The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: The Dan Eyes

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Eric Adams has been indicted which gives us reason to watch two of the funniest videos from his time as the mayor of New York City. Then, as the documentary game evolves, what happens when the subject... of a documentary of their estate wants to have the doc squashed? Plus, Pablo Torre is here to tell the story of Anna Wolfe, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who broke the story detailing a $77 million welfare fraud scandal in Mississippi involving ex-Governor Phil Bryant and former NFL QB Brett Favre. As she faces a defamation lawsuit and potential jail time, Dan, Amin, and Pablo discuss the impact this moment can have on the future of journalism and small, local newspapers around the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:20 Jersey City, New Jersey, please drink responsibly. Welcome to the Big Sui! Presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if if they're just there that hasn't happened to you guys I've done it
Starting point is 00:01:48 and now here's the marching band to nowhere that face and the habitual liar I believe I mean as people don't like that we talk politics around here and don't like that we talked to Stormy Daniels I believe that so many of the people who gravitate with a greed toward power and politics, instead of being interested in altruism, they're just interested in these forms of power grabbing, glory grabbing, money grabbing, that Eric Adams being indicted doesn't surprise me. I don't think it surprises anyone that he was indicted while evidently at a fundraiser of some sort with Joe Biden
Starting point is 00:02:31 when it is that he got the news. But such a bad look for somebody and a criminal look for somebody who has represented New York pretty poorly over the last couple of years, has been largely a laughing stock with a number of the different things that he says publicly where you feel like this is not somebody who is fit
Starting point is 00:02:53 to hold an office of higher power. I'm completely unsurprised that he would allegedly be guilty of an assortment of crimes that they're going to announce later today. Yeah, the story that I read yesterday, so obviously they did not have the full, we don't know what the charges are. Those are coming in a little bit.
Starting point is 00:03:16 But the story I read was that it is in part tied to accepting money from the Turkish government, which is, that levels it up from, you know, the ridiculous initial rumors were, he's in the Diddy videos, he's in the Diddy freak-off videos, and that's why, you know, he's been uncovered for that. To, you know, I was like, wait a sec, there's nothing that can connect these two things together,
Starting point is 00:03:41 which, by the way, has been happening a ton. Anything that- Too much, I would say. I'm uncomfortable with you even mentioning it here because of how much it's happening. No, but I'm not doing it flippantly. I'm saying this is happening with any famous person who's getting into any sort of hot water right now
Starting point is 00:03:58 is people are rushing to make a link to what's happening to Sean Combs because clearly they saw something on the video or whatever which is ridiculous But when I did the digging I was like, oh In many ways this might be a lot worse for him Because if you're talking about things about money from overseas influencing American politics That's that's that's one of those things that they begins with an S and ends with an E-age.
Starting point is 00:04:27 You compromised. That doesn't begin with an S. What, S? It begins with an E. It begins with an E. It's the syllable, guys. Come on, S. The sound, it begins with an S.
Starting point is 00:04:40 S, let's go guys, let's get it together. E-age is not a letter either. It begins with an e though once you say begin once the the syllable you're using is s and it's also a letter you understand How that would be confusing right you understand how you need to go either. Do you not? No, I think the the sound ends and the sound begins and so s c and ours I think it would have been more efficient to just say espionage. No, don't say it! You can't say it.
Starting point is 00:05:08 No one in the world says it starts with and then uses the syllable. What? You use the letter. Well, I'm in this world, and I did it, so. And that's why we were confused. Well, guess what? Little less confused now, aren't we?
Starting point is 00:05:20 Very good, we will have the charges here at some point during the show, the what it is. And we're going to talk to Pablo Torre, proud New Yorker about this in a second, but in the interim, just so that if you're unfamiliar with the work of Eric Adams, let's just show how he would suggest to parents to find how to find drugs in the room of one of your children.
Starting point is 00:05:45 You can look in a jewelry box, a jewelry box of this nature, maybe a simple jewelry box, but if you look through it closely, you don't know what your child may be hiding. For instance, a gun. Look at picture frames and behind them, cameras, try to determine what's, what's taking place behind a picture frame. You can find bullets. You should always when your child bring in his popular knapsack with many different locations look through it to
Starting point is 00:06:10 see what exactly is your child carrying in addition to a book. Something simple as a crack pipe. Something simple as a baby doll. Could be just a baby doll but also it could be a place where you can secrete or hide drugs run your hands over the pillows If see if you feel anything that's unusual like a pillow like this with a button is a perfect invitation to hide something I've felt something bumpy. I will reach in see what it is Perfect place to hide cocaine I It could be more than just books. Perfect place to hide cocaine. I can't believe that video exists.
