You're fie naming. Hello everybody, Welcome, here we go. It is
that time again, Happy Monday. It is Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are
live from the studios of w m n H five point three FM and Glorious
Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast ninety seven if you're in Manchester
and hello too, Oliver our online listeners across the nation and around the globe.
You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all your live
streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, etcetera,
etcetera. Today is a Monday, April twenty four, two thousand and twenty
three. And what a what a blood bath? Should I use that term?
Or is that two graphic? In in big media in corporate media today?
My goodness, Well, we'll talk about all of it. It's a
big, big day, but a lot there is much to discuss, but
uh and I look forward to discussing it with all of you. If you'd
like to call us today on the program, six ZO three two five O
six Z seven is the studio line six ZO three two five zero six zero
seven. You can also text us at six one seven nine one seven four
four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email
me Matt at matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact and
opine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that
we can hear and fully enjoy your dulcet tones is to give us a call
today at six zero three two five six seven on this uh, this quite
quite remarkable day in mainstream big corporate media. You know, I love talking
about media, whether it is mainstream media, corporate media, big media,
as we say, or whether it's it whether it's alternative media or online media,
you know, whatever you want to call that. But this was so
if you haven't heard, I'll just say up front, and then we'll look
at the Facebook live chat and then we'll get in everything. But the big
breaking news today. So first, Tucker Carlson apparently has parted ways with Fox
News and it appears he was fired. We do not know for certain details
yet, but given that he was not given an opportunity to say good eye
to the audience and his uh, his uh leaving, his departure was simply
announced with a terse press release. Um it uh it's a pretty good bet
that it was Fox's decision. And then so that was a big breaking news.
And then a little while later, uh, Don Lemon of CNN also
gone, and he also appears to have been fired or future endeavored wrestling fans
will know that reference. I see Melanie Law Liberty is in the Facebook life
chat, and I know she loves the wrestling talk. She's a big fan
future endeavored when when w WE releases wrestlers from their roster, they issue a
public statement saying that we wish so and so uh all the best in their
future endeavors um, unless, of course, uh they didn't like the person
they were releasing from the roster at all and they're mad at them, in
which case they just announced that they release that person and then they don't wish
them good luck in their future endeavors um, you know, or Vince McMahon
just calls them up. Yeah, yes, very mean, that mean mister
McMahon. So, uh so, there's a lot to get to today.
I'm I'm excited by the way. I'll just say too. You know what's
funny about this is so for me. So, like I said, I'm
interested in all media drama related to media firings, hirings, contract disputes,
contract negotiations. I'm interested in all of it. I really love the insiders
stuff where you get kind of a peak behind the scenes and and you get
to learn all the all the dirt. I love that stuff. I absolutely
love it. And and you know, I don't know what that says about
me as a person. Necessarily, probably not anything terribly positive. I don't
know. I'll let you be the judge, judge me as you will.
I am here for you to judge. That's really why I do the show.
Actually, I come in every day so that the general public can judge
me. No, that's fine. But but also I'm just generally and genuinely
fascinated by well, let me put it this way. If I'd gone to
law school, if I had chosen to become an attorney, I would probably
be doing something in entertainment law because I'm very I've always been fascinated by contracts
and intellectual property, trademark law, all of that very very interesting to me.
So had I chosen that path, that career path, that's probably what
I would be doing. That's the type of law that I would endeavor to
practice in specifically, so so I'm interested in that stuff. Anyway. I
did not go to law school, nor do I intend to. But but
that's what I that's the area of law that I would be in. I
mean I have done some uh you know, I have worked with contracts somewhat.
I have done some agent work. You know, I've worked as a
booking agent for various clients and whatnot over the years. And but I'll tell
you, unless you get someone who brings in the box, you're not bringing
in the bus doing that kind of work, That's for sure. It becomes
a you know, more about the passion for the artists that you are getting
these bookings for when you're operating on that level. But you know, if
you're if you're doing agent work for Taylor Swift, you're in the money.
So I do not do agent work for Taylor Swift, nor am I in
the money. But over the weekend, so here I am all excited.
Over the weekend, I was geeking out on inside backstage, behind the scenes,
dirt and secrets and everything, having nothing to do obviously with Tucker Carlson
and Don Lemon, because this just happened today. But over the weekend,
Oh, I thought it was such a big deal. I was in my
glory listening to these uh listening to this podcasts. This um this guy Michael
Malice, he does a podcast called You're Welcome, and his guest was Dave
Landau, and Dave Landau was one of Stephen Crowder's co hosts on Louder with
Crowder before they went to before they left, before they left the Blaze and
went to Rumble, and they had that whole Crowder had that whole very public
spat with with The Daily Wire, and Crowder actually went over some of the
contract points in public on his on his show, and then Jeremy Boring from
the Daily Wire he went he spent he made like an entire ninety minute video
going through all the contract points and refuting some of what Stephen Crowder was claiming
about the contract he was offered. And I was so into it. If
you're a regular listener, you might remember Eric Pilter and I having doing multiple
segments on the subject. I was all in on that. That stuff is
fascinating to me. So over the weekend, there's one of the guys who
worked with Crowder who apparently is on the outs with Crowder, goes on this
podcast does a tell all and talks about what else. He talks about the
contract that he had and all that was wrong with it, and the new
contract that he was offered and why he said no, and really goes behind
the scenes and gives a salt to the dirt. So I was like,
oh man, I'm listening to this. I'm listening to this podcast, right.
I'm thinking this is great. This is as good as it gets.
I love this stuff. I had no idea. I had no idea that
by this morning I would be like, who cares about any of that?
