The Press Box - Jesse Jackson’s Legacy, More on Stephen Colbert, and When College Basketball Coaches Attack

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Today, Bryan and Joel come together to discuss the legacy of Reverend Jesse Jackson, who passed away this week at age 84, and Joel's written piece on the reverend (00:54). The guys continue that conversation by telling the story of a reporter revealing something Reverend Jackson said to him on background (16:25) and how that reflects on modern journalism (27:13). Next, Bryan and Joel give an update on The Atlantic’s measles story and how it has been represented (35:36). After that, the guys talk about the latest in the James Talarico–Stephen Colbert censorship story (42:00) before ending the show with a discussion about Mick Cronin’s outburst at a reporter following UCLA’s loss to Michigan State (50:44). Hosts: Bryan Curtis and Joel Anderson Producers: Isaiah Blakely and Bruce Baldwin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, media consumers. Welcome to Press Box Thursday. It's Brian Curtis. It's Joel Anderson. It's producers Isaiah Blakely and Bruce Baldwin. Coming up on today's show, we take stock of the legacy of Jesse Jackson, who died this week at age 84.

We'll also tell the story of Jackson and the Washington Post reporter who revealed something Jackson said to him on background. We've got updates on the Atlantic's measles story and Stephen Colbert, some required watching on the man formerly known as Prince Andrew. Plus, why is UCLA's basketball coach barking at a reporter? Joel, let us start with Jesse Jackson, the guy you wrote about this week, great piece in the ringer.com called Jesse Jackson knew better than to forget.

Everybody needs to go read that piece right now. And if you've already read it, please go read it again. Oh, that's very sweet. Yeah, no, thanks, man. I've been working. I'd been thinking about it since November when he first went into the hospital. And his family started asking for prayers then, and it seemed pretty bleak like he might not have made it out of there. And he spent two weeks in the hospital, was discharged home.

And I thought, okay, I've got a little bit more time. And I did, but just not as much as I thought. I remember waking up, you know, like 4 o'clock on Tuesday morning and getting that notification that he had passed. And I was like, oh, shit. I mean, first, I was sad because, I mean, I know everybody wasn't a fan of Jesse Jackson, but he is, I mean, to the, if you believe in the idea of a black America, right, that, you know, the black people in this country are their own sort of nation. He was about as close to the president of it for a long time as anybody. And he was, you know, And one of the more vivid memories of my youth was run Jesse Run, those two, you know, presidential runs in the 80s.

And so, I mean, all that is coming forth as I'm thinking about it. But then also I'm like, oh, shit, I've got to actually write this thing. So I spent, you know, all day on Tuesday and some into Wednesday writing it. And, yeah, I'm glad it's over. And, yeah, there's so much, there's so much else that I could have written about with Jesse Jackson. There's so many different, you know, ways I could have gotten into the story. But the thing that I remembered the most is when I saw him at the NABJ convention in Atlanta in 2005. 2005, and I wanted to ask you about that convention.

What did you make of his message and what was it like to see him in that setting? Well, yeah. And I'm pretty certain that was the first time I'd ever seen him in person. And, you know, it was in this, you know, kind of a very small meeting room at the bottom. of a hotel and it was packed. Like it was still sort of packed, but there had been other people that had been at the convention, and I mentioned it in the story, Bill Clinton, T.D. Jake said played to much bigger venues, like ballrooms within that hotel. And so there's a lot of people packed into this very small meeting room at the bottom of the hotel. And Jesse Jackson and Dick

Gregory and Archer Davis, if people remember, he was one-time Democratic representative out of Alabama, then one-time Republican, uh, representative. in Nevada, Alabama. I think there was somebody else that was on the panel, and they're just giving us this very passionate argument that we need to really work to publicize, you know, whether or not the Voting Rights Act was going to be reauthorized

and if there were going to be all these challenges to it. Remember, this is 2005. And I have to say, I mean, I was 27 years old, still sort of a reform jock. I just, my life, I had not spent a lot of time thinking about the world outside of games at that point. And I'm just like, what is he talking about? There's not any challenges to the Voting Rights Act.

I thought that Jesse Jackson, I'm sad to say, was being hysterical. But he was really adamant that, like, you've got to work to protect this. You guys have got to write about this. You guys have got to study upon this because there are threats to this thing. And we've got to be prepared for when it comes. And, you know, sad to say, like me and a lot of other people that walked out of the room that day, I just don't think that we took him as seriously as we probably should have. Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, and Archer Davis were in the basement.

Mm-hmm. I mean, that's a hell of a panel for the basement. I mean, NABHA is a really big, I mean, it's probably the bigger of the like membership journalism organizations. Like, you know, there's NAHJ, AAAJA, there's the organization for American, Native Americans, and some other ones, you know, SPJ. I don't think I've ever been to an SPJ convention. So maybe that's a huge, huge one as well.

But NABJ is a huge event. And there are a lot of people that want an audience with NABJ. If you remember, NABJ was it last year? The year before last, they had an event with Donald Trump where he came. And there was a huge, you know, divide within the organization or whether or not they should have given him that platform. And so, yeah, yeah, he made some news. And so there's a lot. I mean, so a lot of people want to get in front of that group, or at least at one time,

they wanted to. And so it wasn't quite a surprise that Jesse Jackson maybe had a smaller room because it's not like he had, Jesse Jackson was still Jesse Jackson, but he didn't have the profile of Jesse Jackson in 1985 that he had in 2005. At that point, he's on sort of the back end of his prominence. You know, he'd never held public office at that point. He'd not been in public office for a while. And, you know, he'd been through his own personal troubles at that point. people, you know, can Google it and they'll know about it. So he wasn't as big of a name. He wasn't like a big marquee name like he would have been even 10 years prior to that.

So yeah. And Dick Gregory, again, I mean, the thing about life is that people get old and people forget about you, man. And they forget about what you've done, the fights you've had, the headlines you've made. And so you have to move a little bit down the marquee a little bit. It really is. I mean, with all those people, I would say needs no introduction. but maybe they did. How many people do you think know Dick Gregory or Archer David?

Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. The numbers wouldn't be what we want them to be. That's for sure. I want us to think a little bit about Jesse Jackson's a media figure today. Yeah. I remember as a kid, Rush Limbaugh was the thing in the late 1980s, early 1990s.

Remember that period where he just appeared in our lives and would not go away for decade after decade? Oh, man. he was a heat i mean he was i mean he was would you say that he's what turko carlson is today maybe sure maybe even more powerful i don't know but yeah maybe even more because the world was really different and he felt like he was on in every single city in america yep absolutely and there wasn't like a liberal equivalent that was as big as rush limbaugh which you could go find now you can go find your own you know flavor of ice cream right like rush was the flavor of ice cream middays all over America. Even if you were a liberal or progressive, you couldn't avoid hearing him or seeing him

in some aspect. Oh my God, my friend's moms. I get in the car to carpool and like rush is not. That was that thing. And he could not go like 20 minutes on that show without talking about Jesse Jackson. And he did in this voice. He would go, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He would do that every time he would introduce him in that voice. And I was thinking yesterday, who is the person who occupies, the thoughts of right-wing media today, like Jesse Jackson did back in the 80s and 90s. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think there's only maybe two contenders, and I'm probably going to be wrong about this, but either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, right?

