The Press Box - The Trump Dump Theory of News, Stephen A. for President, and an ‘Only in Journalism’ All-Timer

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Hello, media consumers! Bryan and David kick off the week by discussing the massive amount of news coming from Donald Trump and how people outside of news are trying to process it (0:30). Then they discuss the following topics this week:  Stephen A. Smith’s odds to be president (12:23)  The AP getting banned for not using the term ‘Gulf of America’ (32:38)  A new press box rule clarification (42:27)  Remembering Dimitri Sotis (44:16) Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week 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? Yes. I have a theory about the news I'd like to try out on you. Oh, by all means.

We remember the Trump bump, which was that uptick in traffic and money that news orgs got from covering the president the first time around. Yeah? Well, now we have, and I'm still working on the name, the Trump dump. Okay. So here's the theory.

Trump is flooding us with news. Yeah. Second Trump administration is one month and four days old. And here is a partial list of things that have happened. Okay. He's tried to remake the federal government. Uh-huh. Including that Elon email saying,

please tell me what you did last week. Yep. you and I as an exercise should come back next week and just list all the things we did for the ringer the previous seven days, including the random Wikipedia searches. Yeah. So Trump did that. He has pardon the January 6 rioters.

He's fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He has attempted to hand a chunk of Ukraine to the Russians. Yeah. He has mused about annexing Canada and or Gaza and or Greenland. Yeah. He has put footage of ice deportations on the White House X account, banned the AP from White House events, attempted to end congestion pricing in New York. And per the New York Times, mused about replacing the grass in the White House Rose Garden with a patio. I missed that one.

I'm sorry. He doesn't want to get his shoes dirty? Is that the idea? I think more like Maralago is the theory. So yes. But you missing one of these things is exactly my point. Because I don't worry about reporters covering all this stuff. They're perfectly capable of that.

What I worry is about normal humans. Sure. Trying to process a tonnage of news. Because time for honesty. You and I try to be well-read humans. How many of those things do you feel like you've read as much? as you want to about. Oh, almost none. And I mean, I think we've talked before, but I certainly anecdotally have talked to a bunch of people who are just a little bit tuned

out after the election, even people who were on the Trump side of things. You know, I mean, people just sort of, all right, that's over now, you know, back to my daily life or whatever. It's, it's, it's, it's, even if you were trying to pay attention, though, which I guess is your point, it's impossible. We're always speculating about like what happened to the resistance. why aren't people protesting? Why aren't they at the barricades? I think this is somewhere in the answer to that question. Yeah.

I mean, if we just said, okay, Gaza, that's a hugely important issue, a hugely complex issue. It's your job. Again, not as a reporter, just as a citizen to be up on that. That would take up an enormous amount of your time. Yeah. Now just try to do that list I just rattled up. Yeah. And follow all those things that we.

wants. And what is so interesting about the, and then again, I use this word advisedly, the Trump dump, don't working on it, is I don't have a solution for it. Yeah. Well, I mean, most of us, most people get their news. Not most people get their news. I mean, most people historically get their news from what, the front page of the newspaper, right? I mean, even the modern era, it's you get your daily email and your inbox from whoever. That highlights the five big stories of the day and knees overwhelming those resources. I mean, how, I can't tell how many times in the Trump, I mean, just in the past month, I've gone to the New York Times homepage in search of whatever I was just thinking of

and not finding it, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's, you have to like, scroll way down to find an opinion piece on the thing that, and I'm just like, this is, am I just confused about what matters right now? It's, it is. It's a, it's a lot to, it's a lot to digest.

And I think, you know, it's, it's, I mean, that's the game plan, though, right? I mean, I think that if people were, there were people, uh, we think we're right vocally about, a second Trump administration that like sort of the saving grace the first one was that he was just wholly disorganized and surrounded by people that he was either ideologically opposed to in various ways or various ways

or people who didn't know what they were doing in terms of actually like controlling the levers of government and and this one was going to be totally different and it is I don't think anyone could really factor in the decree to which Elon Musk was going to be at the center of it all I mean one one wonders if Trump were just left up to his own devices if he wouldn't just be like putting patios over lawns you know I mean that's sort of there's a there's a concept of trump that makes total sense right like you said it's like mara lago he's trying i got a first hundred days plan and we're going to put in the patio yeah fire pits have become big so i want that yeah to be part of the rose garden it's almost as if the people around

trump have realized that the best way to motivate trump is to get people upset at trump so he reacts so it's almost like the more we do the more buy-in we get from the president right for whatever it is that we want to do because it does seem like, I mean, you could say this about literally anybody, but particularly Republican presidents over the past 20 years. It's like, you know, there's a world in which Trump, despite all, is just absolutely deplorable rhetoric, gets elected, and he's just like, okay, public works project, you know, we're, you know, we're, you know, we just do something that's straight down the middle and just everybody on his side will follow him. And, I mean, he could be functionally as liberal as he wanted to be. And we still have