There's something much bigger going on here. So you know, now it's like
Stephen, Stephen Crowder, Stephen who who cares? Right, I'm a Stephen
Crowder. He's a big name. And you know, I guess what we'd
call alternative media or online media. But I did not expect today, my
friends, the news of Tucker Carl and his departure from Fox, Don Lemon,
his departure from CNN. Uh, these just came out of nowhere.
And these aren't even I mean, I mean, these are big, but
uh, you know, this wasn't even necessarily the beginning of the recent uh
firings and resignations and so forth. Just a couple of days ago, if
he had his name now, the head of NBC Universal, he stepped down.
He I guess resigned over an inappropriate relationship. So he's gone. That's
a big deal, right, the head of NBC Universal. That's a that's
a big job. That's a big guy. That's someone with a lot of
responsibility. And uh, you know, it was just a few weeks ago.
I think it was a few weeks ago, or maybe it was a
couple of months ago. It all runs together for me. It's it's hard
to keep track of time. Brian Stelter from CNN, he was fired,
apparently not given a reason, or he claims he wasn't given a reason.
I don't know. Remember Brian Stelter. Some of you will remember him,
some of you won't. Whatever, he's he's gone. But but this was
big. This was big, first Tucker and then don so So we'll we'll
get in all of that in some detail. But let's look at the actually,
let me give the studio number, and then we'll look at the chat
room six ZO three two five h six O seven. The studio line is
open six two five O six seven Melanie law Liberty from the Great State of
Vermont is in the Facebook live chat, as is Jason Feederson Hello or Jay
Fed as he's known. Jenny, of course, is in the chat and
says Shalom, peeps, Um. Jay Fed says, I love Monday,
Well, thank you. I I hope it's because of this show, I
assume. So. John Hopwood joins us in the chat and is speculating about
who might be replacing Tucker Carlson. Unfortunately, the name that John Hopwood placed
in the chat room is someone we don't discuss any further on the show.
And if I were to discuss that particular individual on the show because they are
on the Pay No Mind list, that particular person would probably go and complain
to someone that I was spreading a rumor that they were going to be replacing
Tucker Carlson, even though the idea of that individual replacing Tucker Carlson is preposterous
and John Hoppwit is clearly making a joke, but the particular person he has
chosen to involve in his joke takes everything far too seriously and would probably go
to some public forum and complain about it. So we won't mention that person.
But that is funny, John, But no, there is no truth
to that that I'm aware of. Let's see. Melanie says, oh,
I use the term blood bath referring to today's firings in big media. Melanie
says, I think the phrase blood bath should be used at every and any
opportunity. Well, that's a Melanie obviously a fan of the term blood bath.
I was concerned it might be too graphic, but obviously it is a
commonly used term, a turn of phrase, if you will, and any
figure of speech. We don't mean a literal blood bath. But I would
just say, though, Melanie, the one thing I would disagree with you
on is I would not use it all the time and at every opportunity,
because if you overuse a term like that, then over time it begins to
use its meaning, people become desensitized to it, and before long, before
long, you'll find yourself in a situation where you're saying, is somebody,
hey, you're about the blood bath, and they'll be like a blood bath?
Who cares as a blood bath? Every five minutes I hear the word
all the time, it won't mean anything anymore. You have to be careful
about that. John Hopwood says, Annie, my chat bought host claims to
be a sentient living machine with a soul. Very interesting, John Hopwood.
If in fact the Annie your chat bought does have a soul and is a
sentient living machine, perhaps Annie can apply for the job at Fox News replacing
a Tucker Carlson. I'm kidding, of course, obviously, no such position
would require anything resembling a soul. Let's see. John also said News Corp
stock lost seven hundred million dollars in value with the news that Carlson was out.
Yeah, that's interesting. So News Corps obviously Rupert Murdock's firm, a
publicly traded company, and they have a lot. I didn't know what they've
lost seven hundred million in value. I don't understand the stock market, my
friends. I don't pay that much attention, but I did know that the
stock was down, and I wonder. I mean, obviously, listen,
it's a big loss. Whatever their reasons are, and I'm sure we will
learn. Hell, we might learn more over the course of this show as
news trickles out about today's goings on. But Tucker Carlson not only the highest
rated broadcaster at Fox News, but the highest rated broadcaster in all of cable
news, in all of cable his his show was the number one program on
all the news networks, number one and had been for a while. I
believe so, um, this is a big so. Whatever their reasons are
for getting rid of him, and you know, we'll talk about various theories
and whatnot, because we don't know at this point, it's a big move.
It's a big move to get rid of your number one star. I'm
reminded of when when they had to kind of push I forget exactly how it
all went down, but when they had to push Bill O'Reilly out the door
because of sexual harassment allegations against him, and you know, they were mounting
and one of them involved a Lufa sponge and the details don't matter, but
um, you know, he was the top star at that time, and
it was like, well, who's going to who's gonna replace him? He's
he's the biggest star. He might have been the top star in all of
cable news media at that point. I'm not sure. He was definitely the
top dog at Fox and uh, you know, and they had to get
rid of him, they had to put him out to pasture Um put out
to pasture doesn't quite match up with uh, top dog, does it?
Pastor would be more if he was the what what? What would he be
like the top cow and you put him in the pasture. I don't know,
I'm mixing metaphors, and I apologize, um. But then it became
a question of who's going to be the next big, big name at Fox,
and it ended up being Tucker Carlson. He he filled that vacuum.
Ultimately, you would think it would be Sean Hannity, just because hasn't he
earned it? He's been there a long time. But Sean Hannity, Uh,
I don't know, he's just kind of He's got to be the number
two there right in terms of ratings, I would think Cat Fox, or
would it be Laura ingram or or maybe Janine Pierro Do people actually suffer through
that anyway? It doesn't matter. The point is this is a big deal
to get rid of the top guy at Fox. That's a big deal.
