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00:30Bonjour et bienvenue à la dernière semaine de ce soir.
00:33Je suis John Oliver, merci beaucoup de nous avoir rejoints.
00:36Cela a été une semaine occupante.
00:37Trump est revenu en Chine.
00:39Les tarifs de l'IFRS ont été réduits.
00:40Il a sauté dans une rivière,
00:41flouillant avec la poussière et les bactéries.
00:43Et le contest de la chanson Eurovision s'est déroulé.
00:45Et comme jamais, il y a eu des controverses,
00:46des protestants tentant de disrupter l'enregistrement de la robe d'Israël
00:48à des accusations.
00:49Un chanteur estonien a dessiné une série de stéréotypes italiens
00:52dans sa chanson Espresso Macchiato.
00:55Ce qui, pour être honnête,
00:56n'est pas non.
00:58Pour ma chanson préférée, Malta,
01:00qui a censé un mot-clé,
01:02récemment après une complainte de la BBC.
01:03Et son acteur est allé sur la BBC
01:05pour se défendre.
01:07C'est un mot de Malta
01:08qui a beaucoup de sens pour nous
01:11et nous n'avons jamais voulu offenser personne.
01:13Vous devriez avoir connu
01:14qu'à un certain niveau,
01:16certaines personnes peuvent trouver
01:18une version ou entendre
01:21ce mot ou cette phrase
01:24difficile à gérer
01:26sur une émission familiale.
01:28Je vais le dire comme ça.
01:29OK, il fait beaucoup
01:32de ne pas dire le mot en question.
01:34Il se demande
01:35à quel point ça pourrait être mauvais.
01:37Eh bien,
01:38comme ça.
01:40I do it all the time
01:41Yeah, I do it all the time
01:43Serving cunt
01:49Don't let me rush this
01:51I'm serving cunt
01:53Yeah, serving cunt.
01:55K-A-N-T
01:57It's apparently the Maltese word
01:59for singing.
02:00So what she's doing there
02:01is she's serving singing
02:03or serving cunt
02:04or arguably serving both.
02:07And look,
02:08I could talk about Eurovision all night,
02:10but we're actually going to start
02:11with our main story tonight
02:12which concerns Trump's relationship
02:13with the press.
02:14It's always been antagonistic.
02:16And this week,
02:17we got yet another reminder
02:18when he was asked
02:19a perfectly reasonable question
02:21about reports that he planned
02:22to accept a luxury jet from Qatar.
02:25What do you say to people
02:26who view that luxury jet
02:27as a personal gift to you?
02:29Why not leave it behind?
02:30You're ABC fake news, right?
02:31Why not?
02:32Because only ABC,
02:33well, a few of you would.
02:35Let me tell you,
02:36you should be embarrassed
02:37to ask him that question.
02:39They're giving us a free jet.
02:41It's not a gift to me.
02:42It's a gift to the Department of Defense.
02:44And you should know better
02:46because you've been embarrassed enough
02:48and so has your network.
02:49Your network is a disaster.
02:50ABC is a disaster.
02:51That is pretty hostile,
02:53though I actually agree
02:55that ABC should be embarrassed.
02:57Just not for that entirely
02:58legitimate question,
02:59but for the fact that as of taping,
03:00they still haven't renewed
03:01Doctor Odyssey for season two.
03:03What the fuck are you doing, ABC?
03:05It's sexy ER on a boat.
03:07It's the pit with sharks.
03:09It's got,
03:10and I'm not even going to try
03:11and beat their tagline on this,
03:12big deck energy.
03:14In its pilot episode alone,
03:16it featured a water slide injury,
03:18someone overdosing on shrimp,
03:20and this.
03:22What happened?
03:23It broke.
03:25He's in shock.
03:27What broke, Mr. Harrington?
03:28Is it a bone?
03:30Is it a bone?
03:36He malfunctioned.
03:38Are you not entertained?
03:41How is ABC renewing shows
03:43called The Rookie and Will Trent,
03:45whose premise is apparently just,
03:47despite being dyslexic,
03:49he's become a special agent
03:51in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation?
03:54What?
03:56But they haven't renewed the only show
03:58brave enough to answer the question,
03:59what if sick but boat?
04:01I shouldn't complain about the other shows.
04:03I shouldn't care that a show
04:04called and about a rookie
04:05is returning for its premise-defying
04:07eighth season,
04:09and I don't begrudge any audience members
04:10for sticking around to find out
04:11if their favorite characters
04:12will or won't Trent.
04:14All I'm saying is,
04:16ABC's The View has been on since 1997,
04:18and Dr. Hot Boat is still in limbo.
04:20You're a disgrace, ABC.
04:22Your network is a disaster.
04:25The problem is,
04:26Trump clearly only likes
04:28when people are nice to him,
04:29and the press,
04:30by covering the things he says and does
04:31and the way he says and does them,
04:33is, in his opinion, being mean.
04:35Back in his first campaign,
04:36he attacked journalists constantly,
04:38calling Jake Tapper fake Tapper,
04:40Maggie Haberman maggot Hagerman,
04:43and Katie Ter Little Katie,
04:45which, compared to the others,
04:46is just lazy.
