Some More News - Even More News: Tim Pool (ALLEGEDLY!! UNWITTINGLY!!) Paid By Russian State Media

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Hi. Parker Molloy joins Katy and Cody to talk about the DoJ indictment which found that Tim Pool– er, sorry, Commentator-2– and other right-wing influencers (unknowingly!) took money from Russian state media. They also discuss the media double standard in covering Donald Trump vs. anyone else, and the GOP ticket's nuanced policy on lowering the cost of child care. 00:00 - Intro and Chat With Parker 11:30 - Tenet Media indictment 32:37 - Media Failures Even More News listeners get an exclusive 50% discount on a new SimpliSafe system, plus a free indoor security camera, with Fast Protect™ Monitoring. All you need to do is visit https://simplisafe.com/MORENEWS to claim this discount. We’ve worked out a special offer for our audience! Receive 15% off your first order of ARMRA Colostrum at https://tryarmra.com/MORENEWS or enter MORENEWS to get 15% off your first order. Coffee at home, made better. Head to https://drinktrade.com/MORENEWS to receive your first bag free! Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/morenews ALL LOWERCASE. Watch this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MtgwnwJ8424 Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com   SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh   Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA  

The song continues on. Then the part and here's how it goes. Yeah, we're going to podcast. Maybe it'll be not singing about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Parker's on even more news. All right. There. That's the intro. yeah, yeah. Parker's on Even More News. All right. There, that's their intro, I guess.

Oh, God. To Even More News, the first and only musical news podcast. That's right. I'm Katie Stoll, my name is. Hi, I don't know if that worked. Hi, I'm Cody. Hi, Cody. We have a guest this week. Frequent guest, but it's been a while. I don't know if that worked. Hi, I'm Cody. Hi, Cody.

We have a guest this week. Frequent guest, but it's been a while. It's been a while. Goodness knows how long. Writer and media commentator writes the present age newsletter. Very thrilled to welcome back Parker Malloy. Hello, Parker. Hello.

Thanks so much for having me back. It has been a minute. And is it a party in the USA? It's always a party in the USA, always. That's the vibe, that's the attitude. And Jonathan is also here. Hi. Hi.

Yeah, hi Jonathan. We are gonna get that merch out soon. Don't worry to all our Jonathan heads out there. There's a room full of them somewhere if we got them all together. Harris heads. People keep saying, my name's Jonathan. I'd wear that shirt.

Great. It's convenient that there are a lot of Jonathans out there who would wear that shirt. Watch it become our most popular merch. Watch that happen. I bet if we did like a promotion, like an ad promotion on X, the Everything app, we get a lot of- Not familiar.

Just like, just the t-shirt, not making like, hey, some more news, we're a political podcast, we've got the, just like, here's a shirt that says, Jonathan is also here, I bet tons of people on X, the Everything app would buy it. Hell yeah. No context. He's a phenom, our guy.

But then like, you leave little notes. I'm not sure I wanna be affiliated with whatever that ad would show up. Below or above. It's owned by the richest guy in the world. What could he be into? Probably like cars and stuff. That's it. That's it. He's only into cars and stuff. You know what I'm into? Celebrating holidays.

Good. Cause it's that time of the show. When we do holidays. OK. OK. Friday, September 6th is National Chianti Day. I'm sorry. How does he say it? Chianti.

He said it. National. The late great-grandson of electors says Chianti. A National Chianti day. A day to enjoy the flavorful Tuscan red wine. I'm not going to try it. Hannibal Lecter, he used to eat bacon, but now he's because of the wind.

He can't do that. I did a lot of prep for this show by pulling up that clip. Boy, he was fucking creepy. Paid off. RIP, Hannibal Lecter. RIP, the late great. Parker, hello. We creepy. Paid off. RIP, Hannibal Lecter. RIP, the late great. Parker, hello.

We've already welcomed you back. But I don't know, how are you doing right now? How are you feeling about the election and whatnot? What's your vibe in regard to the vibes? Yeah. Well, let's see, how am I feeling about the election? That's an interesting question because. It's a general question.

It's a broad question. How I was feeling about the election before Biden dropped out was I need to update all my documents, kind of. That's kind of where I was at. I was in the middle of getting an updated passport and fixing something on my social security card. But then, you know, the past month or or so I've been feeling better about it. But, you know, that could just be foolish. That could be me getting into 2016 brain. I don't know.

I know. I'm walking around with this existential dread of mostly about that, exactly what you're saying. Like, it feels better, but also that's scary. Because, you know, polling is hard. It's not really, especially with Trump specifically, has proven very fallible. Everything's within the margin of error for the most part. And, you know, I'm remembering just how blindsided I was in 2016 and I don't want to be again. And since moving up here, I definitely feel more immersed

in other points of view to put it lightly. Like I'm surrounded by a bunch of different opinions. Some negatively surprising, some positively surprising. some negatively surprising, some positively surprising. But yeah, I have just no real sense at all. That's good though, because I feel like it's good that we've arrived at a place where most people, I think respond to a question like that in a similar way, instead of confidently one way or another,

because actually, nobody knows anything. Nobody knows what's going to happen. And even if the polls fluctuate all the time, there's less confidence, which I think is probably good to drive up until the election, because then you're constantly like, well, we already experienced the dashed hopes of feeling like, well, clearly Trump can't win in 2016.

