The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 200 - The Media Beclowns Itself On Jussie Smollett Story

Episode Date: February 18, 2019

Today on the show, the left and the media have embarrassed themselves yet again with this Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax. But will they learn anything from this? (Answer: no.) Also, we'll talk about why victimhood has become such a desirable status in America. Finally, on a related note, Colin Kaepernick just got a multi-million dollar pay out from the NFL. Date: 02-18-2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Matt Wall show, the left and the media, but I repeat myself, have embarrassed themselves yet again with this Jesse Smollett hate crime hoax story. But will they learn anything from this? Will there be any self-assessment on their part? No, of course not, but we'll talk about that. Also, I want to discuss why victimhood has become such a desirable status in modern America, so desirable that people will make up hate crimes just so they can be a victim. And finally, speaking of fake victimhood, we'll talk about Colin Kavanaugh. Pappernick's multi-million dollar payout from the NFL. All of that today on the Matt Wall Show.

Welcome to the Matt Wall Show, everybody. Thanks for being here. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you had a great weekend. And remember to subscribe on iTunes to get the entire show. You only get 15 minutes if you're watching on Facebook. So you can subscribe on iTunes or become a premium member of the Daily Wire. All right, Smollett.

Smollett, Smollett, Smollett, Smollett. Still haven't figured out how to pronounce the guy's last name. I guess I should have. by now. Poor old Jesse Smollett might be in a bit of trouble. Let me get you caught up on the latest first in case you weren't paying attention over the weekend. And, you know, frankly, I hope that you were not paying attention over the weekend. I hope that you have a life and you do other things on the weekend besides check the news online. So the Empire actor, well, you're aware of this part. He claimed he was assaulted in a hate crime committed by two white Trump supporters at 2 a.m.

Chicago in negative 10 degree temperatures while he was walking back from Subway with a tuna sandwich. And he says he was beaten, a noose was put around his neck, bleach was poured on him. They shouted, this is MAGA country in Chicago, called him racial and homophobic slurs and so on. So you know that part of the story. You also know, especially if you've been listening to this show, that the story is, of course, absurd and obviously a hoax. And you didn't even, you didn't really need any other. information. You didn't need to know about the fact that, for instance, he's on camera for all but

60 seconds of his walk back from subway, and there's no assault recorded in that chunk of time. But you didn't need to know that, to know that this is a fable. But now the picture is becoming more clear for anyone who didn't already see it clearly. Late last week, two men who appeared in a security camera footage walking near, because nobody else appears in the footage except for Smollett and then these two guys who are seen walking near the site of the alleged attack. Well, these guys were apprehended, and then it turns out that they're Nigerians, also friends of Smollett's. One of them is Smollett's physical trainer or workout partner or whoever. They know each other. One or both of them has appeared on the show, Empire before.

and they were questioned, were very briefly described as suspects, but then they were released unceremoniously and rather quickly. And law enforcement sources told the media that they, the brothers, confessed that the whole attack was staged. Smollett, according to these sources, paid these guys to attack him. It was all a setup. The sources say it was $3,500 that they were paid, which, you know, which, you you know, seems a little on the cheap side.

If someone's going to pay you to attack them, I think, I mean, shouldn't that run at least 10,000, I would think? So it was all a setup. And now police want to interview Smollett again as the investigation has shifted, they say, and it seems has shifted in the direction of Smollett himself. But he has, he's hired a defense attorney, which, of course, when you're the true victim of a crime, isn't that what you do? Isn't that the first thing you go and do is You hire a defense attorney for yourself. But he has a defense attorney now, and he's been reluctant to speak with the police for, I guess, understandable reasons. Now, before we go any further, let's go back.

I think it would be profitable for us to go back and look at how our illustrious news media, our courageous, brave, bold, First Amendment, protecting, firefighting, news media. Let's take a look at how they responded to this story. Let's remember, let's recall, because I know they want to shove it down the memory hole. They don't want us to remember. But let's remember how the media responded to this ridiculous story when Smollett first came out with his claims.

So here's a brief compilation put together by Grabian News, which gives us a little taste. Here it is. With a noose around his neck and hospitalized. Empire star Jesse Smollett was the victim of a vicious, racist, and homophobic attack. His attackers hurled racial and homophobic slurs. Two people yelled racist and homophobic slurs. Racial and homophobic slurs.

