RFK Jr.’s Fiery Hearing, Rethinking Social Media | Filmmaker Rachel Mason

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This here's the Daily Show with your host Michael Costom.

Welcome, So I'm Michael Gosta. We've gotten so much to talk about tonight. RFK Junior tries to act normal for a day, Americans figure out how to live without social media, and we'll tell you the worst way to kill a mouse. But first, let's get to the latest news on the Trump administration. In another edition of the Second Coming of Donald J. Trump, I'm gonna come. Today is a big day for Donald Trump's cabinet and the government. One not

Ahead of the hearings.

More than fifteen thousand doctors have signed a letter urging senators to vote against confirming him.

Whoa fifteen thousand doctors signed this letter. Of course, we don't know who they are because they all just signed it like this, but that's a big number. And even his own family is coming out against him. Not only because of his medical views, he's also just not right. In the Old worm.

Chamber, Caroline Kennedy RFK Junior's first cousin and the daughter of President John F. Kennedy warning the senator's task with confirming her cousin to be the nation's health secretary, that they should vote.

Know.

I've known Bobby my whole life. We grew up together. It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets, because Bobby himself is a predator. His basement, his garage, his dorm room. We're always the center of the action.

Center of the action. Cool dorm what's wrong with that? All right? And while you answer, I'll just take a sip of this delicious looking smoothie that RFK Jr. Sent me.

His basement, his garage, his dorm room were always the center of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks.

He was putting baby chickens and mice in a blender. And ladies, you thought it was bad when a guy brought you back to his dorm room and busted out a guitar. Now, I'm not sure her statement will have much sway, because, first of all, blending food, that's just how you feed a hawk. If you've ever looked, it's their nests, you see, they have a little neutral bullet right in there. And also, we all have a crazy cousin.

I believe that that vaccines play a critical role in healthcare.

All of my kids are vaccinated.

Man, that velvet voice is good enough for me. What are you gonna believe is well documented, decades long record or the thing he said today when he was trying to get a job. Besides, all his kids are vaccinated. He definitely doesn't regret that, right right.

What would I do if I could go back in time and I could avoid giving my children and the vaccines that I gave them, I would do anything for that. I would pay anything to be able to do that.

That is the worst answer to what you would do with the time machine that I have ever heard. You can't think of anyone else in your family that you would go back in time and try and try and try to prove man a shot from happening. Robert F. Kennedy Junior, no one else, which reminds me. You know what I've done. If I would have had a time machine, I would have gone back and made sure Stephanie and

Did you say lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon.

I probably did say that.

Did you say that COVID nineteen was a genetically engineered bioweapon the targets black and white people but spared Ashkenazi, Jews and Chinese people.

I didn't say it was deliberately targeted.

Did you write in your book and it's undeniable? Did African AIDS is an entirely different disease from Western AIDS? Yes? Or no, mister Kennedy, Not sure.

Jesus Christ. This guy has said so many things that he can't remember. If he said black AIDS is different from white as white age is so bland and they put raisins in it, don't bring that white aide.

To my cook app.

This is you guys aren't sure how to react to the voice. This is the story of the hearing. Senators would question him on past statements, and he would deny them. Now one Senator though, actually brought receipts, adorable receipts.

Your organization is making money selling a child's product to parents for twenty six bucks, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines. One of them is diled onun facts, unafraid. Next one is no vas no problem. Are you supportive of these this clothing.

Which is militantly anti I am supportive of vaccines, With you supportive.

Of these onesies?

Wow? Wow, I never realized how much I would enjoy Bernie Sanders talking about baby clothes and these little cornu roy dungarees.

Why do they have pockets?

A baby doesn't need to carry around a wall in her car keys? Do you support that? But look, I'm not a doctor and I have no basis for my medical opinions, much like RFK Junior. So if we're going to criticize him, then in the interest of fairness, we here at the Daily Show want to hear from one of his supporters. So from a different perspective, please welcome the poliovirus.

Hello, Hello, Michael, thank you so much for having me on.

Let's hug No, that's okay, that's Okay, I don't want to get you. But how how are you feeling after watching the hearings today?

I feel reborn, Michael energized. I am excited to get back to work. Across America. We should celebrate. Let's let's breathe on each other.

Oh no, I don't want to get polio. I know the damage you've done to millions of Americans.

Millions of amazing Americans. Take FDR for example. I gave that man something to overcome, you know, I gave him a signature. Look the wheelchair blanket combo.

That was all me.

Okay, Oh how about.

Francis Ford Coppola. He had polio?

Yes, and if he hadn't, who knows if he would have gone on and make that movie Megalopolis.

That's your Francis Ford Coppola movie.

