The Young Turks - Settling for Seconds

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Episode summary: Dominion settles lawsuit against Fox News. An 84-year-old is charged in the shooting of black teenager who went to the wrong house. Oklahoma county sheriff and three other officials allegedly caught on tape talking about killing journalists. Employees asked about canceled bonuses. The CEO replied, "Leave pity city." HOSTS: Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur) & Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! It's up! All right, welcome to the Young Turks. Jank, you're going to Anna Casparan with you. America, I welcome you.

So we're going to have a fascinating show. We're going to prove conclusively the 2020 election was not stolen. We're going to do it today randomly, like many years later. Because apparently a lot of people didn't get that memo. So we're talking about rich folks taking over the world, it happens. Fire Festival 2, that's apparently happening. I'm so amused by that story, so amused. And who works harder at home, women or men?

Come on. If you're struggling, hold on. If you're struggling with that answer, come on. You got it. It's okay, it's okay. We're going to clarify later in the program, nonetheless. Clarify. We're going to clarify what you already know. All right, but anyway, you ready?

Forward. Let's do it. Today's settlement of $787,500,000 represents vindication and accountability. Lies have consequences. The truth does not know red or blue. You just heard from the lawyers representing Dominion voting systems in its law. in its lawsuit against Fox News Corp. And the update to this story is that on the first day the trial was supposed to hear opening or oral arguments,

the two parties decided to settle for a whopping $787. million. Now, Dominion voting systems was suing Fox News over its claims that Fox had defame the company and spread lies about the 2020 election. election. They were seeking 1.6 billion, but clearly they are happy with this settlement of $787.5 million. Now that is eight times more than what Dominion voting systems is currently worth. So this is obviously a big deal for Dominion financially speaking. And when you consider its ties to private equity, I'm sure there was a little bit of pressure to take the settlement as well without having to go through an entire trial. Now, we have a statement from Fox, and while

it would have been nice to see Fox outright admit to lying to its audience, it would have been nice to see an apology from Fox News for lying to its audience. We didn't quite get that from their statement. The story is still developing, so there might be some more details and facts coming out in coming days about this settlement. But this is what we know so far. I'm going to get to the Fox News statement in just a moment. But, Jank, what are your thoughts so far? So this is kind of a big deal. And I'm going to give you context for it. That's super important. First, fun note here. The lawyer, what was that line? The truth isn't red or blue? I thought, I'm sure he thought that he was nailing it with that line, but it didn't make any sense. Okay. It was deep,

Jenk. Yeah, super deep. All right. Anyways, now, look, guys, most cases are settled. and what, I don't know why the media never tells you this, but the size of the settlement is what matters, okay? And I don't mean it like, oh, Fox News has to pay a lot of money. I mean as to who's right and who's wrong. So the amount the Dominion sued for was extreme and absurd, okay? Now, their case is excellent. That's why they sued for so much.

And so their case is not absurd at all, but they asked for 16 times what they're worth in a loss. Well, you have to understand why that makes no sense because you have to have damages and you have to be able to win damages. So let's say your company's worth $10 million and you sue for $100 million. Well, how could you have $100 million in damages? Your company's only worth $10 million. I guess the maximum damages would be $10 million, right? But they're assuming for way beyond, way beyond. So there's no way that Fox can settle.

That's an absurd amount, right? And they settled, holy cow, they settled for not a little bit for $787 million. That's unprecedented. So like, look, companies settle all the time to make lawsuits go away. Tiny little amounts means they didn't do it, okay? Giant amounts like this that are unprecedented in size compared to the company that's doing the suing that that means they definitely definitely did it and we all know because we saw it on air we see there behind the scenes text saying we know we're

lying that's the actual malice standard which is near impossible to prove but in this case was a slam dunk and most important for the maga guys out there still holding on to 2,000 or 8,000 mules or whatever you guys are dreaming about Fox News could have avoided 787 million dollars of settlement all they had to do was show any evidence at all that the election was stolen. Because truth is a defense of defamation, they win automatically. But they had no evidence, zero. It cost them nearly $800 million because they didn't have a shred of evidence because there is

no evidence that the election was stolen. And remember what drove Fox to engage in these lies based on the internal discussions that we are now privy to thanks to the discovery process and thanks to these messages being shared with the press, is that the hosts and the management over at Fox News were concerned about their stock value plummeting if they reported the truth about the 2020 election, if they countered the big election lies coming from the Trump camp, and in the end, the lies ended up hurting them financially anyway. So if you're worried about the audience backlash By just simply doing your job accurately and telling the truth, get you a new audience.

Build a new audience. But that's not what they were willing to do because at the end of the day, what their number one concern was were the shareholders. Yeah, of course. And guys, look, it's a business. And so Fox News doesn't give a damn about news. In a sense, the news is the McGuffin for your film fans out there. It's the thing that moves the plot along, but isn't what the movie's actually about.

Oh, you fancy. So, please, I'm here always. All right, so what Fox is doing is they set up a media empire to give an audience that exists in America what they want. Like you want a nice bag? Goochie's going to sell you a nice bag, right? You want a nice watch? Rolex is going to sell you a nice watch. You want lies telling you that the right wing is right about everything. Fox News built that for you and people love it. You heard it here first, okay? Fox News, the Rolex of news companies. I know. I don't. Just joking around. this cover like Gucci's a cover story.

