least for the first hundred days of the Trump administration. I think an indication of how much MSNBC is struggling in the ratings and sort of trying to find regain their identity and planned for the future, etc. So really interesting development. There, huge potential news in the least maybe inching close to a Gaza ceasefire deal. The details on how that was all achieved. Obviously, the timing
is Trump is set to re enter office. All of this very significant, very interesting, so we'll dig into that. Also have some updates for you on a potential TikTok sale. So there was a report that they might be looking at selling to Elon who knows, they're denying it, I don't know.
It's interesting.
We've also got the leadst back and forth with Steve Bannon just absolutely torching Elon Musk in this continued sort of intra mega war. We are going to once again attempt to have Matt Stoller on today. We had some kind of technical issue. Yesterday, we wanted to get him to weigh in on Mark Zuckerberg's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast and what he had to say there, in particular about the CFPP.
So we're going to try for that again.
I think we've got all the tech issues resolves, so it should be good to go this time. And James Fox has a new documentary out about the UFO program, so Soccer's going to talk to him about that.
I'm sure that would be quite interesting.
It will be interesting. Indeed. James one of my favorite UFO filmmakers.
He's made some phenomenal films and documentaries in the past. Highly recommend you guys watch them and we will show you where you can, as well as talk to him a little bit about what we learned. But as Christal said, the hearings are off, we are off to the races. Pete Hegseth will be in the box today very shortly after we finished taping this show actually on Capitol Hill. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen.
Pete Hegseth will be the first of Donald Trump's nominees to appear before the United States Senate for him confermation hearings but quickly followed within the next week or so that you guys should pay attention to. So after Hegseth goes up, A Chirsty Nome is set to testify on Wednesday at nine am for DHS Secretary. Marco Rubio will be at ten am Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Pam Bondi will also be up before the Senate Judiciary
Committee this week on Thursday. You also have some hearings that have yet to be scheduled, which is kind of interesting. Those include RFK Junior for Health and Human Services, Cash Patel for FBI Director, Linda McMahon for the Secretary of Education, and Tulsey Gabbert. Now, the reason why those in particular have been held up is that you have some of these nominees who are going through the vetting process and the ones who appear to be a little bit more precarious.
Although we'll talk about this, I think we both generally where they're probably all going to make it, it just could be more of a rocky road. One in particular has been Tulsa Gabbert, who has not been able to get a confirmation hearing scheduled and has herself come under a lot of pressure to change some of her past positions on FIZA, So let's go ahead and put this
up there on the screen. This was a key signal from Tulsa Gabbert she was willing to play ball with the Republicans by completely reversing her past posisue a past position on section seven oh two of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. You guys have probably heard us talk about it in the past, but if what it all comes
down to is it's section Section seven oh two. Reauthorization has been a key issue actually since the beginning of PISA, but in particular became a bipartisan issue after it was used to spy on Carter Page, the Donald Trump associate twenty seventeen is his key part of Russiagate lore. So Ever, since that happened, there's been kind of a maga push to try and to end section seven oh two.
The deep State has fought tooth and nailed to keep.
It and they've succeeded, And frankly, this is just more evidence of why they succeed Jenator James Langford of Oklahoma literally said he's like, I will not vote for her unless she reverses a position on seven oh two.
And she was like, Okay, the only one and he was not the only one. He's the only one who said it out loud.
We'll recall in the House of Representatives Mike Johnson who previously had said some interesting things on seven oh two, Mike Turner who's in the Intelligence Committee chair, and others significantly pushed and all of a sudden, miraculously seven oh two just sails through the House GOP. And I'm talking about hundreds of people in the House GOP have spoken against section seven oh two. Here again with Tulsia I, I don't think you can find a figure who is
more emblematic of the at least bipartisan push. Originally she went from literally Democratic Republican. But I think we could say she's generally been skeptical of the deep state, etc. In the past, and for her to switch her position on this is really disheartening. I mean, it just means that even here, when you have people who have had this long time position and who want to get through the confirmation process, that is un you know, it's basically
it's just not possible to be confirmed. And then also it just shows if you're willing to play ball on this, what are you going to play ball on next time? You have a lot of talk about Epstein files, JFK files. People often they're like, why are you so pessimistic? Or whenever you know, I meet a lot of people, people are very excited. They're like, Oh, we're really going to get the files this time. Like, yeah, maybe you know, I would love to listen. Nobody would love it more
than me. But you know, I've seen too much of this game here in Washington, and this is perhaps the most high profile example.
Yeah.
