Boonta Vista - EPISODE 169: Walter Reed Buy Sell Swap (Feat. JR Hennessy)
Episode Date: October 4, 2020Andrew, Lucy, and Ben are joined by friend of the show, pervert, and Business Insider Australia editor JR Hennessy to talk about the ongoing fight between Australia's news publishers and the big boys ...over at Google and Facebook. In addition to this: using the secret to kill Donald Trump, and eels. *** Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista *** Email the show at mailbag@boontavista.com! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show! *** Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista Website: boontavista.com Merchandise: boontavista.com/merchandise Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello and welcome to Buena Vista episode 169.
I am Ben and I am here inside the Presidential Suite at the Walter Reed National Military
Medical Center.
Here with me in the suite, using one hand to feed Trump a nutrient slurry made of illegal
superdrugs, Flintstones vitamins and blended double quarter pounderer while using the other hand to gently jack the
president off, it's Andrew. Hey Andrew. Keep it down. Please be respectful of the
president during this time. Also this is a really small penis. I got to
concentrate. I'm imagining this as sort of like an ambient jacking off. Like you're not
trying to get him to climax're just sort of keeping it going for a while just to keep it peaceful.
It's meant to be pleasant.
Like when a dog falls asleep with its head on your lap.
And you jack him off.
He's asleep now.
He's asleep now.
Now go for it while his guards down.
Jesus.
You made the joke.
Don't have to say that.
That was the only place that could have possibly been leading.
Goodness, I meant when you just kind of stroking a dog's head, you just, it's just relaxing.
Like the jacking off I'm giving to the president right now.
But it's relaxing for who?
Like you're being relaxed by slowly jacking up the president. It's relaxing for me. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi thi thi. thi. thi. the thi. thi. the thi. thi. thiolace thi. thi. thiolk. thiolk, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. thi. thi. th checking up the president. It's relaxing for me. He is completely sedated.
The president is out cold.
Walking out of the presidential suite,
riding on a chart, trying to remember
whether the doctor had said grams or milligrams
before shrugging and taking a punt on it, it's Lucy.
Hey, Lucy.
I reckon he said grams.
I'm pretty sure it was grams, right.
Yeah, that makes sense.. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, th. th. th. th. the's thi, thi, the's the's the's the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thea. thea. theananananananananananananananananananananan. thea thea th right? Yeah, just assume the higher amount. That seems safe for it.
Could have been kilograms. Pump this shit in.
Don't confuse me. Two kilograms of wolfing. Let's see what happens.
And deep in the catacombs beneath the hospital, using a chainsaw to sever all the power cables in the plant room, Die Hard style. It's the editor of Business Insider Australia,
James Hennessey. Hi James. Great to be here. Thank you so much. What are you
hearing is people. What are you doing is people. What are you doing? That's a good,
that all the commotion is people murmuring concernedly about the president's
coming into the doctor.
I have misophonia, whatever you call that thing, where you can't sound people whispering.
You can hear the president chewing and it's just absolutely ruining you knowing.
It's driving me bad.
So I've got to kill him.
All the helicopters landing and taking off is upsetting his rats.
Mm-hmm.
Can anyone own rats? coppers landing and taking off is upsetting his rats. Mm-hmm. A community of rats down there.
Can anyone own rats?
You know?
Well, if you have a rat in a little cage on your desk,
do you own that rat, do you reckon?
I think you're just punishing a rat that owns itself.
Okay, sure.
I mean, no, I don't want to offend the lovely rat owners of this podcast.
I'm sure sure the then thiiiiiiii thi thi thi to offend the lovely rat owners of this podcast. I'm sure there are some out there.
Maybe I don't know. Right in, if you have a pet rat, you tell me why you like that.
Send us a picture of your rats. I would like to look at them. I'm more interested in what Ben thinks the internal life of a rat in a cage is like.
I don't know, they probably year.
He's living it. Well, that's upsetting, but yeah, essentially true.
So Trump?
Yeah, so we should probably date this episode by saying that Donald J. Trump has the novel
coronavirus.
Theo, who is still on a podcast funded paternity leave, said, please mention that the president
is absolutely dying. No, sorry, he said, please, please talk about how alive Trump still is to date the episode.
I feel like any time we sort of try and actually talk about current events, we're usually
slightly wrong on the take. Like, at the start when we're talking about coronavirus.
Like our only sort of committed to track record part of this is us being like, is it a big deal? Who knows? It's probably fine.
Well we weren't technically wrong because nobody knew how big a deal it was going to be.
Oh, that's true. You know? We can't, well we won't hope, but it is entirely possible
that the president Donald Trump will drop dead from coronavirus. You're not hoping? You don't believe in hope?
Not on record. Well we can't get banned from Twitter on our own
podcast, you know? That's true. It's weird. The whole Twitter banning people
hoping that he will die seems like a weird thing to me. Like wishing death on
someone, it seems like a weird distinction to make. Like if you said I am going to
give the president coronavirus and therefore kill him, sure maybe. If you're just saying, wow, wouldn't it be nice if he fucking died?
That's not like a threat. And people do this stuff all the time.
Oh, constantly. Like, I- That's what Twitter's for, I'm pretty sure. Yeah.
Death on various people or speculating on the death of people. My first thing was that was that quote from the, like there was that vice article or whatever that said that announced that Twitter was going to ban people for wishing on it.
It was like Twitter will ban anyone who wishes for President Trump's death and then it's
like Facebook will allow you to wish for a president's death as long as you don't tag him.
I love the idea of the presidency. Just trub looking at his phone to be like, oh come on now. I'm gonna report. I'm gonna report.
He has notifications turned on for everything.
I bet he does.
The man loves a self-retweet.
He's all about it.
He loves the, I like when he did his diagnosis and then he just retweeted like, you know,
600 people saying, get well soon, big boy.
Okay. You are a strong lad.
You will be fine.
I did just see the footage of a big rally of his supporters all shoulder to shoulder.
No mask, nose in the next person's mouth, shouting for Trump.
Oh, the, the, um, I watched like the ABC news story about it last night and the
footage they had used for the background while they were doing the story was incredible it was just like a
super cut of all the time people at that one Rose Garden press conference
put their mouths really near each other. It's amazing.
Oh dear. Well yeah that was this is like where he he got his personal dose of
coronavirus was that the nomination thing for Amy Coney Barrett,
right?
But she's tested negative, right?
With her seven maskless children.
But everyone else has got it.
Chris Crispy got?
I'm just punching the numbers.
Someone's gonna die, weigh.
Well, we don't hope so.
I mean, Hannah, would you like to go on record? Who do you hurt though? Should I should, s? Should, s? Should, s? Should, s? Should, s? Should, s? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I? Should I th? Should I? Should I th? Should I th? Should I th? Should I th? Should, I th? th? th? th? th? th? th? t? t? t? t? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? She? th? th? th? th? th? th? th? th? She? th? th? th? I? I? I? I? I? I? I? I? I? I? I? th. I? th. I? th. I? th. I, th. th. I, t. t. tas. I've, t. t. tested? tested? tested? tested? tested? She's, tested? Henno, would you like to go on record?
Hmm.
Who do you hurt to?
Should I, should I, should I read off a list of the people that I hope die?
Because I hope, get that kind of like debilitating long-term effects while remaining alive or whatever?
I haven't actually compiled that list, so boy. Yeah, I mean, it's already hard to feel like Trump had like reasonable health to be long-term negatively impacted.
You know, he already had, I mean, he already did have that kind of aura of, I guess some sort of invincibility due to lifelong ingestion of just cheeseburgers and the cheeseburgers and Diet Coke. They make you strong I feel like the trajectory of everything that's happened
over the past like year four years since he was elected before that means that
he will come out of this like stronger and more virile than ever like it's gonna
come out with like a perfectly bronzed muscular body builder body
come out looking like a Ben Garrison cartoon. Oh yeah, exactly.
Or like the giant gold pomewome or whatever.
It just took off a little bit of like his water weight and he was completely shredded underneath.
It's just walking out from the hospital completely shirtless a bit like coronavirus.
Not a big deal.
Here's this big deep voice that carries for kilometers.
Yeah, he no longer needs to use Twitter though you will just hear, just hear what he's
saying as he shouts it out from the White House.
Here's my actual boring prediction for this, which is, I think like, everybody kind of has
this sense at the moment of like, wow, the planet is trying to tell us that humans should stop doing all the things that they're doing.
