The Press Box - The Campaign’s Final Stretch, the Tom Brady Rules, and New York Times Flexes

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Hello, media consumers! Bryan kicks off the show by recapping his visit to Austin for the Texas-Georgia game (:35). Then he and David get into the final stretch of the presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump (13:58). Then in the Notebook Dump they discuss: A piece in New York magazine titled “Can the Media Survive” (40:41) An Olivia Nuzzi update (42:10) Breaking down the Tom Brady rules (44:51) Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week, Only in Journalism, and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, except we did 120 songs. And now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The Strokes, Rihanna, J-Lo, Kanye, sure. And now the show is called 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, colon the 2000s. Wow.

That's too long a title for me to say anything else right now. Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s, in the 2000s, preferably on Spotify. David? Yeah. It was a huge weekend in Austin, Texas. There was an F1 race,

and then there was a sporting event people actually cared about. The Texas Georgia game. Number one in the nation versus number five in the nation. Yeah. I got a few notes that mostly don't involve the outcome. of the Texas Georgia game. Who won again? I'm trying to remember.

I think it was close. Actually, it wasn't. Georgia won, and it wasn't particularly close. I woke up on Saturday morning, and I thought, you know what, is it time for me to go by an archmanagers? Is there a rule? Before the game. Before the game.

This was what you're asking yourself. Yeah. Game 630. at night, so first thing Saturday morning, it's like 8 o'clock. Should I go buy an archmanning jersey? Mm-hmm. And secondary question, is there a line in terms of age that you cross and you should no longer be wearing jerseys?

Mm. Is it like that old discredited rule about who you were supposed to date, half your age plus seven years? Half your age plus if, yes. Yeah, so Arch Manning is 19. you know, it just feels a little, a little different after a certain age. Yeah, to be wearing, I think the half of your age plus seven might work for the age of, of players, you're allowed to wear their jerseys.

Yeah, that makes sense. Because you could still get away with a, you know, a Novitsky jersey, right? A Troy Aikman jersey. Sure. But yeah. Retro. Yeah, but you're, but you're reping a current teenager. I mean, I can see, I can see the hesitation.

So I need to go Ricky Williams if I make this investment. Colt McCoy, something in the safe zone. So as far as Texas players go, yeah, just go something from your heyday. The other thing I spotted there in the co-op was a burn orange hat that said SEC. I saw this. Yeah. This is fantastic stuff. Kind of like the Roblo NFL hat that he wore at the Super Bowl.

Mm-hmm. And I was like, only a complete asshole would buy that hat. So I bought it. Well, you wrote long ago about the SEC, oh, that's a beautiful hat. You wrote about the SEC chance that were permeating the 1.0 or 2.0, I guess, iteration of the SEC when they were taking over college football before and before Texas and all the other schools joined up, how they would just chant SEC, which seemed to go against the sort of rivalries that were inherent in the SEC. But I guess this is the hat equivalent of that, you know? It's just like, yeah, we're part of the big leagues now. My theory was that the SEC chant was the last polite way to cheer for the South.

Might need to revise that theory. Yeah, I think there's a bunch of MAGA chance that would fit in there now. After the co-op and the souvenir shopping went to the set of college game day, which was there on the right next to the tower, saw your guy Pat McAfee wearing both a cowboy hat and chaps. Yeah. To celebrate his arrival in Austin. We ate some breakfast tacos.

We had Terry Black's barbecue. And then this will really surprise you. I went to a used bookstore. Oh, which one? Half-priced books. Oh, yeah. I turned to my pal and I said, we may be the only two people who are in an Uber going to a used bookstore.

A couple of hours before the game. but I really enjoyed that. But an old issue of GQ, like a decade old issue, and it said, the next LeBron on the cover. And I was like, I'm just going to buy this, if only to enjoy the moment when I open the magazine

and figure out who the next LeBron was. Oh, you know, just the text. You don't know who it was because it was GQ, of course. Just the T's. You want to guess? What year was it? 2013.

The next LeBron. Oh, my God. 2013. Was it like, who came after LeBron? That could have been a LeBron. This was one of the original jokes about tanking. You are rigging for. Riggin for Wiggins.

Oh, yeah, Wiggin. Andrew Wiggins. Yes, the next LeBron. We'll have to do an update to see if that turned out to be correct in GQ. Also, an interview with Keith Olberman about one of his comebacks. Enjoyed the reading that one as well. took a nap on game day in Austin because we're old

that was important then went to a tailgate that was run by a prestigious Texas law firm yeah and boy looking around there was the Brian and David alternate reality how so we'd gotten really interested in the LSAT

oh yeah our senior year and been like you know what we're going to have a respectable career in law. And then we can come to a Texas game with like a burn orange polo shirt tucked into khaki slacks

and enjoy all the fruits of the law firm experience. Yeah. I wanted to turn in everyone and say, hey, quick survey, who are you guys supporting for president? But I was talked out of that. Then I finally went to the game, David.

It kicked off at 6.30. Right there on campus, about a block and a half from the dorm I lived in at UT. Wow. We really up the celebrity quotient. We had both Matthew McConaughey and Glenn Powell on the sidelines. Wow. Wearing identical cowboy outfits. It's kind of like Matthew McConaughey present and Matthew McConaughey future.

Next to each other. I don't have any objection to Glenn Powell being there, but is there like a, Is there, are there any criteria for how famous you can be you need to be before you get that call? So like, has he reached the level of UT alum who is going to stand on the sidelines or has a right to be on the sidelines? Yeah, like, like Glenn Powell, like Glenn Powell two years ago would he have been there? It's only like, like, did the last couple movies put him over the edge? So I actually looked this up and he was the guest picker on College Game Day in Austin in 2022. Okay.

