Vince is the Media Show with Jack outing.
Hello and welcome to the Media Show. We've got a big show tonight, including looking at the charges against broadcaster Alan Jones. But first, it's only been a few weeks since Donald Trump shattered the hopes and dreams of journalists around the world by winning a democratic election. Bud one what network, which honestly spent years referring to Trump as a Nazi and a risk to democracy, Well, at least now it's trying to be balanced.
Over the past week, Joe and I have heard from so many people, from political leaders to regular citizens, deeply dismayed by several of President like Trump's cabinet selections, and they are scared. Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the President elect himself. On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that.
Cue they and outrage from their own left wing audience and MSNBC's Morning Joe hosts didn't just speak to Trump. They went right into the belly of the beast.
Joe and I went to mar A Lago to meet personally with President Like Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years now.
We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets. We talked about that a good bit, and that's going to come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn't see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so.
What we did agree on was to restar our communications.
As if Trump would care whether he communicates with MSNBC or not. But MSNBC viewers clearly cared, with The New York Post reporting the less than an hour after this segment aired, viewers a band of the network. Ratings for the program dropped thirty eight percent in the twenty five to fifty four demographic, which the Post also points out as the demographic that advertises target and I wonder why
they turned off. You might think a journalist meeting the president elect is a normal thing, and you'd be right. But the confusion, of course, is that this network has spent years attacking Trump as a threat.
The former and future president is moving quickly to fill the clown car and round out his cabinet before he changes his mind and fires them all.
I mean, he's just going full Nazi here, full Fascis.
But once you have radicalized one major party so that those are the preferences of the people who adhere to your party, the leaders that are changeable, and yes, trump Ism is sometimes what we call it, Maga movement is probably a better way to do it. But there is an authoritarian movement inside Republican politics that isn't being bamboozled by Trump. They are pushing Trumpet more and more extreme because the more extreme things he says, the one thing, the more they adhere to.
Where one side stands for freedom while the other meets the textbook definition of fascism, namely a far right dictatorial regime like Hitler's Germany or Frankel's Spain or Mussolini's Italy.
We've warned you.
About Donald Trump's profound unfitness for office, from his theft of classified documents and attempted insurrection to his clear cognitive and physical decline.
MSNBC viewers must be so confused. One minute, he's this dictator who's going to steal America and the next. He is an important source of communication for MSNBC, and we've seen this play out across the media more broadly. Before the election, White House press set Kareem Jean Pierre regularly made inflammatory comments.
Like this, how many times you have does January sixth, twenty twenty one. Is that is a fact what was reported that happened on day by some of your colleagues. I mean, and we have at the same time denounced political violence over and over, political rhetoric, over and over again.
But last week, the man who everyone said was a dangerous threat to democracy, all of a sudden, wasn't.
This administration message to millions of Americans that they're going to wake up day after the election if Trump won and have their right stripped away, that democracy would crumble?
And President said today.
We're going to be okay, So how do you swear it? I can square that. I'm going to square that in a way that hopefully makes sense, because I've been answering this question multiple times. The American people made the decision there was an election two nights ago. There was and it was a free and fair election, and we respect the election process. We do, and Americans spoke and so the job of the president is to make sure we
respect that. The job of the president is to make sure that we have a peaceful transfer of power.
Well, joining me on the show today is skyn New's host kayleb Bond and skyhu's contributor Damian Curry. Caleb, let's start with you. I mean, this is essentially MSNBC realizing that they can't be a mainstream network anymore. They've essentially radicalized their audience, who turned off the channel the moment they tried to have a conversation.
It's amazing, isn't it.
I mean, you know, ordinarily I would say, and I will to some degree in this circumstance, I will say good on Joe Scarborough and his wife, who is his co host, for actually going and talking to Trump, given they obviously have a clear ideological opposition to him. And that's what any good journalist should do. You ought to
deal with people from both sides. And you know, even though viewers would know exactly what I think on most things because I talk about them every night, I've always prided myself on having contacts and relationships on both sides of politics, because if you're not willing to understand the other side, then how can you possibly argue in good faith for what you believe in if you can't compare
and contrast with things. But when you go on as you just showed, saying that he's Hitler, he's a fascist, he's a dictator, this will be the end of democracy. There'll never be another election in the US. He's stealing the joint. You'll have no rights to teter. Why would you then want to go and sit down with that dude? Like, you can't blame the viewers for being confused that the guy they've been told is literally Hitler is now good.
To go and have a cup of tea with it.