And I feel like maybe Barack Obama has sort of faded from that, too. Like, they lost, right? Like, I mean, Obama's legacy has pretty much been totally undone in the last few years. And, you know, Hillary Clinton is just sort of a, I don't know if people consider her a sad figure in American politics at this point. But yeah, they don't seem nearly as powerful as they once did. And so, yeah, I don't even know if people can gin up the same sort of antipathy for them that they had Jesse Jackson once in a time, right? Is AOC somewhere on the podium? That's a really good one.

AOC, man, that might be, that might be the wine. That might be the wine. just in the way she's talked about and the frequency with which she's talked about. The charisma. The figure she is in that world. Yeah, the charisma of the ability to move people and people resent it, right? They see that, oh, this is actually, this person is a, this is a formidable opponent. This is a potential threat in the way that Jesse Jackson was.

Because, look, I mean, yesterday when Donald Trump released his statement about Jesse Jackson, and he was much more complimentary of him than you might have imagined. Then he was of Rob Reiner after he was murdered. Yeah, I mean, God, he couldn't even, he couldn't even fake it for Rob Reiner, who was slaughtered in his own home by his son. But for Jesse Jackson, he had respect. And I think it's the thing is the way that they sort of carried themselves.

They had an AOC, I'm not saying to the same person, but there's a charisma and a confidence that they walk with that you can see people are interested in sort of chipping away at because I think they respect them as an opponent. And it's a button to push with the audience. of Fox News or talk radio back in the 80s and 90s. You know if you go there, you know what the reaction is going to be. Right. And they might respond too, right?

Like they're not afraid to neither, neither of Jesse Jackson or AOC were afraid to mix it up. I was amazed looking at Twitter and reading all the tributes over the last couple of days. Just what a huge figure Jesse Jackson was in our lives back in the 80s and 90s. Right. Of course there were the presidential campaigns. Right. Of course, there were the moments of protests that we all remember. But also, here's Jesse Jackson on Sesame Street.

Yeah. Doing call and response with the kids. What an amazing segment that was. It doesn't, and I'm happy it happened. And because I remember it as it, you know, I'm not saying that I remember it contemporaneously, but, you know, maybe a couple of years after it happened, it was still sort of heavy in the pop culture of the moment, right? But it's just kind of strange that he was able to attain that sort of fame because his promise. at that point was based largely on his proximity to MLK and activism,

like forcing people to turn over their employment roles to see if they had hired enough black people, right? So it's just shocking that he was able to use that as a platform to get on Sesame Street at that point because you would have thought he, I mean, he wasn't a divista figure. He was a very controversial person. But, I mean, I think the thing is, as I mentioned, his charisma was undeniable. Oh, my gosh. And the message was undeniable.

Unmessors. Are you mad at that message? Yeah, right. That everybody has worth, no matter what you look like, who you are, where you come from, that you have a certain worth and you should be proud of that. Absolutely. You mean something. Yeah.

I mean, come on. And he talked about himself being sort of a country preacher, right? That was one of the ways he referred to himself. And so he had the cadence and the voice and the projection of a country preacher. And it was one of the more distinctive talking stuff. Like almost, it's not hip hop, but he could rhyme a little bit. You know, he could get his points across behind a mic unlike few others. And I would argue, you know how like I felt like Steph Curry made it so that a lot of bad basketball players think that they should shoot from 40 feet?

I felt like Jesse Jackson had the same impact on a lot of other people trying to mimic the way that he talked. Like they wanted to have the projection. I've stood through a bunch of church services, community meetings, where people have tried to rally people in the way that Jesse Jackson did. And it just doesn't work because Jesse Jackson was Jesse Jackson. I thought you were going to give me a list of national figures there. But you're talking about like school board and alderman and preachers. County Commissioner, you know, things.

You speak up at the youth awareness rally or whatever. And you're trying to get people to go. You just can't do it. I almost kind of wonder, and somebody should ask Arsenio Hall of this, for anybody that was watched Coming to America, there's a, do you remember, do you watch Coming to America, Brian? I have seen Coming to America. All right. So there's a scene in Coming to America, the Black Awareness Rally. And that's where Hakeem and Simi meet the woman of his dreams, Lisa McDowell. She comes on stage. But there's also a pastor who's sort of the emcee of the event. And he's talking

and he's trying to, you know, get people up and everything. And I just kind of wonder, I was like, How much of that, Arsena, how much is that character, Jesse Jackson did he try to bake into that guy? How much is he channeling Jesse? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The other one that people tweeted out was

Jesse Jackson going on Saturday Night Live in 1991 and reading Green Eggs and Ham. Yeah, man. I remember where I was when that happened. I remember sitting in my mom's den watching. I could see where the television was and watching it just being like, wow, they got Jesse Jackson.

That's crazy. And he is totally committed to the bit. Right, just right into it. He knows that people think it's sort of funny to have him talking that way while reading Green Ex-in. But he totally sold it. Like he was right into it. There's a half-ass version he could have done of that.

But he did the full-on version of that. Full-on version, yeah. Did you remember? And so we're going to talk about this at some point, I guess. But so after, because we're going to talk about Milton Coleman. but after his he had been quoted using a Jewish slur and it came the light and you made the news or whatever they had Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live

do a skit about him saying that slur but it's sort of an appeal to his Jewish constituents and I was like man Jesse Jackson he didn't hold a lot of grudges man I mean that would have been one of those things you know he probably could have been like I'm never going on there they tried to make a fool of me but Jesse Jackson he held fewer grudges than Eddie Murphy did about Saturday Night Live. Right?

Right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, man, it was just, he was about his business, man. He didn't hold grudges. And he, I think he had, you know, it seemed like he had the capacity to laugh at himself a little bit, too. He didn't have to take himself seriously all the time.

It's a good story in the L.A. Times by Greg Braxton. Yeah. About the 90s when Jesse Jackson was trying to hold Hollywood accountable, television and movies for the lack of diversity. Yeah. And he had Braxton writes this. He said, The clash with Hollywood was first sparked

after several black-oriented shows on Fox, including South Central Rock in Living Color and the Sinbad show were canceled in July 1994. What an incredible pop cultured time capsule that sentence is. Oh, man. Rock. Jackson felt there would not be much improvement in the diversity on the shows in the upcoming fall season.