22. That would have been, but that would have been post, top gun. Yeah. So Top Gun is what did it. Presumably he was invited inside the stadium after being the guest picker on game day. There was no question about Kevin Durant, UT's very own on the sidelines for that game. Standing next to Scotty Sheffler, they were doing a little like, here are Texas alums who won Olympic medals. Scottie Sheffler got a bigger pop than Kevin Durant. Oh, wow.

which may be an interesting insight into who is buying tickets to big college football games, but we can cover that at another time. Also had the flyover because it's a big game. So I'm sitting there in the upper deck with my buddy. We're surrounded by students. This is near where I used to sit as a student. And I believe I took you into that same upper deck one time. You came down from Baylor for a Baylor, Texas game.

And they did the flyover, and it felt like the Imperial Star Destroyer coming right above. you. Yeah. And the guy next to me, I swear I am not making this up or sweetening these quotes at all. He looked like he'd been doing a little pre-gaming for Texas, Georgia. As soon as the military planes went over, he turns to me and he goes, holy shit, I love America. Then a USA champ broke out in stands, which I might have participated in or might have set out.

I'll leave that to viewers or listeners' imaginations. Other thing about going to a football game and sitting in the stands that I love is the chance to be Kirk Herb Street for a minute. Go on. So Texas comes out. They're struggling. The quarterback Quinn Ewers is just playing like crap in the first half. I mean, just doesn't seem to know how to execute anything.

And he drops back to pass. I wait like a second and a half, and everybody's quiet, right? Oh my gosh, what's going to happen? And in a very loud voice that everybody in the section can hear, I go, throw the ball, Quinn. And then Quinn Ewers get sacked or has a really bad incompletion. I can't remember which one.

And I just felt like, I was like, yep, I nailed it. I had the right bit of analysis there. Everybody heard me. I was correct. And then Texas finally got like their only positive play or felt like, like their only big positive play. The first half was a face mask that got called on the Georgia defense. So then I waited a beat.

I was like, let's get another face mask. We're good at those. Love getting laughs in the sections. That's a, that's a great middle-aged guy privilege. Fantastic stuff, Brian. Fantastic stuff.

The big moment of the game was what I'm sure you saw on Twitter, perhaps even live, which was, okay, Texas is just getting throttled. But then Georgia throws an interception. Texas DB takes it all the way back. to the nine-yard line, almost gets in the head zone.

Oh, my gosh, game is flipped. This is unbelievable. But the refs call pass interference on Texas. So the play's coming back, and in fact, George is going to get a penalty. Well, the Texas fans freak out and start throwing bottles of water on the field. I saw this, yeah.

And we're talking dozens of bottles on the field. So a couple of really fascinating things happened. One, they obviously had to stop the game. Two, the Texas coach Steve Sarkisian came off the sideline, walked all the way across the field with his hands up to get people to stop throwing bottles. Third, and I've still no explanation for this, but everybody who was standing on the Texas sidelines from security personnel to guy who looks like an outer tier assistant to the offensive assistant to cheerleaders all ran on into the end zone and just started picking up the bottles. like it was a drill that they were enacting. They knew what to do. They had practiced for this.

It really felt like it. It seems unlikely, especially when you're like roping in cheerleaders or songleaders and like, here we go, we got this, you know, go pick up the bottles when this is clearly a very, very rare occurrence in a game.

But then the funniest thing happened, David, so they have to stop the game. Of course, oh my gosh, we're already reading the think pieces about how embarrassing Texas fans are about how Matthew McConaughey spoke out after the game. He had a statement from the Minister of Culture, which I enjoyed.

He called it a bogey, I think. A great way to describe such a thing. But what happened is the game stopped and then the referees start talking. Now the ball has already been marked back. The penalty has been marched off, right? It's a penalty. We put the ball back near midfield. Here we go.

The referee start talking and then the referee comes to make an announcement. but I thought he was going to do one of these. Please stop throwing things on the field. You are bad fans. But he comes in because actually, it's not past interference. Texas ball first down. Yeah.

So if they don't throw bottles on the field, Georgia probably snaps the ball and we don't hear any more about this. But because there was like a couple of minutes for the referees to think about it and get booed, they switched the call. So the bottles worked. You could say that. I feel like we should be using the phrase dangerous precedent in our think piece about that.

I've never seen anything like that before. Sometimes you see a ref pick up a flag. Sometimes you see him talk about it. But this idea that several minutes would go by, we've already marked the ball. We're ready to play football. The fans got mad. And now we're going to pick up the flag and go the other way. Yeah.

And, of course, we're all saying getting in the stance, just imagine if that went against Texas. mad everybody in here would be. All right, that is my report from Texas, Georgia weekend in Austin and also one weekend. Coming up on the podcast, David, the latest on the presidential election, including more panicky Democrats, Elon Musk and Arnold Palmer's manhood. Plus, an Olivia Nootsie update. The Tom Brady Rules and New York Times flexes. All that and much more on the press box, a part of the Ringer podcast network.

Hello, media consumers, Brian. Curtis David Shoemaker producer Brian Waters with you. Should we start with the Donald Trump soundbite of the weekend? Sure you saw this. He was in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, birthplace of golfer Arnold Palmer. And well, here is Trump driving into the trees. This is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough.

And I refuse to say it. But when he took showers with the other pros they came out of there, they said, oh my God, that's unbelievable. I had to say it. Just a minor point. I don't think that's what I refuse to say it means even colloquially. It does not mean I am about to say it. I will now proceed to say the thing. I hate to say it, I guess, would have been what he meant there. Yeah. I'm kind of surprised with how much traction this one's gotten as weird as it is. This and the McDonald's stint seemed to have taken up just an enormous amount of oxygen for a man who's notoriously hard to pin down.

But I guess the point is valid, right? I mean, it's like what the hell are you doing talking about this in general and specifically when you're like closing out a campaign. This is where your mind is. This will help me win Pennsylvania. Yeah. We'll talk about what Arnold Palmer was like in the shower or what I've heard other golfers talk about what Arnold Palmer was like in the shower.

