Jon Stewart Smashes the Myth of Corporate Morality in Pride, BLM, and Beyond | Monica McNutt

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We got a lot going on in the world today, very consequential, the things that you're seeing on the news and all that, huge consequences. But I would be remiss if I did not comment on the big news and broadcasting Pat Sayjack. Patrick Sajack stepped down from Wheel of Fortune after forty one years. It was incredibly emotional, and I just want to say to Pat Sajack, have you thought about just doing Mondays because you can phone that. But of course he is gone, just in time for

Mom, this is Amy, Hi, Amy, Hey, I'm.

What does he doing?

Did I do it right?

What the fuck? Yeah?

The next time you waste an enormous amount of paint to apologize to your daughter for making a herd a girlfriend walk on bigshells up weekend, not even saying anything, just standing there with your little glowering beard face in the shadows. Just take the face and give her an oreo.

Year, but why retail giant Target is grappling with backlash from conservatives over its most recent collection celebrating the LGBTQ community.

Not shop at Target or else. You're gay and you're a perbert, even if I'm just getting paper towels. That But that's the burden corporations must bear. They care almost too much about the human condition, often finding themselves in the crosshairs of ideologues and fundamentalists. But they stand by

Let me tell you a story about a beer rooted in the heart of America.

A talking horse. You're apologizing about a transmitter influencer using a talking horse. Well, tell us your story.

National Velvet, found in a community where a handshake is a sure contract.

This is a story.

Bigger than beer. This is the story of the American spirit.

First of all, I think that horse is scared shitless. And second of all, the apology gift to the people upset about Budweiser is a Budwiser curious but don't be sad, for this is only following in a long line of hollow corporate pandering meant to convince you that not only are corporations people, they're good people, decent people who care about the systemic ills of this great nation. We saw this very clearly in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

We are on a four hundred year long journey and scars don't fade, but neither does hope.

And in the fight against systematic racism and inequalities, the Riders is committing to amplifying black voices.

General Mills served the world by making food people love and inclusion.

It's one of our secret ingredients.

Times.

Our purpose is to make life devicious, and we believe we can't achieve that.

No one essential ingredients diversity. Are you sure you don't mean sodium trifoss? Meanwhile, while corporations forcefully pronounced their deeply held value of promoting diversity on network television, their commitment only lasted until the protests died down time for the morning buzz.

Major tech giants including Google and Meta quietly slashing their diversity, equity and inclusion jobs this year and laying off workers in those departments. DEI related job postings in twenty twenty three declined forty four percent.

Ah, I guess they only needed to use much less of that ingredient than they thought they need It turns out the recipe Craft wanted called for just a dash of inclusion, just a sousson of diversity. So they're very clearly conflicted between the high moral values that they think we want and the amorl values that serve their shareholders. So, if I may address corporate America quickly in this moment, stop,

You round some of that off?

And then they got the balls. They got the balls to put out a press release talk about how much money they donated to stop world hunger. Than's my money, you tell those kids, that's my money. Let's stop pretending that a corporation can even be woke or unwoke, or patriotic or unpatriotic. Let's just let corporations live their truth as the profit seeking Patrick Bateman psychopaths they are, at the very least, we might finally, we might finally get

Pledge no more mission statements or awareness campaigns or promises to increase diversity and management.

You think a year ago would be putting up two straight white people as spokesman, got No, we have hired two diverse actors to pretend they worked here. What all. But from now on, we're just going to go back to doing what we are designed to do, making products as cheaply as we can and selling them to you at the highest price possible. Yes, but we'll still be carbon neutral because it's important to get to net zero. We never did that in the first place. I don't

No, we're not doing that. You already told me.

I just got. When we come back to Moduct, we'll be joing us. We'll go up. What about it go down? So my guest tonight a basketball analyst, host and reporter for ESPN as well as the voice of the New York Knicks radio broadcast. Please welcome to the program, Monica McNutt.

Welcome, Welcome, Thank you, John.

It's so nice to see you. Everyone is aware there was a huge viral moment in sports reporting, and you, Monica, were at the center of it concerning an appearance on Stephen A. Smith's show and a young basketball player on the Fever who's apparently generating quite a bit of controversy. Tell us a little bit about that viral moment.

All right, So the conversation, John, it started about the foul over the weekend that Kenny Carter for the Chicago Skuy foul Kaitlyn Clark of the Indiana Fever. And I'm not gonna lie to you, John, if I take you through my day that morning, I get the call or the text rather than I'm like, are we really leading sports with this?

Are we really leading sports with a foul person got knocked over in a marketball game in sports?

All right, I'm like, fine, let's just do it.

So we have the conversation with colleagues and friends, Steven Nick Smith, Shannon Sharp. And my larger point in the conversation was the tenor and the prevailing narrative that has been created around this season's WNBA play is that it's the league versus Kaitlyn Clark, and that is just absolutely false. It is unfair to the women that have been there building this league to this moment. So that Kaitlyn Clark's

There was some defensiveness on the part of the individuals. You've covered basketball for many many years, you played basketball, you follow the NBA for many years. You know what you're talking The tenor of the conversation, as I could tell, was they were saying to you, now, we know what we're talking about, even though we just tuned into this whole thing flashed Wednesday.