Not only homophobia, we're talking about racism. We're talking about hate with steroids. They are looking for two suspects who were apparently wearing Make America Great Again hats. The offenders uttered, This is MAGA country. The hate crime went down early this morning in Chicago. Officials are investigating the alleged assault as a hate crime. And now police say they're investigating this is a possible hate crime.

Anyone attacked in a hate crime like this is an outrage. This is stomach turning, mind-boggling information. It's out of control. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi tweeting the racist homophobic attack on Jesse Smollett is an affront to our humanity. And Senator Cory Booker said, The vicious attack on actor Jesse was an attempted modern-day lynching. Kamala Harris calling the attack an attempted modern-day lynching. I'm so shaken by the story.

This is horrible to report. This is a horrible story. This is a horrible story. Yeah. I mean, the circumstances is just horrific. Horrendous and unacceptable. Absolutely despicable. Yeah, a lot of people can't believe this is actually happening in 2019.

It's hard to believe that we're reporting, that we're even saying words like this in 2019. And this is America in 2019. So you see, sometimes they bother to put alleged in front of the attack, sometimes not. But what you find is just in general uncritical reporting of this attack. There was from the media, there was basically no skepticism. Now they're claiming that they were skeptical. And we'll get to that in a minute. but there was basically no skepticism.

So even, you know, I know that legally you can always cover yourself if you just say alleged, right? But to uncritically report something like this, even if you put alleged in front of it, that's not good enough because this story, there was no evidence for it. It was obviously absurd. And so when you're reporting it, that should be part of your report. you should really be emphasizing. Now, I'm not saying that if you have a, look, if this guy's at least a D-list celebrity,

he claims that this thing happened. So I'm not saying it's not news, but the news is that this is a really extraordinary claim that this guy is making and there is no evidence for it. That's the news. That's what front and center, that's what you should be saying. And then if you really are, if you're a real journalist, actually looking to get to the story, you should then be going out on your own to investigate this and look into it and do some real investigative journalism.

But the media didn't do that. Let's also not forget the celebrities who rushed to Smollett's side, taking him completely at his word, using this supposed attack to score political points. The best example of this, or worst example, depending on how you look at it, is the actress Ellen Page. who was on Colbert's show, and she found a way, if you remember a week or two ago, she found a way to pin this supposed hate crime on Mike Pence. She got to the bottom of it, okay? She did investigate, and she found out that it was Mike Pence is the one who did it,

or at least is responsible for inspiring it. So here's Ellen Page. I'm like really fired up tonight, but. This is how you have to be fired. It feels impossible to not feel this way right now with the president and the vice president, Mike Pence, who, like, wishes I couldn't be married. Let's just be clear.

The vice president of America wishes I didn't have the love with my wife. He wanted to ban that in Indiana. He believes in conversion therapy. He has hurt LGBTQ people so badly as the government of Indiana, and I think the thing we need to know, and I hope my show Gaycation did this in terms of connecting the dots,

in terms of what happened the other day to Jesse. I don't know him personally. I sent all of my love. Connect the dots. This is what happens. If you are in a position of power and you hate people and you want to cause suffering to them,

you go through the trouble, you spend your career trying to cause suffering. What do you think is going to happen? Kids are going to be abused and they're going to kill themselves and people are going to be beaten on the street. I have traveled the world and I have met the most marginalized people you could meet.

I am lucky to have this time and the privilege to say this. This needs to stop. It's only getting every customer's order right. It's only a point of sale system connected by Spectrum Fiber Powered Business Internet helping you track hundreds of secure transactions. And it's all backed by 24-7 U.S.-based customer support

and local technicians. It's only everything. Get business internet advantage, It's free forever when you get four mobile lines from Spectrum. Visit Spectrum.com slash free for life to find out how. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. Okay.

By the way, that's a really... Colbert's show is supposed to be a comedy show, right? A really hilarious segment there with Ellen Page. Great, great comedy. Okay, so what have we learned from all of this? Well, nothing, I guess. whatever there is to learn from this situation, the rational among us already knew, and whoever did not know it probably is not capable intellectually of learning anything ever.