What is Gucci? Gucci doesn't mean anything, right? It's just a brand. So they built a brand around what do the right wingers want to hear? By the way, there's a lot of people on the left now building tiny little brands online. What does my audience want to hear? I'll just give it to them. Who cares what's true or not true?

The right wing has industrialized that. Almost every one of their shows does that. Why there's a profit motive to it? So they're not going to tell you the truth. You have to build a company based on true. on truth to get truth, and you have to deliver to an audience that actually wants the truth. But this is what we try to do here, and it is a bold attempt in news, because there aren't a lot of us out here. Yeah, but at the same time, listen, there are limitations to the First Amendment

limitations to freedom of the press. You are not allowed to defame people. You're not allowed to smear people. And in this case, the evidence was strong. It was not difficult to prove actual malice in regard to the defamation claims. And so Fox News knew that it was backed into a corner and either they could settle for the amount they settled for or go through with this trial where it's likely Fox would have been found guilty anyway. And on top of that, we would have had to, or not had to, I would have loved to hear testimony from people like Rupert Murdoch from Tucker Carlson.

But I'm sure they are elated over the fact that they no longer have to testify in trial over this defamation suit. I got more details. I'll go to you in a second, Jake. So Jake mentioned how profitable Fox is. They've agreed to this $787.5 million settlement with Dominion voting systems. Just how profitable is Fox? Is this a drop in the bucket or is it a significant chunk of their cash on hand? Well, according to the New York Times, a recent corporate filing showed that the Fox Corporation had about $4.1 billion of cash and cash equivalents on hand at the end of last year. So it is a significant portion of the cash on hand that Fox News has. This isn't just a drop in the bucket. So I want to be fair in that regard. Also, here's the statement

from Fox. There isn't an apology here. There is legalese admitting guilt essentially when it comes to the defamation claims, but see if you could figure out where it is. They say, quote, We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion voting systems. We acknowledge the court's rulings, finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. That's it. That's as far as they go to admitting that they lied. This settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial allows the country to move forward from these issues.

I should also note that while they have agreed to settle the Dominion lawsuit, they have another lawsuit coming up, another defamation lawsuit, this time by Smartmatic, which is another company with voting systems and stuff like that that, you know, is claiming that Fox News lied about. Yeah. So look, the number is a giant number, and it is a big chunk of the 4.1 billion they have in cash. At the same time, they can afford it. Apparently what they cannot afford, and so this is the very literal calculation that Fox made as a company. So the damages they would have to pay at the end of the trial probably were much lower, not because they were correct. they would have lost the case almost certainly and obviously the settlement, especially with the giant number indicates that. But the amount they would have lost probably would have been a lot less because it would have been hard to prove that level of damages for Dominion, okay? But you take that number and the probability of that number and then you add PR damage to it

and apparently Fox thought that those two numbers were larger than $787 million. dollars. That means they thought if we do this six week trial, we're going to have over, because we think the damages would have been at most around $100 million if they went all the way to the end of the trial. That means they thought the PR damage was going to be worth over $700 million. Because Murdoch himself and Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and all those guys would have to take the stand and go, yeah, I think our audience is a bunch of dopes, idiots, morons, that we take advantage by stuffing their faces full of lies. So our texts show you clearly we hate Trump.

We don't believe in Trump. We don't believe in anything we're saying on air. We didn't think the election was stolen. We thought that was insane nuts. These are their literal words, right? And but we just didn't want to deal with our audience because they're nuts. They're totally nuts. And our product isn't news.

Our product is making right wing. Placading them, placating them, placating them and telling them exactly what they want to hear. So that could have ended them. So they, I think that at the end the day, they probably made a smart business decision, but they probably should have made this a lot earlier. They really screwed up by extending it this much so we found out what they actually think internally. Now, having said all that, the audience isn't going to care at all. They're not, they're barely going to see this. They're going to think it's a BS injustice, the right wing audience. They're not going to think Fox News lied to us. They're not going to think the election

wasn't stolen. And so, but I will say this. For the rest of the news, come on guys, stop calling Fox News a news organization or journalists. And I know you have some friends who work there. Like, oh, my God, I knew Brett Baer from an earlier job. Oh, I worked with McCullum in Cincinnati when we were both coming up as local anchors. I do nobody cares. They do propaganda. They admitted they lie for a goddamn living. So no other journalists should ever take them seriously as a news organization. To be fair, I mean, based on what I saw from CNN, and Allison Camerata used to work at Fox. Yeah. She did not hold back at all. And she was actually not happy that Dominion agreed to the settlement. She felt that it would have been far better for Fox to have

to stand trial on this. That's right. And I tend to agree with her on that. I would have liked to hear the testimony of the various players. That would have been ideal. Of course, I would much rather have the truth. What do I care that Dominion got paid, right? So we all wanted to trial, it is what it is. That's why they settled because they had this trial was going to be so damaging. And Anna's right, Jake Tapper halfway laughed out loud as I did when he read journalistic

standards on CNN. So the reaction so far has been pretty good. I'm worried though that as people think about their next move on cable news, that it's going to soften. And by the way, it still happens to this day. I mean, the White House press room, a Democratic spokesperson, is asking Fox News, letting Fox News ask a question every single day. We now, Young Turks now has a White House correspondent. In like three months, we've gotten to ask one question. But meanwhile, hey, the liars at Fox News, the liars at Fox News, but they don't say the liars.

