In The Audit, comedian Dave Anthony and screenwriter Josh Olson audit a variety of online classes, docuseries, and other media products created by noxious political figures and boil them down to the good stuff. By which they mean… the bad stuff.
With the rise of MasterClass, TED talks, and celebrity biographies, the country’s political elite are bombarding us with information so we can be just like them. But who has time to devote to all that self-congratulatory navel-gazing?
That’s where The Audit comes in. Dave, Josh and a rotating coterie of guest hosts will consume depraved educational content for the time-pressed listener, then regurgitate a short-form review detailing the sociopathy and insanity baked into the messages. It’s like listening to someone present a book report — except all of the authors are deranged lunatics who are poisoning American culture.
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Josh Olson 0:08
What are you doing if you're hearing our voices
Dave Anthony 0:12
you're listening to the audit and people that are talking in the audit podcast are Josh Olson and Dave Anthony that's us.
Josh Olson 0:25
Do you have did you have like one COVID or something because I feel like you used to used to be revved up man used to like hear that
Dave Anthony 0:33
you're listening to the the podcast with old guys on the lever
[MUSIC] 0:53
you see now bye bag of grains or if they fail fast but
you got your track
this ain't the jam should David this is a yacht
Josh Olson 1:43
don't know your excuse? I've been I've been on the picket line all morning. So my feet hurt. Can I tell you a couple things. By the way, we should tell you up front. We told you last week we were going to talk about some stuff. We lied. You lied. Events have conspired to make us liars. But in a good way. There's actually more more to do before we're ready to talk. But yes, indeed we did. We went to we went to Prager University. And, and Dave also. It's where he's timing wise, we should be talking about this, but it's actually going to factor into what we talked about probably next week. So it's not but just lest you wonder if you saw that footage from the Glendale school district the other night last week. Our own Dave Anthony was there swinging swinging and punching and bobbing. I mean, he's not from Glendale. He doesn't live anywhere near Glendale, but you hate the gays. Right? Is that it? And so you got on the bus and you went to Glendale to
Dave Anthony 2:51
I definitely do. I liked it. My video I made. The other guy holding a defund. LAUSD went a little bit a little bit viral.
Josh Olson 3:00
For our listeners who have noticed we're talking about. Yeah, it was it was a bunch of astroturfed right wing activists coming to a Glendale school board meeting to protest Pride Month. And Glendale is a different school district than Los Angeles. And yeah, there was a clown. They were the sign that said defund la School District. Which is like, which is like going to a football game and going defund the NBA. Yeah, that was good. Hey, I got that right. Sports Show. We're proud of you. David, somebody wants to talk about before we get I do have a funny for any of our westwing thing listeners was on the picket line the other day, over in front of Paramount Studios, Paramount motion picture studios. And I was about to leave and I ran into a friend who was also about to leave, I was going one way he was going the other we hadn't seen each other in a while. And we had like, two minutes to sort of quickly catch up and talk stuff. And my funniest things in the world. The guy standing about three feet away from me talking to somebody else. You know, you're always talking about blah, blah, but then his words start coming through and clarity. And he goes, Look, you can say what you will about Sorkin but nobody writes about politics with more insight in America than Aaron Sorkin. And my friend grabs my face with his hand and sticks his finger in my face. He's like forcing me to maintain eye contact with me because I don't I only have two minutes
Yeah, it's interesting. We are. They've been I've discussed this before. It's a strange thing because as screenwriters you tend not to be, you know a lot about a little. But it dawned on me a while back that I would say that Dave Anthony and I are probably the foremost experts on Aaron Sorkin in the west wing in What probably the well as Aaron Sorkin would say, the civilized world, He means the world in which we live. But probably in the world.
Dave Anthony 5:10
Yeah, we're anybody if anybody ever wants to talk about West Wing, they should come to us first.
Josh Olson 5:15
That's right. We will talk your ear off. Anyway, Dave, our fire is burning New York orange. Shirts getting weird. We just did an episode on climate change with a great Naomi Klein. And this is a subject. I believe you you have an interest in that climate change. I don't care too much. Yeah, a little bit. I like issues that affect everybody. It's kind of elitist. The planet's ability to sustain life, but
Dave Anthony 5:46
So New York, and well, the, you know, Philadelphia, DC, all the cities in that area. worst air pollution in the world right now. Because of the fires in New Brunswick and Alberta and really all of Canada's on fire. Which is not supposed to be
Josh Olson 6:05
that's what I wanted to ask you that? Yeah. Is that are they supposed to be on fire? And they're not is the answer. No,
Dave Anthony 6:11
I Yeah. So count is not supposed to burn. It's very, it's very, this is a great example of like people. So for years, people be like, well, there's some countries are going to do better. Russia, Canada. So that's not a thing like that. Because it would be like, well, the whole, the whole harvest belt will move north. And then they'll be able to grow all the wheat and it's like, how does it look now? Like it like there is no place where you get to go. New York isn't? The fires aren't in New York, but it doesn't matter. Like, it's just gonna affect you, wherever you are. There's no, I have a friend that's going to Toronto. And it's like, yeah, you can't really plan vacations and not think at this point. It can be totally screwed, right? Because of climate change. Like that's all a factor in this. But I mean, the biggest thing is, the media's response is absolutely incredible. Find me one top headline from a major new Gore's news organization that says, this is from climate change. There's like how to handle air pollution. Why is it so? Why is it so smoky? They do not I mean, you can read an entire article on ABC News, and they're not gonna bring up climate change. So it's, you know, the problem is not climate change. The problem is capitalism and capitalism handle handles our news. And and there's no, there's no profit in upsetting your advertisers who are fossil fuel companies. There's no profit in telling people really bad news about the future. So
Josh Olson 7:57
there's also the added thing of like they're afraid to tell you to that's gonna depress you. Yeah.
Dave Anthony 8:05
And it's, it's like you watch this all playing out. And if you haven't figured out but this is like, this is end times shit. This is when you turn around and you go, Wait, how long is the canary been dead? And Jim's legal Canary died? Like, three months ago. Yeah, we're, this is terrible. It's it's at the place that our our politicians are not going to save us. There's no, there's no Democrat coming to save you. Democrats are terrible on climate change. They're just not completely evil. But they're terrible. And so mankind has to make a choice. Do we just die? Or do we stop this as people? Which means getting rid of the fucking people up top? That's, that's where we are. People in New York can't go outside. We already did this on the West Coast. We did it a couple years ago. Do you know what the result of that was? Nothing.
Josh Olson 9:17
We're still doing it.
Dave Anthony 9:19
No change. No change. Nothing has changed. We had we got eight Democrats elected in couldn't do anything go mentioned whatever. But there's always a reason. Where's the climate emergency that Joe Biden declares? Where's the climate emergency? Gavin Newsom declares? Why isn't every Democratic governor in every state declared a climate emergency? They're not doing anything. There is no one coming to save you. So you have we have to save ourselves. We have to start there has to be a general discussion by people. Of how do we stop this Is without them. And that means everything is on the fucking table. And I mean, everything is on the table. That's how we are going to all die. We are living on a planet that is being exterminated. It is heating up to kill the parasite.
Josh Olson 10:21
And where does this conversation take place?