I mean Telsea has changed her political stripes in any number of ways and shifted her positions on any number of issues, but this is like the core of what she has like consistently stood for. And just as a reminder for people, I'm sure you have heard US and other programs talking about Section seven zero two. Effectively, this was you know, passed alongside the Patriot Act. The idea was that they could target foreign individual for surveillance.
But in the context of.
That, if that foreign individual happened to be talking to a US citizen, guess what, you're scooping up all their communications as well? Then not only does that occur, and we're talking a mass amount of US citizen communications getting swept up in this, then not only does that occur, but US agencies that are able to do these backdoor searches of that valance data that they have pulled without having to obtain a warrant. So this is effectively an end round around, an end run around.
The Fourth Amendment.
Allows what I view as a legal, unconstitutional searches and surveillance of Americans, again without a warrant. There was a huge fight during the Biden administration about the reauthorization. It ends up being reauthorized. There were claims that there were some reforms put into this reauthorization, which was set to last for only two years, so time to just sort of last out the Biden administration.
Part of those reforms.
Actually, what privacy advocates, civil liberties advocates, people like Tolzi Gabbertt.
Herself said is that in reality, they.
Actually because the wording on these quote unquote reforms was so loose, they actually expanded the capabilities under Section seven oh two. They opened it up, for example, to you know, requiring the collection of data coming through data service centers, and even the language is so loose that it could require someone who's like a janitor at a data center to pull data and spy on their fellow Americans.
So that was the quote unquote reform.
So anyway, Section seven zero two, it has not been dealt with, It has not been improved. There are no reforms that have made this any less damaging and any less concerning if you are a civil liberty's advocate. And yet that's exactly what Tulsi pointed to in this statement where she completely reversed this course announceays, now.
I'm good with that.
I don't really care, think that it's all fine and good now. She says that she was My prior concerns about FISA were based on insufficient protections for civil liberties, particularly regarding the FBI's misuse warrantless search powers on American citizens. Significant PISA reforms have been enacted since my time in Congress.
To address these issues.
So she says, reforms are passed, We're good to go now, don't need to worry about it. And our producer Griffin pulled a SoundBite of Tulsi just eight months ago. We're not talking years and years, we're talking just eight months ago after these supposed quote unquote reforms passed, saying that the reforms actually made everything worse. She decried the very reforms that she's now saying have alleviated all of her concerns.
Let's take a listen to that.
The bill that would reinstate or extend the PISA authorities, the Foreign Intelligence Security Act authorities for another two years. Section seven ZHO two of FAIZA gives our government the authority to surveil foreign actors, essentially to try to identify
terrorist threats. But part of that is they have the ability to capture all of the conversations if you talk to somebody in another country that they're interested in, they can then go in and capture all of your information as an American citizen, and they can do this without
a warrant. This has been in place for quite some time, but this legislation that was just passed recently expanded those authorities so they can go and actually look at like your your WiFi history, if you're connected to Wi Fi, they can look at everything that you did connected to that Wi Fi signal, and in some other ways, it's it took an already bad problem and made it many many times worse. And again they're just saying, well, it's for national security. The problem here is that's the thing
they ow, That's the thing they always say. And it's like, you know, the I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said, if you know, if you are choosing security over liberty, you will neither be secure nor will you have liberty.
So there she is saying those reforms that she's now saying, oh, they alleviated my concerns. She says that those reforms took an already bad problem and made it many many times worse. And you know, I like, obviously Tulsi completely flipping on this to get through the confirmation process. The cope on seeing is like, oh, she's saying what she needs to and then when she gets in there, she's gonna go return to form. Just tell me when that you've ever
seen that happen before in Washington. Well, and I don't want to let Trump off the hook here either, because he has also said that Section seven zero two was a key priority. And you know, perhaps if Tulci is left there out on her own, as she kind of has been to get through the confirmation process, she's got
to bend and twist to these senator's whims. If Donald Trump came in and said, no, this is a priority and this is happening, You're going to confirm Tulsi Gabbard, Tulsi Gabbard would get confirmed holding onto her previous principled position with regard to sections.
That's always my opinion.
Yeah, that's always the issue, and this is part of the problem that president cannot unilaterally just stop the seven oh two authority. And you can try in terms of how it works with the intelligence community, but as you see with congressional reauthorization specifically, that's why they always hang their hat on it, and it's the one thing they
have always gone to war for. I remember reading like in the past former I think it's former NSA director being like, this greatest single threat to the US intelligence community is to not renew Section seven oh two.
