The Press Box - 2024 Presidential Race Check-in. Plus, Don Lemon’s Meltdown and Texas News.

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Bryan and David are back with some news from Texas: Chip Gaines bought Larry McMurtry’s bookstore in the “hard-scrabbled” town of Archer City, Texas (0:37). Then, they check in on the 2024 presidential race, which may or may not include President Joe Biden, and discuss the handful of Republican candidates who would be tasked with running against fellow party candidate Donald Trump (11:31). Later, they discuss Don Lemon’s recent misogynistic comments (29:31) before touching on media news, including Jen Psaki’s new television program and A.O. Scott moving to The New York Times Book Review (33:25). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're lost in the darkness, look for the pod. Specifically, the Prestige TV podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network, where we're breaking down every new episode of HBO's The Last of Us. On Sunday nights, grab your battery and join Van Lathen and Charles Holmes for an instant reaction to the latest episode. Then head back to the QZ on Tuesdays for a deep dive with Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin. From character arcs to video game adaptation choices, story themes to needle drops, we'll parse every inch of this cordyceps-coded universe.

Watch out for mouth tendrils and follow along on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. David? Yes. To celebrate the return of press box, we've got some very important news out of Texas. Oh, great. Larry McMurtry,

who wrote Lonesome Dove and many other fine novels before his death two years ago, owned a world-famous used bookstore in his hometown of Archer City, Texas. Right? The buildings that house that bookstores. store have been bought by another famous Texan, Chip Gaines of Waco Home Renno Duo, Chip and Joanna.

Whoa. What do we do with this news? Well, take some time to process. It would be ideal, but I guess we're not afforded that privilege live on the air, live to tape, as it were. Huh. Well, do we know what he's going to do? then? We don't. We do know this, that Chip Gaines has a connection to Archer City, which is that his

parents and grandparents grew up there, according to CNN. So this isn't just him treasure hunting, like you and I would be treasure hunting for a used book up there in Archer City. He has an affection for the town, so I guess he's buying these buildings so that something will happen to okay god i have so many questions is joanna gains like specifically uninvolved in this this seems to be a chip gains joint um well i guess that's not shocking i mean he does a lot of stuff that's not on tv uh a lot of real estate investment etc um but i can't have you ever been to the silos in waco texas they're a little real the what like faux small-town USA that they've constructed.

I'm nodding my head. Yep. I've been. It's not a stretch to imagine them actually taking a small town USA and trying to just remake it in their style, right? Like the last picture show, well, I guess they probably name it something else because they renamed the elite cafe and everything. But to take the movie theater and show movies and just, you know, just to put a different, shop that they curate at every storefront and then presumably, you know, run out the apartments upstairs for lots of money.

I mean, I guess I can imagine it. The thing is that, like, Archer, Texas is not convenient to anything. Like, to go there to shop for books, as you well know, is a commitment. I mean, it's a very specific, it's not, at least Waco is like on the way from Dallas to Austin, right? Yes. Waco is a pilgrimage for non-Texans who want to go. to the Chip and Joanna Empire.

Archer City is a pilgrimage for Texans. Yeah, I'm trying to imagine if you wanted to do the Gaines World Tour, would fly into DFW and then... Probably or... I mean, they're probably a bus or something,

but like how... Take rent a car and drive two and a half hours to Archer City. Is that? I mean, is it that? Is it further than that? Somewhere around that length, yeah. Wow. I'm looking at this article now.

It says, well should we be reassured by the fact that Chip and his brother were seen carrying a box of books? Does that mean do you think that they have an affection? We shouldn't know that both Chip and Joanna but Chip on his own is a

best-selling author. So, you know. Of the wonderfully punnily titled Capital Gains. Mm-hmm. Pretty sure. Yeah, by the way, you're right. The story was broken by the Archer County News

when a resident of Archer City saw Chip carrying a box of books out of the store. Now that is some shoe leather reporting right there. Doesn't it feel like the entire march of Texas culture in the 21st century is contained in this new story? We had Larry McMurtry who took the cowboy novel and stripped it of all its mythology and still made a great cowboy novel. That guy who has devoted his non-writing time to buying and selling and stocking used books. Yeah. And his empire, such as it was, is now being consumed by the empire of the backslash

of Home Renno television. I don't know. There's something kind of symbolic about that. Listen, Larry McMurtry is a legend and as a writer and as a, you know, bookseller. But he was just doing a really. high profile version of what lots of people get into late in life, which is becoming like a very prolific hobbyist, right? Sure.