Fox News reporter, let's have a, you know, ask your legitimate question. They should get their ass thrown out of there. They're not a legitimate news organization. All right, you ready to move on? Yep. All right, let's do it. He went and rang the doorbell. He went and rang the doorbell, and he was supposed to stay outside,

and his brothers were supposed to run outside, get in the car, and they come home. And that was what was supposed to happen. And while he was standing there, his brothers didn't run outside, but he got a couple of bullets in his body instead of a couple of twins coming up out and giving him a hug. And that's all I can say. I don't think I can speak anymore. You just heard from the mother of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, who was shot by an 84-year-old man. by the name of Andrew Lester when he mistakenly went to the wrong house in an effort to pick up

his twin siblings. Now the 84 year old who opened fire and shot the 16 year old has officially been criminally charged and he has been arrested by authorities. This happened in Kansas City, Missouri last Thursday. Thankfully, the 16 year old teen Ralph is alive. He went to the hospital for treatment and despite being shot twice, once in the head and once in the arm, he survived and was able to leave the hospital on Sunday night. Now, we have some more details about the shooting and what the prosecutors are saying about it. But one thing that's really important to remember is that the shooting happened last Thursday. And this man, this 84-year-old who shot a 16 year old, a teenager, was not charged until Monday after there was backlash. So

there is his mugshot right there. Again, his name is Andrew Lester, an 84 year old. Now, bail has been said at $200,000. And the prosecutor, Zachary Thompson, said this of the motive, quote, there was a racial component to the case without further detailing what was meant by that statement. Now, the teenager is black. The shooter, as you can see from the mugshot, is white. And here's what allegedly happened. As I mentioned, last Thursday, Ralph was sent to pick up his younger twin brothers at a friend's house. Now, he mixed up addresses and unfortunately went to northeast 115th street instead of northeast 115th Terrace, which is a block away. And Lester answered the door and decided to shoot the 16-year-old.

through glass door with the first shot hitting his forehead, the second shot hitting his right arm. Now, Ralph made his way to another nearby house asking for help. Luckily, he got help. Luckily, he was rushed to the hospital and he survived the gunshot wounds. Now, it's not clear whether the teen had knocked on the door or rang the door bell. So far, we've gotten very little explanation from the shooter. He says that he had opened the interior door. He saw the 16 year old and feared for his life, even though the exterior door was still closed and locked. And there was no indication that the 16 year old was any type of imminent threat to this 84 year old man who was indoors as it happened. Now Zachary Thompson, the prosecutor again, said that Ralph

did not cross the threshold into the home and that shots were fired through a glass door from a 32 caliber handgun. There was no indication that any words were exchanged. Thompson said. Now, there are newer reports indicating that Andrew Lester might have said something to him before shooting him. That hasn't been confirmed yet, but once that is confirmed, I'll let you know what we've learned in that regard. But, Jank, this is a story that we kind of touched on briefly yesterday. And while it's clear based on what the prosecutor is saying that there could be a racial component to this, I want to be clear that there was yet another shooting under similar circumstances that also impacted and led to the death of a 20 year old woman, which we'll get to

in just a moment. Yeah, so there's two elements of the story. And people are only talking about one of them. So is it racial? Well, first of all, the cops have said it's racial. And in Kansas city, Missouri, that's not a thing they're at conclusion they're used to jumping to fairly quickly, right? And remember, these are the same cops who did not bring him in Friday when the shooting happened. They waited all the way until Monday when there was a lot of public pressure. So that is an enormous side, right? So, but the second thing is, guys, for those of you who don't think it's racial, you're sure that if a 16-year-old white boy had just rang the doorbell of this 84-year-old white guy that he would have shot the 16-year-old white boy?

Come on, do you really believe that? Do you? I don't know, maybe some of you do, but that seems a lot less likely. And by the way, there's a lot of different things you can fill in the blank with. Do you think you would have shot a 16-year-old white girl, an Asian boy, an Asian girl, etc., right? And so for black folks is fairly clear, because they deal with this kind of discrimination all the time. Obviously, this is the most extreme form. and but okay so that that is very well establishing this case especially because the cops say it right

so now number two component that people are not talking about as much is in my opinion gun culture and what for all the people who have shot people on their doorway I would be shocked if over 90% of them aren't right wingers that do the shooting now why is it because I hate right wingers no there's a culture in the right wing of shoot first ask questions later I can't I got a gun I can't to use it. I can't wait to use it. I can't wait to use it. And they have all these daydreams. Oh my God, people are going to be crawling all over my property and I'm going to shoot them all. I'm going to kill like 18 people. They all have different fantasies in their heads. So when a poor black kid shows up, like, hey, he was going to go pick up his brothers or whatever

and in the next block and he shows up. And he's like, this 84 year old clowns probably thought, this is my chance. Finally I get to shoot someone. The same thing in the 20 year old story. So, yeah, prove me wrong. I guarantee you almost all of them are right wingers. And guys, it's not because the right wing mind is that way. It's because the culture. They keep telling you it's awesome to shoot people. Wouldn't it be great if you got to use your Second Amendment rights?