That's not going to happen. And yeah, I don't know. It's not fun, but luckily elections seem shorter now because of what happened. Yeah, you know, but with a primary, you know, I like this like three month election. It's amazing. We need to start doing primary season like in June. June, yeah. Start June, go from there, figure it out.

I can dig that. Otherwise it starts the previous year in August. And I think that- It doesn't really feel like it ever stops. It's ruining people's brains and lives. Speaking of ruining people's brains and lives, should we talk about some news? Yeah, also I...

Damn, I did such a good pivot. You did, I'm sorry. I'm actually very confident, I'm very confident about this year, the election actually, and I try to tamp that down and not express it too much because I don't want people to get complacent or overconfident, but that guy's cooked, man. Nobody likes that guy. That guy sucks so much. I definitely don't agree with you on that. I know you don't. I'm obviously a little bubble and stuff. And that's what scares me. You're what scares me Cody.

Yeah, we've I do feel like like you have a lot of like, very valid, like criticisms and concerns that like, what feel like we switched in a lot of ways, like from over the past, like eight or so years. Yeah. We're like, I mean, if we had a time machine, don't worry about it. Something. But you're like really mad at Democrats. You're watching all these Star Wars shows on Disney+. Not currently.

Yeah. Yeah. And I wouldn't say really mad, but at times mad. Parker, to catch you up to speed, I felt a bit frustrated by the DNC specifically. Yeah, but also Trump sucks. Nobody likes that guy. Yeah, but also Trump sucks, nobody likes that guy. I'm pretty sure we did not need like

8 Republican speakers at the DNC or however many. For example, that's a very valid point. Just one. We needed 12, 13, get Liz Cheney there. Yeah, why not? Paul Wolfowitz, why not? We get 8 Republicans, they get the president teamsters

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That's t-r-y-a-r-m-r-a dot com slash more news. T-r-y-a-r-m-r-a dot com slash more news. T-R-Y-A-R-M-R-A dot com slash more news. For those of us that don't hear music. Speaking of the pivot that I already did. See, you nailed it a second time. I know. I'm on fire today. Just like the internet after yesterday's news Jonathan, why don't you tell us a little bit about what's going on?

With our tea and Tim pool and Benny Johnson and those other victims Victims, I believe you mean commentator to and commentator three commentator to and commentator three or one and two whatever. On on Wednesday the Department of Justice announced that it had indicted two Russian nationals who are employees of RT which is Russian state controlled media with a scheme to funnel money to what the indictment says is a Tennessee based online content creation company in order to further Russian interests. Based on the details they gave in that indictment, it became very clear that that online content creation company is called Tenet Media, which hosts content on its YouTube channel from Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Matt Christensen, Dave Rubin.

The indictment says more than $10 million had been used to fund the company. And based on the specific number of YouTube subscribers that they reference in the indictment, we've been able to piece together. I think commentator one is Dave Rubin. Commentator two is definitely Tim Pool. Dave Rubin, not Benny. I forgot Dave Rubin was involved in this and Benny is number three what's really interesting here and we can talk about the money aspect of this is

we should say upfront that Tim pool and These other guys are not charged with a crime. In fact, they were the the the Justice Department considers them to have been duped by these Russian nationals and potentially the founders of Tenet Media Who are Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, I believe They're married you might know they're roaming millennial is they marry she I believe goes by the row right now Oh the roaming millennial row. Yes in that sort of st. Death. She just got let go from the blaze. Yeah please person and

They said well if we're going to go after commentator to Tim pool It would take a hundred thousand per weekly episode to make it worth his while which then They agreed to and by they I mean this mysterious financier named Edward Gregorian who does not very normal name very normal Name that you might hear Where to even where to even where do they even start? Dig in here. There are red flags all over this thing. So even though they are, as Tim Pool says in a tweet, victims of this. I'm so tired of this victimhood complex. If we were offered $100,000 to do one show per week that we were kind of already doing and

the person funding it is as someone who we can't meet or Google because there's no online Trail of this person's existence and we are sent a one sheet that looks like a Stock photo of a guy on a private jet with a blurred out face. I think we'd have some significant conversations about whether or not to accept that money. Well, but Jonathan, we're not the most credulous people on the internet. I just think this whole story is delicious.

