The Press Box - How Sportswriters Can Win the Super Bowl. Plus: Inside Radio Row, Politicians Avoiding Nosy Reporters, and the Death of the D.C. Bureau

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

Bryan and David discuss Super Bowl week’s radio row with the Radio Row power rankings (2:12)! Then they host a Super Bowl editorial meeting that touches on Taylor Swift being the biggest story (9:55) and Brock Purdy’s legacy if he wins the big game (19:49). Later they talk about the Wall Street Journal cutting jobs from the D.C. Bureau (31:06). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. And finally, the Media Piss Test returns. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did Don Draper really buy the world of Coke? Did Tony Soprano really die? Or just order more onion rings? The finalees of our favorite shows can make us argue, make us cry, and make us crazy. From Spotify and the Ringer, I'm Andy Greenwald, and this is Stick the Landing, a new podcast where we'll be telling the story of modern TV backwards, one fade out at a time. Find Stick the Landing on Wednesdays on the prestige TV feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. David? It's Super Bowl week.

That means all the sports riders and sports media professionals are headed to Las Vegas. Now, at times like this, it often feels like you are advertising the Super Bowl just by doing your job. Yeah, of course. You become part of the hype. What if I told you this year that the Luxor, the official media hotel, right there on the strip, the one that's shaped like a pyramid, has been decorated to look like a giant Dorito for Super Bowl week. I can't tell if I should be shocked or not.

But yes, yeah, I guess that's not what I would have expected. Do they talk about that at Columbia J-School? There's no way you can avoid discussing the fact that Deluxeur is turned into a Dorito. And so what a big win for Doritos. Yeah, what if you tweet out a pick and, like, look at this. Look at this just crazy commercial hellscape I've stepped into. And by the way, all my followers, check out this Dorito, which will probably make you

hungry for Doritos. I know it doesn't make me hungry. It doesn't matter how negative or how unbiased, impartial, or even negative. The description is it still makes you want a Dorito. I want a Dorito right now. Congrats sports media. We are part of the hype. We'll be doing press box live from Radio Row on Thursday.

and I am the official arbiter of Radio Row because nobody else in the world cares but me. But you know, David, I love Radio Row because this is where they set up tables, not elaborate sets for most of us, just tables for every podcast, every local sports radio show, every your sports leader of Milwaukee, Wisconsin person that wants to show up at the Super Bowl. They set up tables for us. Yeah. And then they bring players and famous people into this room.

And they will stop at your table for five, 10 minutes and give you an interview in exchange for an ad for something like Doritos. This is what we do on Radio Row. And what fascinates me about this other than the hilarious commercial exchange that's going on, is that the guests are slotted on particular days. So Super Bowl hype builds up over the course of the week. Tuesday is bigger than Monday. Wednesday's bigger than Tuesday,

etc. And the guests also build up over the course of the week. And all of this is on purpose. The publicists say, okay, I have a guest. It's a former football player. It's an entertainer of sorts.

He's a Monday guy. Right. He belongs on Monday. I remember. Now, if I bring him on Tuesday or Wednesday, he's not going to get as many interviews. Because there'll be Tuesday and Wednesday guys

crowding him out who are more famous. but you bring him on Monday, he's going to get to talk to everybody in the building. So there's a great science on what day to bring a person to Radio Row. So I'm going to give you this year's Radio Row Power Rankings, which I have been able to ferret out by reading some top secret ringer documents. I'll start with the Tuesday guys. Matthew Barry. All right.

Fantasy guy. That's a good Tuesday guy, right? Yeah, he's a big name. Matthew Barry shows up on Tuesday. He'll get interviews from anybody. Live golf commentator and former Masters champion, Bubba Watson is a Tuesday guy. Okay.

He's kind of a big name, but I guess in the Super Bowl context, why is Bubble Watson here? That's a good question. Yeah. He's just promoting Liv. Yes, is the answer to that question,

but Tuesday, right? Tuesday guy. We're going to be talking more football as a week goes on. All right, here's Wednesday, guys. Wednesday is kind of the day when you have an NFL player who's right on the brink of stardom. So we have Rams receiver Puka Nakua. Oh, yeah.