As soon as I heard that quote, I was like, how will the press handle this delicate moment? Can I give you some of the highlights? Yeah. This is the Washington Post laying up. Trump's soliloquy about Palmer included an account of how other athletes reacted to seeing him in the showers. The AP headline quote, Trump kicks off a Pennsylvania rally by talking about Arnold Palmer's genitalia. this is Politico. Trump praised Palmer

for his powerful swing with stiff shafted clubs and his manhood. Oh my God. And the New York Times went straight to the point. His monologue culminated in lewd remarks about the size of Mr. Palmer's penis.

It's not inaccurate. It's not inaccurate. I don't you know if it's lewd. Was that lewd? I mean, just bringing it up in itself lewd. He was kind of talking around it. Was he not? Yeah.

And it wasn't like, it's like the Jerry Seinfeld thing. It's just like it was a compliment, right? I mean, it wasn't like he was, it's just an observation. I'm not sure that it's, I don't know, lewd seems as low up, but whatever. It's like the dating game when we were kids

where they would be talking about sex, but talking around it in a very PG, old TV way. There was nothing better than that. That's my favorite stuff to watch on the game show network is just people, with just being like, when you want to have a little hubba, hubba time with your wife, what do you?

What's the weirdest place you've made whoopee? Yeah. The anatomical region of the male species has been on Trump's mind a lot lately. Here he is with Dan Bongino. Democrats don't have to be honest. They really don't have to be honest because they're not going to, they will never be accused of anything. It's interesting.

I was so amazed that Harvey Weinstein got. slonged. He got hit as odd as you can get hit. Once again, something of an odd closing argument. Let's get into Harvey Weinstein. I'm not saying I've never heard the word schlonged used in that sense, but can you think of another time where you've heard the word slung? From my presidential candidate or just generally? I don't really care about the presidential candidate bar slunged.

That's just, it feels so. archaic and yet it can't be that old. No. Right? No. We need an etymologist to pin down the peak of schlonged. Like what is he flashing back to when he uses that term? No, no, we're still waiting to see how the New York Times is going to handle that one. Mr. Trump used a lewd term for railroading.

But it's only lewd if it's about, it's the same thing as the other. Well, I guess they were actually talking about a penis in that sense. But yeah, Schlong is, I don't know. Just like, such a bizarre, bizarre level of comfort with Dan Bonegino that you would be, does he think you speak into the, do you think, does he think that's the audience over there?

It's just so bizarre. It is. Sir, we're on the air. And also the point, the entire point of that statement was just so bizarre. I don't even think it makes sense if you're just trying to, deliberately misrepresent the quote unquote woke movement

or the Me Too movement or whatever, right? It only makes sense if he really, if he really thinks that if he really thought he had it figured out and he's incorrect and that he thinks that Weinstein got wronged somehow. Well, that rhymes with slug.

Yeah. Well, maybe sometimes that's what you do. You use the wrong word because you have a rhyming word in your head. maybe that's what's going on. This has given rise to the idea that Donald Trump is exhausted to use a phrase that came up in a Politico report. Or unstable to use a phrase that Kamala Harris has been putting out there on the stump lately. It's one of those interesting things where it's like how many data points do reporters need to write a piece like that?

like Trump is losing his fastball? What's the piece? Well, just that he's exhausted. Something like that. I mean, it's like a piece that they would write about Biden earlier in the year. Oh,

yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that's a really, that's a totally reasonable critique. But it's like, if you just listen to any Donald Trump stump speech, I mean,

swaying to the music the other day for 30 minutes. Oh, God. I mean, like, what, just funny because like with him, it feels like you could have just written that any time over the last. eight years.

Yeah. Now he's older, so it's like, okay, he said this crazy thing on the stump, plus he is old, but I just want to know what got that piece written now with these data points. Maybe it's two weeks until the election, so we've got to get it in before.

Trump's biggest celebrity surrogate is Elon Musk. It's been tweeting about Trump. He's been campaigning for and with Trump, including that event where he was photographed by Doug Mills jumping up in the air. He's got a Trump super pack he's directing. Also doing some kind of giving away millions of dollars. Okay, so let's talk about that. What a strange deal that is.

There's a kind of like we give out press box campaign buttons. Kind of. Elon wants to give you a million dollars and you have to be, and I think I understand this correctly, a registered swing state voter he can't pay you to vote because that's illegal he can't even pay you to register to vote

also illegal but he can pay you to sign this online petition which indicates you are a voter with Trump-like values and he will give you a million dollars a day we'll give one per he will give out a million dollars a day

he will give out one person to different people yeah And he was actually giving them a giant golf check in the pictures that I saw. So speaking of... It can't be mad about a golf check. It's just so bizarre. Well, if that works, why doesn't everybody do that? Well, the Kamala Harris campaign with all this, like, unprecedented spending.

They should just are giving out golf checks. Well, it may not. There's some definitely election lawyers who are like, I don't think this is, this is okay. Yeah. They should just, the Harris campaign should just have a press conference where they're just like, with a giant golf check for like $10 million. It's just like whoever brings the most undocumented, unregistered voters to the polls gets this prize.

Whoever can show they voted 20 times. Yes. Oh, yeah. You get $20 for the first vote, but then it goes up exponentially. If you can get in 100 votes in one voting cycle, you could win a million dollars. If you can do something that Donald Trump talks about on the stump with no evidence.

That has never actually happened. Yeah. Podcast, David. I regret to inform you that the nation's supply of podcasts that neither candidate has appeared on is rapidly diminishing.

Oh, great. Still not the press box, though. Well, we're still waiting on that invitation. Yeah. It's because Spotify won't let us say shlonged on the air. That's what it is.

This will all be bleeped out by Brian later. Trump did the podcast of the wrestler the undertaker. He sure did. Which is called six feet under. And I was texting with my friend and your friend Michael Solomon, greatest headline writer in modern history.

And he wondered why this podcast was not called Dead Man Talking. Yeah. I don't know the answer to that, although I do know that this podcast had a couple of different iterations. There might have been some names that got tied up in previous deals. it's a very good question. Dead Man Talking. I think it was called Dead Man Inc.