It was incredibly high approval rating among Republicans. There's a world in which he makes himself the most popular president of all time. But clearly that pales in comparison to need to fight back. And so if there's any, if once things go off the rails, then it just becomes more and more extreme. And they're having people protesting, by the way, just for the record, I mean, there have been big protests in New York. Don't want to minimize people who have been out there. But you're right. I mean, it's, it's this weird combination.

of the sort of inexplicable and maybe overly explicable things. I mean, but with things going on internally, obviously, all of the Doge stuff at the same time that all this international stuff. And like you mentioned the annexation threats, right? I mean, in Canada and Greenland and there's the whole Gulf of America thing. You know, I mean, there's just so much of this stuff. But the fact that that kind of, I'm not saying it's not something to be worried about, but the sort of spurious things are happening at the same time as actual life and death,

geopolitical things are going on with Russia, Ukraine and, and, you know, Palestine. It's just kind of hard to process at all. That's what makes it distinct, at least in my recollection, from Trump One. and maybe we could go through the day to day and prove this wrong. But Trump won to me was distinguished at least a lot of the time by him getting on Twitter, as we still called it in the morning and tweeting something out. And by the time I'd wake up on the West Coast, we'd all be chasing our tails, we meaning reporters about whatever it is that he tweeted.

And there was this big conversation within the media like, hey, how much do you invest in a tweet? How much, you know, there were a lot of Gulf of America. that kind of stuff. Whereas this time it seems to me much more policy or at least potential policy. So then the question to me is different. It's not just, hey, how much do you leap on that?

Do you show the full Trump speech? All those questions you and I wrangled with the first time around, it becomes, how do you get a normal person to wrap their heads around this? I saw John Stewart, David Remnick, talking about this on the Daily show the other day And Stuart brought this up and Remnick had a very Remnicky answer.

We got to cover this and you do this and do this. I'm like, okay, but what about the human mind? Yeah. How do you implant AI in such a way that we can try to keep track of even half of this stuff? It's a great question. I mean, listen, there, I mean, there is a, on the Rimnicki answer side, I mean, there is a, you know, sort of mechanical component to this from news organizations that have been tried. drunken, you know, dramatically over the past 18 years, where you're just like how many, like literally how much time, I mean, like, how many people am I going to put on the history of the naming of the Gulf of Mexico? How many people am I going to put on historical legal disputes over the Panama can howl? You know, I mean, like, whatever. But you can take the rhythmic approach. It's like we got to take each of these things and cover it to the best for our ability and just really run it out and whatever. But you're right.

I mean, there's only so much that we can process. And, you know, to this point, it's been, I mean, you can look at the Democrat Party, right? I mean, it's the, it's the, they've kind of been perplexed as to how to deal with any of this either. You know, for a while, it seemed like the right thread to pull on was USA. I mean, that's a little bit, I think, hard to get the average American to, to get behind you on. but I think there is a very coherent argument that you can make. But even, but aside from that,

you know, I mean, it's, you know, the people trying to go, trying to stand on the grounds of Social Security and Medicaid and, and, and,

you know, veterans, right, you know, veteran administration stuff. But it's, it's kind of, I mean,

it's been mostly silence. It's been mostly shoulder shrugging. There's nothing we can do. And James Car, was out there, was it yesterday, which I don't think he was wrong. I kind of think he was right, but also he is providing incredible cover

for a sort of do nothing Democrat party, which is to say, let Trump own it, you know, to sort of just, just get out of the way and let him, and, you know, let him bottom out on his own. But, you know, like I said, I think there's some truth there, but I think that's, that's,

that's an ideological cover for someone who's instinct is, I don't want to do. I don't know what to, I don't know what's going to get me reelected, so I'm just not going to say anything. All right, David, coming up on the pod, Stephen A. Smith as that potential Democratic savior. There you go.

Should we take him seriously or literally? Plus, the Trump AP standoff continues. Politico consults Wikipedia, a new rule of profile writing, farewell to a D.C. radio legend, and I don't want to oversell. But we have the greatest collection of only in journalism. of all time.

All that and much more on the press box, a part of the Ringer, podcast network. Media consumers, Brian, David, producer Brian, we're all back with you. David, there were some huge political news while we were away.

Stephen A. Smith was elected president of the United States. Oh, great. Shannon Sharp's nomination as Secretary of Defending LeBron is expected to sail through the Senate as well. I kid, of course, but last week there was a Stephen A. Presidential, and here I use the appropriate only in journalism term, boomlet.

Yes. Stephen A talked about his political ambitions to Potsave America, to our friend Jay Kang over at the New Yorker. He feuded with the aforementioned James Carville. He also announced a live stage show that he's going to do with Chris Cuomo and Bill O'Reilly. Tickets are on sale now. would you rather watch that stage show or watch a Maverick's game without Luke or A.D. Oh, God. I would watch the state show.