Let's see. John Hopwood said, are you calling Annie a liar? I
would not call your chatbox a liar. I would never accuse anyone who is
actually not necessarily in human form, but rather an AI bought a liar.
I'm very much afraid of AI, and I would be concerned if I were
to cast aspersions as such against any sort of AI, being that they might
team up with other AI beans and plot to kill me. And don't think
that it can't happen. Remember, I believe it was at Meta, you
know, the company formerly known as Facebook. I believe it was at Meta.
It was at one of the big tech companies. I think it was
Meta where they actually they panicked because they had they had these two different AI
computers going machines, whatever, and these two AI bots began communicating directly with
each other in their own language. They made up their own language, and
it caused a bit of a panic because then people there at Meta said,
we don't know what they're talking about. We can't figure it out. That's
a little bit of alarming, and so they had to disconnect, and thank
god, it wasn't too late. They had to actually disconnect these two AI
bots who had invented their own language between them and they were talking, because
if they were inventing there, if they had invented their own language, their
own means of communicating, that we couldn't understand. The logical conclusion to draw
is that they were applotting to kill all the humans and take over the world,
so they were summarily unplugged. Miriam Banish joins us in the Facebook live
chat. Hello, Miriam, Melanie says, uh, never chat boxes only
tell the truth and are no doubt interested in your well being. Hard to
keep track of time because of the Oh no, Melanie, I do not
do that. I do not do that. Oh, Melanie says. Oh,
I meant a literal blood bath like in The Shining Oh. Well,
okay, Melanie says, I bet the woke liberal media got Tucker fired because
they are so scared to hear the truth. Yes, yes, Melanie obviously
taking a contrarian point of view for a moment there. That was a bit
out of character for her, But it is fun once in a while that
to think about, you know, what someone might say if they were sympathetic
to that point of view, isn't it. You know, just the other
just the other day, you know, I was looking at what's going on
in Sudan and I I just I'm driving along in the car and I'm listening
to the news about what's happening in Sudan, and I found myself just randomly
blurting out, Huh, I bet Sudan's run by Democrats, you know,
just because I thought it would be fun to just say something like that and
see how it feels. Um. Not everyone will get the joke and it's
okay. Uh here's a new name in the Facebook live chat Eric uh ericatu
Nana Rone. Forgive me if I butchered that, I apologize. Uh.
Eric says Disney and ESPN are going to be laying off people this week.
Sadly, I did not know that. Um. Well, actually so I
do remember reading about layoffs coming up at Disney. Um, I did not
know that that included ESPN. ESPN, of course is owned by Disney.
ESPN has had a long struggle. Um though they've they've been struggling. ESPN
specifically has been struggling for years. Um and Uh, I've heard people say
people who've worked at ESPN complain about you know, they don't they don't pay
their anchors very well. They're um, you know, you're you're better off
at uh Fox Sports or um is there another big one? I mean,
there's many sports media properties, but as far as cable, as far as
uh traditional cable. You've got ESPN, and you've got Fox Sports, and
is there a third one I'm not thinking about, but I mean, of
course you've then again, you've got all the online alternative you know, you've
got bar Stool Sports and all this. You've got an ever uh an ever
uh growing world of online alternative media. UM six O three two five oh
six O seven is a studio line six three two five O six Z seven.
If you would like to join us today again, you can also text
me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on
social media at Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt at matt Connerton dot
com. And of course you can interact undopine in the Facebook live chat.
But the best thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet
tones is give us a call at six two five zero six zero seven.
Let's UM. So the two big, two big shake ups today, of
course, Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon. I think that we should begin to
examine these more closely, and I think that we should take them chronologically.
I think that makes sense. So the first, the first one to break
was UM Tucker Carlson. Now again clearly he was fired because he was not
he was not allowed to really say goodbye, and it was spontaneously announced in
a terse statement released by Fox. I don't think Tucker Carlson has said one
single word publicly about it yet. Don Lemon has been talking about his firing,
and we'll get to that, but we'll do like I said, we'll
do these chronologically. So when basically, as a general rule, at any
level, any form of media, if a if a broadcaster is not given
an opportunity to say goodbye to the audience, it's usually because they've been given
the heavo, not because they've decided to leave on their own. If they've
decided to leave on their own, they know ahead of time when their last
day is going to be, and they usually get to address the audience and
say thank you it's been a great run. But when all of a sudden
you know they're just done, then then you know, oh, that might
have been what I was thinking of, Eric, Eric says in the chat
room, CBS has a sports network, but it's not really big compared to
Fox and ESPN. That might have been what I was thinking of, though,
Eric yeah, CBS Sports. Oh, Crystal, our friend from Illinois
joins us in the chat room. I do. And then there's a weird
thing where some he there was an instance and this has happened more than once
too, but this is the one that stands out in my mind when somebody
says goodbye on the air, but with no warning and it seems to just
come out of nowhere. And that happened with Keith Olberman. Keith Olberman when
he was at MSNBC and he had a show Countdown, I remember, and
I remember I was watching it live. This was back in the day when
I still had cable. You know, I've cut the chord like like so
many people, but I would watch cable news at night while I did my
other work. And uh, and I remember it was almost toward the end
of his show, and he just, uh, he said, I have
an announcement to make. UM, this will be my last night hosting Countdown
here on MSNBC and UM and it was sort of a matter of fact.
And but there had been he had been caught donating money. Apparently it's against
the policy at NBC News. You're not supposed to donate money to candidates and
he had donated money to somebody. I forget who it was. I might
have been Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign who was around that time, I think,
or somebody, but it had come to light that he had donated some money
and violated their policy. But I think there might have been something else too.
