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00:00We're actually going to start with our main story tonight,
00:06which concerns Trump's relationship with the press.
00:08It's always been antagonistic.
00:10And this week, we got yet another reminder
00:13when he was asked a perfectly reasonable question
00:15about reports that he planned to accept a luxury jet from Qatar.
00:19What do you say to people who view that luxury jet
00:21as a personal gift to you?
00:23Why not leave it behind?
00:24You're ABC fake news, right?
00:26Why not?
00:27Only ABC, well, a few of you would.
00:29Uh, let me tell you,
00:31you should be embarrassed asking that question.
00:34They're giving us a free jet.
00:35It's not a gift to me, it's a gift to the Department of Defense.
00:39And you should know better,
00:41because you've been embarrassed enough, and so has your network.
00:43Your network is a disaster. ABC is a disaster.
00:46That is pretty hostile, though.
00:48I actually agree that ABC should be embarrassed.
00:51Just not for that entirely legitimate question,
00:53but for the fact that, as of taping,
00:55they still haven't renewed Doctor Odyssey for season two.
00:58What the fuck are you doing, ABC?
01:00It's sexy ER on a boat.
01:02It's the pit with sharks.
01:04It's got, and I'm not even gonna try and beat their tagline on this,
01:07big-deck energy.
01:09In its pilot episode alone,
01:12it featured a water slide injury,
01:13someone overdosing on shrimp,
01:15and this.
01:17What happened?
01:18It, it broke.
01:20He's in shock.
01:22What broke, Mr. Harrington?
01:23Is it a bone?
01:29He now fractured.
01:31Are you not entertained?
01:35How is ABC renewing shows called The Rookie and Will Trent,
01:39whose premise is apparently just, despite being dyslexic,
01:42he's become a special agent in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation?
01:48What?
01:48But they haven't renewed the only show brave enough to answer the question,
01:53what if sick, but boat?
01:55I, I shouldn't complain about the other shows.
01:58I shouldn't care that a show called and about a rookie is returning for its
02:01premise-defying eighth season.
02:03And I don't begrudge any audience members for sticking around to find out
02:06if their favorite characters will or won't Trent.
02:09All I'm saying is, ABC's The View has been on since 1997,
02:12and Dr. Hot Boat is still in limbo.
02:14You're a disgrace, ABC.
02:16Your network is a disaster.
02:19The problem is, Trump clearly only likes when people are nice to him,
02:23and the press, by covering the things he says and does
02:26and the way he says and does them, is, in his opinion, being mean.
02:29Back in his first campaign, he attacked journalists constantly,
02:33calling Jake Tapper, fake Tapper, Maggie Haberman, maggot Hagerman,
02:37and Katie Turr, Little Katie, which compared to the others is just lazy.
02:41Little Katie sounds like a doll from the 1970s that was discontinued
02:44for giving children lead poisoning.
02:47But in his second term, Trump's administrations escalated those attacks
02:50on the press, from making it easier to subpoena journalist records,
02:53to detaining a Tufts University student after she co-authored an op-ed on Gaza,
02:57to Trump calling for Republicans to defund NPR and PBS,
03:00calling them radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country.
03:04And in March, he even went to the DOJ to issue this chilling announcement.
03:09I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me,
03:17are political arms of the Democrat Party.
03:20And in my opinion, they're really corrupt and they're illegal.
03:24What they do is illegal. And it has to stop.
03:26It has to be illegal.
03:28Okay. What the press does has to be illegal.
03:31It's obviously extremely bad.
03:33But I also want to talk about that 97.6% real quick.
03:38Because I'm genuinely surprised that he knew that made-up number
03:41would sound more authentic if he added a decimal point.
03:43A decimal just feels more like a real number, even if it isn't.
03:48If I tell you 20% of Taco Bell ground beef is actually hoarse,
03:51you're like, no way, number's too round.
03:54But if I say 21.6% is hoarse, you'd be like,
03:58hmm, he wouldn't make up a number that specific.
04:01Now, to be clear, I wouldn't say either of those numbers, though,
04:04because we all know that the real number is significantly higher.