As a Wednesday guy. Carrot Top, who of course performs and presumably lives in Las Vegas as a Wednesday guy. Rapper and comedian Lil Dickie is a Wednesday guy. Yeah. Then there's Thursday. This is when Radio Row reaches its apex mountain, as we like. to say here at the ringer. This is the big day.

And it was explained to me, this is the big day because the good parties are Thursday night and then the famous players like to fly back home on Friday. Yeah. So this year's Thursday guys include Josh Allen.

There we go. Stephen A. Smith. Oh. Wouldn't you like to score an interview with Stephen A. Smith. Emmett Smith. Okay. There you go.

In our current media economics, Stephen A. Smith, probably greater than Emmett Smith, but they are both Thursday guys. And then Friday radio, road drops just a hair, but it is still higher than Wednesday. So it's the second biggest day. And Friday guys this year include Falcons running back and former longhorn Bijan Robinson. Uh-huh. Nice Friday guy. Shadour Sanders, Colorado quarterback, son of Coach Prime.

Oh, great. It's a great one. Nice for your podcast or radio show. So basically like Tuesday and Wednesday are like I have a fairly successful podcast and that they could, and this person could be my guest, right? To me, that's how I'm going to frame this, right? Wait, the podcaster is the guest or the podcaster is taking the guest? No, no, if you have a successful, if you have a big name podcast, it'd be a nice get to get Matthew Barry or even carrot top, certainly poop and Akua, that would be a get. Thursday, you're not even sending out those emails, right?

You're not like, unless you have a podcast that's just huge for football or Buffalo or something, Josh Allen's not coming on. So they don't even bother them as publicists, right? That's one of the sad things, too. This is more the TV range. Yeah. It's one of the tough moments of Radio Row when you're looking around and you see Josh Allen walking right by your table.

Headed for Jim Rome or headed for one of Pat McAfee or one of the big radio shows. And he's not coming to you. So he's a Thursday guy and you by being Bear or also a Thursday guy, at least a Thursday host, but you're not getting the Thursday guy. You're not. You're not. I was also fascinated by all the pre-radio rogue car washes that were happening last week. Tom Brady did multiple interviews.

I saw that, yeah. To say that he's coming to Fox. And then Greg Olson had a car wash the next day where he commented on the fact that Tom Brady was coming to Fox. Yeah. And then Jim Harbaugh kind of had a car wash last week, too. It's kind of like true power in sports media now is, being able to be a Thursday guy or a Wednesday guy,

but not needing to go to Radio Row. That's how you know you've really made. Imagine Tom Brady walking around a group of lowly sports radio hosts. That would be something else. That would be, yeah, that would be unusual. Can we just get a few minutes to answer some questions about the U.S. news media for our Ringer podcast? Just love to worry for one second.

If we could, TB12. Coming up on today's show, David, we convene an editorial meeting with the football writers who are covering the Super Bowl in Vegas this week. How do you handle issues like The Taylor Swift story? Plus, how politicians avoid nosy questions from reporters in Washington, D.C., the death of the D.C. Bureau and our first annual Burying the Lead Award. All that and much more on the press box. A part of the ringer, podcast network. Hello, media consumers, Brian. Curtis, David Shoemaker, and producer Brian Waters here. I've had this idea down in my notes for a while that we should convene, David, here on the press box, an editorial meeting.

Publications, of course, have their own story meetings, ideas meetings to hash out how they're going to cover something like the Super Bowl. We should have one here at the press box for everyone because we have lots of ideas about how they should handle their chosen beats. And we're not shy about sharing those ideas. So I've invited all the nation's NFL writers to our Zoom here. I see Robert Mays is here, former ringer staffer. Kevin Clark, thank you guys for showing up. We miss you both. Jordan Rodriguez, the Athletic, is here.