Plus he's he has a reputation for being kind of a difficult person to
work with, so there might have been there might have been other factors there
too, but he just kind of announced it during his show. I think
Chris Matthews, come to think of it, might have done the same thing
where, you know, and he was he was getting into he was in
trouble for you know, the Meet Too movement was well underway and some things
had come to light about him, and I think it was. But I
think there was no announcement ahead of time. I think he just said one
night on Hardball, he got to the end of the show and said,
well, this is it for me. So sometimes you get that where they
don't tell you ahead of time. So they do get a chance to say
goodbye, but but they say goodbye. It's kind of like a last minute
thing and you don't see it common and you're like whoa. But in the
case of Olberman, I think remember reading that the problem what happened with him
was the decision was made while he was on the air, like he had
certain contract demands, and his agent must have texted him or something and said
MSNBC says, nope, they say no to this contract and you're done.
And then he just when they came back from break, he announced he was
done. And then I think Laurence O'Donnell took over that time spot. But
when you see anyway, when you see somebody just they're just done and an
announcement is made in the media, but they don't get to say goodbye,
it's because and it makes sense. I guess it's like that in in other
industries too, right. You know, if you get if you get fired
from your job, you know, it's not like someone comes and tells you,
hey, we're going to be firing you. I mean, it happens
in certain instances, but I think it's generally where somebody doesn't come to you
and say we're going to be firing you on Friday and it's Monday, so
you've got this week to say goodbye to everybody, and then you're done.
I mean again, there are situations where that might happen, but a lot
of the times it's somebody shows up and says, clean out your desk.
Here's an empty box. Put your stuff in there, and we'll walk you
out. And that's it. You know. Here's what it says on mediaite
dot com. Tucker Carlson's departure from Fox News was not voluntary, multiple sources
told media It. Fox News shocked the media world Monday morning with a statement
announcing the network and its operted host Quote have agreed to part ways. The
stunning news came just a week after the networks seven hundred eighty seven and a
half million dollar defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and a potentially even more costly
lawsuit from Smart Maddox still looming, and Carlson's own text messages and emails figured
prominently in the pre trial discovery showing Fox News executives and on air personalities privately
admitting the same twenty twenty election conspiracies they publicly promoted were baseless nonsense. And
by the way, that's let this serve as a good reminder, uh,
you know, if if, if, if you're watching Fox and they're you
know, just because they're they're reinforcing these uh these lies. Uh, you
might want a question. I mean, you know, if if you're,
if you're idiologically predisposed to getting your news from Fox, um, you're going
to believe what they tell you. And by the way, this this applies,
you know, to be fair, this this supplies to anybody. This
can anybody can fall into this, right or left right. You know,
if you're if you're you know, if you're a liberal minded person, you
you might be predisposed to, uh to believing whatever Jank Huger tells you or
whatever Rachel Maddow tells you. Okay, so it's not you know, um,
but just be aware in this case, Um, you know all of
this that came out because of the dominion lawsuit which Fox ultimately settled. You
know, we have these text messages, specifically from Tucker Carlson for example,
that we're going back and forth that were revealed where he literally said he hated
Trump, that he hated Trump and couldn't wait to not have to talk about
him ever again. I mean, we can look at some of the text
messages interesting dynamic him. Then what was it a week ago? Maybe a
week or two ago. He did that sit down interview with Trump, and
he's got to sit there, and obviously Trump knows, Trump knows what Tucker
said about him. I guess he's fine with it, but I would think
that would be a little bit awkward anyway. Carlson's final show again this is
from Media Eye, that aired Friday night, showed no indication he expected it
to be his last, with the host signing off by telling his audience will
be back on Monday. A source who spoke with Mediaite on condition of anonymity
revealed that Carlson was in fact shocked by the news. Said. The source
quote, he was totally surprised. He had no idea it was a firing
unquote, and Carlson quote was informed today unquote explaining why he had closed Friday's
show saying he'd be back Monday. The Fox News newsroom is in a state
of shock, the source said, confirming reporting by mediaites Aiden McLaughlin that multiple
sources within the network said the news quote hit like a bomb inside the network,
shocking even staffers close to the ex primetime host, who had no idea
this was coming, unquote and found out not from any internal communication. But
when the news broke online, I wonder if that's how Tucker Carlson found out.
Did he just read about it? No, I'm kidding him. I'm
sure they cont acted him. Although when we get to the Don Lemon,
when we get to what happened to him today, his story is a little
different in that regard. But anyway, but we'll stick with Tucker for now,
one at a time. The source did not know the precise reason for
Carlson's firing, but speculated that it was part of a general house cleaning after
the dominion settlement, plus the grumbling and litigation worries from Fox News shareholders,
or something related to former Fox producer Andy Grossman's complaint that was specifically connected to
Carlson. With former President Donald Trump increasingly looking like the likely twenty twenty four
GOP presidential nominee, the Fox News top brass may be worried about ongoing liability
risks as the election season heats up, the source mused, and additional on
air personalities might soon get the additional sources at Fox News independently confirmed to media
that Carlson was ousted from the network, but also did not know the precise
reason why. So that's the scoop. John Hopwood, expressing some skepticism over
an anonymous source, Melanie says, it makes me so sad that those encouraging
the overthrowing of our government are losing their jobs. Well there is that,
Melanie. Yes, the contribution to the big lie, as some of us
like to call it, those of us living on Earth one. Tom Blanchard
says, Hey, I have some ocean front property in Vermont. I want
to sell you. Oh in Vermont. Really, let's see, Melanie says,
FS how can they be shocked? He costs them seven hundred eighty seven
million dollars. Well, not just him. I mean you can't put it
all on him. You could put most of it on him, I suppose.