Starting point is 00:06:49 I can't believe that video was made by anybody. It's just wandering around a room, looking inside of things, and then pulling a gun inexplicably out of a pillowcase. I like the casual crack pipe. Just a little crack pipe in the back. So much cocaine. You could find drugs in a crack pipe, yes.
Starting point is 00:07:08 That is a place that you can find some cocaine. Let's also check in. He secreted money there. I don't know. That was weird. I would love to secrete money. I know. Michael Kay is willing to secrete money
Starting point is 00:07:22 to anybody who can prove that he was talking to Brian Cashman How about this from Eric Adams? When you look at the totality of the year if you had to describe it in the stuff to do in one word What would that word be and tell me why New York? This is a place where every day you wake up You could experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center to a person who's celebrating a new business that's open. This is a very very complicated city and that's why it's the greatest city on the globe. The highs and lows. That's right, I mean like you could experience anything in New York anything from
Starting point is 00:08:12 Look at you useless just fundamentally useless, but I mean This is not what I mean. Don't do that. Don't do that. Video, get that down. Video, what are you doing? This is not what judgment looks like. I mean, where you clearly want to talk and then I go to you and you're not saying anything but you're laughing at the joke in your head. That is not judgment of any kind.
Starting point is 00:08:38 It is because the joke in my head is very poor judgment then. Don't indicate to me that you clearly want to talk and then when I look Don't indicate to me that you clearly wanna talk and then when I look at you because you think that you have the line after the video, all you're doing is laughing at how funny and bad your judgment is.
Starting point is 00:08:54 Without sharing how funny and bad your judgment is with the audience that's listening. I wasn't laughing at my judgment, I was laughing at the joke, but then when you looked at me, you looked at me with those Dan eyes. You guys ever get in the Dan eyes? Where you're like, oh, this is my my time and then Dan looks at you don't you do to stop Mike.
Starting point is 00:09:08 Oh okay, I was looking at you as you clearly want to talk go ahead and instead you're just laughing at how bad your judgment is that's what just happened there because he didn't want to make a 9.11 joke because why would you but Eric Adams just said to you that when he thinks of New York and they ask for one word to describe New York, he says New York, which is not one word, and then says, first thought, planes fly into the World Trade Center.
Starting point is 00:09:39 Not great. Or he can start a business. Celebrating that you started a new business is incredible. It is. It is. Dan, you would know. It's really quite the range that, I would know, yes.
Starting point is 00:09:57 I would know how to start a business. You can do that anywhere. You can do it in New York as well. But the flying of planes into buildings is not why is video that's video stop putting up like what are you doing what I want the entire all of them we've got a penalty five minutes I'm with you then all of you from the video room just go sit in the penalty box just go sit there because I
Starting point is 00:10:25 don't need your bad judgment and Chris Cody's bad judgment in there and a means bad judgment I don't need all of these things in the same place up Jason you too all Jason out Jason you're not you you you oversee everything that's happening there you're accountable I will take the consequences of nobody being in that room because I assure you, it's better than the judgment that was just shown when everybody was in that room. So nobody in that room is not likely to put up Eric Adams and Diddy together when, get out of there,
Starting point is 00:10:57 when that is not in any way fair. How will they switch back now to us? I don't care. We're just gonna stay, I don to us? I don't Don't care we'll stare at the video room and just leave the empty video room They don't even have a way to switch over to the video Tony you go I'll do it you go in there with Carl and you figure out how to put the cameras on the Penalty box so that we can see all of those bozos with the bad judgment That is not something that they should have done.
Starting point is 00:11:29 Hello, Peacock. Oh my god. I want Tony to go in there and just start pressing buttons. No, I know. So that's your good judgment. Yes. That's what you- Compared to what I was gonna say.
Starting point is 00:11:41 Oh, there's the, oh look at him stare at it. He seems to know what he's doing there. No, he doesn't. No, he does not. Oh! Oh, wow! Wow, how about that? Ready three, take three.
Starting point is 00:11:53 I wanted to talk for a second in baseball because, because some of the things happening around the sport are getting dwarfed by everything that Otani is doing, which is so ridiculous. I honestly saw a stat the other day that Otani had 14 hits in his last 19 at bats after having a double, and I wasn't sure if they were including
Starting point is 00:12:20 the six for six in Miami, because it had been like four or five days afterward, it might've had a bunch of walks in it as well. But you're talking about a ridiculous level of domination from Otani. How about this stat from Sarah Langs? The 10 hardest hit balls by Dodgers in the last decade are all Otani hits from this year.