But that fact aside, I think there are some major lessons. And so here are a few of them. Number one, and this is really important, there is nothing virtuous about simply believing a claim that somebody makes. So these days, whenever, Whenever someone claims that they were the victim of sexual assault or hate crime or what have you, and they come forward with their story, people, especially on the left, will solemnly declare, I believe you. I believe it. Yes, I believe. As if believing someone is some sort of moral obligation. Like it's like it's some sort of moral act to believe a story that somebody is telling you.

but it isn't to believe to believe someone is to think that what they're saying is true right that's what it means to believe someone somebody tells you something someone comes and says oh it's raining outside either believe them or i don't and if i believe them it means that i believe that it's raining outside that the the information they're conveying to me is true that's what it means to believe someone, right? To believe that what they're saying is factually correct, not just morally correct, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but factually correct. And we should believe that something is factually correct if there is good objective reason to believe it, such as evidence, such as the general believability of whatever they're saying. Okay, then we can believe them. So if somebody

comes to me and says it's raining outside and I know them to be a generally trustworthy person, then in that case, that's probably going to be enough for me to believe them because the claim that is raining outside is not especially incredible. So if a halfway credible person comes up to me and tells me that, I'll probably believe them because it rains all the time. So it's a perfectly believable story. However, if somebody comes to me and says, I was just assaulted at 2 a.m. on my way back from subway by two guys in Chicago yelling this is MAGA country, two guys who happen to have a bottle of bleach and a noose on hand. If somebody comes to me and tells me that, I'm going to need some more evidence.

I'm going to need a really good reason to believe that, because that is an extraordinary claim. That's a claim that just seems to defy common sense for a whole bunch of reasons. So if there's no good reason to believe what someone is saying, then, well, if there's no good reason to believe it and there's no good reason to disbelieve it either, then we should be neutral on it. We shouldn't believe it or disbelieve it. It should just be something we're just waiting for more information. but if there's good reason to disbelieve it, then we should disbelieve it. So if it's an extraordinary claim and there's no evidence for it whatsoever, then that's a good reason to disbelieve it. That is a good reason to actively believe that what they're saying is not true.

Although, of course, it's a tentative judgment because they could produce evidence and then you'll change your assessment. But either way, this is the process for believing someone. something. So this whole thing, it's sort of an offshoot of, oh, I believe women, believe women. Well, no, I, why should we believe women? I don't believe women. I don't disbelieve women. I don't, it's, it's got the fact that their women has nothing to do with it. I believe a woman, if she tells me, if she, if she makes a claim that is believable, I believe believable things that women tell me, and I disbelieve unbelievable things that women tell me. Same for men. It makes no difference to me whatsoever, what their gender is when they're telling me the story. It also makes

no difference to me what race they are. Second thing, and this is one of the major, one of the major takeaways. We talked about this last week, but it needs to be emphasized again that this is what happens when victimhood is celebrated. We live in a country, in a culture, where it is considered desirable to be a victim. And so when you create an environment like that, you're going to have people inventing victimhood stories. I mean, it's just going to happen. There's no way around it. Now, you know, consider the fact that there was a time in America, not that long ago, when a man would never pretend that he was beaten and defiled in the street. You know, there was a time in America when a man would never pretend that because he would be embarrassed.

He would be humiliated by such a story. A man would have too much pride to go around inventing a story about how he was beat up. And I mean, I remember when I was a kid, it just, you would never, as a, as a kid in school, you would never pretend that you were beat up. If anything, you would go the other way, where if you were actually beat up, you would pretend you weren't because you have pride as a man. And you don't want people to think that you were beat up. So when I was a kid, I got into fights a few times. If I was going to, to, you know, I got into fights a few times. If I was going to to lie about it, I would lie in the other direction. I would try to make myself look better.

I would try to make it seem less like I got beat up or like I lost the fight. I would try to, you know, that's where the exaggeration would come on the other end of it to make me look like less of a victim. And that's how it should be for men. And now you shouldn't lie either way. You shouldn't exaggerate. But I think as men, if you're going to lie about something like that, It's much more natural and makes much more sense. And I would even say it's much healthier to lie in the other direction to make yourself seem like less of a victim. So, you know what? It would make more, I still wouldn't believe it, but it would make more sense to me.