Now, I mean, look, let's take.
Him at his word, and if you don't like the intelligence community and you don't like the current methods, maybe we should not reauthorize it. But that is certainly part of the problem here. And just for people who see this is how Washington works, guys, and I saw Glenn Greenwalley did a fantastic segment about this, about the problems with seven oh two, and exactly about how DC you know,
have shaped people to shape people. Even the people who are outsiders, the total outsiders, who were you know, like Tulsi Gabbard, even they can be brought to heal. But I will say, you know, it's not just Tulsi. Let's go ahead and put a four please up on the screen. A lot of these people, again outsiders, are colliding with the legitimate political system, and you guys will see that that does not mean that they have the authority that
we may necessarily want them to have. So as you guys saw with seven oh two, we just showed you. But RFK Junior actually on two key positions. One is saying that. One is saying he said, I'm quote all for the polio vaccine. This is despite some pass advocacy against that. I have seen some people say like he was talking about a previous version of the polio vaccine. I'm not one hundred percent certain on that, but what I do know is an absolute flip flop is abortion.
Because he assured Senator James Langford that he, as the HHS Secretary, would not use any state or taxpayer funded resources to go towards organizations like Planned Parenthood or others, and that if there were some movement within the Trump bureaucracy like against the what is the abortion pill that's currently moving through the US mail system and others that which again the HHS, Secretary of the FDA and these other organizations have significant regulatory authority over that, he would
not interfere. So that is one where he's previously a pro choice Democrat. You know, I'm a pretty key litmus test issue, I would say, but has changed. We also have here Pete Hegsath, who has previously opposed women serving in combat roles. By the way, today that is going to be the number one thing you guys are all going to hear about, So brace yourselves. I was just reading this morning that the Senate Armed Services Committee has
seven Democratic women on it. Two of them one of them is Elizabeth Warren, but one Kirsten Gillibrand not a lot of people know this. Literally one of her key issues in the Senate is women in the military, and specifically adjudicated eating sexual assault in the military. She's previously tried to take it out of the hands of the U. Cmjan and make it like civilian thing. Terrible idea in my opinion, but whatever, well, fine, it failed.
The concern was that oftentimes women were having to report sexual assault up the chain of command to people who you know, either may have had a close relationship with the abuser or may even be the abuser themselves, that there were problems with the previous system.
We'll put out saying the previous system was perfect.
But anyway, this just has all been adjudicated and it did not work or it did not pass. My point is is that those people, I think Maji Orono as well, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, are going to significantly press Pete hexeth on the women in combat roles. To one of them, Tammy Duckworth. Obviously, she was wounded in combat. I think she lost two of her legs, so that's going to be a set piece. And they're also going to be pressing him on previous allegations against him.
There's some talk here about the FBI reports. So if there's anyone that's going to be explosive, spicy for media content and anothers, I think the Pete Hegseth one certainly today. I also think the RFK Junior one is a sleeper. I mean, this is still not one where you're one hundred percent on confirmation. But as I said at the top, I have a reasonable expectation that all these people are going to get confirmed. Trump has stuck by all of them.
He brought Joni Hearnst Jonie Ernst to heel. She previously had been trying to, you know, stop Pete Hegseth's or Pete Hexets nomination. She is also a major proponent of women in combat, former veteran herself, and I believe she didn't she say she was previously. She's a sexual assault survivor anyway, So my point is that she had some objections to him, but and she also wanted the job herself. Now it seems that she's either endorsed him or she's like,
I'm willing to hear him out in confirmation. Hexeth may have some of the biggest trouble, but you know, Tulsea Gabbard cash Betel and Tolsey Gabbard cash Betel and RFK Junior I think are going to have some of the toughest confirmation hearings, especially with the way that the Democrats are going to try and to create viral moments and more political increy and create political conditions to make them unconfirmable.
But considering what we've seen so far, I don't see anything other than some crazy kind of black Swan event happening that would prevent any of them from being able to take their position.
I think they're all likely to get through.
I think Telsa is probably the one that is the most dicey because I don't think a single Democrat will vote for her. I mean, you know, these things are personal. Are a lot of these way like she used the turncoat in terms of the Democratic Party, So they're not going to be excited to vote for her, and then they worry about her different foreign ties, et cetera, et cetera.
But and Republicans are going to be the hawks in the Republican Caucus are also going to be somewhat skeptical of her, which is why this section seven two thing was so significant. Her changing her stripes on this one is so significant in an attempt to get herself across the finish line, because I think she felt that especially without you know, again, I think if Trump came in and said, Tulsi's my Tulsi is my pick. I wanner through. I will punish anyone who doesn't vote for her. Section
seven oh two is a key priority for me. You are not going to block her nomination over something that I support and is my agenda, the will of people.
