The Press Box - Dame Lillard Trade Takes, NFL Weekend Audio, and the Great Biden Makeover

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Bryan and David offer some bonus takes from the second Republican debate, including some jokes from the candidates that didn’t quite stick the landing (00:32). Then, they listen to some of their favorite moments from the weekend in football, including the NFL’s ‘Toy Story’ broadcast (08:33). Later, they discuss the online coverage of the Damian Lillard trade, Joe Biden’s image makeover, and the launch of ‘CNN Max’ (28:18). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learn more about the albums you love with Dysect, a music analysis podcast hosted by me, Cole Kushna, a lifelong musician. Each season of Dysect dives deep into one album, examining the music, lyrics, and meaning of one song per episode. We've covered albums by Kendrick Omer, Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean, just to name a few, and our brand new season just launched all about Radiohead's 2007 masterpiece in rainbows. Listen to Dysect on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, because a great art deserves more than a swipe.

David? Yeah? I've got a few bonus GOP debate takes for you. Great. So on Wednesday, I was down at the Reagan Library for the second Republican debate. The first notable thing about covering a debate, in my case, that's probably flattering. So let's say going to a debate as a media member. You wrote about it and podcasted about it.

I wrote about it, but, you know, being in the press tent with Jonathan Swan, it wasn't like I went and put my arm around him and said, You and I were brothers. We do the same job here. Breaking news about Trump. First notable thing about going to slash covering a debate is the media is not in the same room in which the debate is happening.

It's not like a sports game where you're in the skybox. You're just in a separate room watching on monitors. In this case, a media tent. And when you say monitors, we're not watching like a special live feed of the debate. We are in this case actually watching Fox Business. So there are regular commercials coming on just like there are for people at home. I thought that was fascinating.

First of all, because we missed all the Bill Simmons body language critiques that would have happened during the debate. Yeah. I could glimpse this just a little bit on TV. Like somebody would get asked a question and just at the edge of the screen, you could see the candidate next to them like put out their arms. Like, wait a second. You get to give him another question? Isn't it my turn to talk again?

There would have been so much of that if you'd actually been sitting in the room with those guys. Yeah. But we're just sort of guessing at it, watching again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the actual television broadcast of the debate. You know, sometimes you cover something, I'm just covering wrestling where I say, you know, I'm not, I can't hear the announcers if I'm there alive.

So I have to go re-listen to it to really get the full-bodied experience. There's obviously more to be gleaned from being there alive as well. So that's sort of the reverse. But, but, you know, people say that all the time about covering basketball or something. Yeah, it's going to a basketball game. It's more fun to watch it at home on your couch. I mean, you're basically watching it home on your couch without the couch or the home.

Exactly. And with a bunch of other journalists. Like, hey, it's a simple for guys. The one upside of being in this media tent, however, was this tent was treated as a sacred place by the organizers there at the Reagan Library. And by that, I mean, I had a pass that said media tent. So I got to go inside. But I saw semi-famous people come up to the door of the tent and be turned away because they didn't have a media pass. And this includes Mike Lindell, the My Pillow Guy guy. He didn't have a media pass. He didn't have a pass. He doesn't have a podcast at this point. But he came up there and I went and asked the person who was a very nice woman who was watching the door there.

No, no. If you don't have a pass, you don't get in. He doesn't have like an O-A-N lifetime membership card. He could flash or something. He would just assume he is a contributor to some. network somewhere. Yeah. Very high up on your cable dial.

After the debate, David, I wonder if we need to rearrange the funny Republican power rankings. Sure. Do you have them ranked? Well, going in, who would you say was overwhelmingly the funniest non-Trump Republican presidential candidate? The most deliberately, intentionally funny would have been Chris Christie. Chris Christy in a walk.

Chris Christie brought some material to Seamy Valley. And ooh, here was his big set piece about Trump, no showing the debate at the Reagan Library. In Washington, D.C. also. And Donald Trump should be here to answer for that, but he's not. And I want to look at that camera right now and tell you, Donald, I know you're watching. You can't help yourself. I know you're watching. Okay. And you're not here tonight, not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You're not here tonight because you're afraid of being on the stage and defending your record. You're ducking these things.

And let me tell you what's going to happen. You keep doing that. No one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We're going to call you Donald Duck. All right. I love that crowd noise afterward where nobody's laughing, but they're not booing either. They're all making this collective noise like, Yeah.