I could understand it more if Jussie Smollett had made up a story about how he was walking down the street at 2 a.m. and two MAGA ninjas with MAGA hats jumped from a rooftop and with nunchucks and tried to assault him. But he dropped kicked him and did some kung fu moves and they all ran away. Right. Now, if Smolett had told that story, now that would be as believable as the story he did tell. But that would be a better story to make up because, number one, it's more entertaining. And number two, at least I understand that you're trying to make yourself seem like a tough guy. And so you're trying to get that sort of attention,

where the attention where people think that you're tough and strong and all of that. So at least I can sort of understand the motivation. But to make up a story that you were beat up, it just, not that there's anything shameful. I mean, people are jumped and beat up all the time. And you shouldn't feel like you have to lie about that. And you shouldn't. And I'm not saying that there is anything shameful about actually being.

being a victim, I'm just saying that as men, I think the more natural masculine instinct is to not want to be a victim, even when you are a victim, to wish that you weren't, and to not want to go around telling everybody about it. But we have, we've just completely flipped things on their head now, where that is gone now, you know, and now people, they see the status symbol, not as being a tough guy, not as being a guy who wins the fight. Now the status symbol is just being a put upon degraded victim. Third thing that we find from all this is that the left, which again, like I said, these are lessons that we already knew, so they're not really lessons, but the left has an utterly cartoonish idea of white men. I mean, just think about the last few months. We start with Kavanaugh, and the media and the left told us and believed that Kavanaugh, as a teenage boy, was a part of some sort of roving rape gang. And then we have the Covington Catholic student debacle, where we're told that these teenage boys just randomly, a whole massive horde of them, just randomly for no.

reason accosted a Native American, an elderly Native American gentleman who was just there playing his drums peacefully. And then we're told about the two white guys prowling the streets of Chicago and so on. All of these stories are, as I said, unbelievable. But the reason why people on the left believe them is because they have such a cartoonish, exaggerated, demeaning, insulting, idea of white men. This is how they see white men. Smolette, he made up this story and he thought it was believable because this is how he sees white people. Or especially, I should say, this is how he sees white conservative men. And so when he was inventing the story, he thought, yeah, well, this is totally, this is what they do, right? This is how they are. And then related to

this, the fourth thing, the media just cannot stop be clowning itself. Journalists made fools of themselves again with this case. But don't for a minute think that there's going to be any accountability. There's not going to be any honest self-assessment. So don't imagine that. In fact, if you want to know how the media is going to rationalize its behavior on this story, well, we're already seeing, we're already seeing what they're doing with it. So let's look at this segment from Brian Stelter's show on CNN. And this is, right, Now we're getting an idea of the media after being embarrassed on this. This gives us an idea of how they're going to kind of get around it.

So watch this. The narrative was set so early on that January day because TMZ first heard about this alleged attack. TMZ was the first to say they heard the MAGA country quote. It came from a source close to Jussie. So immediately this was a political fight, right? Immediately there were political stakes to this story. Liz, do you think that distorted it? Right. I mean, the MAGA quote, I remember reading about this story and looking for a real,

reputable media outlet reporting on that, and I could not find one, right? The people who were repeating that quote were not news outlets, were not media outlets. It was repeated by sure people who maybe had good intentions of wanting to spread this story and had empathy for what they thought was, you know, a real story. But we can't confuse celebrity tweets with the media and the press. And, you know... So you're saying actors and activists? who were rushing to his side because they're friends with him and they support him and they're concerned about a possible of high crime. Of course he's in a restaurant.

Are not the same as Chicago reporters who were trying to find out what happened. Exactly. Okay, see, see, it wasn't the media. No, the media didn't do anything wrong. The media, it's not their fault. It was, you know, it was celebrities. It was people on Twitter.