Wouldn't that be great? Just to bring your wife, just be like, I got us tickets to a show. She thinks it's Broadway, the new good night and good luck with George Clooney. Oh, my goodness. Oh, wait, it's Chris Cuomo and Bill O'Reilly and a guy from sports TV talking politics. The thing about watching the stage show is it could do. as a press box segment. Yeah.

You can definitely justify it for sure. Probably even write it off on an expensive part. That we'll check with fantasy on that one. I got three things to say about Stephen A for president. Number one, before we descend here, let us stay at 30,000 feet. And just note the turnaround in the way people view Stephen A. Smith. Yeah. I don't know how to tell anybody this.

It wasn't around in like 2012. But Stephen A. Smith has gone from the guy who was going to kill ESPN to the guy who is going to save the country, or at least the Democratic Party. I mean, this is an unbelievable. Is it 360 the right word? 180? How many degrees are we going around on Stephen A? 180. Yeah, 180. 180, right? Let's get this wrong. Yeah. Because 360 would be like, you're killing sports journalism, you're ruining ESPN forever. Yeah. First take, it'll never work. People get tired of it.

So 180. I mean, I was listening to his Pod Save America interview and just enjoy this bit of ring kissing from Podsave's Tommy Veter. Here's something you thought you'd never hear. No other precedent in history has for better for worse. And I think this is where I wanted your advice because you're someone, you are incredible. at crafting a narrative, making news, breaking through on social media. You've created your own, like, sports media empire

at a time when people were like, oh, you can't leave ESPN or like do something on your own, right? Because it's all about the mothership. What advice do you have for Democrats about how to get heard and reach people in this digital age? I love that so much. It's like when the Democratic Senator leaves the Maddow show, and she's like, thank you, thank you, sir, for joining us.

Thank you for your efforts in saving America. Wonderful to see you, my friend. Now Stephen A's getting that kind of intro. Yeah. Which is unbelievable. It's also sort of like post rationalizing why he was on the show, you know, for anyone listening to this is confused about why we're having this conversation. Yeah.

Let's get to. Remember the resistance who's not necessarily in the Stephen A Venn diagram part of the resistance? Yeah, exactly. It's like when you have like a, what do you? You'd interview like an author you really like, you know, and you're just like, okay, we got to justify this for press box. Yeah. Let's record, David.

Yeah, you bring it home at the end, you know. I thought a little bit back to the summer of 2021. You'll remember this. This is when Stephen A had very clearly become the guy at ESPN. Skip was gone. He was beating Skip in the ratings. And then shortly after that time, Max Kellerman was gone from first take. He got a new contract, which is 12 million a year at the time.

That's going to be significantly higher with his next. contract. But he was the man of ESPN. Yeah. He had conquered everything there. Everybody that said, oh, there's no way this guy will become the face of ESPN. He had proven them all wrong. And that summer, if you'll remember, he stepped in it a couple of times. He had the thing where he was talking about Shohei Otani needing a translator. Where he was talking about the names of players on the Nigerian basketball team. In the case of the former, remember when Jeff Passon went on first take to shame Stephen M. Yeah.

That was a thing that happened in 2021. And I just remember at the time, again, a more innocent age being like, wait a second, he's getting a $12 billion a year contract. He's the highest paid guy at ESPN. And yet like weeks before these things that happened. But it was an interesting window now, I think retroactively, because you're like, oh, that was the beginning of this podcast period of America. media.

Yeah. Where you are not just the sum of the controversy section of your Wikipedia page. Yes. People who like you go, you know, there's going to be a few of these because you're shooting a lot of shots. And I like you. So I'm going to not worry about this too much. I'm going to roll along with you as you chew on different topics, which is exactly what

we saw during the last election. Well, you said the podcast era. I mean, I think you can actually kind of invert that. a little bit, right? I mean, you could draw a line straight to Trump and to everything that's going, it goes on in the political world and say it's sort of the, it's the hot take era of American discourse, right? It's like if you're, it's, if you're a high volume shooter, you're going to miss, right? Sometimes badly. Yeah, but some then, but we like you as a player still, you know,

I still own the jersey. So that's number one. Point number two here, will Stephen A. Smith really run for president. Is this a question? Yeah? I mean, I think we've seen, I mean, listen, the old truism in politics is that everybody wants to be recruited to run for president, right? Everybody, everybody wants to be dragged into the arena. I think what we see on the, you know, periphery

time and time again is you can say that you're not going to run for president or that you would never do it seriously. I mean, we've seen so many celebrities in this situation. But you know, you can say I'm never going to get addicted to, you know, cocaine or whatever, but just wait until you take your first snort. Maybe you're wrong, you know. You might like it.