04:47Little Katie sounds like a doll
04:48from the 1970s
04:49that was discontinued
04:50for giving children lead poisoning.
04:52But in his second term,
04:54Trump's administration's escalated
04:55those attacks on the press,
04:57from making it easier
04:58to subpoena journalist records
04:59to detaining a Tufts University student
05:01after she co-authored an op-ed on Gaza,
05:03to Trump calling for Republicans
05:04to defund NPR and PBS,
05:06calling them radical left monsters
05:08that so badly hurt our country.
05:10And in March,
05:11he even went to the DOJ
05:13to issue this chilling announcement.
05:15I believe that CNN and MSDNC
05:18who literally write 97.6% bad about me
05:23are political arms of the Democrat Party,
05:26and in my opinion,
05:27they're really corrupt and they're illegal.
05:30What they do is illegal.
05:31And it has to stop.
05:32It has to be illegal.
05:34Okay.
05:35What the press does has to be illegal
05:37is obviously extremely bad,
05:39but I also want to talk
05:40about that 97.6% real quick,
05:44because I'm genuinely surprised
05:45that he knew that made-up number
05:47would sound more authentic
05:48if he added a decimal point.
05:49A decimal just feels more like a real number,
05:53even if it isn't.
05:54If I tell you 20% of Taco Bell ground beef
05:57is actually horse,
05:58you're like, no way,
05:59number's too round.
06:00But if I say 21.6% is horse,
06:03you'd be like,
06:04he wouldn't make up a number that specific.
06:07Now, to be clear,
06:08I wouldn't say either of those numbers, though,
06:10because we all know
06:11that the real number is significantly higher,
06:13but apparently, legally,
06:14I can't say that,
06:15so I won't.
06:17And unfortunately,
06:18even as Trump's aggression has gone up,
06:20some owners of press outlets
06:22have gotten more submissive.
06:23During Trump's first term,
06:24a lot of outlets positioned themselves
06:26as fierce watchdogs for truth.
06:28The Washington Post, for instance,
06:29adopted the slogan,
06:30democracy dies in darkness.
06:32But this time, even before the election,
06:35they seemed noticeably gentler.
06:37The Post's owner, Jeff Bezos,
06:38killed the paper's endorsement of Kamala Harris.
06:40He also ordered that its op-ed page
06:42focus purely on the importance
06:43of personal liberties and free markets.
06:46Bezos has seemingly gone out of his way
06:49to cozy up to Trump
06:51with his company paying $40 million
06:53to license a documentary on Melania,
06:55the most Amazon has ever spent on a documentary,
06:58and even standing behind Trump
07:00at his inauguration.
07:02And come on,
07:03that's not just bending the knee,
07:04that's bending both knees,
07:05arching your back,
07:06and relaxing your holes.
07:08And Bezos isn't the only media owner
07:11making notable concessions.
07:14The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times
07:17has reportedly asked the paper's editorial board
07:20to, quote,
07:21take a break from writing about
07:23president-elect Donald Trump.
07:25Patrick Soon-Shiong has reportedly required editors
07:28to send him the text of every editorial
07:31and the name of its writer before publishing.
07:34That is pretty chilly.
07:35And as for taking a break from writing about Trump,
07:38to be clear,
07:39I also don't want to hear about him all the time.
07:41I don't love that I'm talking about him right now,
07:44especially when I could be talking
07:46about the recent headline,
07:47Ohio police find raccoon holding meth pipe
07:50during traffic stop,
07:51which was already good enough
07:52until they made it even better,
07:53pointing out when an officer took the pipe away,
07:56the raccoon pulled out another.
07:58Pulled out another?
08:00From where?
08:02You don't think I want to talk about this raccoon
08:05with multiple meth pipes
08:07for the next 25 solid minutes?
08:09Of course I do, but I can't,
08:11because even as threats to the free press
08:14seem to be on the rise,
08:15resistance to them seems to be waning,
08:17and in some corners, to a worrying extent.
08:19So given that, tonight,
08:20let's talk about Trump and the press,
08:22how he's tried to reshape his coverage,
08:24the levers of power he's using to threaten them,
08:26and how we should be responding.
08:28Let's start with, if not the most important,
08:30the most visible sign that things have changed,
08:32the White House press corps.
08:34Back in February,
08:35the White House picked a high-profile fight
08:37with the Associated Press
08:38for the dumbest, imaginable reason.
08:40You may remember, after taking office,
08:42Trump announced that he renamed
08:44the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America.
08:46And while some outlets started using the new name,
08:48the AP didn't,
08:49which led to them being banned from the Oval Office,
08:52something Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt
08:54justified like this.
08:56If we feel that there are lies being pushed
08:59by outlets in this room,
09:00we are going to hold those lies accountable.
09:02And it is a fact that the body of water
09:05off the coast of Louisiana
09:06is called the Gulf of America.
09:08And I'm not sure why news outlets
09:10don't want to call it that,
09:12but that is what it is.
09:13OK, to you maybe, but not to everyone.