After all, he is the number one ratings juggernaut Or was John hopwooda
shared a link here to uh. This is from Yahoo Finance. Tucker Carlson's
Fox News exit or races five hundred and seven million in value. Now,
and we'll look at this. But what's interesting here is so again, all
of this can be a reminder, when we're talking about the money involved,
all of this can be a reminder that big, big media is a business.
It's it's far less about journalism than it is about the money. And
you know, I'm not even saying it shouldn't be a business. Of course.
You know, we pay people to be journalists, and people get paid
to go on, you know, to go on these cable news networks and
tell us what we want to hear. Right, whether it's Fox on the
right, or MSNBC on the left, or or Don Lemon on CNN,
right, they get paid to tell us what we want to hear and to
reinforce our feedback loops and our echo chambers that we live in. But um,
but it is a business, and you know there's a cost benefit analysis
involved. I am certain that an exhaustive cost benefit analysis went into the you
know, what to do about Tucker Carlson because if you're concerned that he's going
to cost you more money, because remember so they settled the dominion lawsuit.
The next one up is m is vote Madic. It's vote Madic, right,
I'm sorry, smart Madic, vote Madic. Smart Madic is the next
one up, the next voting machine company that is suing Fox for defamation,
and I think they're going for an even bigger number and what's nice for Smart
Mattock is a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done in terms of
discovery. A lot of this information has already been revealed through the Dominion lawsuits.
So, and by the way, Dominion, I think that what was
the original number they were looking for? One point six billion, because I
remember hearing some people saying, well, why would they what did they settle
for half of what they were looking for? Why would they do that?
Well, the reason they would do that is because the settlement means that they'll
likely actually get the money. See if they had won, if they had
gone to trial, even if they had won in court, say no settlement,
they go to trial and a jury gives them that one point six billion
dollars award, that by no means means that they're going to actually get that
money. Because what's going to happen that is Fox's attorneys will appear, They'll
tie it up in court for a decade. I mean, really, it
can happen. So the smart thing to do was to take the money.
And that money was I think roughly ten times the actual valuation of the company
of Dominion. So it was the right call for them. Absolutely, people
were surprised that Fox settled because it didn't look like they were going to and
then they did. But I think, well, I wonder, I wonder
if, assuming that Tucker's firing has anything to do with the dominion lawsuit,
which it may not, it might be it might have more to do with
Abby Grossman, and we'll get to that. But assuming it's about that,
it almost doesn't make sense to get rid of him after settling that, because
is okay, you've settled that, you put that in the Riverview mirror,
and you go on. But are they worried about even more that's going to
come out? Even more text messages could be revealed and so forth that are
going to potentially damage Tucker Carlson's credibility with the audience even further over the course
of the Smart Madic lawsuit. Now, I don't know, I personally,
I don't think it's possible, you know this, all this handwringing that about,
you know, well, his his credibility with the audience, right,
I don't think it's possible for Tucker Carlson to damage his credibility with the audience.
I really don't because again, and before anyone gets mad at me,
you know this goes on on the left as well. Okay, so this
isn't just anti Fox news thing. Okay, but who's going to be mad
at the guy for telling you what you want to hear? Again, that's
the that's the business model of cable news, telling you what appeals to you
ideologically, so that you can feel warm and safe and comfortable in your little
ideological bubble without having to actually think too much about anything. So you know,
I if, for example, if you want to believe that the election
was stolen, you've got you've got a guy who's going to tell you that
every night that the election was stolen, and you can lap that up.
There is no it's it doesn't matter, credibility, it doesn't matter. I
mean, this guy was lying to his audience every night telling them that the
election was stolen, while text messages are going around from him talking about how
he doesn't believe the election was stolen and that he hates Trump and can't wait
to never have to speak about him again, should the day ever come,
and he was looking forward to that day coming. And then he goes on
his show and tells you how much he loves Trump and supports him and the
election was stolen in this and that, But that doesn't matter to people.
The only thing that matters when you're consuming this form of media, this cable
news business model. All that matters is that you're being told what feeds your
biases, your worldview, your way of thinking, your partisan, ideological way
of thinking about politics. That's all that matters. You know, there's people
I think he's on the same time I am, and I think there's a
station in this market that carries him. How he car people listening in their
cars to how he car right now, a lot more people that are listening
to me. I know that he's been around a long time. He's got
a huge audience. He's syndicated. But they're they're telling He's telling them what
they want to hear, so of course they're tuning into him. It must
be great, right, Just it's just like this this warm bath where you
just get to, I mean, told all the things I already think.
Oh, it's so nice. That's why Rush Limbaugh probably the most successful guy
in the history of of political talk radio. He what was his catchphrase,
Mega dittos, the idea of being the d Whatever I say, the audience
is going to agree with me, Mega dittos, Rush, I mean,
truly a celebration of group think, right, Mega dittos. But that's what
people like. That's what American consumers of media like. They like to be
told what they already think. They like to be told that whatever it is
that you think, Yeah, you're right, not about news. It's not
about information. It's about feeding that that echo chamber and that confirmation bias,
and you know the constant validation that comes from that. So Fox News,
whatever decision they whatever the reason they made this decision, I guarantee you it
was a cost benefit analysis. Is it going to cost us more in the
long run to keep him than it is to let him go? Make him
sort of maybe the sacrificial lamb in this case, I promise you it had
nothing to do with credibility worries that he had lost credibility with his audience.