04:07But apparently, legally, I can't say that, so I won't.
04:11And unfortunately, even as Trump's aggression has gone up,
04:14some owners-of-press outlets have gotten more submissive.
04:17During Trump's first term, a lot of outlets positioned themselves
04:20as fierce watchdogs for truth.
04:22The Washington Post, for instance, adopted the slogan,
04:25democracy dies in darkness.
04:27But this time, even before the election,
04:29they seemed noticeably gentler.
04:31The Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, killed the paper's endorsement
04:34of Kamala Harris.
04:35He also ordered that its op-ed page focused purely
04:37on the importance of personal liberties and free markets.
04:40Bezos has seemingly gone out of his way
04:44to cozy up to Trump with his company paying $40 million
04:47to license a documentary on Melania,
04:50the most Amazon has ever spent on a documentary,
04:52and even standing behind Trump at his inauguration.
04:56And come on, that's not just bending the knee,
04:58that's bending both knees, arching your back,
05:00and relaxing your holds.
05:02And Bezos isn't the only media owner
05:05making notable concessions.
05:08The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times
05:11has reportedly asked the paper's editorial board
05:13to, quote, take a break from writing about President-elect
05:18Donald Trump.
05:19Patrick Soon-Chang has reportedly required editors
05:22to send him the text of every editorial
05:25and the name of its writer before publishing.
05:28That is pretty chilly.
05:29And as for taking a break from writing about Trump,
05:32to be clear, I also don't want to hear about him all the time.
05:35I don't love that I'm talking about him right now,
05:38especially when I could be talking about the recent headline,
05:40Ohio police find raccoon holding meth pipe
05:43during traffic stop, which was already good enough
05:46until they made it even better, pointing out,
05:48when an officer took the pipe away,
05:50the raccoon pulled out another.
05:52Pulled out another?
05:54From where?
05:56You don't think I want to talk about this raccoon
05:59with multiple meth pipes for the next 25 solid minutes?
06:03Of course I do, but I can't, because even as threats
06:07to the free press seem to be on the rise,
06:09resistance to them seems to be waning,
06:11and in some corners, to a worrying extent.
06:14So given that, tonight, let's talk about Trump and the press,
06:16how he's tried to reshape his coverage,
06:18the levers of power he's using to threaten them,
06:21and how we should be responding.
06:22Let's start with, if not the most important,
06:24the most visible sign that things have changed,
06:27the White House press corps.
06:28Back in February, the White House picked a high-profile fight
06:31with the Associated Press for the dumbest
06:33imaginable reason.
06:34You may remember, after taking office,
06:36Trump announced that he renamed the Gulf of Mexico
06:39the Gulf of America, and while some outlets
06:41started using the new name, the AP didn't,
06:44which led to them being banned from the Oval Office,
06:46something Press Secretary Caroline Levitt
06:49justified like this.
06:50If we feel that there are lies being pushed
06:53by outlets in this room, we are going to hold
06:55those lies accountable, and it is a fact
06:58that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana
07:01is called the Gulf of America,
07:02and I'm not sure why news outlets don't want to call it that,
07:06but that is what it is.
07:08Okay, to you, maybe, but not to everyone.
07:12As the AP pointed out, it has clients all over the world,
07:15and lots of them still use the term
07:17the Gulf of Mexico.
07:18So it's not as simple as you're making out there,
07:20especially because it can take time
07:23for people to adjust to a stupid name change.
07:25Sometimes, hypothetically,
07:26before we can even get used to one dumb name,
07:29some genius comes along and only makes it dumber,
07:32then somehow it gets dumber still,
07:34and then against all the odds,
07:35somehow it becomes even worse,
07:37before inexplicably going back to the stupid thing
07:39it was before.
07:40Incidentally, early this week,
07:42my parent company apparently said
07:45they cannot wait for my hot take
07:47on this whole rebrand,
07:48believing that whatever I say about this change
07:51was going to be pretty hot.
07:52So, please look me in the eyes when I say this.
07:55Fuck you, don't tell me what to do.
07:58I'm not gonna do it if you want it.