We are being ravaged by climate change and strange viruses
to make us stay at home and stop driving our cars everywhere
and do climate change.
And now in the most poetic justice of all,
Trump himself has received a dose of this, and he's gonna die, and that'll be the message to everybody that you actually actually the th. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. to have to to to to to to to to thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. the. the. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. te. te. the. the. the. the. the. t this and he's gonna die and that'll be the message
That'll be the message to everybody that you actually have to take this thing seriously and listen to science
And I'm here to say I bet that's not gonna happen
I bet he comes out of it fine two weeks later and then he starts saying to everybody no big deal.
Whatever I'm the strong president and it all just cruises on and it all just cruises on and then we th, th. And th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th. the the the thi thi the thi the the the the tr- the the the the the to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. th. th. th. th is th is th. th. th is th. th. th th th th th th th th th. th th th th. th. the th. th. th. the the of tru-I tru-I tru-I tru-I tru-I tru tru-I tea tea te to to to to theeeeeeeeea to to him again or we get Biden for a while. Either way we continue with a very senile,
70-year-old man, or in Biden's case,
80-year-old man in the White House,
just kind of mumbling and being confusing.
So what you're saying is...
We were wrong to experience any joy and this wonderful, jubilant
moment we're all having is farcical and stupid, short-sighted.
No, just have fun while you can.
Get banned from Twitter, you know?
Yeah, enjoy it.
So, not positive.
Live in the moment, but don't get too excited about the future is true.
Live in the moment, but don't get too excitedthat the secret is true, it might be worthwhile everyone listening
to this podcast just to start envisioning the worst happening, by which I mean the best.
We did try it with Boris Johnson, but...
Unfortunately... Try harder. He's too strong. I had a good experience with the secret on Friday night.
I went with a... Go on. Yeah, so I was doing some manifesting at the secret on Friday night. I went with a... Go on. Yeah so I
was doing some manifesting at the wedding I was at on Friday night. Yeah I bet
you fucking were about. There was some there was the food coming out for the
mains and they were doing the alternating dishes and one of the dishes. And one of
the big slab pork belly and the other one was like some little bits of barramundi. It was it was the chad pork belly. It the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the wedding. I was the wedding. I was the wedding. I was the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding the wedding. I the wedding. I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the wad. I was. I was the the the wad the wedding. I was the the the alternating dishes. And one of the dishes were a big slab of pork belly, and the other one was like some
little bits of barramundi.
It was the Chad pork belly versus the virgin barramundi.
And I was like, right, I announced to the table, please stop talking to me.
I am working on manifesting this pork belly.
And I focused very hard.
I stared at the door to the kitchen, you know, and I just focused
all of my powerful psychic energy on that. They bought out a pork belly and they gave it
to my wife who was seated opposite to me. And I said, ooh. And then the waitress came out
with a pork belly and she walked right over to me and she stood next to me and then she reached
across my empty space in front of me, gave it to the guy next to me and I went, oh, I said to the waitress, I have
been manifesting that for 15 minutes now. And then she said, I'm so sorry, sir, they make us
alternate. And then she bought me some fish and then my wife said, here you can have my pork belly and I said the secret works. I to to to to to to to to you, to me to me to me to me. I to me. I to me. I to me. I to me. I to me. I to me. I to me. I to me. I to me, to me, to me, to me, the the the to me, the the the the the to me, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. I th. I th. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I'm the the the the the the th. I said, the the the th. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said can have my pork belly. And I said, the secret works.
I don't know if it does.
It works everybody.
You just ask your wife for the pork belly.
You just manifested it.
You have a partner that loves you.
My wife respects to that.
My wife respects to that was a real long game.
Yeah.
Exactly. Exactly. That's what it's all all. that's all. that's all. that's all. thi. thi. thi. that's all. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the that. thi. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th board and it came true and no one can take that away from me.
The universe provides, that's so beautiful. It's a deadly ride. How many carton drys
have to beaulteries that you had before this point?
I'd switch to the cardrys after they ran out of. I was drinking the furfies. The car d'uys wasn't. Oh the way. Oh the way. Oh. The car is right right right. The car is right. The car is right. The car is right. I was. The car is th is right. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi's right thri. thri-I is thri-I is thri-I is thri-i-i-i-i-i-I is thri-I is right. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th is right. th is right. How. How. How. How. How. How. How. th is right. It is right. It is right. It is right. It is right. th. It is right. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi-I. thi-I. thi-I. thrieea. thriea''er. thriea'er. thea'er. thea'er. thea'er. thea'er. thrie.'s crazy. What a break in the world.
What a crazy world.
No, then I went over to the carbon dry, which isn't my first choice because it's a low-carb
beer and low-carb beers all have that kind of silvery taste, which I don't care for.
Yeah, it's the colloidal silver and then that keeps love. The Carlton Hugh as we know on it.
The Carlton Hugh.
Oh boy.
So what do we get James on for, Ben?
That's not your fucking business.
Just see who he's wishing death upon
and if he is using the secret to manifest anything positive in his life?
Are you currently using the secret to manifest anything positive in your life?
Uh, I'm using this, I'm going to use this as a way to a way the way to a way the way to a way the way to a way the way to a way the way the way to a way the way to a way the way to a way to a way this as a way to a way that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that to to to to to to to to to secret to manifest anything positive in your life?
I'm using this, I'm going to use this as a way to segue, I'm using the secret to manifest
that Australia's large publishers will come to a favourable agreement with the Tech Giant's Google and Facebook. That's quite beautiful actually, that's the sort of segue I dream
of having on this podcast usually, but never quite happens.
Huh. Hmm. Well, there you go. Some pass segues on here.
So this, obviously this is a complex issue. It's very hard to get around.
So I thought maybe we would let a trillion dollar multinational Google explain this to us in a form of a fun video.
Andrew, you reckon you could hit play on that bad boy?
I can, but I'm not happy about it.
I dispute the characterization as fun.
Here we go, folks. There is a caption at the start.
I will helpfully read it out for you.
Google explains arbitration under the news media bargaining code with comedian Greta Lee Jackson.
Proposed laws can be confusing, so I'll use an analogy to break it down.
Take a seat.
So this bus we're on picks up people at their homes and drops them off at restaurants all across town.
Sure people could have walked or driven themselves, but the bus is convenient.
Under a new law being drafted, the bus driver would driven themselves, but the bus is convenient.
Under a new law being drafted, the bus driver would need to pay the restaurants for delivering
those customers to their doorstep.
Sounds weird, huh?
But that's not all.
Even when she agrees to pay and starts to negotiate how much she should pay, nothing
that she brings to the table is counted as part of the negotiations. Not the fact that she's delivering customers to the restaurant,
not the cost of running the bus, nothing.
What's more absurd? She'll also be asked to cover some of the restaurant's
costs too, like half their electricity bill. Is this a joke? No mate. I may be a comedian but this is no laughing matter.
Google isn't against a code, we're just asking for a fair one.
All right, so do everyone finish that with a clear understanding?
No, there was like cogs just spinning around in my brain. Maybe I need the visual. I wonder if they could have googled analogy before... No. No. No. No. No. No, the joke, the joke, the joke, the joke, the joke, no, the joke, no, no, no, no, th, th, th, th, th, th. No, th. No, th. No, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, no, no, no, tho, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, th. No. No. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, th. No, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, there was like cogs just spinning around in my brain. Maybe I need the visual. I wonder if they could have googled analogy before they put this.
The visual sort of just repeats what she's talking about.
She's sitting on the thing. The thing we're all talking about, Google explains the news
media bargaining code, like everyone watching that be like, oh yeah, of course. That's the thing we're all talking about about like the the the the the the the thing. the thing. the thing. the thing. the thing. th. th. th. th. th. the thing. th. th. the thing, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. we're all talking about around the dinner table.
It reminds me of like when I was, I reckon I would have been like first year uni or something
and I was in the uni bar talking to some guy and he was trying to explain the concept of postmodernism.
Obviously this is a very uni anecdote. But he was like, it was like, okay, so it's kind of like, you know a Philly
Cheesesteak?
And I was like, yeah, I know a Philly Cheesesteak.