Mari Lago, welcome, Damien, let's bring you into this. I've bean Caleb raises such a good point. I mean, honestly, it just reveals that it was political posturing. They're essentially saying to their audience, well, we were kind of being inflammatory and made all that up, So now let's treat this a lot more normally than we were a few weeks ago.
Yeah, I mean, could they have any less credibile? I mean, they deserve to go broke, they deserve to have no ratings. They deserve to not exist or to cease to exist, because it is absolutely appalling stuff that they've been doing for four years. I mean, I do a podcast called The Other Side because we want to sit down rationally and talk sensibly about issues from a center right perspective
with people from the left. The problem, I think, and the distinction we've got to make is between commentary that's all emotionally driven and commentary that's rational. And MSNBC has been debarking mad, irrational, radical left side of things for quite a long time. And if you want to look at it on that scale, you can't say Fox is as irrational as MSNBC.
It is.
It's far more moderated, far more intelligent. CNBC would be the far more intelligent side of the left in the media, but MSNBC is just operating on this sort of hysterical, hyper lot of nonsense. Now that is typical of the left itself. I would say there is a tendency on the left to be far more erratic and emotional than
on the right. But yeah, I mean, they've just been doing this crazy stuff for so long, for so many years, that you know, their credibility has got to be completely in the toilet by now right.
Yeah, it's very funny and we had a bit of a laugh when Joy Reid had the wall behind her. It's got Muzzolini and Hitler and she's comparing it to try and we can lock. But there is a serious element to this. And look, MSNBC is going to MSNBC, that's what they do. But I want to get your reaction to Kareem Jean Pierre. Who is That's an official role. It's the press secretary. It's supposed to be the distribution point from the White House, Caleb to the American people
and the rest of the world. And she's sitting there characterizing this election, as you mentioned, potentially the last threat to democracy. Brilliant of that Fox News report at a caller on that saying well, hey, god, what happened to this threat? Now you're sitting down and Joe Biden's having a cup of tea with.
Him as they offer.
I mean, Peter Doocey does great work at Fox News, or has done. We're calling out the Biden administration, particularly when he faces KJP. But of course, the job of the press secretary of the President of the United States or any press secretary anywhere in the world for that matter, is to feed lines to the media. They send stuff out there that they hope the media will pick up on.
And of course most of the commercial media in the United States and even the public media much like ours here, is left wing, so they dutifully pick up the lines that get sent out by the press, Sex and the administration, etc. And they too end up being confused when the people who've been saying that he's Hitler, and they've been then repeating these lines suddenly say we're going to have a peaceful and orderly.
Transfer of power here.
Everyone has been complicit in this fear mongering bit, the media or the Biden administration because they thought they would get away with it. I am convinced that Harris I mean Biden for some weird reason, probably because his brains turned to mashed potato. I think did think he could beat Donald Trump before Harris usurped him. And I think Harris was convinced she was going to beat Donald Trump.
So they thought that running these lines about Hitler and threat to democracy, et cetera was actually going to work, and that they would never have to pay for it. In some way, they would never have to later justify what they'd done because they were going to win anyway. They're now in the difficult position of not having won, and so they're backpedaling as fast as possible, which is why I.
Think they're only because they've realized we got it wrong. Well exactly, they also realized that it didn't work, and then so now they're trying to change change tach. If it did work, I think we'd be seeing a lot more of that rhetoric. But let's move on, because not all media stars are prepared to kiss the ring. One talk show host thinks the solution is to run away.
Ellen DeGeneres is saying goodbye to the USA. Multiple outlets are reporting that the comedian and wife Portia Rossy are bidding farewell to the United States and are moving across the pond to rural England. Reports say the couple was driven to their decision after the election of Donald Trump.
And pundits thought that these two multimillionaire stars fleeing a Trump presidency was a sign of things to come.
It does mark the beginning of a kind of cultural brain drain, right when the best and brightest of your population no longer feel like they want to stay here, they go elsewhere. Then it starts to create kind of an inevitability that other people that are following behind, whether in this case it's celebrities and you know, actors, but it also could be your brightest scientists, you know, your
brightest economic thinkers. And so I think it impacts the political climate in the way that it might hurt particular sectors as well.
Let's bring the panel back in Damian Love to get your reaction to that. The best and brightest it's the scientists, the great thinkers of this world, such as Ellen DeGeneres. It's a terrible thing, isn't it.