And there it is, right And so, as I have said about this, it was a little bit of a challenge, right, two gentlemen that I admire in terms of what they've built, because if you haven't been here, I need three years. I need you to kind of have jumped in when Sodona Prince went viral for calling out the NCAA, I needed you kind of to be here as this league has seen its best viewership year to year.

Now, yes it has.

Absolutely been taken over the top this year, but this has been a snowballing effect to get to this moment. And so while Kaitlyn is fantastic and I think she's gonna have an incredible career in the w NBA. There are women that were worthy of coverage prior to her arriving, and I just will not be silenced when it comes to.

That, right beautifully said now, and I'm gonna.

Tell you this comach.

I have not particularly followed the WNBA on a day to day. I follow when it's basketball sometimes more in college, I think, and and in the old days, uh uh, Don Staley and and those players. I did follow that, yep, but I have incredibly strong opinions about it anyway. But what did strike me when I started watching the highlights is,

Nail that you can you can have a talk show.

Let's go get out. Let's do it. I nailed. Let's do the first take.

First take a kidding? Is that? Yes? Right? And listen again?

And I am by no means gonna be naive to the popularity of Kaitlyn Clark, but there is a contingent that followed her. And if let's expand it out to bigger other women's college programs that have been terrific South Carolina, LSU, we'll just go with those three Stanford if you will, right, if you've only watched the college game for however long and not follow the WNBA, you don't know that not only are these one hundred and forty four of the best women basketball players.

In the world, most of them in their offseason, they're not kicking it.

They're in Europe playing in leagues that are arguably even more physical, and so the brand of basketball just has a level of toughness. Now to me, I think the part of this conversation John that has been daunting for me is sports is about competing.

It is literally the foundation we need to score.

We got to compete, and in the conversation around how we navigate the attention on the women's game, somewhere in there, competition should be watered down to protect the asset.

Yeah, now that's but you know in your heart, there is another layer of conversation right going on beneath this that has been introduced onto the stage, and that is, Look, we all know everything that underlines society in many ways goes along race, class and gender, and race, class and gender has entered the conversation in a very large way.

And I think what is interesting, And I'm hoping that more folks are like, yo, this basketball is great, Like I want to learn more about these women. Race, culture, gender are things that the women of the WNBA have never shied away from. Right, a part of the bubble in twenty twenty, they impact the election that goes down in Georgia in terms of standing on their values.

Right, But if we have a conversation about the societal.

Totem pole, if you will, black women, a large representation of queer women, like these are all things that sit at intersectional identities. That just opened up your show talking about valuing these things.

That's exactly.

And so there are all these isms that have made the WNBA beautiful for twenty eight years, including this season, and even the WNBA has had to have its arc in terms of growth and leaning into who they are are and who these women are both on and.

Off the court. But it is at the base of it. If we fir a second, can take all that out. You really about to tell women how to compete. And you just got here right well were doing.

And what's so amazing about it is what I have heard from some of the commentary are people who just got there saying this is so unfair to the sweet white girl. Now, first of all, Kaitlyn Clark looks like a competitor. She looks like somebody who's really a competitor. But the odd part is, I'm always interested in this idea that sports exist outside of the fault lines of regular society, and isn't a reflection of those things and a continuation in some respects of those battles.

That existence is for probably like twenty percent of men's sports. And then you got to deal with race, and then there's other things that you got to deal with. But like we said, women's sports sits right in the midst of all of that. We could be not talking about basketball, and we got plenty of women's issues that we know have our country on fire, right, and so I think it's a beautiful time. And I don't think anybody that

I mean, frankly, John, like Gayln Clark got me here, right, you know what I mean, And it's not true.

So let me tell you this. So I am going to tell you this. The viral moment maybe brought you to some national attention. I have been loving what you do. You are such a good basketball analyst and announcer. I've been following you on the New York Dates, you and Okee. Some of my favorite moments.

Are the two of you, the battle Keeper my partner play play.

By play guy. I mean, you're so knowledgeable. I love basketball. I've been following the Knicks for one hundred and thirty years, all right, yep. I was in the stands in Madison Square Garden at the very top of it when they played the Celtics in double overtime. When they won the championship in seventy two, and that against the Celtics when it looks like A, I've loved it for a long time. Your voice, your knowledge, your passion has cut through it.

Oh wow, yeah, guy, we had fun.

Is there some sense of like a little bit of like when an indie band hits it big? Are there people within the w NBA community who feel like, I don't want this to belong to everybody. I want it to belong to this band of sisters that have worked so hard to make it something. WHOA.

I have had that moment a few times because as much as the conversation has been dictated by the audience, right, we still haven't really sat up and talked about the actual basketball.

Love it, John.

I don't know how many.