He also focused on the Academy Awards in 1996. this was like an early version of Oscar So White, which we would see revisited 20 plus years after that. Absolutely, yeah. Whoopi Goldberg was the host of the Oscars that year. And she came out and how would you describe it? She made fun of him. Yeah.

Joked about his efforts to talk about the Oscars. She made a joke of him. She made a punchline of a cause that you would think should have mattered to Whoopi Goldberg, right? But I don't know, maybe Whoopi Goldberg felt like her Hollywood career was as good as it should have been. And she exceeded even her wildest expectation. So she found no need to advocate for the people coming behind her. But yeah, it was kind of, it's weird.

I'd forgotten about that until this came up too. We got to talk about the story of Milton Coleman. Yeah, man. A reporter for the Washington Post. I almost brought this up to you the other day when we were talking about James Talarico. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what he allegedly did not allegedly say to the influencer off the record. Because this is kind of a parallel story with much higher stakes at the time.

So Milton Coleman, as I mentioned, was a reporter for the Washington Post. This is January 25, 1984. So this is Jesse Jackson's first campaign for the presidency. He'd run again four years later. They were at a restaurant near what's now known as Reagan National Airport in D.C. and the way this whole subject came up was that Jackson had done an earlier sit down at the Washington Post Office, as candidates do,

and he remarked that he was surprised that no one had asked him about Israel during that session. Can we just linger here for a second because I think we both marveled over this? It's 1984. Jesse Jackson wanted to have a debate about Israel and Palestine.

He wanted to talk more about that. He wanted to talk more about it. And he said, I'm not afraid. He's like, I can't wait to dig into this with the Washington Post editors and reporters. That is, for whatever your side of the issue is on this, there's just not very many people who at that time were willing to have that sort of a debate in public, to be honest. Absolutely not. Yeah.

Absolutely not. So at this meeting at the restaurant in 1984 with Milton Coleman, who we should note is black. Jackson turns to Coleman and says, let's talk black talk. I have never heard that before, which is great. I want to start using that with people now. I want to start, let's have some black talk real quick. At any moment during this podcast, feel free to be done. Jay School is now called Black Talk, Little Bill, Black Talk.

Milton Coleman would later write that that was Jesse Jackson signal that they were now on background. Yeah. And if people don't know what background means, is you can use the information that I'm giving you. You just can't attribute it to me. So usually when we see this appear in a story, it's said one network executive, said one senior official said one person who's called Super Bowls in the past.

A person close to the Jackson campaign. Whatever. Yeah. And in this case, I'm guessing that Jesse Jackson did not want these actual words used at all. because when he was talking to Milton Coleman during this period he used a slur when talking about Jewish voters.

Now Coleman didn't take notes during this session but he was sure he later wrote about what Jesse Jackson said. Now fast forward another Washington Post reporter gets assigned to write a story about Jesse Jackson, his foreign policy and specifically his Mideast policy. That reporter is Rick Atkinson who now you might know if you ever go to the bookstore because he has sold about a

bigillion books about the American Revolution. He's got a whole series that is apparently fantastic. In my next life, when I actually read books again for fun, I will read Rick Atkins's books about the Revolutionary War. Unbelievable. I did not know that. Man, what a whole different era journalism, man. You could retire and just have a good life.

Great career at the post and then go on to a great career writing books. Yeah, man. It's seamless, just like he drew up. There's money to be made in writing once in a time, believe it or not, kids. Now, Coleman's thinking was, even though the comment was on background, he understood it to be on background, Jesse Jackson understood it to be on background. It reflected Jackson's insensitivity on this particular topic. And therefore, it ought to be in the paper. Is that your understanding having read Coleman's essay on this whole encounter?

Absolutely. that yes I the thing about it that's kind of weird is that I would with Jesse Jackson it's kind of weird because like why would you use the slur like if you know that this is going to be

on black ground but that just speaks to how comfortable he was with that with that particular flavor of anti-Semitism right so those words go into the newspaper right in a story by line by Rick Atkinson

at the bottom of the story it said staff writer Milton Coleman contributed to this report right Jackson denied having said it for a while, then admitted it and apologized for saying it. The political context here is this happens right before the New Hampshire primary in 1984. Jackson would finish fourth behind not just Gary Hart and Walter Mondale, but Senator John Glenn. There's a time capsule from 1984 right there.

Oh my God, I know right. Milton Coleman for his part got threatened by Lewis Farrakhan. Man. This is another side story of this. time quoted faircona saying we're going to punish the traitor and make the traitor beg for forgiveness that's um that again not really a story i'd ever heard before in really audacious considering what a lot of people think louis farrakhan had to do with malcolm x's death you know what i mean i just kind of like we're gonna we're gonna come find you and hurt you

says louis farrakhan it's like shit he might he could maybe make that happen i don't know you I had not heard that story before. Had you? Never heard that part of it. No. Nor the fact that Milton Coleman got grilled at an NABJ convention. Man, me neither. To bring it back around to that.

Yeah. For what he'd done and also for violating what a lot of reporters thought was a covenant that you make with a source. Right. If you say this is on background, if this is agreed to be on background, then it should remain on background no matter what the candidate says. right and that's an interesting one right i mean like you look the funny thing about all these journalistic promises background off the record their promises as long as someone keeps them yeah right like if you put it in the newspaper you put it in the newspaper yeah i mean that's the thing it's um it's like so much of everything we're finding out about the world it only i mean it only takes one

person to say like i don't necessarily believe that those were rules that we have to follow anymore right Like that's it's exactly that. And usually you don't do it because you don't want to burn your source and you want to maintain relations with them, right? You keep the lines of communication open. I wonder how many times Jesse Jackson had said this, though, that made Milton Coleman comfortably. He's like, well, certainly he said it outside of my presence before. So I don't have to, the fear couldn't have been that they were going to come back on him with this, right? Coleman said in his piece in the Washington Post that other reporters had heard Jackson use these words.

So his thinking, and again, he can speak for himself on this, but his thinking is, yes, this is on background. Yes, I made a promise explicit or implicit not to use this with Jesse Jackson's name on it. But this is important information that voters should know before an election takes place. Absolutely. So I'm going to find a way to put this into the newspaper. And it's interesting to think about it like that. I mean, if you heard somebody say something and it was off the record or on background,

but you thought it was important enough that people should know, are you then able to violate the promise? Are you obliged to violate the promise that you made to the subject? If you think it's that important. Absolutely. I think people, if you get the opportunity, they should read Milton Coleman's column.

Because I think it's- We'll tweet it out. We'll tweet it out. It's so thoughtful and considered, and he really did his best to put everything in context. Like when he, if you were to take his version of events at his word, I just kind of think it's hard to question what he did here. And yeah, I mean, I, you know, if Jesse Jackson was walking around using that slur, on background with different groups of people, it does speak to whether or not he would have been a capable leader, right?