Yummy. So good. Yeah, how does this even happen? You either are incredibly naive or stupid or you're lying and they're like, well, I just gonna look the other direction. But you, let me just do a little peek behind the curtain. If you look at the views on these videos that these, they're

too low. They're too low to warrant anything near that amount of money. In fact, I don't think you get an ad deal with that. Not that maybe the live stream is different. And I know that Tim Pool obviously has a big audience. So like in general, but this is just wild. So you're not asking yourself who could this mystery person possibly be, but just blindly accepting $400,000 a month. And then very clearly parroting Russian talking points. I mean, we should play the clip, that clip of him. The one where he says that Ukraine is the enemy and he's so, he's really mad.

He's really mad about it. He's such a funny performer. He's like teed up. Pounding his fist. It's so funny. We kind of hit on this in the art, recent Tim Poole episode, but like his performance is like what delights me the most because he's so bad at it and so obviously like I'm so mad we're not gonna take it anymore it's like that but like the worst like least charismatic person you could think of and there is documentation to say that he

that they were curious like who this person is that's good They just didn't get information and then we're like, okay, well, I guess we'll do it anyway because of the money. I mean. There's so many things, like you laid it out, Jonathan, every step of the way, you're like, what? Why, what? No, that's weird.

And it just, it speaks so much to, again, like the perfect collection of people. Like the fact that it's both Tim Poole and Dave Rubin, obviously, Benny Johnson is a little cherry on top just it speaks so much to again like the perfect the perfect collection of people like the fact that it's both Tim Pool and Dave Rubin obviously Benny Johnson is a little cherry on top because he's just he's out there doing his thing. His failed like Tucker Carlson impression for a while but like these guys are very aside from being like a little malicious and like liars obviously like there's so many instances that you can find of Tim Pool just straight up lying. Not in like, oh, maybe he's, no, he's lying to his audience.

But they also are stupid people with very limited critical thinking skills. And the idea that they got duped is plausible, but the idea that they were like, sure, I'll say whatever, is also plausible. That clip, my favorite part of it, is that you can see him looking down and reading the exact words that he's prepared to say. It's great, he's like, where are my talking points?

All right, there we go. It's so obvious. Let's see it. Yeah. But I don't know that it matters anymore. It's so obvious. Let's see it. Yeah. But I don't know that it matters anymore. This is psychotic. Ukraine is the enemy of this country.

Ukraine is our enemy. Being funded by the Democrats, I will stress again, one of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine. They are expanding this war. Now, don't get me wrong, I know. You've got criminal elements of the US government pushing them and guiding them and telling them what to do. Ukraine is now accused,

a German warrant issued for blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, triggering this conflict. Ukraine is the greatest threat to this nation and to the world. We should rescind all funding and financing, pull out all military support, and we should apologize to Russia. Tim. Oh, I forgot the answer like that. Let's send them a gift basket. Like, oops, our bad, sorry. So many things about this.

Ukraine is the enemy of America. Before we move on, because I want to discuss this clip I want to read from Tim Poole's tweet on this. Yeah. Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical examples include discussing spirituality dating and videos games. So he you know is out there saying this content is all mine. You have Twitter blue Edit your tweet. Sorry Putin is a scumbag Russia sucks donkey balls This is an official Tim pool missive

And to the journalists who want to jump the gun create their own narrative or lie about what is currently going on You can eat my Irish ass. No, thanks. I'm not sure why Tim. Oh pool. I mean we've already alluded to this but the beginning of that statement, should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims. $400,000 victims, okay. I would love to be a $400,000 a month victim. I really, really, really would.

But you have a fucking job, and if you cared, this guy, if you cared about being legit or factually accurate in any capacity, you would care to know where this money is coming from. You were willfully deceived. Yeah. You allowed yourself to be deceived. He again, you don't need to get into all the examples. He's kind

of a stupid guy. And he so even when he's like lying, he's doing it poorly. Like he's not going to it's why it gets sued so much. And like, they're just like, he's not able like yes he's dishonest obviously and oh no I was duped into making so much money for so little work in the like the covering up of the liar like the presenting of the lie he's gonna he does a bad job at that too like even we saw in the video he said the Nord Stream pipeline triggered the war. What are you talking about? It's like eight months later, Tim.

Like what are you talking about? That is wild. I do doubt his claim that he has, there are all his own talking points and he has editorial control. I would also say that maybe it's accurate in that he is given these talking points that he needs to hit. And he says, okay.

And he has editorial control. He just said okay every single time, which still counts. He could have said no, he didn't, but he could have. So he retained editorial control and just happened to say that like we owe Russia an apology. You can't say we owe Russia an apology and then also have a tweet that's like they can eat my ass.

Ah, get out of here Russia. Like that's not that's not what you said. You don't know which of his tweets are true. Which are exactly. I I do love that they they put together this. They're like, okay, we need to have six voices. And then they put together this little like weird GOP pro Russia Avengers group. Yeah, exactly. But like they're all Hawkeye.