07:59Unless, wait, hold on, maybe you thought baiting me like that
08:02would be a good way to stop me from doing it,
08:04but on the other hand,
08:06how could a company be that smart
08:07when they're the same people
08:09that came up with so many stupid fucking names?
08:12Now, after a legal battle,
08:14the White House began allowing the AP
08:16back into the Oval Office,
08:17and as you just saw with that ABC reporter,
08:20other traditional outlets are still allowed access
08:23to the president primarily
08:24so that he can shit on them.
08:26But increasingly, he is managing
08:28to get the sycophantic questions he prefer,
08:30and even if you haven't noticed that,
08:32he definitely has.
08:34What has made you and your team so effective
08:37in finding, locating, apprehending,
08:40and deporting these violent, illegal migrants?
08:42I love this guy.
08:45I wish more people would ask questions like that.
08:47Do you think it shows just how out of touch
08:50they are with the American people,
08:52especially given that 79%, according to a CBS poll,
08:56approved of your speech?
08:58I love this guy.
08:59How come when these Democrat elites want tariffs,
09:01everything's hunky-dory,
09:02but when President Trump wants tariffs,
09:04all hell breaks loose.
09:05Do you see this double standard?
09:06I love this guy.
09:07Whoever the hell that is.
09:09That's really nice.
09:10I appreciate that question.
09:12That is pretty humiliating,
09:14and not just because,
09:15I love this guy, whoever the hell that is.
09:17It's almost definitely how Donald Trump
09:19opened a toast at Eric's wedding.
09:20I'm expecting, but it's not a coincidence
09:23that Trump's been getting more flattering questions
09:25because the White House has increasingly
09:27let far-right news outlets and influencers
09:29into press events.
09:31A recent review of briefings found that four
09:33of the five reporters Leavitt called on most
09:35were from right-wing outlets.
09:37She's also added a seat for new media,
09:39and the person in that seat is always called on first,
09:41meaning the press room now features figures
09:43like Cara Castronova, who works for Lindell TV,
09:46an internet news network bankrolled
09:48by the MyPillow guy, who asks questions like this.
09:52Will you guys also consider, uh,
09:54releasing the president's fitness plan?
09:56He actually looks healthier than ever before.
09:58Healthier than he did eight years ago,
09:59and I'm sure everybody in this room could agree.
10:01Is he working out with Bobby Kennedy?
10:03And is he eating less McDonald's?
10:05That is an actual question a White House reporter asked,
10:09and everything about that is unsettling,
10:11from the fact she was essentially asking,
10:13the president's looking hotter than ever, right?
10:16To the absolutely cursed smile
10:18of that ghostly twink presence
10:20of the business Malfoy hovering behind her.
10:23You can all see him too, right?
10:25Please tell me you can see him.
10:28And when she was asked to spell out
10:30her approach to journalism, it didn't go great.
10:33You are a Trump fan, right?
10:36Yes, I'm definitely a supporter of President Trump.
10:39So will you be able to hold him to account then?
10:41I will be able to hold 100% him to account.
10:45You know, there's, I'm sure things that will happen
10:48that I disagree with, and I have said plenty of times,
10:50you know, on the record, when I've disagreed
10:52with his decision.
10:53Is there anything so far in this administration
10:54you've disagreed with?
10:56I'm not gonna, let me put some thought into that
10:58for a second, um, I'm just overwhelmed
11:03like, just overwhelmed with how well
11:05I perceive things to be going.
11:09What?
11:11I'm just overwhelmed with how well
11:14I perceive things to be going?
11:16That sounds less like what a White House correspondent
11:18should be saying to a reporter,
11:19more like something you say to an acquaintance
11:21at coffee before crying in your car for an hour.
11:25And look, stocking the press room with suck-ups
11:27would be bad enough, but that's just one of the ways
11:29the White House has found to thumb the scale
11:31of its coverage.
11:32Another has been attempting to weaponize the FCC.
11:35Historically, it's at least pretended to be
11:38an independent commission, but that is now changing fast
11:41under its new chair, Brendan Carr.
11:43Trump elevated him to run the commission
11:44almost immediately after the election,
11:46and Carr made no secret of what he was going to do.