Yeah. That's too bad. Donald Duck, I think, is just too familiar a name to go there for a really tortured pun. Yeah. Nickname. That was no good. Also, Christie was had that, you know, I made a funny face on right after he delivered the line. Yeah. But then no one laughed.

I've been a bad widow boy. Yeah. 80s movie poster child. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's, yeah, that's, yeah, shrugging shoulders. Yeah. I think Donald Ducker, you know, you got to play off of Donald Duck. You don't just get the back into, you don't get to just three point turn or like parallel park into Donald Duck.

You can't have that. We love puns here, but I'm not sure Donald Duck was the most fertile place to go for a, for a nickname that would, haunt Donald Trump for the rest of his days. Another weird moment was when Christy was talking about crushing the teachers' unions, and he said Joe Biden wasn't up to the task because

he was sleeping with a member of the teacher's unions. That would be Joe Biden's wife, Jill. But it sounded really, really strange. And David, like all great comics, former Vice President Mike Pence, saw that Christy had given him an opening.

And he bounced. Full disclosure, Chris, you mentioned the president's situation. My wife isn't a member of the teachers union, but I got to admit I've been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years. And full disclosure. I think that was some charity laughter because he sort of got the plane on the runway there at the end. It looked like he was going to hit a grove of trees over to the side for a while there. But yeah, yeah, he almost hit it. Sounds like a real natural when he's delivering a laugh line, doesn't he?

Or when he's talking about human intercourse, yes. Very very. When I hear that clip, I'm like, okay, okay, Chris Christie is still the funniest non-Trump Republican. No need to resort the power rankings. Coming up on today's pod, we have some choice weekend football audio from Taylor Swift to Toy Story. We'll talk about the Dame Lillard Media Conspiracy, Joe Biden's makeover, CNN as a streaming product, which includes

Chris Wallace, and we have an only in journalism bonanza. Have you ever lost a golf tournament on European soil? All that much more on the press box. A part of the Ringer, podcast network. Hello,

media consumers, Brian Curtis, David Shoemaker, and producer Eduardo Ocampo, who is sitting in for Erica here. Let's do some weekend audio, David, to get us started off right. All right, let's do it. Take you first to Dateline East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The great state of New Jersey. Yes. Where the chiefs were playing the Jets last night, that wasn't the real story. The real story, as NBC's Mike Tariko reminded us, was that a certain pop culture visitor had come to the game. Oh, and yeah, she's here. Taylor is in the house. And we thank you.

you for having us into your house. Mike Terrico, Chris Collinsworth, Melissa Start. Hi, Swifties. We'll be with you all night. It'll be a big part of the night as we go through. Oh my God. Do you see the look on Collinsworth's face? Yes. He's just like that grin where it's like, I don't want to talk about this. It's embarrassing. They should like, listen, one week you can just make fun of it. At this point, it's just, it's embarrassing. It's so weirdly thirsty. I mean, I don't mean, Like, if you're into something a little bit more niche, you know, I mean, I hate to go there twice in one show, but like, you know, I hate it when like pro wrestling does like crossovers with other things, but at least you can understand. It's like we're trying to reach out.

We're only getting like, you know, a couple million people watching this thing on TV. I get it. You know, minor celebrity might bring somebody in. But this is NFL football. You know, they should, they should just, you know, they're big enough, I think. It's one thing that struck me is that both the NFL and Taylor Swift don't need each other. Taylor Swift got zero new fans out of showing up for games the last two weeks. We haven't seen the NFL number yet and maybe, you know, a bunch of Swifties that Mike Tariko is shouting out there tuned in. But the NFL doesn't need Taylor Swift week to week anyway. I would love Taylor Swift to do the Super Bowl halftime show.

don't get me wrong. But it is the most popular live programming on television from the most popular programming period. Well, if she does move the needle, then what is that? I mean, what's the upside of that? Like, is she, is their relationship going to be a part of the collective bargaining agreement next time? I mean, is it, like, it's not exactly transferable, you know?