Starting point is 00:12:44 No way. All of them. Every last, everything is 116 miles an hour up on exit velocity. So you've got every single Dodger trying to hit every single pitcher as hard as they can, but Otani is hitting the baseball harder than anybody on his team in the last decade. All 10 belong to him. He's 9 for his last 10 with runners in scoring position. So as they need wins here down the stretch, yesterday he had a go-ahead hit early in the game and then another go-ahead hit to ultimately help them win the game and stay ahead of the Padres. He also had his 56th stolen base,
Starting point is 00:13:25 which tied Ichiro for the most stolen bases by a Japanese player in Major League Baseball. Ichiro, he's also got 53 homers. Dan, let's expand our minds for a second. All right, so we know that Otani can pitch. We know that he can hit for power. We know that he can hit for contact. We know that he can steal.
Starting point is 00:13:42 What if we took Otani and took him to another sport? The Rams need help right now at wide receiver. Do we think that Otani could line up as the X, Y receiver, like Cooper Cup, and catch like 90 balls for like 1500 yards in 12 touchdowns? His name is Shohei. Shohei Otani, is that a puka? That's good.
Starting point is 00:14:02 Yeah, I like that. Tony, you're so uninterested in baseball that the only way you'll talk about it is by making the best baseball player a football player? Imagine. It's because he's the greatest athlete of all time. Come on, he can do everything, Dan. Imagine him lining up outside,
Starting point is 00:14:16 looking at Matthew Stafford, hitting him, quick slam, 45 yards down the middle for a touchdown, come on. The most stolen bases Bo Jackson ever had was 26. Too slow. He doubled that. Too slow. I will admit when you say the stat that he has the 10 hardest balls this season, the last whatever year.
Starting point is 00:14:30 Whoa. That's just an indictment on whoever's been hitting for that. Justin Turner, what have you been doing? Freddie Freeman, nobody's hit one hard ball, harder ball than he's hit his top 10. You're now scared about everything that's ball related here Are you not no don't try and go to your cheap trick there when you got nothing else? Wow, oh yeah
Starting point is 00:14:53 Tony you mentioned Cooper cop is there right now a Healthy white wide receiver in the league Thielen is out. I don't think Hunter Renfro is playing anywhere. I don't is Ricky Pearsall getting... He got shot. No, he's not. Lad McConkie still with us. The rookie. He's... Is Alec Pierce still running around? I think he's hurt. I think he might be hurt this week. Howdy folks, it's Mike Ryan. I want to talk to you about the great taste of Miller Lite. Gonna cut right to it today, because it's football season as you know, and there's nothing more American than football and Miller Lite. It's a perfect pairing. I mean, even chefs would agree that this is better than any dish I can cook up. The way that Miller Lite hits your tongue when there's gridiron action happening, there's just nothing like it. And to know
Starting point is 00:15:44 that you're holding that beautiful white can is to know that not only are you getting great taste, but you're also getting beer that is less filling. Why don't you join me? Drink this beer while you're watching football and spend less time thinking about what you're drinking and spend more quality time with your friends. Ah, that is Miller time.
Starting point is 00:16:03 Make your game time taste like Miller time. Tastes great and it's less filling. Let it be both. To get Miller Lite delivered right to your door, visit MillerLite.com slash nv. Or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories per 12 ounces. Fewer cows and carbs than premium regular beer. Don LeBretard. And I feel like Rebecca, I can't pronounce her last name, but she's a great kid. Androgy. Androgy.
Starting point is 00:16:30 That's why you're good, man, I gotta tell you. I feel like her jumps, her vaults were better. She stuck the landing on both. She should have won the gold. The only reason she didn't is because her name is not Simone Biles. Your thoughts. Stugats.