It was like, modernity or modernism whatever would say to you, that the only authentic Philly
Cheesesteak is one that comes from Philadelphia, whereas a postmodernist would tell you
that a Philly cheesake, regardless of where it's from. And I was like, and he, where, where, where, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, like, like, like, like, like, like, the, like, the, like, th, like, like, th, like, like, like, th, like, like, th, like, th, th, th, thi, like, like, like, like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, th.. It, th. It was, like, th. It was, like, like, th. th. th. It was, th. It was, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, regardless of where it's from. And I was like, what are you talking about? I was like, and he was like, he sort of just repeated the, the adept
he repeated the, and I was like, I get the, what, I get that, but I don't really see how
that pertains to any broader concept.y little anecdote but did couldn't, this little
analogy but couldn't actually explain what it was analogizing.
And this video is the kind of same thing.
If you were watching that, you'd be like, what, what the fuck you're talking about?
He should have used one of those Philly cheesesteak spring rolls as the second
part of his argument.
One of those?
One of those?. I feel like there's a lot of problems with this analogy, which in fairness they posted
this on their Twitter account that I think they basically only made to post this one video
on.
They made a Twitter account called Google Down Under.
And that's fun.
And they're using, so like the icon or avatar or whatever the fuck for it, the display
picture, I think that's what we call those now, is like a alert triangle, which is what they
used.
So if like you were in Australia and you went to the Google home page or the Google app or
whatever, it displayed that icon and then a little bit text saying, you know, Australia's trying to kill Google or whatever, which made it look like something was wrong with the page.
Which is what they were going for, because they got an enormous amount of eyes across this,
although I think most people just saw it and went, okay.
But it also makes it look like the Twitter account is broken in some fashion?
You're just like, oh, it's something's gone wrong? What's happening there? Well, they had this on both just Google, if you went to Google, a big thing came up.
Check out the website, Google.
Google, it's new.
And also, I think they kind of had it,
like if you made a new tab or something like that,
they would come up with like a big thing saying, you know,
the Australian government is trying to the way you use the internet and shoot Google with a gun.
Which not sure how accurate it is.
So should we try and get James to explain the actual the deal here?
The proposed deal before we get into the many, many problems with the bus analogy.
Okay, sure. So the media bargaining code is sort of the product of a very, so for a long time, the
government, this current government and other ones, but certainly this current government
has been making noise about how they want to sort of tackle the big tech companies.
When they say big tech, they specifically mean Facebook and Google really. Facebook and Google and sort of their various impacts on the Australian market on all sorts of things like
you know user data and all that kind of stuff. And one and one kind of core
aspect about that is obviously news publishers. So the big news publishers
really being 9 and News Corp and then some of the smaller publishers as well but
but certainly those two juggernauts
have been complaining about Facebook and Google for a very, very long time, as have sort
of, well, kind of every major media corporation around the world.
Because over the past, you know, certainly 10 years, they've suddenly come to realize
that their entire livelihoods, their entire businesses, blah blah blah, blah, all rely almost entirely on that traffic that Google and Facebook provide.
And they don't particularly like that situation.
So they've been lobbying the government forever to do something about it.
And this is essentially the government's way of doing something about it.
So what they've done, the government basically instructed the A-triple-C, which is the Australia
Competition Consumer Commission, which is our consumer watchdog, to basically draw up a code
that covers the interactions between local news publishers and the international tech companies.
So Facebook and Google.
Basically what the A-Triple C did
at first and the government did it first was like, we want you guys to talk and hash out a deal
that will address all the problems that news publishers have, which I'll get to talking about.
And they sort of gave him some time to do that. The news publishers came back and were like Facebook and Google are not talking to us.
Which is probably unsurprising.
It's kind of like, I guess it's like the kid who runs the lemonade store at the front
of Bill Gant's house is trying to strike a business deal with him.
It needs the power of the state to back it.
But so the A-triplec came came came came came came came came came came came came came came came came going to, we're going to mandate this. You have to sit down and work out a deal. And if you
don't work out a deal, we will basically force a deal upon you. We will come in and get an arbitrator
to come in and lay down the law, basically. So, the stuff the news companies have complaints about, there's a few, you you you you you to you you to you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you have to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to have to, you have to have to have to, you have to, you have to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you have to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the to to to to to to to to have have to to to to have to to to to to the news companies have complaints about, there's a few of them,
some of them reasonable, some of them maybe not so reasonable, we'll kind of get into that.
But the big one is money, obviously.
The news publishers argue that Facebook and Google are essentially profiting off news content
and not paying the people who have produced the content.
They're not paying the big publishers for essentially using their content to make money.
And then there's lots of other small ones, like for example, that Facebook and Google can change their algorithms overnight and basically destroy news business.
So the news publishers want
some transparency and sort of seeing out those function. And there's a bunch
of other smaller complaints about the interaction, like for example the big news
companies complain that Google search turns up sort of aggregated
right-arounds of their original reporting more than their actual original reporting. So if you look
through this like the A-triple-C's preliminary report, it's literally just a
laundry list of complaints that news publishers have had for a very, very long time
about how Facebook and Google work and how it's been affecting their
business. So yeah, this is, and then the H-triple-c is
So yeah, this is, and then the A-TripeC is stepping in and being like, okay, well, you know, if you want to operate in Australia, you have to do so in a way that actually enables
competition and isn't just a sort of an enormous monopoly, so you have to come to the table
and talk to these news publishers and work out some sort of arrangement.
So that is what the code is. And as you can see from the Google
response and the Facebook response, which is also happening in parallel, it's a little
bit less aggressive than the Google response, but still quite aggressive. They are not particularly
happy about having to come to a table on that. And not necessarily because they are angry about how much money they would have to pay Australian
publishers, obviously they're both very wealthy companies and they could write that
off so easily.
It's more about the fact that other countries are watching this incredibly closely and being
like, well if Australia can put the boot into Google and Facebook, then we can also
do exactly the same thing.
Then a real country could do it.
A real country, a real consequential country could do something about it.
So obviously, so they're going really hard in the Australian market just to
why knock it down because they don't want to get up,
but also to scare other countries from trying the same thing.
So that's basically it in summation
what what it is so maybe Google's incredible bus analogy is becoming
clearer to you. They are the bus and the restaurants Australian news publishers.
Now it would be pretty absurd it would be pretty absurd for the bus driver to have to pay the restaurants.
It would be.
Well, can I, can I posit perhaps that maybe we can add some complexity to this metaphor
that they've given us?
So there's a bus, right?
And the bus takes you to restaurants.
The bus gets to determine which restaurants it takes you to due to
something completely inscrutable and internal that they will not share with
anyone and there's a small chance that on any given day the bus could suddenly
decide they never ever want to take you to a restaurant ever again and these
restaurants which have completely stopped advertising or promoting
themselves in any way because they just rely on the bus to bring them people will suddenly have to fold.. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the to the the the the the the the the the the their. their. their their their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their their. their their. their their.. their their. their. their. their. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the. the. Wea. thea.ea.ea. I.ea. I thea. thea. And. And. And their their their their their rely on the bus to bring them people will suddenly have to fold. But also, while the bus doesn't
charge you anything, the bus also goes through your bag, looks at every single
thing in your phone and your wallet and then uses that money to get
advertising revenue? Well this is...
Well this is... All your what gets me. All your fellow
passengers are racist as well by the way. Well that's just a normal Australian bus.
Sorry yeah sorry. That's this is what gets me like later on in the piece where
comedian Greta Lee Jackson is explaining like a shit so for the visual of this
part she's sitting down at a table in the restaurant and she's explaining all the things that
that you know Google's not getting compensated for out of this deal. The electricity to run the bus.
Well well she when she's sitting at the table she says um she says you know and then the bus driver isn't getting credit for any of the things that they bring to the table. They you know the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their not. their not. their not. their not. their not. their their their their their. their their their their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. te. th. th. th. th. their. their. their. the the the. the the. the the. the the the bus driver isn't getting credit for any of the things that they bring to the table.
They're not getting anything for the cost of running the bus. It's like, well they are,
otherwise why would they run the bus? Why would they be driving this bus? Why would they run
Google New, like you're saying about third-party advertising and stuff, the implication,
the implication from Google here is that they just run things like Google News and aggregators
and stuff just to be nice.
Out of the kindness of their own house.
Yeah, it's this completely altruistic move that they get nothing from and it costs them
all this money to do.
And you're very rudely asking them for money, even though they're paying all this
money to bring you the news? On a bus?
Unbelievable. But also towards the beginning when she's on the bus and she says,
oh sure, you know, you could you could walk to the restaurant, but the bus is just more convenient.