No, the media didn't do it. And I should say something that, from what I've seen just online, local media in Chicago, they have been pretty good. on, very good on this story, actually. They've been on top of it. It seems to me that they were skeptical from the start. They've been trying to get to the bottom of it, really investigating the story, getting new information out there. So local media in Chicago has been good. But national media

can't take credit for that. Okay, that's got nothing to do with CNN. The national media disgraced itself as usual. You know, Trump yesterday went on Twitter and he, He tweeted a familiar slogan with him. He said, The rigged and corrupt media is the enemy of the people in all caps. And he said this kind of thing a million times. But once again, journalists on Twitter took this tweet, and they very somberly pointed to this to show how there's a war on the press

and on the First Amendment, and they are victims and so on. We need to appreciate them more because this is, this is what they have to deal with it. They're being persecuted. Well, here's my suggestion for those in the media, for so-called journalists in the so-called news media. Rather than whining and feeling sorry for yourself, when Trump calls you enemy of the people or fake news or corrupt or whatever,

rather than whining and feeling sorry for yourself, maybe you folks in the news media should stop and consider why so many Americans agree wholeheartedly with Donald Trump? Why is it that so many people think that you really are the enemy? And that you are corrupt and you are fake and rigged. You can go pout in the corner and stomp your feet and say, this isn't fair. We do it, you know, pat yourselves on the back. And Hollywood can make another movie celebrating the courage and heroin.

of journalists, that's fine. Or you could actually stop and assess and look in the mirror and say, how have we gotten to the point where so many people in this country hate us? Why does everyone hate us so much? It could be that all the people who hate you are just awful and horrible and maybe that's it. Or maybe it's because you have earned this contempt over decades and decades. Do you ever consider that maybe people are just sick of the propaganda and the slanted way that you present every story and how you hop on any opportunity to make certain people look bad?

Do you ever think people maybe just tired of that? Oh, no, that can't be it. No, no, no, no. Everyone is wrong. You're right. Everyone else is wrong. By the way, one other thing to mention on this before I move on, I think it just has to be emphasized, not that this is even the main point. point, but this is this has got to be the dumbest race hoax in history by by Smollett.

Just think about if you're if you're going to do this, which I don't know why you would. I do know why he did it, as we've talked about, because victimhood is is profitable. But if you're if you're going to do it and you're going to put all this thought into it to the point of allegedly apparently paying people off and involved, it just seems like, man, you made a lot of really dumb mistakes. And the first mistake was to involve other people in it. So if you're going to make up a story about getting beat up in a hate crime, it's better to just invent the culprits out of thin air.

Just invent imaginary people. Don't actually enlist real people in the plot with you. because when you do that and eventually they're found and eventually they flip on you, which they will, now there's going to be positive evidence that you lied. Whereas if the people just didn't exist, then there'd be no one for the police to find and question and flip. And then, of course, the other big mistake was involving the police in the first place. See, here's the thing. Police are very good at detecting lies.

Okay, police have very finely tuned BS detectors. This is what they do, especially when you're dealing with detectives. They detect. This is what they deal with liars every single day. This is what they do for a living. I guarantee you that the police, within five seconds, they knew that this was made up. I guarantee within five seconds, they knew it. Of course, they still had to go through the process and do everything and investigate.

And I'm sure they did all of that exactly as they should. but just their gut instinct dealing with pathological liars every day, I guarantee they knew right away. So if you're going to make up a hate crime, just do everything you can to avoid involving the police. Once you do that, it's over because they're not going to fall for it. And then if you make really rookie mistakes, like hanging on to your sandwich the whole time,

it's just you stand no chance. All right, one other, let's see here. What else I want to mention? Colin Kaepernick. Okay, Colin Kaepernick had this collusion case that he was against the NFL, alleging that the NFL had colluded to bar him from the league so that no teams would hire him or bring him on their squads. And he finally settled that case with the NFL.

And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. I just want to mention that the reports indicate that his settlement with the NFL was in the 60 to 80 million range. So apparently he made between 60 and 80 million dollars from the NFL. And you add that to the Nike contract that he got, which

was, I don't know how much that was tens of millions of dollars. He's getting paid by Nike. I mean, being, this kind of relates back to what we talked about to begin with. Being a victim really pays in America.