Starting point is 00:16:41 No. This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugats! No! This is the Dan LeVittar Show with the Stugats! Not long after a young Dan LeVittar discovered Indiana Jones in the movie theaters, I, at the advent of cable television, got into wrestling because what had been Saturday afternoon programming with Gordon Soley on television that was regional wrestling and would always be a drunk Gordon Soley announcing that some star wrestler was fighting locally against Wild Bill Schneider in the beige trunks from Opelaka, Florida, who never won a match. All of the matches were terrible,
Starting point is 00:17:34 and then the USA Network starts with cable television, and Vince McMahon is essentially, before Mean Gene O'Crolin, Vince McMahon is the original wrestling sideline reporter that I'm introduced to. To see Vince McMahon rise to the level that he did, and in this time where we see how power corrupts with ditty, Vince McMahon has been disgraced publicly in a way that shows you how awful people can be when they rise to the level of power that Vince McMahon rose to. The documentary that Netflix is presently airing on Vince McMahon must be interesting. It has to be interesting, so
Starting point is 00:18:21 interesting that Vince McMahon tried to buy it back unsuccessfully, reportedly, because he never wanted it to air. This is a trend that's been happening recently. Oprah bought hers back. We've talked about this. But the one I want to talk to you about, Amin, because I've seen it reported now and I can talk about it, but I've seen some of what's happened behind the scenes and it's made me feel terrible for Ezra Edelman. Ezra Edelman is a friend
Starting point is 00:18:52 and I don't want to talk too much about this story but I do want to talk about the details around this story because can you imagine that your Ezra Edelman and you have made an Oscar worthy documentary for ESPN that totally changes the game on how content is produced because what you made about OJ Simpson was so deep and powerful that people now want to hire you at every turn and you've got to choose your next project as someone who is exceptional at what he does,
Starting point is 00:19:30 meticulous about what he does, but goes into a very dark hole to make these things because of how long and consuming it is to do something this thorough about a public figure like OJ Simpson. Ezra Edelman's next project after that he had an assortment that he could have chosen from what he chose and there's pressure on this choosing after you've made the o.j. simpson documentary
Starting point is 00:19:57 what he chose was prints and he has spent the last several years buried in that the way that he was buried in the old jay simpson and it will never see the light of day because because it is caught up in a bunch of legal shit and it is evidently done
Starting point is 00:20:17 but the prince's state is having some objections and now netflix is worried about those objections and i don't know again i don't want to speak out of tune here because there's a lot of stuff here that's private and not known and I'm not well versed enough to speak thoroughly about this but I wanted to talk about the idea of you go from making the documentary that solidifies your name and puts you at all the Hollywood parties. Everyone knows who you are because you've made something so good that everyone wants your next work. And you have not seen a next work from Ezra Edelman since then because he was very meticulous about the subject that he chose because he knew he had to rise to the level of OJ Simpson and everyone listening to this would say oh my god
Starting point is 00:21:08 that guy going into the mysterious life of Prince to find out everything that there was about Prince and then finding out things that evidently are so dangerous that now it looks like this is caught up in a stream of power that even crushes the ability of somebody who does great work to get that great work in the light because of whatever the fight is around that. So all right, so let's start with his OJ doc wasn't just Oscar worthy, it was Oscar winning. He won an Oscar for it. It's the first Academy Award ESPN has ever won and the only one to my knowledge. Number two, people point
Starting point is 00:21:50 to it as perhaps the greatest documentary of all time. It's up there with all the great Ken Burns and Hoop Dreams and all the other great documentaries. It's up there. But you know know it was transformational and I believe it started, it kick-started this idea of the deep dive into these huge figures. Now the difference then and I don't know any this is me finding out right now from you about any of this. I did not know Ezra was working on Prince, did not know that there were complications, but I can from this seat right here tell you the major difference between doing that doc about OJ and getting deep on it and doing one about Prince and getting deep on it
Starting point is 00:22:33 is OJ did not have a reputation that anybody was interested in protecting at the time of Ezra doing this deep dive. So Ezra could find out all the dirty things, go all the way deep into racism in Northern California in the early 60s and this is what O.J. grew up through and this is who he was and the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it, you have a freedom because no one's gonna be, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't say that about O.J.
Starting point is 00:23:02 That's my guy, no one's doing that. Prince that Prince is a different story man Prince is an economy Prince is an account beyond adulation beyond the love beyond the thing that he did for so long that brought so much joy for so many people so many generations of people he is a business even in his absence, even in his death. There is a money-making machine, and that money-making machine, for the better part of Prince's life, has kinda kept his reputation above ground.
