The Press Box - 2020 Update, Baker Mayfield’s Trash Talk, and the Week in Trump | The Press Box

Episode Date: August 23, 2019

The latest from Joe Biden’s campaign (03:00), the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week  (21:45), when to quote Baker Mayfield (26:15), the Week in Trump (35:30), the fall of Chuck Woolery (43:30), and more. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelly and welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. NFL preseason is in full swing and the Ringer NFL show is now airing four shows each week covering the latest news stories, training camp updates, fantasy football advice, and more. On the site, Robert Mays, Kevin Clark, and Danny Kelly offer up their insight on the 2019 season as we inch closer to kick off. You can read their pieces on the Ringer.com and you can listen and subscribe to the Ringer NFL show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. David, the Democrats are exactly one candidate away from having a two-night debate next month instead of a one-night debate. What I want to know is, as an official debate reactor,

how badly do you want the Democrats to debate for only one night? Oh, my gosh. Very badly? I don't know if that's not a very funny answer. Listen, I know that our electoral process, I know it is fickle. our electorate in particular is fickle and we choose not to spend too much time talking about that because these are issues that really matter that are being discussed and

you know the future of our country is a really important thing but I guarantee you that if Tom Steyer were running Facebook ads that instead of saying donate to me said donate a dollar and the Democratic debate will only be one night then I think that

side of the argument would win. He would double his money. And by the way, can I add a little note here? The second night, the potential second night of the Democratic debate is a Friday. It's a Friday night. So, one, what Democrat wants to be stuck on Friday night television, getting not nearly as much attention? And what debate podcaster wants to be stuck at home on Friday night reacting to a debate? That is, it's a crime against a lot of people.

It really would be. Yeah. It feels like the difference between who gets to a, appear on Thursday and Friday in that situation is a pretty significant difference. We are the one night only of media podcasts. This is the press box, a part of the Ringer podcast network. Hello media consumers, Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker here. Tons to get to today. We are going to talk about a very dumb argument about how and when to quote Cleveland Brown's quarterback Baker Mayfield. We've got the weekend Donald Trump, you know, buying Greenland being the king of

Israel, that sort of thing. We've got the language of sports writers, the fall of Chuck Woolrie and mail from listeners like you. But David, I want to start by talking to you about the latest news from the 2020 Democratic race. Would you like to begin by listening to Joe Biden's first Iowa

television ad? Would I? I thought you might. This is the commercial team Biden calls Bones. We know in our bones this election is different. The stakes are higher. The threat more

serious. We have to beat Donald Trump. And all the polls agree, Joe Biden is the strongest Democrat to do the job. No one is more qualified. For eight years, President Obama and Vice President Biden were an administration America could be proud of. Our allies could trust and our kids could look up to. Together, they work to save the American economy to pass the historic Affordable Care Act, protecting over 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. Now, Joe Biden is running for president with a plan for America's future. To build on Obamacare, not scrap it. To make a record investment in America's schools.

To lead the world on climate. To rebuild our alliances. Most of all, he'll restore the soul of the nation. Battered by an erratic, vicious bullying precedent. Strong, steady, stable leadership. Biden, president. I'm Joe Biden and I approve this message. So my question for you, David, is, do you approve this message?

in terms of will it work. Is that Kevin Conroy? Who was that voiceover? It was like the 90s movie trailer guy. I know. It was very strange. It was like, it sounded at first like, I mean, I spent the first 15 seconds

trying to figure out why Joe Biden sounded funny. And then it turned out to not be Joe Biden, which is a wild reveal, I guess. Yeah. I mean, that was, I don't know. What am I? what am I supposed to say here? How excited should I be? Has the reaction, that's literally the first time I've heard it.

Is it, do people think it's good? Well, I think it's very Biden, whether it's good or not. I mean, this is him giving the giant bear hug to Barack Obama. And when you see the, when you see the pictures of this, I mean, it's just, how many shots of me and Obama working hard on the issues can I stick into a minute and a half? There's that. There's, you know, him kind of sliding around. all the tricky issues in this Democratic primary.

I'm going to build on Obamacare even if I have one of the less ambitious health care plans out there. I'm going to lead on climate, even if I have one of the less ambitious climate plans out there. And again, all about electability.

I'm the guy who can beat Donald Trump. This is the only thing that should matter to you Democratic voters. So, you know, as a distillation of the grand rounds he's trying to win this nomination on. I think it's it's it's pretty much 100% yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, he's he sort of called his shot. I mean,

he's trying to set the terms for the debate. I'm not I'm not sure if he's going to have you know, if he's going to be able to to set the terms for the next, you know, primary debate. I'm not sure he's going to set the terms for the way that people address this campaign. Yeah. I mean, I I think in so much as it evokes things that we, whether it's like the old movie guy, like Chris said, or, you know, it evokes commercials of bygone years. I guess that's good, right? It's comfortable. It feels like it feels presidential.