The first time that somebody seriously says, you know, you should run for president. It hits different, you know, than just the sort of talking in the mirror component of it all. And I think that everybody's going to be a little bit, going to be a little bit addicted to that implicit flattery. And I think it's hard to be. pull yourself out of. It's like the more, I mean, who knows what was going on behind the scenes, but it seems like the more that the rock would talk about how he wasn't actually running

for president, the more he was talking himself into it. Just like by answering the question, you know, it like became, it became more of a possibility. And Stephen A. Smith, it seems like he's sort of in that same boat. I mean, he seems to enjoy doing these podcasts. He seems to enjoy putting his name out there. And certainly, you know, you can say, well, he's flattered by the attention. And like, why would he not be on this? Why would he not tease people?

It helps him in his negotiations. It helps him in his public image. It helps him make more money, you know, and he's not actually going to run for president. But guess what? That's what he said about Trump. Both times. You know, it's just a PR stunt.

And but once you get, once it becomes incrementally more real, it's kind of, it sort of self-actualized. So I don't know if Stephen A. Smith is going to run for president. But like, certainly the more that we talk about it, the more I think it's like not, even if it's a joke, It's also inching closer reality. Dude, I think that is right. I mean, that is perfectly well said.

I think Stephen A wants to be president. I think number two, Stephen A thinks it's good business for people to think he wants to be president. And number three, that liminal space you just outlined between actually wanting to do a thing and enjoying the fact that people think you want to do a thing. Yeah. That's exactly where Trump was. That is also where Gretchen Whitmer is right now. Yeah. And Josh Shapiro and Pete Buttigieg.

That is a very happy place to be. And the people want me to do it. This is very flattering. Can very easily, as you say, turn into, maybe I'll just do it. Yeah. Maybe there's enough here. Well, I'm trying to think who the counter example would be. I mean, is it like Howard Stern is very,

as political. I mean, I know we always date ourselves and we pick these things up. But like the people are saying... How about Trump before 2016? Well, no, but he, but we see where that ended up. I'm saying someone that actually drew a line and said, I'm just doing this for publicity and I know where the line is and I'm backing off the moment that I get there, right? Or like, whatever. It's, but it does seem like the Trump example is certainly like the most applicable one because he's the current president for the second time. I feel Colin Powell might have had a few flirtations. It's tough when

get to bring actual politicians in i mean you mentioned whitmer you you know buddha judge uh that that that whole that whole quadr but that but it's a it's it seems like it's slightly different calculus yes every politician every politician wants to be wants to be nominated for president everybody every politician wants a you know the protesters to be chaining their name you know and and and sort of force them into onto the white horse to write it on. But yeah, it's, I mean, it is an interesting space inside and outside of politics proper. There's a style section piece in the Washington Post by our pals, Kara Vote and Ben Strauss, and they got some political luminaries to sign on

to the idea of Stephen A for president. Mark Cuban says it's a good idea. On the other side of the aisle, Steve Bannon says it's a good idea. You and I had been groping around as to what? what our 2025 press box campaign button would be. David, I think we might have it. Stephen A?

Stephen A, but not 2028, Stephen A 2025. Because this is a new cycle of the moment. And I've even got it here. Stephen A, 2025, we have a picture of him,

and then beneath it is a slogan. Not a candidate. But, but. But. that's pretty good speaking of 2025 I want to pick your brain about

why is this boomlet to use the word one more time happening right now yeah that's more interesting I mean I think that you ask the question I know you asked the question but I think you asked a question

that is that is functionally the answer to this soon after the election like what is the resistance going to look like at 2025, right? What is the anti-Trump movement going to look like in 2025? And I think that, I don't think that Stephen A. Smith is the answer.

But I think that his, the boomlet is because, is happening because everyone in media and the media is so much bigger now, podcasts, etc, are in search of the answer, right? I mean, I think if you ask me, over the past month or so, like, what's coming to, what is the, what does the resistance look like? I think it looks more like, you know,

frankly, I think it looks more like Bill Burr, and Stephen A. Smith, right? I mean, talking about voices that are actually out there, like, that are giving voice to what a, you know, future coalition could look like. Bill Bird's your guy. I'm not saying he's the politician. I'm saying he's the, you know, he's the poet philosopher

such as it is, but like, but, you know, I think that's the Stephen A. Smith, Bill was because people don't know, because we have, you know, the podcast like Pod Save America have become so much the liberal institutions. Like, you know,

the levers of power reside behind the microphones. And they're sort of is perplexed by what the future of the Democrat Party, you know, is going to look like as the people in Washington, D.C. politics are. You keep calling the Democrat Party. So the Democratic Party. I keep, like, stumbling over my words. Has David Shoemaker turned behind the scenes here? I think I'm on. Do we have an announcement for the, for the listenership today?