11:49I want to start by expressing my thanks
11:51and appreciation again to President Trump
11:53and to congratulate him again
11:55on his historic election victory.
11:57For me, as I go forward, the first thing is
11:59to get together with the president's team
12:01and make sure that I 100% understand his agenda.
12:05After all, it's going to be his administration,
12:08and it's going to be his agenda
12:09that people should be pushing.
12:10OK, but that's not what your job is supposed to be.
12:14You never want to hear something as obsequious as that
12:17coming from someone in a role that's supposed
12:19to be independent, for the same reason you don't want
12:21to see an NBA ref wearing one of the team's uniforms
12:24or a Supreme Court justice flying an insurrection flag
12:26outside of his house.
12:28Hypothetically, of course, you understand.
12:30And Carr does seem deep in the tank for the president.
12:34Trump supporters have celebrated this image of him
12:36wearing a gold Trump pin.
12:38And after The Hollywood Reporter published an article
12:40titled, Trump's media pit bull is off the leash,
12:42that included this horrifying picture of Carr as a pit bull,
12:46he tweeted it saying, woof, woof.
12:50One past FCC commissioner has said,
12:51I'm about as worried as I can be about the future of the FCC.
12:55I would say Carr is the most ideological chairman
12:57we've ever had and the most political.
13:00And he's wasted no time pursuing Trump's agenda.
13:02His FCC is now investigating all the major broadcast outlets
13:07except for Fox.
13:08And Carr's stewardship of the FCC has also been part
13:11of a new squeeze Trump's been putting on the networks,
13:13with the FCC on one side and lawsuits on the other.
13:16Here is how it works.
13:18The FCC has the ability to regulate the broadcast licenses
13:22of local TV and radio stations.
13:24The big networks each own a bunch of those.
13:26CBS, for instance, owns all of these.
13:29And while the FCC revoking a license is incredibly hard,
13:33what it can do is make it very hard for networks
13:36to sell those stations, which, given the frequency
13:39of media mergers and acquisitions, can be a real problem.
13:42So, networks now have that threat hanging over them,
13:46while at the same time Trump is applying legal pressure
13:48by filing lawsuits to put them on the defensive.
13:51It is pretty flagrant.
13:53Trump files a lawsuit demanding money
13:55at the same time his FCC starts making noises
13:58about plans to make that company's life unpleasant.
14:00So, the networks settle in the hopes it'll keep Trump happy
14:03and get everyone off their back.
14:04And maybe they think twice about the tone
14:06of their coverage in the future.
14:08Right now, CBS is caught in this exact squeeze,
14:11largely arising from a 60-minute segment
14:14that they had just before the election,
14:15featuring an interview with Kamala Harris,
14:17which Trump maintains was misleadingly edited.
14:20He has sued the network in a lawsuit
14:22First Amendment lawyers have called
14:24frivolous and dangerous and ridiculous junk.
14:27And to understand just how true that is,
14:30it's worth looking at the specifics here.
14:32Very basically, it involves Harris' answer
14:34to a question about Gaza.
14:35And here is Trump's version of what happened.
14:38They took Kamala's answer, which was a crazy answer,
14:43a horrible answer, and they took the whole answer out,
14:46and they replaced it with something else she said
14:49later on in the interview, which wasn't a great answer,
14:52but it wasn't like the first one.
14:54The first was grossly incompetent.
14:56It was weird.
14:57And that was fraud and election interference
15:00by their news magazine, a big part of CBS News.
15:04Okay, so Trump's theory is that CBS secretly replaced
15:07Harris' answer to a question to get her to win the presidency.
15:11And straightaway, complaining about that
15:13is a bit like accusing me of hiding the secrets
15:15of my skincare routine.
15:16One, I don't have one.
15:18And two, even if I did, it doesn't matter,
15:20because it's not like it worked, did it?
15:23But it's worth knowing the only reason he's aware
15:26of that weird answer is that it aired in a promo
15:29for that 60 Minutes interview on Face the Nation.
15:31So CBS aired it.
15:34They weren't trying to hide anything.
15:35And if you're curious, here are the two versions.
15:38Here is what aired on Face the Nation.