I mean, I don't know what, that's, it's so strange. She's going to have to appear once on each network during the season. Yeah. I'm going to have to get her on Amazon. It's only fair. she's going to appear on NBC and Fox. It's like when you're a small-time football college football team and you want you, you play the big teams because you get national TV exposure,

even though you know you're going to get, you know, romped. You know, but maybe that'll trickle down to some better prospects or, you know, alumni donations or something. My interest in Taylor Swift corresponds directly with my interest in the game. Like last week, Bears Chiefs, we could have talked about Taylor Swift. We could have talked about Michael Wolf's new book. I don't care.

Like anything but the football game on in front of me. Yeah. And last night when the Jets got down 17 to nothing, it didn't really feel like NBC had to make much of a choice in what they were talking about. It's like, it's fine. I mean, they were showing her after Isaiah Pacheco had a long touchdown run. Like, sure, okay. Nothing that is happening on the field is interesting right now.

They showed her after the Jets failed to convert third and one at midfield. Uh-huh. Okay. Taylor Swift is happy with the chief's defense. Right. But then a game that was 17-0 got weirdly close. Yeah. And she kind of disappeared from the broadcast.

They once accidentally showed a shot of her in the booth up there after Patrick Mahomes threw an I&T right before the first half, which I don't think was. on purpose. But really as Zach Wilson played adequately, they were showing Aaron Rogers who was at the game.

A lot more. So I would bet you that Mike Tariko had a bunch of Taylor Swift garbage time talk all teed up ready to go. But then the game came down to the last possession with Mahomes sliding

and ending the game. What was the two-yard line, one-yard line? So didn't need it. Turned out fine. We had an exciting football game. Everybody's happy. Except for Mike Dorico or his writers who spent all that time coming up with material

that's just going to go in the trash can. That's what's funny to me too because all these announcers study so much. I want to have a note on the backup linebacker. Yeah. I don't want to just tell you this guy's in the game. If he has to play significant football, if he makes an interception tonight,

want to have a note or two ready to go for you. Yeah. Do you think they spent the same amount of time studying Taylor Swift's music? More, more I would say. Well, music, I don't know, but doing the research, sure. I mean, because they got a lot of them are investigating this world for the first time. Do we need to talk about Chris Collinsworth on Zach Wilson last night? Oh, do it, yeah.

Our boss was talking about it last night before I went to bed. It was interesting because Zach Wilson played pretty. well last night. Yes. Rough start. And then he didn't lose the game for the Jets until he mishandled a snap and kind of sort of lost the game for the Jets. Yeah.

But it was an absolute embrace of Zach Wilson for an hour plus from Chris Collinsworth. Mm-hmm. Which I would chalk up to two things. One is the positive sunny side up era of NFL announcing. Yeah. Which doesn't just mean you don't trash people. It means when you have. a slightly defective football player like Zach Wilson and he does something right, you wrap your arms

around it. Sure. That's what we do now, right? Look at Tony Romo did it when the Cowboys played the Jets a couple weeks ago. Look at this guy. Oh, you know, that was a professional football throw he just made. Never mind the other non-professional throws that he made right before it. So that's part of it. And then the other thing I think is just a normal announcer thing, which is the same. It's a 17 to nothing game. Yeah. It looks like it's going to be absolutely awful. You are rooting for a good game.

Yeah. You are almost wishing a good game into existence. Yeah. Because your job's going to suck tonight. Well, if you're Chris Collinsworth, you're probably saying, I got to keep this interesting or else you're going to go back to Taylor Swift. Oh, right. So if I can make a football point.

Yeah, then the cameras will stay over here. Like what you're thinking there. I like what you think. That's exactly what he was doing. All right, David, let me take you to Dateline Andy's Room, because you know we're doing alternate broadcast now of every football game we can.

And of a game from London on Sunday morning, we were doing an alternate toy story broadcast that was appearing on the Disney Plus app. The app of all tired dads everywhere in the world, including these two. Yep. I don't know if you got a chance to see any of this. The players were turned into a cartoon.

Yeah. They're actually watching the game. It wasn't like the Nickelodeon thing where it's the real game cast and it's just slime is in the end zone superimposed. But the players were actually rendered as a cartoon or I guess it looked a little bit more like a video game. Mm-hmm. And you watched the action as a cartoon taking place within the Toy Story universe. Yeah. That's the word we're supposed to use these days.

Universe. It's a story universe. It was kind of amazing on those grounds, if slightly glitchy. Yeah. The players in that old video game way were all kind of vibrating at all times. Mm-hmm. Looks like you could have called any of the cartoon guys for a false start on every play. But they did commit to the bit.