Actually at the beginning. Dead Man Talking was, I think, discussed. Okay. But you know how these things are. Just find a name that isn't taken and they go with it. Dead Man Talking might already exist. But that would be a much better title. This clip is a little hard to hear because the Undertaker's theme song is playing.

But here is the phenom's closing argument for Trump. Choice is yours. You can go with President Trump. Kane and the Undertaker, or you can take Kamala Harris, Dave Batista, and Tim Walz. Choose wisely, the nation depends on. And that should be an easy choice. He mentions Batista in there, man. We are setting a all-time record for wild, you know, endorsements in this campaign.

First of all, Batista's come out as the real star here, right? I mean, this is, I don't have anything, I don't want to see anything just too negative about that clip that you just. played because one, I have a little bit of sympathy for it and also Brian Waters is sitting right here. But there's sometimes when you're doing a podcast or doing a remote, we're at an event or something. And Brian comes up with the camera and he's just like, hey, well, you do an intro for our Instagram feed or whatever that we're, and, you know, and I'm like, yeah, what do you want me to say? And I'm like, yeah, just whatever. And I'm just like, okay. And so I just like stand against a wall.

And I say like, hey, listen to follow us on whatever. And it just kind of. And it's like, And then we'll get done. I'll say, do we need to take it again? And be like, no, it's good. Like, that is exactly what we just saw. That was like a one take, no prep, really poorly conceived, uh, promo, but thing there. First, like, they couldn't have spent 30 seconds. Think, thinking of something more interesting for Trump to say, then it should be an easy choice.

Wouldn't it have been better if Trump said some like iteration of an undertaker catchphrase from back in the day just to really, you know, yeah, well, maybe that's not the best one. But okay, yeah, you know. Maybe there's something that they could do, something wrestling related anyway. That was the first take, it's fine, let's move on. But Batista's, but Batista's, it's so funny to compare yourself to Dave Batista, because one, Dave Batista has such a higher curating right now than the Undertaker does. You know, contrary to the wrestling careers, Undertaker's probably got more, as many wrestling

fans just from like YouTube and shit. And, you know, his last return to the company as he did at the time, I think he's remembered. remembered he's grown in people's estimation after the fact more than just about anybody else of his era. But also just because everything, all the political content with Babe Batista just seems like really well done and well considered. They catch him talking in a car or whatever and he's just like well, he's just so well spoken and thoughtful. It just stands on such stark contrasted. Whatever that was. Cane. Why did Kane need to be there? I mean, I understand why his Undertaker's like K-Fa-Brother and he's a Republican elected official, but like, come on, Kane.

Yeah, well, he didn't even have a line to go to your one-take theory in the video. He's just sitting there, like a silent partner. He couldn't talk in K-Fa. Maybe that's part of the deal. Gaines just like. Yeah. Yeah, Batista's rant about Trump included the line. It's like, he's talking about Trump dancing.

And he said it's like a garbage bag. full of buttermilk. The great line from a wrestling promo. You want to talk about Brett Bear for a second. Yeah. You and I didn't get to talk about this interview, which had a huge audience for something

that aired at 6 p.m. Eastern Time on Fox. Yeah. More people watch that than watch the Emmys this year if you want to get any idea of how interested people are in the election. Yeah. So Kamala Harris.

Well, this was sort of stunt casting, too. like there, you know, there was a, there's a bunch of different stuff going on here. Yeah, for you mean for Kamala Harris being like, I'm going into the fox? Yeah, it's for her, but also just like the Fox viewers are probably just sitting there like, you know, I'm interested to see what's going on, what's going to happen here. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's sold that way too, right? She is finally coming to Fox. She is coming here where there's going to be a little bit of a kangaroo court. And I got to say, Brett Baer, I'm not going to defend Brett.

Bear, I will say I watched the interview, which is about 30 minutes long. He asked a lot of good questions, a lot of very fair questions. Why do you think more people say they trust Trump on the economy than they trust you? So you're not Joe Biden. You're not Donald Trump, but nothing comes to mind that you would do differently. You've been vice president for three and a half years. What are you turning the page from? Those are antagonistic questions, but I think totally fair.

But then there was this overlay of Fox hackiness on top of that. where he's interrupting her constantly, especially at the beginning of the interview. Yeah. It was almost like he had rehearsed so much to try to get her off her talking points. Yeah. That he was over prepared for that.

So as soon as she launched into him, he's interrupting, he's going in and you're just like, dude, this isn't going to work. Yeah, Brut bearer is like a fine, I mean, especially if you're grading on the Fox curve,

if he's an exceptional journalist, you know, whatever. He's a fine, he's a fine journalist. An American history if you're getting on the Fox game. But he's a good interviewer. He might have been Trump's most adversarial interviewer, too, in terms of real interviews. You know, like, it's, that's sort of, he takes the job seriously, obviously. And I think, you know, to be fair, I think the risk for him professionally was probably greater. he'd rather come off seeming too hard on Kamala Harris

and risk Democrats never coming back, which they probably won't anyway, than to seem like he was going to easy on her and risk the reprisal of every viewer of the network and the Trump campaign to boot. Yep, absolutely. Trump gave him a little adderoy there on Twitter too. Harris had a funny line where halfway through the interview,

she said, I know you investigate and you are a serious journalist. if a politician is ever telling you that, they think the opposite. Yeah. Well, it's like when Walls and Vance were like agreeing with each other so much during their debate, you know, it's like they both came in with this sort of like detente philosophy or at least make it look like you're in total agreement before you make your different points to say it's just a kid. It's just a setup, you know, it's a rope adope or whatever. It's just like, I know you're a serious journalist. I know you.

Well, there's two ways to do it. One is after they make a bad point, I know you're a serious journalist. You don't really believe that. And then the other one is like, hey, the setup. I know you're a serious journalist. I know that you do your research. Of course, you know that, you know, my policies will save the American people more money than Trump's, you know, whatever. You know, it's all just a tease.