Okay. He wasn't building the next great used book empire. He was just, you know, keeping an incredibly large library that people could come and buy books from. Yeah. I mean, it's sort of like someone who's a really big, you know, record collection or stamp collection or whatever. And the books are not part of this transaction.

Is that correct? The books are not part of the transaction. Larry left the bookstore. You're just buying the old run-down home that this is an incredible record collection was housed in. The record collection goes off to University of Texas archives or something. And then, you know, Chip and Joanna Gaines come and put chip lap all over the old home. I mean, that's kind of what's going on. It's amazing how much the Chip and Joanna decorating mindset has crept into all of our lives.

I remember when Christine and I were doing some some renovations of our own. Recently, we had some decorators out. We're trying to explain, you know, what kinds of things do you like? What kinds of things do you want? And I felt compelled to tell them. I think this was the first or second meeting. Like, we're not the kinds of people who watch the Chip and Joanna show and want a giant sign in our kitchen that says blessed. Yes.

Or joy or any one word sign in the kitchen. Yeah. We don't want that. No, no, no. No, and it was almost like they were nodding, like almost this, not only this palpable sense of relief, but oh my gosh, you weren't those people. But like, okay, now I begin to understand what it is you want because so many people to their credit. That's a credit reference. Yeah, that's where they start with the chip and Joanna kitchen. Yeah. If you go to Target, obviously there's a big, I don't know, I assume it's still there.

There's a big, you know, chip and Joanna section that they, you know, their own products are there. But it doesn't stop there. Then the stuff right next to it is Target brand, but it looks very similar. And you all, you just go down the strip mall to like the home sense or the, you know, whatever. And all the stuff in there is just like knock off chip and Joanna gain stuff too. I mean, it really has just sort of taken over the way that we look at and talk about homes. It's, it's, it's, wow. I mean, I guess they made enough money to buy a town.

So we should go. let's go let's let's let's let's let's let's go to some shit without the reporting of our own no i don't know if i can do it i don't know if i can do it i went to you don't want to do listen we just go to go to texas just do a do a narrative podcast about rebuilding archer city you don't you don't think there'd be a listenership for that there might be i just don't know if i can bring myself to walk into the chip eyes version of booked up it's a lot you know we you and i think of bookstores and sacred places and this is This might be some heresy involved here.

This might be some, something has been besmirched. I don't know. Again, I'm giving him, I'll give him a chance. I'll give him a chance. I'm not sure I'm going to say. Who knows? Who knows? Where are the books?

I don't know. That fact was not in the articles to the extent I wanted, though the former manager of the bookstore has opened an online site selling books. So I guess there's more to report there. The news stories, David, did contain one of our favorite only, only in journalism words. A word we haven't seen since the Loretta Lynn Obitz of a few months back.

Oh, great. That word is hardscrabble. Archer City is a hard scrabble Texas town. Isn't that apply to every Texas town that's not, that's like under, what, 250,000? Yeah, Fort Worth is not hardscrabble. But as you get down, Waco's not hard scrabble, but then you get to hard scrabble territory pretty quickly. Yeah.

One weird thing, though, is the CNN.com story, which is very good about this whole transaction, had it as hard scrabbled. Hard scrabbled, like past tense? Hard scrabbled town of Archer City, Texas, with a with a hyphen in between hard and scrabbled. Now, you remember when we were kids, you watch an NFL game and you'd have those little things during the commercial that said, IBM presents, you make the call. They'd show you a football play and then show you how the referee reviewed it. Right. Well, I thought here on the press box,

we need our own version. Starring one of the people that I trust most in this world, Ringer copy lead Craig Gaines. Oh. Oh, bringing out the big guns here. Bringing out the big guns. So here we go with a new press box feature. Copy chief, you make the call.

Craig Gaines, is it hard scrabble or hard scrabbled? I went to the sources on this one, Brian. Websters and the OED agree it's hard scrabble with no D. Neither of them list it with a D, so we're going with hard scrabble, no D. I think we need to get Craig in a referees uniform for the future editions of copy chief you make the call. We can just imagine them one anyway. Fantastic stuff. Thank you, Craig, for that update.