The first down chain was slinky dog. Yeah. Yeah. I think the way it's called him slink all the time in the movies. Thank you, Disney Plus. But yeah. Look at David. Look at that expertise right there.

Yeah. Well, in true dad fashion, I heard this describe you to me for the first time by another dad at a backyard cookout yesterday. Wow. You just completed the bingo card right there. Yeah. And then I caught a little bit of it. It's pretty cool. I mean, to me, I mean, I don't know if my sons will ever enjoy watching anything like this.

But to me, this was like the first. first time I could kind of wrap my head around the degree to which technology has ensconced itself in pro sports. Like I knew they have the next gen stats. There's all the real time, you know, data and stuff that are co-workers who cover football and basketball are, you know, just fully immersed in. But yeah, I mean, it makes total sense that they'd be able to sort of like, you know, they're taking all this data and spitting it out in real time. I mean, it would take, it would be ridiculous if it were like trailing by 48 hours. or something like that, you know, but watching that happen,

you kind of can fully wrap your head around the fact. Like they, these coaches, these teams, the broadcasters know everything, everything about everything, the second that it happens, or else you wouldn't be able to transmogrify it into Andy's room toys in real time. Absolutely right. It was amazing. And I saw a tweet from Booger McFarland, who was the analyst on the game, and he was wearing one of those CGI suits.

that were used to Andy Circus wearing in the behind-the-scenes photos for movies. So even the announcers were being rendered as toys. This is what the play-by-play man, Drew Carter, sounded like during the broadcast. It's second down in 12 for the Jags. Trevor Lawrence evades the rush.

You see the athleticism. He throws off his right foot. Touchdown. Jags. Calvin Rugley. Says Trevor Lawrence, you're my favorite deputy very on brand

that's great from Drew Carter there was an overwork Twitter joke that Dan McDowell the podcast host down in Dallas sent to me wondering what would happen on the Disney Plus app if there was God forbid any kind of Damar Hamlin situation during a game

like this or even Tradavius White during the Bill's Dolphins game on Sunday where you have a very serious injury Do you think they just dump out of it at that point? Do we get like a, we'll be back soon, kids kind of filler graphic on the screen? Yeah, I think Andy's mom opens the door and says it's time for lunch or something and everybody just leaves the room for a little while. I mean, it's just, I mean, it's got to have been a discussion behind the scenes at ESPN.

It's football. Or maybe they bring Sid back, you know? He's the one that tortures the toys. I don't know. Would that be tasteless? Blame it on him. Yeah. I think it more be like Boog speaking in the very special episode voice to the kids out there about sometimes football is violent, sometimes bad things happen to people, you know, and he gets busted, that kind of thing.

By the way, earlier, the best part of you telling me how you learned about this broadcast was another dad describing a children's pop culture thing to you. Yeah. Just such an experience of parenthood. God, I love that. All right. number three, David, let me take you to Dateline Boulder, Colorado, where Coach Primes,

Colorado Buffaloes, they lost again. To USC, but they very nearly came back and tied the game at the end and pretty much earned universal respect for how hard they played. But in the post game,

Dion Sanders spotted some haters and doubters. If you can't see what's coming with CU football, you've lost your mind. You're just a flat out hater. If you can't see what's going on and what's going to transpire over the next several months,

something's wrong with you. Now let's just put this out there. Fox sent its pregame show to the Colorado USC game. Once again, at least the third time this year, maybe four if I'm lost count. Colorado sent its

number one crew to the Colorado game this weekend. Game Day has been to Boulder. weekend this year, excuse me. I'm sorry, are we, is somebody out there that is doubting Dion Sanders at this point? Did Edward or fake write something again? Who was he talking about? The doubters, the haters for Dion and Coach Prime, we all believe now.

We all, everybody's in. No, this is another, just create your own bulletin board. He's actually, you know, all these coaches or teams that are banning reporters from covering the team should just take note of what coach prime is doing you just circumvent the team you just point out in the general direction of the gathered media and say you guys i know what you said about me and we're we're not listening to any of your nay saying lou holts i heard you on the mackafee show last week talking about colorado doesn't matter if you did or not yeah we're we're going to show you next week it's arizona state All right, Dateline Orlando, David, for the most exciting call of the week and one near and dear to your heart. Because your Baylor Bears were down 28 points in the second half against Central Florida. They came storming back to take a one point lead very late in the fourth quarter.