Like are you capable of being the president of the United States? Right, if you're going to like let's start. Now, obviously, this is 1984 and not 2026. The standards have changed now, right? Like I don't, we're talking about a whole different time in American history when presidents could, you know, they had to be a little bit more. thoughtful about the way that they

interacted with the public, right? But yeah, man, I don't see that Milton Coleman did anything wrong here. And again, it does speak to the pressure that I mean, I'm sure other people have this in a lot of the context, but

that black reporters sometimes have protecting people, protecting people that are important to your community versus reporting the news. Right? And I know that other people have these, like, it's, I mean, look, let's be real. Like, there's a lot of people that are going out and having conversations with sources and not putting this on the record and

putting this on the record, whatever. So this is not unique to black people, but I'm just thinking about in particular after Ferguson and the Black Lives Matter movement, there were people within that movement that I had personal affection for. That are people, I'm like, I really like this person. And you have to make a decision when they tell you things or how they're conducting themselves like how close am I going to get at this person? How willing am I able to protect these people? And I think Milton Coleman really navigated this really well because it felt like he was at enough out of distance. And he talked about like I did like, you know, he was moved by Jesse Jackson's campaign, but he's like, look, I'm a reporter that's, you know, cut and dry about what I have to do

in this situation. At the end of the day, that's what he said. I'm a reporter. And he had all these old school reporter things like, I'm not going on TV and talking about this. Yeah. Because I don't want to be the story. Yeah. I'm supposed to be on this side of the not the other side of the notepad. Yeah. He had a quote here too. He said there are some reporters who pull punches to curry favor with those they cover.

Those people should not be categorized as white racist reporters protecting white candidates. Those are bad reporters. They come in all colors. I'm not trying to bring this person up again to embarrass them or to deepen the misery that they probably suffered this year. Olivia Nute. Like what we know like about and with everybody

Somehow I knew we were going to get there Yeah and what everybody's been talking about in the past year and I don't think that she's alone

and protecting people like that or having those sort of relationship so yeah like I don't think this is a very common debate that people have or a crisis

that internal crises that you might have when you're dealing with people because yeah like you want to hear things but sometimes somebody says something

to you that is so it demands that I might need to re-evaluate our background agreement. And I thought Milton Coleman said it perfectly. It's not my job to avoid controversy for Reverend Jackson. It's his aides job. I think that that cuts right to the heart of it. Like, it's not my fault that he said this.

And I think that's the right way to go with it. And you went into the Nutsi zone, but honestly, this is what that influencer was talking about with James Talariko. Yeah. Now, Talariko has gone back. and said, I was not talking about Colin All right that way. I meant it this way, not that way. The quote was misconstrued. But she essentially said, the reason I am sharing this is because I think it's important enough to share. You should know this about this guy for what about what he allegedly said to me.

Once again, no notes. It wasn't on camera. But just a fascinating historical parallel there. Yeah. I mean, I guess, man, it's just, it's interesting because one of the things that I learned even as like a lowly hundred and fifth man on the roster in college football is that the coaches would come to you and say the media is not your friend like that would they really try to beat in your head

that you've got to be very careful about the things that you say to them and I mean man Jesse Jackson James Tyler Rico I mean they know all this like they're smart people they deal with reporters all the time and even still you can get so comfortable sometimes that you forget that, you know, that this is still, like, this is a person that has the power to hurt me in my career.

And so I'm just always kind of surprised at people, like, loosen up in quite that way. And we're talking about times when it's clearly on background or clearly off the record. As you know, there are plenty of prominent people who start talking to you and they just assume, well, you're not using any of this, right? Oh, yeah. We're just talking here, right? We're just talking. They don't even say that. Yeah.

They just assume that based on a prior relationship. I'm going to be like, you know what? If you don't say it, if you don't spell it out, if you don't make an agreement, then it's public information. You've got to let me know. I mean, I don't know about you, right? And I'm not saying that everything I say in life is, you know, I'm running it through some sort of filter or whatever and that, you know,

I don't slip up and say things that that'll be saying right. Yeah. But, I mean, for the most part, And I mean, I have group chats or whatever, you know, but there were close friends, like, people that I really, really trust. And I'm just, I'm always just kind of surprised that I just try to, I try to think about if I'm talking in public or I'm talking to somebody that is not my best friend or wife. I just got, I need to be able to back up what I said in real life if it ever comes back on me, man. So you just got the best thing, the best policy for people. And this is, I don't know if there's media training or whatever.

Just say the things again, when you're talking to people, just always assume that. that the microphone is on. And just say the things that you would say on the microphone. Yeah, right. Say it. That's right. A couple updates for you. Okay.

Prince Andrew has been arrested. Oh, no. Or should I say former Prince Andrew? Damn. Because he doesn't have his titles anymore. He is officially Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor. I saw that name. I was like, wow.

Okay. Which is awkward. The Times had a headline that said, former Prince Andrew arrested. We need our copy chief Craig Gaines to weigh in on this because former Prince Andrew is just such, and I know there's so many Prince jokes here that people are waiting to make, go get it.

But like, that is just such an awkward thing to call somebody former Prince Andrew. Former Prince Andrew. The Times says the authorities arrested the former prince on suspicions of misconduct in public office. after accusations that he shared confidential information with Mr. Epstein. Yes, that Mr. Epstein, while serving as a British trade envoy. So he had a no-show job as British trade-onvoy.

I mean, how many official responsibilities were packed in there? I mean, dude. What a life. He was a print. I mean, you're all, whatever. What a life. He had two no-show jobs. Right.

Yeah, I was going to say he had to do nothing. He had to do anything. I will leave the Royals watching to people who are better than that than you and I are. But I do, go ahead. Do you know, did you know a lot about Prince? Like, I just, he's sort of, not before the Epstein stuff. Okay, yeah. He's in the ether.

I was like, I've heard of this guy, I guess he's related to Great Britain in some sort of way, but I just, I really had no conception of who he was and what he actually was doing. Two assignments, if you want to know more. Okay. One is the former Prince Andrew gave an interview back in November 2019 to the BBC show called News Night. To the anchor Emily Maitlis. This is an unbelievable interview. The Epstein stuff had just surfaced and he went on television in a no-holds-barred interview

basically to try to charm his way out of or talk his way out of this mess. he wound up doing the opposite. Emily Maitlis did an unbelievable job too. She came loaded for bear. She knew just the way to ask questions. If you want to watch this, that whole interview was on YouTube. I was actually watching a couple of nights ago

after the tranch, if I may use the only in journalism word of Epstein files came out in emails. And it made me as like, oh yeah, that interview. And I went back and watched like 10 minutes of it. It is unbelievable. just as

gripping television and also of a sort of a how to interview someone guidebook. Check that out. Also, there's a Netflix movie that was made about this in 2024 called Scoop in which Jillian Anderson played Emily Maitlis.