Why don't you just walk? This is a terrible analogy. No one walks to restaurants anymore, which is to say that literally no one types it the
URL of a website every day and looks at that website.
Because that is what these platforms like Facebook and Google have absolutely changed the landscape
completely permanently.
That's just not how people look at things.
And like, from working at pedestrian and obviously you probably still have that problem working at Business Insider but like if there is even
a marginal change to how much traffic the Facebook algorithm or Google will
send to your shit you're fucked like yeah you'll just be like okay it's
you know we know we get this sort of traffic from doing these sorts
stories pretty consistently blah blah blah and then from one week to the next you'll be like oh shit okay okay well they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll th th th tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho thoo tho tho tho they'll they'll they'll they'llffic from doing these sorts of stories pretty consistently blah blah blah and then from one week to the next you'll be like oh shit okay well
they don't put these sorts of stories on the news feed anymore so we have lost
you know 800% no that makes no sense 80% we have lost 1 million percent of our
views the numbers in town we're having to give away views
yeah it's capricious and it is completely inscrutable, which is kind of like, the whole
idea of not revealing how your algorithm works is so that people can't game the SEO, but
then it's also the only way to make people's business models viable now is to try and do that.
And so yeah, I think part of that bargaining code stuff was that they want Facebook and
Google to have to warn publishers in advance of upcoming changes.
It's like, I can't remember the exact period, but it's like basically like a month's warning
or maybe like 40 days or something, warning on the thing.
I mean, we can get into all the myriad problems with the code as I see it that isn't necessarily, you know, the areas where Google and Facebook are maybe a little
bit right is kind of like, as anyone who probably works with software knows,
there's not one gigantic algorithm rollout that happens in the distant future
that's planned that they can point to and be like that's that. They're obviously constantly twiking this stuff and experimenting with stuff and doing
it. So it does sort of belie kind of like a, I don't know about like a necessary lack
of understanding, but like a very simple understanding about how this stuff functions, which
makes you wonder like, could that actually work? Could Google actually alert, or Facebook alert media,
that like, hey, this specific change is coming,
where we're gonna prioritize this exact kind of story?
And you know, when they do do big changes,
when Facebook does a big change,
they do make a big song and dance about it.
Like they come out and go, like, you know,
we're prioritizing posts from your from your friends now
like if anyone kind of wades into the the swamp of Facebook these days I kind
kind of try to avoid doing so you'll probably go to say we cannot warn you
sternly enough not to do that yeah please don't do the same you will wind up
sounding like Ben complaining for the second time this month that they have changed the
layout of it looks so bad it doesn't pretty right but like the the the the the the the you you you you you you you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th th th th th th th th th th th th th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to thi to to to thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th second time this month that they have changed the layout of it looks so bad it's real bad it doesn't pretty right but like you don't
actually say that many posts from publishers on there anymore like if you
see a news story it's because someone that you know I shared it generally
and you know we can argue forever on why Facebook has done that I
think it's past people it people that's like, well, if you're complaining about fake news, we won't show you any news.
Thank you, sir.
And they've allowed all like the psycho stuff to get, you know, put off into groups where
no one can see them.
And they're just like festering ISIS terror cells or something out of people's site.
But yeah, so I mean, that's one of the issues. But the whole kind kind tho tho tho thine one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one that that that that that that that that that that that that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's. that's. that's. that's. that's. that's that's that's. that's. that's. that's. that's. that's. that's. that's that's that's that's. that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's the the issues, but the whole kind of like code, and the big
one that everyone's talking about, obviously the seeing the algorithm, tweaking the algorithm,
helping news companies appear more on the algorithm is kind of the small potatoes compared
to like the meat of it, which is the payments side of thing.
That's the one, that's the thing that Facebook and Google absolutely do not want to spread. They don't want to be in a situation where people feel like they are, where, you know, governments
on news publishers feel like they can eke money out of them for displaying their content.
And that's kind of like the thing that where really starts to fall apart.
The other stuff, you know, transparency, not letting Google use the information advantage
to kind of crush local publishers, makes complete sense.
The money side of it, it kind of just like lacks an understanding
of how people actually use the internet and how these platforms actually work.
Like, their whole thing is about how, you know, nobody would
use Google or Facebook if they didn't have, or a large number of people would not use Google
or Facebook if these, if this news content wasn't there as an attraction. I just don't think
that's true at all. I think it's really easily testable and I think Facebook and Google with their threats to like pull
Australian content from Google and Facebook, I are incredibly willing to test that theory.
And I think they're probably right that they wouldn't lose
much of their audience at all if that stuff went away. No, like I've been enjoying
showing Lucy lately what my Facebook f-Feed looks like because I don't use Facebook. Like I don't. I haven't really used it for years and years and the only thing
that I ever do is like I'll post some photos of my kids every now and then so
that relatives can see them. It has no idea who you are or what you want from life.
Yeah so I so I don't you know I'm not like I not members of groups, I don't like look at any news,
I don't look at anything.
So sometimes I'll open it and switch to like,
you know the tab that just gives you like
the Facebook TV, the video feed kind of thing.
I'll open that thing up and just let it play and
what is this? What is this content?
And you are absolutely right in that like, none of it is.
They're not serving somebody in Australia like Australian News.
They're just like, here's a lady test driving,
an electric hot rod.
Here's some people doing.
There's this kind of video that shows up in my feet all the time, which is like, which is like the sort of thing that that that that th th th th th th th th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, that, thi, tho-up, tho-up, tho-up, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, th. th. thi, th. th. th. th....... th. th.... th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. that, the, the, that to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to to, the thean, thean, thean, the. thethis kind of video that shows up in my feet all the time which is like,
which is like the sort of thing that used to be a viral, you know, obviously made up
news story of like, there was a dad at the supermarket with his little kid and he was buying her a birthday
cake but he didn't have enough money for that and the other groceries.
So he said, we have to put your birthday cake back back and the daughter was sad. And the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. And th. And th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thoe. th. th. So, the. So, tho. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, the. And, the their their their they. And, they. And, they. And, they. And, the. And, the. And, the. birthday cake back and the daughter was sad and then a good Samaritan in the
line stood up and said I'll give you money for the birthday cake and it's that
except that they've just done a full like filmed reenactment of a moment like
this oh I know exactly the kind of video you're talking about it's so real I feel like a whole looking at that stuff on YouTube. That's like real black pill shit.
Yeah, yeah, it's extremely like, um, it's this weird sort of cyclical thing of, these were
clearly already moments that didn't exist.
And now they've gone all the way to actually like staging them as fictional moments
and just filming them from multiple angles with real cameras and hiring bad actors to do them
so that they can put them on Facebook and say,
watch a heartwarming moment as stranger steps up in line to pay for birthday cake.
That's pretty beautiful. He doesn't want to say that.
But yeah, like if I go and look as somebody who is just being served stuff who hasn't gone around and said, I want to like all of the pages of Sydney Morning Herald and the age and the West Australian
and all these things and I specifically want to see more of this in my feed, Facebook
is not pushing any of it on you.
They're not saying we need this to survive because the stuff they'd...
I remember back in like two thousand, you know, 10, tho and like, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, 12 was a terribly different story.
Like I remember back then I would actually swipe through Facebook and get like a shitload
of news stories and I would click on them and read them there because Facebook obviously
because they love the engagement was just foisting it on kind of everyone.
And then it probably then obviously it got to a point.
Coincidentally after the 2016 election where they were like, oh shit, now this is a political
liability, so we're going to maybe ease off on the on the gas on that one. But yeah, it's, so yes,
on the one thing, on the one hand, and the other thing is that obviously Facebook and Google the way they interact with the the the the the the the the the the the th tech thecec tech thec tech th. thing is that obviously Facebook and Google and the way they interact with news sites, yes, they're both big tech companies, but they operate and interact with new sites in a completely different way.
So like loving them in together for this kind of bargaining kind of thing doesn't quite add up.
And you know, there are reasons for new sites to be worried about Google because, you know, Google, as we've kind of seen, has moved away from being like an index of the world's
sites and more to like an index of the world's knowledge.
So in a perfect world, you certainly make an inquiry and Google will just give you the answer.
They won't actually send you to a site at all.