15:40It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.
15:45Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted
15:50in a number of movements in that region by Israel
15:55that were very much prompted by or a result of many things,
16:02including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.
16:07That is a pretty shitty answer.
16:09It's like you're trying to express a thought in English,
16:11but with French grammar.
16:13It sounds like someone just shook her awake
16:14and yelled, Israel, at her.
16:16So Trump is not wrong.
16:17That was bad.
16:19But here's the supposedly much better answer
16:21that 60 Minutes aired that night.
16:23It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.
16:28We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary
16:31for the United States to be clear about where we stand
16:33on the need for this war to end.
16:36I mean, I guess that sounds slightly more coherent,
16:39but they are both fundamentally celebrations
16:42of prepositional phrases and the passive voice.
16:45In both, she is talking like a high schooler trying to hit
16:48the word count.
16:49The letter of Scarlet, worn by Hester Prynne
16:51in the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
16:55published in 1850, symbolizes shame and punishment symbolically.
17:00And the underlying fact is, the two answers seem to be broadly
17:04saying the same amount of absolute nothing
17:06about the same topic, which isn't surprising,
17:09because under pressure from the FCC,
17:11CBS actually released the full transcript of the interview.
17:14And it turns out, this is her full answer
17:16to the question she was asked about Israel.
17:18This is what aired on Face the Nation.
17:20And this is what aired on 60 Minutes.
17:23So the network didn't take her whole answer out
17:25and replace it with something from later in the interview,
17:27as Trump claimed.
17:29They basically aired both halves of a single answer.
17:32And that sort of editing decision, for time or clarity,
17:35happens on TV all the time.
17:37As Semaphore pointed out, earlier last year,
17:39Fox actually massaged a Trump interview,
17:41because in the version that they initially aired,
17:43this was the exchange.
17:45Would you declassify the Epstein files?
17:48Yeah. Yeah, I would.
17:50Okay, then.
17:52That is a firm, unequivocal answer.
17:55And at that point, they cut away to the next question.
17:57But, when they later aired a longer clip from that interview,
18:00it became clear that his full answer
18:02played out a little differently.
18:04Would you declassify the Epstein files?
18:07Yeah. Yeah, I would.
18:08All right. I guess I would.
18:10I think that less so, because, you know, you don't know.
18:12You don't want to affect people's lives
18:14if it's phony stuff in there,
18:15because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.
18:19Yeah. In one version, Trump's answer was edited down,
18:22and people who saw that missed out on the fuller context
18:25of watching his thought process go in real time
18:26from, of course, we should absolutely release the files.
18:29People deserve to know the truth to,
18:31oh, wait, you mean that Epstein to,
18:33oh, yeah, you know, you can't believe everything
18:36that you read about people.
18:38The point is, CBS engaged in a pretty standard practice
18:41of editing an interview for length and clarity.
18:43Nevertheless, Trump sued them for fraud,
18:45demanding $20 billion in damages.
18:50And CBS initially fought back,
18:51calling the claims completely without merit,
18:53and saying that they intended to vigorously defend
18:55against the lawsuit, which makes sense,
18:57as legal experts have called it baseless
18:59and an easy victory for CBS.
19:02But here's the thing.
19:04While that lawsuit was going on,
19:06the FCC began investigating the network
19:09over claims it engaged in news distortion
19:12with the interview, and that is a problem for CBS,
19:15especially as its parent company, Paramount,
19:18is currently in the middle of a massive merger
19:20with Skydance Media.
19:21And as I mentioned earlier,
19:22transferring its broadcast licenses
19:24will require FCC approval,
19:26and it can sit on that approval indefinitely.
19:29That may well be why Shari Redstone,
19:32Paramount's controlling shareholder,
19:33has said she favors settling the case.
19:36She and Paramount have also apparently indicated
19:37to 60 Minutes they were very interested
19:40to know the segments the show was going to be running
19:42on Trump for the rest of the season,
19:44which feels like a big overstep.
19:47Bill Owens, the head of 60 Minutes,
19:49actually resigned in the wake of that,
19:51saying it had become clear he would not be allowed
19:53to make independent decisions at the show.