09:17As the AP pointed out,
09:19it has clients all over the world
09:21and lots of them still use the term
09:23the Gulf of Mexico.
09:24So it's not as simple as you're making out there,
09:26especially because it can take time
09:28for people to adjust to a stupid name change.
09:31Sometimes, hypothetically,
09:32before we can even get used to one dumb name,
09:35some genius comes along and only makes it dumber.
09:38Then somehow it gets dumber still
09:40and then against all the odds,
09:41somehow it becomes even worse
09:43before inexplicably going back
09:45to the stupid thing it was before.
09:47Incidentally, only this week,
09:49my parent company apparently said
09:51they cannot wait for my hot take
09:53on this whole rebrand.
09:55Believing that whatever I say about this change
09:57was going to be pretty hot.
09:59So please look me in the eyes when I say this.
10:02Fuck you, don't tell me what to do.
10:04I'm not going to do it if you want it.
10:06Unless, wait, hold on,
10:07maybe you thought baiting me like that
10:09would be a good way to stop me from doing it.
10:11But on the other hand,
10:12how could a company be that smart
10:14when they're the same people
10:15that came up with so many stupid fucking names?
10:18Now, after a legal battle,
10:20the White House began allowing the AP
10:22back into the Oval Office.
10:24And as you just saw with that ABC reporter,
10:26other traditional outlets are still allowed access
10:29to the president primarily
10:30so that he can shit on them.
10:32But increasingly, he is managing
10:34to get the sycophantic questions he prefer.
10:36And even if you haven't noticed that,
10:38he definitely has.
11:09That is pretty humiliating.
11:11And not just because,
11:12I love this guy, whoever the hell that is.
11:14It's almost definitely how Donald Trump
11:16opened a toast at Eric's wedding.
11:18But it's not a coincidence
11:20that Trump's been getting more flattering questions
11:22because the White House has increasingly let
11:24far-right news outlets and influencers
11:26into press events.
11:28A recent review of British news
11:30has found that the White House
11:32is not the only place
11:34where the Trump administration
11:37A recent review of briefings
11:38found that four of the five reporters
11:40Levitt called on most
11:41were from right-wing outlets.
11:43She's also added a seat for new media.
11:45And the person in that seat
11:46is always called on first.
11:48Meaning the press room now features
11:49figures like Cara Castronova
11:51who works for Lindell TV,
11:53an internet news network bankrolled
11:55by the MyPillow guy
11:57who asks questions like this.
11:59Will you guys also consider releasing
12:01the president's fitness plan?
12:03He actually looks healthier than ever before.
12:05He's healthier than he did eight years ago
12:07and I'm sure everybody in this room could agree.
12:09Is he working out with Bobby Kennedy?
12:11And is he eating less McDonald's?
12:13That is an actual question
12:15a White House reporter asked
12:17and everything about that is unsettling
12:19from the fact she was essentially asking
12:21the president's looking hotter than ever, right?
12:23To the absolutely cursed smile
12:25of that ghostly twink presence
12:27of the business malfoy
12:29hovering behind her.
12:31You can all see him too, right?
12:33You can see him.
12:35And when she was asked to spell out
12:37her approach to journalism,
12:39it didn't go great.
12:41You are a Trump fan, right?
12:43Yes, I'm definitely a supporter of President Trump.
12:45So will you be able to hold him to account?
12:47I will be able to hold
12:49100% him to account.
12:51There's, I'm sure,
12:53things that will happen that I disagree with
12:55and I have said plenty of times
12:57on the record when I've disagreed with his decision.
12:59Is there anything so far in this administration
13:01that you disagree with?
13:03I'm not going to...
13:05Let me put some thought into that for a second.
13:07Um...
13:09I'm just overwhelmed,
13:11like, just overwhelmed with how well
13:13I perceive things to be going.
13:15What?
13:17I'm just overwhelmed
13:19with how well I perceive
13:21things to be going?
13:23That sounds less like what a White House correspondent
13:25should be saying to a reporter,
13:27more like something you say to an acquaintance at coffee
13:29in your car for an hour.
13:31And look, stalking the press room
13:33with suck-ups would be bad enough,
13:35but that's just one of the ways the White House has found
13:37to thumb the scale of its coverage.
13:39Another has been attempting to weaponize the FCC.
13:41Historically, it's at least
13:43pretended to be an independent commission,
13:45but that is now changing fast
13:47under its new chair, Brendan Carr.
13:49Trump elevated him to run the commission
13:51almost immediately after the election,
13:53and Carr made no secret of what he was going to do.
13:55I want to start by expressing
13:57my thanks and appreciation again
13:59to President Trump and to congratulate him
14:01again on his historic election victory.
14:03For me, as I go forward,
14:05the first thing is to get together
14:07with the president's team and make sure
14:09that I 100% understand
14:11his agenda. After all,
14:13it's going to be his administration,
14:15and it's going to be his agenda that people should be pushing.
14:17Okay, but that's not what your job
14:19is supposed to be.
14:21You never want to hear something as obsequious as that
14:23coming from someone in a role
14:25that's supposed to be independent, for the same reason
14:27you don't want to see an NBA ref wearing
14:29one of the team's uniforms
14:31or a Supreme Court justice flying an insurrection flag
14:33outside of his house. Hypothetically,
14:35of course, you understand.