As a journalist, whenever any potential subject compliments you, just your antenna should just go up immediately. Something's coming. They're either about to tell you that you did something wrong or they're just trying to butter you up. David, more people continue to tell Kamala Harris's

campaign that they're doing things wrong. Sounding the alarm. What are they doing now? Let me give you some headlines. DemC warning signs for Harris with Latino men in Pennsylvania. Okay.

That's Politico. Here's another Politico headline by the same writers. Top Democrats in Pennsylvania are worried Vice President Kamala Harris's operations being poorly run in the nation. biggest battleground state.

I looked at NBC today. Harris campaign is privately flagging potential cracks in the blue wall. We should hope they are. That's sort of the job, right? Flagging, by the way, is such a funny word. Just horrible corporate word that has crept into our culture. I'm flagging cracks in the blue wall. That sounds so funny for some reason.

I can't tell if Democrats... are actually more panicky than Republicans. If there is something for Democrats to be panicked about, aka they really think Harris's campaign is screwing up. Yeah. Or there just isn't a Trump world apparatus out there that could feed stories like this. Well, you mean that's why they're right hearing it from the other side? Or what's the last point?

Yeah. There's Trump World in Florida that's running the campaign. that we hear from people do get do get things out of there but there may not be this massive apparatus

like Harris has where there are people in Michigan that are going just like spilling the beans this is wrong right whereas people

in oh yeah Trump allies are like either just pure Trump allies or they're just not working in GOTV in the same way yeah

I think that there's a couple of things going on one is there people who want to be right if it goes wrong right I was out there saying it, man.

You know, I was the one saying in the alarm bell. And even if it's, even if you're anonymous, you know, the people around you can you know when you take credit for it, you're probably telling the truth. Then there's a sort of deliberate sort of, you know, misinformation tactic where what I saw I was watching TV yesterday and one of the one of the Lincoln project guys was accusing, I believe David Pluff, maybe was Axelrod, of doing out there being overly alarmist, basically just alarmist for the sake of getting Democrats off their couches to vote. Like, this is going badly.

you guys have to do something, you know, like to get people moving. But I do think there's probably a lot of truth to what you say, too. There's just a lot of voices out there. And, you know, enough of these stories sort of line up makes a newspaper story. You know, it leads to an article. And like I said, at the very beginning, I hope that they're like looking for cracks in the blue wall. I'm sure they are identifying all the possible problems they should have. That's what a good campaign should do.

I don't think it necessarily means that they're alarmed at their numbers. I think we always knew this is going to be a close race, you know. There's definitely a difference in tone in terms of the Harris campaign is running on, we are the underdog. Things are dire here. And again, I'm still getting all those emails. I can't get off the list. Things are not going well, Brian.

This is my personal email from Kamala Harris. Things are not going well. Things are looking bleak. That is the way they're talking about this election. I mean, I'm glad you guys are still in touch. We're still in touch. The Trump campaign is running on we're winning. Everything is winning because it is impossible for Donald Trump to lose.

Yeah. I think that does have a psychological effect on readers, on reporters, on panicky Democrats, on everybody. Oh, you think that basically like the fundraising email mentality? Yes, which is up and down the Harris campaign. She does not give a speech without saying she's the underdog. I mean, there's probably already been the New York Times op had written or whatever, but it'd be easy enough to put together a think piece on why those two tactics are exactly right for the two audiences. Right. Donald Trump's not going to ever say he's losing so we can cross that one off for him. No, but Donald Trump's more certain supporters would never for a minute think he was losing, right? I mean, no matter what the point is.

Yeah, exactly. So, and I think that there's, I think that the real base, especially the donor base of the Democratic party is that, I mean, that, sorry, is going to be more susceptible to that sort of alarmism. So yeah, and so your argument would be that like, that that tone that's emanating from both parties is affecting the coverage of those parties as well, though. Yeah, I mean, maybe the coverage, but maybe just all of our psyches. Yeah. More broadly. It's like, oh, my God, Harris is going to lose and Donald Trump is going to win. You can only hear that so many times.

There's only, there's only so many, yeah, you're right. There's only so many, like, text messages or emails you can get before you're sitting there in your couch saying, dude, if Barack Obama is spending his time to text every single potential Harris voter, imagine how stressed out he must be. Last thing for you in this topic, and I know this is going to surprise you, there is another crop of Trump books on the way. Ooh. We have Bob Woodward's War Out, which is partly about Trump. mostly about Joe Biden. Yeah. Oliver Darcy and status

tells us, gives us the rundown here. Jonathan Carl of ABC News has one coming out for Penguin Random House. There are more books coming from one from the New York Times is Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

Another from the Washington Post Josh Dossy, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf. From NBC News is Jonathan Allen and Amy Parns who've written books before and Politico's Alex Eisenstadt. So more Trump books.

And these are, these are going to sell how many more copies if Donald Trump gets elected on November 5th versus if he loses? So way more if he gets elected. Don't you think? Way, way, way more if he gets elected? Well, I don't know that there's going to be, I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't know that there's going to certainly won't be any like liberals buying these books if he loses. I mean, the Haberman Swan book could be more of a, you know, campaign look. that works more broadly. But I think that if Trump loses

and if Trump is no longer and is not trying to storm Washington with an army, then I think the audience will be happy to sort of forget it. I'm fascinated to know if the pure campaign book can still exist. Maybe we should get John Hylman on here.

We've talked about this a little bit before, but yeah. Because now we talked about this before, but this is an extremely captivating campaign, right? like tons of things have happened. We're about to talk about Olivia Nutsi here, which is probably, you know, a couple of pages in any campaign book.

Joe Biden, the nominee, you know, I mean, there's just, there's a lot here. I almost want to do this with you on November 4th when we do our final show before the election is just go through beat by beat everything that's happened. Yeah. Remember Laura Lumer and Donald Trump?