Dave Anthony 10:23
Well, we've this conversation takes place online or wherever else, just everyone needs to start talking about it. There needs to be a frank conversation of people online. And the problem is, the real problem is, is that people don't want to talk about it. Like that's one thing that the the news has, right? People just want to ignore it. And you don't get to ignore it anymore. Like we when we went through this on the West Coast, we all realize we couldn't ignore it anymore. Well, now, will this make a difference on the East Coast? Because they can explain away Hurricane Sandy because hurricanes hit their you cannot explain away the worst air pollution in the world. It's never happened before. And now you know what it's like to live with the worst air pollution the world, it's not great. We had it happen. And so now what do you do? Do you just go back to your life? Because if you go back to life, you're you're a frog in a boiling pot of water. Just slowly heating up. Like, this is just a thing. Like, people need to start yelling at the media. Constantly. What are you doing? Like, I'm not talking about some people, I'm talking about every single fucking person. Literally every single fucking person needs to do this. You don't have to go. You don't get to go about your life, you should wake up in the morning and yell at some people about climate change, and then go about your day. But if you just did it every morning, if every morning everyone woke up and said, What the fuck are you doing about climate change ABC? Why aren't you reporting on it? Literally every person, if you have a slight concern about climate change, if you don't know how bad it is, but you think, well, this isn't good. Listen to the scientists listen to us, and just every fucking day wake up and start yelling at some of them.
Josh Olson 11:56
And here's the thing, it's one of those things that I've been beating this drum for a long time, and it feels futile. And it probably is but you know, online Isn't life and tweeting, posting isn't activism. However, if that's all you do, you can actually do something you can actually make it count if there's enough fucking people because one of the things it's so infuriating to me is this this especially in its it's Democrats, who basically devote our online lives to making excuses for the Democratic Party. And that is how the Democratic party knows that they can take you for granted. If they see pretty much everybody out there making, you know, defending them making arguments for them. What if they woke up tomorrow, and saw everybody on Facebook and everybody on Twitter, who's normally you know, rah, rah, telling them going, Hey, motherfuckers, do something, it would scare the shit out of them. And that's what the relationship is supposed to be. They're supposed to be afraid of you Republicans with good reason, fear their base, their base is fucking insane. That's why they support Donald. That's why leadership gets behind Donald Trump and won't do anything to upset him too much. Because they are afraid of what happens when the base gets upset about that. And Democrats know that you're not going to do that. Yeah. And it's just, you know, I just the older I get, the more the notion that politics is a matter of just voting for good people who are going to do good things is just it just seems more and more childlike. To me. It's like, there. Yeah. It's not about it's about good people and good things. It's about putting people in place that you can then push that you can then scare that you can then but you have to keep engaging. You can't there's not good people who are looking to do good work for you. They're just not it's just, it's exhausting. And it's
Dave Anthony 13:59
yeah, it's like I don't know how much more like, in you know, my belief is that no one will do anything. And we'll just sit here and you know, go through the process of killing the planet. Because, you know, it's like, my other podcast co hosts tweeted earlier today, you know, AI is taking our jobs, the planets burning up and we're talking about the next Transformers movie. That's all that's really what it is like, it's it's the dumbest thing like people say we're an intelligent species. I think it's pretty easy to argue we're not that smart. Because this is really fucking crazy.
Josh Olson 14:48
Now you are saying like my grandfather, the
Dave Anthony 14:51
butts. Like what how does this work? Like we all know our system of government is a total failure. It is a failure. And, you know, Democrats It's gonna sit there on line. And I think that a lot of those are, you know, David Brock robot people, but But yeah, they sit there and they back this and it's like, and they always go like Oh Republicans are voting against their interests. I mean you're you're literally screaming at people who want to stop climate change online because Democrats they just need five more I guess five more senators or something you should be yelling at the ones that are in screaming at them screaming at them. But then they had this idea Hey, this idea long time ago have everybody just because there's a lot of kids that are scared and they'll bring it up. And you know, once kids find out they really they really get freaked out you'll make a video everyone should make videos. If they have a kid that scared just start making videos and just sending it put it up online and fucking send it to Schumer and like heartfelt videos of kids being terrified like that's the kind of shit we have to now do. This is the kind of shit we need to put out there. Terrifying a generation of children put it out there.
Josh Olson 16:12
But but they've got kids if if they really if they're that scared they should vote Democrat.
Dave Anthony 16:19
Well, that therein lies the rub, right? Like there is no solution, electorally to this problem. So what does everybody want to do? Yeah, because there's no solution. Pictorially so the things need to be thought outside the box, and that shutting shit down. That's going on targeted strikes and boycotts. It's you know, stopping the machine from running.
Josh Olson 16:51
Yeah, Jane Fonda is out there handcuffing herself to gates. Yeah. It's like God bless her. Yeah. He's like, where, where? You know, it's easy to say. We can have that conversation, you know, in social media, but I'm thinking you know, Twitter, Elon Musk has turned Twitter into there, Matt Walsh tweeted something and I don't I mean, it's hard for me to start talking about him without going on for an hour about what an absolute piece of shit this guy is. He's a right wing scumbag who's made a fortune. Now by latching on to kind of transphobia he's made a unwatchable documentary. And Elon Musk has gotten behind them. And he tweeted something out there. It was interesting, his terrible doc. He's tweeting out that, that Elon put up on Twitter, I guess. Yeah. So you can watch it on Twitter. And you can go find it. I'm not going to dignify by saying his name. But he tweeted out the other day, hey, you know, this doc got 175 million views. Tucker Carlson's first episode has 20 million views in just four hours. We are watching his Twitter becomes a legitimate platform to watch not just short clips, but full monologue shows and even films. absolute game changer. huge win for free speech. So first, those numbers are meaningless. That's how many times it scrolled past somebody's timeline. But they follow. Like he's trying to tell people he's the biggest documentary maker in history because 170 5 million people, quote, unquote, viewed as film, it's like, no, it was in 175 million timelines. And not even that it just means people kept clicking over and over and over. And Elon Musk who runs Twitter. It was his pin tweet for an entire day. Maybe 250 300,000 people actually watch this fucking unwatchable piece of shit. And and also, nobody paid for it. So right you know, there's people out there that you know, well, it's bigger than avatar. It's like it's not it's like it's your it is it's it's like you ever see I bet you understand. Do you know the difference between a motion picture and a billboard for a motion picture?
Dave Anthony 19:04
Yeah, one I can see in 10 second when
Josh Olson 19:08
you drive by a billboard have you now seen the film that's literally what they're trying to do. But the point he's making the more chilling one he says we're watching his Twitter becomes a legitimate platform etc. No, we are watching his Elon Musk whether or not this is always who he was or if he's just a moron being played is slowly turning Twitter into a platform for you're not supposed to see neo Nazi Are you but like fucking neo Nazi ideology. It's harder and harder and harder to get get other voices through there. I do recommend if you're on Twitter just just make a point just blocking anybody with a blue check these days? Yeah. But but there's like what used to be this enormous platform has now just been overrun by right wing douchebags with the blessing and equity, the support of the guy who runs it. So where, you know, where where does this conversation happen? It's not there. I mean, oh, by the way, I'm on blue sky. I have 12 followers now and there's 14 other people on blue sky.
Dave Anthony 20:12
Yeah, I'm on blue sky.
Josh Olson 20:14
It's gonna be wild. It's gonna be a while. Yeah.