I know, I know.

Yeah, most people say Godfather Part Three, But.

No, no, they don't. You know. This is the same thing with RFK. I remember what you've done, and you're not going to trick me into being so friendly right now?

Friendly that that's so sweet?

Let's kiss? No, No, thank you?

Fine, fine, just let me spit in your mouth a li no, Look, I promise It's not gonna be like polio was before, you know, with all the canceled pool parties and the iron lungs. They're so clunky. I am working with a whole new team for my comeback. This time your team, Yes, RFK Junior, the trad wife community, justin Baldoni's crisis PR Firm.

Okay, I think life would be better if you didn't come back at all.

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. Can can we just talk about it over drinks? Maybe we share a toothbrush. Stop trying to infect me. This is my purpose, Michael, and you need to get on board because RFK is gonna be confirmed and I'm gonna be everywhere schools, hospitals, plane bus club, another club.

Another club again, get it, I get it.

The point is, thanks to RFK Junior, I'm coming back. So you better kiss your little legs goodbye, because once I get in those neurons, I'm gonna sorry, excuse me, I'm gonna be ruining all of.

Are you all right?

Yeah?

So I just I keep coughing and I'm getting red splotches all over my body.

It sounds like you have measles. Did you get your measles vaccine.

No, Rfk Junior said I didn't need one. Did he not know what he was talking about?

Oh? No, I'm disappearing.

I need true love's kiss.

Michael, hurry, lick my tongue. You know, you know what I'm just.

I'm just gonna let him die.

Holy yo, everyone, he's dead. When we come back, we find out what you really think of social media.

So don't go along.

Welcome back to the DNA Show. You might remember during the presidential campaign, Elon Musk jumped like a dork into the race for Donald Trump, and that caused a backlash for his website.

The social media platform blue Sky, a competitor to X, has gained millions of followers in the weeks following the presidential election, a trend do you in part to dissatisfied liberals leaving the Elon Musk owned X platform.

Yeah, that'll show Elon Musk. You know, I'm gonna waste my life pushing a different set of buttons on my phone. Haha, Tell my kids I never saw them. Of course, Elon isn't the only social media boss who's drifted towards Trump. Grace Koolenschmidt asked New Yorkers what they think about their favorite platforms.

Right now, the world is up in arms about social media companies being run by Trump a mined billionaires.

But are they mad enough to get off the apps? Let's put this on TikTok and find.

Out that actually made me so mad?

You seem pissed.

It definitely just feels very propaganda, incredibly angry, and to see it so blatantly broadcasted that like the wealth of I mean combined wealth of like trillion dollars, like sits right in front of the cabinet, right next to the president.

I mean, do you think the anger is justified? Yes? Yes, complete. I think you guys are so pissed you're like about to punch me. Calm down.

Trump sucks, so it's kind of I don't know.

I just he's gonna be pissed to hear you say that, though he really likes you.

What apps are.

Mostly Instagram and TikTok?

I'm on Instagram and Snapchat.

Okay, Instagram and X.

So if you mostly use Instagram, at what point would you be like, Okay, I have to get off this app.

When I'm opening Instagram. I'm not being rutten by Mark Zuckerberg, I'm I'm deciding, like, all right, I'm gonna go on here and yeah, like kind of finding more cooking things.

An amazing one pop pasta recipe. It's actually five being monetized to Trump.

Yeah, I'm like, I don't, I don't.

Do you think you'd be willing to pick an app and delete one with me?

Today?

We don't even need social media when we have books like this, like I'll read just a little okay, okay, I won't for you with it Tuesday mixed berries and chia seeds.

Wednesday honey and Greek yogurt. So what would it take you to delete the app Instagram?

Oh?

I mean I deleted it last week.

I'll probably delete it again.

We don't need.

It, but you do say you keep re downloading it?

I do.

So what do you think Mark Zuckerberg could do to make you kind of kick it out?

I don't know.

I'm probably already no, no enough, Yeah, we probably should delete the app?

Do you guys want to do it?

I read now?

Wait, I saw this post that was like people get fomo from not being on social media, but then they get phomo from real life from being.

On social media.

Oh fat.

Is that like really?

Beta?

No, I need to go back to school over my head. All right, I'll delete with you.

Can we do together? Yeah, we'll do it together.

This is a beautiful one.

I'm gonna delete.

I don't know, it doesn't count, but for the sake of this, I mean here, you can choose one.

Go with ian B because I don't stop renting little houses.

We'll delete it after one. Okay, three release?

All right?

Two one.

You're such a power.

There's such a.

You don't understand.

You were doing this together together, do it and I can't get off.

Wow, I really got people of chain their minds and delete these apps and divest from billionaires.