Blah blah blah.
I think he could get her over the finish line without her having to change her stripes, but that's obviously not the way that things are playing out. So again, I think she'll get through. I think hers might be the one that has the biggest question mark.
And then you never know, you know, what could come up in an.
FBI report that causes the problem, you know, that sort of wild card situation. Is there something that we don't know about these various picks that could ultimately come out. But given the fact that number one, the Republicans have really you know, when Trump said vote for Mike Johnson, and they all fell in line.
They voted for Mike Johnson.
Right when he called up Jony Ernst and said you're gonna behind Pete Haigsath, I'm assuming is what happened. She was like, all right, fine, I'm going to be behind Pete.
Hegseth.
So I think the Republicans are going to fall in line, and some of the Democrats are going to vote for I think the Democrats are going to vote for more of these picks than they voted for Trump's picks back in twenty sixteen, because they have decided a good number of them have decided that they're not really going to resist the Trump administration in the way that they.
Did last time around.
There's just less of a desire to fight on some of these things. So yeah, I think these picks are all probably going.
To get through, Which brings us now to one of the most hilarious parts of all of this is, as you said, the fall apart of the resistance. That's a good transition, so perfect example and how different this all is.
Let's put this up there on the screen.
The Washington Post editorial board has now issued endorsements for all of the Trump cabinet nominees, and hilariously, they endorse all but four of those nominees Pete Hegseth, are FK Junior, Russ Vout for the Office of Management and Budget, and the d n I Tulsey Gabbert. Now, I think why this is ironic and kind of hilarious is just that. It shows you how the Washington Post under Bezos is trying to strike this balance of resistance audience with respectability
Washington institution politics. Now you can have one, you cannot have both. And as we'll show you soon with their traffic numbers, they're actually getting neither. But some of the most hilarious ways that they endorse people you can just read. For example, Marco Rubio. Here's why they endorse him. The son of immigrants. Rubio is respected by Senate colleagues and understands the vital importance of American leadership.
That's it. That's the that's their entire.
Jeff Bezos tune on why you should confirm him. For example, on Pete Hegseth or RFK Junior, they just say with Hegseth, the former Fox who's anchored, lacks the temperament and moral fiber required to lead the Pentagon. He persuaded Trump to pardon accuse war criminals, and as a well documented history of womanizing and heavy drinking, though he says he'll give up the bottle if he gets one of the most
sensitive and powerful jobs in the world. So they're switched between like incisive things that they want to criticize others on and for those though, like Doug Bergham, they say the outgoing North Dakota governor and Stanford MBA built a successful software company that he sold to Microsoft.
That's it. That's that's the only thing that they write for.
So the reason why this is funny is you have to pair this endorsement and all of that with what is also going on over at the Washington Post. So let's move on to the next one, shall we. Washington Post traffic from semaphore has gone from twenty two point five daily active users in twenty twenty one.
Just out January sixth, that was the piece right.
Just after January sixth, to about three million, three million, So you guys can do the math on what that means daily active users down to two point five to three million, So that means that they have had a sixty percent decline now currently in the overall traffic numbers, just month over months since they decided not to do
that endorsement. And then The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that the Post revenue fell from one hundred and ninety million in twenty twenty three to one hundred and seventy four million just last year. Keep in mind, both the one hundred and ninety and one seventy four figure are not enough to cover.
Their bills, and Bezos is still losing.
Some one hundred million dollars or so per year operating the paper.
Now they've done significant.
Layoffs and all of that, but part of the problem behind all of this is that the only time they were ever in the green and profitable is by highlighting the very resistance figures like Jennifer Rubin and others who were plot Twist has decided to leave. The paper will show you in a second, but all of their democracy dies in the darkness branding, et cetera. It might have made Bezos a little uncomfortable and at odds with Trump, but it was the only market based success that they
could ever achieve. By ditching that, they both have gone from a paper that just, I mean breaks some news, not a ton great journalist. Obviously, we have Jeff Stein here on the show, but it's not an institution in the same way the New York Times is at all. But also by ditching the Resistance and then trying to find this like almost like journal esque medium, they just have no identity.
So it's a good.
Example of whenever you're just constantly moving your principles around, especially your customers and others, you're going to find yourself in a position like this.
Now Bezos is filthy rich and he probably just doesn't care.