Dave Anthony 20:18
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know, you could ever yell at your politicians and, and your media. Like, wherever I guess like, you know, I don't know. But you know, read it. There's, there's different places that these discussions can take place. And
you know, they're always going to try to shut it down no matter what. No matter where it is. You try to do this. That's part of the battle. We but you bet points always happens
Josh Olson 20:54
every time like, I don't know what to talk about. Dave's like, let the ball everybody tell you horrible.
Dave Anthony 20:59
Well, this one is, you know, finally as far as burning stuff. But yeah, I mean, but it's, you know, the discussion needs to be had, like, what are we really going to
Josh Olson 21:13
do? Yeah.
Dave Anthony 21:16
Yep. I remember I said, when when Joe Biden got elected, I said, we should we should have every left in the country you can get there, go to DC and fucking PAC, DC, with what millions of people and day one be like, do something. Yep, so many liberals got so fucking mad at me. So many liberals got so angry with me. And I don't know how's COVID going? You guys enjoying yourself? As climate change is going How's him selling all the leases going? Like he, he needed to be scared from day one. So he couldn't do what he was gonna do, which is a right wing agenda. He's passing a right wing agenda. So you know, it's very troubling.
Josh Olson 22:05
Yeah. By the way, this podcast is brought to you by the lever. Press, the award winning reader supported investigative news outlet. If you want support the show, you can become a paid supporter, which will give you access to our bonus content. Although this week, we have no bonus content, you'll just get the episode a week early or a day early. But you also get access to the libre premium podcast feed extended interviews, tons of bonus content, you can also donate to our tip jar, one time contribution at Everett lever news.com/audit. You'll see a button for the tip jar, it'll take you to our Venmo page, you can also go to the Venmo page directly. We are at the audit at Venmo. Under businesses. Follow us on Twitter at at the audit podcast and email us at the audit podcast.gmail.com We're doing something well not really that different this week. But this was actually going to run a week later. But we're doing these reaction episodes. We've got a few others as well. But we basically instead of running along a theme, which we've been doing, we just are brought in people we know and Ajoy who are funny and smart and we forced them to just watch a couple of Prager, U videos cold. And then we just record their screams of agony. And we shut that baby up. And we we we kick off with our good friend Katie helper from the Katie helper show and useful idiots and so many other things. But but we will. Next week we will be back with the promised story of our visit to Prager, you and of Dave's experiences at the Glendale School District, Michigan us last week. And in fact,
Dave Anthony 23:58
and I should say, Yeah, I've been I've been to different things I've never been to this is my first event where all of the top California proud boys descended. And it was a it was a completely different animal than anything I've been to.
Josh Olson 24:17
Delightful. We'll we'll be talking about that in depth and much more. And in fact, those two stories are actually more connected than you might think. So we'll be back with that next week. But for now here is our good friend Kenny helper being strapped to a chair and forced to watch Prager you videos. Enjoy
Dave Anthony 24:39
that same way to watch him. Good point
[MUSIC] 24:50
if you finally had enough of him being college left wing, get yourself a real degree from Prager. Are you gonna varsity?
Josh Olson 25:08
Anyway, I wanted to get into this one with you, because it's really interesting. It's less completely insane than some of them. But to me, this is just a really interesting example of how even even when they're right, Prager, you get gets it all wrong. So let's jump in and you'll you'll see what's, you'll see what it is as it goes. What's the
[VIDEO] 25:32
difference between a liberal and a leftist? This question stumps most people because they think liberal and left are essentially the same, but they're not.
Katie Halper 25:43
That's true. There is a distinction that many people he should
Dave Anthony 25:47
he should talk to Bill Maher who doesn't know that.
Katie Halper 25:51
That set it up that in fact, liberalism
[VIDEO] 25:53
and leftism have almost nothing in common. But the left has appropriated the word liberal so effectively, almost everyone, liberals leftist and conservatives thinks they are synonymous. Okay,
Katie Halper 26:07
so totally the inverse of reality. The label left and try to pretend that they're on the left. Leftist, real leftist don't like liberals or liberalism, like we recognize there's overlap, but it's the exact opposite. So he's like, yeah, he makes a distinction. He acknowledges the distinction that's often ignored. People do often conflate the left and liberals, but then he gets it absolutely backwards.
Josh Olson 26:33
exactly wrong. Yeah. And I think one let's, let's go, I have a theory about this, but we'll talk about it as it develops.
[VIDEO] 26:41
But they're not. Let me offer you six examples. One, race, this is probably the most obvious difference between liberal and left, the liberal position on race has always been a, the color of a person's skin is insignificant.
Josh Olson 27:00
i Is that true? That's not That's not true at all. It's very much not true in a liberal. I have 1 billion examples. I do believe it was mentioned from time to time that our current vice president, they would talk about the color of her skin. Yeah, talking about things that were important that
Katie Halper 27:22
right, that girl was me. The notion? I mean, they already had a team. I mean, before.
Dave Anthony 27:32
Imagine making this statement after Obama ran, it was President. Like, it's just
Josh Olson 27:41
but this this is going to my theory, sort of. I'll tell you, right. I think what he's trying to do think of all of these are sort of trying to do to some extent, is they're trying to reach this kind of mythic liberal viewer, who's you know, right. Curious if you will, and they're trying to appeal to them. And he they they think that liberals think of themselves this way. Can we
Katie Halper 28:04
just focus sorry, I didn't mean to, I just got totally distracted by the hair. Yeah, so they have four people are just going to be live foreheads, obviously, heads that are male, they have a whitish pink one, they have a dark brown one day, it's like a medium brown when they have a yellow one. Yeah, and all of the hair except for the dark. brown skinned hair. Exactly. The exact same hairstyle. It's like a side part. And a little bit like of a cowlick or, or something. But the dark brown skin. Yeah, face has I guess they're trying to suggest an afro. Yeah. But Afro Yeah. Like or like a crop very or just not. I mean, it's just insane that they're like making the one one guy the odd man out. Maybe they think that they're being sensitive to racial difference, but it just looks ridiculous. And like they have an A centralizing view of black people as other. Also, they're all male. All right, of course, they're all male. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 29:08
And be those who believe race is significant or racist. Meanwhile,
Josh Olson 29:15
that's Yeah, but that again, that's
Katie Halper 29:17
your is very clear about that. Right. She's a liberal, like, standard issue liberal. And I mean, liberals on the Supreme Court made it clear that that's that like colorblindness is not actually the appropriate way to view the world.
Josh Olson 29:33
Right. It's very weird if you don't see race, right? Yeah. It's very weird thing to do if your friend is black, and it's never occurred to you.
Katie Halper 29:43
Well, like liberalism supports affirmative action. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what affirmative action is based on recognizing racism. Of course, at the end of the day, anti like, race is a construct, obviously, yes, liberals and leftists agree On that, right, but like, to the extent that he's talking about this stuff mattering. Obviously people who believe in affirmative action do believe this matters in historic senses and that the point of affirmative action is to correct the racism that has defined us and continues to Yeah.
Dave Anthony 30:19
So so far, I feel like yeah, I feel like this information shouldn't be coming from an albino.
Katie Halper 30:25
Yeah, maybe he does have he does have he's a person of no color. It's like white hair and white skin.
Josh Olson 30:36
Yeah, and also and so so far, he's just barely gotten on the board. And already he's completely wrong, because he's basically attributing, like, no one actually thinks the way he's thinking but he's attributing to liberals is fantasy, mythic view of how conservatives perceive?
Katie Halper 30:49
Yeah.