I see Peter King sipping a latte. Thank you, Peter, for taking a moment for us. Ian Rappaport, wow, NFL network, who I recently read as contemplating his TV-free agency. I'm not sure what that's about, but congratulations, Ian, and good luck wherever that may take you. All right, gang, we have a few story ideas, David and I do, that we need to hash out at this meeting. All right.

Get you ready for Vegas. Now, there's no such thing as a bad idea, so don't be shy. Pipe up if you have any comments or concerns. But item one on our Super Bowl editorial meeting agenda is the Taylor Swift story. Yeah. Is it crazy, David, to say this is the biggest story of super bowl? Super Bowl week?

Yeah, it is. I mean, it's the only story of Super Bowl week that my mom is flowing then. And it took this weird turn, didn't it? I don't want to say if it was necessarily right after the AFC title game, because I know it had been burbling in various ways, but we definitely got the MAGA Swift, Kelsey is a SIEOP, anti-Taylor Swift story coming to the forefront. Just as soon as the Chiefs beat the first.

Ravens. And then we had this weird response to that this last week where there was a race to record a monologue in defense of Taylor Swift. Right. I, for one, am willing to stand up for the world's most popular entertainer. Yeah. It was amazing. Charles Barkley had one.

Fox's Colin Coward had an amazing one. Let's listen to a little bit of that. Here is Colin Coward sticking up for Taylor Swift. There's a lot of really weird, lonely, insecure men out there. The fact that a pop star, the world's biggest pop star, is dating a star-tight end who had one of his greatest games ever, and a network puts them on the air briefly that it bothers you. What does that say about your life?

Judge people sometimes on the silly stuff that bothers them. It'll tell you a lot about him. When I hear this whole thing about Taylor Swift, I just want to watch football, liar, you're lying. That's not true. something very particularly sports radio and even more particularly Colin Coward about addressing listeners by saying you're lying yeah you are a liar also he loves say judge people by what bothers them I'm not sure that would reflect terribly well on you and I or on Colin

coward yeah we're on Colin Coward as least as it's expressed in our various media outlets yeah um you know I mean whatever I think we've all been through this cycle in an internal way, right? And we've all at some point wondered if Taylor Swift was a sci-op or at least a media construct, right? And then at some point you get to the, like, you know, why are you being so mean to Taylor Swift? Taylor Swift, you know, deserves our love and respect.

And I think that's probably what makes it so compelling, right? It's, it is a, I think at the beginning, there were some of us who were just kind of like, you know, can this just go away? Because it was just like, it just felt, kind of superfluous, but yeah, it's here. And it's part of the whole presentation. And there's probably some real upside to it from marketing standpoint.

So let's find every different way to talk about it. Well, the original argument was, are the network showing Taylor Swift too many times during a football game? That was a more innocent time. Sure. And then we pushed the upgrade button and somehow became Taylor Swift is absolutely the central issue in our culture war and is, how the 2024 presidential election will be decided. And you say it's compelling, and I agree compelling in this car wreck kind of way, but it's also like the perfect story for our media age because it doesn't really make any sense.

You know, it's partly like Travis Kelsey is trying to get you vaccinated. Taylor Swift endorsed Biden four years ago and some other Democrats before that. So there is as a result this elaborate conspiracy theory. but what you wind up at the end with is this really, really weird argument that is perfectly 2024, which is that you have to be for Taylor Swift or against Taylor Swift. Right. There was no possible middle ground there. It's like, I like Taylor Swift.

I also like some other bands. Maybe I listen to them more. Or, you know, I enjoyed seeing Taylor Swift in the skybox after a Travis Kelsey touchdown. Maybe after an Isaiah Pacheco touchdown, we could have done something else, you know, worked in some other shots there. So we didn't overdo it. whatever it is. Now those opinions are off the table. You are pro or con. That's why Taylor Swift is so perfect for the NFL, though, right? I mean, it's that she brings, and why this whole conversation has been so electric, because she brings the same sort of like

take-driven duality that everything that we deal with in sports media already has, right? Yeah. Proopperty is elite or terrible. Taylor Swift is elite or a sci-up. Yes, exactly. I was just absolutely fascinated by this coward monologue. Let's listen to more of Colin Coward sticking up for Taylor Swift and sticking a knife in those who would doubt her. There's a stat out there. It's kind of uncomfortable for you sad guys that 50% of men never have real intimacy with a woman.