But you know, if you run the paper, this is still like this is a what, second largest newspaper in the United States, one of the most nationally known papers in the entire world, and it's basically collapsing in front of our eyes, Like it's not inconceivable that this revenue drops below one hundred million this year with all of these crazy cuts and things they're trying to do over there, and that more and more of their star journalists and others who are the only ones who brought in traffic
are just gonna leave. So okay, I mean that seems to be the case. All the top reporters I know of then sign are gone.
They all left. Yeah, I just decided they don't want to deal with it anymore.
Yeah, I mean, so the just to go back for a second, the cabinet endorsement thing, which is not a thing I've ever seen any paper do before, and it's just like wo weird exactly, and that the analysis.
Is so shallow, like form immigrants.
For Christino dog jokes aside, she's served in Congress in two terms as governor of South Dakota, so we give her a thumbs up. It's like, okay, but like, what does she believe and does that qualify her to be a homeland securities I got have to go to.
Population is less than one million, by the way, so just so.
We're all aware.
But the other thing that's ironic too is five seconds ago they were like, we don't do indiments.
Yes, we had good point.
People decide.
Oh now suddenly when you're going to endorse almost all of Trump's nominees, suddenly you're back in the endorsements game. Low and behold. So yeah, they've destroyed their brand. They built a brand very explicitly around Trump resistance. Unlike you know, the New York Times really bought a bunch of businesses and tried to make it more than even just the news at all. They have all these other verticals that I think in many ways are more profitable even than
the main news business that they engage in. Bezos really went all in on Trump resistance, and by the way, there's still a market for that a dramatically underserved market at this point, given the fact that the Post is out of the game. You know, MSNBC has Joe and Mika making their lull sojourn to mar A Lago, and we'll get back to them in the second. CNN the Democratic Party themselves like bending the knee in many instances,
all of these tech oligarchs, et cetera. Remember, I mean, yes, Trump won the popular vote for the first time Republicans have a mandate, but he also only won the popular vote by one point five percentage points. There are still a lot of people in this country who don't are not excited about him being president, are critical of him and want to see that reflected in their media consumption.
So yeah, the brand is completely destroyed. As you said, Soccer, like, who is this for at this point, because it's certainly like MAGA is not looking to the Washington Posts for their directions, And I think it's very clear that, you know, for Bezos, the Washington Post is like a little blip on his bottom line. It doesn't matter whether it's profitable
or not. What's much more important to him is how Amazon does his larger and like the cloud computing business that he has as well, which is a huge part of his bottom line. Under the first Trump administration, he felt, I think correctly that he was blocked from a significant government contract because of an adversarial posture Pisa VI Trump and he is not going to repeat that mistake again.
So you know, that's where his bread is buttered, and that's you know what he is going to shift the paper in the direction of you Also recently think we covered this while you were away soccer. There was a cartoonist who had been at the paper for years and years to award winning, surprize winning whatever, who had submitted an editorial cartoon that had Bezos and Mickey Mouse and
the La Times owner and some other oligarchs. Zuckerberg I think was I think was one of them, basically like bending the knee to Trump, and the cartoon was blocked, and so she decided like, Okay, that's it, I'm out of here. And that's actually what Jen Rubin also cites that cartoon being blocked and that cartoonist departure for a part of her justification for why she was ultimately going
to move on. So yeah, I think, you know, as a business obviously it's already a catastrophe, and I wouldn't look to them for any like really serious critical reporting because Bezos is only going to let that critique go so far because of his other business interests and not wanting to get crosswise with this company.
Yeah, which is why it's hilarious. Let's put this up there on the screen about Jennifer Rubin. She has announced her departure from The Washington Post and has decided to join us in the independent sphere, starting a startup publication called The Control not owned by any hilarious Yeah, could, it's just crazy. There is nobody less contrarians of those like Perveros.
I don't know if people know that she was like, you know, a mid Romney published a rock War supporting like neo Khon conservative and then you know, she makes this transition in the Trump era, which okay, fine, but you know oftentimes too she's one of these Obviously Magga hates her because she doesn't support Trump, But I mean, where is she even really politically is a really open question, because she seemingly has completely flipped a lot of views
in the Trump era, which is convenient for a Washington Post audience, where she is and was like very popular, So it actually is kind of a blow to them that she is leaving.
Oh no, no, business wise, she's number one every time.
It's crazy.
Yeah, but anyway, who are you she?
Yeah, she has a big audience there.
So the fact that she's leaving, I mean it really genuinely is a significant development for them.