No. David Shoemaker's going to run for a different nomination that we might have thought he was going to run for. Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. There's a groping around. We know that the Democratic Party is the most just, you know, brand that is in the deepest into the toilet in American life right now. And we do have a clip about that. Here is Stephen A to Pod Save America on the state of the Democrat. I believe it is an utter embarrassment to the Democratic Party that I am a candidate in people's

for the presidency of the United States. It's an indictment against them, and they need to get their act together before somebody like me or somebody else takes it real seriously and says to hell with y'all because the roster that I'm seeing right now, y'all don't have anything. Making sense.

Don't you love those tweets where people are pointing out that Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris are signing with CAA? Yeah. And they're like, you know what? You're like chasing a book deal. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders. is out there in Nebraska rallying the troops.

And I'm like, Mr. Twitter person, you do not want Joe Biden out there giving speeches about the future of the Democratic Party. You don't want Kamal Harris out there giving speeches about the future of the Democratic Party. You do not want that to happen. I know that the Democrats and Biden and Harris in particular are America's softest targets and will be until further notice besides Nico Harrison, of course. But like, this is not what you want. But that what you said is right, this is the world where Stephen A for president

for a period of time at least makes sense. Or is at least fun to think about. Jay Kang in his piece in the New Yorker talked about this worldview for certain people where you divide politicians into true tellers on one side and lying members of the establishment on the other side. And when he was talking about there are a lot of voters now who decide someone to a truth teller. They decide they like and trust that person and then they get on board with their platform. Yeah. So the first part of that is more important than the second part of that,

what they actually believe. And with the Democrats, you're like, we need somebody who's a part of that group, who's a part of the truth teller group. Yeah. Who's a part of the authenticity group, right? Just gone through Joe Biden running for president and they're not running for president and then the Harris campaign we need somebody like that so that's where the story makes sense too yep within that world by the way if we want to get back in that time machine again stephen a smith and authenticity circa 2012 that was not people were not looking at first taking building it finally a breath of fresh air people saying what they really think that's yeah what they said about that show just to uh just to do the historical record here

there's also something david about stephen a's political instincts, very basic political instincts. Tommy Veter asked him why Democrats weren't doing basic outreach like, I don't know, attending sporting events. I wouldn't go to the Daytona 500, but I'd have been at the Super Bowl. I'd have been at the hockey All-Star game. I'd have been an NBA All-Star weekend. I'd be at the World Series. I'd be at All-Star weekend for baseball. I mean, I'd be at a boxing match. I'd be at a UFC match, et cetera, et cetera. The point is, you're a politician. You're supposed to be able to do

what the people want you to do as a politician. See, this is, this is just, you're giving me damning evidence I didn't even think about. This is great. So we have future episodes of First Take and the Stephen A podcast

were now being better informed because Democrats did not do a lap at the Daytona 500 in the Harris or Biden car. Only Trump did that. By the way, in the very likely event, that Stephen A is not an actual candidate.

I do think his podcast is an interesting place. Yeah. And will be an interesting place as the Democrats sort out what the resistance looks like. He's already had Josh Shapiro on. He's already had Wes Moore on. It strikes me that pods like that

and his specifically are really good tests for future candidates. It's not, again, it's not the respectful, I love you, you're the fantastic, you're fantastic hearing that you get on MSNBC or even on Pod Save America, but it's a place you can go and get questioned and do an unconventional interview with somebody who has different issue positions than you have. And again, this is part of what Democrats came out of 2024. for, right? Where's our media infrastructure? Yeah. That not just boosts candidates, but puts them through the paces in a way for the new media age. Yep. Why not him as one of the people who can do that? Uh, yeah. I mean, I think that in general, the, you know, quest for who's the liberal Joe Rogan is just so misbegotten. It's exhausting to even think about it. But. Yeah, I mean, I think that liberal discourse existing beyond just the realm of traditional liberal political podcasts, I think is important.

And to identify the places where, like, common sense, hate to sound like a politician where, like, common sense political topics can just, like, be part of that conversation is, is important. I don't know if Stephen A. Smith, the human being is as important to that. this as just the existence of his platform. Yes. Yes. That's what King's talking about, the truth teller part of the world, or at least the perceived truth teller part of the world. Going into that and away from safe platforms and things that would consider.

Yeah, the truth teller thing is really interesting. I mean, I think for a while, I mean, for years after, I think, geez, after John Kerry's failed candidacy, I just thought, you know, we'll never see a senator run for president again. And I was proven wrong. but I think that there is a sort of, I was pointed at like the need for the sort of newness, the novelty of a candidacy. And, you know, Trump's given the light of that in any sort of,

in any number of ways, but I think just to kind of feel like you're part of a movement. But I think the truth-telling thing really points it out in a different, but maybe more poignant way. You want to feel like you, that you've self-selected somebody. right, that you're part of the, that you're part of the campaign pre-campaign. And, and, you know, I don't know if Stephen A. Smith is our guy. But it is, but it's, but there's to see the, but the boomlet itself is, is worth, is worth

noting for all future contenders. Before we move on for politics, let's hit a couple of things. I do want to talk to you about the AP standoff. Yeah. This has been going on since. February 12th, the Associated Press, the Wire Service, has been barred from White House events over their refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Yeah.