Well, this is what happens. So I wanted to give you a few more details about this shooting. And then we'll move on to the 20-year-old white woman who was shot under similar circumstances. Unfortunately, she wasn't as lucky and she died as a result of her gunshot wounds. But real quick, so Ralph's mother happens to be a nurse and she spoke to CBS morning news and talked about the condition that her son is currently in. As I mentioned earlier, he luckily survived. She has more details to share in this next video. Let's watch. Ralph is doing considerably well. Physically, mornings are hard, but his spirits are in a good place. I borrow from his spirits.

He is in very good hands. Ralph was shot on top of his left eye, that I would say in the left frontal lobe. And then he was shot again in the upper right arm. He was shot. He had the bullet in the up here for about, let's say, up to 12 hours before it was taken out. So that injury is extensive and it's the residual effect of that injury is going to stay with him for quite a while. So even though he survived, obviously, you know, his mom talks about his injuries and the impact it's going to have on his life, you know, in the coming months, possibly the coming years. But also don't discount the mental impact that a shooting like this has on a teenager.

He is a teenager. He is 16 years old. absolutely nothing wrong and he was met with the worst kind of imaginable violence, all because this individual who was safe inside his home with a locked door saw him as a threat. Saw him as a threat. For what reason? Why would you automatically assume that a 16 year old who's at your door is a threat to you? It's just, it, the gun violence, the hatred, the absolute disregard for human life is screwing up kids in this country. Okay, it's causing incredible mental harm.

Aside from, by the way, I mean, how many stories have we done this year alone about mass shootings on school campuses where at least four kids were shot and killed? Minimum four kids were shot and killed. It's just, when is it going to be enough, guys? When is it going to be enough? Are we ever going to get to a point where the country, actually wants to do better? Are we ever going to get to a point where we genuinely want to protect kids? We genuinely want to protect them. I'm not talking about abortion or some other

trumped up culture wear, culture war drama that both sides engage in, not because they actually care about the issue, but because they want to avoid having to talk about anything that materially improves anyone's lives. I'm talking about sincere efforts to protect kids in this country, okay? Regardless of their skin color, regardless of their sexual identity, regardless of their gender identity, why is it that we live in this country that sees children get gunned down every single day and we just say, oh, there's nothing we can do. Oh yeah, we elected all these losers who won't do a damn thing, but oh well, this is just how the system works. When is it going to be enough? He's 16, 16 years old. I'm so sick of this garbage. I can't take

it anymore. Yeah, well, look, gun owners, all gun owners do not equal gun culture. So when I talk about gun culture, I'm talking about what Anna just put really well at disregard for human life. And that is taught to a lot of people in this country, that other people's lives aren't anywhere near as important as yours or your guns existence. And so if you are out there And you say, no, there's nothing in the right wing that says, you know, we can't wait to defend ourselves. You're lying. It's an absurd lie that could be proven by just going online for one second. And you'll find millions of comments from right wingers going, you come take it from my cold dead hands.

I'm going to kill you if you've got from my gun. I'm going to kill you, kill you, kill you, kill you. And then Kyle Rittenhouse goes into a Black Lives Matter event. And then he can't wait to shoot someone. Oh, somebody threw a plastic bag. Oh, look, self-defense. Somebody hit him with a skateboard, self-defense. Kills, kills, kills, and all the right wings, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.

So look, it's obviously true. So stop gaslighting us. So, and you cannot be for gun culture and call yourself, quote, unquote, pro-life. But they do, they do. They do it all day, every day. And they'll get called out on their hypocrisy. They don't care. they'll keep pushing these ridiculous narratives.

As I've said a billion times, I understand lawful, law-abiding citizens wanting to own guns for, let's say they like to go hunting, they want it for protection. I understand that. I do not understand the mindset that immediately persuades you that you should just shoot first and ask questions later when there's a literal kid at your door. Now, this isn't the only story. Let's take a trip to rural New York where a 20-year-old woman was shot. She didn't even get out of her car.

She didn't even get out of her car. So she ended up in the wrong house, okay? She realized that she was at the wrong house. She had pulled into the driveway. She pulls out of the driveway. And as she's pulling out, the homeowner opens fire, okay? This is a white woman, 20 years old. Okay? So look, with the first story, yes, based on what the prosecutor is saying alone,

there's clearly a racial component to it. But it doesn't matter what your race is. If you think that as a white individual, you are totally safe from gun violence in this country. You are mistaken. Let me give you more details on that story. So this happened, as I mentioned, in a rule part of New York State. A man shot the 20-year-old woman as she was in her car. He's a 65 year old by the name of Kevin Monaghan, and he has been charged in this shooting. We have some more details. Why don't we watch that? I'll calm down and give you more details. What happened was, according to the sheriff's department, is Kalen, and along with three of her friends, they were in a car looking for a friend's house when they didn't have GPS because of

cell service in that area. They pulled into the house of this suspect, 65-year-old Kevin Monaghan, Didn't get out of the car, didn't have any interaction with Monahan, and started to actually leave the house, the driveway. When Monahan, according to authorities, came out, got on the port and shot two shots at the car, hitting the car, and hitting Gillis. It took the friends a little while, five miles. They had a drive in order to get cell phone service to call 911. Paramedics arrived to the area where they were able to park, and they tried to resuscitate Gillis, but she died there at the scene. Now the sheriff actually knew the Gillis family. It seems like he knew Gillis herself.