14:37And Carr does seem deep
14:39in the tank for the president. Trump's supporters
14:41have celebrated this image of him wearing
14:43a gold Trump pin, and after
14:45The Hollywood Reporter published an article titled
14:47Trump's Media Pitbull is Off the Leash
14:49that included this horrifying picture
14:51of Carr as a pitbull,
14:53people hated it, saying,
14:55woof, woof.
14:57One past FCC commissioner said,
14:59I'm about as worried as I can be about the future
15:01of the FCC. I would say Carr
15:03is the most ideological chairman we've ever had
15:05and the most political.
15:07And he's wasted no time pursuing
15:09Trump's agenda. His FCC
15:11is now investigating all the major broadcast
15:13outlets except for Fox.
15:15And Carr's stewardship of the FCC
15:17has also been part of a new squeeze
15:19Trump's been putting on the networks, with the FCC
15:21on one end and lawsuits on the other.
15:23Here is how it works.
15:25The FCC has the ability
15:27to regulate the broadcast licenses of local
15:29TV and radio stations. The big networks
15:31each own a bunch of those.
15:33CBS, for instance, owns all
15:35of these. And while the FCC
15:37revoking a license is incredibly
15:39hard, what it can do is make
15:41it very hard for networks
15:43to sell those stations,
15:45which, given the frequency of media mergers
15:47and acquisitions, can be a real problem.
15:49Networks now have that threat
15:51hanging over them, while at the same time
15:53Trump is applying legal pressure
15:55by filing lawsuits to put them on the defensive.
15:57It is pretty flagrant.
15:59Trump files a lawsuit demanding
16:01money at the same time his FCC
16:03starts making noises about plans to make
16:05that company's life unpleasant. So
16:07the networks settle in the hopes it'll
16:09keep Trump happy and get everyone off their back.
16:11And maybe they think twice about the tone of their
16:13coverage in the future. Right now,
16:15CBS is caught in this exact
16:17squeeze, largely arising from a
16:1960-minute segment that aired just
16:21before the election featuring an interview with Kamala Harris,
16:23which Trump maintains was
16:25misleadingly edited. He has sued
16:27the network in a lawsuit First
16:29Amendment lawyers have called frivolous and
16:31dangerous and ridiculous junk.
16:33And to understand just how
16:35true that is, it's worth
16:37looking at the specifics here. Very basically,
16:39it involves Harris' answer to a question
16:41about Gaza. And here is Trump's
16:43version of what happened.
16:45They took Kamala's answer,
16:47which was a crazy answer,
16:49a horrible answer, and they
16:51took the whole answer out and
16:53they replaced it with something else she said
16:55later on in the interview,
16:57which wasn't a great answer, but it wasn't
16:59like the first one. The first was
17:01grossly incompetent. It was weird.
17:03And that was fraud
17:05and election interference by their
17:07news magazine, a big part of
17:09CBS News. Okay, so
17:11Trump's theory is that CBS
17:13secretly replaced Harris' answer
17:15to a question to get her to win the
17:17presidency. And straight away, complaining
17:19about that, it's a bit like accusing me of
17:21hiding the secrets of my skincare routine.
17:23One, I don't have one, and two,
17:25even if I did, it doesn't matter, because it's
17:27not like it worked, did it?
17:29But it's worth knowing
17:31the only reason he's aware of that
17:33weird answer is that it aired in a promo
17:35for that 60 Minutes interview
17:37on Face the Nation. So
17:39CBS aired it. They weren't trying
17:41to hide anything. And if you're curious, here are
17:43the two versions. Here is what aired
17:45on Face the Nation.
17:47It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu
17:49is not listening.
17:51Well, Bill,
17:53the work that we have done
17:55has resulted in
17:57a number of
17:59movements in that region
18:01by Israel that were
18:03very much
18:05prompted by or a
18:07result of many things,
18:09including our advocacy
18:11for what needs to happen in the region.
18:13That is a pretty shitty answer.
18:15It's like she's trying to express a thought in English
18:17but with French grammar.
18:19It sounds like someone just shook her awake and yelled
18:21Israel at her. So
18:23Trump is not wrong. That was bad.
18:25But here's the supposedly much better answer
18:27that 60 Minutes aired that night.
18:29It seems that
18:31Prime Minister Netanyahu is not
18:33listening. We're not going to stop
18:35pursuing what is
18:37necessary for the United States to be clear
18:39about where we stand on the need
18:41for this war to end.
18:43I mean, I guess that sounds
18:45slightly more coherent, but they are
18:47both fundamentally celebrations
18:49of prepositional phrases and the passive voice.
18:51In both,
18:53she is talking like a high schooler trying to hit the word count.
18:55The Letter of Scarlet,
18:57worn by Hester Prynne in the novel
18:59The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
19:01published in 1850,
19:03symbolizes shame and punishment
19:05quite frankly.