Hard scrabbled. Where on earth did that come from? I don't know. I googled it. Google asked. if I mean hard scrambled. CNN's site not read as closely as the ringer, quite obviously.

Coming up on today's show, David, is Joe Biden still running for re-election and which Republicans want to beat him by saying they love Donald Trump, but only so much. Plus, we catch you up on numerous news stories, including CNN's Don Lemon, taking lemons and making more lemons out of them.

All that and more on the press box, a part of the ringer. Podcast Network. Media consumers, we're back. Brian Curtis, David Shoemaker, producer Erica Servantes here. David, let us do a check-in on the 2024 presidential race, which is going to pit Joe the Kobe Stopper Biden against a Republican to be named later. At least I think it will involve Joe Biden.

Because last week you sent me a Politico story that had six bylines on it. Yeah. Politico means business when you have six bylines on the state. story. It was titled Biden may not run and top dims are quietly preparing. Here's a couple of sentences from it. While the belief among nearly everyone in Biden's orbit is that he'll ultimately give the all clear, his indecision has resulted in an awkward deep freeze across the party. Dot, dot, dot. People directly in touch with the president described him as a kind of Hamlet on Delaware's Christina River, warily biting his time as he,

ponders the particulars of his final campaign. In interviews, these people relate an impression that the conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C., that there's simply no way he passes on 2024 has crystallized too hard too soon. So David, did Politico make you second guess whether Biden is in for 2024? It did, although we should point out that in the time between the publication of that piece and us recording, like Jill Biden went on the record and said the only thing standing between, you know, now and the official, the official presidential run is, you know, the announcement. There's looking for the time and place. So one assumes that a sort of literal reading of that article is the correct one.

Although reading at the first time, it really felt like one of those pieces, the six bylines sure contributed to the feeling. But one of those pieces that is trying really hard to insinuate a sort of convention. wisdom that they can't quite report out, which in this case would be maybe Biden's not running. Yeah, the headline is Biden may not run. So they're definitely doing their best. Yeah. So it made it, it, it struck when I read it the first time, that headline was certain was the most pessimistic in terms of him running. The most pessimistic part of the whole article. It was all just general like, you know, just tick-talking. Like, why, you know, why he might not have announced up to this point. And the presumption is that he will, but there was just something about the presentation that made me think, this is one of those

that were going to look back on and be like, oh, that's when we should have known that he wasn't going to run for president. It seems like he is. I feel like he almost certainly is. But, and we had to remember, you know, four years ago, we spent multiple episodes this podcast trying to figure out what his strategy for getting in was even after it seemed like he was certainly getting in, you know, the whole thing just seemed a little bit whimsical. so it doesn't it's not unusual i guess for the man but um you know it's uh it's a it's a it's a

an odd situation when the sitting president doesn't seem to be 100% sure if he's going to run or not can we stuff a little more conventional wisdom into this politico piece sure because i think there's a couple of other things one is this democratic unease with joe Biden and with joe Biden running for another term. We've all seen those polls that Democrats who will absolutely support Joe Biden if he's on the ticket next year, would in any case rather someone else run for president. Yeah. So that's part of it. And then I think there's this kind of nervous foot tapping of ambitious Democrats from California to Illinois, and I pick my states carefully here, who want to run if Biden doesn't run and just want to know whether Biden's going to run or not so that they're going to

they can make their plans. Yeah. Obviously, it's a lot more to, it takes a lot more money and energy to gear up for a fresh campaign than it is to just sort of, you know, turn their burners back on your, you know, to get renominated. It's an interesting question, too, because I think all of the, you know, whatever, trepidation being sort of really manufactured about a second Biden term amongst Democrats would be cause should be cause for someone to run against him in more than just a sort of stalking horse

fashion. I think, I mean, listen, there were a lot of people four years ago who were operating very confidently under the assumption that Kamala Harris should be the nominee for this cycle. That doesn't seem to be the case for a lot of reasons. But yeah, I mean, it's an interesting, I mean, listen, four years ago, the narrative was that Biden wanted to be, correct me if I'm wrong, that Biden wanted to sort of be drafted

into running for president. That he always kind of wanted to, wanted it to be seen as like, you know, writing it on the white horse to save the party, whether or not that was correct, whatever. But, but that, you know,

it seems weird that he would need that sort of, that sort of call to action for a re-election campaign. But who knows? Maybe he's waiting on something. Maybe he's waiting on something from the other side.