[VIDEO] 30:52
Left believes the very opposite. To the left. It's the liberal attitude toward race. It's unimportant. That is racist. That's why the University of California officially lists the statement, there was only one race, the human race as racist, and liberals have always been passionately committed to racial integration.
Josh Olson 31:13
I didn't know about that line. But yeah, that is its, it is a line resist us.
Katie Halper 31:20
What the whole university of California just says that I don't even know what that means. I
Josh Olson 31:24
don't even Yeah, it's like somewhere in their charter or something. I don't know. or so. But no, there was a there was a thing where it was it was in a school document, and then a bunch people protested and they yanked it. But yeah, it's like, it's again, it's part of the it's like it's online with in line with I don't see race. Right. Yeah. Well, there's only one race, the human race.
Katie Halper 31:44
I mean, you can imagine someone who's anti racist saying that, but then I think that that phrase can be used by other sign honestly. Yeah. But it can. Yeah, it can be used as it. Yeah. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 31:58
While the left is increasingly committed to racial segregation, so yes,
Josh Olson 32:02
that's, by the way, that is for me, you know, we all have a place where our left ism begins. That is where it begins. For me.
Katie Halper 32:09
That's why Strom Thurmond is here.
Josh Olson 32:14
This is just from the graphic. I know where he's going,
[VIDEO] 32:18
well, black dormitories and separate black graduations at universities.
Dave Anthony 32:23
To what like, it's just like, What are you talking about?
Josh Olson 32:27
Dennis doesn't seem to understand the difference between the all black dorms are not being imposed on black by the white administrators,
Dave Anthony 32:35
right? Like, they're, they're like, I would be more comfortable this way. And you're like, oh, yeah,
Katie Halper 32:41
I went to Wesleyan. And there was a Malcolm X house. That was Malcolm X house, but but they probably also get upset, and they probably want to have like, a white history month.
Josh Olson 32:51
Right? I mean, here's the, you know, some people are more comfortable being around people who are most like them.
Katie Halper 33:00
Yeah, all right. Yes. But like when white people do that, that's not okay. for understandable reasons. But when
Josh Olson 33:05
they especially when they impose it on other people, right? Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting thing, that true story apparently from many people notice this when they're making the very first Planet of the Apes movie, the one from 1968, where they're all wearing the costumes. Normally, on a film set, what will happen is the movie stars will sort of have their food separately, and the cast will the rest of the cast will break down along sort of, you know, deep layers and extras and everything else. What they found out very quickly was that regardless of where you were on the hierarchy of things, at lunch, all the chimpanzees would sit with all the other chimpanzees, all the orangutan with all the other gorillas, regardless of their Yeah, it's like, and that is a thing that people do. They again, just hit that thing over and over and over again. And black students want to have a black dorm. Yes, sure. But he's, he's leaving out the park. He is insinuating that that's being imposed on them. He doesn't care, right?
Katie Halper 34:11
No, I don't think he's insinuating. I just didn't think he's trying to do the like, well, if one, how could that not be racist? Because obviously if White people had an all white dorm, be racist, it's not the way it works. It's not equal but opposite.
Josh Olson 34:25
A rappers are allowed to say the N word white
[VIDEO] 34:29
capitalism, liberals have always been pro capitalism, because liberals are committed to free enterprise. And because they know capitalism is the only way to lift great numbers of people out of poverty.
Katie Halper 34:42
I mean, this depends on like, like, is FDR a liberal or leftist or both? Or somewhere? He's,
Dave Anthony 34:54
I think he's a liberal.
Katie Halper 34:56
Right so like, he believes very much and a lot of liberal to Sir To an extent believe in a welfare state. Yes. Because they believe that the excesses of capitalism are not just harmful, but also destabilizing. And like, it's because we don't have. In other words, if you don't want to have full fledged socialism, you have to have a safety net. Right? Like, you know, the guy, the person who's like, I think invented Social Security was Otto von Bismarck, conservative Prussian Prime Minister was up in revolution. Yeah, I
Josh Olson 35:32
think I think, yeah, I I've done I've ever been in a liberal who isn't perfectly happy to acknowledge that we are in late stage capitalism, and it's killing us all. But I think you'll find far more leftist interest in actually eradicating capitalism than liberals. Yeah,
Katie Halper 35:47
that's true. Right. But there's still liberals believe on putting brakes on capitalism. Yeah. They know. Exactly. unbridled capitalism. Yeah,
Josh Olson 35:54
exactly like Dennis does, right?
[VIDEO] 35:56
It is true that liberals want government to play a bigger role in the economy than conservatives do. But liberals never opposed capitalism. And they were never for socialism, opposition to capitalism, and advocacy of socialism, our left wing values,
Josh Olson 36:14
well, if he's saying they never want socialism to replace our current system, I guess that's true, right? Liberal support a shit ton of socialist programs, obviously,
Katie Halper 36:25
like libraries. Fire departments. Yeah, yeah. weekend's right. With kids, three,
[VIDEO] 36:36
nationalism. liberals believe in the nation state, whether that nation is the United States, Brazil or France. But because the left divides the world by class rather than by national identity, the left has always opposed nationalism. So
Katie Halper 36:54
well, that's interesting, because like, they're certainly national liberation movements that would be considered left. But they're they're in you know, developed. What developing nations. Hmm, good. Like Castro has a net Castro is both an internationalist, but also has real national, like, had a national liberationists project. But also, internationalism was always part of that.
Josh Olson 37:21
Right, right. Yeah, yeah. But you will. I mean, it is yeah, liberals tend to get all misty eyed on for
Katie Halper 37:29
like, That's not who we are. America. That's not who we are. It's like really? Yeah. crack open a history book. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 37:35
Yes. Well, liberals have always wanted to protect American sovereignty and borders. The left is for open borders. When the writers of Superman were liberals, Superman was a proud American, whose very motto was truth, justice, and the American way. But that Ultron
Josh Olson 37:56
those creators died in a poor house.
[VIDEO] 38:01
It changed a few years ago when left wing writers took over the comic strip and had Superman renounce his American citizenship to be a citizen of the world.
Dave Anthony 38:11
Okay, so that's not leftists. Or that's just profit. That's just the the the guys who the Marvel guys who run Superman, like realize
Josh Olson 38:25
DC, you,
Dave Anthony 38:27
whatever. They're all the same. But that's you know, that's that's all there is about
Josh Olson 38:33
this podcast.
Katie Halper 38:37
When it comes to DC, colorblind, sorry, colorblind. Yeah. But it's
Dave Anthony 38:42
just profit at the end of the day, they want him to be like the world guy now. So people in but there's
Josh Olson 38:47
also there's always been, I mean, less and less as these comics become completely corporate run. But there's always been a strong streak of, you know, old school, liberal politics and comics. Going way back, and in fact, I'm exaggerating a bit, the creators of Superman ended up not dying in a poor house, because the writers of things like Superman and others who took over fought for creators rights, and for things like creators getting paid for, you know, coming up with iconic characters off of which your company has grossed $5 billion over 50 years.
Dave Anthony 39:23
But they still fuck them pretty badly.
Josh Olson 39:26
Yeah, yeah. No, they absolutely do. And, but but, yeah, but those same writers who are like, Yeah, you know, Superman should belong to the world, or also those people who fought for that. And these greats, it's Superman. I mean, these aliens are the world.