And he talked a little bit about her saying how she was just a lovely, lovely young woman from a lovely family. So she's in the car with her friends. They're in Hebrew New York, which is so rural that there's no cell reception. They had to drive five miles in order to call the authorities and get some help. And she died later, the 20 year old died later. Now, Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said this of the shooter, Monaghan, yeah, Monaghan. He said he quite frankly has not shown any remorse in this case. Police officers also responded to the home from which shots were fired and found the shooter to be uncooperative, Murphy said.

Adding, he refused to exit his residence to speak with police. He was taken into custody hours later with help from the New York State Police Special Operations Response Team. If you see a vehicle pulling out of your driveway, how are you going to argue that they pose any type of threat to you? How are you going to argue that it was self-defense? Clearly, if someone is pulling out of the driveway, they are not a threat to you. This guy couldn't wait to open fire. He did open fire. And an innocent 20-year-old is dead as a result of that.

Yeah, same situation. Now, why we say the 60-year-old black guy kid is? is a racial incident of the 20-year-old white girl is not. Because it doesn't appear that he saw who was in the car. He just came out and he's like, oh, someone is in my driveway. Oh, finally, I get to murder someone. Finally. This has been my dayduring my whole life.

Someone accidentally came into my driveway. All right, I'm going to shock on him to death. Then the cops show up. And he's like, I don't even know why you guys are here. I'm not going to let you. You don't know why they're there? You shot at a car in your driveway. and you're pretending you don't know why the cops are there?

No, because he thinks in his stupid gun culture mind, I get to murder anyone that even touches on a blade of grass in my property. But why? Why do you want to murder them? Because Second Amendment rights! Yeah, come on, you know it's true. Every one of you knows it's true. Why the hell are you shooting in a car filled with kids? Even if you don't know it's filled with grandmothers, who cares?

Why are you shooting at a car exiting your driveway? Why are you shooting at? What is that nothing to you? They have not gone to the house. The driveway, by the way, is one-eighth of a mile, so it's really long, right? They're not anywhere near the house. They're not, like, they haven't gotten out of the car. Nothing, nothing.

He couldn't wait to use the gun. He couldn't wait. And that's the thing that connects both stories. That's the untold story of this overall. They'll talk about race in the, in the, you're all case, and they should, right? And but they won't connect the gun culture because they're afraid, oh, my God, we might offend right wingers. Their feelings are much more important than our kids' lives. So no, we wouldn't want to offend them.

All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we have more news for you, including some pretty explosive secret recordings of Oklahoma officials and they're unbelievably disgusting and racist discourse. That and more coming up. All right, back on TYT, Jankana with you guys. And Chaplain Fred has done it again, aka a prayer dragon, a gift of 10 young person memberships. Thank you guys, thanks for looking out for one another, appreciate it.

You can join on YouTube, of course, by hitting the join button below. You can also upgrade through there and think, and you could also do gifts on YouTube as Chaplain Fred and others have done. And of course, you could always join through tyt.com slash join, all right, Anna. The Republican governor of Oklahoma is calling for the resignations of several officials who were caught on recordings, looking for the good old days where people were allowed to lynch black individuals, while also plotting to murder and bury journalists they don't like. Now, the officials involved in the shocking recordings, which you will be hearing from in just a moment, include. McCurton County Sheriff Kevin Clarity, Sheriff's Captain Alicia Manning,

and District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings. Also in the recordings, you'll hear from County Jail Administrator, Larry Hendricks. Again, the Republican governor of Oklahoma has called for their resignations. Now, what did they say? Let's give you a little summary of what the recordings have indicated. County Commissioner Mark Jennings lamented about how they could no longer yank black people out of the jail, take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a rope.

According to McCurtain Gazette News, sheriff Kevin McClarety allegedly mocked a woman who'd recently burned to death in a house fire comparing her to barbecue. Now, how do we know about these recordings in the first place who recorded their conversation? Well, the publisher and reporters over at McCurtain Gazette News actually have been doing some pretty excellent reporting on the sheriff's department in the area. It's a family-run paper, and the reporters, Bruce and Christopher Willingham are the targets of the officials. So later, when you hear the audio of them talking about hiring hitmen and burying journalists, that's who they're referring to. So after the county officials ended a public meeting on March 6th, they ushered the citizens out of the room, and then they spoke amongst themselves thinking, okay, we're speaking in privacy.

Little did they know that Willingham had actually left a recording device hoping to get evidence that the officials were holding secret meetings. Well, not only did he find that evidence, he also found that they were engaging in some pretty disgusting discourse. The conversation turned to Gazette news reporter Christopher Willingham's coverage of the sheriff's office. Alicia Manning, the sheriff's investigator allegedly said she had some packages to take to the shipping center, which is located near the newspaper's office, and feared running into Willingham because of what she might do to him. Quote, this is Mark Jennings, oh, you're talking about you can't control

yourself, end quote. And Alicia Manning responds with, yeah, I ain't worried. about what he's going to do to me, I'm worried about what I might do to him. My papa would have wiped him and used him for toilet paper. Now, you're going to hear more from that conversation in the next audio clip. Take a listen. They're insignificant in my life. Yes. They bring the old saying. It goes around, goes around it. It will. I told you will. Yeah. I know where two big, deep poles are here in a name. I know where two big, deep holes are if you ever need them. Well, I've got an excavator.