It feels like he's like, you know, he's making sort of an affirmative choice to be kind of comfortable and confident. And that's, I think, the best mode for Biden, at least right now. A couple of people pointed out that essentially it's a general. election message. He's kind of skipping the Democratic primary altogether, not getting into the weeds on that at all, not drawing really any policy distinctions as he, of course, doesn't want to do because he tends to come out on the short end of that stick. If the message, the implicit message that you should ignore whatever you're uncomfortable with about Biden and vote for him because he can beat Donald Trump wasn't out there enough, let us listen to Jill Biden, Joe's wife,

come out and say this explicitly in New Hampshire. So yes, you know, I, you know, your candidate might be better on, I don't know, health care than Joe is. But you've got to look at who's going to win this election. And maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, okay, I sort of personally like so and so better. But your bottom line has to be that we have to be Trump. So there it is. The new Fox poll that came out conducted August 11 through 13th showed all four of the top Democratic contenders beating Trump fairly handling. In fact, Biden's numbers weren't all that different from Bernie Sanders's numbers.

But a CNN poll this week, and I'm stealing a lot of this from Steve Kornacki's roundup, but a CNN poll this week said when it asked Democrats, what is more important in a nominee, 54% says, has a strong chance of beating Trump. 39% said, shares my position on major issues. So Joe Biden is the candidate for that poll. Sure. Has a strong chance of beating Trump, but shares my position on major issues?

Yeah, sure. Okay, maybe. Less. I also like this tweet from David Axelrod, who said, talking about it says, electability, read Trump, partnership with Obama. empathy and character. This is what Joe Biden is selling and his success ultimately will

depend on his ability to deliver the message, which is a good reminder. It's a lot easier for him to deliver the message in a commercial than it has been so far for him to deliver it at a live debate. Yeah, I think that that's about what we expect, right? I mean, I guess we, you know, we're all a little bit surprised, or, you know, there's some level of surprise that debate performances haven't been as good as maybe you remember them being when he was running for V. But yeah, I mean, I think that he's, this is a very conservative message. I mean, campaign platform, you know? I mean, it's, it's about, it's about the past.

It's about comfort, you know, and, and certainly that's an argument that sort of always going to be easier to make from, you know, the recording studio with multiple takes and just like sort of, you know, the voiceover and the soundtrack and everything else. it's easy to evoke that sort of nostalgia. I understand why, if you're the Joe Biden campaign, you make the case that you're electable, more electable than the others. But, you know, I mean, it's an affirmative case for a campaign

and it's maybe his best argument. But, you know, Corey Booker's out there making the case that, you know, he shouldn't get so far, you know, get too far, we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves, Elizabeth Warren, saying the same thing. I think they're both out in California making this argument. And I think that, you know, a Democratic stronghold, that it makes sense. I mean, listen, it may be that Joe Biden, you know, with the statistical

breakdown is much more electable or somewhat more electable than some of the people he's running against. But I just feel like with a few, you know, I mean, if you look at all the frontrunners, you know, we've seen how elections have gone over the past four, eight, 12, 16 years. I mean, it's, we're talking about a vanishingly small margin of error between these different candidates. And I think that it's just to disqualify anybody in the primary this early based on some notion of future electability, I think is pretty wild. You use the word comfort earlier. Can we call Joe Biden the comfort food candidate?

And I'm not talking about like the artisanal hipster comfort food where you like mix a local cheese in with that macaroni. I mean like the old country buffet comfort food. Like this is this this is like $8.99 all you can eat candidacy right here. you're just going to we want you we want to appeal on the most basic level of comfort. You're just going to come in here and sit down and just just just it's going to be right down the middle. I mean, nothing new here. No new, no weird foods, nothing, nothing strange.

That is the Joe Biden can't say to me at this moment. Yeah, David. David, we got some news from the next Democratic debate, which is set for September 12th in Houston. Julien Castro is in the debate. and almost in is Tom Steyer, the billionaire philanthropist and impeachment advocate. And Tom Steyer is almost in because he figured out how to hack the debates. What he did was by $3.5 million worth of digital ads, according to opensecrets.org, and then asked people through those ads to donate $1 to his campaign

because one of the Democratic National Committee's criteria for getting into the debate is $130,000 different donors. The DNC was thinking that would be a sign that people actually, actually like you, whereas Tom Steyer changed it to, it's a sign that I'm rich enough to convince people to give me a dollar. That was the, that was the whole thing. A rival campaign tells the Atlantic's Edward Isaac DeVier, quote, this amounts to a wealth transfer between Tom Steyer and Mark Zuckerberg, which I think is pretty good. Here's the other thing that's broken about the DNC debate process.

Because if Steyer gets in, it's not just setting up an extra. podium at Texas Southern University. If he gets in, which means he's going to hit 2% in one more poll this week, we are once again going to split the Democratic field into two debates over two nights. And what if that somehow results in Biden and Elizabeth Warren being in separate debates again? So we don't get the contrast and the debate we actually want, but get everything ladled out over two nights again. Oh my gosh.

I'm not just saying this as somebody who's milking this for content. That is genuinely frustrated. Yeah. And genuinely weird. But I don't really have a solution for it because I don't know. I understand the DNC was trying to measure, trying to be scrupulously fair and measure who gets into these debates. Right.