Dave Anthony 39:41
But But now, I don't think that's there. I mean, you know, I've heard about their retreat writers retreats and everything. And it's, it's Oh, yeah,
Josh Olson 39:48
no, it's a whole different thing now. Yes, yeah. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 39:52
The left has contempt for nationalism, seeing it as the road to fascism. Better that we should all be citizens of the world. rolled in a world without borders. Yay, view of America. Liberals have always venerated America watch American films from the 1930s through the 1950s. And you will be watching overtly patriotic America celebrating films, virtually all produced, directed and acted by liberal communists.
Dave Anthony 40:23
Josh, you want to jump in on that one? Yeah, he's
Josh Olson 40:25
out of his fucking mind. I mean, there were they had these hearings, the house on American Activities. Right?
Katie Halper 40:34
Right. When that when people were like, have you? Are you ever have you ever been a member of the liberal American party? Party? All right, it was communist party.
Josh Olson 40:43
It was all these people. And granted a lot of them had left over time, but who had been involved with the Communist Party who are writing and directing all these films? That why we didn't seem to have seen Yeah, it's what am I you know, I can get all kinds of obscure, but how about It's A Wonderful Life. I mean, that is those one of the most anti capitalist we've had showed it at a film festival years ago for for an Occupy was out of a wall is like what's the perfect movie to show it and occupy event? It's like, It's a Wonderful Life. I have no idea what I'm talking about watch the friggin movie. But he's, you know, yeah, there was a kind of Earth SATs and overt Atrius ism.
Dave Anthony 41:29
Yeah, especially during wars, especially during wars.
Josh Olson 41:31
Yeah. But
Katie Halper 41:33
the Communist Party, like made a decision like in in the 1930s, the Abraham Lincoln brigades was chosen as the name for the American brigades who fought against Franco in Spain, because they believed in reappropriating, the founding principles of America as a strategic way of reaching people, it was kind of subversive, like they were very aware of the slave autocracy that found in this country, but they also believed that there were noble ideals around which the country was established. And the question of just like framing basically, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Josh Olson 42:13
The, the Yeah, it's, it's just bonkers.
Katie Halper 42:18
I mean, these are fully on so many levels. You just
Josh Olson 42:21
yeah, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Shocking. Revelation.
Dave Anthony 42:27
He thinks every movie is Sergeant York.
[VIDEO] 42:29
Yep. liberals were quite aware of America's imperfections. But they agreed with Abraham Lincoln, that America is the last best hope of Earth. The left however, believes the left is the last best hope of Earth.
Dave Anthony 42:45
Why? What's the wait, no, we, first of all, we don't believe it's the last best hope of Earth. It's such a weird way to find out what's really weird. Yeah.
We are ideas that you know, more equality, the people being treated better and not just a bunch of assholes having all the money and crushing people. That's all.
Katie Halper 43:06
Yeah. Are people dying because they don't have enough money, yet treatable
[VIDEO] 43:12
and regards America as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, violent, and imperialistic.
Katie Halper 43:20
How dare people prove
Josh Olson 43:22
any one of ya please Jesus Christ,
Dave Anthony 43:27
any of them disprove any
Josh Olson 43:31
the problems, they have their identity, these people wrapped up in the place that they live. I'm not talking about their house. And that's one thing you know, you can tell who I am. When you walk into my house, this is where you were born. And if you force your sense of self worth, or if you ally it with with that with that random, you're, you're you're gonna just fuck yourself up forever. Objectively, America is those things. Objectively, most countries are pretty fucking terrible. It's and you can live in them quite well and be a productive and decent member of society and acknowledge those things. It doesn't relate on just Jesus Christ.
Dave Anthony 44:12
Now, the gas
[VIDEO] 44:13
free speech, yes, no one has been more committed than American liberals to the famous statement. I wholly disapprove of what you say. But I will defend to the death, your right to say it. But the left is leading the first widespread suppression of free speech and modern American history, from the universities, to the tech companies that govern the internet tech companies or other Institute's or what
Katie Halper 44:39
tech companies are left.
Dave Anthony 44:41
I mean, this is just one it's just garbled nonsense like there's no we have no word the left we have no control over anything.
Josh Olson 44:49
Yeah, yeah. These people who hate capitalism and are running these billion dollar companies, right it and instituting Yeah. Yeah, they're just deflating me Dave, you just can't. Yeah, too long trying to take these seriously and respond to them as though they're anything but the ravings of a friggin idiot. Thanks for joining us, Katie.
Katie Halper 45:19
Yeah, good time,
[VIDEO] 45:20
place of work. Of course the left claims to only oppose hate speech. But putting aside the fact that the left deems hate speech, anything that differs with protect No,
Josh Olson 45:31
no, no, no. Flipping it, it's like he does anything you agree with Dennis?
Katie Halper 45:40
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Olson 45:44
That's an argument they're always using. Oh, anybody who disagrees with you is a racist. I'm like, you just came out in favor of lynchings. I'm talking about you specifically. Right. Katie, and I disagree about a couple of things. That doesn't make a racist
Katie Halper 46:01
hate speech or
Josh Olson 46:02
hate speech or
[VIDEO] 46:04
you or I might consider hate speech is the entire point of free speech.
Katie Halper 46:12
That's actually not really defined. Yeah.
Dave Anthony 46:15
That's not that's actually not the point of free speech is that you can have hate speech. Like, it's not protecting hate speech. It's supposed to be so you can, you know, say shit about the government and critique. Or yeah,
Josh Olson 46:29
imagine thinking this, imagine thinking that protecting hate speech is the entire point of the First Amendment. I mean, just let that sink in. That's that's like, like, you know, say what you will about the founding fathers there was at least that graph they had just come from a revolution was that said, you gotta leave room for people to speak thereby to get to the government? The version of them in Dennis Prager is mine. We're all sitting around going God dammit, we got to we got to make sure that we're gonna be able to use the N word liberally and scratch 23 I have an idea. Here's an amendment.
[VIDEO] 47:07
You six Western civilization, liberals have always championed and sought to protect Western civilization. Liberal celebrates the West's unique moral, philosophical, artistic, musical, and literary achievements. And I've taught them at virtually every university the most revered liberal in American political liberalism,
Josh Olson 47:31
awesome. Funded universities with with with writers and artists of of color and of different cultures. And it's like their gripes with them. They're not the problem, but that's insane. I
Katie Halper 47:43
mean, liberalism. embraces diversity. Yeah,
Josh Olson 47:47
like overtly. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 47:50
Go history, President Franklin Roosevelt often cited the need to protect Western civilization, and even Christian civilization. Yet when President Donald Trump spoke of the need to protect Western civilization, in his speech in Warsaw, the left wing media, also known as the mainstream media know, denounced him
Josh Olson 48:11
to say, but Roosevelt was talking about protecting Western culture from Hitler. Yeah, Trump was protecting it from brown people,
Katie Halper 48:19
Mexican rapists live here.
Josh Olson 48:21
There's no context context is meaningless. Dennis. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 48:30
They argued that Western civilization is no better than any other. And that Western civilization is just a euphemism for white supremacy.
Josh Olson 48:40
It is when you use it. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 48:44
So then if liberalism and leftism are so different, why don't liberals oppose the left and
Josh Olson 48:50
what anyone?
Katie Halper 48:52
Why don't I know the
Josh Olson 48:54
Liberals oppose the left? I mean I don't even know where to begin with that we can What are you please
Dave Anthony 49:07
It's really amazing. You know, it's very simple. Liberals absolutely despise us. Yeah, like ate us.