Maybe he's waiting on that perfect moment when the polls tick up and the economy ticks up and, you know, there's a foreign policy win just so he can announce at the optimal moment. And, you know, who knows if that'll ever come. Well, there's been a bunch of wins, right? I mean, there were the literal wins in the midterms. Democrats did way better than anybody thought they would. And then he's had two old guys still got it moments in the last couple of weeks. the state of the union where he did the tried

and true Democratic thing of the Republicans want to take your social security and everybody got plotted and it's like yes this is what we want Democrats to do

every cycle and sometimes they forget to do this and then there was the trip to Ukraine to walk through the streets of Kiev with Vladimir Zelensky

by the way the journalism word of the day for that was audacious Joe Biden's audacious trip to Ukraine but But, you know, as again, if you look at opinion polls, Joe Biden has always pulled low or pulled

low at least since the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. But like, you're looking for for markers here where he can be like, okay, now it is time for me to announce that I'm running for president from a relative position of strength. We got it. And as they're being called, I mean, you know, I've always said this. This is the reason we call him the Kobe stopper is like his entire reason for running for, president in 2020 was Donald Trump is the president. I have to stop this. My unique superpower is that I can convince people to vote for me instead of for Donald

Trump. Yeah. I may not be able to beat somebody else, but I can beat Donald Trump. Yeah. And guess who's on the ticket, or at least in the Republican primary field, Donald Trump. Yeah. So, I mean, like, and again, I'm reading this Politico piece and I'm like, I totally am, my years are wide open because I still think, you know, Joe Biden is 80 years old. He is, you know,

it's a very interesting part of his life. There's a certainly, as you said, a couple of years ago, there was a scenario where it's like, oh, he's going to serve one term, and then he will step aside and the next generation of Democratic leadership will compete for the job. But there wasn't really a compelling reason in that story why he wouldn't run. And the most compelling reason is that he will run is Donald Trump. Yeah. I mean, it would be, It would be an interesting rematch, right? Because Trump, obviously, according to recent polls, still has a huge percentage of the Republican base behind him. Biden is, I think, inevitably, a little worse for where, right?

I mean, just sort of being present for four years probably has a just small, I mean, potentially small, but just some sort of net negative effect on your poll numbers, right? he was always sort of seen as above the fray even though he was a lifelong politician right now he's been you know in charge of the fray um um but yeah i mean i think that i think that trump's continued presence probably you know makes the case for biden's campaign right i mean it's even if even a diminished a slightly diminished biden versus what is presumably a rather diminished trump i mean He has had some legal issues I've been reading about the news. Well, he'd add those before.

Would be, you know, one for the history books. Now, you mentioned that Joe Biden has not drawn a high-profile Democrat in the primary field, especially since the midterms. But what about Marianne Williamson? Oh, no. She's back. Oh, God. And she is running against Joe Biden.

I don't think we're going to get to see a lot of primary debates. like we got to a couple of years ago. But just so all our boxes are checked here. Marion William Williamson is in the 2024 presidential election. We also have some Republicans, David. Oh, yeah. Who are facing off with Joe Biden. Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador during the last administration.

The first really, really big name Republican to get in the race. She's already been to New Hampshire. on Wednesday at her kickoff she declared quote will have term limits for Congress and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old just by coincidence Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both over 75 years old

I'm not sure Nikki Haley intended that at all I'm sure it's just a coincidence but she thinks that they should have mandatory mandatory what did she say competency test. Mental competency test. It's always good to fumble a line, by the way,

you're talking about competency tests. Two things strike me about her campaign. One is the, she feels like she's a little bit in the McCain-Romney zone where you have to kind of run against or you know, try to

discredit all the things that made you a national figure. Yeah. As a Republican politician. She was the one that said the Confederate flag should be taken down from the capital building there. Things like that. That to me is always a really hard place to run for president from.