And I don't have a great plan of how they should have done it otherwise. Yeah. I mean, obviously it's, It's a reaction to the last campaign when Bernie Sanders was perceived to be or was greatly disadvantaged by the DNC's system. And yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a, it is, they were forced to and it was the right thing to do to kind of work with an abundance of caution to go in the opposite direction. But I don't know.

I mean, it does seem weird that. that Tom Steyer or any candidate at this point is basically campaigning not for a viable shot at the presidency, but for, I mean, like the most direct result is to split the debate up over two nights. It's that seems like, I don't, it's gonna, I mean, that's how everyone's gonna perceive it.

And it feels like at a bare minimum, if we're talking about one candidate, then the stake, I mean, you should retract those stakes, right? I mean, if there's some ways to say, like, no matter whether or not, Steyer gets in, the debate's going to be one night or whether or not he gets in it's going to be two nights. But just like to have it dragging up to this point and then and now we're just going to be counting Facebook impressions to see whether or not, you know, we have one night or two to watch these people

talk to each other. It just seems so silly. Jay Inslee, the Washington governor who's running on a kind of single platform climate change bit has exited the presidential race. Yes, we saw the Jay Outson. Lee overworked Twitter jokes. Also, Jay Walking. Thank you very much for sending us on.

I know. Inslee is running for a third term as Washington governor. And John Hickenlooper, David, America's favorite banjo player who had a short, dismal presidential campaign, is in the Colorado Senate race. He also has a new ad. Let me do a little scene setting for you. While he's saying

all this stuff, Hickenlooper is playing pool. He is playing pool. Maybe in the brew pub he found it. Listen up. When they play games, in Washington, D.C., coloradans take the hit. Trying to knock out protections for preexisting conditions,

that could be devastating for hundreds of thousands of Caroladans. Playing games while prescription drug prices soar, that's costing people more than they can afford. And don't get me started on the shots they're taking at public lands, leaving them to developers instead of sportsmen. I don't think Cory Gardner understands

that the games he's playing with Donald Trump and Mitch. McConnell are hurting the people of Colorado. We ought to be working together to move this country forward and stop the political nonsense. We're running out of time to confront climate change. We've got to help families who are crushed by prescription drug costs, and everybody ought to have a shot at building a better future. I know we can do that. Look, I'm a straight shooter. I've always said Washington was a lousy place for a guy like me who wants to get things done, but this is no time to walk away from the table. I know changing Washington is hard, but I want to give it a shock.

I'm not done fighting for the people of Colorado. I'm John Hickenliper, candidate for the United States Senate. I approve this message, and I hope you'll join me in this campaign. Do we think he got enough billiards puns in there? Really work in that motif. Oh my gosh, that was amazing. That was like, I feel like we were coming back from the commercials to a new episode of Sons of Anarchy for about the past 15 minutes. That's incredible stuff then. First of all, I want to take exception with America's favorite banjo player. I mean, I don't know if we're, if Earl Gruggs has been disqualified because he's dead, but come on, Steve Martin is still out there.

He's a great, he's, I mean, not strictly a banjo player, but he's a great banjo player. We're all competing for number two. Yeah, Roy Clark, he's still out there somewhere. I mean, that was, I don't know. I mean, I guess it seems weird. Maybe he doesn't see that as a sort of quick rebranding, but that's how I read it. Maybe he needs that. Maybe that's how he's known in Colorado.

Maybe he's just a, you know, a hard-driving southern fried PI or whatever that music's supposed to evoke. But yeah, I mean, listen, I hope he wins. Like I said, he's good for that state. and I think this is a good slot for him. You and I, David, have been collecting failed candidate busts. You know, the candidate thinks they're going to unveil a big line and then it's just crickets. The leader in the clubhouse is still Bill de Blasio confusing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde In an attack on Biden about the Hyde Amendment.

But we have a new challenger. It is Amy Klobuchar. On August 16th, she tweeted this, the difference between Donald Trump and Greenland? Greenland is not for sale. That's um, did not go viral. Tough.

Oh my gosh. David, speaking of long shots, were you aware that Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton is still running for president? Dimly aware, yes. Ah, good word. Because according to Stephen Shepard over at Politico,

he says with the new Fox News poll just out, Seth Moulton has now registered zero percent in all of the 38 qualified. polls being used by the DNC for debate eligibility. He is a perfect 0 for 38. And I mean, oh, zero. People do not, do not approve. Speaking of long shots out, but Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, this has got to be the most heartrending tweet of the campaign.

Lady Gaga tweeted about depression, made a joke, said, I'm Italian. Like, I don't get depressed, I guess. Tim Ryan slid into her replies and said, this isn't a tweet to go viral or seek an endorsement. I'd love an opportunity to speak with you in regards to social and emotional learning in our schools, addressing our country's growing anxiety and stress. No word on if Lady Gaga has accepted the Tim Ryan summit. And finally, David, do we care that the Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks is reviewing the performances of the Democratic candidates?