Somebody was asking this on Twitter the other day. I think it was Josh Marshall. I saw that tweet. Yeah. Remember that 48 hours of American life? Like there's been a lot of that's happened. But whether that can be just a campaign book like we had for years and years and seemed to sort of dry up in recent cycles, if there's enough there that will hold,

I don't know. Coming up in 30 seconds, David, the New York Times is saying to its competitors, look on my travel budgets, ye mighty and despair. 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.

David, a pop culture cameo you may not have been aware of. Actors Diego, Luna, and Gail Garcia Bernal were on Sesame Street. And the bit was we're better best friends

than Bert Nurti. Who were pictured on screen with them. It was an overwork Twitter joke to write Itu Muppet Tambien. You will never, ever forget the antics of the falling baker. Congrats. You made the overwork Twitter joke of the week. By the way, always a little unsettling to hear

second or third generation Bert and Ernie voices. Oh, like when you watch with your kids now and it's just like, wait, who are these? Who's making these noises? This is just me clicking on the clip. which, by the way, it was on TikTok, also kind of unsettling when it comes to Sesame Street. Yeah. Here is the TikTok clip from Bert Nernie.

Is it from the official like PBS account or whatever? Like the official Jim Hinson Productions account or is someone just grabbed it? That would be more. It seems semi-official. I think Sesame Street is in every medium. In the notebook dub, David, we'll do these things quickly. We'll get more into this maybe next week. But New York Magazine has this gigantic.

media issue out now. Big headline is, can the media survive? And they put together a roundtable of media people, of big time people to tell us. Our boss, Bill, is on the roundtable, so that's exciting. Also included

Nick Thompson, CEO of the Atlantic, who a lot of people think is going to be the next editor of the New Yorker, Jim Vandahi, Barry Weiss, Matt Iglesias, Jimmy Pitaro. Yeah. Gail King. What's funny about it is they just go topic by topic and they clearly were asking people

the same questions and pulling the most interesting answers. But at some point, the answers become on background. Yeah. So the name isn't attached, which is just a great comment on media that we got the most famous, smartest, forward-looking people in media here. And then when we got to the sensitive issues, they wanted to go on background. Like we all know It's just like everybody blindfold yourselves

And we're going to talk about We're just going to pretend no one can tell who's talking Yeah I just love that Like it's like well okay We did it We got the super celebrity group here Of everyone great and Carter's in this

Who you want to hear And then it's like said one media executive Like okay well So they didn't want to talk We've got an Olivia Nutsi update Great Livy and Nutsi, for those who have not listened to this podcast in a while, a fine writer of political profiles at New York Magazine.

She was in a relationship with RFK Jr. during this campaign, which Brian Stelter described in the immortal words as being emotional and digital in nature. I will never forget that phrase. When the magazine found out, they placed Nutsi on leave. Well, New York said on Monday that she is leaving the magazine. Yeah Oliver Darcy once again had some good details about this

and status. He said Nutsi had sat for interviews with this third-party law firm that New York had hired hours of interviews said with a hope that she would be permitted against all odds to return to her perch as Washington correspondent.

In her eyes, Darcy continued, she made an embarrassing mistake on the national stage but not one that warranted her being ousted from the outlet she had called home for the better part of the last decade. But Vox Media did opt to show Nutsi some grace, Darcy says. When she was informed that the company had opted, it was best to severatize. She was told that it would not outright fire her.

And in fact, Nutsi, Darcy says, was even offered a severance package. Move that offered both parties as somewhat amicable separation averting potential litigation. So this is like when a team fires their coach, but we'll, let you leave because of the respect we had for you and what we've meant. And also we don't have to pay you as much. Well, yeah, I mean, I think the, if you just read the New York Magazine statement, that this is the official statement that came out and says our internal, the law firms review, like our internal review, found no evidence of inaccuracies nor

evidence of bias, which just makes you like, why is she leaving the magazine then? Yeah. It doesn't even say that she did anything wrong here. So, but that feels to me like. I'm not going to go to the wall for goodbye statements. Yeah. But that feels like that. Yeah, there's a lot of people double.

There's probably more people giving proofreads to that memo than there were to Olivia and Ozzie's original reporting. She and her former fiance, Ryan Liz, I've also been in court in Washington, D.C. Maybe we can get to those details at a later date. Tom Brady, David. Tom Brady is still calling games for Fox. He called Niners Chiefs on Sunday. Yeah, of course.

He has become a minority owner of the Raiders officially now. Yep. So there are Tom Brady rules that the league put in because owners of teams, even minority owners, have certain rules. You can't visit other teams headquarters. So when Tom Brady's team, meaning Kevin Burkhard, Richie Zions, his producer, when they go do interviews, which they sometimes do in person,

And I think those are also done on Zoom in a lot of cases now. He cannot be a part of those interviews with the coach for the team or the quarterback for the team. That one to me is not a huge deal because there's just so much information now available about football that there wasn't before. You can imagine you do that interview in 1995 and the coach says, hey, you know, my left guard's been playing really well, but nobody's noticed. Well, that left guard now gets a grade every week from pro football focus. Yes, absolutely. there's easily accessible cutups of everything that left guard has ever done. Tom Brady wants to know.

Plus, he can just make phone calls. That I'm not too worried about. The interesting thing was one of the rules was that Brady as a part owner of a team can't criticize other teams. And he also can't go after the refs. Okay. That got a lot of play on Twitter this week. Because you're like, wait, you're an announcer.