And you know, I mean, on the one.
Hand, it's like, all right, you are standing by your principles. You don't want to be controlled by you know, Bezos or bend Anita Trump or whatever.
Okay, but it is funny to call it.
The contraryan when like, if you want to know what Beltway conventional wisdom is, just go and read a Jennifer Ruven post and you will be well schooled. And what the like conventional wisdom of this town is at this point.
Absolutely, That's why I'm excited for these people to get into the independent sphere, because they have no idea truly what it actually means to cultivate an audience.
You have to build a sustainable business to.
Be able to operate without Jeff Bezos cutting you w two income every year, be totally insulated from what it means to actually like fend for yourself so welcome, Jen. We're happy to have you here in the sphere. Let's check in in a year, shall we.
Know what I actually think they might be successful. I to be honest with you, I actually because this.
Market is a video first, take care.
But I mean this market of like Trump resistance, is really underserved at this point, and she is a known quantity in that space, and so I.
Wouldn't write it off.
I think it could be.
I think it could be. From a business perspective, I think it could be a successful mentor.
I think it's possible.
But I mean, look on the independent side, it's not like it isn't saturated either.
You got the Bulwark. You got that.
Lady what's her name, Heathercox Richardson something like that.
She's huge.
I mean she she is one of the top substacks in the country. Yeah, these Midas touch dudes. Look, yeah, my not my cup of tea, but they're big, Like here's my thing. I don't like it, but I know that they're at the I mean, I'm pretty sure they are funded by Democratic super PACs and all that. So let's it's not one hundred percent legit, but but but anybody who can command a million views of video. I pay attention, you know, I mean, somebody's out there. I've
actually met Boom. Actually I was in La and I was no San Diego and I was in an uber and this guy was like, he's like, you look familiar, you know whatever. And then he's like, it's I think I've seen before on the Midas Touch, and I was like, no, that's not me, no idea. But then he's just telling me about how much he loves the Midas Touch and how they've they've really opened his mind as to how Donald Trump is the next Hitler.
Here's what I was like, Hey, you know, here's what I respect.
Someone is there not too like self serious to dig into the like diaper Donna.
Oh absolutely like they will.
They will chase every rabbit hole and so bad. Listen. That's what's allowed them to build it on.
And I think that, like, there is a lot of churn in the liberal media space right now, and a lot of people who are very dissatisfied with the Post, with the Times, and with MSNBC and CNN, and who are totally radically changing their media consumption habits right now.
So that's why I think there is an opening, like if you're a liberal in that lane and you're starting something new, I do think that they're as an audience there to potentially, you know, capture and become part of their daily media diet.
Now you know, there are no.
Bad ideas, there's only bad execution, and they may well suffer from pad executionists we're about to see in this launch video, which we've now teased extensively. But but you know, I'm just saying like, I do think if they do a good job with it and fill that market need, I do think there is an audience out there for them.
It would not surprise me successful.
As we said as to their chops self. Though, here's the launch video that they had.
Take a listen, do politics.
We're gonna do law, but we know that any successful pro democracy movement also has to be very vocal about culture. We'll have a humor column, we'll even have a cooking column, but we're gonna sprinkle in a little bit of pro democracy flavor.
What is energy?
I love that energy to see you want to find out? You gotta subscribe?
Fine? Ounce are all right?
Jen? What was she the best?
All right, let's go ahead and move over to MSNBC where there are very interesting doings and put this big blockbuster news up on the screen. So you guys probably know Rachel Mattow had taken a step back from the network. She was focusing on her own, like you know, longer form productions and only hosting the show once a week plus. They would bring her in for any like big breaking news and she would sit at the desk with all
the other you know, primetime anchors whatever. Alex Wagner had been brought back in to fill her a belief nine pm slot on those other nights when she's not hosting. Well, they are bringing Rachel back in to host five nights a week and sending Alex Wagner out into the field for Trump's first at least first one hundred days, is what the plan is. They say it's a broader move by MSNBC to draw viewership to its coverage for.
That first one hundred days.
And they talk about the numbers in this variety piece and just how catastrophic they have been for MSNBC after Trump's re election. They see between the election and the end of twenty twenty four, their primetime audience between the age of twenty five and fifty four. That's the only thing that matters. By the way, the key demographic is the only thing that matters, because that's what advertisers pay for ads based on dropped by sixty five percent. Sixty
five percent according to data from Nielsen. They're making a couple other new moves. Jensaki is going to launch a podcast called The Blueprint with Jensaki that's going to look at the future for the Democratic Party, like she's the one to tell us what direction to go. And Chris Hayes is going to debut a new recurring segment called here is What Is True that will scrutinize misinformation tied to news coming out of Washington and how it affects
political discourse. But this whole direction saga, it just smacks of utter desperation because and I do, actually, I mean, I do think that Rachel may be their only host a laugh, who really has that kind of like trust and credibility with the audience, especially after that Joe and Minkavis a Tomorrow lago.