This sounds like a really good pitch in the editorial board that should have never made it of the editorial board. But go on. Tell me what he has to say. Let me sample a little bit of marks on Elizabeth Warren. She enters in an ordinary blouse and slacks, not a toga. And yet, when Senator Elizabeth Warren takes the stage of a music call in this sweltering sunbelt city,

it is with the command of the occasion that might have Julius Caesar's Mark Antony taking notes. The vocal modulation, the oratorial. rhythm, the instinct for a good story. She's got the ingredients for a magnetic performance, and she delivers. When Warren speaks, you lean in. So I know the normal complaint is that political writers are doing theater criticism, right? That's the thing we people say all the time.

After reading that, I'm ready to bring back the political writers to do theater criticism. never have I wanted amateur theater criticism more than I do now. It's okay. All is forgiven. Just come back. Let's let the theater credit go back to the stage. There are lots of Julius Caesar references in that piece, by the way. It just seems very strange.

It just seems very strange to find a new platform from which to inject a value judgment or to inject a like a very personal opinion onto a content. that is entirely based upon personal opinions, right? I mean, it's like, if he were going with, like, advanced metrics here, I would be very interested. You know, if he actually compared her somehow, somehow, you know, scientifically to actors, to speakers or something, there might be some point of interest there, but no. I don't need him to know that when Warren speaks, you lean in. That's either true for you or it's not. In this case, if you don't like Elizabeth Warren, it doesn't matter what the critic says.

Somebody should tell an advanced metrics guy to start a political side. That would be something. Can we get that going? All right, David, time for the Overwork Twitter joke of the week where we celebrate a gag that was so obvious that all of media Twitter made it at exactly the same time. Send your nominees to at the press box pod where they are always gratefully received. Interesting week on the Overwork Twitter desk because there was a lot of consensus. Jeff Passon, baseball writer and Scoopmeister over at ESPN tweets this. The use of gas station sexual enhancement pills in baseball is. is so prevalent that MLB sent out a memo warning players their use could lead to positive

PED tests. So gas station sexual enhancement pills and baseball. I think I know where this is going. Yeah, it was an overwork Twitter joke to write. The balls are juiced. Thanks to Josh Sandin, Andrew Joe Potter, and Ryan Burns for that one. Nikki Haley, former Trump ambassador to the United Nations and always a prospective candidate for something or other, was apparently worried people thought she.

She was trying to push out Mike Pence and become Trump's running mate. And so she got on Twitter to preemptively declare she wasn't. It was an overwork Twitter joke to set it up like this. No one, colon, literally not a soul, colon, Nikki Haley, colon. Enough of the false rumors. Vice President Pence has been a dear friend of mine for years, et cetera, et cetera. Thanks to Ryan Hand, number one boy and Aaron Schaefer and to Ariel Edwards Levy, who noticed it originally.

we need to come up with a name for this moment in the in the in the in the electoral news cycle where every four years or I guess every eight years there's some conversation about getting rid of the vice president reappointing something appointing somebody else for the electoral purposes it's the best it's it's it's never true it's never going to be true it would it would signal such great calamity and catastrophe inside the campaign that it would it would I mean there's no positive version of it and yet we always talk about it somebody always brings it up it was huge Hillary for Biden, right? Yeah, I think so. Am I remember right? Yeah, she was going to come in and save the day. This one from the Canadian police blotter, David. Ontario police search for suspects after $187,000 worth of cheese goes missing. $187,000 worth of cheese. It was an overweight Twitter joke to write, what kind of monster does something like this?

Thanks to library aims. I like that one. And finally, this comes to us from Jeff Hoffman, who found this pun in a roundup compiled by Huff Pose Josie Harvey. Josie Harvey reports, quote, this week, a team of scientists produced a delicious loaf of sourdough bread

using 4,500-year-old yeast preserved from ancient Egypt. A delicious loaf of sourdough bread using 4,500-year-old yeast from ancient Egypt. It was an overwork Twitter joke to write The Yummy Returns. The yummy returns.

returns. If you glanced at an inspiring story of Egyptology and microbiology and thought of a Brendan Fraser vehicle, congrats. You made the overworked Twitter joke at a week. All right, David, before we move on, let's take a quick break.

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at Luminary.com slash press box. After that, it's only $7.99 a month. That's luminary.com slash press box for two months of free access. Luminary.com slash press box cancel any time. Terms apply. Time for the notebook dump, David. And sometimes here on a media podcast, you and I have to talk about dumb things. Like the controversy involving a quote from Cleveland Brown's quarterback Baker Mayfield

that appears in a new GQ profile that was written by Clay Skipper. Skipper and Mayfield were doing an interview at a steakhouse near Cleveland. And Mayfield spotting Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones on a nearby television said, I cannot believe the Giants took Daniel Jones. blows my mind. Mayfield went on to say that a quarterback should win. Daniel Jones had a losing record of Duke where he played his college football. Well, the writer Mike Florio took exception to that. Not with Mayfield saying something in politics, but with Clay Skipper's decision to quote Mayfield saying it. Floreo writes, when will non-sports outlets like GQ be criticized for drawing controversial