So go ahead and like, follow and subscribe for more.

Thank you, Grace.

When we come back, Rachel Mason will be joined him on the show.

Hello, Welcome back to the Other Show.

My guest tonight is a filmmaker whose new HBOS documentary series is called An Update on Our Family. Please welcome Rachel Mason. Rachel Mason is here. WHOA How fun is this? How fun is this?

I'm tripping?

You're trippingly You're usually them pointing the camera at somebody.

Oh yeah, I'm never on this side ever so cool man.

This docuseries is excellent, excellent, excellent. I was mad, I was mad again, I felt something, I felt, I had all different perspectives. What is family vlogging? For those of us that don't.

Know, Wow, Well I'm glad those reactions all happened because that was that was what we felt.

Well, we were working on the show.

And I say we because you know, documentaries are made collectively with a bunch of people, and family vlogging is the practice of filming one's family for a channel, a YouTube channel usually, or you know social media generally.

Who is watching that? I mean, I don't even want to look at my friend's kids pictures? But then these families have millions of subscribers and views and brand deals. What's the appeal?

I mean?

This is why we needed Hannah cho who if you watch our series, guides us through because she's the ultimate fan. And I had those same questions watching the content, but realizing this is one of YouTube's biggest verticals. So billions of views are on these videos. It's it is huge and vast, and that's why in the opening of our series we actually talk about the draw that shows like the Kardashians or the Osborne's have had for years and even going back earlier.

There are other shows like.

On PBS, people sometimes watch which is you know, that's where it all started, Like people watched these families doing their thing, and there is a draw.

But I know it doesn't always seem like it. But traditional TV there are some guardrails. There are producers. There are people that come over here in between the act and say, Michael, you up, You're coming to work tomorrow?

Yeah exactly.

But for YouTube, the producer, the writer, the accountant, the HR, it's the mom, it's the.

Dad, exactly, And it's so.

The actors are the kids. So let's talk about the E word. I don't know what that is. No exploitation. I talked about exploitation. Okay, yeah, families are profiting financially, but so much of their content is a six year old playing in a sandbox or refusing to eat the dinosaur chicken nuggets or whatever. Is this exploitation?

I mean, that's the central question here.

And I think this also takes us into larger questions about kids in entertainment as well, because learning about family channels, it really you know, when I was doing the research for it, I was actually thinking, well, what kid could we find.

That I could say, what was it like for you doing this?

And you know, there's hardly any who are old enough, although a few that are have come out recently and spoken, but when we were making this.

It was hard to find them.

So I actually realized, oh, well, I guess we could.

Turn to the world of regular entertainment and those kids that grew up on some level on TV. And in a similar way, I had that thought, well, well, yes they consented, but did they fully leave the sent at age six to you know? Yeah, and you wonder that so there's always that dynamic where a parent might really want to do this thing, and yeah, that that question exists around kids.

I am terrified to show my kids at all. Uh. And that's my moral code. That's not because they're ugoes. I don't like I don't like that my daughter is five now starts to notice when the camera's out and behave differently for the camera. Right that that was a It feels to me like the one pure innocent thing that's left is a child's belief in the world and innocence. And to me, this is me watching your wonderful doctor sriies. It made me so angry that the parents are taking

I mean, I think that's a really poignant and that I'm.

Trying to get you to say yes, but you're not got it, because that's what this documentaries does so well, as it gets you to think about a lot of different thing and that was important to you and are you a parent? And did that inform you making this?

Yeah?

No, I have a son who's twelve now, and I think about that because actually that I think that distinction is also pretty big.

Weirdly, from six, yeah, twelve twelve, like good luck.

Getting your phone out of a twelve You're like everyone has a phone and they're playing a million games and they're doing all this stuff. And I had that initial thought like you'll never ever get a phone ever. Okay, well how did you suddenly get a phone?

And how you know?

It's like this weird thing.

And then also like you'll never ever look at YouTube and there's just like no way to avoid it, is what I've learned. So then the question is, well, how do we sort of manage it and put guardrails in place? And I will say some people that I look at and I'm like, wow, you post all the time, and I'm gonna judge that.

But then you know, I have to say, like, there have.

Been a couple of times I keep wing a soccer and came, I want to show this thing, something really cool, and I know some of my friends who I never see will want to see this thing. And there is the cool good factor of sharing photos, and these apps have made that possible, you know, in this way. So I think there's just this moral question that is needed to be discussed by smart people, like.

You know, my daughter in the morning, she'll say, can I watch TV? And I'll say no, and she'll say can I watch you on TV? But I'll say, you know what that sounds doesn't sound like a terrible idea. She knows that that will work. Let's talk about the staffers, and let's talk about that. This is the family that the Docuseriies really focuses on. Tell us a little bit about them and what went down well.