Starting point is 00:23:36 Yes, he's a little eccentric and all that, but never the kind of bad pub that his contemporary Michael Jackson got, right? Michael Jackson was hit with child molestation out allegations all types of seven and turn into a uh... as sort of a freak show physically right before eyes so many ways to throw rocks at michael jackson princes of
Starting point is 00:24:00 uh... business that has been protected and and groomed very well out there. And so I can totally see someone like Ezra could say, okay, let's tell the print story and finding a lot of shit that business, forget about the fans, forget about the people, that business finds extremely threatening. It goes without saying that Ezra Edelman, diving deep, trying to do something like the O.J. Simpson documentary on Prince, is gonna find out all sorts of things that Prince's mysterious empire would like
Starting point is 00:24:37 you not to see. That seems fairly obvious that if he spends time doing this kind of thing and it's not just time it's years it's years doing nothing else it's years with a carefully chosen project because you know what came before and you know what the expectations are on excellence when you've already made something that is excellent when Lin-Manuel Miranda made Hamilton, whatever your objections are to Hamilton, I legitimately, because I know Amin's got some objections to Hamilton, I immediately thought to myself, my God, the burden of expectations after you've made that to try and reach that, never mind top it. When you've made the O.J. Simpson documentary,
Starting point is 00:25:23 you're going to be super careful if you're as excellent as Ezra is, about what your next choice is. And then he's done all the work. The documentary's done. It's been done with years of meticulous reporting because this man is unbelievably thorough. To have all of that done and to have it put in a drawer when you've spent years obsessing about it, To have all of that done and to have it put in a drawer
Starting point is 00:25:45 when you've spent years obsessing about it, it really does hurt me on behalf of Ezra Edelman to see it tied up this way, but it also shows me, Amina, we're gonna talk to Pablo about this part in a second because Anna Wolf, the reporter in Mississippi who has outed Brett Favre for a series of things, is now having the full weight of power pressed against her in a way that is punishing what looked
Starting point is 00:26:10 to me like unimpeachable work. When people get to power they can crush art and they can crush good work if they get to so much power that they can take out someone as powerful as Ezra Edelman whose work everybody would wanna see because it's universally applauded and on subject matter, I mean, in Prince that all of us would want to watch, not unlike with Vince McMahon. It's a great choice.
Starting point is 00:26:40 When you were saying he had all these options, what's his next thing? When you said Prince, I'm like, oh, that's perfect. I can't think of a better choice, but it's also the least surprising thing in the world that Prince's estate is putting up a fight on this. Like with all his, you know, once he passed away and the rights to his music, like they fight everything.
Starting point is 00:26:57 So it's, Ezra had, to my point here is Ezra had to know that of all the subjects out there, this is going to be the toughest one to make. But is Prince's estate bigger and more powerful than Netflix? Like that's where the push and pull of dynamics are, right? Like Netflix is one of the most powerful content machines in the world, yet Prince's estate has the opportunity
Starting point is 00:27:17 and the power to be like, nah, it's not happening. And that happens? The thing that I'm interested about when power meets power is Vince McMahon tried to buy this Netflix documentary back reportedly because he didn't like what was in there. We talked about Oprah Winfrey actually buying the documentary back from Apple because she was an executive producer and she didn't like where it is that it was headed and what ends up happening when people in power control the power is that
Starting point is 00:27:46 the truth does end up getting obscured. When I get to this story from ESPN.com on Anna Wolf, you guys, anybody who cares about journalism out there is going to be made uncomfortable by what happens when a small local reporter in Mississippi is trying to advocate for the poorest people in the United States, she does so with reporting that doesn't have, I don't believe, anonymous sources even in it and now she is being pushed to either reveal her sources when the governor sues for defamation Mississippi Today or Brett Favre is out there litigious
Starting point is 00:28:25 and powerful people are trying to obscure the truth, you get a tiny little reporter trying to fight on behalf of the best things, having to go risk going to jail to protect sources just because of the way the power is being wielded against wanting any of us to see what is the truth because the truth makes powerful and rich people that uncomfortable. It's shocking to see the
Starting point is 00:28:49 details and if you read the ESPN.com article it sort of lays everything out but to see that Anna Wolf is in this position where the governor didn't even file a lawsuit within the first year of this article being out there it It wasn't until some public comments were made by the person who ran, I believe the company for the newspaper that then later on they decided, Hey, you use the word embezzlement. That's not what this is. We're going to go after you. And now Anna Wolf, who's someone who won the Pulitzer prize for the work that she did on this article is potentially facing jail time for contempt of court.
Starting point is 00:29:26 It's a completely wild story. TD, Tutty, in for six. Touchdowns matter more at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official Sportsbook partner of the NFL. Ready to do a touchdown dance of your own? New DraftKings customers bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Score big with DraftKings Sportsbook, the number one place to bet touchdowns. Bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Score big with DraftKings Sportsbook, the number one place to bet touchdowns.