It is wild. I mean, I guess it's not that wild. I've seen, we've been seeing this happen for a while but like just our you know supposedly our Patriots out there these guys that are American Americans and like what the value American values blah blah blah like you need to apologize to Russia. It's so funny. Paul Manafort's in the post credit sequence he's like I'm putting together a team. I'm putting together a team Team it sucks The whole thing is even funnier if he did have full editorial control and these were just his talking point Yeah, that it's just like he was sought out because his actual views

Line up so perfectly with Russia's views that they're like, yeah, this is the guy we want. Well, exactly, that's the thing. Like it's either, oh, he's already saying the stuff we want him to say. Yeah. I mean, in which case your Russia sucks, Putin sucks, eat my ass doesn't work because you're already doing it. So they're just gonna pay you to do it,

continue to do it or you're easily malleable. Yeah. Or both. In the indictment, there were the documents that showed what Russia was asking them to do. And they kept repeating, they're like, there are no overtly pro-Russia politicians in the US. Be aware of this. I like how they were trying to like frame it

They were just like don't be too overt with it. Oh, but then but then they would be like, hey You know that video of Tucker Carlson in a Russian supermarket Yeah, you should post that and those that really post this this seems of you mean this propaganda Yeah, post the propaganda Okay, okay. It makes me think that the Russian You mean this propaganda? Yeah, post the propaganda. Okay. It makes me think that the Russian disinformation system is a lot less sophisticated than I had thought because they're just like, hey, the beanie guy wants to know who is the source of the money and they're like, can we put together a flyer really quick?

And then they're emailing like Edward Gregorian's assistant spelled his name wrong a bunch of times and they're like, oh, he was born in Brussels and he went to this school and he was a master's of accounting and then he started a hedge fund and it's like, okay, if he had done any of that, billionaire financiers are Googleable. So at the very, very least, you're like, okay, this is a stand in for Charles Koch or whatever, but like, come on, is what I'm saying. They're very sophisticated because they chose really effective targets. It does seem as if Lauren Chen and her hubby Liam Donovan did seem to know that this was Russia? Yes. They... It's not

confirmed but there are private chats. Well right they haven't, as of when we're recording, they have not been charged with anything but those people are going to jail right? Like they... they would assume they in private conversations They referred to the Russians and then when they sent a message and didn't hear back from them right away They googled a time in Moscow so You know This story we should share this story what about the France meetup in Paris? Oh, this bit from the...

Commentator one, which was who did you, did you, Dave Rubin? Yeah, just based on the number of YouTube subscribers. Some people think it's Benny Johnson. It could be, but I think it's Dave Rubin, but yeah, not positive. It's like honor about June 2nd, 2023. Edward Gregorian circulated an email mail to founder one and to commentator one's assistant scheduling a zoom meeting for 5 PM Paris that day. At approximately 8.58 AM central time that day, Edward Gregorian replied to his early earlier email.

I am here there guys. The time in fact was 3 58 p.m. in Paris, but it was 4 58 p.m. in Moscow. So not that I should have connected the dots for anybody out of the gate. Like, I don't know if I would have thought like what time is it in Moscow? But then he's like, oh, sorry, wrong hour. Didn't sync the calendar. What is that? And he googled time in Paris. See? Oh yeah, and he googled time in Paris. So that's a pretty big clue. It's funny.

Like I said, it's delicious. It's as delicious as those delicious cookies I baked last night. Yeah, it's just very funny. It's satisfying. Well, because also, also like these are guys who have for years also just sort of like pride of themselves and like bang the desk about

like independent media and how independent they are. And they've got no no no fingers in the pie with them. And like you can't trust the mainstream media. You can trust us. We're independent. We are from the ground up. And it's like, well, no, you're not. You can trust us. We're independent. We are from the ground up. And it's like, well, no, you're not.

You take money from whoever gives you money. And clearly, you read it. You just read it on camera. And we can see you lying on camera. And it's just very satisfying. I hope even more information comes out about it because it speaks so clearly to the problem with so much of like the right wing media sphere. And like popular ones to like temple is popular. I don't know Dave Rubin's popular anymore. But

like there's this this like ecosystem that feeds into itself that has always been sort of marked by like dishonesty and intense credulity and just like being like dumb liars. And this is a really great concrete example of them doing that and being that for money. And I hope that people realize that and maybe consider like what that means. Like, oh, I've been eating up all these talking points from them and like I believe them and that maybe influenced my opinions about other stuff and led me to this other creator who I like. Like, look down the line and see where you are with these people. Where did these people bring you? And look at what brought them there?