And then the other one is the Trump question. Because this is somebody again who stood by Trump largely, who served in the Trump administration. And now you've got to pull this thing off. You know, I've had eight versions of this conversation, but you've got to pull this thing off where you say, I like Donald Trump. I support Donald Trump's policies. I support most of his presidency. But you should pick me instead of Donald Trump, who is also here. Right.

You have to have a reason. Mike Pompeo keeps on being named, mentioned as someone who's going to run and we'll continue to laugh about it. I don't know what he's, I don't know what he's up to right now. But Mike Pence has been out there teasing his announcement and get. And I think his speech was just this weekend. He sort of latched on to Russia being the sort of existential threat to the world as his reason, right, is what sets him apart from Donald Trump. Okay. You got to have something like that.

And I don't think a Pence can't see has legs for a lot of reasons, but at least he's got, you know, a stated motivation to run against his old, his old buddy. You know, one might think it would be like he was, you know. led an insurrection whose goal was potentially my death. But no, it's it's the Russia question. You know, Nikki Haley's is a little bit more obvious, but also more ephemeral, right? I mean, she's despite serving with Trump, despite whatever, you know, you know, black marks might be in her resume. She's got, she's younger, you know, I mean, she's got, she kind of feels like a new republic.

Republican Party and whether or not that's enough to to defeat Donald Trump in a primary. I kind of doubt it is, but at least it's something. It's not really a reason, but it's something. The whole primary season is going to be people trying to say why we should pick them over Donald Trump or why Republican should pick them. As long as he keeps polling the ways, I mean, obviously, like I was sort of shocked at some of his recent polls had him so far. ahead of DeSantis, who I don't have a lot of faith in as a candidate either, but still. Yeah. And dude, this is going to be so funny to watch people struggle to describe what separates them from Trump.

Well, it'll be, I think it'll be the downfall of everybody. If you do that sort of thing ineffectually, you, you know, that's how you lose yourself an election, right? And if they do it effectively at all, that's just, you know, that's fodder for the Democrats, presuming, you know, Trump eventually moves on anyway. Or if he doesn't, you know? So it's a kind of a mug's game, but, but that you're right. That's all they're going to have to do.

It's all it's all anyone's going to ask him. There was a profile of New Hampshire governor, Chris Sununu in the New York Times by Matt Fleggenheimer. Love Matt Fleggenheimer. Read anything he writes. But this was the way Sununu put it. I'm not anti-Trump. I'm not pro-Trump.

We're just moving on. Okay. And Fleggeenheimer asked him, was there something Donald Trump could do to lose your vote in the general election? Because he said, you know, if Trump wins the primary, then I will vote for him. And he sort of rebooted that whole joke about Donald Trump saying, if I shoot somebody in the streets of Manhattan, that was Chris Seneering his line. If he does that, then I don't think I'm going to vote for him. And again, you're like, what is the daylight between you and him?

Here's another one, another candidate, Vivek Ramoswamy, 37-year-old, and I think this is the right description. scripter here, anti-woke entrepreneur. New Yorker profile was called the CEO of Anti-Woke Inc. Now, listen to what happens when Sean Hannity asked him the same question we've been discussing. Wait, where is the daylight between you and the former president?

So, first of all, Donald Trump's a friend. I'm not running against him. I am running on a vision for our nation. Wait a bit, but you're not running for him. You're running against them. Let's be honest. Okay, well, here's right. I'm running for our country. But here's But let's talk about differences because I'm with you, Sean. He was the OG of America first. I'm taking that to the next level with America First 2.0.

See, that's the difference. He's America First. I am America First 2.0. Okay. Yeah, I mean, you're talking about how people are going to differentiate themselves from Trump. It's interesting because the answer, the best answer that a lot of them could give was basically he had a shot, right? Like, what is he's, everything that he's going to be campaigning on right now is stuff that he could, that why that he should have done during his first four years? Why didn't he mention any of the stuff? Why didn't you try to do it, try to accomplish any of this stuff? The question is going to be how straightforwardly any of the other candidates are willing to say that because, you know, risk the ire of Donald Trump. That could, you know, you best not miss, as they say. Coming up in 30 seconds, what happened to CNN's Don Lemon? and other notes from cable news.