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Starting point is 00:30:47 That's stop loss orders on Kraken, an easy way to plan ahead. Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be. Non-investment advice, crypto trading involves risk of loss. See kraken.com slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. Don LeBattard. Pablo leads all of podcasting in reading while smiling.
Starting point is 00:31:07 If you listen to ESPN Daily, he sounds like he's having the time of his life. Stu Gatz. Coming up next, I'm gonna tell you how the Savannah Bananas are changing things. Savannah Bananas. How do you know I'm smiling? That's how I find my vocal range.
Starting point is 00:31:23 Sometimes I just say Savannah Bananas. Savannah Bananas. This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats. ["Savannah Bananas"] Let's go to someone who has some journalism expertise here, Pablo Torre. He is doing extraordinary work. He is one of the very few non-athlete podcasts that has broken through in the podcast field. Pablo Torre finds out. Help walk the audience through something that generally they roll their eyes
Starting point is 00:32:08 about around here, which is journalism and my care about journalism. We had Anna Wolf on several times. Again, young reporter doing such good, thorough and exhaustive work that she wins a Pulitzer Prize for creating a real mess for Brett Favre and powerful people who were uh... you know smitten and hypnotized by Brett Favre's charm and ended up giving away money that was supposed to allegedly go to the poorest people in america to you know be rich and famous and support rich famous causes, build a volleyball court, etc. Pablo, when you read this story by Mark Fonaru Wada of ESPN, what were your thoughts?
Starting point is 00:32:52 Because I'm getting uncomfortable thinking what should be, what is Pulitzer Prize winning work that should be celebrated is now putting her in the position where she will have to go to jail for protecting sources if she wants to protect them and I can't believe how unpleasant this is. Yeah, Anna Wolf, who I've also interviewed previously to talk about her reporting, she is somebody who is a far better avatar for what journalism is as a concept than any sort of slogan like democracy dies in darkness or any of these other things that make journalism out to be this grandiose truly democracy saving enterprise because what she is is the reality of it which is you're a person who has voluntarily voluntarily tried to tell the truth with a degree of difficulty
Starting point is 00:33:48 that people on the internet who are not subject to any sort of code of ethics are not beholden to. And a basic standard of journalism, again, this is all self-imposed degrees of difficulty to demonstrate that actually this is true and real and unbiased and what she has decided to do is what journalists should do which is say I will not give up my sources because because the public interest actually demands that she go to jail over over the disclosure the forced disclosure The attempted forced disclosure of the people that are telling her the truth. I mean, this is this is this is real shit, man
Starting point is 00:34:32 I'm you know, like this is this is this is the reality of what it is to actually do work that jeopardizes Powerful people I'm gonna play the dumb guy here I am not as familiar with the later kind of developments here. What exactly are they asking of Anna Wolff and how is that possible given the First Amendment? Yes, so the former governor of Mississippi is this gentleman named Phil Bryant, who is a character, one of the protagonists in the story that was originally reported and has been shaped by Mississippi Today, which is where Anna Wolfe works. And what Phil Bryant has been claiming is that there is bias, that this outlet is biased against him, and that in order to prove this, he is demanding that
Starting point is 00:35:19 he know that it be disclosed who spoke to Anna Wolfe. Notably, this is not so much about the substance of the reporting, it's merely now the allegation of you guys cannot tell the truth fairly. Prove it by showing us who you actually talked to. Hand over notes, hand over sources, hand over internal emails. This is what the lawyer of Phil Bryant has been claiming. And so again, it's not the reporting at issue,
Starting point is 00:35:44 it's the allegation of bias. And so another just, I think, useful context for people who aren't super familiar with this story, you know, the other instigator, the other instigating event of this story, I should say, is the state auditor of Mississippi, who was the guy doing document dives, a government official into Brett Favre. And that gentleman, Chad White, state auditor in Mississippi, who I have spoken to, interviewed myself, is a Republican. Go on Twitter, see what he tweets about.
Starting point is 00:36:14 He is not a Democrat, okay? He is very much almost culture war adjacent Republican who saw corruption of a kind, allegedly, that was so massive that of course, he needed to do something. And so anyway, my point being here, Republican Phil Bryant saying, you guys are biased against me specifically and politically as well, it's farcical, frankly.