Central Florida gets the ball back. And the quarterback, whose name is Timmy McLean, had fourth down from his. own 30-yard line. He takes a snap and he runs backwards into his own end zone trying to avoid the pass rush. Extreme Tecmo Bowl vibes here.

Yeah. And then somehow he flings the ball down the field and gets a first down. Let us ponder this call from Fox's, Eric Collins. Chef's Gets right there.

So good. First of all, the best use of the name McLean since the late great Alan Rickman in Diehard. Yes. McLean. Also, I love when a play-by-play announcer gets so excited that his voice cracks. Oh, God, yeah. My favorite ever of this was Sean McDonough years back calling the last play of Michigan, Michigan State. That was an all-time voice crack.

Oh, he has trouble with a snap. Yes. Nouncing is always better when it's like a middle school dance. they probably feel terrible about it though right yeah i don't think they like that it doesn't go on the emmy real oh it's so great but it's but you know what it's real that's it it's it the reality intervenes these like very practiced voices cannot contain the excitement of the moment it makes it so much more fun is you yes yes exactly you see something that is just unbelievable and how would you react would you be mr smooth announcer guy no no you'd lose you

lose your voice a little bit. All right, finally, and speaking of excitement, let me take you to Dateline Melbourne, Australia. Ooh. This is Aussie rules football, and I hope I get the details right here. The grand final at the MCG, that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground there in Melbourne.

It was won by Collingwood. I want you to listen to this, the sound of victory from down under. Steel side bottom. The two notes, definitely need the phrase wowee to be used. Yes. In the United States more often.

Have you ever said wowee in any context? No. No, you never ordered Maui-Wawi from anybody. Oh, maybe, but no, I don't think so. Also, the name, Steele Sidebottom. Was that a human's name? I thought that was the name of a play. It is an Australian's name, yes.

steel side bottom. He is a midfielder for Collingwood. His nicknames, according to Wikipedia, are rusty and blue scope. I have our... Rusty side bottom? Is it used in conjunction with the last name? Or rusty steel? I sent a note to an Australian pal, so we'll have an update on steel side bottom and wowie next week here on the press box.

I think if your name is steel side bottom, you don't need a nickname. Like, don't waste a nickname on Steel Sidebop. You would think so. Rusty and Blue Scope? Trying a little too hard to mess with perfection. Coming up in 30 seconds, are we, meaning you and I, David, to blame for the Dame Lillard trade?

But first, 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 gratefully received. Today's runners up, any joke linking the death of legendary Senator Diane Feinstein and the arrest in the Tupac Shakur murder case, thanks to the Messengers A. Brown for that one. Also runner up, any jokes about Zach Wilson playing well Sunday night because he saw Travis Kelsey's mom in the stadium. Thanks to Johnny B. in Alaska.

But this week's winter, David, involves the storied British Museum. in London. According to the BBC, the British Museum is asking public and experts to help recover stolen artifacts. It was an overwork Twitter joke to write. Have they tried

looking in the British Museum? Thanks to listener Red Miss Red. If you like an Elgin Marbles joke as much as the next person, congrats. You made the overword Twitter joke of the week. All right, in the notebook dump. We got to talk about the Dame Lillard trade.

Yeah. Dame Lillard goes from Portland to Milwaukee. If you're looking for actual trade analysis, please see any other Ringer podcast. Yeah. Literally any of them. But here's your media big thing. Because we've got to talk through the sequence of events that happen here.

I'm not sure I totally understand them because I wasn't following this super closely in real time. Will you correct me if I get any of this wrong? I'll do my best. I'm as hazy as you, but maybe with our forces combined, we can suss this out. All right. Dame Lillard asks to be traded.

He wants to be traded to the heat. Yes. In a player empowerment style move, we've come to know. Yeah. That happens this summer. And then Adrian Woznarowski over at ESPN says, well,

Portland might wait around for other offers. Mm-hmm. Instead of just trading him to the heat, which had made an offer. for Lillard. Right. Well, we don't know that they actually made an offer.