But first, David, let's do the overworked 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, always gratefully received. The big sports news over the weekend, David, was the first live golf event of the season down there in Mexico. Live now has a TV deal.

It's not just streaming on Facebook Live. It is on the CW. And John Ahran reports that Liv got a 0.2 overnight rating in 26 metered markets. Would you like to hear some of the best jokes about Live Golf's low ratings? Please, yes.

First up, Pact 12 considered adding live golf. Got a love it when you're two ailing institutions in one. The Sunday disappointments never really stopped for Greg Norman. Oh my God. Live knows in golf you want the lowest possible number. Always one step ahead. Most of that point two probably tuned in early for a very special Reba that they thought started at 3 o'clock.

And my favorite, if only for the CW callback, one tree fill. One tree, Phil. If you didn't watch Live Golf either, congrats. you may the overworked Twitter joke of the week. Thanks to John Sloan and Andy Mosley for sending those our way. All right in the notebook, David. I want to talk to you about embattled CNN morning anchor Don Lemon. And yes, the AP really did call him that.

Thank you, Matt Appell. Whenever I see one of those, you'll never believe what so-and-so said. I always follow the Dave Weigle rule, which is watch the clip. Watch the whole clip. Because sometimes you're watching it, like, oh, really? Not sure if that's the case here.

Don Lemon was on the new refurbished CNN morning show talking about Nikki Haley's announcement speech. Nikki Haley had said, America is not past our prime. It's just that our politicians are past theirs. And here is how Lemon reacted to that. She says people, you know, politicians are something and not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime. Sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.

What do you talk? Wait. That's not according to me. Prime for what? It depends. I mean, it's just like Prime. If you look it up, if you Google, when is a woman in her prime, it'll say 20s, 30s, and 40s. I don't necessarily it.

Oh, I got it another decade. I agree with that. So I think she has to be careful about saying that, you know, politicians aren't in their prime. I think they need to qualify. Are you talking about Prime for, like, child and growing? Or are you talking about prime for being president? The facts are. Google it, everybody at home.

When is a woman in her prime? It says 20s, 30s and 40s. And I'm just saying Nikki Haley, should. be careful about saying that politicians are not in their prime and they need to be in their prime when they serve because she wouldn't be in a prime according to Google or whatever it is. There's a whole lot of bad stuff there, but can we agree that whenever a news anchor is challenging people at home to Google it, something has gone very, very wrong? Just Google it, you'll see.

That was co-anchor Poppy Harlow pushing back. And if you watch the video, you can see Caitlin Collins is the other host of the morning show, just looking at Don Lemon with one of those TV looks that tells a thousand stories. Just Google it is what my conspiracy-minded nephew says when he tells me something that's just utterly untrue. Lemon missed a couple days and then came back on the air last Wednesday.

Chris Licked, who's the guy trying to turn CNN into BBC America, part two, said that Lemon would receive formal training, which is ideally not what you want with your news anchor. That is one of the most baffling minutes of television I've ever heard. Because it sounded like he was starting to say, okay, Nikki Haley made these pronouncements about politicians over a certain age. Let's not do that because those kind of pronouncements can be turned around on lots of people. So let's not make that argument.

Let's make arguments about specific politicians. you know, if you have, let's just say it rather than doing broad groups of people. But somehow that is not what came through on television at all. No, that's not what he said. No. That's more of what I thought he was going to say, but that's actually not what he said at all. And somehow adopted a very misogynistic position as his own halfway through the segment. I don't even know what to say.

You said it at the right the first time. There was just a lot of wrong in that. I mean, what a just utterly bizarre thing. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I feel like every anchor should just have like an ejection button. They could just like get the hell out of a bad point that they've made without any further discussion. I like the idea, but why don't we give it to Poppy Harlow and Caitlin Collins?

No, that's what I mean. Give it the producer just like, all right. I'm sure the producers probably thought this made for great TV. So we'll see. Nikki Haley's campaign was all over this. They have a coozy out that says, pass my prime, hold my beer, right on top of that whole thing. Elsewhere in cable news, Jen Saki, Biden's former press secretary, has a new show on MSNBC. It's a Sunday morning show.