19:07And the underlying fact is
19:09the two answers seem to be broadly saying
19:11the same amount of absolute nothing
19:13about the same topic, which isn't surprising
19:15because under pressure from the FCC,
19:17CBS actually released the full
19:19transcript of the interview and it turns out
19:21this is her full answer to the question
19:23she was asked about Israel.
19:25This is what aired on Face the Nation
19:27and this is what aired on 60 Minutes.
19:29So the network didn't take her whole answer
19:31out and replace it with something
19:33similar to the answer in the interview.
19:35As Trump claimed, they basically aired
19:37both halves of a single answer
19:39and that sort of editing decision
19:41for time or clarity happens on TV all the time.
19:43As Semaphore pointed out,
19:45earlier last year, Fox actually massaged
19:47a Trump interview because in the version
19:49that they initially aired, this was the exchange.
19:51Would you declassify the Epstein files?
19:53Yeah.
19:55Yeah, I would.
19:57Okay then.
19:59That is a firm, unequivocal answer.
20:01And at that point, they cut away to the next question.
20:03But when they later aired a longer clip
20:05from that interview, it became clear
20:07that his full answer played out a little differently.
20:09Would you declassify the Epstein files?
20:11Yeah.
20:13Yeah, I would.
20:15I guess I would.
20:17I think that less so because, you know,
20:19you don't want to affect people's lives
20:21if it's phony stuff in there because
20:23it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.
20:25Yeah, in one version,
20:27Trump's answer was edited down and people
20:29who saw that missed out on the fuller context
20:31of watching his thought process go in real time
20:33from, of course, we should absolutely release the files,
20:35people deserve to know the truth,
20:37to, oh wait, you mean that Epstein?
20:39To, oh yeah, you know, you can't believe
20:41everything that you read about people.
20:43The point is,
20:45CBS engaged in a pretty standard practice
20:47of editing an interview for length and clarity.
20:49Nevertheless, Trump sued them for fraud,
20:51demanding $20 billion
20:53in damages.
20:55And CBS initially fought back,
20:57calling the claims completely without merit
20:59and saying that they intended to vigorously defend
21:01against the lawsuit, which makes sense
21:03as legal experts have called it baseless
21:05and an easy victory for CBS.
21:07But here's the thing.
21:09While that lawsuit was going on,
21:11the FCC began investigating
21:13the network over claims
21:15it engaged in news distortion
21:17with the interview, and that
21:19is a problem for CBS, especially as
21:21its parent company, Paramount,
21:23is currently in the middle of a massive merger
21:25with Skydance Media.
21:27And as I mentioned earlier, transferring
21:29its broadcast licenses will require
21:31FCC approval, and it can sit
21:33on that approval indefinitely.
21:35That may well be why
21:37Shari Redstone, Paramount's controlling
21:39shareholder, said she favors settling
21:41the case. She and Paramount have also
21:43apparently indicated to 60 Minutes they were
21:45very interested to know the segments
21:47the show was going to be running on Trump
21:49for the rest of the season, which feels
21:51like a big overstep.
21:53Bill Owens, the head of 60 Minutes,
21:55actually resigned in the wake of that,
21:57saying it had become clear he would not
21:59be allowed to make independent decisions
22:01at the show, all of which makes it
22:03pretty galling that just a few
22:05years ago, Shari Redstone chaired
22:07an event for CPJ, a group that defends
22:09press freedom around the world, and had
22:11the nerve to position herself
22:13as a defender of a free press.
22:15It is truly an honor to be here
22:17representing Paramount Global
22:19and the thousands of hardworking
22:21journalists at CBS News
22:23who fight every day
22:25for the freedom and integrity
22:27of the press.
22:29The honorees in this room
22:31are living embodiments of these
22:33values. They remind
22:35us that press freedom
22:37is never guaranteed,
22:39that it must constantly
22:41be defended, and
22:43that it often comes at a significant
22:45cost, both personal
22:47and professional.
22:49Wow, powerful words there
22:51about the need to defend press freedom at any
22:53cost from someone who has seemed to stop
22:55doing that as soon as there was a financial
22:57one to her. And that
22:59kind of undercuts the strength of
23:01her statement there. Imagine FDR saying
23:03the only thing we have to fear is fear
23:05itself, only to flip the fuck out after
23:07he saw a bug.
23:09It undermines his point.
23:13And maybe Redstone's calculating that if
23:15she just gives Trump what he wants
23:17he's now held back down, but I
23:19seriously doubt that. Just look
23:21at what happened to ABC. They settled
23:23a defamation lawsuit with Trump in December
23:25over how George Stephanopoulos characterized
23:27the E. Gene Carroll verdict, paying
23:29$15 million to Trump's
23:31private foundation for his presidential museum,
23:33despite experts saying
23:35ABC might well have won at
23:37trial. But since then,
23:39Carr's FCC has pushed ABC
23:41for more concessions, like threatening
23:43its broadcast license over Disney's
23:45CGI practices. And look, as
23:47bad as these examples are, you at least
23:49might already be aware of them.