Josh Olson 49:17
Let me just it's, it's, it's insane. The degree to which the, the the amount of time I'd love to see the amount of time and energy that just Democratic leadership spends trying to crush the left, as opposed to the amount of time and energy that yeah, a post,
Katie Halper 49:32
like Bernie Sanders or look at like Nero tan and using the term ALT Left. Yeah. Which was also the term that like, the guy who killed Heather Heyer used.
Josh Olson 49:45
Yeah,
Dave Anthony 49:45
well, yeah, liberals invented the term and then the Nazis ran with it.
Josh Olson 49:51
Yeah, and you're looking at who's the guy? Oh my god, there's the guy down in Texas. The pro life the pro life Democrats that Nancy Pelosi Henry Cuellar, Henry Cuellar. Yeah. They went down there to make sure that the progressive progressive woman of color did not Yes.
Katie Halper 50:07
Right. They want to make sure the anti choice A plus rating from the NRA incumbent was not defeated by a progressive and they were responsible for her loss because it was a very close one. And we're and Pelosi and Clive Warren all you know, either Robocop called or stump stomped in person for him.
Josh Olson 50:27
Yeah, are cheering as AIPAC flooded. Nina Turner's congressional with money to read lies and supportive. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's just actually you don't it's interesting. You don't see conservatives go to the left that much. And there's a reason they don't have to.
Katie Halper 50:46
Right. Right.
[VIDEO] 50:48
That's true. Yeah, nutshell because they have been taught all their lives to fear the right. But he's one of the best known liberals in America. Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz. Oh
Katie Halper 50:59
my god. This is a guy who is so liberal that he threatened to loot to leave the Democratic Party if Keith Ellison became the chair of the Democratic Party. And then because not only is he a reprehensible person, but he's a lying sack of shit. When Keith Ellison became the deputy chair, which was just like they're throwing Keith Ellison and bone because Obama was so petty. He didn't want anyone from the Bernie movement to have any power in the Democratic Party. And he even though Keith Ellison ran unopposed, he injected Tom Perez who has zero charisma, he projected he injected him into the race. And then Tom Perez won thanks to robo calls or actual calls, not robo calls, personal calls from Obama and the Obama administration and Alan Dershowitz. So if Alan Dershowitz actually had any integrity about his racist Islamophobic position, he would have left the Democratic Party, because Keith Ellison was the Deputy Chair as opposed to chair chair, which is again a kind of a minor point, but I'm just saying not only is he terrible, but he's also full of shit. Because if you think that Keith Ellison is such a noxious person, that he shouldn't be the chair of the Democratic Party probably don't want to be the Deputy Chair either. Anyway. Yeah, he's not a liberal. I mean,
Josh Olson 52:24
Alan Dershowitz
Katie Halper 52:25
I know, it's like, are you he just gave it away, though. I mean, he did us a huge favor. Last like this, if people watch this video, or like, no, don't use that as an example.
Josh Olson 52:36
But don't go there.
Katie Halper 52:39
So out of touch, I
[VIDEO] 52:43
add as a liberal, as an American, and as a Jew. I far more fear the left than the right.
Katie Halper 52:52
Well, okay. You're liberals. That's what he's, he's doing two things. One is He's showing us that he doesn't know how to define a liberal because Dershowitz is not a liberal. But also He's showing us that even by his own logic, liberals do fear the West I guess, to him, Dershowitz is like a lone truth, fear and truth teller, who, unlike other liberals, who should see this, he has the foresight and the insight to get that the left is a threat to his fellow liberals, which is just again, it's so funny thing of Dershowitz is a liberal.
Dave Anthony 53:26
Conservatives are not your enemy. No, I'm Dennis Prager. No to hell. Conservatives are the enemy. Yeah. 100%. Yeah.
Josh Olson 53:43
I like to make things simple sometimes. And it is always when I try to explain this to liberal friends. To me, it's it's this like, why did you go off to the right more and here we are going after the right. And these are the right in America, the Republican Party are like the werewolves outside the compound trying to get in and kill us. I don't know that it serves much purpose pointing out their hypocrisy. They're evil. They're awfulness. I think it just makes you feel good to do that. Yeah, I would say that we're doing this this series with with an agenda. We are hoping to get these things pulled out of some schools. But I think that the only hope is to bring at least electorally to confront them is Democratic Party. electorally, there's a lot of other ways you can do that. And for many years now, Democratic leadership has been pushing further and further to the right. They essentially and I'm speaking metaphorically, I'm not arguing for violence, or werewolves outside the door and the Democratic leadership has the box with all the silver bullets in them and they refuse to use them or give them to us or they use or they use them against us. Yeah, good point. And it is incumbent upon us to change that. And to stop them and to get people to get rid of them and replace them with people who will open the box but Jesus Christ. But this is this is preggers attempts to sow division between liberals in the west
Katie Halper 55:05
and want to realignment. Yep,
Josh Olson 55:08
yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is why they love interesting thing that we're gonna be talking about on the show or we may have by the time this comes out where they love, love love Bill Maher if you go to Prager U and type in Bill Maher their search engine they have a ton of Bill Maher clips that are invariably like, here's here's a leftist who agrees with us.
Katie Halper 55:28
So I majored in leftist.
Josh Olson 55:31
Yeah. Anyway. Well, that answers that question. Difference between? Yeah, I
Katie Halper 55:36
feel like I learned so much.
Josh Olson 55:37
Let's let's just jump right into the next one. This is this is a good one. A question. We've all been asking ourselves a lot lately. Can you trust the press? And he's gonna dissect some of the reasons why we feel that way and why why it's wrong. And
Dave Anthony 55:53
I just, I just answered it. No, yeah. No.
Josh Olson 55:57
Okay, well, just fine, guys. It's been fun. And I'm not gonna tell you who the who the host of this is. I'm gonna I'm gonna let it reveal itself to you because it's pretty marvelous. You probably won't recognize the voice right off the bat, folks. But we'll let you know.
[VIDEO] 56:11
liberal or conservative, male or female, young or old. Americans love to bash the news media. Once among the nation's most
Katie Halper 56:21
black person. They're
Josh Olson 56:22
white, they have different hair now
Katie Halper 56:24
because they know they don't have the black hair, the aforementioned black hair. Blue they have. Yes.
[VIDEO] 56:29
That's the news media have fallen from grace. According to Gallup, even as recently as 2000, a majority of Americans trusted the press. By 2015. It had fallen to 40% and lower than that 36% Among those 18 to 49. It's hard to see how this decline. Yep. The industry and
Josh Olson 56:56
that is Judith Miller, ladies and gentlemen, explain to us why we don't trust the press. Okay.
Katie Halper 57:00
She's gonna tell us how reliable or unreliable the media is. That's because she would know she's she she, she's showing instead of telling. Now she's telling instead of showing what she showed,
Josh Olson 57:11
just in case. Yeah. Just for listeners who do Yeah, for young people. Yeah.
Katie Halper 57:17
So Judith Miller, was in New York Times reporter who did basically served as a mouthpiece for the Bush administration and put forward all these lies about Iraq, Saddam Hussein WMDs. And then pretended that she had done nothing wrong, because it wasn't her job to verify what the ministration was saying, just to echo it, basically. But of course, she wasn't writing as if she was a stenographer. She was pretending to be journalist. Yeah, exactly. She wasn't working efficiently for the Bush White House Communications team.