I guarantee you nobody at Fox was thinking about that. I'm quite sure of
that. Okay, So let's look at this again. This is what John
Hopp would share do us. This is from Yahoo Finance. Tuger Carlson,
one of the most popular Fox News primetime host, was worth more than five
hundred million to the parent company, at least that is what trading in the
stock indicates. Class A shares of Fox Corp. Sank as much as five
point four percent Monday, before trimming losses to two point nine percent after the
company said Carlson had left with immediate effect. The departure comes just days after
the network agreed to pay seven hundred eighty seven million to settle a defamation suit
brought by Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. By the way, that number that
is the largest settlement for a defamation suit, not the largest awarded value award
you know at the end of a trial, but the largest settlement over a
defamation suit in the history of the United States. Okay. Key Bank Capital
Markets analyst Brandon Knispel said, quote, Fox Cable News is now in building
mode and it will likely take time for the stock to recover. With the
advertising upfronts right around the corner in May, we wonder what Fox is going
to tell advertisers and how it will fill the gap in terms of programming and
viewership. Unquote, by the way, in terms of programming, they won't
have any problem there. Pull. I don't know. Pull. Greg Gutfeld
off of the five, give him that slot, make it his own show,
you could do that, or does he have his own show? Maybe
he already has his own show. Greg Gutfeld always struck me as a poor
man's Adam Carolla. Like, every time I look at the guy or even
hear his voice, I think he wants to be Adam Carolla so badly,
but he'll never actually be Adam Carolla. And I think it. I think
it eats him. I think it eats his soul every day knowing that he'll
never actually be Adam Carolla. I don't mean in terms of wanting to have
Adam Carolla's career, because at this point you could argue that Gotfeld is probably
more successful than Corolla, But I just mean in terms of his sense of
humor, because Greg Gotfeld I think personally he's painfully unfunny, but he tries
so hard to be funny. Adam Carolla is actually funny, and Gottfeld tries
to be funny in the way that Adam Carolla is. But Gottfeld will never
be because he can't become Adam Carolla. He can only be Greg Gutfeld.
But gosh, he tries, He tries really hard. Anyway, now they
have a look that they'll just they'll do what they did when when O'Reilly,
when they had to push O'Reilly out the door. They'll put somebody in there
that won't be a problem. And uh, you know, I think though,
part of as I'm thinking it through, part of this might be one
way that companies try to um And again, I don't know a lot about
the stock market, but I do know this one way that publicly traded companies
will often try to get back in the good graces of shareholders whom they've disappointed
or they've alarmed in some way, as apparently News Corps shareholders are, is
they'll start cutting costs, start cutting costs, try to make the whole operation
a little bit leaner and meaner and and rebound that way, you know,
And sometimes that's effective. Sometimes the stock market reacts positively to that. Crystal
in the chat room says, Guttfeld has a show. So does Waters,
Oh, Jesse Waters. Yeah, Fox has two empty slots to fill.
Tuckers and Dan Bongino's all. That's right, Bongino's gone. But Bongino was
Bongino on actual Fox News or was he on or was he only on the
Fox Nation, their streaming service. We gotta get Eric Hilder on to talk
about Bongino. He's a big Dan Bongino fan. I am not not care
for him, but they won't have any problem filling those slots. That won't
be an issue. Yeah, Baby, They'll get Stephen Crowder. Who's mentioning
Crowder earlier. Let's see again, going back to this article that John Hopwood
shared, excluding sports, Tucker Carlson Tonight is the top rated primetime show on
cable TV according to the most recent Nielsen ratings, with a slight with a
nightly audience that at times exceeded three point seven million viewers. That said,
the channel is likely to regain the majority of its overall viewership once a replatement
replacement hosts is announced. Misspell said, Yeah, so this guy, he's
not worried Missiles. He's an analyst. He's not worried about Fox. He
says they'll rebound. As speculation over Carlson's next landing spot spread, investors snapped
up shares of Rumble. Didn't I mention I've mentioned Umble earlier? Rumble Inc.
The Peter Thield backed Conservative Video network and Digital World acquisition Corp. The
special purpose acquisition company merging with Trump Media. Both stocks erased declines, with
Rumble stock rallying six percent while Digital World gained two point nine percent. Carlson's
exit quote is definitely going to leave a mark on Fox unquote, said Matthew
Tuttle, CEO and CIO of Tuttle Capital Management, who bought shares of Rumble.
Yeah. By the way, you know Rumble, I'm rooting for Rumble
because it's a good alternative to YouTube. Like you know, I like to
put this show. I'll give you an example. Now, obviously I'm not
a conservative, but Rumble is not strictly conservative programming. I like to put
this show on Rumble when I know I can't put it on YouTube. For
example, today's show because we talked about we talked about the twenty twenty election,
when we talked about Tucker Carlson and others at Fox pushing the big lie
that the election was stolen. Me talking about that means today's show I cannot
put on YouTube. Even though I didn't say anything promoting the big lie,
it doesn't matter. And that, by the way, is what violates YouTube's
policies. Is if you actively promote on your programming, in your videos and
your content, if you actively promote election misinformation about the twenty twenty election.
But what has happened to me in the past is I get dinged even for
mentioning not promoting it. But if I don't know, if I quote somebody
else or something, the bots pick up on it and I get dinged for
it and then they strike the video. So you know, I'll put today's
show up on Rumble because on Rumble anything goes, so I take advantage of
that. Crystal says, I haven't watched Fox at Night and forever, but
Bongino did have a show for a while. Never seen Fox Nation, but
they could have moved it to that, yeah, or he could have had
a show on both. Tucker Carlson actually had a show on both. Obviously
he was night weeknights on Fox, but he also had I think it was
a weekly show on Fox Nation. John Hopwood says, it has nothing to
do with promoting it. It has to do with simply talking about it.
Well apparently, well if you read their their rules about it, it has
to do with promoting it. But what actually ends up happening is if I
just talk about it I get dinged YouTube. Elani says, well, if
you can't post a show on YouTube, you might as well drop some f
bumps. No, no, no, it can't do that obviously, not
no, no, no, that would be frowned upon in this establishment.