I mean, that's sort of implicit, but yeah, that part of it was a little bit hazy, whether or not they were waiting on the market to develop before they made so they could make their

weakest possible offer. But yeah, everybody just sort of assumed what the trade would be, you know, Tyler Hero and, you know, and Picks. So suffice it to say,

Lillard was interested in Miami and Miami was interested in Lillard. at least theoretically. Yeah. All right. So then Dan Levitard and his gang down there in Miami started to say

that the heat were definitely going to wind up with Dame Lillard. Which a lot of people thought, yeah. And accused Woj, among others, of shilling for the Blazers.

Yeah. At the beginning, it felt like an inevitability. You know, he's going to go where he's going to go. We're just trying to sort of both sides are just trying to negotiate in this sort of abstraction, right?

Well, we'll get some other fake teams bidding so that we can get more picks from Miami or whatever. And Miami is just trying to lay low so that they can pay as little as possible while still getting their guy. And so, yeah, there was a perception that whenever news would come out that Portland was trying to find, you know, was shopping him around,

that it was, you know, at least the Miami point of view was that Woj is just carrying the, water for the Portland front office. They were just desperately trying to get word out there that it's not a done deal so that they can get a better package. While at the same time, Levitard, I saw this a little bit on Dan Patrick last week, he was saying that he is going to the heat though. Right.

Like he will wind up at the heat mixed into whatever media commentary he was making was this proclamation. Because on the Patrick show, he had this, you know, what you would call like a, sort of less than, you know, I want to want to say like less than, less than certain view about what would happen. He said, look, the heat have made an offer. They want Lillard at a certain price. And if a team like Milwaukee comes and beats that offer, okay.

Which is kind of probably what happened. But then at the end of the interview, he said, oh, but the heater getting Dame Lillen. So there was like a kind of a guarantee baked into whatever the meta commentary about the situation was. Yes. Then Dame Liller did not get traded to the heat. Correct.

So if I said anything wrong here, then this is, these are the facts as we know them. That's all factual. Okay. So I don't, I, I guess I don't totally know where there is to go from there. If you're saying that the heat are definitely going to get Dame Lillard,

if you're making that proclamation, seriously or half seriously is a bit, whatever, and then he doesn't go to the heat at the end of the day. I mean, it kind of pushes aside all the metatextual media commentary and whatever we think about insiders and stuff, right? Because you were just, the insider turned out to be right. Unless you weren't right. Unless you pivot to the insider and others in the media

have been working to keep Dame away from Miami. Oh, yeah. Which is what Lovetard and I'm sure others sort of seem to pivot to, which is this is everybody got brought in. This is a media conspiracy spearheaded by our co-worker Ryan Rissello as near as I can tell. And sometimes it was just called the ringer. Or the ringer, yeah. And I didn't realize you and I were in on this too. I would like to have thought that somebody would have looped me in.

If not as the co-s of the press box, at least as like the art director that somebody would have been just like, can you make, can you make, can you make? Miami look worse in some of this art. Can you somehow, can you, can you give me Pat Riley with like a, like a silly expression on his face? No one ever asked me to do that. Yeah. Usually on Reddit, it's like, ah, they just did another cut and paste political segment. We said stop talking about that stuff.

No, no, we were involved in the, the history of the NBA here and forcing the trailblazers to treat him to the bugs instead of to the heat. Yeah. So I watched some of the, emergency podcast, the team lebitart did. And Billy Gill, who's also on that show, was just like, no, wait a second. We're saying here that all these media people were working together to somehow ensure that he would not go to the heat, but go somewhere else.

First of all, I would just like to say. That's what we're saying here either comically or whatever we're saying. That's what we're saying is everybody was working together to make sure that he was not a member of the Miami Heat. Yeah. Okay. My son is a heat fan, for the record. I would have loved to see Dame on the Heat. I think that would have been a really fun team for him to play on.

Personal bias, I guess. I should just want to get that out there. Yeah, it's a very bizarre conspiracy. It's a very weird conspiracy. I don't think I've never felt like there was that much anti-heat bias, even despite Bill's constant reluctance to play them in the playoffs. I don't know that that has any, that's not like it. That's not biased.

He hasn't wished ill on them. Yeah, it's a compliment. Yeah, it's just very, very odd. And if it's, if the media, if the media cabal that is that, you know, put itself together to keep Dame from Miami was so obvious. Like, why? Wasn't there something, you could you point this out ahead of time? Or wouldn't that have affected the certainty with which you said Dame was going to Miami?

