Today from London, England, and there are forty five days until the noon hour when Donald Trump will raise his hand and swear the thirty five word oath, the only one in the American Constitution, the same one that George Washington took, that calls for him to preserve, protect, and
to defend the Constitution of the United States. Of course, Donald Trump is the only president in American history to raise his hand in violence against the Constitution of the United States, fomenting the insurrection of January sixth, twenty twenty one, the insurrection that the American people have turned a blind eye towards, with a plurality of them slightly over forty nine percent awarding to Donald Trump his first popular vote victory out of his three presidential runs, of which two
will have given him of office in the White House. This is the warning. There is a chill descending over America's corporate newsrooms, and it must be talked about because each day it will get colder and colder and colder until the depth of winter. And there what corporate newsrooms will produce is the blandest of Farina, designed to do one thing, which is to not make Donald Trump upset. The commandment inside of America's corporate newsrooms will be very simple.
Be nice. Donald Trump wants a nice press. How will the press cover Elon Musk? How will they cover Vivak Ramaswani, How will they cover Donald Trump? We have indications and they are most alarming. One of the richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos, intervened and in weeks before the election, with the Washington Post's editorial process. Jeff Bezos interfered in the independence of his editorial operation inside the newspaper, which
is his right to cost is credibility. You see, access to the powerful is not a prerequisite for covering them. Access to power is a prerequisite for being next to power, and that's not the job of journalism. Many news organizations are run by powerful corporations who have many other considerations and equities that far exceed the importance to their shareholders of telling the truth to you. This is important to comprehend to appreciate. The Los Angeles Times is an important
national newspaper. It has a legacy of great reporters. A couple of them have resigned. They've resigned because the billionaire owner has interfered in the editorial process. No longer can the newspaper editors choose the headlines. The owner must approve them because Elon Musk was offended by one. This is how it works. The capitulant acts that you will see in newsrooms under the banner of being nice to Trump will be subtle, and the sins will be ones of omission.
And there is no place where this is more dramatically playing out than on Morning Joe, when the Atlantic writer and White House speech writer David From came for a visit. Now, what David From said was witty, and it was funny, and it was appropriate, just given what one sees on camera. If you're too drunk for Fox News, you're very, very drunk. Indeed,
so that's alarming. The point that David From was made, as if it needs explanation, was that Fox has incredibly low standards, and that one of those low people who works at Fox, unsurprisingly because of Fox's history, is an alleged rapist and a serial abuser of women and a drunk who is utterly unfit to be in the National Command authority to be the person woken up at one in the morning to be alerted should there be a nuclear attack unfit, and so David From, one of the
most insightful and astute and wise observers of American life and culture and politics, made and observation, and he was immediately warned. There was a voice in the ear saying, don't do that. Shortly after David From left the air, Mika Brazinski said.
This, before we go to break a little bit earlier in this block, there was a comment made about Fox News in our coverage about Pete hagg Seth and the growing number of allegations about his behavior over the years and possible addiction to alcohol or issues with alcohol. The comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we're in. We just want to make that comment as well. We want to make that clear.
But why would they apologize for it? Is the fear that great and then the justifications about civility. Let's watch Shascarborough.
Mika said after the comment was a little too flippant for the moment we're in. We disagree with Fox News, but there's some good people over there, including of course those talking to NBC News about their concerns.
This got turned into a column and a headline that said that, well, let's see what was the headline this sound of fear. Now, that wasn't the sound of fear, that was the sound of civil and saying that Mika had.
Apologized, you cant it apologized.
She simply said it was too flimid civility. Excuse me. Let's watch Mika talk about Pete Hegsath and all of the people that care about Pete at Fox News, where she just wants to leave it at that.
But right now, I just want to say, there's a lot of good people that work at Fox News who care about Pete Heggsath, and we'll want to leave it at that.
Why is Mika Brzynski apologizing to Rupert Murdoch's Lye machine. Why is she personalizing what David from said in cow telling to an institution? Why are they intimidated? The accommodations to come will all be justified as necessary, particularly by the people who make them. Running a newsroom in America is about to become a very serious job. The lighthearted age of nonsensicalness has ended. There will be real, constant and significant pressure. The job will require fortitude, and it
is a job. The job requires the ability to sit under threat and to speak truth to power. Without fear or favor. The show is becoming a cancer on the credibility of NBC News and an insult to the fortitude of people like Nicole Wallace and Rachel Matdow and everybody else who is modeling fearlessness in the face of intimidation, including from an FBI director designate who has promised to
lock up journalists. If you are a member of Congress and you fear for your life because of the threats and the intimations of violence in the air, and you cannot perform your duties, your duties require you to resign. If you are a journalist who cannot pursue the truth, who cannot look into the camera without being intimidated, without
showing fear or favor, then you must step away. What we are witnessing is unsightly because cowardice is It's uncomfortable, especially when it's dressed up as something virtuous, and we know it's not the most important quality in the opposition to what will be coming is fearlessness. The idea that because Trump has won and because he has blustered, we must lay down and Neil must be rejected. It is inappropriate for people like Anthony Fauci to accept a pardon
for doing nothing wrong out of fear. It is wrong for Liz Cheney to accept a party for doing nothing wrong out of fear for doing her duty. It is
a submission that is deeply wrong. And so when Joe Biden talks about giving pardons preemptively to these people, they must reject it, because if they accept it, they will cut themselves off from the people that admired them with special privilege that those citizens who followed them will not enjoy, but who will be called upon to rise up and to resist at significant costs, perhaps abuses of civil liberties, the likes of which will be unprecedented in this country
if the president elect does what he says he will do. And here is the thing, and here is why this matters above all else, And here's why Joe and Mika matter in the space they occupy matters. There is no person ever who has promised to do the things that Donald Trump has promised to do, who upon taking power didn't do them. None ever. So there is fear, and we're seeing it, and it's unsightly. And the American people deserve better. What they deserve is truth telling. This is
the warning. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning and I invite you to join. Subscribe on our substack, on our YouTube channel, follow us. Welcome to the community.