It's worth just saying how stupid this is. Yeah. I mean, first of all, giving a little jolt of patriotism as it is not the Gulf of Mexico anymore, it is now the Gulf of America. banning the AP for not using that. And by the way, not just banning them for not using the term, they wanted to use a comma phrase, the Gulf of Mexico,

comma, which Donald Trump has renamed the Gulf of America comma, or something of the sort. Yeah. That's what they were proposing. Yep. The AP is not chopo, just in case anybody is confused about how the political character of media

organizations. Yeah. They're studiously not that. That is their entire reputation. So on Friday, David, they filed a lawsuit. And then it states the press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by their government. Speaking of retaliation, White House comms director Stephen Chung said this. They, and he's talking about the AP, are clearly suffering from a severe debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome that has rotted their problem.

that has rotted their peanut-sized brains. Now, I did a double take on all of that language. But then when I was reading semaphore yesterday, I found another Stephen Chung response, this to the new Michael Wolf book. He says of Michael Wolf, he routinely fabricates stories originating

from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome that has rotted his peanuts sized brain. So this guy has one jerk store style insult that he keeps going back to. He's just waiting until it catches people's attention.

You know, I'm just going to keep releasing the same. They're just going to keep telling the same joke. The jerk store is the best, the best analogy. We keep telling the same joke until it gets the appropriate response. Oh, my God. Politico's Adam Red makes a good point that Mike Pence doesn't do a ton of interviews these days, but he did give an interview to the AP last week,

which might be his way of joining in or making his opinions known about this. One more thing, David, Politico. They hired earlier this year a man named Jack Blanchard to be manager and managing editor, excuse me, an author of Playbook. Comes over from London. And last Monday in Playbook, he asked a question.

Jack Blanchard wrote, Trump has been back in the White House for just four weeks. Has any previous U.S. leader made such an impact in such a short space of time? That was Monday. On Tuesday, Blanchard opened playbook like this. Thanks to all who emailed in to suggest Franklin D. Roosevelt had an more impactful start to his presidency than the latest iteration of Donald J. Trump, per the question posed in yesterday's playbook. long hours of trawling through the historical archives, okay, reading this Wikipedia entry,

suggests you may have a point. And then there's a block quote from Wikipedia on FDR's first hundred days. Thank you, Politico, for making sure we have a product that quotes Wikipedia. My God. In paragraph form. You think even posing the question in the Monday play

book. Isn't that a thing that those political nerds over Politico should be answering rather than just posing? Just asking questions here. Maybe we can crowdsource this baby. Yeah. More seriously, David, Politico hired this year, Dasha Burns, reporter from NBC. That was a big get for them as some of their writers were headed out the door elsewhere. She did an interview last week at CPAC. She was interviewing Trump's special envoy, Richard Grinnell. This is the same CPAC where we had the Roman salute from Steve Bannon. Now, I thought about this, should a political writer who works for an independent outlet and a good one such as Politico be doing interviews on stage at CPAC? do you want to do why don't you take this one

can I do a shoemaker sigh to start it off with yeah because I'm still working through this myself I don't know that I would be comfortable as a reporter sitting on a stage at that kind of conference even if it's not a major party conference it is clearly a political

machine in and of itself with logos behind me Yeah. Providing content for their convention. Yeah. I don't think I'd want to be a part of that. And that's probably where my involvement, or at least hypothetical involvement, would end.

Yeah. I did watch the interview and she clearly was able to interview Grinnell in exactly the way she wanted to. Yeah. So it's not like it was a flattering interview. If anything, it wasn't a flattering interview. Yeah. I mean, it's an opportunity, right?

It's an opportunity even if you're not going in guns blazing to get to make news in such a way that you might not have the access to do before. I mean, a reason I put this to you is because, well, one, in the current state of our country, I find it a little bit hard to get worked up about issues of journalistic integrity. It's the same degree I once have. But, too, I've done this sort of thing, at least in the pro wrestling sphere, right? I mean, I'll go interview a wrestler on a stage at a convention or something like that. and you know but i mean i guess when you're working in like a fanciful world of pro wrestling what the the content that i'm getting is not substance different than than what they would be saying if they were if it was a one-on-one interview you know in a hotel room or something like that

um but also it's an access point you know i mean that's some of the times i get to interview some of the highest profile people and get questions answered that would not ever be posed to them otherwise you know no restrictions i've never you know agreed to any restrictions on what I was going to talk to somebody about. I mean, there is a sort of way of, this is the way of the world now argument for the whole thing, but I don't, but I think what you said is exactly right. I mean, I think that, I think it's a personal consideration. Do you think that you feel comfortable doing it and do you think this will affect the way

that you do your job elsewhere moving forward because of this? I mean, frankly, I think the, the conflict, is less about that moment in time and more about just generally what access provided us, you know, makes of us as, as, you know, responsible journalists. But, you know, I mean, I'm, you can argue me in either direction from a moral standpoint. Yeah, I mean, it feels like the mainstream media is a little bit like the Democrats, where they're like, how do we reach all these people that have abandoned us? Yeah.