Mm-hmm. Look, we got the media. a cabal working against us. So we're going to withdraw the prediction that he will become a member of the Miami Heat and predict that the cabal will win and send him elsewhere in the league. Yeah.

I don't know. Again, I didn't follow this blow by blow when it was happening, but now, in retrospect, it feels like we made a proclamation on the podcast. The proclamation did not come true, and now we are going back and doing the Eating Crow episode of the podcast.

podcast. It's just an excuse. Well, everybody comes back and watches us be sad about this thing that we thought was happening, which is pretty standard opinion show turn of events. Just want to make sure I wasn't missing a huge part of that story. No, I think that's pretty much it. Check out Rosillo's video that he did about the trade if you want to learn more. I don't know if you know this, David.

From the slanted point of view of a member of the cabal. It's fun to be a part of something, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, I've never been accused of that before. I don't know if you know this, David, but trades are not official in the NBA until a media outlet tweets out a photoshopped graphic of the player in their new uniform, ideally standing in front of the skyline of the city they were just traded to. And after this deal went down, the NBA on T&T Twitter account put out a photo of Dame Lillard in a Bucks jersey. check but standing in front of the Calgary skyline not Milwaukee but the Calgary skyline what how did that mistake get made I don't know

are we looking for generic downtown huh but again since we're talking about reporting here Dame will not be joining the Stu Hart Dungeon he is going to the Milwaukee Bucks let's talk about Joe Biden's image makeover. Joe Biden has a problem, David. Yeah. Voters think he is too old to be president.

Something like three quarters of voters in a recent poll. Alex Thompson of Axios reports that Biden's advisors are working on a plan to help this, at least a little. Thompson writes that since Biden stumble in June, he has been wearing tennis shoes more often to avoid slipping and using the short stairs on Air Force One entering the plane on a lower deck than before. Okay. Slightly less presidential, but still, you know, it's functional, yeah.

Isn't it funny how the high stairs are their own form of presidential image crafting? Oh, yeah. I'm way up high. seem much more powerful and regal and then I will do this long walk down the stairs when there's plenty of time to photograph me to come do the important business of the nation. But now we're sacrificing that for the short stairs because we're trying to avoid something terrible happening on the big stairs.

I'm fascinated by this, not necessarily because of the tennis shoes or the short stairs, but just by how much stagecraft there is in convincing the public. the candidates are fit and able to be president. Yeah. Because we've seen a lot of this with Biden recently. Not only the very real concerns expressed in that poll, but every time he says something makes a verbal slip of the tongue, that little five seconds is clipped and put on Twitter.

So you get this very small, very out of context sample. Oh, Joe Biden, don't know if he's up to being president anymore. So if a vortex of clips, It doesn't seem like a good way to judge whether somebody's fit for office. Neither does the rest of the stuff the public sees, like walking up the stairs of an aircraft. Yes. Or walking along and not stumbling. And I just wonder, you know, short of Nikki Haley getting her wish and the older candidates taking a cognitive test or whatever she wants,

we voters are basically making this decision about stuff based on what we see on TV. Well, and based on, you know, behind the scenes reportage on the, on the, you know, hocus pocus that goes into making the candidate look a certain way, right? George Bush cutting brush or whatever he was doing every time the cameras rolled. Yeah. It just feels, it just feels really strange. They cite in the story of the Bob Dole falling off a. stage in 1996.

Right. And meanwhile in that campaign, we're getting Bill Clinton and out there in shirt sleeves working outside. Yeah. As much as humanly possible. Who's out there throwing the football?

Was that Clinton and Gore? Or am I just like imagining things now? Obama seems more like I picked up the ball and did something with it. But maybe I'm just thinking of basketball. We've had the Biden. It's been bike riding. Yes.

That's been his show of fitness. and vitality. But all this just seems so crazy. And I would also once again submit that if Joe Biden wants to show America that he is ready for the job, still plenty capable of the job, give some media interviews.