19:55All of which makes it pretty galling
19:58that just a few years ago,
19:59Shari Redstone chaired an event for CPJ,
20:02a group that defends press freedom around the world,
20:04and had the nerve to position herself
20:07as a defender of a free press.
20:09It is truly an honor to be here representing
20:12Paramount Global and the thousands
20:14of hardworking journalists at CBS News
20:18who fight every day for the freedom and integrity
20:22of the press.
20:23The honorees in this room are living embodiments
20:26of these values.
20:28They remind us that press freedom is never guaranteed,
20:34that it must constantly be defended,
20:37and that it often comes at a significant cost,
20:40both personal and professional.
20:43Wow. Powerful words there about the need
20:45to defend press freedom at any cost,
20:48from someone who seemed to stop doing that
20:49as soon as there was a financial one to her.
20:52And that kind of undercuts the strength of her statement there.
20:55Imagine FDR saying,
20:57the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,
20:59only to flip the fuck out after he saw a bug.
21:02It undermines his point.
21:06And maybe Redstone's calculating
21:08that if she just gives Trump what he wants now,
21:11he'll back down, but I seriously doubt that.
21:14Just look at what happened to ABC.
21:16They settled a defamation lawsuit with Trump in December
21:18over how George Stephanopoulos characterized
21:20the E. Jean Carroll verdict, paying $15 million
21:24to Trump's private foundation for his presidential museum,
21:26despite experts saying ABC might well have won at trial.
21:31But since then, Cars FCC has pushed ABC for more concessions,
21:35like threatening its broadcast license
21:37over Disney's DEI practices.
21:39And look, as bad as these examples are,
21:42you at least might already be aware of them.
21:44But there are fights happening at the local level
21:46that aren't getting nearly the same degree of attention,
21:49but that are just as worrying.
21:51Take a look at what Cars FCC is doing to KCBS,
21:54a San Francisco radio station.
21:56Very basically.
21:57On the afternoon of January 26th,
21:59a local community group made this post to Facebook
22:02concerning ICE agents being spotted in the area.
22:04A city council member also posted about the ICE activities.
22:08Around 3.40 p.m., the community group posted that ICE had left.
22:12And around two hours after that,
22:14KCBS ran a story about it in the classic sedate tone
22:18of every radio news broadcast ever.
22:21San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and council member Peter Ortiz
22:24confirmed today that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
22:28are currently carrying out an operation on the east side of town.
22:31The county's response network says agents in San Jose
22:35were in unmarked vehicles, including a black Dodge Durango,
22:39a gray Nissan Maxima, and white Nissan truck.
22:43ICE agents were also reported outside a residence
22:45on South White and Tully Roads,
22:47and officers were reportedly at the target
22:50on King and Story Roads.
22:52Okay, first, that is a remarkably soothing voice
22:56for a news report describing something as alarming
22:58as ICE agents in unmarked vehicles.
22:59It's like listening to a YouTube video titled
23:02Lo-fi sounds of a man getting mauled by a tiger
23:04to relax slash study to.
23:07But crucially, that report's also pretty basic.
23:10ICE was in the community,
23:12community groups and government officials
23:13were talking about it, and local news covered it.
23:17That radio station was actually one of several outlets
23:19that covered it around the same time.
23:20Here it is on the 6 o'clock news on NBC,
23:23which actually showed images of the cars and agents in question,
23:26and here's the same footage being aired on Telemundo.
23:29But it was the radio report that got the attention
23:31of a right-wing activist who pointed out
23:33that KCBS was owned by George Soros' investment firm,
23:36and claimed that it had put ICE agents at serious risk
23:39while an operation was ongoing, which it very much did not.
23:43Nevertheless, that complaint made its wear to Brendan Carr,
23:47who later got himself in front of a camera, to say this.
23:50What happened was you had ICE agents undercover doing operations
23:54in East San Jose, in part of the town known
23:57for violent gang activity, and you had this radio station
24:00broadcasting the live location, identifying the unmarked vehicles
24:04that they were in.