23:51But there are fights happening at the local level
23:53that aren't getting nearly the same
23:55degree of attention, but
23:57that are just as worrying. Take a look
23:59at what Carr's FCC is doing to
24:01KCBS, a San Francisco radio
24:03station. Very basically, on
24:05the afternoon of January 26th, a local community
24:07group made this post to Facebook
24:09concerning ICE agents being spotted in
24:11the area. A city council member also
24:13posted about the ICE activities.
24:15Around 3.40 p.m., the community group
24:17posted that ICE had left, and around
24:19two hours after that,
24:21KCBS ran a story about it
24:23in the classic sedate tone of every
24:25radio news broadcast ever.
24:27San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan
24:29and Council Member Peter Ortiz
24:31confirmed today that U.S. Immigration
24:33and Customs Enforcement agents are
24:35currently carrying out an operation
24:37on the east side of town. The
24:39county's response network says
24:41ICE agents in San Jose were in
24:43unmarked vehicles, including a black Dodge
24:45Durango, a gray Nissan
24:47Maxima, and white Nissan truck.
24:49ICE agents were also reported
24:51outside a residence on South White
24:53and Tully Roads, and officers were
24:55reportedly at the target on
24:57King and Story Roads.
24:59Okay, first, that is a remarkably soothing
25:01voice for a news report
25:03describing something as alarming as ICE agents
25:05in unmarked vehicles. It's like
25:07listening to a YouTube video titled
25:09The Sounds of a Man Getting Balls by a Tiger
25:11to relax-study to.
25:13But crucially, that report's
25:15also pretty basic. ICE
25:17was in the community, community groups
25:19and government officials were talking about it,
25:21and local news covered it.
25:23That radio station was actually one of several
25:25outlets that covered it around the same time.
25:27Here it is on the six o'clock
25:29news on NBC, which actually showed
25:31images of the cars and agents in question,
25:33and here's the same footage being aired
25:35on Telemundo. But it was the radio
25:37that got the attention of a right-wing activist
25:39who pointed out that KCBS was owned
25:41by George Soros' investment firm,
25:43and claimed that it had put ICE agents
25:45at serious risk while an operation
25:47was ongoing, which it very much
25:49did not. Nevertheless,
25:51that complaint made its way to
25:53Brendan Carr, who later got himself in front
25:55of a camera to say this.
25:57What happened was you had ICE agents
25:59undercover doing operations
26:01in East San Jose, in part of the
26:03town known for violent gang activity,
26:05and you had this radio station broadcasting
26:07the live location, identifying
26:09the unmarked vehicles that they were in.
26:11So we have sent a letter of inquiry,
26:13a formal investigation into that matter,
26:15and they have just a matter of days left
26:17to respond to that inquiry and explain
26:19how this could possibly be consistent
26:21with their public interest obligations.
26:23What are you talking about?
26:25Covering stories like that is literally
26:27the whole point of local news radio.
26:29That, and delivering the driest imaginable
26:31ad read for a local deck-staining company.
26:33Now, legal scholars will tell you
26:35this FCC investigation is also
26:37meritless. As one First Amendment expert
26:39put it, law enforcement operations,
26:41immigration or otherwise, are
26:43matters of public interest.
26:45So if it comes to a court case
26:47and KCBS chooses to fight,
26:49it will almost certainly win.
26:51But it's a little worrying that so far
26:53they haven't openly defended their
26:55journalists, who again, did absolutely
26:57nothing wrong. And on one hand,
26:59I get it. Fighting the FCC
27:01costs money and opens the station
27:03up to risk when their license comes up again.
27:05But staying silent has real
27:07cost too. As that First Amendment
27:09expert says, even if charges are never
27:11filed, people have to look over their shoulders
27:13to wonder, is the government going to come after
27:15me because I'll report something that the government
27:17doesn't like me to say? Sadly,
27:19that is a reasonable question to ask
27:21now, much more reasonable,
27:23you could argue, than when's the president's workout
27:25DVD dropping?
27:27And this feels
27:29like where the biggest potential harm may be
27:31done because the government, directly or
27:33indirectly, is controlling criticism
27:35and that is, to put it bluntly,
27:37authoritarianism.
27:39We've seen countries backslide
27:41and the press tends to be
27:43one of the first casualties. It happened under Victor
27:45Obama in Hungary and Rodrigo
27:47Duterte in the Philippines. And those
27:49who've watched it happen in person will tell you
27:51this is where it starts
27:53and this is also the one chance you get
27:55to stop it. Maria Ressa
27:57is a journalist who was arrested in the Philippines
27:59for standing up to the Duterte regime.
28:01She ultimately won a Nobel Prize
28:03for doing that. And she said
28:05she sees parallels here with what
28:07happened there. And her warning
28:09to people like Shari Redstone is pretty
28:11stark. Don't voluntarily give
28:13up your rights. I mean
28:15again, I'll give you our
28:17example in the Philippines where
28:19the first
28:21newspaper gave up,
28:23the television station gave
28:25up largest. It lost its
28:27franchise or license to
28:29operate. And guess what?
28:31It never regained it, even after
28:33the time of Duterte. I guess what I'm saying
28:35is, hold the line is
28:37the phrase we use because
28:39it's connected to the rights
28:41that you deserve as a citizen.