It was devastating to them. It was devastating in the morning.
Joe numbers immediately in that same day that they announced that they did that their numbers dropped some forty percent hour over hour. That's in a morning show, and audience share is supposed.
To build hour over hour.
And I really think that that stench of Trump capitulation has damaged the entire network. Not to mention just normal, like okay, the other team one, like this is really depressing.
We don't really want to watch news right now.
Like that's a common dynamic, and potentially they could rebuild from that they did last time that Trump won as well. But also last time they had Rushi Gate, which you know was oversold and you know this elaborate conspiracy theory, but it made for That's part of why they indulged in it so heavily. It made for compelling viewing because every night it was like, oh my god, what's what piece of the puzzle is Rachel Maddow going to unfurl and explain for us and help to fill this in?
And what's going to be the dramatic conclusion, et cetera, et cetera, all this cast of characters, and that's really how they made their comeback in the Trump era. It's not clear what would serve that same role this time around. Democrats in general are in disarray there's no coherent view of how to oppose Donald Trump this time around either so they're not all you know, or is they're not
all rowing in the same direction. So the only thing they can think to do is basically bring back in the one person that they know still has the trust of the audience and see if she can write the shit.
But the problem is with this strategy is she already left.
So you're I mean, they probably had to pay a boatload of money to come back for this one hundred days.
What about after that?
You know, are do they is the plan that, oh, they'll find their footing. I mean, I'm assuming that's literally what it is. They're like, Oh, we'll figure it out. We'll see what the peg is.
To rebuild those viewership habits.
That's because you know, it's really important to know the media was not the creator of the resistance.
It was like a dual pathway where.
Yes, MSNBC and all these other people invented Russia Gate to feed the resistance, But the resistance was a thing. I was here in d C. There were people marching up and down the streets after Donald Trump won. The day after Trump won, I was at the Trump Hotel for a work thing, and the entire place was flooded with protesters. I remember the Women's March. It was impossible
to even get around to this. What was it four million people showed up here in Washington, d C. Remember all those videos of the ladies in their hats on the planes.
It was big. It was big, all right, cringe but big.
But you know, it was the thing, and there was clearly like a demand for that type of content. That's part of where it came from. This time, I don't see it as much, not at all. I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of people out there don't like Trump or they won't to see it something a little bit different, but they're not. It's not like an nine to eleven style event to them, and they're tired or they have just been they've.
Heard it all before.
So that level of engagement, the illegitimacy that they viewed him as because he didn't win the popular vote, a lot of the arguments are just gone. And at this point everything they possibly could have done has been tried, you know, arrest, you know, the core cases. Michael Lavnati com even they are probably rolling their eyes at this point. No, they just have to say, I can't take this shit anymore.
I think I think it is that exhaustion. It's not that they are any less depressed about his victory. It's like we tried everything, Like we were in the streets, we marched.
We protested, like we didn't watch Rachel Mattow every night.
You know, we tweeted about drump We did we you know, he got arrested, he got charged, he did January sixth, and you know, people saw with their own eyes the you know, the extremism, and there was this mass revulsion against the actions that he took, in the actions he didn't take on that day. And I think the sense is like, yeah, we did all that and like it, none of it worked. And even we you know, managed to get Joe Biden out of the way and have a better chance at least at being able to succeed.
So I think this time, and there's also in twenty sixteen, he really felt like an aberration, especially because he didn't win the popular vote, and they're always you know, Russia and Komi, and there were all these like, oh well, and Hillary runs a bad campaign and maybe she was a uniquely bad candidate and so there was this sense
of this was a blip, and that's not the sense now. So, yeah, there's not the same grassroots movement against him, and there's certainly not a media that's orienting itself in order to you know, help to build up that grassroots energy movement
of resistance, et cetera. And so yeah, and then the other thing we haven't even mentioned is Comcast is selling MSNBC like they're being cut loose along with other cable news properties that are under the Comcast brand, and they're being like launched down into the ether as effectively a startup in the coming years. They're being cut loose from NBC where that you know, provided them with some news gathering and some like legitimate news gathering ability.