So perhaps you're more interested in going to a place. like CPAC and doing that interview to introduce yourself and your company. Yeah. To a group of people who have been told repeatedly that you are the bad person. Mm-hmm. And that is an impulse throughout all media, right? Like, oh, no, we're not, we're not just for the left. We're not just for the liberals.

We're also a news source that you can read. Yeah. And get information from. And this is, by the way, Politico, which was just accused somewhat hilariously by Trump allies as being funded by the U.S. government. when in fact government agencies were just subscribing to Politico Pro. Yeah.

But yeah, you know, it's all good points. I think personally at the end of the day, I'm probably not on that stage with CPAC logos behind me. All right, coming up in 30 seconds, marring doubt has unwittingly given us a new rule of profile writing.

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 at either Twitter or at Blue Sky, where they are always gratefully received.

David, today's winner comes to us from the New York Post. I'll read to you a tweet. Sasha Baron Cohen feels utterly betrayed by Ila Fisher's new remarks as their $75 million divorce gets nasty.

It was an overworked Twitter joke to write my ex-wife thanks to basketball nills for that one if you thought that line was very nice congrats you made the

overwork Twitter joke of the week already in the notebook dump it's been a little while since we've had a new press box rule of journalism yeah well I found one

courtesy of Sunday's New York Times I mentioned George Clooney he's going to be in a new Broadway adaptation of good night and good luck. Yeah. Starting in March,

Maureen Dout had the big New York Times profile. By the way, she described Clooney spinning in sorcering tales about love, Hollywood, and politics. Yeah. That word sounds familiar. It's because it's the same word she used to describe Kamala Harris's smile last year.

Grastomoto for getting on the board one more time. But after she described what kind of shirt he was wearing and what hotel they met at, she said in the profile, he would sit there, meaning Clooney for the next five hours. Yeah. Here's where I codify the Maureen Dowd rule of celebrity profile. If you brag about how many hours you spent with your subject, your profile doesn't have the goods. Because if your profile had the goods, David, would it matter one whit how many hours it took for you to

squeeze them and ring them from your subject. Absolutely not. In a Manhattan hotel. No. I mean, it's almost damning, right? He's like, he's there for five hours.

I think she noted that he barely ever looked at his phone during that period of time. And he's like, and this is the best you got? Oh my God. It's like when those books come out and it's like, has conducted 247 interviews. Oh, yeah. For this book.

I'm like, care to share anything that came out of those interviews? Are we just bragging about the number? I've got a person, David, I'd like to induct into our Hall of Departed Journalists. Oh, please. Kirk A. Beto of National Journal's Hotline brought this to my attention a few weeks ago. Dimitri Sotas was an anchor at WTOP. That's the news radio station in Washington.

Sotis died January 25th at his home in Virginia. He was only 55 years old. He was from Indiana, son of Greek immigrants, according to his W.T. Obit. He wanted to be in radio as long as he wanted to do anything. And his working hours at WTOP were every weeknight from 7 to 11.30 p.m. So classic like news radio night guy. And Beto wrote this to me in a DM.

He said he was at the station for more than two decades covering local news like storms, crime, sports. and the local news that doubled as national news from election coverage. Senate confirmations in the latest from the White House. He was a great mentor to generations of journalists, and he had this perfect golden voice that was perfect for radio. Every one of his interviews felt like you were eavesdropping on a conversation between friends and not a broadcast. Full disclosure, Dimitri is a friend, as he is to a lot of the DC journalist community,

and we're all pretty shocked about his sudden passing. There's a little sound from WTOP to give you an idea of his newscasts and the flavor of his voice. So the events of September 11th, everything that's happened in our region across the country, especially the increased security. One of the questions tonight, what effect will the death of Osama bin Laden have on that? A confirmed tornado was located over Gathesburg. It is pushing east at 20 miles per hour. Again, our Dave Dildine had eyes on the storm, eyes on the tornado. He is live again in Montgomery County.