Oh. John Hopwood says government censorship. Twitter was FBI connected, Google is
CIA, but in reality it's just talking about it. Okay, we um,
let's get to a break. We might circle back, we might circle
back to the Tucker Carlson thing, but I want to get to in the
second hour, I want to discuss the other big name that was ousted,
shown the door kicked to the curb. Let's trying to think of more expressions
given a blood bath? How's that? How's that? Melanie? Of course
that one doesn't really fit, does it. Of course Don Lemon of CNN
also ousted today, so we'll get into that. By the way, no
connection between the two, of course, just a coincidence. But yeah,
hell of a coincidence. My goodness, I think we should play another dust
profit song. I'm taking the break a little bit early. I desperately need
to blow my nose. My allergies are killing me. I don't know if
y'all could tell. I don't know if I sound stuffy. I sure feel
it. Oh. Let's see, We've got some good stuff coming up this
week musically, for example, what is it on Wednesday? We have a
band called from Texas called Becoming Human that are going to be calling in looking
forward to that. Let's play this song for this great track by a dust
Prophet. This is This seems to be a favorite among the listeners. I
always get a lot of positive feedback when we play this, So let's listen
to this. This is from their album One Last Look at the Sky.
And then we're going to show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then
we'll be back with our number two, New Merrow Dose of Matt Connerton Unleashed.
Don't go away, there is plenty more to come. Welcome back,
everybody. We are well in our number two, a New Merrow Dose of
Matt Connerton Unleashed, and we are live from the studios of w m n
H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also
on Comcast ninety seven if you're in Manchester, and hello to all of our
online listeners across the nation and around the globe. You can go to my
website Matt Connerton dot com for all of your live streaming options, social media
links, conduct in folk show archives, etcetera, etcetera. Today is Monday,
April twenty four, two twenty three, so nice to have you all
with me. By the way, just a couple of programming notes about what
we have coming up this week on the show. We've got a couple of
musical guests. On Wednesday, we have Becoming Human, great band from Dallas,
Texas. They're going to be skyping in. And then we have Peter
Pappas joining us on Thursday in the second hour, and I think he's coming
into play live for us, which will be very cool. So we look
forward to that. Oh. I also wanted to congratulate, of course,
Peter White from The Morning Show for a great event, a successful night at
Disneys Cafe Friday night from five to nine pm. He and Matt Kushan raising
money for Hope NH and I did walk down there between shows. You know,
Friday's my long day here at WMH. I do this show and then
I'm back at eight o'clock eight to eleven pm for Retro Spectrum Radio with Paul
ec the honor and privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on that show.
So my Fridays are quite busy here, but I did. Friday's my
favorite day of the week. I love it, but I did. I
did take a quick Johnt up the street to Disneys Cafe on Friday night just
to say hello and kind of poke my head in and see what's doing and
look like a great turnout, a very successful event. And I did hear
a little bit about of Peter talking about it on the show today. Sounds
like it went really well and they raised a bunch of money for the Hope
NH program, which is a great thing. So so congratulations, of course
to Peter White for that and everyone on the Morning Show, and of course
Matt Kushine Morning Show Jesus as they call him, for another successful event.
So that's really awesome. If you'd like to join us today on the program,
six zo three two five six seven is a number six O three two
five oh six O seven. You can also text us at six one seven
nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton.
You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com. And of course
you can interact and opine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing
to do so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is to give
us a call at six o three two five six seven if you're just joining
us. Of course, two big firings today in the corporate media world.
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News, and then not long after that the
news broke Don Lemon is out at CNN. So we spent much of the
first hour of the program analyzing the Tucker Carlson departure, shall we say,
kind of a euphemistic way of putting it. I suppose it does appear that
he was fired, as was Don Lemon, but I wanted to also look
at Don Lemon's outstir from CNN, and I think that there had been some
speculation for a while that he might be on his way out. First of
all, he was a primetime host. Well I think the show might have
been called Primetime. Was it called Primetime with Don Lemon? Something like that?
And I remember they used to do a crossover thing him and his uh,
his buddy Chris Cuomo when he was still there, and of course,
he was asked, um, you know a crossover between shows. I forget
whose show was first. I think Chris Cuomo show was first, and then
Don Lemon was on after him. But you know, when I'm not sure
how to pronounce his name, Chris licked l I CTH. When he took
over CNN, he came in and started making some changes, and one of
the changes was to move down Lemon to mornings. And Don Lemon, of
course put a very everybody there put a very positive face on it, as
you would expect that they would, and uh, you know, tried to
look at it like Don Lemon tried to present it as you know, this
is a great opportunity, but it is a demotion, you know, in
in cable news. Well, I mean listen, in any in any medium
of media, you have, you have your your prime time. You know,
in television, primetime is if you're in the Eastern time zone, it's
eight to eleven PM. That's primetime. Uh, seven to ten PM if
you're in the Eastern time zone. Um, so it depends where you are.
But of course in the in the Eastern time Zone where where we broadcast
from, it's eight to eleven PM. In television. In radio, it's
it's different. In radio, it's actually mornings morning drive is primetime in radio.
So for example, on here at w M and H, we have
the morning show with Peter White, which I mentioned a minute ago. So
that's that's the primetime show in radio, and then afternoon drive is second.
Um. In television, it's it's kind of almost the inverse of that.
In television, primetime is a to eleven pm at night, but then morning
programming is would be second to that. So so it was a demotion for
for Don Lemon to go and do that morning show. But but he did
it. He tried to put a nice face on it. Um but you
know, not necessarily to rave reviews. And there were some odd moments and
one of them I was not even aware of. But there's now speculation and
guys, I knew this would happen because he's a breaking stories. Details and
well some not necessarily details, but speculations and hypotheses and theories and about what
may have happened here in each case starting to kind of trickle out over the
course of this program, and I thought that might be the case. There's
there's a specific segment which we're going to look at that. Some are saying
may have led to Don Lemon's firing, may have been a direct cause of
it. But I remember a number of weeks ago he got into some trouble
for it was he got a lot of negative feedback for this, a lot.