What? Also highly recommended. If you just want to see the fictional version which is which hews very close to it and also explains like why in the world Prince Andrews handlers would throw a royal onto television thinking that he was going to be able to explain his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. It's a fascinating movie too.

They're always the last night. I'm just kind of thinking, remember who was the NFL owner who recently went on camera and embarrassed himself? He was talking. More specific. Oh, man, he was like, no, that guy drafted. Oh, my God. Was it, it was somebody who just fired their coach?

Yes. Oh, man. Was it, was it the Steelers? No, no, it was, I'm sorry, it was Terry Pagula. It was the bills. There you go. They were throwing Keon Coleman under the bus. Keon Coleman.

And I remember, I was just like, oh, is it just that unlike Jerry Jones, who still has a knack for embarrassing himself on the mic sometimes? But it's like you, these people are not used to answering questions. And so, but they're so far removed from being held accountable for anything that when they actually put themselves in the situation, they overestimate their competence and their charm. Right. And so it's just like, oh, you're not ready for this. Like you thought you could get your way out of this,

but it's just not going to work this time, buddy. Jerry at least has reps because he talks to the media all the time. These other guys talk to the media once a year, if that. If that. Yeah. And they have no idea how to do an interview. Yeah. Another follow up, The Atlantic and Measles.

Yeah. Do you read this story? So Arlington's very own Elizabeth Brunig? I have to admit that I started on it and have not finished it yet. So I'm sorry. You understand here the journalistic and sort of moral implications. This piece was called, this is how a child dies of measles. I'm familiar with this part of it.

Yeah. And it was written in the second person, you do this, you do this, you do this. And then you get to the end of the story and there's this disclaimer, which says this story is based on extensive reporting and interviews with physicians, including those who have cared directly for patients with measles. In other words, this isn't a real story. per se, this is a real thing that could happen. These are real worst case scenarios for someone who had young children who were exposed and then came down with measles.

Yeah. A lot of people felt fooled by it. My own take was as a journalistic literary exercise, I'm totally fine with it, but I thought that the Atlantic was happy for people to think that it was real. I mean, if you just look at the headline stuff here, this is how a child does

a measles when your family becomes a data point in an outbreak. If you just read that, you think this is a real story. Oh, yeah, you think you would absolutely. That's how it's built. So you don't think they did a great job of letting people know up front. No, this is not actually based on, this is based on reporting and talking to doctors, but this is not a thing that has actually happened to a child that we've spoken with. I think if you got to the end, you might be able to figure that.

out. Okay. But I don't think they were in any rush for people to figure that out. Okay. Because it, look, as a piece, it does illustrate some, some really, some really awful and difficult things. And maybe, you know, to me, the thing I brought up with David on Tuesday is, this feels to me like a lesser version of a reported piece where you found someone whose kid had been diagnosed with measles. Yeah. Who had not been vaccinated and, and you interviewed them and, and retold their story. Yeah. It almost feels like you're going to fiction

because you didn't get fact. You're going to fact-based fiction because you didn't get fact-based fact. Right. Put it another way. Yeah, right. Do you, like, how hard do you think it would have been to have found somebody?

Because, I mean, there's, presumably, I mean, there can't be more than a few. I don't know the statistics. I'll stuff my head right now. But there's not, there's a lot of kids that have gotten infected with measles, but not very many that have died so far. It would have been a tough reporting assignment.

Yeah. And I think it would have had to have been a magazine like the Atlantic that would have said, oh, actually, just do this version. Yeah. And again, they ran it under like the ideas rubric rather than the reporting rubric. I'm not saying they did anything wrong exactly. But like, I don't think this story would have run in the news pages of the New York Times. I don't think it would run the New Yorker at all.

You're right. I think the other would have been like, let's go try to get somebody. Right. Or let's do it a slightly different way. Maybe we can't get them. Maybe we just have the publicly, you know, the public information in the news. And we use that and then we just explicitly say,

we talk to this doctor, we talked to that doctor, we talked to that doctor, rather than doing the style. Right, right, right, right. I think it's probably unique to a couple of places. I mean, there is a way that, yeah, you could say, I read about this kid. It peaked my, I read about this horrible, you know, it's very tragic story of a child dying of measles.

It caused me to look into this. And here's what I've learned. You could, you could present it that way, but that probably would not, it wouldn't be as compelling is the way that they just, drew in people in the way that they presented it. And the piece is incredibly compelling. And even if you know how it was written, it's still incredibly compelling.

Like you want to read that whole damn thing. Laura Hazard Owen has reported on this for Neiman Lab. Okay. And she posted an update today. She said, after this piece was published, meaning her piece, I heard from two different people who received the Atlantic's original push, press, push email for the piece around 430 on Thursday afternoon. At that time when they clicked through, there was not an.

editor's note disclaimer on the piece at all. Both of those readers who are a professional journalist responded to the press email with confusion and asked if the story was real. An Atlantic spokesperson emailed one of these readers back and said, this is based on a mother's account.

Excuse me, this is based on a mother's real account. Thanks for checking. Sometime after that, the disclaimer was added and it was there when I read the story around 7 p.m. on Thursday night, an Atlantic spokesperson told me yesterday the note was added almost immediately after publication. I don't know, man.

I mean, I think it speaks to sort of the trouble of newsrooms as they are today, although the Atlantic has a lot of people. Like, they've got the resources. They're staffed up. They're staffed up. I'm just kind of surprised that's not a conversation that was had in presenting.

Because I know, you know, even for the Jesse Jackson story I wrote, which was written in one day. And I don't know everybody on the other. the end that read it, but I know that I was taking screenshots of books to verify quotes and everything and send it to people to make sure if this is whatever. So I noticed there was a vigorous conversation happening on the end about, is this real? I'm just kind of surprised that when you do something like this and is, you know, compelling as it is and is, I don't know,

I'm just kind of surprised that there wasn't that conversation about, hey, let's make sure we present this. Let's have the editor's note on here very prominently. So, Totally agree. Because if you're going to do a literary exercise, you better have your ducks in the row. Yeah. There had to have been a conversation about how do we work the display? Yeah. What is it we're doing up top?

And what is it we're doing at this editor's note at the bottom? And should the editors know be at the bottom or should it be at the top of the piece? Yeah. So people know what they're reading when they're doing it. Again, I think there are different valid answers to that question. But I want to have my ducks in row before a hit published. And push it out to the media to read. It seems like a, it seems like, I mean,

Every piece does not demand that level of scrutiny. But this seems like the one that you might have had that. Yeah, because it's just different. And it's like I said, it's a different kind of take on it. Yeah. Another update for you, Stephen Colbert.