So you could tell why Smollett made this up. Because victim hood literally pays. Colin Kaepernick is put forward as some sort of martyr for some kind of great cause. Well, martyrdom has never been such a cushy gig, has it? Being a martyr now pays you tens of millions of dollars, not to mention all the fame and, and admiration that comes with it. It's just martyrdom ain't what it used to be, I guess, is the point. All right, let's see. let's get to some of your emails before we wrap up here. You can email the show, Matt Walsh Show at gmail.com. This is from Joshua. He says, hi, Matt. A couple of days ago, you touched on the theory

of alien life existing out in the universe. And that left me with a couple of questions on how aliens fit into God's plan for the universe. If God did create aliens, do you think he placed us so far apart so we don't interfere with each other's histories and that we are never meant to find them in the first place? Also, is it possible that they could have their own interpretation of the Trinity, Bible, and Christianity. Hi, Joshua. Yeah, I've often thought the same thing. We talked about aliens on Friday.

One of my favorite subjects. Maybe the vast distances are there for a reason because there's just, we're not supposed to ever make contact. As for your second point, I certainly think that a race of hypothetical aliens could well have their own scripture, must have their own sort of scripture. And it's likely they have nothing called Christianity, as we know it. although if they are rational creatures and God has revealed himself to them, then they can't have their own Trinity. The Trinity is the Trinity is the Trinity, anywhere in the cosmos, anywhere in reality that you go.

But thank you for the email. Let's see here. From Lance, he says, Matt, in regards to your discussion about aliens today, have you heard of Fermi's paradox? How does that weigh on your point? Hi, Lance. Yes, the Fermi paradox says that there are there are trillions of stars out there, many of them billions of years older than the sun, which means that if there are other worlds in the universe, other planets with intelligent rational life, then some of those civilizations should be billions of years ahead of us, and thus we should have already received a visit from some of them. The fact that we haven't maybe indicates that we're a in the universe after all. Well, that is an interesting theory, but I have a couple of responses to that. Number one, who says that we haven't been visited, man?

Haven't you ever seen that show, ancient aliens? Okay, aliens have been here. Aliens have done everything. They built the pyramids. They've done everything. According to that show, aliens were the primary architects on Earth for the first like 10,000 years of human civilization. So that's number one.

Number two, more seriously, keep in mind the distances that we're talking about here. There are five trillion miles in a light year. The nearest star to ours is four light years away, so that's 20 trillion miles. The nearest galaxy to the Milky Way is the Andromeda Galaxy, and it is two million light years away from Earth. So two million times four trillion miles. That's how far away it is. my point is that even if life is exceedingly rare in the universe, even so rare that there's only one life-bearing planet per galaxy, let's say. Let's say that life is that rare, where you have basically one planet with intelligent life per galaxy.

Well, that would be very, very rare, but that would still mean that there are 100 billion planets with intelligent life because there are 100 billion galaxies. but the distances between them would be so vast. I mean, two million light years, that means that even if you were going at the speed of light, which as far as we know is impossible, but even if we could do the impossible and go the speed of light, it would take two million years

to get to the next galaxy. And there's no way that you would survive on a spaceship for two million years, even if it was some sort of generational spaceship where you had an entire civilization living on a spaceship going, to some distant galaxy. Well, still, two million years is a long time to survive in those quarters.

So it could just be, it could just be that the distant, it's just impossible. There is no technology that exists or could ever exist anywhere in the universe that could traverse those distances. It's possible. Let's hear of a bunch of other emails, but I'm running out of time. So let me, I had an email. from Grace, with a really interesting question, she says, hi, Matt, I've been wanting to know your opinion about something. Sometimes I will hear Christian apologists argue the case for Christianity

on the basis of near-death experiences. They point to all the stories of people being medically dead and then experiencing a vision of Christ or of heaven. Do you think this is an effective argument? What is your position on NDE's near-death experience? Grace, I think it's a very good question, and something that really interests me a lot, and I've read a lot about it. So what I'm going to do, this is going to be a teaser. I'm going to save that question for tomorrow's show, because I'm running out of time, and I want to give myself plenty of time to get into that. So I'm going to hold that thought, and you'll have to tune in tomorrow for the answer. Nice little tease there. Cliff Hanger ending. So we'll leave it there. Thanks everybody

for watching. Godspeed. Today on the Ben Shapiro show, the Jussie Smollett hoax reaches its natural endpoint. President Trump's wall is still divisive, and Democrats celebrate losing jobs in New York City. That's today on the Ben Shapiro show.