24:05So we have sent a letter of inquiry, a formal investigation
24:07into that matter, and they have just a matter of days left
24:10to respond to that inquiry and explain how this could possibly
24:13be consistent with their public interest obligations.
24:15What are you talking about? Covering stories like that
24:19is literally the whole point of local news radio.
24:22That, and delivering the driest imaginable ad read
24:24for a local deck-staining company.
24:27Now, legal scholars will tell you this FCC investigation
24:30is also meritless.
24:32As one First Amendment expert put it,
24:33law enforcement operations, immigration or otherwise,
24:35are matters of public interest.
24:38So if it comes to a court case, and KCBS chooses to fight,
24:42it will almost certainly win, but it's a little worrying
24:46that so far, they haven't openly defended their journalists
24:49who, again, did absolutely nothing wrong.
24:52And on one hand, I get it. Fighting the FCC costs money
24:55and opens the station up to risk when their license comes up again.
24:58But staying silent has real cost, too.
25:01As that First Amendment expert says,
25:03even if charges are never filed, people have to look
25:06over their shoulders to wonder, is the government going
25:07to come after me because I report something
25:09that the government doesn't like me to say.
25:12Sadly, that is a reasonable question to ask now.
25:15Much more reasonable, you could argue,
25:17than when's the president's workout DVD dropping.
25:21And this feels like where the biggest potential harm
25:24may be done, because the government, directly or indirectly,
25:27is controlling criticism.
25:29And that is, to put it bluntly, authoritarianism.
25:33We've seen countries backslide,
25:34and the press tends to be one of the first casualties.
25:37It happened under Viktor Orban in Hungary,
25:40and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.
25:42And those who've watched it happen in person
25:44will tell you, this is where it starts.
25:46And this is also the one chance you get to stop it.
25:50Maria Ressa, a journalist who was arrested in the Philippines
25:53for standing up to the Duterte regime.
25:54She ultimately won a Nobel Prize for doing that.
25:58And she said she sees parallels here with what happened there.
26:02And her warning to people like Shari Redstone
26:04is pretty stark.
26:05Don't voluntarily give up your rights, right?
26:08I mean, again, I'll give you our example in the Philippines,
26:12where the first, the newspaper gave up,
26:17the television station gave up, largest.
26:20It lost its franchise or license to operate.
26:23And guess what?
26:25It never regained it, even after the time of Duterte.
26:28I guess what I'm saying is, hold the line is the phrase we use,
26:32because it's connected to the rights that you deserve as a citizen.
26:37And if you do not hold the line at this crucial moment,
26:42this is the moment when you are strongest.
26:45You will only, you will only get weaker over time.
26:49Exactly.
26:51Fundamental rights and freedoms are worth fighting for.
26:54And this is one of the fights that nerds who work in newsrooms
26:58can actually win, mostly because it doesn't require
27:00any upper body strength.
27:02So, what can we do?
27:04Well, obviously, public support for organizations
27:06like the AP and 60 Minutes is important.
27:08But we also need to pay attention to what's happening
27:11at places like KCBS.
27:13And I'd argue there's a special obligation here
27:16to any outlets owned by extremely wealthy people
27:19like this lot to fight back.
27:21Don't comply with Trump's ridiculous demands prematurely.
27:25I know he and the FCC are making a lot
27:27of intimidating-sounding threats.
27:29And fighting them will undeniably take time, effort, and money.
27:33But I'd argue it is very much worth it,
27:35especially when the likeliest outcome is
27:37that you win definitively.
27:40If I may quote someone who I hope meant it when she said it,
27:44press freedom is never guaranteed.
27:47It must constantly be defended,
27:48and that often comes at a significant cost.
27:51The point is, if media owners enjoy the applause they get
27:55when they say things like that,
27:57now is the time to pay for it.
27:59Think of it this way.
28:00A free press is really a lot like Dr. Odyssey.
28:04It's rare. It's special.
28:06We're very lucky to have it.
28:09And if we're not extremely careful,
28:11we're all gonna miss it terribly when it's gone.
28:14And now, CHARLEYowie toactic.
28:17I hate it.
28:21It depends, sir.
28:23I hate it.
28:38I hate it.
28:39I love it.