You know, it does that little knowledge, what do you call it,
knowledge graph or whatever. Yeah. Where, you know, if you search, you know, how many
leaders in a mega-leater, it'll spit it out at you. I guarantee you that in the skunk works
of Google, down in there, like, laboratory where all the sly mutants work on computers or whatever, they're, they're trying to work out a way way way way way way way way, the way, the way, to work, to work, to work, to, their, to, their, to, to, to, to, their, their, to, their, to, to, to, to, to, to, what, what, what, what, what, what, their, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, their, their, to, they.............. You, they. You, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, their, to, to, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what, what's, you. You. You know, computers or whatever. They're they're trying to work out a way where you could you could write you know
What's happened to the news today and it spits out like a algorithmically generated slurry of news content and you can just bypass reading anything
And you can you only go to the New York Times for hot takes or whatever? A horrifying future
Can I can I just say on in terms of the the black mirror future of this kind of thi thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. What. What. What thi. What. What. What thi. What. What. What. What. What, the tod. What, tod. What, tod. What, tod. What, the tod. What, tod. What, tod. What, tod. What, tod. What, tod. What, tod. What, the the the the tod. What the the thi. What thi. What the thi. What's, the the the the the the the the the thi. What's, the the the the the the thi. What's this kind of thin that we're talking about? I came face-to-face with this on Friday night
when I came home from this wedding to find Lucy in the kitchen. Oh come on
come on. Drunk and having a verbal argument with my Google Home Mini. I don't like it, all right? It hardly works.
She had talked- You let that into your home where your children sleep.
I did, Google got me with that one because I pay for like a lot of Google Drive storage,
so I'm like a, whatever it is now, Google One. I'm a Google One customer. And they sent me an email and were like, I, like, they've thrown, they've like, all, all, thrunk, thrunk, thrunk, thrunk, thrunk, thrunk, thrunk, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrunk, all, thrunk, all, right, thrunk, right, right, right, thrunk, right, right, right, and thrunk, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, thrown. It thi. It thi, thi, thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thrown, and I thrown, and I thrown, and I thrown, like, thrown, and I thrown, like, thrown, and I thrown, and I thrown, so I'm like a whatever it is now Google One. I'm a
Google One customer and they sent they sent me an email and were like, hey, thank
you for being a customer. Would you like a free Google Home Mini? That's how they
get you. That's exactly how they get you. Sure. And every now and then you see the
little lights on it light up when you weren't talking to it. That's when you're looking right into the eye of the beast.
I don't like it.
And now I understand why boomers are having so many problems.
The other day I was like, you know what I want to hear?
I just want to listen to Donald Trump by MacMiller.
That's what I'm feeling right now.
So I asked Google. And then I didn't hear any music and I th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th th th th th th th th thu, th th thi thu, thu, thu, I'm thu, I'm thuan, thuan, thumer thi thi thuan, thumer, thumer, thuom, thuomorrow, thuom- thuom- thuom- thuom thuom thuom thuom thuom thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu thu. I'm thu. I'm thu. I'm thu. I'm thoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom. thu. th Tucker Carlson show on the television.
Very good. Because she was like, I'll play Donald Trump.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot, Google.
Talking about MacMiller on Tucker Carlson.
I will say, it is, you know, horribly invasive and terrifying
and will probably end in all of my secrets getting revealed to everyone all the time.
But if you're really high in the bath and you've got a Google home there you can just yell at it to play
various sleep songs at you. It's nice I don't know if you want that in the bath
but I mean look trade-offs they all make trade-offs in our life and that's
that's one of the yeah ours is that yes we're being constantly surveilled to the machine but to the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. I th so. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I I I. I. I. I. I. I. Yes. I. I. Yes. Yes. Yes. I. I. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. the. Yes. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the the times so that... So that... You can hear stony metal songs when you're in the bath without using your
fingers to manipulate Spotify, which is crap.
But my kids, when we serve them lasagna for dinner, Mave can yell out, hey Google, play
lasagna by Weird Al.
Which she then does her, uh, Weird Al lasagna dance while my older daughter
gets increasingly upset. It's now turned into a thing where we say we're having lasagna for
dinner and he turns around and goes please do not play the song.
Don't play the song. God.
Just another thing Google needs to reimburse people for.
Yes, yes.
I hope they're reimbursing Weird Al and my children.
Hi everybody, it's me. It's Theo.
Now I guarantee you I'm more afraid of recording this promo than you are of listening to it,
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If you haven't already, maybe check out our Patreon. It's a great way to support the show, and it gives us the ability to actually dedicate
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You'll get all of our bonus episodes, it's over 300 extra episodes in total, and we'll
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So yeah that's the one thing. The other side of the the whole money
money debating who gets paid for what and what have you is obviously you know the loss in revenue that news sites have faced is not, is A, because
of, you know, subscriptions going down now that there are so many free places to get news,
yes, but also, you know, the total collapse of what was once called, you know, the
rivers of gold for news publications, which was, you know, the advertising, yes, and also
the classifieds, you know. You can just use Facebook Marketplace now. Well, well, well, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, you, you, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the also the classifieds. You know.
I can just use Facebook Marketplace now.
Well that's it like you know and you know this is obviously the case for your big publications
like you know the news.
Newscope is like Daily Telegraph which used to have you know thriving classified sections
but also like your local papers which have basically been, local newspapers have been replaced you know Golban Spop Cell and also like those like the the the the the the the th, like th, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, you can the, you can the Facebook, the Facebook, the Facebook, the Facebook, the Facebook, the Facebook, the the Facebook, the Facebook, the Facebook, the the Facebook, the Facebook, the Facebook, their thi, thi, thi, you can can can thi-cucucucucucucucucu-face. thipi-I can can can just by swap cell and also like those pages that are called like
Golban secrets would be slanderous rumors about people. That's that those two kind
of like genres of Facebook group have replaced local news almost entirely. Yeah that's
real local news. I love every now and then when there's something in news about like a court
case about somebody who called somebody else a fuck wit on on Bendigo local local news. I love every now and then when there's something in news about a court case about somebody who called somebody else a fuckwit on
Bendigo local local news. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. But you know obviously I think
it's actually like the A triple C is I think what of Australia's great
institutions that doesn't get shut it out as much as it could.
For all that for all Australia's kind of like, you know, faults in certain areas, I'm
understating.
There, it's, in terms of consumer law and consumer protections are actually pretty good and
the A.T.C. is pretty like aggressive and policing that stuff.
And this is obviously just part of it, You know, Rod Sims, who is the boss
of the HCC, is kind of like this wandering Ronan of consumer protections. And he's incredibly,
he's like one of those guys, he always gets profiled in newspapers. He's kind of like, you know,
I'm one of those free market dudes who also just hates monopolies and he does whatever he can
in his capacity as a public servant to you know smash monopolies which is
cool you don't see that many of those guys around anymore especially in like
positions of power so that's cool and obviously this is that's his
his thinking with this where it's like you know Facebook and Google do
act as monopolies so we're going to smash them up and sort of
redistribute some of the spoils of this online ad market or whatever.
But again, you know, yes, the big corporations, the big news corporations have lost classifieds
and lost advertising, but they've lost it to something that is, you know, as invasive and horrifying and terrible
as it is, like a quote-unquote better product. You know, whereas in the back in the day you would
buy a full page space in the City Morning Herald advertising whatever product or service you're selling,
pitching it at some broad understanding of what a Sydney Morning Herald reader is,
whereas now you can obviously hyper-target people based on the last time they went to a toilet or whatever.
Yes, it's evil. But like, they got, this is a situation where they got like massively outclassed that can't be clawed back.
And this argument isn't, even though people are talking about it in terms of, you know,
what about journalism and protecting journalism and protecting news,
obviously, yeah, that's great and important, but it's not really being talked about in those terms.
It's been talked about in terms of like the bottom line of big news businesses and like big media conglomerates and protecting and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, and like, like, like, like, like, and like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, the they, their, their, they, they, they, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their,omerates and protecting their slice of the profits or whatever.
Like, you know, if the government was really committed to like protecting journalism as
some massive endeavor, they could just fund the ABC for one, you know, that news institution
that they actually already fund.
They could even set up, you know, and pump $10 billion into that.
They're obviously not doing that.
And it does feel like less of a, you know, protecting journalism or just like helping protect
these local, very large business.
In the case of News Court, not even a local business anymore.