Josh Olson 57:54
Officially, she got this she got let go finally. Or was he
Katie Halper 57:57
was forced to she was pressured into retiring. Or resigning into resigning. Yeah, yeah.
Josh Olson 58:04
This is somebody this is one of the worst journalists in American history.
Katie Halper 58:10
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Dave Anthony 58:12
I mean, she's
Josh Olson 58:13
by white people. I mean, blow this is this is horrific. What you did and it's
Katie Halper 58:16
just funny, because she's one of the reasons that people I mean, she's an example of why you shouldn't trust the media. Yeah.
Josh Olson 58:23
Like she has she is like, why don't it should just be why don't people trust the press? And they just cut to a shot of her like,
Katie Halper 58:29
she's also at Fox News and Newsmax now.
Josh Olson 58:32
Yeah, that would make sense. Because of course, that's probably feel they don't believe anything enough that you fall out of favor and you'll go work for anybody.
[VIDEO] 58:41
prized, and in the highly competitive age of multiple 24 hour cable news channels and the internet. It's under severe financial pressure. And this compounds an even deeper problem. Failing journalistic standards.
Katie Halper 58:58
Oh my god, are you kidding me?
Josh Olson 59:02
I'm just I'm, I'm sure I'm projecting but just you just see her dying and sign. Am I wrong? Like the look in her eyes?
Dave Anthony 59:09
I mean, she's so fucking angry at having been, you know, she dug her own grave, and now she's mad about it. Yeah. And this whole video is just like a troll at liberals to make them furious.
Josh Olson 59:24
Well, it's working. Yeah. You when Judith,
Katie Halper 59:27
you went.
[VIDEO] 59:29
In the 1950s. The media universe consisted mainly of a few national television broadcast networks and local TV and radio stations, most of which got much of their news from major wire services in the nation's large newspapers. Most journalists were committed to producing objective journalism, fact based stories independent of the government and of political,
Katie Halper 59:54
independent government. You literally were their spokesperson.
Dave Anthony 59:58
Well, plus, I mean, just You go back to what does the CIA been doing forever? Like, they have people fucking writing articles acting like they're on but like, what our government is it's been doing this forever
Katie Halper 1:00:11
or ever. Yeah. Also I like the way that she's praising objective journalism while being at Newsmax and Fox, which are so far from Objective journalism.
[VIDEO] 1:00:22
A reporter's job was to report not offer opinion or advocate presented with the facts. It was up to readers to make their own judgments about news events.
Josh Olson 1:00:33
Yeah, but it's not just about opinions. That's she's muddying the waters. She did she and write articles saying, in my opinion, so pesetas weapons of mass destruction, she was misreporting things that are not factually correct. And she just been writing op eds, we wouldn't be sitting here laughing at her right now. Well, she
Katie Halper 1:00:51
was also right, she was reporting things as if she verified them when they were just from the intelligence community. Or just
[VIDEO] 1:00:59
opinions were supposed to be confined to editorial and op ed pages. That world no longer exists. This lack of objectivity and the decline of standards is one reason they're not the only one. Why newspapers and news magazines are a declining industry. According to Pew Research,
Josh Olson 1:01:20
so Charlie Manson raging against people who murder pregnant actresses. Yeah, I mean, it's just, I cannot. Either the entire crew on this thing was 15. Probably, or they all just had to avert their eyes because they could not possibly my contact with her while she was talking.
[VIDEO] 1:01:40
Print revenue from newspaper sales has declined from $47 billion in 2006 to 16 billion in 2014. Digital Sales haven't come close to making up the difference. Most papers have been forced to cut operating expenses, slash staff and close bureaus overseas in particular. So ironically,
Dave Anthony 1:02:04
in my town, we had this thing called the Glendale news press was the like local newspaper. And I read it all the time. It was like the local news. And then the LA Times bought it, and then shut it down. So that's what's been happening to the news. All over America, the big companies buy out the little papers that are doing fine, actually. And then they just buy them and shut them down.
Katie Halper 1:02:30
Right? I'm sure Julie is up in arms about that, right?
Dave Anthony 1:02:35
Yep, she's very, you can tell she very upset about that kind of thing.
[VIDEO] 1:02:40
There are more stories than ever to cover and fewer staff than ever to cover them. This lack of information from professional journalists has been filled by a new source, social media and the blogosphere.
Dave Anthony 1:02:54
So, look, one of the problems is is they're giving too much it's unbalanced that just these certain anchors and whatever get all the fucking money. Right. And it's not being spread around. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 1:03:11
It's fear. When the Iraq war which I covered for the New York Times,
Dave Anthony 1:03:16
I can't believe she brought it up for
Katie Halper 1:03:18
you literally covered for
Dave Anthony 1:03:20
like she was the ultimate mouth Reese,
[VIDEO] 1:03:22
and we're roughly 100,000 bloggers. Only a few years later, there were an estimated 27 million, but that
Dave Anthony 1:03:32
that's not the problem. The problem is that people like Matt Iglesias became successful by being one of the early 100,000 bloggers.
Josh Olson 1:03:40
Yeah. And also it's like it's not it's a it's a 27 million blogs that large numbers of people are going to for news. And you know, when I when I went off and directed a little horror film, I made a little blog for my family. That was I used the existing blog software that anybody else did, and that gets longer box mattifying. So whatever the hell it was, yes, million years ago, but it's like, that's insane. Yeah, people people use the internet to communicate with each other. And what she's not talking about is the fact that some of those sources are better at their job,
Katie Halper 1:04:14
right and was much more anti war. I mean, yeah, fed justifiable skepticism on the war.
Josh Olson 1:04:21
And I always think whenever you think of this stuff, I always think of like, my first real Twitter experience was was during Standing Rock where it was like the new mainstream media. I don't even know where I first heard of it. Right? But it's like, I gotta go on Twitter. And you're like, oh, here, people running videos and you're seeing what's happening right now. This major confrontation is going on of serious political and historic significance. And nobody the mainstream media is covering it in any way, shape, or form. And that goes into her bandwidth like all those bloggers is a bad thing,
[VIDEO] 1:04:50
right? Yeah. The Internet is a new source has obvious pluses and minuses. On the plus side is that information Issues spread widely and instantly the minuses have to do with the fact that the quality of reporting varies dramatically.
Katie Halper 1:05:07
Well it's funny that you were supposed you failed on both levels like you were on media not and yet you managed to fail like all the checks were in place checks alleged checks and balances but you managed to get everything wrong Yeah.
Josh Olson 1:05:20
Yeah your argument against people using the internet as a new sources the quality of reporting your Judith
Katie Halper 1:05:27
Miller Miller, right.
[VIDEO] 1:05:30
separate the wheat from the chaff Furthermore, many sites including mainstream sites have abandoned traditional journalistic practices and standards in search of more and more eyeballs objectivity why they left gold standard of reporting is now often seen as old fashioned a ratings loser when success is measured main
Josh Olson 1:05:53
she's saying this like she's she's just disgusted cuz she is, you know, one of the last people standing arguing for objectivity,
Katie Halper 1:06:00
right, as your objectivity Newsmax Yeah.