Well, these are already pre-dug. As if what they were saying was not clear enough, they also discussed the ins and outs of what it would take to hire a hitman to do the job. But the thing of it is, you know. We actually tell it determined. I've known two or three hitmen, the very quiet guys. Yeah. would cut no mercy in Louisiana because it's all mafia ran.

Yeah. Yeah, but here's the reality. If the hair on his wife's head, for Spoonham's head, or any of those people that really were behind all that, if the hair on their head got touched by anybody, who would be the bad guy? Yeah. Yeah. So just openly talking about carrying out violence, possible, possible. murder of journalists they don't like because the journalist actually did a decent job

in reporting about some of the issues within the sheriff's department, which we'll get to in just a moment. We also have other audio recordings that will play for you. Jank, what are your thoughts? Ask them to resign. I've now seen several. Totally. Totally. Sorry to interrupt you. You're asking them to resign. You're asking them to resign? You're the governor of Oklahoma. Asking them to resign clearly isn't enough. Get rid of them. They are not. fit to serve in any public office, period. So I don't know the mechanism by which these guys get fired, but they should be fired immediately. Guys, one of the things that they said when they were talking about stringing up black people to a tree was now they got more rights than we do.

And they said, in the good old days, we could take them out and hang them by the tree. So the more rights they have is the right not to get hung by you, the deeply right. racist sheriff in that area for on a whim. That's the more rights they have. Do you not also not have the right to not get hung by a tree? But to them, a black person having the right not to be lynched is just too many rights. Too many rights. We're asking them to resign.

We're asking them. Did we say pretty please? Did we put a cherry on top? The sheriff is talking about and they're all talking about how, oh yeah, I know hitman. I know several ant men, and they're very good news. They're very quiet. They've already got the whole stuff. God damn, how well do you know these ant men?

And are you law enforcement or are you the bad guy? I think we know the answer to that. We definitely know the answer to that, but we're asking them to resign. Can we also just acknowledge the fact that these disgusting individuals think that they're the good guys? Of course. But Anna, that's the amazing. But as they're sitting there or standing there, talking about murdering journalists, who they don't like because they're reporting shed light on how awful the sheriff's department is.

They're talking about murdering them and they're like, oh, the good old days when we were able to, you know, cause harm to people and we'd get congratulated for it. You know, can't we go back to that? We're the good guys, right? No, you're not the good guys. And the fact that they've served in public office, the fact that the sheriff's department has a sheriff like this tells you everything you need to know in regard to why people don't trust cops.

in this country. How many stories have we covered involving email exchanges where similar rhetoric is used in regard to people of color? If we want to do anything about reforming the criminal justice system, we got to take the trash out. And that means figuring out which law enforcement officials need to be fired. This guy, this sheriff, along with the sheriff's captain, They need to go. And asking nicely doesn't go far enough. Real quick, what did the reporting indicate? Okay, so why are they so upset with the McCurtain Gazette News? Well, the newspaper exposed several instances of alleged misconduct in the sheriff's office based on interviews with current and former employees, including homicide evidence that had been tainted, questionable

hirings of employees with no previous law enforcement experience, and an investigation into who the sheriff's office was leaking information, who in the sheriff's office was leaking information. And this was extensive reporting. It was an eight-part series that the paper released beginning in November of 2021. And the biggest offense that you could commit in some parts of the country is offending, offending the cops. And the cops were offended at journalists doing their jobs. Now, if you think that was bad, it's about to get worse because in this next audio clip, you're going to hear about them, craving the days when it was okay to lynch black people. Listen.

And another part of the recording, a voice identified as the county commissioner laments the fact that lynchings are no longer common practice. That is no longer something you're allowed to do. I said, I don't have a goddamn clue what they're getting into. Oh, yeah, because it's up, it's a, but everybody, I want to tell you something, if we're back the day, what they thought, when Alan Marshall take a damn blackjack, whooped through her ass and throw them in the cell, I'd run for a f*** chair. Yeah, well, it's not like that no more. I know, we're taking them down on a mud creek and hung them up with the damn rope.

Yeah. But you can't do that. They got more rights than we got. They've got more rights than we've got, he says, in the context of a discussion where he's concerned that they're not allowed to lynch black people anymore. So black people in his mind have more rights than white people because white people can't lynch them anymore. Yeah. So I have seen other Oklahoma officials saying joking doesn't excuse this. What part was joking? You just go, you guys heard it with your own ears. They weren't joking at all. What do you, you just made up an excuse for them while you're still asking for them to resign. Those guys are out there right now. That sheriff is out there. And God help you if you're a black person

in that area. Does it look like he's going to be fair to you? Does it look like the commissioner is going to be fair to you? Because they're lamenting when they could lynch you with no consequences at all. And yet still, they're in office as we speak. That is insane. So by the way, they're also talking about the mafia. So are we okay with the sheriff working with the mafia and Hitman and etc. How is this a close question? How are they not already out of a job? Is this debatable in Oklahoma? But I'm asking you literally, good people of Oklahoma, if you exist, is this debatable in Oklahoma? If you're, I'm not asking if you're black in Oklahoma or you're not white in Oklahoma. I'm asking if you're a white Republican in Oklahoma. Why aren't

you pissed? This makes you look awful. Do you all agree with it? I, I dare assume that not all of you are okay with it. So why don't you do something? Because when you sit back and go, it's not my problem. What are we to assume? What are we to assume? If I live there, I'd want to fire today this minute. Absolutely.