Oh, man. The embattled and soon to be former CBS late night host. Yeah. He was going to have James Tallerico on the show on Monday. James Tala Rico, of course, the Democratic Senate, Canada, whom we mentioned. Then he did not have James Tala Rico on the show. Because he was told, he said, that that might draw the attention of Donald Trump's FCC.

Here's how Colbert put it on the late show. You know, who is not one of my guests tonight? That's Texas State Representative James Tala Rico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast. Then I was told. in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on,

I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this. Big cheer there from the late show audience. I'm here. I don't know what to make of this, right? I mean, because Stephen Colbert is also a showman. Like, this is, we hadn't talked about Stephen Colbert

since the last, you know what I mean? Since we were like, okay, he's going away and he's probably not coming back. He's been a while. He's only occupied my thoughts when it involves CBS and or the FCC. I'm going to be honest. CBS and chaos, man.

I'm not watching. I'm not laughing. I'm just like, as a media story, it's interesting to me. As a comedy story, not in that format. Yeah, right. Not the thing, yeah.

I mean, also, we're probably not even up, you know, at that time when Colbert's coming up. But we're trying to get down. But is anybody really watching? I'm not even watching the clips the next day. Like my mom is watching the clips the next day. Sometimes she'll send it to me and I was like, eh. Yeah, I'm always hilarious.

I mean, I just wonder, like, who's working on the CBS and Disarray piece? Who is that? Who's the media? Yeah, that's a good point. Are you working on it, Brian? Well, I mean, I just feel like nine, nine different pieces have been written, but we haven't had the whole, maybe we haven't had the future story. A whole look, yeah.

I mean, Claire Malone did Barry Wollon. did Barry Wise, New York Magazine's done Barry Wise. This is this is kind of the CBS Entertainment, David Ellison, Trump, Brendan Carr part of the story. Yeah, I just like, I feel like somebody, I mean, that brand, that, you know, the eye

and everything, like I, somebody needs to just do the whole thing. I'm not volunteering myself. I've already got special issue of the press box. Do you want to do one of our monthly issues? You know what? Okay. All right. It's an idea. Don't threaten me with a good time. So that was round one on Monday night. And then CBS

lawyers came out and said, oh, no, no, we didn't tell Stephen Colbert he couldn't have James Talarico on. We were only giving Colbert legal guidance because Donald Trump's FCC has made noises like it's going to invoke the equal time rule for talk shows like Colbert, meaning that if Stephen Colbert has James Tallerico on, he also has to have Jasmine Crockett on the show. he might even have to have Tala riko or crockett's Republican opponent on meaning John Cornyn or Ken

Paxton so we were just we were just advising him of that yeah and by the way don't I don't mean to leave out Wesley Hunt because he is also running in that too I was just thinking of having John Cornyn

on the Colbert show I mean I covered comedy will ensue I was our covered Cornyn's first Senate campaign he reigns Ron Kirk you remember Ron Kirk the former Dallas man. Sure I do. And I was just like, man,

just not a lot of charisma out of that one. But maybe, you know, maybe Colbert can figure something out. Now the funny part about this, or I should say the just kind of interesting part about this, politically speaking, is this. The Texas Democratic Senate primary

is March 3rd. Early voting started two days ago. Man. A.k.a. the day after this happened. So James Talleyco Who is going to be in a very competitive race with Jasmine Crockett Most of the recent polls showed him behind Yeah

He is gifted this I was censored by CBS and or the FCC storyline The interview went up on YouTube anyway Got massive traffic on YouTube He raised $2.5 million in the 24 hours After this happened And now you're like wow Is this going to turn a

Senate race or a Senate primary? The fact that Talarico, again, is in a very competitive race with Jasmine Crockett, who's a big Democratic and resistance star in her own right. Is this going to turn it? The fact that this would happen one day before early voting started. I mean, I don't know if it'll turn it, but I mean, man, what a what a compelling story, though, right? It's just, I mean, it's so funny, and I see you put this in the notes.

that this is happening with James Talleyco, who is, I mean, I mean, he'll go anywhere. He'll talk to anybody, you know? Yes, this is the first interview he has not been able to do. I mean, Texas State Representative, right? Like, this is not, we're not talking about a U.S. representative or anything. Texas State Representative James Tilarico will come on your podcast and talk with you. He will come on everybody's podcast.

He will come on everybody's podcast, which is great. That's a good move for him. We would. We like that. We want politicians on podcasts. It's just shocking to, there's a controversy over the not being able to get it because it's like well you're the only you're the only people for whom this has been a debate right totally and also look you know where

i stand i know where you stand on stephen colbert and the FCC and the cbs leaning on him isn't it a little funny that james tallerico is a guest on the late show yeah but do they do he and Stephen Colbert sort of occupy the same lane. They're sort of very, you know, they're not shy about their Christianity. They're willing to talk about it in a particular way. And I wonder if they bond over that in a way that he might not with, and again, I don't know what church Jasmine Crockett goes to or doesn't go to. But I just, in that way, they seem very similar, right?

That they, it's like a sort of a plain spoken Christianity, a humanity to their Christianity that maybe they could bond over and have a conversation with. I have not seen the interview yet, so I need to check that out. That was a very good and subtle point. I was just going to say they bond because your normie liberal friends love them. That's their point. That too. I mean, look, they're in the same zone. They are. They are. I mean, really. I mean, it's just funny. Like, again, I'm not, again, please don't mistake me for conservative media guy going, it's just all woke now and they don't have any. It's not like it was with Johnny Carter. is being on it, but it is not like it was when Johnny Carson is on it.

And I understand Stephen Colbert owes his success, the fact that he made it this far to Donald Trump being elected and he being one of the guys, along with Kimmel, who would go on the show and be like, this is about Trump. Right. I'm not Jimmy Fallon. We're going in. This is going to be it. And I'm going to get an audience.

And he did it. And it worked for a long time. Yeah. It's just different. Like James, a Texas Senate primary candidate is on the late show. I mean, yeah, it is. Yeah. I just, I'm, you know, I mean, I guess this is how interesting this Texas Senate race is going to be, man.

That's wildly interesting. And on that note, did you catch Eric Erickson? Yes, I did see. Standing up for Jasmine Crockett. I mean, yeah. You know, see, this is what, this is what Stephen Colbert does. He has her, him on, but he won't have her on this show. Hmm, what is that, what does that say? Republic, I mean, Republicans are people that don't like, you know, Tilarico or Crockett. They have to be eating this up, man. It's been a very, messy race, which is why there's been so much. They tried to avoid this months ago by trying to slot them in different races,

so they would not have to have this sort of debate in public in front of people. And it wouldn't look like Texas Democrats were in disarray. I don't think they are. I think this is all probably good. This is the primary. Like, we're all finding out things about each other. It's generating a lot of attention. James Telerico got to go

on the Colbert Report or whatever, the Colbert show. So, you know, I don't think it's bad, but I can understand while Republicans look at this and I'm like kind of egging it on a little bit. Like see, see how they're trying to deny Jasmine Crocker or shine? And people pointed out, Jasmine Crocket was on the late show last year. She too has been on the late show. Well, there you go.