So this is just going to be a weekly thing. By the way, don't you love just transaction journalism where we heard about this for like six months? And then it's like weekend mornings on MSNBC. Yeah. Just the ratio of words expended on this to actual numbers of people who will watch even the best show on the history of the world on Sunday mornings on MSNBC. Yep. You want to guess what the title of this show is? Oh, I know what it's called.

I know what it's called. Hit us. Inside. Inside with Gen Saki. Yeah. Not who's talking to Jen Saki, which should have been my preference. What are we having for breakfast this Sunday with Jin Saki? Why aren't you watching Meet the Press with Jin Saki?

Why aren't you a church with Jin Saki? Oh my God, no. New York Times says it's going to mix policy and political discussions with light or fair like human interest profiles of politicians, celebrities, and athletes. One of her dream guest, Joe Burrow, the quarterback of her husband's hometown Cincinnati Bengals. It's a very interesting time for cable news right now. You just realized like what a destabilizing force for the country. but a stabilizing force for cable news

Donald Trump was. Yeah. Because their whole modus operandi every day was like, we must get on the air and talk about what a danger this person is to America and the world. And now it's like, what do we do? What is our, and you see this with CNN when they're trying to rewrite the whole lineup. And it's like the question is what are you trying to be now? It is weird to be.

it is weird that the path forward at least the stated path forward it seems to be like let's try to grab up some of that ground that Charlie Rose left behind I mean I guess that's what that's what Chris Wallace is is should I not mention Charlie Rose no it's fine I just I just grimace

and my instinct at this point well Chris Wallace is doing that too though if you I don't know if you've been watching who's talking to Chris Wallace but he's got some of those you know non not apolitical, guests from outside the realm of politics.

And I mean, I just can't imagine watching Chris Wallace and Gary Sinise go back and forth for, you know, some length of time. Terry Brett,

like how much Terry, we ever can complain to Terry Bradshaw that no one gets enough time to talk in the Fox halftime show, but I don't think anybody wants an hour of Terry Bradshaw. But see, on the one hand,

I like the things you're saying, that sounds like a conversation I would kind of like to hear. I just don't know if I want to hear that on cable news as a television show. Yeah. Like if you told me that was a ringer podcast featuring any of those people for, you know, Sean talking to Gary Senese, if I've talked to Terry Brattsch. Like I'd kind of be down for that. But it's like, is this what cable news is doing at this point in history?

I don't know. Yeah, no. It just seems like they're searching. Yeah. And you know. And I don't know that. Maybe not. Not even an hour of Sean and Gary Cinnies.

And Jin Saki might be really good. Like, I don't want to, you know, bury her show before it starts. But it just feels like there is this moment where everybody's kind of looking at each other and go, what are we supposed to be now? Yeah. You know, the cable, we know where cable news is going. We don't, again, have that red emergency button on the screen every single day like we did for four plus years. So what is it we're supposed to do? It's kind of like when Fox lost Buck and Akeman.

And the next day they announced that they had Tom Brady signed up to an ironclad 100-year contract or whatever. And he may be there this fall and it may be great. We've talked about it a lot. But at the time, it felt like it was unclear whether or not he was ever actually going to show up. It was just a nice announcement. That's sort of like MSNBC signing Jen Saki, right? It was like she's the number one free agent out there. They scoop her up, I'm sure pay her a bunch of money and then give her a Sunday show.

with potentially with guests that don't have anything to do with politics. I mean, it's just sort of, it's just sort of a press release without a lot of substance. You and I are old enough to remember when George Stephanopoulos left the Clinton administration and then went to ABC News. And there was this big uproar in the media columns of America about like, is this a good idea? Should we have people, and it happened many times by that point, but should we have people going straight from the, White House into a chair on television. And now I feel that argument is just like we that nobody even makes that argument anymore.

And I don't know it's because morally we just don't care anymore or have gotten past it. Or if we just like the news and especially cable news right now has so many issues going on that that's sort of the least of them. Or maybe it's just that, you know, with it's MSNBC and Fox News and that's so different. and even CNN, and that's just so different than what we thought of as network news in the 90s. This real, you know, down the middle, nonpartisan kind of thing,

and it's just not that anymore, and who cares? Well, it's just, you know, you have some sort of cue rating. People know who you are. Let's put you out there and see if you do better than the, whatever the replacement player would be. Last one for you. Some news from the New York Times.