That means the other 50% have multiple intimate relationships with women. And those ones that don't are angry and sad and lonely. and they are often misogynistic and resent women who didn't give them the time they think they deserve. We celebrate all these goofballs jumping on tables in buffalo and cheese hats and men and men and Matthew McConaughey and Drake and Jack Nicholson, man and men and men and Eminem and it's cool and can I get a selfie and I can't believe I saw. And the young, attractive, beautiful, talented woman comes on for 25, second and you're bothered. Amazing stuff.

Amazing stuff. When he started talking about intimacy at the beginning, I was a little tense. I didn't know quite where that was going to go. But I think he landed the plane. Amazing stuff from Colin Coward. Is the test here, David, now don't forget all the football writers,

David, that are on the Zoom call that we're addressing directly right now, not just having a conversation between the two of us. but is the issue here like should you stick up for Taylor Swift this week does it depend on how many dads brads and chads are in your audience is that way it's a good idea for Colin coward to walk out on this limb but maybe some other people can just go ahead and say okay I think I think the point has been made already I know to me it almost sounds like he's addressing like local sports talk radio from his perch on high, right?

Because I mean, I'm sure there's obviously there's people on both sides of the argument, local too, but I feel like on local sports talk radio, it's a lot more of just the old man yells at clouds. Like, yeah, I get this stuff off my TV screen and then move on and Colin Coward saying, no, no, I am making a proclamation and changing the point of view. I want to walk around Radio Row and just put my recorder in front of local sports radio hosts of the kind David mentions just be like, what do you think of Taylor Swift? And all this stuff's going on.

I think it gets some interesting answers. There's also, by the way, a whole Joe Biden, Taylor Swift storyline that is not imaginary. It's a really big piece in the Washington Post, really good one by Kara Vote and Ashley Parker about the Biden campaign and how they are thinking about Taylor Swift's potential endorsement. because it's something they want. It's probably something they need. If you look at the polls right now, there was also the New York Times

mentioned this, an idea thrown out by somebody that Biden would go to a Taylor Swift concert at some point during the campaign. It seems like one of the all-time bad ideas. Yeah. In the history of political photo ops, it's like the caucus in the tank. Biden among the swifties

rocking to the beat. That just, that just feels very, very problematic. In other news, the Biden White House turned down an interview with CBS this week in the pregame show. Huge audience with the Super Bowl, Biden behind the polls. Nope. Not talking to him. Pull in to Santas. Taylor Swift's Skyboxer nothing for that guy.

If he can't be in the cutaway shots, he's not going to do it. That was my plan. Nevada swing state. can we get you to the Super Bowl and get you in the box with Taylor Swift just talking to her for a few minutes? Then you can go sit next to Roger Goodell for the rest of the game. I don't know. I'm not a political professional,

but that seems like a good idea. Last item I had for you here is do we need to reassign the think peace championship belt? Oh. Because I had recently given it, and I don't know if I informed you of this, but I awarded it to the people writing about Barbie. Oh, like a million Barbie opinion pieces. And then the Barbie got screwed at the Oscars.