Finally. Okay. Mick Cronin. Not a name that has been mentioned on previous episodes of the press box? Yeah, I cannot imagine why his name would have ever come up on the show. he is the UCLA men's basketball coach on Tuesday. UCLA was playing a conference game at Michigan State. And again, just what a weird world we live in where that is a thing.

I was shot, you know, I was going to say this because we were talking about this. And I was like, I saw the clip of Mick Cronin talking about UCLA. And it never occurred to me that they were playing Michigan State in a conference game. I still, my brain just will not allow me to accept that they're,

at the same conference. Classic Big Ten matchup. UCLA versus Michigan State. Check it out. UCLA lost by 23 points. So not a good night. What was interesting here, and I think I am getting this backstory correct,

and we'll clean it up next week if I'm not. But UCLA has a player named Xavier Booker who transferred to Westwood from Michigan State. What a lifestyle change. That was a big lifestyle change. So this week he was going back to his old school. Always an interesting dynamic,

especially in the Transfer Portal era. But by all accounts that I read, this reunion was actually nice. Yeah. Yeah. I thought usually the way that it happens is that they antagonize the former player in such a way.

Well, I mean, the whole source of that fight between St. John's and Providence the other week is that the guy from St. John's who previously played in Providence and there was a big fight and, you know, suspensions and everything. So usually this is how to kind of, the kind of energy that is around this stuff, you know? Can you imagine that when you were at TCU if it had been so easy to transfer that somebody could have transferred within the conference and come back and played you the next year some guy you used to practice with. That could have been chippy.

Coaches would never even allow you to transfer it to a program like that. That was the thing. Like they would just totally prevent you. You might not even been able to travel to go to school within like a three or four state radius. So. And wasn't it a two-year sit-out if you transferred? within the conference for a while? I think that's right. It was like a two-year penalty.

So here months later, after you practice with this guy, he's coming back to play you. College sports is amazing, man. But as we said, this reunion appeared to be nice. Yeah. Xavier Booker's parents went and met with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. From accounts that I saw on Twitter, Booker was applauded by Spartan fans before the game. Yeah. And during the game, they chanted, we love Booker.

Here's how Xavier Booker himself summed it up after the game in an interview with WILX News 10. I mean, the emotions, they were definitely there, especially just sharing all the memories I had here, especially on my teammates and the relationships I built. It definitely felt good to be out there again, especially if you're feeling love from the fans too. I mean, they were chaninning, like, I think, put Booker in. So that was huge. I mean, definitely have a lot of love for Spartan Nation and the whole coach and staff and teammates, everything like that. So everybody's happy. I mean, do you think Michigan State didn't care so much because he averaged 4.7 points the game last year?

I probably heard a little bit less. Probably heard a little bit less. They didn't feel like they were missing out on much, I guess. So that's a ton of context to understand what would happen next, which, as best I can understand it is this. UCLA coach Mick Cronin after the game, after his team had gotten stomped, was asked about the reception that Xavier Booker got in East Lansing. I believe he was asked by a Michigan reporter about that, which is interesting context here too.

Here is what McKronin said. What was your thoughts in the student section chanting Booker's name? I could give a rat's ass about the other team's student section. I just bet the overall the way that you would like to give you a kudos for the worst question I've been asked. Did you like to? You should take it. Do you really think I care about the other team students?

No, I don't mean. Are you raising your voice at me? No, I'm sorry. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. Come on, dude. No reason. Come on.

Yes, you were. Everybody's standing here listening to you. Everybody, this is on camera. They can hear you. I answered the question. I could give a rat's ass about the other team student section. I coach UCLA. I don't care about Michigan State students.

Who cares? Who, man. I am. I know, I know that nobody, no reporter wants to be the subject of the story. I've been really fortunate that nobody has ever talked like that to me in public. But I don't want, if the, to the extent that I've had problems in my life, and I've passed this on to my son, unfortunately, is if you talk to me in a certain kind of way, I'm probably going to take offense to it.

Like, I just don't like people talking to me like that. You just, you remember one time, do you remember, do you ever heard of like with Dan Pastorini got to a fight with a reporter in Houston many years ago. No, that's funny. In a locker room, like, anything you got dumped into a trash can or something like that. They went after it. I'm not saying that I would fight a coach over that, but I don't think I would handle it really well if they're like, you were raising your voice at me.

Like, who are you to think that I can't raise my voice at you? Okay. There's two things there. The raise your voice is like true big brother, given little brother a Nugie type stuff. Yeah. Oh, you're mad? You're mad? You're triggered?

like after, I'm sorry, you, you just told me, I asked you the worst question ever. Yeah. I raise my voice. Like, I'm defending myself. He's saying it more than a hurt way. Yeah. He's like yelling at him. But then you pull this, oh, you raise your voice.

You realize this is all on camera, right? You're going to look terrible when all this comes out. I was like, no, he's not going to look terrible. You're going to look terrible. Yeah, brother, you got that totally wrong. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you had a bad night. You lost in, you totally lost perspective of who was going to look like the bad guy on camera here.

And that is not the worst question Mick Cronin has ever gotten. I mean, I was going to say. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you've been a coach for a long time. Absolutely. There have been a lot of bad questions asked to Mick Cronin.

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's, I mean, that didn't even, that didn't even probably make top five. Is it possible to extend what we call secular grace to Mick Cronin? Give me the argument for it. Okay, the best reading of Mick Cronin's comments there. And again,

we like to do this as a thought experiment, especially when Barry Wife speaks or Will Lewis speaks or doesn't speak but does something. Secular Grace from Mick Cronin. He just lost badly. And the question is about the Michigan State student section.

So he's just in a bad mood. And you know, sometimes you get people in a bad mood and you ask them something, I mean, sometimes they're just going to bark at you in whatever case. Yeah. But especially if you ask them something they deem to be off topic, they bark. Again, this is a thought experiment.

What else do I have for Mick Cronin? This is, okay, this is more theoretical, but this is why I'll let us give you that sports right. We see these exchanges a lot now. Yeah. I'm not totally sure if they're more common or if they're just on camera. Right.

I kind of lean toward the ladder because you just talk about Dan Pastorina, and we can go find all kinds of locker room craziness. With this, I just sort of, wonder, would we rather have Mick Cronin turn to the guy and be like, just give like the most awful stupid cliche. Yeah, that was, that was really, I thought that was a little classy of them to do that or whatever, like, whatever he would say that he didn't, that he did not mean, that he did not feel that way, right? He would essentially lie and say something printable, if barely printable.