It is election night, 24, and it's not often, we can say a presidential election may drastically change the direction of our nation. Washington commanders have a new quarterback, courtesy of the NFL draft. We're going live to Rob Woodfork at the sports desk. There's something wonderfully reassuring about news radio and a golden voice to anchor like Dimitri Sotis. Absolutely. I feel that was the voice you'd hear not only driving around your parents' car, but in your friend's parents car who were just listening to the news and then when it would refresh at the half hour at the top of the hour they'd just listen one more time it feels like it's from

another time then you hear those actual news stories and they're like oh no this was the last 25 years of life in Washington DC yeah and everywhere else deputy OP had one great detail too about Demetri Soda so apparently he won a contest at the station in 2005, which was a cruise, an all-expenses-paid cruise. Then he found out that one of his colleagues was getting married and needed something to do on the honeymoon with his wife, and so he just gave them the cruise. That's the kind of guy he was.

Farewell to Dimitri Sotis. All right, David, some of our departments, before we head off here, into the sunset, media piss test. This is where reporters say a thing is like another thing, except it's on steroids. Well, Reid Epstein, a fine reporter himself at the New York Times, since this quote from Gwenda Blair,

a Trump biographer, Trump's ever wider efforts at control seem like brand extension on steroids. And we got this one from, M. Royer over on Blue Sky. This is a headline from people to just follow along if you can here. Woman accused of romance scam on steroids after allegedly drugging older men in deadly dating app scheme. A lot going on there. Thank you always for the submissions. We got some only in journalism as well. These are words you read all the time in news stories but never hear in human speech. I've been holding this one for a couple of weeks for you.

Los Angeles Lakers post game. ESPN's Dave McMinn. We know Dave McMinneman. He was asking a question to Austin Reeves. I want you to listen as McMeneman helps Reeves build his word power. Austin, just as like a basketball officianto. Was there a part of... What?

Helping your vocabinet. Aficionado. What's that? A fan. Someone who appreciates the game of basketball. I didn't know that. Yeah. Thank you.

It's not every postgame presser where you teach one of your subjects a new word. Officianado. Excellent stuff by McMinneman. And finally, David, as promised, the greatest cocaine hit of only in journalism I have ever encountered. Okay. At least in concentrated form. it comes to us from Michael Babaro

on the February 6th edition of the New York Times' The Daily Podcast. Somebody sent me a clip where they just filmed their computer and I almost didn't believe this is real, so I went to the source. Oh, it's real. I want you to count the only in journalism terms uttered here in a mere 14 seconds. Let us bow down to the new king.

Party begins to coalesce around a future leader. I wonder how much we're getting a feel for who the party's next avatar might be in the crucible of this Trump blitzkrieg moment. Who the party's next avatar might be in the crucible of this blitzkrieg moment. Wow. Well, that's why he hosted Daily, man. He's just... Boom! That is some professional only in journalism right there.

God. I mean, if we had basically made a bet with him, like how many of these words can you squeeze into one soundbite? He couldn't have not only squeezed more in, but he couldn't have squeezed better ones in. Do you think he just, just after that take, just pumped his fist and just let a Trump like long live the king about himself? I certainly hope he did.

I would be legitimately proud of myself if I had pulled that up. All right, it's time for our favorite avatar who's always blitzkrieging and whatever crucible is presented to him. It's time for David Shoemaker, guesses the strained pun headline. Yeah. All right, David,

our last headline about a politician attacking Elon Musk and his efforts to reshape the federal government was man bites doge. Yeah. Man bites doge. Very good. Today's headline comes to us

from nephew Kyle. that's right Kyle Crichton official nephew of the press box and many other podcasts here at the ringer it's from the New York Post and it is about his alma mater

to St. John's St. John's has run off or had runoff when this headline came out 10 straight wins where is this the AP this is the New York Post a New York Post

a little wackier than the AP and nothing about the Gulf of America in the story St. John's had runoff 10 straight. They beat in Yukon. By the way, they beat Yukon again this weekend. They have an excellent basketball team, David. I think that's all you need as you ponder.

What was the New York Post's strained pun headlines? Is Yukon part of this too? Or is that just incidental? We're just going St. John's here. Okay. St. John. John the Baptist, John. John. Porta John

That's not bad they are the port of John John John John God I don't John is too big am I literally using John or is it or is it a rhyming word Let me give you a little nudge here They're informally known as the Johnny's

Johnny's Johnny's come lately Johnny's Johnny's rock and roll here Johnny's Johnny's be good that's it

Johnny's be good yeah that's a good yeah that's a good headline I can't there's just too much too many options there congrats to nephew Kyle for all your success

he is David Shoemaker I'm Brian Curtis but I'm Alexin Magic by my man Brian Waters on the press box by the way we got our first podcast in our new

25 for 25 series up it's with Nick Wright That went up last week. It's in the archives for you to enjoy. Joel Anderson is here on Thursday. And you, Shoemaker, you and I are back Monday. More lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David.

See you later, Brian.