So, sorry, I just ramble on for a while there, but that those are kind of like the some of the
the weaknesses here, but they don't, doesn't, and it doesn't quite align with how the average person
thinks about how the internet works. Like the average person does not feel like they're
When they go to Google they're seeing all these all this news content harvested they say it is what it is a search engine
Where they go and look for something they want to find and click on it and go to decide that thing
And this kind of tries to mystify that a little bit too much
Yeah, I think it is it is it. it is it is it is it is thi it is thi it is thi it is thi it is thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. try try try try try thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. the the the the the thi. thi. th much. Yeah, I think it is all a very complicated series of reactions to things because I think like we can all see the really obvious impact that it has had on Australian news organizations
to lose all of the funding that they had through forms of advertising.
And of course they're not blameless in this. I think it's, I think it's not unreasonable to say that a lot of Australian media organizations over preceding decades all said,
Hey, why should we need to change anything? We are absolutely rolling in it from classifieds and real estate advertising and all this sort of stuff and refuse to really update anything about their business models for a long time until they had all had the rug pulled out from under them and then said oh no who could have seen
this coming you know things like Foxtel are a perfect example all of the
all of the absolute dog shit streaming apps that like channel 10 and
seven and Foxtel and everything have because they waited until like
thou thous until like 2018 to say,
what? Streaming? That's a thing?
So there's all of that sort of stuff, but I think we've all been able to see the fallout from this,
which is all of the news organizations that have got rid of local news, of rural news,
of like firing all of their sub-editors and trying to get all of their
sub-editting done by like three people in a Sydney office. I feel like now,
I feel like now I cannot read a single Australian news story without seeing like
at least one glaring error in the copy. Yeah, that was a thing that just sort of didn't used to be there, you know.
But it's kind of... That's a total race to the bottom. Yeah, and and like you're saying, it becomes the
race to the bottom in the sense that now, you know, both on TV and in and in
print, you can see now that it is just turning into the whole like, what is the
absolute cheapest form of news that we can produce. We don't want to send anybody out to actually investigate anything. I think one of the most obvious results of that is the
form of journalism now, which is that the government does a press release and you take the press
release and you put it in the newspaper, or a company does a press release and says,
we're releasing a cool new product. And you go, thanks for writing that up for me. And you place it directly into the newspaper as it was provided to you.
And all of this in turn makes people go, why the fuck would I want to pay for this?
There's your favorite kind of article, which is having like a team of 20
19 year olds working at the daily mail scouring mum Facebook groups for posts.
Love it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This it. This one secret to doing one of these was how to make like a four ingredient Rocky Road
that's even better than Rocky Road that you would buy from the store in your slow cooker.
The Daily Mail article and I read it and the recipe was that you get some blocks
of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate and you put it into your slow cooker and then you turn it on and the recipe was that you get some blocks of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate
and you put it into your slow cooker and then you turn it on until the chocolate melts
and then you turn it back off again and then you dump like chopped up marshmallows, red
frogs and something else in there and then you dump it out on a piece of baking paper.
Like why did the slow cooker have to be involved in that?
It's fine.
You have a lot of slow cook's stuff goes off.
People have a kind of perverse fascination with them.
I think there is this kind of concept
that you are taking a big magical shortcut around like cooking a, cooking a meal.
I'm sick of steaming these dim sims instead.
I'm in all those groups. They they they they they they they they they they they they they're they're they're they're they're they're th. They're th. They're instead. I'm going to put them in the slow cooker for 12 hours.
I mean all those groups, they're so good. Everything in there is so awful. It's just things
it absolutely could have gone in the oven for 20 minutes.
I like the slow cooker carbunara that... They love it.
Who posted that on Twitter. Yeah, it's fucking horrifying. Don't do that, please. But this is like several steps down from, you know, like
originally what you would see on a news story is they would say, hey somebody's
like LPG cylinder exploded in their backyard and set their house on fire and
then they would have the man on the street interview of a neighbor who
would say, yeah I was just watching TV and then I heard a bang and I went outside and I was like, whoa. And then we went from that to news the news the news to the news to the news to the news to the news to the news to the news the news to the news the news the news the news to the news the news the news the news the news the news the news. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the new.eck.eck.eck.eck.e.e.e. new. new. new. new. the the new. the the the the the the the the the the then we went from that to news stories where
they would recount something and then they would just put people's Facebook
comments as statements from the public. One user replied, quote, yeah, it's true.
In in Famous, we've now replaced the need for the to read about an LPG cylinder
exploding, because we can probably go to, you know, Golben, Byswop sale and see it. glorious HD. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we th, we th, we they, we they, we th, we th, we've th, we've th, we've th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, and th, and th, th, th, and thed thed thed thed tho, and tho, and tho, and tho, and tho, and tho, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th thed thi the, the, the, the, the an the an the an the an the an the an thean, the an the an the, the, the, the, the for the to read about an LPG cylinder exploding because we can probably go to you know
a golden buy swap sale and see it glorious HD for ourselves and make up our own minds about
what it looks like. But yeah, no, it's and there is an obvious problem and there is like a huge
problem with like Facebook and Google coming in, especially Facebook in this kind of regard. I don't think
you could Google, again I don't think Google necessarily plays very much into this kind of thing.. th. th. th. th. th. th. But, the th. But, the th. But, the the th. But, the the th. the the the th. I the th. I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thi the the the the the the the the their glor their glor their glor their glor their glor their glor their glor their glor their glor the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. G. G. G. G. G. G. G. I th. I th. I things things things things things things things things, thice. I place. I place. I place. I've tod. I'll today. today. the the the the the thi. I don't think you could Google, again, I don't think Google necessarily plays very much
into this kind of thing.
But Facebook certainly has helped obliterate that kind of like low-level news reporting
and things like that.
The kind of the problem is whether this mechanism is the right way to do it.
And I think it's so easy to sort of punch holes in this idea that news sites need to be
reimbursed for Google displaying links or displaying snippets of the, part of the argument
is this snippets of content like that little two-sentence sub-cell that pops up on Google
and make the headline or whatever, or the picture and the headline that comes up in Google News.
I mean, I don't think any reasonable person would be like you're actually making a grain
profit by displaying that on Google.
But that's kind of the route that the A-triple-C have kind of decided to pursue.
So yeah, I think that if you really, if the government really wanted to make a stand, they could, yeah, like fund public journalism initiatives.
They're kind of actually doing some things in the background, like they chucked $5 million
to the rebooted Australian Associated Press.
Obviously, that's kind of peanuts, but clearly they're trying to signal that they're doing stuff
in that kind of space. But, yeah, I don't th th know, I don't th know, I don't th know, I don't th th th th thi, I don't thi, I don't thi, I don't thi, I don't thi, I don't thi, I don't thi, I don't thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. tho, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, th. they're kind, they're kind, they're they're they're th. That's, thi. That's, thi. thi. thi. thi. they're, I thi. they're they're thi. thi. they're kind, they're kind, they're kind of, they're kind of, they're kind of, kind of, kind space. But yeah, I don't know, it's just like
this feels like the kind of thing where the Google can put this argument like the bus
analogy as stupid as it is or some kind of more thought-through way of doing it. And explain it to an average
person who would be like, yeah, no, it doesn't make sense. That you'd pay new sites for that. But yeah, I think there's also a great,
I don't think most average people kind of have any fond feelings for any of these companies.
I don't think an average Australian probably doesn't like Facebook and Google very much,
but I can't imagine them having warm and fuzzy feelings for
9 and NewsCp or whatever either.
So it's just a big kind of like irrelevant shit fight to the average person.
And I think that this is part of the part of the kind of knock on effect of spending
years kind of not actually tending to local markets in any particularly helpful way of saying
like we're going to invest in our own services, we're going to expand you know rural coverage or any of those sorts of things. I think in the
vast majority of cases the the news organizations that we're talking
about have seemed seemed to like as soon as they've got to a point where
they've said oh our budgets are getting a bit tight I know what we'll do is sack half of our staff like that's that's tends to be the thing that happens.
Sack a whole lot of copy editors and journalists and clothes bureaus
starting from rural areas and working our way back in.
And I think it's yeah, it's not an entirely unreasonable thing for anybody in a rural community
to say, well, you know, you got out of here the instant that that was a viable thing for
you or as soon as you could say, well, we don't really want to pay money to cover you guys
anymore.
Yeah, no for sure.
That ends, if you look at, you know, actual network TV is also a very similar landscape in terms
of what is the absolute bare bones
amount of money that we can pay to put stuff on TV. Let's get Husey into his
97th show this year. Shout out to Husey.