Starting point is 00:36:35 But how does that, what about that as criminal? That sounds like a civil case, if anything. Like, hey, I'm suing you for defamation or whatever and I want to see where the source is in the documents. That doesn't sound like, she's facing jail time, why? Well, just in protecting of sources. No, no, no, no, no, Dan. This is a journalistic ethos.
Starting point is 00:36:54 Dan, that's not, I get that part. I'm saying, this former Governor Bryant's case seems to be, hey, what you said about me was biased or whatever, that's not a criminal charge. So that sounds like a civil suit, if anything. How could she be facing jail time for what is a civil suit, is what I'm asking. From what I understand, it is a situation where they want her held in contempt of court for not revealing her sources. That's the problem, is that what they're saying is you need to reveal all of the texts and
Starting point is 00:37:29 emails that were exchanged between you and anybody else. We need to know who was having this conversation so we can know exactly how biased you are. And by expressing their First Amendment right of withholding those sources and saying, no, we can't do that because if we reveal these sources sources will not want to report to this newspaper anymore this is damaging journalism they want her held in contempt of court along with her editors as a result and in turn that's where you get a facing jail time Pablo you were about to say yeah look I'll just give you a quote I just pulled it up from the attorney, the attorney here.
Starting point is 00:38:05 I'm getting the full name here. Bill Bryant's attorney's name is Billy Quent. And he says, quote, I hope the implication is that if you're a reporter and you lie about somebody, this is the lawyer for the governor, former governor in question, you better be ready to defend your lies. And if you cannot, you should understand that there are consequences that go with that. You're not immune to the law you're not period end quote and so look a means question is a reasonable one and it is a First Amendment matter like this is look we are at again the reason I say this is a better case study for what journalism actually is then all of the again admittedly highfalutin
Starting point is 00:38:40 sort of sloganeering is because this is what it means hey you want to do work in which you are trying to serve the public interest, the public interest of the poorest state in this country, right? The alleged misuse of funds, TANF funds, directed to those people, instead going to someone like Brett Favre with the involvement allegedly of the governor of the state, shouldn't you have the right as a journalist to protect the people who enabled this truth-telling? And this is one of those, I believe, potentially landmark cases about how we actually
Starting point is 00:39:14 operate in this country. This segment is presented by LinkedIn jobs. Let me read directly from the article. Wolf and Mississippi Today insists there's nothing inaccurate in their reporting. On Wednesday, the organization received the National Press Club's highest honor for press freedom. Most states in the country, including Mississippi, have recognized at least the limited privilege that protects reporters from being forced to give up confidential sources. Even so, there's no formal shield law in Mississippi, and no case has ever made its way up to the
Starting point is 00:39:44 state Supreme Court until now. shield law in Mississippi and no cases ever made its way up to the state Supreme Court until now. First Amendment advocates say that without shield law protection sources would be far less likely to come forward with critical information that serves the public interests. Beyond that though, and this part is the part that really scares me for journalism, for America, for freedom, and for speaking truth to power. Local reporting is dying everywhere. Local resources are dying everywhere. She has done extraordinary work, and the reward for that is a lot of awards, but now the full
Starting point is 00:40:23 weight of money and power falling on her, and I don't know if Mississippi Today and her can handle the full weight and power of that unless they get backing from people who actually want to fight for the First Amendment. And this is where it gets inevitably complicating, right? Because I mentioned that slogan, democracy dies in darkness, which is the Washington Post, of course, and they do great work, no question. But who bought the Washington Post, right? Because I mentioned that slogan, democracy dies in darkness, which is the Washington Post, of course, and they do great work. No question. But who bought the Washington Post, right? Bezos. Jeff Bezos. And so the question of like, okay, who's going to fund the actual journalism here at which people are risking jail time over telling the truth? It's hard, man. Mississippi Today,
Starting point is 00:41:01 for people who are not familiar either with, Mississippi Today an outlet in the poorest state in the country is a non-profit and That is such a beautiful thing right when it comes to again the presentation of we are here to do this job for this reason We are literally not profiting off of it But anybody look anybody who's known anything about how to monetize content on the internet knows what's hard about this And so you end up hoping for a benevolent billionaire to save you and that's It's look dad. You saw this Dan. You lived this right? Why did newspapers go away you go all the way back to the classifieds being eaten by Craigslist you go all the way back To the ways in which newspapers were not actually selling news so much as they were selling other things that the news wrote on into your mailbox, man.