Yeah. Get right out there on TV and answer questions about the news of the day. Yeah, there's a straight line. I flipped on the Max app on my TV, David, before we came on today. There was a little tab at the top that didn't just have movies and television

and had news. it was marked beta but you can click on it and see 24-7 streaming CNN news CNN is officially a streaming product wow now I noticed that too I'm just acting surprised you did a good job with that thanks when I flipped on Jim Shuto I think I have that right was doing the headlines nightclub fire fire in Spain church collapse in Mexico very CNN it's an interesting interesting hybrid because for reasons that have to do with the contracts they have with cable companies, they can't just give you American cable CNN. But it's 24 hours of live news that's part American cable CNN, including those big

prime time shows like Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper. It's part CNN international. And then there's some max exclusives that are also part of the telecast, including our friend Chris Wallace. who it was recently announced is going to be a max exclusive at this point. Remember we first heard about him on CNN Plus

when who's talking to Chris Wallace and Jake Tapper's book club were the big offerings. But this is a real product. This is an actual news thing rather than CNN bonus features. I am fascinated. I'd say the same thing about ESPN is once you turn these channels into streaming products,

how much of the broadcast day is still viable. We think there's a market for Anderson Cooper News at night. We think there's a market when CNN goes into breaking news, huge story like the invasion of Ukraine mode. But then there's a lot of linear TV that's just here is the show that is on at 11 o'clock on linear TV. Yeah. And I just wonder if you're going through an app to find this, does that change viewing habits?

Does that show survive? Does the ESPN show that's not McAfee or Stephen A that's like here is what is on at this time when ESPN because we need a show to fill in from 2 to 230? Does that survive? Yeah, this is the conundrum. We talked about it last week. I mean, the point is to make these platforms seem indispensable.

But yeah, when the cable channels, the broadcast networks are fighting for the, lives. It seems a little bit, well, it's a perplexing task. It's a perplexing task. And I haven't heard anyone yet say, you know what, we're just going to have to change the whole grammar of TV news or sports studio programming. Well, that would that would reduce their, you know, negotiating position when you're trying to, you know, figure out cable packages and all that sort of payment. It is. And we're still not there because we're still straddling cable world and streaming world.

And we'll be for a long time. We talk about how many cable homes have been lost. There's still a lot of cable homes that are around. And you want to provide something for those people too. But it's interesting. Some only in journalism words before we go, David. This comes from me. Sun dappled.

New York Times did a feature on Dana Perino before the Republican debate and she was in her sun dappled apartment. Yeah. We had the U.S. Rider Cup team getting whipped this weekend and the esteemed Kevin Van Valkenberg of no laying uprights. I would like to nominate the phrase on European soil as this week's phrase you only hear in journalism when the Ryder Cup rolls around. The soil part is essential when describing American failure in Europe is not enough. It was a little bit like a sports writer wanting to be

a war correspondent. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. We are always a little stuff conscious about our jobs. So sometimes we just start writing and talking like we have a different job. On European soil. Chris Reed, who's a columnist and editor for the San Diego Union Tribune, self-reports, and only in journalism word, footprint. Footprint. Oh.

And no, David, not the literal footprint like the religious-themed Footprints poem that hung in your grandparents' bathroom. I mean footprint as in the area affected by something. Yeah. The footprint of the press box podcast. Definitely only in journalism. Finally, Mark Loughlin sends us a good one,

Salvo. Salvo. Oh, Salvo is a great one. Twitter Salvo, fired back with a new salvo. Never spoken in human English until this point in history, till right now, but a great only in journalism word. Speaking of which, it's time for David Shoemaker.

Guess is the strain pun headline. Here we go. Last Monday's headline about kids creating a dictionary of made-up words was the joy of a Lex. Listener, Chris Dealey, says Betterhead would have been Lex Education. I agree. I agree. Today's headline comes from Michael T.

It's from The Economist, and it's that very same story we referenced in the Overworked Twitter joke about antiquities going missing from the British Museum. So they were in the museum one moment, David, and then poof. They weren't anymore. What was the economist's strain pun headline? Disappearing, the art of the steel, the... Just think of an old magician there. Oh, you got to...

Pocus, Pocus. Yeah, I got the blanket over it. Ooh, what would I say? Abricadabra. Here it is. Ooh, it disappeared. Poof. Now.

Now you see it. Okay. This is the British Museum. Now museum. Now you don't. Now museum, now you don't. Oh my gosh. It's terrible.

He is David Chewaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Eduardo Ocampo. I'm going to be back Wednesday with Press Box Final Edition with Jason Gay. which gives me enough time to get on a plane and go to the Texas OU game in Dallas this weekend. If you're in the Cotton Bowl, come say hi. Shoemaker and I return Monday to celebrate a victory.

I hope and offer more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.