Dear friend of show, Husey.
Friend of the show, Husey. Oh look, you can't blame the man for taking the jobs.
It's just that they happen to all get offered to him. He has a limitless, he's magnetic charisma. You just can't look past. But
anyway, I guess like the big thing now, the next kind of phase for the go, just for
the people playing along at home, is that what Google and Facebook have actually threatened to do if this goes ahead. And while their lobbying so, Google has basically threatened to, you know, pull, it's been quite vague, but in essence,
they're hanging the threat of pulling these kind of products from the Australian market,
which would mean like Google News, search could change in a dramatic way and not function to the same level in the
Australian market.
They keep saying like YouTube is going to look different even though there's not really
anything in the code about YouTube.
So all that kind of advertising to international YouTube and international YouTube and stuff about
this Australian stuff kind of doesn't make a huge amount of sense. They're kind of rebuttal to that is all the code is so vague that maybe it does include YouTube. The code is pretty specific, that it doesn't, it's pretty specific in what it does and doesn't cover.
And Facebook has threatened basically to stop Australian sharing news on Facebook, which you know when they say that it's like the
fucking world without lawyers seen in Simpsons.
But, you know, I don't think that they are bluffing about this kind of stuff. I think that they actually would do this, and I don't, whether they actually do is up from the back,
but I reckon they could absolutely do that. Google, for example, Spain tried this on back
to charge what Google called a link tax.
Same kind of thing, Google News, pay publishers for listing Google News, and Google was like, well,
fuck you guys, and pull Google News from Spain, and it still hasn't been put back in.
And they're making similar noise with some EU stuff around data protection and things like that. So like, you know, they're more than willing to sort of swing their
digs around and pull products or change products or hobble products in the local market.
And the 8 triple C and Rod Sims are kind of like, well, you know, they, although they can't do that because it's in the current that they can't do that that that that that, which, which, which, which, which, which, which, which, th, th. th. th. th. And, th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thr, thi, thi, thi, thi, they's, they's, they's, they's, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're thr- because it's in the current that they can't do that, which pretty much like the, you know, Airbus, Dogs can't play basketball kind of rule.
So, yeah, but they really, I think at the end of the day, if they are going to be forced to do it,
and the government does kind of succeed, I think Google, and both people on Facebook
would be their ideal situation, if that had had had had had would be to be forced to do it rather than actually coming to a nice agreement with the publishers.
Because if they get forced to do it, then they can at least go out to the rest of the
world and be like, you know, this was just a crazy authoritarian government down
in Australia that did that, don't get any ideas. This was an aberration rather than we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can we can, oh we can, oh we can, oh we can, oh we can, oh we can, oh we can, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, don't get any ideas, this was
an aberration rather than we can actually be negotiated with.
And then you know, other countries will be like, well, okay, whatever figure Australia landed
on is kind of our starting point for negotiations to egg some money out.
Well, yeah, I think I'm, like looking at America over the last several years, particularly of
Trump being in office, get well soon.
That's...
Press up King.
Yes.
One of the things that has been the really persistent refrain around Facebook specifically
is their complete unwillingness to actually do any kind of policing of like the validity
of news. And so, you know, of policing of like the validity of news.
And so, you know, obviously we've seen the huge rise in Q and on related stuff, conspiracy
theory, Pizza Gate kind of things, I guess for whatever the term means these days, massive,
like fake news kind of groups, a lot of conspiracy sort of stuff.
But basically now it's extremely possible for people, not only is it possible,
but it's a very popular thing to do, is to go and craft yourself a Facebook feed
that is exclusively fed by these sources of just made up stuff.
And their refrain over and over again has been to try and remove themselves from the equation and say,
we don't want to be the arbiters of truth.
We don't want to be the person who's saying what's true or what's not.
And I think from their point of view, if they were to get an ultimatum from the government that'sto say, cool, no more news. Yeah, no, yeah, exactly.
And to that point also, it's kind of like, and other people have kind of put the question
to Facebook and they've been very vague about it when they're like, all right, well, if
you're going to stop the strains from sharing news, what do you actually mean they
can't share daily telegraph articles but they can't share links to anything?
Like what counts as news?
Like, are you just going to use it as a stick to punish the companies that try to go you over
this?
Or is it actually going to be a broader remit?
Like, you know, Facebook can do whatever they want?
They're kind of like a low-level psychosis machine. They can they can they can they can they can they can they can they can they can they can they can they can. But. But they can they can. But. But it. But it. But it's they can th. But it's thia. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or th. Or th. Or th. Or th. Or th. Or th. Or th. Or th. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. Or thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi. th hell they want. You know, they're kind of like a low-level global psychosis machine they can do what they want in that kind of regard.
But it's also yeah, not clear. But it is telling that you know when they
wanted to get that news out about the stopping Australians from sharing news
they didn't leak it to any Australian publication, you know they went straight to the New New York Times the story first. I th th th th th th th th th th th th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th I th th. I thi think it's I think it's I think it's I think it's thi. I theateateateateateateate. they're they're they're their their their their their their their th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're the. the. the. the. theeeeeean. thean. thean. thean. they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're thean. with it and the New York Times read the story first. I think it's, I think Mike Isaac listens to this podcast so I think that was one of his stories.
So hi Mike. Saying that you know, Facebook might stop Australians from sharing news,
which was obviously like a veiled threat to America and the rest of the world,
like, you know, if you fuck around, fuck around and find out basically.
Yeah, so it's interesting. It's good like, you know, global, possible global consequences, what's going on down here. And I just kind of hope that the A-triple-C kind of knows what they're doing.
Just imagining Mark Zuckerberg's blank face saying, fuck around and find out.
Baddass. What a weird, what a weird, what a weird, fuck around and find out.
Bad ass. What a weird.
What a weird look right is.
Strange man, yeah.
Now, time to do my 10 minute ran about Mark Zuckerberg's haircut.
First, hold my money.
What the fuck?
The Caesar, the tight seaver,
Caesar, little waves.
Why does he have that?
I mean, I know why why but he shouldn't. I think it's an awesome power plate to
just it's an awesome power play to have more money than anyone to play and just
look like shit. It's like it kind of like the 1980s wearing an ugly tie on
purpose power move kind of thing. Here I am and you got a look at me. The photo the
the came out in with like the sunscreen slatted over his face looking like
the ghost of Victorian child who was windsurfing or whatever.
Like, there was that story that came out last week was like a leak from one of their
internal town halls or whatever and like Mark Zucker's response was like, wow, I think
sunscreen is very important. I make no apologies for that episode.
He's right, but he shouldn't say it.
He shouldn't say it, yeah.
You know?
Ben, hey, do you think that we have enough time to do the nature corner?
I don't know which nature corner you're referring to because they're like seven in there, but I absolutely
think we should do it regardless. Well, in the the th, in th, in that, in that, in that, in that, in that, in that, in that, in th th th th th th th th th thi, thi, thi, thi, thi's thi's their their their thi's their thi's their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their thi. So, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. toguui, togui, thoooooooooooomorough, the. So, thi. thi. they're like seven in there, but I absolutely think we should do it regardless
Well in that case it's time for nature corner I'll take this a natu corner.
Rubber crab snipped my dick.
Simply hate to have my dick snipped by rubber crab.
And it's happened more times than you'd think.
Okay. Now, this, uh, I had sort of seen Ben put this into the notes earlier, but I hadn't really read
all the way into it, and as soon as I did, I started hooting and hollering in the kitchen.
So, this is from a Brooklyn paper.
Is that really the name of the publication?
That is, yes. It's not the Brooklyn paper. Is that really the name of the publication? That is, yes. It's not the Brooklyn paper, it is Brooklyn paper.
This makes me think of like the, uh, of the merchandise in the store in Repo Man, you know?
Just where it's like beer, milk. Yeah. Yeah. Brooklyn paper. They have chosen to go with the headline
Rue E-Eel-E weird.
So two hyphens they've put in there for. They, r- the, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the, the, it, the, it, the, the, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, thi, the, thi, thi, thi, they've put in there for rooth the really sure what you're
hearing. Rueealy weird. Mystery man spotted dumping eels into Prospect Park Lake.
Excuse me? You know what the worst thing about the part they've tried to put in that headline,
is that they immediately reuse exactly the same part of the first line of the story.
We've got a bad foe eel-ing about this.
Come on.