It's asking a lot, but I hope that happens for a few people. I also like how Tim said that the allegations leaked. He deleted it and reposted it. He reposted it without the word leaked. Well, he is a smart man then, isn't he? Benny Johnson still says leaked though. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Well, he plagiarized it from Tim and then didn't update it. Okay well we are gonna take a quick break for ads and that you're gonna love and then we're gonna be back for even more news because it's a party in the USA. it's a party in the USA. People always say, Cody, they says, Cody, you're such a doll. That's probably because I'm able to stand really still for long periods of time. But it got me thinking to myself,

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...tenet of it all. And... I'm... My biggest concern, I think, is just... Like, what's gonna happen to Tim Kast, the band? Tim? Yeah. Oh, God. My favorite band named after a political podcast, Tim Kast. Is it gonna cause tension? Are they gonna like, maybe it'll actually be really good for them, maybe it'll inspire him to write a lot of songs

about this, about being a victim. You know, he's such a $400,000 a month victim that maybe, that's like, that's where like art comes from, you know? From- Hopefully there's some financial retribution that he can receive for being such a victim. But yeah, yeah, maybe this will be a good period of creativity for him.

I hope it's good for the band Timcast and not bad for the band. Walk through that fire into the Timcast. Okay, well, I did think you had a serious point, but that was a fun point. We are gonna move on. Because we've got Parker on the show, so this feels like a really good opportunity

to talk about The media in general and the way that it fails us. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the story we just discussed Jonathan do you want to set this up for us? I know the answer is yes. Yes that you you guessed accurately No, I just want to be rude like Jonathan. Yeah, I Set it up. I'll be rude. Do you want me to be rude for him? Yeah. Jonathan, get it together. We're moving on to the next part, and it's time for you to. I didn't believe this. OK.

OK? So we got some. Speak up. Sorry, yeah. Oh, that was rude. That was rude. That was really rude. It seems like there's a double standard out there

when it comes to coverage of Kamala Harris or really any Democrat or any vermos politician How Donald John Trump is covered You wrote about this Jason. Hmm. You thought I was a little Jason Yeah You wrote about this. That was Jason. Who? You thought it was the- Donald Jason. Really? No.

Yeah. Donald Jamiroquai Trump. Yeah. Wasn't it Jamiroquai? I believe his full name is Donald John President. The way this happens is that Trump will just, you know how he talks, the guy. Beautifully. He'll talk for about two, three, four minutes and weave in and out brilliantly as he assesses and

then, you know, CNN will do a headline that says, oh, former president Donald Trump agreed to reach an agreement for the September 10th debate and get in quotes, maybe the most hinged part of his like 300. He does like to toss in a few hinged moments. And they don't mention, you wrote about this this week, Parker, they don't mention that in his like truth social truth about agreeing to the debate that he had referred to Kamala Harris as comrade Kamala, that he referred to crooked Joe Biden, ABC fake news, NBC fake news, and then brought up this grievance with Donna Brazil from eight years ago that I had to

like look up and remind myself what he was talking about and I won't go into details here because who gives a shit. But it's frustrating, isn't it? Yeah. So this was something that I first wrote about back in 2020, right when COVID kind of started. And Trump would go to the CDC and I would watch, you know, like everyone was watching what was happening because it seemed like it was starting to get bad. And Trump would go to the CDC and then give a little speech where he would talk about

Fox News ratings and then pick a fight with Jay Inslee and, you know, just, just a few things that had nothing, talk about how he tried to extort Ukraine and digging up dirt on Biden, like that sort of stuff. And then the New York Times would run a headline that would say, you know, Trump tells Americans to stay calm in the face of COVID, you know, it's like, it's like, what the hell? But there was a perfect example of this right before we started recording. Trump was giving a speech at the Economic Club of New York and he was asked a really simple question.

He was asked, if you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance? And he spoke for two minutes where he went on a rant where he talked about Marco Rubio, Ivanka, they're very important on this issue. And then something about how he's going to tax other countries and he's looking for our child care. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, he sort of gets, he says, this is about America first. It's about making America great again. So we have to do it. He doesn't say what it is, but you know, so he does that. He rambles for two minutes and the New York Times wrote it up as so. After his speech, Donald Trump was asked how he might address rising childcare costs. In a jumbled answer, he said he would prioritize legislation on the issue, but offered no specifics and insisted that his other economic policies, including tariffs, would take care of childcare.

As much as childcare is talked about as being expensive, it's relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in. And that last part was a quote from Trump, but it was the most coherent part of a two-minute answer that went absolutely nowhere. That's also barely coherent. It was worse than JD Vance's answer on child care, which was also terrible. At least they said jumbled.

So that's something. But even that doesn't encapsulate this man's energy when he's up there. It isn't in jumble. It's word salad. It's chaos coming out of his mouth and he doesn't answer questions. And it's, but bringing it back to this, the media reporting, I obviously talk a lot

about having moved to the mountains and the different conversations. And sometimes they're good, sometimes they're frustrating. I get very frustrated when it's like, people say like, no, no, Donald Trump has specific policy plans. I'm like, what? Like, what?