28:43And if you do
28:45not hold the line at this
28:47crucial moment, this is
28:49the moment when you are strongest.
28:51You will only
28:53get weaker over time.
28:55Exactly. Fundamental
28:57rights and freedoms are worth
28:59fighting for. And this is
29:01one of the fights that nerds who work in newsrooms
29:03can actually win, mostly because
29:05it doesn't require any upper body strength.
29:07So, what
29:09can we do? Well obviously, public support for
29:11organizations like the AP and 60 Minutes
29:13is important. But we also need
29:15to pay attention to what's happening at places
29:17like KCBS. And
29:19I'd argue there's a special obligation
29:21here to any outlets owned
29:23by extremely wealthy people like
29:25this lot to fight back.
29:27Don't comply with
29:29Trump's ridiculous demands prematurely.
29:31I know he and the FCC are making
29:33a lot of intimidating sounding threats
29:35and fighting them will undeniably
29:37take time, effort and money.
29:39But I'd argue it is very much worth it.
29:41Especially when the likeliest outcome
29:43is that you win definitively.
29:45If I may quote someone
29:47who I hope meant it
29:49when she said it
29:51Press freedom is never guaranteed.
29:53It must constantly be defended
29:55and that often comes at a significant
29:57cost. The point is
29:59if media owners enjoy the applause
30:01they get when they say things like that
30:03now is the time to pay for it.
30:05Think of it this way.
30:07A free press is really
30:09a lot like Doctor Odyssey.
30:11It's rare. It's special.
30:13We're very lucky to have it.
30:15And if we're not extremely
30:17careful we're all going to miss it terribly
30:19when it's gone.
30:21And now this.
30:23And now local news
30:25has some pretty hot takes
30:27on HBO's latest
30:29rebranding. The streaming platform
30:31Max is changing its name again.
30:33This time it's going back to the
30:35HBO Max.
30:37It was HBO Max
30:39and then it became Max
30:41and now it's going to go back
30:43to HBO Max.
30:45Cool.
30:47Streaming service Max is changing its name
30:49again.
30:51Remember it was HBO
30:53then it was HBO Max and then it was Max?
30:55Yes. It's HBO Max
30:57again. Oh great. Pick a thing man.
30:59Pick a lane and stick with it.
31:01Like I'm not like the king of all
31:03you know, protecting your brand
31:05but my lord, what are you doing
31:07Warner Brothers? Warner Brothers Studio says
31:09this change puts a focus on
31:11quality rather than
31:13quantity. Okay.
31:43Okay.
31:53Moving on. Finally tonight
31:55a quick update. You may remember two weeks ago
31:57we did a segment about the incredible institution
31:59that is minor league baseball
32:01which is really just baseball but with
32:03a staggering amount of younger sibling energy.
32:05In it
32:07we walked you through some of the spectacular
32:09team names like the Rumble Ponies,
32:11the Trash Pandas and the Modesto Nuts
32:13whose logo features what appears to be a
32:15sporty nut thrupple.
32:17We also mentioned some of their amazing theme nights
32:19like the Charleston Riverdogs Helen McGuckin
32:21night which was dedicated
32:23entirely to impressing a random woman
32:25who gave the ballpark a two star review
32:27without ever setting foot inside it.
32:29A level of pettiness
32:31I can only aspire to.
32:33It turns out a lot of teams
32:35and their fans were excited to be mentioned
32:37including this North Alabama news anchor
32:39who provided an extra detail.
33:09And right there is the face of a woman who is
33:11suddenly wondering if the word comedian
33:13was the right choice there.
33:15At the end of that episode we mentioned
33:17that not all teams seem to be pulling
33:19their weight in the eccentricity department
33:21so we offered to rebrand one
33:23minor league team with a new name, mascot
33:25and theme night as long as they
33:271. Promise to do whatever we told them
33:29and 2. Email to johnoliver
33:31at buntstuff.com
33:33an email address that I promise made sense
33:35in context. Now I will admit
33:37we're not always sure what level of response
33:39we're going to get which is why
33:41I'm happy to tell you we got so
33:43many emails
33:45and I will say a bunch were for non-baseball
33:47reasons including one guy who
33:49simply wrote, I'd like to say that you look like
33:51the wrinkles on my nutsack
33:53and the makeup you put on isn't working
33:55accounting boy
33:57then miraculously signed off with
33:59best wishes mate which
34:01thanks
34:03and honestly you know which insult hurts the most
34:05accounting boy
34:07because I can brush off the nutsack thing
34:09maybe yours is exquisite
34:11and if you saw me without TV makeup
34:13you'd realize it is actually working
34:15this is
34:17unfortunately the makeup working
34:19but accounting boy, I'm afraid
34:21that is just a bullseye right there
34:23I also got an invitation
34:25to a wedding at the Indianapolis Zoo
34:27from Zach and McKenna who wrote
34:29no choice on food, you will eat what we have
34:31and like it
34:33like very much but I'm thrilled to say
34:35we also had 47
34:37minor league baseball teams
34:39reach out to take our offer
34:41that is 40% of all of them
34:43we got so many
34:45emails we had to make a beautiful spreadsheet
34:47with multiple tabs
34:49to keep track of them and the very fact
34:51I'm bragging about a spreadsheet