But you can't criticize. decides other teams and you can't go after the refs. So to break those two down to me, one, the refs thing is fascinating because there's a reason referees are in the booth now. And it's not just to explain arcane calls. It's actually to protect the color analyst from getting all the flack that goes with weighing in

on referee decisions. Remember Chris Collinsworth, even saying stuff like, well, I think that's a touchdown. And then like the Eagles fan base goes, like, that guy hates the Eagles. because he said it was a touchdown on the review. Yeah. Part of bringing the ref in was like,

you just outsource all the anger and expertise to this guy. He's going to weigh in and if people get mad, they're going to get mad at him. So I don't know how much Tom Brady was going to be doing that anyway. I wonder how much, I mean, this is, I can't even think of an example where this would really be a problem, but I wonder if the NFL would mind if their play-by-play guys had a set of rules that came from an outside employer.

right? It's just like besides being a broadcaster, I am like so many of these people are an investor in film the blank company, not the Raiders, but like I own a bunch of McDonald's franchises. So I'm incapable of saying anything substantive about McDonald's or any of their competitors when I'm doing an NFL broadcast. Like you'd think that at some point some of that overlap, if there were any, it would be a problem for the NFL, right? I mean, you would kind of want these people to say the thing they say what's on their mind, not coming in with rules. But anyway. Yeah. By the way, it's a great question of just like how much of this stuff is actually actionable in any way. Yeah. Like if Tom Brady criticizes the refs, are they going to do the NFL going to do a thing like what they do with, you know, a player goes or the coach goes after the ref in the post game interview? Like we're we're slapping you with a $50,000 fine. Yeah. And then Rupert Murdoch can just write a check and be like, well, that was, you know, a minute of great TV. That's worth $50,000 to me. Yeah. Is that it? The part about criticizing other teams, I watched the entire 49ers chiefs broadcast, not on Red Zone,

but actually listened to the broadcast, and Tom Brady was really critical of the 49ers offense. It was the first time I've heard him kind of mad and disgusted at bad football all year. Sure. He was also really critical of Brock Purdy in the fourth quarter. And I'm like, does that count?

Because I heard that on television. Is that being critical of another team? excuse me yeah i'm sure i'm sure yeah i think it's it's gonna be a real issue if they say something like as long as he doesn't say like man what a terrible offense he sure would he should go to one of those good teams the good play callers like the like the raiders you know like which would be a stretch for the raiders this season yeah no but i it's like i guess like is to get into team building like this just team was put together you know completely idiotically by the front office i mean no no color guys ever really going to get into that.

Yeah. I've watched again every cowboy game this year and you could just talk about how bad the Cowboys offseason was. It's not really something that happens that much during a broadcast. Sure. So, I mean, to me,

like if there's something to be bothered by here, it's like that Tom Brady is an owner of the Raiders and also a broadcaster. The actual things that we're happening about, I wonder, A, are they actual, B, do they even matter?

Like, does it, you know, is this what we, what we are looking to broadcasters to say. Yeah. But I'm like, if you have a problem with it, it just feels like you should have a problem that he's an owner of a team and also calling games. Yeah. At a more basic level.

Yeah, I think they can't really do anything about that. Their partners, I mean, their partnership with Fox probably takes precedent, right? So what are you going to do? They've got to make a bunch of rules to make it seem like you care, even though, well, that's going to me the first time. I mean, we've talked about it before. Magic Johnson was in the studio and he was a for i guess nbc but he was a you know part owner of the lakers and it's it's hard it's it's it's it's it's always a difficult tightrope i guess uh new york times flexes david okay this came to us from listener matthew bens he says what do we make of recent new york times flexes like this uh and he points to an article and says last

month their fearless correspondent flies to and from istanbul on turkish airlines business class and stays in the same swanky hotel as Eric Adams, that's the New York mayor, in order to tell readers what the experience is like. That's one. That's a pretty funny idea for a piece. Here is what Eric Adams experience. It was more of a New York Post idea. It's a great pitch if you're that writer.

Good job by you. Here's the second one. Are you familiar with the restaurant Carbone in New York? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, no. Yeah, I saw this piece. This is great. All right.

So Carbone, if people don't know, it's a restaurant of the village in New York, there are now locations in Vegas and Dallas and Miami, plus internationally. But the New York Times ran a piece called, I Aided Every Carbone in America. Was it worth the trip? Yeah. And the author in the little author bio, it says that the author, whose name is Priya Krishna, took four early morning flights to dine in Miami, Dallas, and Las Vegas on three consecutive nights. But some of the eating would happen at some point in the past, right?

I remember reading the lead to the story and it was just like, oh, okay, this is like over the past two years. Did she eat them all again, a new for this piece? But the trip seemed to be new at least. Okay, so maybe she went all back again. I thought it was less impressive the way that I read it. Yeah, that's great. I would love to go to every carbone and have the meal just to see what's what's what's what's bar and grill around America.

Oh, that would be. They do every red dog. What's Blake Shelton's place called? Just to go to every country music. Well, that would probably take a lot. probably a lot of them now. But yes, it's a great idea. The problem is it's a little, like, it's a stunt, right?

I mean, it's basically like the old garker piece about just doing all you can eat. Was it garker all you can eat? Apple beans. Mottorella sticks? Yeah, whatever. Just like seeing how many hours you can do it. That's basically it. It's a stunt.

It's less about the actual place. It's more about just like what the writer's experience. Because at the end of the day, the last thing I cared about in that carbon piece was the distinctions between the different carbones, right? It's like they have a different dessert menu in Miami that reflects the climate. I'm just like, I do not give a flying fuck. Like, I, like, none of that matters, right? It's just about doing the thing.

I mean, and it would be great. It'd be great if there was, if there was actually more to it. Oh, my God. It turns out that in the Dallas restaurant, they just use like, just like Heinz ketchup instead of making their own tomato sauce. Like that, that's interesting. Well, it's about doing the thing, but also bragging that you did the thing, right? Because you could write a piece about carbone and not just be like in the headline treatment.