What is his policy? I just get so, I still have it, it still befuddles me. I know that there's answers and we're going to talk about it or like reasons and there's this and there's that. But at the end of the day, it still boggles my mind how we interpret what comes out of this person's mouth so differently and a lot of it is the reporting or the whitewashing of stuff in these articles where it's like, yeah, I was a bit jumbled, but here's our best guess of what he said.

And it's like, what is that? That's not even a policy. And we've seen this man in action for long enough to know that he just says whatever the fuck, I have to try to stop swearing so much. He just swears, says whatever the heck he wants in 2016 we talked a lot about All the media is normalizing Trump like so this has been a problem for a while and I think I

Think a lot of people who don't watch all of these clips and don't listen to Trump as much as we do They don't understand how bad it's gotten because it is worse than it was four years ago. It is worse than it was eight years ago. I had this clip up, and I'm like, I'm not going to suggest the Trump talking about child care. I was like, I'm not going to suggest that we play this clip on the show, because it's too long. Oh, yeah.

You would get the point, and it is two minutes, and it is tough to listen to. And it's clear the same thing happened to him that happened to JD Vance. They were like, I don't fucking know. I don't have a plan for childcare. What, the Republican Party, excuse me. But then JD Vance at least said,

maybe the grandparents can take care of him. Go ahead. So, Trump's answer, even the clips that we're alluding to, they are very rambly and like there's nothing there. But also, I feel like they're also very, he's rambling more, but he's also more tired. Like it's, he's bored with his rambling. And so you have to like sort of parse this like, it's just not, there's nothing keeping people watching him.

So like the, like the media has to like be his translator and they're just so willing to give him the benefit of the doubt still. It's very bizarre. But I did I did want to sort of contrast this element of Trump with JD Vance real quick because I think that it's very interesting and funny. A there are two sides of this bizarre coin that has nothing to say. But once you to think like we love the working class and we love parents and all like we're the party of families. But when you actually ask them about that, they can't do anything. JD Vance can go in front of a bunch of firefighters and be like, we're the GOP of the working class. And then he gets booed because no, you're not. And everybody knows it. And so there's this tension of what they want the party to be perceived as and what the party actually is and will allow.

And that tension is in constant conflict now, especially with JD involved and Trump in his current state, you have this weird rambling answer from Donald Trump about childcare. And it goes off on all these tangents about Donna Brazil, like all whatever whatever he talks about, and mentioning people don't make it anymore, and the winds fault, whatever it is. And then finally, you're like, oh, his answer is tariffs, I guess, or something like that. Bad answer. And then you have JD Vance, who is asked the same question by Charlie Kirk, I believe. I don't know why Charlie Kirk thought he would.

I don't know why. I know he thought he would have a good answer. He will. Charlie Kirk, again, once once the Republicans he's paid to like be there, but he wants them to be able to present themselves as we care about working class families. And that's where they want the party to be. And it's never going to happen. Sorry, folks. But Charlie Kirk asks him that. And also, I was surprised Charlie Kirk was not involved in the tenant situation. Good for him, good for him. JD Vance's answer to this question about childcare was twofold. And that's the difference between Donald Trump and him. He is very boring and doesn't ramble in the same way.

He's actually, he presents himself as somebody who's thought about this for a while, whether it be on 4chan or whatever newsletter he's getting, whatever sub stack he subscribes to. And his answer was, well, I think one solution is, you know, maybe ask your grandma, ask their grandma to help out. Like literally that's half of his answer is just like, ask your family to help out with childcare.

That's a solution. That's something everybody does already if they have a good relationship with their family. Shut up, JD, why did you even say anything? So that's part one. And part two is that he thinks that there should be less restrictions and regulations on people who want to get into that realm.

And maybe that's true to some extent in some variety, but he's basically saying that we shouldn't be vetting these people as much and having all these big, expensive degrees and requirements for people to take care of kids. Do you care about taking care of kids? Because you should have regulations to make sure that. Do you care about taking care of kids? Because you should have like regulations to make sure that they, like people who are charged with taking care of these kids know what they're doing

and are doing it well. And no CPR. And no CPR, exactly, things like that. We're like, and so his answer is ask your grandma for help or we should let more people just do it. Although we are drifting away from the thrust of what this section is supposed to be, which is the bias in the media reporting of our candidates.

And we've talked a lot about Trump and JD, but and then you contrast it with how we're talking about Kamala. And there are valid criticisms, but it's wild to see them talked about like that. Jonathan set us up with some of the stuff that you've prepared for. Well, it's just that there is an expectation, and I think it's completely fair to ask Kamala Harris about flip-flopping on issues from 2019 to now.

Yeah, it wasn't that long ago. I know why she did it, and Danabash knows why, we all know why, but what are you gonna say? That's totally valid. And then hey, what are your policy proposals? You don't have a policy thing on your website yet Yes, totally valid. There is an expectation For her to like, you know, Elizabeth Warren. I've got a plan for that buttoned up with a CBO score for everything Elizabeth word would have hit buttoned up with a CBO score for everything.