Or would we rather him say what he really thinks, even if what he really thinks is him being a jerk? what would you prefer? What would I prefer? That's a really good question. If you're that reporter, you're probably happier with what you got. Oh, yeah. Did you see how many,

do you see how many views I had on Twitter? Yeah, you probably. He got the clip. I mean, like, whoever asked that again, I'm not totally sure who asked that question, but whoever did, they got the clip. Yeah. It's only bad for you, Sala and Mick Cronin,

like in the whole-skeen things, right? Like, it reflects real poorly. You know, I tweeted about this. And one of the few times when I'm critical of a coach or whatever, that there was almost universal, like a universal criticism of the coach, right? Usually people are inclined to defend the coach under these circumstances. Because who wants to defend the media? Like I said, like we're some of the least popular people in the world.

Like very few people. We have no constituency. Yeah, we have no constituency. Other than other reporters. That's it. And us. You and me, pal. Yeah, exactly. That's what I said. I'll talk you up. I'll defend you, bro. But I don't know, man. I mean, I wonder if that speaks to the kind of guy that Mcronin is and like maybe the sort of, you know, which sort of credibility does he have with the people around it? Like, what do people think of him? And it doesn't feel like he's the guy that people are willing to extend a lot of grace to. And I'm inclined to believe there's reasons for that. Well, UCLA's 17 to 9 and 9 and 6 in the Big 10. Big 10, big conference, though, man.

I mean, is that a good record in the Big 10 today? Well, you probably lose some secular grace if you're not at the top of the conference. Probably not at the time. All right. Well, the other thing I thought when I saw this is like you and I see a lot of these with coaches. Is it kind of funny that Katie Porter's governor gubernatorial campaign just ends when she has a encounter like this with a coach really? Yeah, well, maybe he'll win some games and we'll forget completely about that. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's funny, too, because I think that, like, I don't, I'm not going to say that Bill Belichick was like the father to this style.

Because Bill Barcells was kind of tough on reporters as well. He was. And he was a, he was like one of those guys. So, but I just felt like a lot of coaches is a way to sort of, like, assert their authority and, like, their expertise is like to kind of bully reporters a little bit, be mean to him. Because they know that there's nothing, nothing's going to happen to them if they do it, you know, there's not, there's not any reason for them. not to do it other than like wanted to present as like a decent humane kind person on camera, right? Which also might not work in their favor, you know, if you seem real nice.

Oh, well, they're not tough enough. Yeah, right. Yeah. That team soft. Yeah. I do think if you're a coach in trouble and you get a clip like this, this can be bad. Yeah. Because they capture it and then all of a, you know, remember Ryan Day had a few weird ones

right before he won the national championship? He was like, I was losing his mind. Yeah. Right. And I feel he was like a playoff loss. send one more clip away from losing his job. Right. Because those are just like memeable and they're funny

and all of a sudden it makes somebody maybe a rich donor, maybe somebody in the administration be like, you know, this guy, this ain't it. I do feel it's not nothing. Right. But for some reason when it's a coach, we do tend to brush it off in a different way. Yeah, just kind of like, all right.

You know, that's just kind of how it is. So I don't know what made this one so viral. You know, I don't, because is you're right, This does happen a lot. And it's not uncommon for a coach to kind of go off on a reporter. So I think it just kind of redounds to the idea that McRohnen just doesn't have a huge constituency. There's not a lot of people love him right now. No.

And I do think that raise your voice of me because that's just such gaslighting. Like you insulted me and now you're mad because I'm insulting you? Like, I'm sorry. What? It makes me think about how he treats his players when he gets mad and how he deals with him. like and that that don't raise your voice to be yeah like that's kind of crazy and a lot of times people just especially with coaches deal with people like that as a player you're just like man what did i do wrong you're you're immediately like trying to self-reflect like how did you know

why is he treating me like this so yeah man to do that in public says he lost the plot a little bit and uh i imagine he i don't think he'll be the UCLA basketball coach this time next year All right This is Joel's college basketball take That's right yeah man Like mine they come from a very informed place I'm just saying Hey man have you've been to a game of Pauley Pavilion

Have you ever? You know I never have Got to go That's been on my list Gotta go It's not a nice I mean it's not like a particularly Beautiful but it's sacred ground

Yeah man you get to walk around See stuff in the concourse Kreme Bill Wall Oh man You gotta love it All right that's the press box He's Joel Anderson I'm Brian Curtis

But Aze Magic By Isaiah Blakely and Bruce Baldwin. Coming up next week on the press box, Joel, it's Washington Week. It's a press box. Really? Washington Week. Yeah, it is. Okay. Don't pretend like you don't know that we're going to eat barbecue and drink at the tune in on Capitol Hill. I've never been to the tune in. Well, I haven't either, but I heard that's where that's kind of a Capitol Hill bar. So maybe you and I do go over there. All right. Let's go. Let me give you the programming rundown. Okay. Monday, the February issue.

Me and Amanda Dobbins on why the Kennedy dynasty will never end. You might have seen that there is a new show about the romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Beset. Has that been on your radar? Oh, no, it is not. Man, I got to tap in. There's a Netflix series coming. Jack Schlossberg, grandson of John F. Kennedy is running for Congress in New York. Okay. And of course, RFK and his media ventures. Yeah, me, man, snorting, snorting cocaine off a toilet seat. We did some really fun things, which is we talked about why Kennedy Mania is still such a huge subject here in 2026, when it felt like a boomer subject, it felt like a genetic subject, why it's still so present.

We talked about the Ryan Murphy series, and believe me, Amanda had a lot of thoughts as did I? I'll just give you this. Naomi Watts plays Jackie King. Kennedy. Oh, just. Wow. Let your mind wander. No, that's a surprise. That's an interesting choice. Interesting choice. And then what we did is we went through this list of data points, people, events, things that happened over the last 40 or so years that kept the Kennedy family in the national spotlight. Yeah. So everything from JFK Jr. founds George Magazine,

which he did in 1995. Oh, man. I remember George Magazine, man. Oh, Teddy Kennedy endorses Barack Obama in 2008. What a moment that was. What a political earthquake that was. Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger get married in 1986. Yeah, man. We covered the waterfront. Had a great time to do it.

That's going to be up on Monday. And then we owe the people a three-man weave, Joel. All right. You, me and Shoemaker, next week, three-man weave, the February editorial meeting. Is Shoemaker going to be in Washington, too? well I don't think he is but but you and I will be so we'll

think of him fondly when we're to tune in and if he wants to come he's he's more than welcome you keep talking about tune in man I'm talking about 250 you know what I'm saying okay 250 I'll go wherever you want to go okay also I'll have we'll do some we'll have some surprises

let's put it that way we're stuff is being taped while we're in Washington so that will be out in due course as well looking forward to it man fun stuff going on at the press All right, Joel, cannot wait to share more lukewarm takes about the media with you. Likewise, buddy.