So they're really at sea.
And I do, like I said, at the word that comes to mind for me looking at this bringing Rachel back in for the first hundred days is just desperate. It's the only thing they could figure to do to try to rebuild something so that when that sale, when that spinoff does occur, they have you know, something of viewership, something that could even theoretically makes sense as a business possibility,
because right now, given these numbers. It's not looking good and they pay their remember huge overhead, I mean the amount that they pay these hosts.
Oh yeah, I was just like absolutely, he sets financial disclosure. This guy only works weekends. He's getting paid two point two million a year to only.
Work two days, two days a week. Nice, jag must be nice.
Nice.
You know that's the word Fox News.
Obviously it's probably a little bit higher over there, but I mean, what cut it in half a million?
I mean, Rachel's pulling.
A million unt of money and Joe Amica make that kind of money. They make a million easy, Yeah, huge dollar figures. I mean every every primetime host is making at least a million a year. Rachel's making way more than that. Joe Amica make way more than that. I mean that's if you're if you're a startup, like even they said they'd be a well funded startup, Well, even a well funded startup can't handle that kind of overhead when you're not bringing in the viewers. So yeah, the
future not looking great over there. Another this is not totally unexpected, but some of four broke the news and can put this up on the screen. Chuck Todd has been meeting with Washington media organizations. He is going to leave NBC at the end of his contract, you'd already been take it off meet the press, So not all that surprising.
That he is looking to move on.
Wouldn't surprise me, Sager if he also tries to get into the like independent media game because of the yeah, the hot hot spots to be and these people all.
Think that they can make it in our world.
And I don't know, some of the ways that he's been talking recently have seemed to me to be an attempt to transition into more of like an independent media space, giving some creedence to Bernie Sanders, that kind of stuff, where you know, it's very different from the way that he used to approach these topics.
Also fancies himself into intellectual like big history takes, so I could also see him trying to write some Bill O'Reilly style history books. That is, by the way, is a book guy so depressing. Whenever you check the top ten books in the United States, number eight is always some fucking.
Killing so and so by Bill O'Ryan.
Who are you buying this?
I just don't understand it.
I think it's like grandma's who buy them as gifts for their grandsons.
They've got ripped.
Like, oh no, no, look, put the accurate there.
It's mostly the killing books are just like aggregators. It's like reading a BuzzFeed article about an event like killing Lincoln, right, and it's like narrative style, basically narrative style aggregation. I actually tried to read Killing Lincoln once because I was like, Okay, what's all the fuss about. It was one of the top selling books in the country. It's incomprehensible and bad.
I just don't get it.
But you know, for for Chuck, there's a well trotten path out there, there's a well trotten path.
He doesn't have to juice the estill a riots. Obviously I don't share his politics, right. He really is kind of the goat of like the cable news format.
That man really made, you know.
Cable news, what it is like the format and his style and you know, his command of the audience and all that stuff, Like he really was you have to I have to respect the game.
I have to resct absolutely ice to watch growing up what was you know, the debate segments and that these have I mean, listen, it was at one point I think O'Reilly was commanding like ten million viewers a night whenever there, whenever we were in the lead up to the Iraq war. I mean, honestly has a lot of responsibility for that. For a lot of the problems with the Bush administration. It was a different moment in time.
It was almost twenty years ago, it feels like forever, but at one point in time like these people were the kings of American politics. So at the very least, thank god that that time is over.
Yes, indeed, we've got one last piece here, which is more on the dismal television ratings and a new poll. It can put B three up on the screen here. Americans exhausted by political news TV ratings and a new poll show they are tuning out. So about two thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government because of overload.
You should probably do that. It's probably good for your health.
Smaller percentages of Americans are limiting their intake of about overseas conflicts, economy, or climate change. Seven and ten Democrats say they're stepping back from political news. Percentage isn't quite as high for Republicans who have reason to celebrate Trump's victory, but still about six and ten republicans say they felt the need to take some time off too, and the share for independence is similar.
Maybe I don't know.
People are bad at really describing like what they should do versus what they are doing, et cetera. The fact that cable news ratings are at CNN and MSNBC in particular are massively down doesn't necessarily mean that news conception overall is massively down, because, as we've discussed before, you know, a bunch of like left independent channels are actually seeing a huge surge right now, Kyle's obviously being one of them.
So yeah, I think there's a real I'm sure there's some fatigue after an election, there already is, but it also seems to me like what we're seeing is more of a reshuffling of media habits than a desire to completely step away.
Yeahquestion, I totally agree with that.