And so it was like, okay, we need to, we need to some more Barbie opinion pieces. So Barbie was the holder of the Think Peace Championship belt. Let me just give you some Taylor headlines in the last two weeks. Only from the New York Times. Taylor Swift,

Donald Trump, and the rights abnormality problem by Ross Douthit. Inside Trump's not. so swift brain by Maureen Dowd. Oh, wow. And that doesn't even count that controversial style piece from January in the New York Times. I don't think you and I even got to talk about. Taylor Swift,

congratulations. You are the holder of the Think Peace Championship belt. It's pretty impressive. All right, David, item number two at our football, NFL, Super Bowl editorial meeting, legacy questions. All right. This is a big one when it comes to football. and you and I talked about this,

this whole playoffs, all we've done is say, hey, Dak Prescott, hey Lamar Jackson, you have played so well this year that you are out of the sports media legacy probe,

you know, elite versus terrible thing. But I have a fear, David, that Brock Purdy is about to step onto the same stage. He's either going to, either going to win the Super Bowl and we're going to be forced

to have a very weird Brock Purdy conversation or he's going to lose the Super Bowl. We're going to be forced to have a very predictable Brock Purdy conversation. How should we handle this? I have we feel like that all of the Brock Purdy conversation and all the arguments,

all the takes is just a little bit based in like, do I have to talk about Brock Purdy? You know, because there isn't much. There's, it's like narrative. We don't know Brock Purdy, like we know all of our other big-name quarterbacks, right? Right. There's the whole, is he a system quarterback or not a conversation that was going on today and yesterday. It's not new, but I heard that this morning.

And I kind of feel like it's a more, like, metaphysical question. Regardless of what his role is on the team, he has the public profile of a system quarterback, right? The public profile of a game manager. He's not a star. And so it's they, whenever people get into arguments about him, it just seems untethered from our, the way it's different from our normal quarterback conversations.

Because it's like, we don't even know this game. Like what are we? I don't have the same frame of reference that I do talking about Patrick Mahomes. So yeah. But, you know, legacy will be really interesting because if he beats Patrick Mahomes, you know,

be going to Disneyland or probably, well, you know, they're a loaded team. There are a lot of potential MVP's, on that team. But if he wins it, then maybe by next season, we'll have more of that frame of reference. He'll almost have to be a star. Or maybe he won't. Maybe he'll be the one guy that defies the ads. Well, like if Rishi Rice fumbles short of the goal line like Zay Flowers did in the AFC championship game. And then Brock Pretty quote unquote beats Patrick Mahomes. That will be,

again, the narrative possibilities here are just absolutely bonkers. And related, the whole Patrick Mahomes chip on the shoulder thing that was being trotted out during the AFC title game. San Francisco, David, two and a half point favorites as we speak. You know that if the chiefs win, there will be so much nobody believes in us. There'll be so many Chiefs fans going out looking for sports writer vengeance because that's what you do when your favorite team wins championship. I saw this on Twitter because I was making fun of some of the Mahom stuff.

People were like, what about all those podcasts that sports writers and sports people recorded this season and said the chiefs were struggling. It was like, well, they were struggling. Are those now invalidated because the chiefs were struggling on purpose because they knew they would win the championship later? Is that how we score these things now? What a just, just a terribly strange place to be discourse-wise. Item number three for you, David. It was on Instagram yesterday.

Mm-hmm. cycling through, looking at stuff, and I see Rick Riley posting a video from the sphere. Or as I believe it's actually called sphere about the article. He went to see you two. And I want to tell the assembled football writers here,

folks, we are all good with visits to the sphere or sphere. We are assuming you're going this week. We assume you spending $600 on tickets. Thank you. We do not need to know any more than that. We are all good with your visit to the most sought after concert in America. Reminds me at 2018 when Super Bowl was in Minneapolis and everybody went ice fishing. That was their bit.

And it got later in the week and even the old Deadspin guys were going ice fishing. And it was like, oh, my God. Everybody has gone ice fishing. We are, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, people. I just want to tell the sports, guys, have a great time at the concert. enjoy yourself, but just I'm very complete with sphere content, YouTube content.

I'm not going to the sphere, which may be the source of my, uh, source of my unhappiness here. I'm, I'm going to go, David, see where, where some zig I zag, I'm going to go see Rich Little, the past prime comedian. There you go. On Tuesday night. I was hoping somebody would come with me, but I can't find a single member of the Super Bowl press corps who knows.

who Rich Little is, even as like the half memory of him you and I have from the Tonight Show. You're asking your, your, your peers, you got to go older. Ask, you know, invite Peter King. He'll know who Rich Little. Brian, I love Rich Little. I love his Reagan impression.