remarks from young inexperienced players in a casual setting where they often don't realize anything they say can and will be used against them. Florio continues, it's disingenuous in my view for reporters to play that gotcha game treating every word uttered during an encounter with the subject of an interview as fair game and lessen until the subject

of the interview utters the magic words off the record. You have me to start here because I got a lot of thoughts about this. Please do, yeah. At the risk of taking Florio's scolding too seriously. What he's talking about, I think, is that sort of casual

time you often have with the subject before and after an interview when the subject is letting you into the house, when there's small talk, and it's not always clear that the subject knows this material could be used in the article. That's interesting. The thing is, that's actually not what happened here, because according to Skipper's piece, they are sitting down at dinner, he and Mayfield, in a public place, the food has arrived, and Skipper's tape recorder presumably is running this whole time.

So what possible expectation could Baker Mayfield have that that line would be stricken from the record? I don't know. No, I know. And I don't think that was even Baker Mayfield's argument against it.

I mean, you're absolutely right on that front. The other thing is, and I'll say this as somebody who does this every once in a while, when you're with a subject in that kind of setting and you do have those casual moments, sometimes you'll find your subject will say

semi-dangerous, semi-controversial things to you. Things you can tell they don't want in the article. And do you know what they're doing? They are trying to subtly convey to you, hey, I'm a cool guy. Even if I clam up when you turn on that recorder, Brian, I want you to know that I'm a good, dude. So when you look at the transcript and I haven't given you anything, you'll like me.

Right. They're working you when they say that stuff. They're taking advantage of the idea that you're not going to use that material. And Florio, I don't think, understands that. He thinks this is all naive people blurting things out and the big bad reporter quoting them. No, no, no, no, no. I think in a lot of these cases, this is the subject working the reporter, just like the reporter is working the subject. Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, I guess if the stakes were some were higher at all, I might be more inclined to shed a tear for these, you know, naive, ill-equipped professional athletes who were being, you know, steered into

calamity, I mean, steered into misadventure by, by, uh, these duplicitous reporters out there.

But I mean, come on. Even if this had been on the, the casual walk from the front door to the, to the interview table, even if this had been, you know, an offhanded remark that,

that should, that, you know, that might should have been interpreted as being off the record. I mean, I mean, I mean, he said he didn't know why the giants drafted Daniel Jones.

Well, I mean, literally nobody who read that article has any idea why the Giants drafted Daniel Jones. I mean, he didn't say something controversial here, you know? It was just something, I mean, it's not the inclusion of that in the article. I mean, maybe it's, I mean, maybe this is like old man, you know, yells at clouds, but like, this is the problem with our news cycle. This is the problem with just like Twitter. It's the problem with the, you know, focus on on the sound bite or the, you know, the hook over content. I mean, over, you know, something with actual value, you know, with depth.

But, I mean, this is not that big of a deal. And the reaction to it makes it seem like a bigger deal than it is. You think it would have been bigger news if he said he knew why the Giants drafted Daniel Jones with that pick? Yeah. I know exactly what they were doing. Yeah. If he had a good explanation for it, that would have been fantastic. Can we also take issue with the idea that Baker Mayfield is some,

naive who doesn't know how his controversial remarks play. This is the guy who said after a Brown's win last year when I woke up this morning, I was feeling pretty dangerous. Said that at a press conference. Before a Baylor game when he was in college, he said, you forgot who daddy is. I'm going to have to spank you today.

Guy who grabbed his crotch against Kansas while playing at OU. Guy who was the Heisman winner and the number one pick and a starting quarterback in the NFL last year, it's far more believable to me that Baker Mayfield is human clickbait, like clickbait on purpose. Like I am cultivating this air of the guy who will throw any pass

and say anything. And I'm going to throw all this chum into the water and you're going to go get it. That is way, way, way more believable than I said something and I hoped it would be in confidence. What that mean

reporter put it in the article. I mean, come on. I just, I don't even get that. I mean, it seems like his whole act is getting attention by kind of pissing people off. I don't think, I mean, I think that there's truth to that. And again, I mean, I don't know if you want to read Mayfield's, his actual response, but I mean, he's claiming it was taken out of context, not that it shouldn't have been included at all, right? His idea, what he said is that he, he said, I also said, I was surprised that I got drafted number one. So I was expressing general surprise. By the way, that is also in,

that thought is also in Clay Skippers article. So his argument is that I was, I was surprised that anybody got drafted. Okay, well, that's also in the piece. So I don't, I don't actually know. He also said, this is not what I said, but then provides no evidence. This is not what he said.