I went to all the carbons. Yeah. You could write about this thing being a phenomenon. Where would you like to go to all of the things to write about it? Besides Toby Kese, I love this bar and grill. It doesn't have to be every, it doesn't have to be one place where you're going to all the locations. But what would be your stunt? Like, I'm going to every barbecue place in like central Texas and I've got to write about it.

or like what would be the what would be your stunt eating article i don't want to step on danny chow's toes here if he's planning a podcast about any of these things or any any video project i mean surely somebody has done that i went to all the buckies oh yeah Texas road stops mm-hmm i don't even know if i'd want to do that but if i like had like generic pitch i think that would be you're going to walk into buckies and be like what kind of jerky do you have here that they don't have any of the other buckies. What sets you apart? There's also the gummy wall in every bucky. Like, what gummies can you give me that I might not have otherwise gotten? Some only in journalism for you, David. By the way, one more thing about this. We can

laugh at this and think this is somewhat ridiculous and somewhere like powered by wordal and things that other media companies don't have. On the other hand, I'd much rather be talking about this, reporters flexing their muscles and going on crazy trips. Oh, yeah. This is, it's great. Dude, we've all made these pitches. We all wish we got some of them approved. It's fantastic.

Oh, yours didn't get approved? Let's talk about that after the pun. No, but apparently, apparently there's a limit to the Margaritaville readership because I'm not. You're not going to have two Pini Coladas in your hand when you do this podcast next week? No, I did go to the Margaritaville in. where were we in Cleveland? We were just like left the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We're walking and walking and we're like, let's find some cute local place here by the water to get a drink. Yeah, and we just kept walking until finally I was just like, there was nowhere left, but the Margaritaville was there and we're like, well, we know what they have,

you know, it's, and that was, it was, it was a, it was a, it wasn't a hotel. It was just like a regular,

it was a restaurant. It was fine. Okay, we're doing this on a future edition of the press bucks. Read, David and Brian, read their expense reports. I don't think I expense that for the record.

That was just being my family. Just having a nice little day to get day out together. Yeah, yeah. Just doing it for you. No. I don't mind. It's just Curtis Panda Express again twice on the same trip. Well, you know, it looks.

The orange chicken is delicious. Spotify sends it back and it says, Mr. Curtis, it clearly says it. There's three people here, but you only put down yourself and you're like, I went back three times. Yeah. I took a picture of all three receipts together because I was a little embarrassed. So it was three entrees. What are you going to do? Only in journalism, David.

These are words you read constantly in news articles, but never actually hear in human speech. Our friend John Walters has a great campaign word. He writes self-reporting the deployment of an only in journalism word, hopeful as a noun for when you've used candidate too often already. Yeah. Presidential hopeful. And Alex Halter tells us about this one. This is kind of more only in announcing.

This is for Tom Brady. under duress how did we start saying under duress instead of under pressure when calling a football game and he looked this up and so under duress means threats of violence, constraints or other action brought to bear on someone

who is doing something against their will or better judgment not exactly what it means to be rushed by you know cave on tibodeau but under duress only in announcing. All right, it's time for David

Shoemaker guess is a strain pun headline. Yeah. Before we do this, can I, before we do this, can I, I just found a note that I didn't make earlier. Please. Or that I didn't say earlier. Because it was apropos of absolutely nothing. You found it like it's written down.

No, I just like, I scribbled it down, literally on a piece of paper next to me. Please. I meant to mention this. We were talking about the campaign, but it doesn't, it's not really related to anything. For all of the fear mongering and justifiable, I'm not downplaying.

All the fear mongering about the problems with AI that might come up in this campaign and who knows we might have already bored and witness to it and not know it. How was there not a tape released of Trump planning January 6th that somebody just made with a fucking computer? How was there not? Why are we not having fake audio releases that people believe for 48 hours until they're shutdown and probably still believe them anyway?

How is there not? Why does nobody have a tape of Kamala Harris saying she did something? something terrible like 15 years ago. Like, it seems like the technology exists, right? Yeah. There's a Tim Wall. There's a weird Tim Walls related thing that came out. I don't even give that in the oxygen, but that was an AI thing, right?

Oh, yeah. No, I saw that. There was also this immortal headline or tweet from Newsweek. Donald Trump has shared what is likely an AI generated image on his true social account, showing him as a player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was like an oil paint. It was like AI paint. Like, it was the most obviously fake thing, too.

likely an AI generated image. Well, it's clearly not really him. That seems like very unhelpful. Is the point to implicate him in just like the not paying artist's problem? Yeah. Well, get it right, David. We'll get it first, but first get it right. Make sure that Donald Trump did not actually play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

You may do the intro now for the final thing. Are we good? We got to found the notes. All right. Time for David Shoemaker guess is the Strainpot headline. Yeah. Last Thursday's headline about the new female creative director of Lacoste was Croc, Madame. So good.

I didn't give that enough credit at the time. It's a great headline. Today's headline comes from alert listener Brian Rice. It's from Puck. Our friends over at Puck, John Heilman, whose name I have mentioned, had David Pluff, whose name you mentioned on his podcast. He was talking about trying to alleviate democratic fear before the election. election.

Okay. Elivate Democratic Befear before the election. What was Pucks strained pun headline? Alleviate fear. Quell,

like a pat on the back, like a nice safe place where things are are not under a blanket and in tucked in nice safe place. Oh, oh, oh. not a safe space.

Like a cocoon. So this is, a fallout shelter. Something's about to happen and this is the period of time when things aren't happening yet. Oh, the calm before the storm.

So not calm before the storm. It's the campaign here is the David Bluff works for. Kamala before the storm. The Kamala before the storm. That's good. Kamala before the storm.

He is David Chewaker. I'm Brian Curtis. and magic by Brian Waters coming up Thursday. Chris Ryan makes his press box debut. Yeah. I can't wait to talk to him about the campaign in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia specifically. That's a good get. He hasn't do that many podcasts.

Also, I went to the set yesterday of Good Morning Football, David. Because all the Good Morning Football people were here in L.A. So I woke up at like 5.30 and get on the road. And I get in there. And of course, I walk in and my voice sounds like Harvey Firestein. and Peter Schrager and Kyle Brandt are just ready to go. I mean, they are up. They've been doing TV already for two hours.

They are good to go. So I brought my mic, talk to them, talk to the whole cast of Good Morning Football. We will have a set report next Monday. And we will also have Shoemaker and I delivering more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.