Yeah, Jason Gay's not getting there until Friday. So that was, that was my go to, alas. It is funny though, because like, you know, as members of the media, our musical passions should be quirks, right? I mean, it's one thing if you can make a sideline career out of it, like Nora's done with Taylor Swift. That's, and if that's your favorite,

but when we look at people, when we go online and we see people tweeting or posing Instagram videos of their time at a concert, I don't want to, as a 60-something-year-old man, it's not interesting that you're seeing you too. It's not interesting that you're seeing Bruce Bringsstein, you know? Like, go see a concert that makes me say, huh, I never thought Brian would go see Rich Little.

You know, that's an interesting thing about it. That's what we want, you know? Just say, I only, like, even, it doesn't have to be a small, like an indie thing. Even if you were like, you know, if, if you were like the only reason I came to, well, I come to Las Vegas with a super world, but the real reason I'm here is Cirque de Soleil. That would be interesting. Wow. Yeah.

You know? I've always wanted to see that Beatles show. this is my moment. Do you think I'll be the only one holding an iPhone aloft at the laugh factory on Tuesday night? Be careful. I might take it.

All right, coming up at 30 seconds, you are the Speaker of the House of Representatives. You don't want to talk to nosy reporters. What's the best way to blow them off? 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, always gratefully received. An amazing tweet, David, from BBC World News. This is real. And I quote, should more British homes be built using straw? It was a very overworked Twitter joke to write, Did a wolf write this?

To Charlie Ban. That's fantastic. Tim Moran, if you huffed and puffed with laughter about that gag, congrats. You made the overwork Twitter joke. of the week. All right, in the notebook, down I saw a story in the New York Times by Annie Carney that I just loved.

Mike Johnson, you know, is the new Speaker of the House or Newish from Louisiana. Back when he was just a regular representative, David, he was a hallway guy. I don't know if he was a Monday guy or a Tuesday guy, but he was a hallway guy. He would stop and answer reporters questions. But Carney reports that since becoming Speaker of the House, he does not want to talk to reporters in the hallway anymore. more. Love this apple.

And he has a strategy, which is that he takes his smartphone and puts it to his ear. And she notes that he has even ended press conferences just by picking up the phone and putting it to his ear. Sorry, I got a call. Not totally sure that the phone rang or was blinking the head on silent. He just puts the phone to his ear and walks away. And she talks about like, this is a really hard thing for reporters. defeat.

Because on the one hand, he doesn't seem to be blowing you off necessarily, like if he was just walking down the hallway, staring straight ahead. He could conceivably be on the phone, but you don't know that he's on the phone. And he always seems to be on the phone when he's in the hallway. Well, maybe, you know, he's very busy now. You get a much bigger job. Maybe the hallway is just the one time he has to himself, call home, check in his family, you know. yeah and she says you know look if she says uh is it says uh is it a fake phone call a sick kid or

the president of the united states it really could be any of those things i'm not sure a sick kid is necessarily like i want to talk to the speaker of the house that's my that's my special wish but president of united states is absolutely a possibility also though like he could just have like AirPods or something but you'd think that for someone who's gone the phone that much that would be really convenient but it wouldn't have the same visible effect. If you were just walking around with your earphones in, and reporters would still be coming up to you and trying to talk,

you got to hold up the phone. So there is some performance aspect to it. It's funny because Congress is like a sports locker room where everybody's available. Because they just have to get from point A to point B so reporters can walk up to them. And with Johnson, there's also been a little bit of an art issue

that you'll appreciate as the ringer's art maestro. Carney writes, photographers are complained that it is difficult to capture a picture of Mr.

Johnson looking up because he's always got his head down when he's talking on his phone. She also called up Al Franken.

Perfect secondary for a story like this. Because you know Al Franken will have a note for you about this

and he says, I would actually do it as a joke. I wouldn't just do that thing with my hand, thumb and ear like I'm on the phone.