So I really don't know. Sounds to me like it was quoted correctly. Don't have the tape, but it sounds to me like it was just fine. I don't, I mean, this is one of those. things where this happens and then reporters start saying, quoting Baker Mayfield saying, this is not what I said, implying fabulism on the part of the writer. I just say we were real careful about that because, you know, it's one of those things that if he wants to come out and say, hey, what I meant was this, that's fine. But this idea that, you know, Baker, Baker Mayfield

coming out and saying, well, this is not what I said and it has an explanation that doesn't make any sense. it doesn't actually contradict the reporter at all. That just always makes me bad. By the way, to your point, can we talk about the news cycle for a minute? Because I think that is a really interesting point here. There's a good argument that says we should make it, we as a media should make it comfortable for people like Baker Mayfield to tell the truth. The problem is he can't utter something that is pretty innocuous

or as you said, totally uncontroversial without aggregator media and football media jumping all over it and, you know, opinion shows and that kind of thing

and turning it into a big thing, which is then going to discourage him from ever saying it again. That's an interesting point. Here's what I'd like to throw out about this. Mike Florio's item scolding the journalistic ethics of this whole exchange.

Baker Mayfield had his mind blown by the giant selection of Daniel Jones. That's the headline. And it starts with the item. So if you think this is ill gotten by the reporter, shouldn't you ignore it? Shouldn't you not spread it around? Or are those clicks so tempting that even in the process of scolding somebody,

you want to milk it for all its worth? That's funny. It's funny how that works. News cycle. It's broken. You're right. The weekend Trump, David. compiled a few things, and this is necessarily a partial list because we can't go two hours here.

But how about we start with Greenland? This whole bit started on August 15th with a piece in the Wall Street Journal, which had four co-authors, which reported that Trump had mused about buying Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark. By the way, journalistic adjective of the week is semi-autonomous. That was pulled out of the dictionary. When I first saw this, I thought, this is below. But Trump will officially deny it or laugh it off.

Not quite. On Sunday, Trump called it essentially a large real estate deal. On Monday, he tweeted a picture of a giant gold building that had been superimposed on an island, which is apparently Greenland. The people of Denmark were aghast. The Danish prime minister said, Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope this is not meant seriously. A former finance minister wrote, Total Chaos, and called it a diplomatic.

crisis. Trump then canceled a state visit to Denmark, citing Denmark's lack of interest in selling Greenland is the reason. And on the White House lawn, he laid into the Danish PM, Mehta Fredrickson. I think it's a good idea because Denmark is losing $700 million a year with it. It doesn't do them any good, but all they had to do is say, no, we'd rather not do that or we'd rather not talk about it. Don't say what an absurd idea that is. She's not talking to me. Excuse me. She's not talking to me. She's talking to the United States of America. You don't talk to the United States that way. At least under me.

Okay. You're right. I mean, it sounded like when it first, when this news item about Trump being interested in Greenland first came up, it did sound like plausible, but so laughable. But, I mean, I didn't even think it was going to merit a response. You know, it's just, it's just, you know, it's punchline fodder, but it's not. It didn't seem like it was real. The fact that not only was it real, but that it immediately materialized as a significant going concern was just sort of bracing. And the fact that you would, you know, take offense to the reaction to be so confused by it, to cancel your, you know, bilateral meeting with Denmark because that's not on the table. I mean, it really feels like, I don't know, I don't want to over-sickechle-analyze the guy,

but it does feel like he's like looking for, he's like looking for the, just trying to like, he's like somebody who didn't show up for like, for class all semester and is just trying to like get, like, you know, get a passing grade because he does one big project at the end or something, right? I mean, he's looking for that one thing

that he's going to be positively remembered by and this, you know, he knows real estate. This seems like something manageable for him. I don't know. It just, it's, it just, it's really weird and sad. This is all best understood in tandem with the other stuff that happened this week.

Trump on Twitter quoted Wayne Allen Root, who is a birther and newsmax host, as saying, quote, the Jewish people in Israel love him like he's the king of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God. On Tuesday, Trump said of American Jews, quote, if you vote for a Democrat, you're being disloyal to Jewish people and you're being very disloyal to Israel. Israel. On Wednesday, not done yet, Trump looked skyward from the White House lawn and said this about his trade war with China. Somebody had to do it. I am the chosen one. Somebody had to do it. So I'm taking on China. I'm taking on China on trade. And you know what? We're winning. So just in case you

don't think he was taking that tweet from David Allen Root seriously. Apparently internalized it, right? Right. Wayne Allen Root. I want to stay up. newsmax host David. Don't get your newsmax host, David. Don't get your newsmax host. I like this tweet from Benji's Island of NBC. I don't want to sit to sit here and say, boy, has Trump really gone off this time? What does that do? But Benji's Island of NBC had a good idea, which he said, there may, there has maybe been too much speculation about what a minor bump in the economy might do to the president's poll numbers and not enough about what it might do to his sense of self and day-to-day behavior.