Porschit to ROSSI, Oh yeah, they're right up there with the best thigures as sidus of the world. Well, this just proves it. This is the arrogance, the absolute thought bubble, isolated arrogance of these people, that they think anybody gives a damn what they think, and that that we put them on the totten pedestal like we might put a brilliant signus or a brilliant high achieving business person for example. I'm only glad that they're going to England and not
coming down under. Back to porscheit to Rossi's home in Melbourne and staying right away from US as far as they possibly can. Nobody cares that these people are leaving America. But I think what the left have got to understand, and what the media have got to understand, is that when you criticize Trump and you call him a Nazi and you call him a fascist, and you make these insanely hyperbolic, hysterical kinds of comments about somebody a political opponent, that.
You're actually insulting.
You're actually making those comments about the people who vote for him, and that in this is now the majority of Americans who support him. So you can't run around through life thinking that the rest of the world is insane and you're not. You have to actually listen to the other side and sit down and think about things and think things through. And that's something that the left
don't seem to be doing post this election. They all seem to be, you know, just being hysterical and assuming still assuming everybody thinks like them and everybody hates Trump in America.
They do not.
Yeah, it's a really good point and I think it goes as well to show that some of these journalists really put so much weight into what celebrities are doing, and they genuinely think that Ellen de Generes leaving the country, Oh well, that's going to have this cascading domino effect. It's absurd. But it also shows that they haven't learnt their lesson from the election from having celebrities who, by the way, have you seen their Californian mansion which is
going on the market. Oh, they could put a lot of immigrants across the water on that property. Don't imagine there's that many camping out there. But there is this disconnect and they genuinely think that celebrities have this moral influence that people care about.
Yeah, well, and they can go on thinking that as far as I'm concerned, because it just means it's good for Donald Trump, right. But it was the election of Trump and what it meant for celebrity I think was a real cultural moment in the United States.
Because of course Harris was just.
You know, uninspiring, unimpressive, whatever, and so she felt she had to surround herself with celebrities to give herself some level.
Of star power.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is the ultimate celebrity. He is a charismatic politician. Most people know him before politics from reality television. Right, he is a celebrity himself. He can carry himself, he has personality. Harris was trying to make up for that. Now people don't want to be lectured by someone else. They want to hear from the man or woman.
Who is trying to sell the message.
That's what Trump could do that Harris could not, And so they still haven't learned that.
They're still hanging on to it as though it works.
But I actually to give some credit to Ellen DeGeneres, because how many celebrities have we heard say, oh, if Donald Trump gets elected, I.
Am leaving the youth.
They never follow through.
Every single one of them is still living there. Well, at least Ellen has said I'm going to pack up and leave.
I expect what's happened with her is that her career ended a couple of years ago, and she's realized that with the election of Donald Trump.
Her career is even moreover. So she may as well go somewhere else and good on her.
I hope she has a lovely life in England, where by the way, she may have some trouble with the people who live over there, because I believe she's good friends with Megan Markle and Prince Harry. I'm not sure how well that'll go down with the people of the UK.
Well said, well, we're going to take a quick break, but when we return inside the Alan Jones criminal charges. Welcome back now to the biggest story of the week, the arrest of broadcaster Alan Jones of allegations he indecently assaulted or sexually touched a number of young men. And these allegations are before the courts. There's very little that we can say that won't interfere in that process playing out.
But this was a story driven by journalism, more specifically a capemcclimb on investigation and her paper, The Sydney Morning Herald was threatened with lawsuits at the time, but they did not budge and the police started off their press conference this week praising investigators, but when challenged on why it took so long to complete the investigation, credit had to go to the media.
The reports in The Herald and the h did result in victims coming forward and the creation of Strikeforce Bonovan. But this information and a number of witnesses have been assisting police over the years. Bonovan and the energy that was generated out of those newspaper articles have provided the ability for police to put these matters before the court.
And here is where these stories get very difficul to talk about. There wouldn't be chargers or alleged victims coming forward in volume without the media. But it is also fair, a fair question to ask the police, why did it take journalists to push this rather than the police, who, by their own admission in that clip, knew about the allegations for years. Caleb, Obviously it's before the courts, so we're going to be very careful how we talk about it.
But it was a journalist led story, and there is this disconnect so the police saying what we were talking to people for several years about it. It never manifested in charges, It never manifested in an investigation, particularly of the likes we've seen. It kind of shows that the role that the journalists play. But maybe now is the time for everyone to step back and let that process play out.
Yeah.