Elizabeth Ward would have hit the ground running with a bunch of plans, let's be clear. And I think a lot of times, this is maybe a bit of a separate issue, but I do think the reporting is bad by omission because— Yes. —Parky, you wrote about this as well. I didn't even know at that Moms of Liberty event that Trump went to that he had said, your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation that was simply left out of the coverage of this event. And that is a wild thing to say and not even be part of the report.

Yeah, yeah. Well, one thing I think is really worth noting is that in 2020, Donald Trump did not have an issues page on his website either when he was running for re-election. And no one cared. No one cared. No one brought that up. And yeah, there's just such a double standard here, where one side is expected to have super

detailed policies with right down to how they're going to be paid for, and they're going to be scrutinized and they're going to be torn apart, you know, in the press. And the other side, it's just like, well, Trump said in two weeks, we'll have an answer on something. And then whenever he actually gets around to giving an answer, it'll be something like, well, healthcare, everyone's gonna have good healthcare. And they'll be like, well, Trump promised everyone's gonna have good healthcare. So there you go, there you have it.

I can't see, that's fixed. And it's mostly false if you say that he isn't doing that because he said he was going to. He said he was going to. Which is like what half of those fact checks are. Oh yeah, the fact checks. The fact checks. It is.

The bar got lowered so much for one specific party, and in response to the bar being lowered, it was raised also. For the other, like it's this weird, like it's a double imbalance that happened to like make up for it where it's almost like, well, I guess that's a lost cause. Like we're not gonna, it's a different relationship now with this party.

And so I guess we need to focus on this other party because they're the only other one we have. Just gonna say one last thing about the Trump rambling about child care costs. Here's a perfect example. So Benji Sarlin, who is over at Semaphore, he's Washington bureau chief at Semaphore, he tweeted this, he tweeted, I'm being told here that Trump is diminished because he did not give a focused answer on childcare access, a topic where he previously would have launched into a detailed

discussion on balancing supply, demand, and budget concerns rather than word associate his way through it. And so basically he's being sarcastic and saying like, well, this is just how Trump's always been. So that's how we cover him, you know? Again, they're tired. It's like, do your job is just how Trump's always been. So that's how we cover him, you know. Again, they're tired. It's like, do your job. It doesn't matter.

It's almost like, this is just the battle since the beginning of time. By that I mean, since Donald Trump became a politician. You know, I think that maybe there's an effort to not seem biased in some way by, because if you just print out his word, salad, or really highlight all of it, it's like, well, this is a hit piece. This is obviously biased and is coming for Donald Trump. But the truth is, is that they're going to think that anyway.

People think that the media is rigged against Donald Trump. And that is the other thing that takes me back. I'm like, really? Because I see it being pretty friendly to the guy. I think that the media is rigged against Donald Trump. And that is the other thing that takes me back. I'm like, really? Because I see it being pretty friendly to the guy. I see the media, okay, normalizing. He's normalized. I also think that him leaving Twitter helped us forget

the extreme nature of his, you know, outbursts and insults. And so it's like, you get a little desensitized to it, but when the media isn't printing things the way that we were actually said, when they do their best to make him seem presentable or whatever, it is absolutely working to just whitewash him. And anyway, so my point is, it doesn't really matter.

They're always gonna say that the media is biased. You might as well just report the whole fucking freaking thing. It's like when, you know, when the Republican Party and a lot of the media are going to call Democrats communists, no matter what they're like their socialists, healthcare plan that's not like they're going to do that no matter what with anything that is proposed so just do what you want to do do what you think we should do they're gonna say it no matter what well one thing that I think is positive coming out of this that you know if we're looking for some sort of silver lining always is that people seem to know be noticing that the press does this more and there there's been a a lot of kind of frustration and anger among people on the left towards the media. And I've seen a lot of journalists who are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, why is the left coming for us? And in my left, it's just anyone to the left of Mitt Romney, basically. Yeah. You know, like, I think that's a positive thing, where it's people speaking up and being like, hey, you're not doing a good job, you should do a better job. I do too. And for a long time, it's just been kind of treated like, well, criticizing the press is a right-wing thing to do and not something that liberals do.

Yeah. But I think that we all should be aware of that, that the media is biased or there's lots of ways that reporting is tricky. And it's not even about left or right, it's who's funding this or what are the goals or objectives. It's that same thing that Chris Hayes once said when somebody was like,

why don't you talk about climate change more often? And he's like, flat out, it doesn't do as well on the show, so they don't let me. I'm like, well, that's just business. It's upsetting. Put it in there. But that's, you know, but like, there are lots of reasons for us to not just knee-jerk, trust the media. There are lots of reasons for us all to be aware of that, be aware of how we're being manipulated. We got to do our best with what we have.