34:53clearly means I'm not beating
34:55the accounting boy allegations
34:57some teams
34:59were endearingly self-deprecating
35:01like the Buffalo Bisons
35:03who wrote we were named the Buffalo Bisons in 1877
35:05and not only was that name probably the boring
35:07first thought back in the late 19th century
35:09it's also grammatically incorrect
35:11which is of course true
35:13bison is one of those words where the plural
35:15doesn't have an S like sheep or
35:17share
35:19this right here, that's a bunch of share
35:21not shares, I don't make the rules
35:23I just follow them
35:25some teams even sent videos like the Lake County
35:27Captains whose magnificent toilet
35:29seating we featured
35:31they made us a video that began
35:33with the words pick us John Oliver
35:35and escalated from there
35:37we have nine mascots
35:39not one, nine
35:41when we needed a new one
35:43we brought back the most hated mascot in Cleveland
35:45history
35:47we gave him a second chance
35:49America loves a redemption arc
35:51our mascots try to do something big
35:53to get your attention
35:55looks like we're doing the Oliver Wave here too
35:57and this
35:59it's always a lot of fun but you don't see this many
36:01mascots sitting on a row of
36:03toilets in any other place
36:05that is pretty good but I'll be honest
36:07the Lake County Captains have a row of toilet
36:09seats and nine mascots, one of which
36:11looks like someone placed a baseball cap on top of
36:13Elmo's genitals
36:15on top of that, they've clearly got the kind of printer
36:17that can do full head printing on a pretty tight
36:19turnaround so I'm not sure what you really
36:21need us to do for you, I think
36:23we'd just be holding you back
36:25we're not the only team that reached out
36:27despite not needing our help, we also heard from the
36:29Amarillo Sod Poodles and what are you doing
36:31in our inbox? You want us to
36:33rebrand Ruckus the Sod Poodle?
36:35A giant ground squirrel dressed like he's
36:37attending the Cowboy Carter Tour?
36:39Absolutely not!
36:41We also heard from the Quad City River Bandits who emphasized
36:43their bonafide saying we were the first team
36:45to fill a helicopter with candy
36:47then drop it all over the field after a game
36:49then as the children ran out
36:51onto the field to grab the candy, we'd have the
36:53quad to circle back and drop thousands of
36:55giant marshmallows all over the
36:57children and if you think
36:59we're going to find a way to one up the idea of
37:01chopper shitting a bunch of candy
37:03on some kids and then when they get all excited
37:05buzz back around to bombard
37:07them with marshmallows
37:09you're out of your fucking minds!
37:11Incredibly, the Eugene Emeralds
37:13also contacted us with an email in which they called
37:15me Mr. Juan John Oliver
37:17which is not how the English language works
37:19but we're obviously not going to
37:21even attempt to top their alternate
37:23identity of the exploding whales
37:25or indeed come up with a mascot
37:27that's better than this cheeky bitch who smirk says
37:29guess who's about to go boom!
37:33Honestly, part of this whole process
37:35was learning more about the mascots that already
37:37exist, some of which are really good
37:39the Fredericksburg Nationals for instance
37:41told us our mascot Gus is
37:43literally George Washington's childhood
37:45imaginary friend. We don't fully
37:47understand that either but kids love him
37:49Picture in your mind what you think
37:51George Washington's imaginary friend
37:53would look like. Are you picturing it right now?
37:55Have you got it in your head now?
37:57You're wrong, it's this
37:59That's Gus
38:01That's who America's father
38:03hung around with as a boy
38:05We're not touching that!
38:07Overall, picking a team
38:09turned out to be really difficult and before we
38:11reveal our choice, let me just say this
38:13if you haven't been to a minor league baseball
38:15game, you really should go
38:17because minor league baseball is clearly both
38:19incredibly special and inescapably
38:21stupid in the very
38:23best way but in the end
38:25we have made a choice so please
38:27come with me because
38:29as hard as it was
38:31we did pick one
38:33of the 47 entries
38:35and we're excited to get
38:37to work. The team
38:39we've selected is
38:41the Eerie
38:43Seawolves in Eerie, Pennsylvania
38:45They've offered us
38:47a list of 11 good reasons to
38:49pick them, one of which was
38:51the Seawolves play baseball nowhere
38:53near the sea, which yeah
38:55that's a problem Eerie, we can help you fix
38:57that so congratulations
38:59to the Seawolves, you're about to be called
39:01something else
39:03We are going to research your area and come up
39:05with a new name, mascot and theme
39:07night for you that no one else in the
39:09league has and that could only come
39:11from Eerie. As per our original offer
39:13you will get no input into this
39:15If I may paraphrase
39:17my now favourite wedding invitation of all
39:19time, you will take what we have
39:21and you will like
39:23it. All you have to do
39:25is sign the contract, we're about
39:27to send you so we can get started but I promise
39:29this is going to be great
39:31That is our show, thank you
39:33so much for watching, we're off next week
39:35Factune first, goodbye!