Correct, And I think even quite a few people from the Lift this week in Quintin Dempster from the ABC and others. Grace Tame even came out to see if you want justice to be done here, don't talk about it. Because because a lot of people who are ideologically opposed in particular to Alan Jones, have been very quick to
come out and say that he is guilty. Well, if you actually want any sort of conviction to possibly be achieved in this case, or for a trial to be run in a fair manor you can't go around saying
those sort of things. I suspect in cases like this where the police may well have been investigating a matter for a number of years, when you're talking about what is largely cases of circumstantial evidence, or you might put it as a he said, she said case, you need enough evidence to actually go to court and try to prosecute someone, and so the media reporting these things will naturally encourage people to come forward, and that then allows
the police to build a case that they could potentially go and try to proceed.
It is an awkward look, though, because you have journalists such as say like Hedley Thomas, who specializes in that podcast podcast format where he looks at historical things that have happened, cases that will never close. I've got a feel it's an awkward look for the police. You have a journalist on the front page say you've got in
decent assault and decent assault and decent assault. Know that you were talking to an alleged victim but weren't able to get it over line yet Kate McClymont, could she found the victim she spoke to the people that investigation disconnected. It's not a great look for the cops, I.
Think, yeah.
And of course the thing with the media is that you're dealing with defamation law. Now, defamation law, depending on who you ask, is either perfect.
For these kinds of circumstances or bad.
Some will say that almost anyone who runs a defamation case in this country wins it.
But also the burden of proof.
On a defot case is very different to a criminal one. It's not beyond reasonable doubt. It's simply on the balance of probabilities, which of course played out in the Delerim and saga right, And it ends up being murky sort of territory between what is a criminal burden of proof and what is a civil burden of proof.
Well, it's true, it's a Bruce esquestion as well. And Damien, I'd love to bring you in. What are your thoughts on I guess the way that the media in general is handling this do you think that there has been a bit more caution than perhaps we have seen in the past, I guess. And the Bruce Lherman saga with Britney Higgins, the anonymity was forfeited by Britney Higgins, which
complicated the reporting. But in this situation, I think that most people have been very respectful in terms of not saying either way whether they think that it's guilt or whether they think that the charges are a false What do you make of how it's played out?
Yeah, look, I think in the media generally it's been pretty good and pretty well handled. Obviously, the victims deserve their alleged victims deserve their day in court, and Alan Jones deserves his day in court to defend himself. That's our system is supposed to work. My concern is what happens on social media and the principle of the presumption
of innocence. And you know, the presumption of innocence doesn't come down to regulations or laws or courts enforcing laws about what we can say and what we can't say on misinformation and disinformation. It comes down to how we behave as adults in a civilized country that we've got to step back and say to ourselves, Look, I'm not going to make jokes about this. I'm not going to assume guilt. I'm not going to assume innocence either. I'm going to stay completely out of it, and I'm just
going to watch what unfolds. I respect our court process and our criminal justice system, and i want to see what happens. And until then, I'm going to shut up.
But Damien, moving on slightly. Now, what's your story of the week for us?
Well, basically, I was to be concerned about the wonderful treasure of Jimbo deciding that he wants to get his hands on our savings account as a country, a stray has got a sovereign wealth fund, only a little one that was set up after they sold I think Telsa in a couple of other assets, and instead of spending the money, the Howard Costello government decided will stick it in the savings account and invest it. And they gave
it over to investors, professional investors to grow it. And it's gone from six billions to two hundred and thirty nine billion or something now it's worth, which is great, and it produces that obviously income and you know, that can help a little bit with government spending. But if you go spend the savings, we're in big trouble.
Now.
Jimbo's not saying he's going to spend the savings, but he is going to direct the way that money's invested because he's the best financial investment advisor that the country's got.
Obviously, Caleb, what do you have for us?
The splash on today's Gold Coast bulletin is fantastic. Hump Tower is the headline. The story of this new apartment building that's gone up on the Gold Coast Raptus Towers, where it turns out the windows on the bathrooms see through, So people in the building's opposite are looking through. They say they can see people urinating, showering, and fauna cating. How exactly they know the marital status of the people
having seats in that building, I don't know. Maybe they've got the monoculars out, the peeping toms, but so they couldn't believe it. They're sitting there, working in their offices and they're looking over the way.
What on earth is going on there?
And I think you can say that whoever did that job certainly rooted it, and it was a bit of a.
Cock up, Yeah, definitely, and well done to Potsy, a good friend of mine who broke that store. It was brilliant. Damien Caleb, thank you so much for joining us. Fortunately, that's all the time that we have for tonight, but we'll be back next Friday at the same time.