And the journalists are sharing the recordings with the feds. So the FBI is now investigating this because some of the claims, including potentially hiring hit men, pretty serious if it ends up being true. So the feds will be investigating it. There's a state investigation into this as well. I want to end on one more part of the audio recordings that had to do with a woman who died as a result of a fire. She burned to death, okay? This is a human life that was lost as a result of a fire.

And I think this perfectly clarifies just how little regard these individuals have for human lives. The sheriff gave the board an update on a deadly fire that had happened four days earlier when a 43-year-old woman died after rushing back into the flames to try to save her two dogs. According to the paper, there's someone asked a question about burn victim's body parts. You never had barbecue. Hendricks allegedly asked rhetorically. She went back in to save dogs that she loved, and then they're making fun of her because she burnt to death. All right, that one doesn't have a racial component. Can you get upset about that one? Are you guys still okay with these guys being in office?

Okay, so if horrible racism hasn't happened to you, partly because you're not black, or for other reasons, okay, great, wonderful. count yourself lucky. Can you just empathize with other people for a second when they actually do go through it and you hear stuff like this? Can you understand that maybe just maybe racism still exists? It doesn't mean that everything is racist. But it means when something is overwhelmingly racist when they long for the days of lynchings, that yes, we should all collectively do something about it and protect our brothers and sisters. I'm going to ask for even less, okay? Because maybe maybe this can happen, okay? If you have such disregard for human lives, if you don't care, if you see a situation in which an innocent woman burns to death as she's trying to save her

dogs, maybe don't try to be sheriff. Maybe don't try to be part of law enforcement. Maybe don't opt for a career where, you know, you're supposed to protect people. Maybe do something else if you're a sociopath, but stay the hell away from anything having to do with law enforcement. because we've got plenty of that kind already and we don't need more of it. I just can't get over the lack of empathy and the disregard for human life. I can't understand it. Yes. And guys, so again, just to be clear, there are different people involved here.

There's a sheriff's captain, that's Alicia Manning, the woman you heard. There's a McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy. There's the county jail administrator Larry Hendricks with a quote about the barbecue, I believe, and District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings. So they're not all the sheriff. They're different things. And the last thing I want to make clear, but is the Willinghams, great reporting. Look at that.

That is brave, independent, strong journalism. And look at what it made them do. It made them lose their minds and want to lynch them, right? Because the people in power in this country are so fat and comfortable. Yep. And so the minute that they were challenged on much lower things like hiring practices, they couldn't have it. They couldn't.

They were shocked. They're like, how dare these impertinent journalists question anything that anyone in power has to say? Well, I wish we could lynch him like the old days. Well, now we know who the hell you are, okay? And thank you for the great journalists in Williams. And I wish that the people at the national level have that kind of courage. We got to take a break. More for you when we come back. All right on TYT, Jenkinanna with you guys. More news.

Let's do it. can we stay motivated if we're not going to get a bonus what can we do what can we do some of them were nice and some of them were not so nice so i'm going to address this head on the most important thing we can do right now is focus on the things that we can control none of us could have predicted COVID none of us could have predicted supply chain none of us could have predicted bank failures but what we can do is stay in front of our customers provide the best customer service we can get our orders out our door treat each other well be kind be respectful focus on the future because it will be bright.

You just heard from Andy Owen, who happens to be the CEO of a posh furniture company known as Miller-Nole. She was speaking to her employees in a Zoom call just last month, and the employees were expressing concern that they wouldn't get bonuses this year, that bonuses would be withheld. Now, that first part of her response to them didn't seem too terrible, right? It seemed pretty okay. Well, she quickly goes from trying to motivate the workers to be kind, you know, to just work hard. Everything's going to be all right, to deriding them over wanting a bonus in the first place.

Let's watch. It's not good to be in a situation we're in today, but we're not going to be here forever. It is going to get better. So lead, lead by example, treat people well, talk to them, be kind and get after it. Don't ask about what are we going to do if you don't get a bonus get the damn 26 million dollars spend your time in your effort thinking about the 26 million dollars we need and not thinking about what you're going to do if we don't get a bonus all right can i get some commitment for that i would appreciate that i had an old boss who said to me one time

you can visit pity city but you can't live there so people leave pity city let's get it done thank you have a great day All right, so just to clarify a few things, she references $26 million, but doesn't clarify what she's referring to there. So it's reportedly the operating expenses that the company had in the third quarter of the year. And so their operating expenses increased to $26 million in the third quarter. Sales that the company dipped 4.4% at the most recent quarter.

in the most recent quarter that ended on March 4th, while orders slumped 19% with a slower economy and higher borrowing costs, reducing demand for expensive office furniture. So regardless of the circumstances, the clip is a little unbearable on its own. It's even more unbearable once you learn about the compensation for the CEO, including the fact that she collected pretty fat bonus herself. So the reporting has varied on how exactly her compensation breaks down.