Starting point is 00:41:50 And we have never figured out how to solve that fundamental issue, which you witnessed in real time. Pablo, I think that one of the most concerning things about this to me is that people listening to this and maybe even reading this story do not understand the amount of vetting and exhaustive reporting through public records that she had to do to get this to be accurate and in print and it is so much easier to just file a lawsuit against her, especially if you can get a bunch of nefarious powers together to try and undermine a nonprofit that's simply trying to do the right thing. She wasn't doing this, she stumbled upon Brett Favre.
Starting point is 00:42:38 She's not a sports reporter, like she was doing good work that was nonprofit advocacy on behalf of this money needs to get to the poor people. Literally the poorest people as a population in the poorest state. I keep on repeating this because if you were to draw up the movie script version of what is David versus Goliath, you would come up with something like this. And you are correct, Dan, when it comes to what does it take?
Starting point is 00:43:08 Like, so many frustrations sort of cascade upon how we actually talk about this story for me, because people don't respect the institution of journalism to the point where I think it's exhausting to hear a conversation like this about how important journalism is because of course you can go immediately to the the many ways in which journalism has disappointed you in which a newspaper has disappointed you right I've mentioned and I start now I try to start with democracy dies in darkness being this thing that also makes me feel a little bit of ick right because the promise there is only we can save you, only we have the truth. And that's not exactly what journalism's promise should be. Journalism's promise is not, we are the only people who can tell the truth,
Starting point is 00:43:53 and it should not be, we exclusively tell the truth, and never, never make mistakes. It's not that, right? It's not that. It's a bunch of human beings inside an institution called a newsroom with self-imposed standards, degrees of difficulty that are trying to say to you, if we impose this on ourselves, if we can disclose to you as much as we can about how hard it is to do this work and the ethical standards we impose that nobody on the internet otherwise is beholden to, then maybe we will have the credibility such that when we're trying to save the poorest people in the poorest
Starting point is 00:44:28 state you might believe us even if we're being sued by NFL stars and former governors and if that's not compelling as a better slogan I I struggle I struggle to find out what would be it's a lot it's a lot of words it's pretty it's pretty wordy it doesn't ity. It's not catchy as a slogan. I can't believe that she's in a place where she has to publicly say that she regrets Brett Favre ever being a part of this story because it was never the intent.
Starting point is 00:44:58 And the story would have never gotten this kind of attention even if it had been the same crime if it hadn't been Brett Favre. So it's a weird place for her to be. She was trying to do a different thing which was just the right thing. Brett Favre is allegedly accused of doing all the wrong things with all the people in power doing the wrong things and now the full weight of it is falling on a 29 year old's head who was doing nonprofit advocacy that while not altruism was pretty
Starting point is 00:45:26 damn close to it. Yeah, yeah. Brett Favre's how we got there, right? That's why I started looking into this. That's why you did. That's the power of sports. It's powerful until it comes around and it's like, oh, can we stop talking about that? Because now we've lost the actual plot of what's happening here.
Starting point is 00:45:43 If you want to be a good archeologist? Get out of the library. It's not how he says anything. It's not how he says anything. Eric Adams, before you get out of here as a proud New Yorker, your thoughts on the news that's about to come down here any minute with the indictment of Eric Adams.
Starting point is 00:46:01 Nobody has been more entertaining while also being more corrupt. Eric Adamdry, the pandemic was like, there's a question and answer. It was like, Mr. Mayor, why are you out partying at clubs till 2 30 a.m. or whatever it was? And his answer was, the city needs to see their mayor. And I was like, oh, this guy, this guy, this is going to be a thing we return to probably. We're going to remember this guy as being the low point. Yeah man, he didn't really live in New York.
Starting point is 00:46:29 He wasn't really a mayor. He was absolutely in photographs with every person you can imagine who you don't wanna be in photographs with. He was in bed allegedly with the Turkish government. A real just hitting for the cycle of New York corruption. Video, I'm gonna go, give me that whip. Give me that whip. A real just hitting for the cycle of New York corruption video I'm gonna go I'm gonna go give me that well man. Give me that whip Give him the idol that he'll give you the whip. Oh Chris was that forget the sandbag was doing
Starting point is 00:47:11 No, don't go down. This field, if we had HR, this would feel like a real problem. That's why they said no to the whip. Howdy, folks. It's Mike Ryan. I want to talk to you about the great taste of Miller Lite. Going to cut right to it today, because it's football season, as you know. And talk to you about the great taste of Miller Lite. Gonna cut right to it today because it's football season as you know, and there's nothing more American than football and Miller Lite.
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