And I think that's exactly right. If we do begin to nose into a recession, what will he do? What will, because all this feels like grasping around, as you say, for that assignment at the end of the semester that shows you did something. And I just sort of wonder what it's going to be if the economy tanks. Oh, you know, I have, I just, if buying Greenland is on the tank. table, I have no idea what the other options are. I really don't. Yeah. I mean, it's not, on the table is a funny way to put it, because the implication is that, I mean, I mean, it's not on the table, right? It's on the table only in Trump's mind. So if something that's not,

if something that's off the table is on the table, then yes, that's where we are. I mean, that, that's, I guess that's, I think that there's this sort of, like every election cycle, there's this, the economy, you know, the, the, the, the, the metaner of the economy, is always at the forefront. And, you know, it's always, people always talk about how, you know, if the economy kind of hits this point or is in such and such shape, then basically, you know, as a president, you don't get reelected or you automatically get reelected, right? It seems like, like the campaign almost becomes a formality when we're having discussions

about economic performance. And in that context, Trump spinning out makes a lot of sense, you know? I mean, it sort of, it seems on, it's, you know, it's, it's maybe overdoing it, but it's, it's a common refrain. It feels like every four years that it's just like, why do we even cast votes? Why don't we just like look at the, look at the, how the economy's doing, right? But if, I mean, if it's that, if it's that much of a given, then, you know, I can understand why Trump would be like flipping out, grasping at straws, whatever you want to say.

David, I want to talk to you about the language of sports writers. Okay. Longtime passion of mine. Dallas Cowboys signed a linebacker named. Jalen Smith to a contract extension this week. And that's not all that important in the grand scheme, except David, it was a moment to savor the mandatory adjectives sports writers must use. Whenever any player signs a contract extension, we must call it a lucrative extension. Signed a lucrative extension.

That is the only word. It's never rich. It's never well-moneyed. It's a lucrative extension. by the way, I put that on Twitter and Charlie Pierce our old pal tweets back because complete bullshit that will never be paid in full is bad for the rhythm

of the sentence. Which is true. It is also true, David, when sports writers write about this sort of thing, that the extension was given to the player by a deep pocketed owner. A deep pocketed owner, especially if there's a Clipper story. It's always a deep

pocketed owner. Yes. And I like this response from Adam Zia Lanka, who covers hockey over at the Washington Times, he said, my pet peeve in the sports contract department is when folks say a player is getting a deal to the tune of $40 million. I pull out my hair. Where did that? And he's so right. And I wish I thought of that.

Did that come from like the big band era of sports writing or something to the tune of? Why did we start doing that? That's a great question. I have no idea. I mean, I think the practical answer is you do it because other people have done it before you. Yeah, but I just want to know who the, who originated that to the tune of 40 million. It's, it's very funny. Department of Fallen Idols, David, I woke up this week on the West Coast here. And the number one trending Twitter topic in the Twitter power rankings was Chuck Woolry, who had wandered into the Democrats of the real racist zone.

I'm not even, I'm not even read the tweet. Did you see this? No, this is the first time hearing it. The first sentence is all caps, racism has nothing to do with race, which is news to do a lot of people. Racism is the progressive left crying out for attention, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Chuck Woolrie for quite a while now has been a conservative guy on Twitter and is the host of something called Blunt Forst Truth, which is a podcast, I think. But during our childhood, he was the host of a beloved game show. Love Connection. If you're too young, please take a moment to enjoy 20 seconds of love connection.

He claims that his cat helps him score points with his dates. He says that every time he meets a woman, he always notices the same thing first. Please welcome Don Shasha. A couple of things there for you, Youngens. One was that kind of music played in every waiting room in America in the 80s. That was just kind of our kind of ambient sound of, of waiting rooms and such and number two, David, do you remember that

television gimmick where words came across the screen and you heard like the noise of the typewriter keys? Oh, yeah. That was a very 80s thing too. I love that. I love that.

I don't know about you, but I, you know, it's like I'm taking Chuck Worreys fall into whatever this is harder than like John Voids or James Woods's. Because that dude was awesome.

That guy was like a game show host. I mean, there were a lot of great game show host of the 80s. I'm not sure anyone looked and sounded more like a game show host than Chuck Woolry. No one, he had an amazing ability. And maybe it was because he was so, like, tall.

And he had, you know, and Lenky is not great, but he was. No, that's right. I think he was. But he could sort of fold himself on top of the host's podium in a way that like you or I would get into a barkal lounger or something.

Like he could make himself, just looks so physically comfortable. Like he's just like leaning back and having a cigarette when he's like conducting his MC duties which I think was just part of the cool that came with being Chuck Woolery. Absolutely.

And like and love connection in its day was like match.com and Tinder before before they existed. That was as close as we got in the 80s. Like you had a date with somebody who you just watched a video of. That's I think what it was. and then you were going to come back and you're going to come back and to it.

I feel like we're talking about penny postcards here, but we're going to come back in two and two, as he used to say and find out how the date went. What a strange dissent. Two and two and two. We'd be back in two and two and he'd flip his hand around. What a strange descent for Chuck Woolray. When I was, you know this. Back when I was a kid, I used to write to celebrities and ask for autograph pictures from our, from our homes in Fort Worth, Texas. I just had this obsession with autographs and celebrities.

and everything, and I wrote a note to Chuck Wilry, and he sent me back in 8x10 that said, Brian, hope you make a love connection, Chuck Woolry, which I still have somewhere. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do with that picture now. Lister Mail, David. One note about our discussion earlier in the week about Deadspin and G.O. Media's Jim Spanfeller, who is now munking around with the site. I said Spanfeller was from the content farm era of Forbes.com. I have been advised that is not correct.