People just join the WNBA understand that the Las Vegas aces are chasing down a three p which hasn't been done since the formative years of the league. In the Houston comments, I don't know how many people how many people know that the Connecticut Sun just lost their first game the other day.

They were nine to notice start the season. Right, what names can I help introduce you to?

I mean, if you pick up a rolling stone, Asia Wilson and Brandon Stewart are part of the next issue, I believe. And so we've opened the door, but we're still like looking in instead of walking in.

If that makes if?

I may absolutely rightoutely, and.

So I think it's a really unique time.

And even with this Olympic team stuff, right, Kaylen Clark, who you mentioned is a tremendous competitor, said herself, that's the toughest team to make.

Not surprised.

And she's a rookie. She's just coming out of Iowash.

She can say that, and she can also feel as if something in her has been awoken in terms of making that a goal of her. Right, I would hope, and I know this is not a thing in sports. We got to remember that two things can be true.

Right.

She's been great for the league, but there were one hundred and forty four women prior to her and this class, right, that have gotten this thing up to year twenty eight.

Right, no question. And I think one of the difficulties of it is because it's a small league. I think people don't realize as small as the NBA is, there's still two rounds of a draft, and there are guys that get picked up out of a G league and there's space on a team. There's a big roster. When you're in the WNBA. Boy, there's just not that many teams, and you're talking about a draft even when it's eighty twelve d some of those people may not make the team.

John likes the conversation about marketing. Yeah, sure, got it makes sense, right, But there's also got to be a realization that these women that have made this thing, they're living, they are not necessarily chasing the financial benefit the w Your highest played player is Max two hundred fifty.

Thousand dollars, right, you know what I mean?

And so there is not how Brittney Grinder up in Russia she was playing overseas, because it doesn't make that that's exactly it.

So many of these women supplement their income in the league that they play out of love, to play at home with their teammates in front of their families, and they go get their real money overseas.

That is changing. I do think that this class and Clark is all a part of it changing.

But I think just to slap on do this kind of the money again is disrespectful and unfair to the women that have gotten its lead to.

This point as a broadcaster, in your story in some ways mirrors the story of the WNBA in terms of having to fight for attention with people who, in some respects are not particularly humble about their position and slightly defensive about those who may come at it from a different perspective. Do you see that reflected in how what you had to go through and your journey to get to the desk that you're at now, And does that give you hope for the WNBA's future.

I'm first of all rolled about the WNBA's future. And yes, right, I didn't go to the WNBA, but I played sports all the way through college. Shout out to my Georgetown hoyas, right, And so that foundation, that base, that understanding hard work, improvement, that understanding of competition, all of those things have helped me to be able to stand ten toes down in these various rooms, in these various conversations.

Right, It's intimidating, it is.

And in the same breath, the people that I'm having conversations with, whether they are well established television personalities or former athletes, they have done the same in their own way.

Right. But it is a reminder because of.

My background in sports, shout out to keeping young girls in sports For this exact reason, I too can be confident in the work that I've done to get to this place and for.

Me that has been beautiful.

Who that is beautiful? And it really brings up the intersome question, who does have the worst takes?

He ain't given day?

He ainy given to day? All right, final question. I am an Enormousknicks fan. Yes, we know, and I want desperately to know if what I'm seeing if the love that I'm feeling. I have opened my heart again, you know, Monica, it's been so long. Thank you so much. I've opened up my heart again to a basketball team. I never thought it would happen again.

I'm proud of you. I'm so proud of you. That was a big move.

But Monica, I have to tell you something. I'm afraid to be hurt and will will the Knicks hurt me?

Life is full of That was a hesitation.

That was not That was a hesitation. I want them to be great.

I look, I think they are on the right track.

All right, But you got to play the games. That's why we go to them. And I don't want to be in sad meme anymore, which is always what happens when I'm at the games. Monica. What a delight to meet you, and I'm such a fan of yours and I wish you all the best and continue success. Manic McNall you John, that's right, that's great.

Right about that?

For that covering tonight, Before we go in, we're gonna check in with your host for the rest of this week, mister Jordan. Clipper Jordan Clipper, Jordan, what are you gonna be covered this week?

Well, John, I'm eager to dig into the ramifications of these important French elections, which is why I will be covering it live from Paris.

Oh, we cannot, we cannot afford that, so that's not okay?

Cool, Well, in that case, I'll be focusing on Israeli citizens being banned from visiting the Maldives.

So Joan me all this week live from the Maldives. It's more expensive. That's that's more. It's a luxury resort. It we can okay, okay, fine, fine, uh be talking about the Hunter Biden gun trial in Delaware. Pie, you can go okay with I'll be covering live from ken Cone. No, maybe maybe please here then you could just go well, Jordan Klapper, all this week, ladies and gentlemen, here.

It is Donald Trump.

He will sit down for that meeting and ultimately will engage with that probation officer who will add his report to Judge Marshawn. Judge Marshaan can then use that report to help him in making his determination about what his sentence he will handle hand down to the former president at that July eleventh centencals.

Over the song there Great Balls of Fire. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven ten Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

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