A lot of CEOs and executives get paid with stock options and a relatively modest salary compared to stock options, sometimes the bulk of their pays through a bonus at the end of the year. But here's what CBS is reporting. Owen, that's the CEO, received a hefty compensation package last year. On top of her $1.1 million salary, she received $3.9 million. in stock awards and other compensation for the fiscal year ending in May of 2022, according to Miller-Nol's most recent proxy statement. The company has expensed $15.7 million this year in stock-based compensation,

and employee bonuses won't officially be determined until their books are closed next month. The company hit back following the backlash. We're going to get to that in just a moment, but, Cenk, what are your thoughts? Yeah. So look, guys, there's a couple of things that are super relevant to the story. If she had just gone on this rant in a normal meeting, I know a lot of people would still flip out over it. I wouldn't. I would say, hey, look, we don't know the context. And like, it's not totally wrong. She said it in a way that was incredibly obnoxious.

But not totally wrong to say, hey, let's pick ourselves up, okay? And just because we're in tough times doesn't mean that we got to be down about it, et cetera. Let's work our way out of this. That's fine. But telling people when they are not getting a bonus, which a lot of them count on, that they're not getting one is a heavy thing. Look, I've lived it and it weighs on me.

I don't go in there and go, oh, what are you? This pity city. No, that's insane. that shows a lack of empathy that is disturbing. And if it was just related to this one woman, look, it's not a, we could all direct it towards her, okay, but it's, it's not about her. It's a culture. It is, it is a culture.

She's one of many CEOs who have the same kind of mindset. And, Jake, look, you're the CEO of this company, and I can totally understand if you have, like, a little bit of empathy, if, like, the company isn't doing well. And it seems like because of the fact that they sell office furniture at a time when people aren't really going to the office, that's going to hurt their company. I get that, right? But there's a difference between how you handle an economic slump and the way other CEOs handle economic slumps. And I want you to be very aware of that. Because while you like will literally take a pay cut and refuse any kind of bonus if everyone else in the company is suffering as a result, every other CEO has no problem pocketing millions of dollars in bonuses. while denying bonuses to their employees. That's the difference. And no one knows about that internal stuff. I'm not even supposed to be talking about it,

but I'm going to talk about it right now. Because you're an exception to the rule, okay? Look, Anna, I get it, and I appreciate you saying that. And I do. You know, in tough times, if you're the captain of the team, you should feel the pain first, not last, right? And there's sayings like leaders eat last, and there's a good reason for that.

If you're a real leader, in my opinion, you do it that way. But this isn't about me. So what I was getting to with her is, on top of not showing sympathy when people are going to have trouble making payments, not going to be able to bring home money they were probably counting on, you could say, hey, you shouldn't have been counting on it. It's a bonus. Okay, fine, right? But still have a little bit of human empathy or whatever. But when on top of that, you're taking home millions in a bonus. And then you're yelling at them because they're in pity city.

No, that's the thing, guys. I know some of these executives, and it is a little bit of a different culture, and I'm being softier, okay? I could be much harsher. And they really think, no, no, no, no. I'm not the same as my workers. No, no, my workers aren't getting them. Of course, I'm getting a bonus.

And by the way, here's something you might not know that I know because of my business background. A lot of times the CEO will get a bonus because they made the cuts. They had massive layoffs. Yes, they laid off 162 employees at a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin. And that was announced earlier this month. So the employees have good reason to be nervous about the financial situation of the company, but also more importantly, what the future holds for them, whether it has to do with their jobs or bonuses. Yeah, and so you might be thinking, yeah, but why give her a bonus for that?

I mean, they're struggling, they had to do layoffs, there's no bonuses for anyone else because of that culture. The culture says, oh, that's a good, strong, tough CEO that did what needed to be done, saved the company a lot of money, so we should reward her with a big multimillion dollar bonus. And they don't see the hypocrisy of that at all. No, they don't, because what happens is there's a tremendous amount of pressure to cut costs, and the number one cost is labor. And so if executives like this CEO are paid through stock options, right?

They're rewarded or awarded shares of the company's stock. Well, they're going to want the value of those shares to go up. And one of the ways the value of the share goes up is if you cut costs, meaning if you lay off people, you cut labor, it actually incentivizes executives. to run with skeleton crews, to cut as many workers as they possibly can, there is a giant financial benefit if they do that. That is why this disconnect exists, right? That is why she can, with a straight face, kind of like mock the employees and mention the

phrase pity city when they have very real and legitimate concerns about their jobs and their pay, while collecting millions of dollars in compensation herself. Yeah, so look, one more thing about that. Some of the reporting is really fuzzy here. I read a story that she got 1.1,2 million in the year before and 1.2 million in the year before that. But then you see that maybe it was stock options and not necessarily bonus. But so let's give her the benefit of doubt for a second. I'm not saying she deserves it.

I'm just saying as a hypothetical that it was just stock. But again, guys, I've been there. If I just got a 3.9 million, or let's take the lowest number, $1.12 million in stock awards, even if it's not a bonus, I think, I just took home a million bucks. I'm not going to tell these guys that I'm not paying bonuses to. Oh, what do you want me to pity you? Let me go out there and do better, okay? No, you don't say it that way.

That's crazy. Don't do that. I know that I can't possibly talk them out of not taking the. modus. How many jobs could she have saved with that bonus? Right? Right. And so there's no force on earth that will get the majority of executives to do the right thing in that context. All we're asking is don't rub it in afterwards, right? It's not too much to ask for you to not pour salt on those wounds. That does it for the first hour. We got to take a break. When we come back, we will talk a little about what Republicans are planning to do in their negotiations

over the debt ceiling. And are there patriotic millionaires in the country? Some might say there are. We'll talk about it when we come back. So people leave pity city. Dumbass. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.