Sometimes I'd say I'm on the phone with the president. You might be. what would what would what would what would the decorum be if you were walking on the hall with what was clearly like a fake plastic child's rotary phone and just saying i'm on the phone with the president i'm on the phone with the wouldn't reporters laugh and give you a little

red bat phone style thing you know it's just like oh go from the white house running down that would be amazing i think reporters would just enjoy the bit and give you a little space yeah do your thing uh note for we hear about the death of the Washington D.C. Bureau. This is a story in Adweek, really fascinating by Mark Stenberg. The Wall Street Journal in the latest bit of media sadness cut 20 jobs, or somewhere around 20 jobs from their Washington, D.C. Bureau. And Stenberg writes about how this is another data point in the death of that particular institution. During the glory days of newspapers, just about every local paper had a Washington, D.C. Bureau, whether you were in Seattle,

Dallas, Denver, it didn't matter. Maybe bureau was a bit overstated. That was actually one person who had a desk in the national press club, but you could boast that you had a DC bureau. Yeah. Well, now newspapers are doing fewer things. They no longer have a monopoly over our attention like they did. Because I know when I was growing up in Dallas, Fort Worth, the newspaper was how I got

political news. Like, that was it. There was no, there was no Annie Carney type figure there. Time and Newsweek came once a week. That was how you got your political news when how you get it from Politico. You get tons for free. It doesn't matter. But the one interesting part of this is even if we get political news that's better than we might have gotten from the local paper back in the day, you do not have a person who is just dogging, bird dogging your Congress person around all the time.

Yeah. And that's the interesting part of it, right? If I'm in Dallas, they're writing about Texas senators and local Congress members constantly and making them answer questions. And still presumably an important way of doing things, even as all news transforms into national news. That's what I was going to say. Everything's national now. So in some sense, we're all, I mean, everyone's aggregators now, right?

We'll just leave it to the people who are kind of the institutions there to carry on to do the legwork. because they're talking all the people we would want to talk to talk to anyway. And we can put in a call to our local senator's office here, you know, from Dallas or whatever. And do some percentage of the work. But yeah, it's a

sad state of affairs, a sorry state of affairs, but I think it speaks more to our sort of broader news media than just in newspaper shutting down offices. No, you're right. And it is funny what the nationalization of political news does because on the one hand, yes, there's tons of stuff

about Trump, there's tons of stuff about Biden, perhaps less than about Trump, but also these local congressmen who wind up as figures in those national stories become huge stars. Like Adam Schiff's running for Senate,

U.S. Senate here in California right now. Like Adam Schiff went from somebody that nobody knew that was to this gigantic resistance celebrity. You know, somebody that everybody who follows politics had a sense of who, you know, had a sense of that name.

So on the one hand, as a local person you can get sucked into this national narrative, and he has a big advantage in this congressional race just because he's that guy. He's like, oh, yeah, so that guy giving it to Trump for years and years. Very funny. A couple people sent us a literal media piss test. Chris Vanini and Doug Gianborresi sent us a headline from the New York Post that says billionaire Peter Thiel bankrolling quote Olympics on steroids event that allows athletes to dope. I love that idea.

This is not the Olympics on steroids like the World Cup or something that would actually be bigger than the Olympics. It is literally Olympians on steroids or perhaps their PED of choice. Thanks to Doug and Chris for sending that one. I've got a bearing the lead award for you, David. Great. Comes to us from Bill Oram, the Oram. the Oregonian sports columnist. It was originally thrown out on Twitter by Matt Prem.

It's a tweet from K-E-Z-I, which is the ABC affiliate out in Western Oregon. K-E-ZI, and I believe this is a tease for the K-E-ZI News at 4. I want you to tell me if these stories are in the proper order. Quoting here, while power has been restored in many places, phone and internet services have not, frustrating many residents. Also, a Creswell man has pleaded guilty to hiring a hit man to kill his wife and will be

sentenced today. No, I'm going to, I'm going to zag. Kudos to KEZI. Kudos to KEZI. This was everything that was wrong with local, with the local evening news over the past 15 years, has been, they always led with the, with the, you know, whatever the small bloody story is just to drag people in. If it bleeds, it leads, right?