He is from the shameless slideshow era of Forbes.com. I regret the era. Oh, my gosh. Can I, can I, I don't know if this bears mentioned, but I have very fond memories of your days working at the launch of the Daily Beast because every time, every time we would get into a conversation

with one of your coworkers or just anybody who was sort of peripheral to that moment in publishing and online publishing. Everybody, you know, of our generation or whatever, has our dream, right? I'm going to start my own website. I'm going to be so much better than the one I'm working at. I'm going to reinvent how the internet works.

Literally everybody that we talked to in that era had the one thing they really wanted to do if they had their own website, which is like, I just want to cover sports and politics, but like, you know, it's going to come from the point of view of an alien or something like that. But they would always add in to the, had there always been indenting

them on the end where they would say, and also slideshows. Because at that moment in time, at that moment in time, it was the one thing that everybody knew for sure about online publishing is that slide shows is how you made money. Yes. Yes. And that was the one thing

that you had to do. Yeah. You absolutely had to do. I remember we had an early one at the Daily Beast that was like the spouses of Davos or their wives and girlfriends of Davos. I can't remember what it was. I'll try to look for. I cannot immediately find it, but I remember Paul Krugman tweeted

about it, like, this is the end of the world that this is happening. He was probably right. From the world of peak newsletter, David, Joe C-Stack, who was also running for president, in case you've forgotten. Joe C-Stack in Pennsylvania, has a newsletter called

Cup of Joe. Cup of Joe. Our friend Chris Solentrop sent that to us. He, that was also the name of Joe Thisman's column in the early days of ESPN, Cup of Joe. I don't know if he got him to write for it. If I also got a music update for you,

I went to a gin blossoms concert last week. You might have heard about this. Yeah, I heard something about this. I'm very excited to hear the story. It was at the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa here in Orange County. An amazing night, I was, thanks to the kindness of the gin blossoms, my wife and I were ushered backstage to take a picture with the band,

which was just incredible, and meet the band, the official band. of the press box. That was incredibly exciting. Then we went out and they did a whole show. They did all the, they did all the old hits. They played mixed in Tom Petty's,

even the losers. It's kind of a kind of a curveball in there. Robin Wilson, who is the lead singer, came out and said, between songs, he said, I think the last time we were at this arena

for a show was in 1993 with UB40. And there was a big, there was a big laugh, but I looked it up and they did open for UB40 in the night. So that might have actually been true. Wow. So that was amazing.

The only other reaction I have is I, like I said, we took a picture and I put it up on Twitter and put it on my Instagram page. And one of the first comments was, wow, the gin blossoms got to meet Wojj. So that was kind of funny. I also got a note here from Pickle Jar Hero, who says we should rename the guest the pun segment as Davey, get your pun. pun. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. I'd also be okay with Davies got a pun.

Oh, no. And speaking of which, it's time for the David Shoemaker guess is the strained pun headline segment. Tuesday's winner, pasta la vista. Pasta levista. This one came to us from Matthew Ganson, Callow Boil, Corey Wright, and Rabbi Howard Tillman. These are all people who sent this in. It's the inside headline on an article from the Toronto star about butter sculpting.

Butter sculpting. I think of this as an Iowa state fair thing, but apparently butter sculpting knows no borders. The reporter Kenyon Wallace wrote a very funny piece about how butter sculptors use frames to make their sculptures. They're not just starting with a big block of butter and chipping away. There's actually a frame in there that they cover with butter, which apparently lets you make more elaborate creations.

And some people are scandalized by this because they, did not know there was a frame inside the butter sculpture. Anyway, the angle here, David, is how difficult butter sculpting is, how tricky it is, how you must be precise in your butter sculpting. What was the Toronto Stars strained pun headline? I feel like it's always one degree. I mean, I have no idea. I feel like we're always one degree off.

So I'm thinking dairy. but I mean, I literally, but butter is better. I mean, that wasn't supposed to be it, I guess. Butter, butter both sides or butter, what is that, bread and butter. It's how it's so difficult, the difficulty of butter. Well, focus on the precision. You don't want to make a mistake when you're sculpting butter. therefore there is

it's careful precision an art to it you don't want to make a mistake Marjor oh no Margarine for error There's no margarine for error in butter sculpting

no margarine for error That's just terrible That's an insult to all butter-related puns. They had to go margarine. Yeah. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Research by Chris Almeida.

Production Magic by Jim Cunningham. The official band of the press box is gin blossoms. We're back Tuesday, bright and early, with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian. David? Dimly aware, yes. Is not for sale.

Back when I was a kid, I used to write to celebrity. and ask for autographed pictures. He had this obsession with autographs and celebrity and everything. And I wrote a note to Chuck Woolray and he sent me back in 8 by 10 that said, Brian, come in here and sit down and just, just,

it's going to be right down the middle. I mean, nothing new here. Oh, no. No weird foods, nothing strange. Oh, no. You don't want to make a mistake, Brian. I'm rich enough to convince people to give me a dollar.

Hope you make a love connection. Chuck Wilry. did not go viral.