But like, yeah, I feel like there's a there's almost like a knee jerk protection of the media in 20 because like the left, like the left, like criticizing the media isn't like a new phenomenon. The media is always going to be trying to manufacture consent for some such business. I think in 2016, there was this sort of instinctive like we got to protect the media now. Donald Trump is out there and he's calling them the enemy, the people. And he's saying the fake news thing. And he's doing like the Lugan press. He's doing all the all the Hitler stuff with the media. Understandably, we're like, whoa, hey, this is like a very important part of our democracy. And you can't be saying you can't be saying that stuff.

this is like a very important part of our democracy and you can't be saying you can't be saying that stuff. And so there was a lot of almost like brushing aside of any like any missteps or anything that was dishonest and not like lifted up like, look, they're so dishonest. But like, let's not look at that thing. We need to protect them. And then I think four years of Trump and seeing that sort of pattern and how like, well, they don't actually hate that he is there. The guy who owns Politico is like, yeah, we kind of really want Trump to be the president. And that's recent, obviously. But like the four years of Trump and then seeing some of the coverage of Biden and whatnot, I think, has allowed people to come back around and be like, no, actually, it's OK to criticize the media all the time, actually, in the same way that it's OK and recommended to criticize politicians all the time, even if they're in your own party. But there was this sort of protectionism, I think, for both the Democratic Party and the media generally, totally because of Trump existing and being and being so prominent. And because it became, especially 2020 and all of those years, the Trump years, became like the media is the target.

The media is unfair to Donald Trump. So the media is getting piled up on. And so we felt the need to be defensive of it. And like, as we see see like with the tenant situation, the lot of misinformation out there, a lot of propaganda from a lot of people. And it's easy to, yeah, sort of, I don't know, just sort of be extra defensive about something

that is good but should be criticized when it's being attacked by people who suck. I think it's good. It is good. Like Parker, you're saying, we've come back around to like, just don't say that they're the enemy of the people and should all die. You know, like that's what was going on for so long. It's like we got to like, we got to murder the media. And now we can comfortably say like, well, no, but do your job better. This sucks. Get rid of the Pinocchio system or

whatever. Yeah. Well, with with that, with that, you know, I think like we can we can all agree that like people on the right are never going to be like, you know what? Actually, CNN, you're doing a great job. Like, that's just not going to

happen. I mean, after the after the 2020 election, when Fox News was like, Biden won the election, you know, or like would post things on Twitter, just being like, this state just got called for Biden. The responses would be like, you've sold out to the fake news. I'm going to Newsmax.

I'm going to OAN. You know, it's like people on the right just want to hear. They just want their fairy tales. Yeah. Well, people, I think on the left or liberals just generally will give the press credit when credit's due. the press credit when credits do. But I think now it's just so weird and unbalanced that you have people on the left correctly criticizing the media

and people on the right doing what they always do. And that just sends this message to journalists that, well, if I'm making both sides mad, I must be doing something right. Right. God. Isn't that what? Is that what Dana bash said after criticism of her interview mm-hmm? Yeah, that's like the go-to line, but like yeah, that was Dana that is pathetic

She said that in an interview with with the Daily Beast. She said her exact line was with the Daily Beast, she said her exact line was, the fact that nobody in their entrenched camps was happy makes me think that I probably was in just about the right place. Great job, Dan. I think you need to rethink that. All right, guys, well, we did it. We talked about the media. We had Parker here. We talked about Tim, Timmy Tim Tim. We did a reverse pincer movement on Tenet Media. And Jonathan was also here. I feel like this show has it all.

Party in the USA. It's a real party in the USA. Party in the USA. I'm not a singer. Guys, like and subscribe. Everyone's a singer. Music's in all of our hearts. Everyone is a singer. It's definitely in my heart.

I know. It just doesn't come out of my mouth the way it sounds in my heart. Like and subscribe, comments help us. If you're watching this video, thanks. That's cool. If you're listening to it, also cool. Thank you. Thank you Parker for joining us. Can you tell our audience where to find you? Yes. You can subscribe to my newsletter at ReadTPA.com. That's the present age. So ReadTPA.com. Or follow me on social media, various places, all under my name.

So just search Parker Malloy. You'll find me, probably. If anyone's willing to pay a hundred thousand a week for media newsletter I would love to put out like four newsletters a week and make four hundred thousand dollars a month I gotta say that my my newsletter is not quite to that point yet just leaning into I mean Ukraine is the enemy of the USA Actually, Ukraine is the enemy of the USA I'm so mad, I'm mad all the time Here's what you gotta do I don't know I don't have more Cody be better

Rewriting it for Temple Oh my hands down Thrilla them up Ukraine's the enemy of the USA Whatever, fine we got there Thriller them up. Ukraine's the enemy of the U.S.A. There we go. Fine, we got there. Thanks guys, the show's over. But not quite, because I haven't told you something very important. Wait. We love you very much.

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