[VIDEO] 1:06:05
In terms of clicks the outrageous beats the sober just about every time. Inserting opinion, even in the middle of a news story is a way in which journalists can distinguish themselves and in mainstream media outlets, those opinions overwhelmingly tend to be liberal,
Dave Anthony 1:06:23
but that is just amazing. In this fucking day and age, come on. I mean, it's just more like especially like just thinking about MSNBC and all the x like yeah, military guys don't have
Katie Halper 1:06:38
the Bush administration to MSNBC pipeline.
Dave Anthony 1:06:42
Yeah, I mean, it's insane Cole Wallace.
Katie Halper 1:06:46
What's his name? Bill Kristol, who is like an honorary
Dave Anthony 1:06:50
on MSNBC now Bill Kristol is off for a while it
Katie Halper 1:06:53
was never a regular show.
Josh Olson 1:06:58
David Fromm all the time. Oh, yeah. David Fromm,
Dave Anthony 1:07:00
fucking amazing. Oh, my God.
Josh Olson 1:07:03
And we're recording this what two days after CNN just gave Donald Trump an hour to just rant like a fucking maniac. Yeah.
[VIDEO] 1:07:12
Central journalists acknowledge their bias. But they almost never do. Yet the bias is obvious. Yes. According to a 2014 study by two Indiana University professors, reporters who identify as Democrats outnumber those who identify as Republicans by four to 120 8% to 7%.
Dave Anthony 1:07:38
So what about what about? I mean, I'm, I'm not a huge math guy, but that doesn't seem like 100%.
Katie Halper 1:07:45
Yeah, what's missing?
Dave Anthony 1:07:48
What about all the other 20? Plus seven? And then what happens? Yeah, the rest
Josh Olson 1:07:53
identify
[VIDEO] 1:07:56
the remaining 65% call themselves independent. But based on my long experience as a reporter Oh, now we're very reliable. That is many reporters like to describe it for me independent, but they're not. Not really. By any fair measure. This group is overwhelmingly on the political left.
Josh Olson 1:08:18
Well, let me let you know. Yeah. The overwhelming majority of the mainstream media are on social issues. Yeah, on social issues that are kind of up but they're also they're basically marching in lockstep with the corporate centrist democratic, right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So yeah, if you're an avid Newsmax viewer, they are left of you. That's correct. It is still a problem for all of us. But she's she's,
Katie Halper 1:08:44
yeah, it's a pro war pro corporate. political orientation. They just believe that gay people should have rights. Yeah.
Josh Olson 1:08:53
Yeah. I'm gonna cut this out. If I said this last time, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna put them on the show. But one of the things that's interesting, I noticed that our business, Katie, if you have, like, similar experience in the world, 10 years ago, if I even tweeted a reply to somebody going on, I don't know, Israel is kind of an apartheid state. That would have been very bad for me professionally. Yeah. It is no longer. However, if I tweet to somebody, maybe we shouldn't be in Ukraine.
Katie Halper 1:09:17
Oh, yeah. No. Yeah. I mean, yeah. There's what's weird. Yeah. I mean, obviously, I got fired by the hill over saying Israel's apartheid. Yes. But what I will say is that there are a lot of people who defend me on that issue. Who will be like, Oh, but she's a Putin this. Yeah. Because you're not allowed to, like, acknowledge the way the United States has escalated this war. Yeah,
Dave Anthony 1:09:42
by the way, it's so it's so funny that right now the whole deal, the debt ceiling is going on, and they're talking about what they should cut. And I'm just like, well just cut all the military stuff.
Katie Halper 1:09:52
Maybe. Yeah.
Dave Anthony 1:09:54
Yeah, I can handle
Katie Halper 1:09:56
you side with Hitler. Dave. To know,
[VIDEO] 1:10:01
the obvious liberal bias is only served to push conservative readers to those sources that cater to conservative themes.
Josh Olson 1:10:09
That's kind of true. Sure. But it's also served to push leftists to scramble to find sources,
[VIDEO] 1:10:17
further polarizing the media landscape and unable to attract conservatives, the mainstream media have chosen to double down on views and themes that appeal to their liberal constituency. So it's one example
Dave Anthony 1:10:31
it's Fox News, not to them as Fox News not mainstream media like what is that not a thing to them?
Katie Halper 1:10:38
Fox News is like The Little Engine That Could underdog
Josh Olson 1:10:44
also, we're the only this was recorded in 2016. It's like there's an atom bomb about to drop on all of this stuff.
[VIDEO] 1:10:51
Yeah. When Fox News broke a story in January 2016, about the discovery of top secret intelligence on the private email server that Hillary Clinton classified information which she had denied ever having sent or received, the New York Times buried this news story deep inside the patient's room, a decline in reporting standards, a decline in revenue and increase late
Josh Olson 1:11:20
sorry. So she's saying that the New York Times choosing to report a story accurately, but very it so fewer people saw it is a decline in their reporting standards from back when they were putting her on the front
Katie Halper 1:11:33
page. Yeah, I would actually
Josh Olson 1:11:36
say that, that she's completely wrong, that actually the faculty were Times reported on it at all, would be the other direction.
Dave Anthony 1:11:45
I mean, I will say, the most damning thing against Hillary Clinton I read was in The Washington Post. They did a whole article about her use of a Blackberry and it was just, it was unfuck. Unbelievable. It was like this person should not be president kind of article when you read it. So you know, okay. There's that, right?
[VIDEO] 1:12:09
Yes, have made many weary of the people who provide them with their news. A certain amount of skepticism is a healthy thing. And thriving democracy depends on a dynamic and free press. As much as people may like to bash the media, most people would far prefer to trust it. I'm Judith Miller, contributing editor of City Journal, for Prager University.
Katie Halper 1:12:36
It's weird that she doesn't mention Fox News, Max. Yeah. But she's part of the sanction. Yeah,
Josh Olson 1:12:43
I've been on Newsmax that point.
Katie Halper 1:12:45
Oh, yeah, you're right. Okay. When did you get to the Manhattan Institute?
Josh Olson 1:12:49
Do not know.
Katie Halper 1:12:51
But she's there now too, but a while, but also anyone who okay, even if she wasn't at Fox or Newsmax? Like, obviously anyone who would wind up to it in their future? So yeah, maybe she's not lying or admit, omitting it. But she, like her objectivity is undermined by her participation there. Yeah. Yeah, very
Josh Olson 1:13:10
much. So. Very much so. So,
Katie Halper 1:13:14
since 2008, Miller has been a commentator for Fox News.
Josh Olson 1:13:17
Okay. So she's, she's still she's looking for work when she's making this video. Right? She is signaling that she's prepared to play this game.
Katie Halper 1:13:25
And so the journal is a conservative outlet. Yeah, right. Right. Jesus grind by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which is a conservative thing, thing, okay.
Josh Olson 1:13:34
It's the hotspot. You know, it's just that incredible. Like, you got me dead to rights. And now I'm just gonna turn and stare into those legs and tell you, you're wrong. It's just, it's crazy. Yeah, you see where they love Trump. You know, it's, it's, you can see why they love Trump. Well, Katie, Was that your first exposure to Prager, you?
Katie Halper 1:13:59
I think I've seen one or two videos before, but yeah, I think I mostly turned away. So. Thanks for helping. natural human response. Helping me process it.
Josh Olson 1:14:12
Yes. And thank you. Thank you for helping us process. Yeah.
Dave Anthony 1:14:16
I feel worse.
Katie Halper 1:14:18
Yeah. I feel like I unlearned a lot.
Josh Olson 1:14:22
Yeah, yeah. They're so bad. Good morning class.
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