There you go. And they're actually going to a problem that's affecting much, many more people and affecting them in a way that is probably really bothering them. And that's an internet outage. So if I can use another local news cliche, this is news you can use. Exactly. Your internet's out, your utilities are out more than,

or is greater than if it bleeds, it leads. done. Amazing. We fixed local news on this podcast. Got some only in journalism for you.

We are in the midst of this gigantic and endless rainstorm in Los Angeles that I'm sure you've seen leading every media outlet in the country right now.

Nobody hates water. Like residents of... Oh, my God. The region has been lashed by rainfall according to the New York Times. I only see lashed when there are heavy rain

somewhere. We also got a great one from listener Jim Wolverton hidebound It's also from the Times Haley as in Nikki Haley resisted the rules of South Carolina's famously hidebound political club

I feel the only thing that's hidebound in journalism are political institutions The Senate is hidebound Yeah Kind of an only in political journalism word All right it's time for David Shoemaker Guess is the strained

upon headline. Yeah. Never a hide-bound institution. Let me tell you. Last Monday's headline, David, about the Trump campaign's

plotting against the R&C chairwoman was hit and Rana. I'm going to give you a choice today. Would you like a headline about chickens or a headline

about the New York Knicks? Oh, gosh. Let's go with chickens. Wow. Speaking of zagging, I was ready for this Knicks headline. All right.

Today's headline. Save one for next week. Yeah, it comes to us from Ben Hyman, alert listener. Thank you so much, Ben. It is from the Baltimore banner. There's a local news success story. It is a piece about a community in an 11-year fight against something called Royal Farms. Royal Farms.

I'm going to read this to you, David. Yeah. It says the clock has restarted on an 11-year dispute between Royal Farms and the community surrounding Harford Road in Baltimore. The chain known for its fried chicken wants to open a gas station near a busy intersection. After a long hiatus,

the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals will hear the company's case on February 6th. By way, don't say that nobody covers local news anymore. This is the ultimate local news story. The fried chicken and gas station place wants to open a new location in the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals

is hearing its case. All right. Remember, David, an 11-year fight. So this is a big moment in that 11-year fight for the chicken chain. What was the Baltimore Banner's strain pun headline? Big moment. Things are getting more interesting. Things are getting more interesting.

As we would say in a mystery. Ooh, the plot chickens. The plot chickens. The mystery thing gave it away. I helped you. That's a great one, though. He is David Schumaker. I'm Brian Curtis.

Production Magic by Brian Waters. Coming up Thursday, we will be live, well, not live. We will be live to tape from Radio Row. Guest host is Nora Princeati, who can tell us everything there is to know about the NFL and about Taylor Swift. This is the Nora Preciati Super Bowl. I cannot wait for her to join the show. And David, our old object of sports radio and first take

fascination. Chris Mad Dog Rousseau will also be on the show. Not doing the press box with me and Norah. That will be a separately taped interview. But I should ask Chris to just do the press box, straight up. What do you think of the death of the D.C. Bureau, Mad Dog?

You probably have a take. You probably would. I'd see him as a reader of newspapers. One other thing to put on your calendar, February 29th, Sean Finnessy is going to be the guest host of our Thursday podcast. We're going to do the news of the week, and then we're going to be revisiting the great political documentary, The War Room from 1993. About James Carvel, George Stephanopoulos, and all the people that help Bill Clinton win

the 92 presidential election. Putting that on your radar so you can watch or re-watch it now, our listener, Zach Brooks, notes that it is streaming both on Max and the Criterion channel. So check out the War Room. Sean Fennancy, February 29th, and Monday. After the Super Bowl, we're not going to do it the night of the Super Bowl. We're going to come back on the morning after the Super Bowl. David and I will have announcer reviews, commercial reviews, broadcast reviews,

everything you could possibly want, plus more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.