A mystery man was seen dumping over 100 live squirming eels into the prospect park lake on
Sunday night.
Over 100. At least, at least 100.
That's a hell of a number.
Parkgoers say they witness the man dragging two large trash bags through the park.
Near the Vanderbilt street entrance around 7.30pm when one of the bags split open and its greasy content spilled out onto the wall.
I don't know if I would call an eel greasy. To
me grease is more sort of oily whereas I think of eels as being slimy.
Slipery. Slimy or slick yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Same way the dolphins look like they should be very smooth.
Maybe they weren't just greasy. Like maybe these specific eels. in a big, in a big fat of grease.
That's true actually.
That might well be the case.
One of them split open and all these eels were on the ground, said Prospect Leffet's
garden resident Andrew Orkin, who witnessed the incident after a jog, they were fully alive.
They were fully alive.
They were so present in the moment, you know.
Witnesses say the mystery man, who was dressed in white clothes that resembled a Cook's uniform.
Uh-huh.
The mystery deepens, really.
Began to dump the eels into the lake while confused on lookers questioned him.
It's such a, like they've got the specificity here of saying white clothes that resembled a cook's uniform.
He's not in a cook's uniform. They can't categorically say that.
The implication here of just being like he might be a chef, maybe. He looked a little bit like a chef, but he can't be certain. I feel like people should be open to any leads on this thing that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are that are th. It are th. It are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are th. It are that. It is that. It's that. It's that. It's like that. It's like like like like that. It's like like like that. It's like like that. It's like that. little bit like a chef, but he can't be certain.
I feel like people should be open to any leads on this thing that are out there, you know?
Some like Sherlock Holmesy and deductive reasoning. Yeah, perhaps it was a time-traveling
member of Insink from 1998 wearing all white, because who else wears all white except for a chef.
Although I feel like chefs are usually wearing the black and white check pants, you know.
That's true, they love those.
Why?
I don't know.
Geez.
I should have done your research.
I'm so sorry.
No exaggeration.
It had to be at least 100 eels.
Said fisherman, Dominic Pabon.
In a video, it had to be at least 100 eels.
That's...
Could not have been 98 eels.
I would know what 98 eels looks like.
Uh, imagine you go to the pub.
What's the end game of this eel caper do we think?
Oh, it... What was this guy hoping to achieve? There are, motivations are explained, very. the, um, um, um, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, to, to, to, to, to, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toea, toea, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be the, the, the the theateateatea, thea, thea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea'ea, to be to be, it... What was this guy hoping to achieve?
There are motivations are explained very shortly.
Oh, I see. Okay.
Well, I'll proceed, please.
In a video taken by Pobone, the man can be heard saying that he bought the eels from
a store and is, quote, rescuing them as he dumps them into the lake.
Oh, okay. Animal vigilante. I just want to save their lives, he shouts.
You are killing other life here. Eels are not supposed to be here,
per bone yells back. Hey, you're fucking, you're fucking up the ecosystem over here.
What kind of, what kind of ecosystem are we imagining there really is in the Prospect Park Lake?
Yeah, I was gonna say. Middle of New York City. You're killing the mutant crabs.
All of our blind sewer alligators will be flying by this. You're killing our disgusting, hairless,
aquatic rats. Oh my goodness. Witnesses called the police but the man had disappeared by the time authorities
arrived.
Back into the night from whence he came.
Pobone...
The crime.
If he wasn't just filmed by that fishmen.
Yeah.
He's off to find some more eels to rescue.
Pobone, a sunset park, who has been fishing in the park for 13 years says
that the eels look similar to ones he's seen in seafood markets and were likely saltwater eels as some
of them attempted to free themselves from the freshwater lake.
Oh no.
They were trying to swim back out of the lake.
It was crazy.
It's crazy.
Releasing animals into the park is illegal and dangerous, according to the Prospect Park Alliance, the stewards of the Brooklyn's backyard.
The steward of Prospect Park.
Quote, it is a hazard to both those animals and the plants and wildlife that call the
park home, said Alliance spokesperson Deborah Kirchner.
The park, waterways and natural areas are fragile habitats and this can disrupt
these naturally occurring systems, introducing disease other passagents which can be harmful.
According to river... I wasn't there any natural systems in New York? Yes. It seems very weird that this is like a lake in Brooklyn that people are fishing in? Like every now and then I see
someone like fishing in the Brisbane River and I'd be like my dude the only thing you're getting is like the three-eyed Simpsons fish or a bull shark. Mercury poisoning. Yeah, please, please don't do that.
This is not a good idea.
Yeah, the bacteria from the eels causes the breakdown of the used condoms that the fish
survive on.
I feel like New York is just a right off for like any sort of natural system or life on the
planet. Like let's focus elsewhere. Let's put our energy to
something that can sustain life. Let's put energy into the Amazon. I don't think
New York City is something that we should be focused on environmentally. Just
look at the fish in like upstate New York. Don't worry so much about
what's going on down here. Exactly. Only 70 hours in a day. According tokeeper, fines for illegal dumping and waterways
range from $1,500 to $10,000 for the first violation and not less than $5,000
or more than $20,000 for each subsequent violation. And we have to ask, is this a
per eel fine? Or do you cop the fine? I reckon an upstart New York prosecutor could make it about each eel. About each eel. Otherwise, you know, you're opening the door to, if it's only per single
instance of dumping no matter how many eels, then it's like, why not just drive a truck full
at yel's down the year. It's like, it's like a prosecutor who went after like the
Lecee-Chi crime mob is like, we're going on every eel. We're going after every eel on this one.
Oh, okay, so this isn't the first time a non-native species has been introduced to the lake.
Oh. Big shock there.
The abundant red-eared slider turtles, seen in almost every corner of the lake are an invasive species,
introduced to the city by the pet trade. And per bones says other illicit fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the ecology the of the lake are an invasive species introduced to the city by the pet trade.
And Pobones says other illicit fish and eels have been dumped and are disrupting the ecology of the waterwake. It's destroying the whole ecosystem he said, the fishing has been getting slower and slower.
Maybe stop fishing in the lake in Brooklyn. Yeah, the fishing there is not so good now.
You know New York is a melting pot of cultures, so I don't see why that should be the case
for its biosphere and it's like...
I'm just imagining like... There's just a great white shark circling down the bottom of it.
I'm just imagining like diving, diving in to help these poor saltwater eels as they struggle
and coming back up looking like the toxic Avenger. Looking like the guy in a robo-cop-cop-cop-cop-cop-cop-cop-cop-cop-cop-cop-coped-coped-coped-coped-coped-coped-coped-coped-coped-coped-cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop cop like a toxic Avenger.
Looking like the guy in a robo cop who gets the toxic waste sprayed over him.
I saved these freaking eels.
Yeah, please take me to hospital.
Then a garbage truck hits me, disintegrating me all over the street.
Oh my goodness. Well, that's it for this week.
Thank you very much for joining us, I know.
No worries. It was a pleasure. And I guess we'll all just spend the rest of the week
manifesting positive energies to Donald Trump. You know, correct. That's what I'm always doing, just daily.
Just a vision board that's all just pictures of Donald Trump and a hospital bed. Uh-huh. A vision board with headstones and open graves on it.
Do you have to try and manifest something positive or?
No one says you have to.
Well, I think the whole thing about the secret is they're also telling you to actively
avoid negative thoughts because you will make that happen to you as well.
So seemingly you can use this power bi-directionally.
You can, you know, I'm just going to be more negative in my life and hope that this manifests itself in, you know, Trump being unable to breathe
and then dying.
Hmm.
Or whatever, that's just an example.
That's a random example of a sort of thought that you could have.
I think you could absolutely make the case is a real double-edged sword? The secret is a real double-edged sword, and that's the catch with the secret.
That's that power.
You have to be careful about how you wield it.
Yeah.
That's so true.
I think, I think that's in the book.
I've never read it.
I think, Ben, I would still like to watch it the movie with you that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th, the, th book The Secret is based on. Oh I definitely you know I saw it
when I was 17 and I'll watch it again. It's so cool to me that it's not even
just a book. Also it's an Australian woman right I keep forgetting that it's like
yeah it's Rhonda Burschmaw. Oh is it? Ronda Burschmorn. It's not. Apologies to a friend of the show Rhonda Birchmont.
Yeah, sorry says.
All right, that's it everybody.
Thanks very much and we'll see you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye. you