A.O. Scott, known to his friends as Tony Scott, is moving from the movie beat where he has been since 2000, January 1st 2000. Wow. And he is going to become a book critic,

or at least right for the book review. God, God. I had all my money on roving cultural critic. Oh. He could do that too. Don't you think that could be mixed into the, well, I think it's right for the book review. So don't you think that could be,

you know, there could be some roving in that career. Sure. That's a big move. That's a big. That's a, I mean, that's what,

didn't Janet Maslin have the same trajectory? She did, from television to being a book critic. Um, I mean, listen, you can, it's,

it's, it sounds, uh, I love reading AO Scout reviews and would love reading him, uh, write about books. Um, it's certainly an interesting move because of, you know, the ever-shinking status of the book world in our, in our, you know, culture.

But maybe that's, I mean, you could probably make some relevant claims about the, you know, transformation of the movie world and why that would, you know, seem like a, maybe now's the time to get out. I don't know. I mean, that's, that's intriguing. What do you think? Well, I do think there's a diminished stature to the film critic right now. It's as low as it's ever been in our lifetimes, which is not to say that it's not necessary or not to say that the film critics are bad right now. I don't think that's the case at all.

I just think the world has changed so much. I mean, that was the job in the culture section when he started it in 2000. That was a big, big job. And I think now there's still lots of talk about movies. but following a critic week to week in that way is just very, very different just because of the way the culture's changed. So I think maybe there's a little bit of that in there.

I loved personally reading him right about movies because he's a really good writer, he's a really good critic, and he also just did not feel like personally bought in to anything. It was like, I'm a Marvel person, I'm a Star Wars person. It was the kind, like a way better version of the critic,

you and I grew up reading in our local newspaper where it's like, here's a movie and I'm going to review this and just tell you whether this is a good movie or not. Completely, yeah. Not like whether this installment of the thing is a proper installment of the thing. It's like, no, no, will you enjoy this hour and a half, two hours or if it's Marvel three and a half hours at the movie? And I'm like, I love that. I want us to kind of push back to that.

I love being way inside baseball, but I also just like, just tell me if it's any good. I don't care who the director is. I don't care who would, what mythology this is touching. Just tell me if it's good. He was the tell me if it's good critic or one of the best of that. Yeah. I was reading the announcement from The Times and part of this made me laugh. They're talking about Scott's history being a book critic.

He was a book critic at Newsday and for Slate and other places. And it says in many ways, this is a natural progression. Tony was a literature concentrator at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude, in 1987. Wow. Now, this guy has been one of your boldest face named critics. I think I just did a hard scrabble there. One of your biggest critics for 22 years.

Is it important for us to know what kind of grades he got at Harvard? You sell us on him taking a new job at the time. I was just having a conversation with someone our age this week in the past week about what age it's appropriate to just eliminate your GPA and your college altogether from your resume.

I think we're there. I think if you can get to the bottom of the page with with serious jobs. I don't think you need the rest of it. Yes, and I'm 1,000% sure that Tony Scott did not write this, but just thinking about this for a second. He's been the critic

at your paper for 22. years. He's written a book about criticism. It's okay. We can take that part out. And by the way, if it had been graduated from the University of Texas, there's no way magna cum laude or whatever is in there or Baylor. Heck no.

Just saying. It's time for David Schumacher guess is the strain pun headline. All right. Our last headline two Mondays ago, David, about a journalistic investigation and a boneless buffalo wings was the plot chickens. Today's headline was sent in by our

pal Joaquin Nagel. It's from Westward out there in Colorado. The subheadline reads Colorado lawmakers introduced bill regulating ride share companies. Uber, Lyft, et cetera, et cetera.

They were unregulated. They had a period of relative freedom where they could do whatever they wanted but aha here comes the regulation to that part of the economy what was westwards strained pun headline is uber in the headline it feels like it has to be because it's not what part of the economy is that ride sharing uh transportation this is one of my many jobs uh oh oh oh um um what's it called one of my many Gigs. The gig economy.

The gig is up? The gig is up. That's nice. Very solid. Very, very solid. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic.

As always, by Erica Servantes. David and I are back Monday. I'm back later this week. In both cases, there will be more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.