In a lot of ways, the staffers were almost like an average family vlogger account.

They did everything right in the.

World of what you do and what YouTube actually incentivizes you to do, and they had all the things.

You know, you have a charismatic, good.

Looking couple, you have kids, and.

It all works and you know the sort of set of things that you do for your channel that work really well in that environment. So the Stoffers were just chugging along and as you learn from our series, having kids as good content. So every time they had a kid, it would do well for them.

And that's to do well. They can actually see the analytics and see that with these kids and new kids, our viewership goes up, our subscribers goes up, our money goes up. Yeah, what does that lead to?

So then in twenty seventeen, after they've been running this for a while, they decide to adopt a kid from China. And there's a myriad of reasons why they decide a kid from China makes sense for their channel and for their family and their life, and it all is very public, yes, extremely public, and the fans are immediately like, whoa, let's do this, as though it's like a group decision. And that's the kind of thing that I think our series

This large audience.

You know, you're making a massive decision for your life and for another person's life, and suddenly tons of people are weighing in on that.

I would never see a family at the park and think I can weigh in on their family decisions. But because they've overshared so much for so long years, I've developed a relationship with them, and now I have the right to say, hey, you doing that incorrectly or exactly, And man, is it wild what goes down?

It is?

Yeah, So what ends up happening is, after having him integrated in the family for a few years, make a decision to dissolve the adoption. And I know, I know, Oh god, hearing you guys make that sound.

It's it's so real. Wow, you live in documentaries, you're just editing. You don't have real people responding.

But and I heard that sound, and I thought, we're gonna get so many more views on YouTube. That's why I'm sitting right here. That's how I think. Wow. No, but that's how people that's how we watch this docuseries like this, Why do they do that? And then of course my I pause it to get a glass of lot of my wife's like reading the whole story in Wikipedia, ruining it. But yeah, and so that's when this thing kind of turns, and then the commenters take over, right, Yeah, and so.

In a way, these two things intersect.

You know, the most horrific decision happening in the family's life and the life of you know, this child. Everything is just suddenly that's their decision. They dissolve the adoption. But then at the same time, the internet crushes them.

You, how dare you do that to those children? I'm gonna slit your children's throat. What's sick? You know? I just would say to all YouTube commenters, you'll have a lot more success with your comment if you don't threaten life or killing. You can make good points without threatening life. But that's not where we're at, is it. No, So let's talk about You know, in film and TV there are child's protection and laws in place Cougan's Law, Yeah, but that does not exist in YouTube org vlogging world.

There have been some changes in the last few years, like a couple of states Illinois and I think it's Ohio and then also California have made inroads into changing certain things. In fact, I think one of the laws was actually very much limiting certain amounts of time on the con when your child is because a kid could technically work a full eight hour day.

Yeah, we're I.

Mean, that's what's so disheartening to me. It's like the parents are at the playground with their kids and the mom or the dad is going, Okay, thanks for watching. Everybody. It's like, hey, put it down, good, you know, go play with the kid. But that is work. They can potentially make money off of that, right. I wish I made money when I took my kid to the playground, I mean playing princess and king and all that shit. And I'm just I look at after I do it. I look at it and I say, I actually lost

I'm glad you're asking that question, because the thing that sucks so bad is that when I met these people,

He said, you know, YouTube likes to try to pull your content to the edges, and we have to fight against it.

So I could see they're, you know, if you're in over your head or the thing is doing this, you're trying, And I was thinking, wow, okay, so you're really trying.

And be wholesome and earnest, suppose, or to at least show them.

Well, and that's and that's the other side of it, is that this this world of facade that can feel absolutely ridiculou and you know.

So I think this.

We have regular people that have gotten sucked into, as you said, a complete and total world of entertainment, but they don't have, you know, the guy right there who is like a story producer. You know what's not that it's not gonna work, or the executive being like we cannot do this.

They're just your fans are wanting this, give.

It to them, and it's can it be done ethically?

I mean, I I wish I actually had an answer to that, But I think this is where the really big question exists for the social media.

Companies, like what do you guys think you know? Can you do? Can we figure this out?

And your job isn't to answer, Your job is to help us ask the question. And it's a tremendous docuseries. Thank you for making. I can't believe how much work must have gone into it. So all three episodes of An Update on Our Family are now available to stream on Max Rachel Mason. Everybody would have been a quick.

Frank, we're right back after this. That's our show for tonight.

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People are aroused. I haven't seen people so aroused in a very very long time in terms of going trying to get this done. So yes, I think democracy will have an effect and we are going to keep at it.

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