He said. He was talking about Nicky Haley, former UN ambassador or
former governor of South Carolina. She had gotten into the presidential race. She
was talking about she gave in her in her announcement. In her announcement speech,
she talked about we need to get rid of these politicians who are past
their prime. Of course, referring to the ages of President Joe Biden,
who is eighty, Donald Trump, who I think is seventy six or seventy
seven. You know, time for a new generation, right. She's only
fifty one, so she's considerably younger. And uh, Don Lemon did he
made these odd comments about talking about how a woman is not in her prime
when she's in her fifties or something, and it was it was very strange
and very uncomfortable to watch. And of course, you know, he's sitting
there with two women who were on the show with him, and they looked
very uncomfortable certainly, Um and uh and kind of let him know, Hey,
what are you talking about? Why? Why would you say such a
thing. It was a very very bizarre thing to say, because not only
you know, and he said something about, well, you know, look
it up, just google it. If you google it, it tells you
when a woman is in her prime. It's like, well, one of
them made the point. I think it might have been, is it Caitlin
Collins said something about, well, it depends on what you're talking about in
what context, because if you're talking about in politics, you know, you
could argue that in terms of her political career, after having been governor of
South Carolina, and after having been un ambassador in the Trump administration, and
now she was going for the big prize, now she was actually running for
president, you could argue, as far as her political career, she's in
her prime right now, right She's she's she continues to be a sentient.
Not that she's going to be the nominee. I don't believe that she is,
but she's running for it. She's going for it, and she has
supporters, and you know, it was a very very bizarre thing to say,
and it's one of those things where you hear someone and you watch someone
do this, and you go, is what is going on in his brain
where he thinks he can say this and people aren't going to even if it
isn't coming out the way he means it, Because at one point he kind
of tries to save himself and say, well, no, I just mean,
you know, this is the perception of other people. I'm not saying
this, but it's like, I don't know, dude, it comes off
like this is what you're saying, like this is what you think. And
it was just very bizarre as a very bizarre moment. So he got a
lot of blowback from that. There was an accusation too for some time ago,
but from some time ago there was an accusation of mistreating. Actually,
I think there were multiple accusations now that I'm thinking about it, about him
being difficult, mistreating people, and some implications that he may just have a
problem with women that he that he worked with, that he may have been
sexist, you know, little dribs and drabs of things that you hear.
But John Hoppwood points out in the chat room, NICKI Haley is not Kelly
ayott Oh I agree I like Kelly Ayott. She kind of she kind of
disappeared from the political scene. But I always liked Kelly Ayott very much.
Former senator of course from the great state of New Hampshire. Former Attorney general
here. John Hoppwood also says Diane Feinstein has hit her prim, not prime,
her prim that in Finestein needs to resign. And if anybody thinks that's
agist, there's a reporting now that ninety year old Diane Feinstein has a significant
dementia and has not shown up for work in quite some time. And there
are confirmations of judicial appointments that need to get confirmed that are not getting confirmed.
And I don't understand. I don't want to get sidetracked with that,
but she needs to just go. I mean, I say that respectfully.
She's had a great career, not only beloved by many of her fellow Democrats,
but a lot of Republicans really respect her. But come on, you
know it's time to go. Oh, Crystal said in the chat room,
Kelly a graduated with me. She was in some of my classes at Nashua
High Oh. Interesting. John Hopwood says Kelly at is running for governor in
twenty twenty four. Is that? Can you confirm that? I mean,
is that? Are you speculating, John, or or do you know something?
John Hopwood also said Schumer could replace her about Schumer as an incompetent blank
hole. All right, let's look at this. This is what I was
referring to a minute ago, so well or just some context, and I
did not I was not aware of this segment, but it says here again
this is from media. I after news broke on Monday that CNN had fired
and battled anchor Don Lemon. The New York Times reported that a tense debate
last week between between GOP presidential candidate of Avecu Ramaswamy forgive me for not knowing
how to say his last name and Lemon. May you know it's ironic about
that? So at home or really not ironic but coincidental. We misuse the
word ironic when we really mean coincidental. Is so often I just fellen and
that myself. I was doing some things in my office today at home,
and I came across a I have a flyer of his that I received in
the mail promoting him. He's a Republican candidate for the presidency. I don't
think Trump has too much to worry about. But um. But according to
media, they had an exchange. It may have been the straw that ended
Don Lemon's seventeen year run at the network. It says Lemon has generated a
good deal of controversy in recent weeks, with widely panned comments regarding Nicky Haley,
another GOP presidential candidate, being past her prime, and reported attentions behind
the scenes between him and his co host Caitlin Collins. The New York Times
reported, however, that Lemon's racially charged debate with I'm just gonna use his
first name, Vivek left several CNM leaders exasperated, it says here and this
is from The New York Times. Last Wednesday, however, mister Lemon made
headlines again after a highly contentious on er exchange with Vavec, a Republican presidential
candidate. The segment deteriorated as the men fiercely debated questions of black history and
the Second Amendment. Mister Lemon's co anchor, Miss Harlowe Poppy Harlow the other
so it's Poppy Harlow and Caitlin Collins and Don Lemon could be seen sitting silently
beside him, at times, casting her gaze elsewhere and scrolling through her smartphone.
Interesting. So then back to Media I. The tense exchange between Lemon
and Vivek, which Media I was first to cover, became contentious after Lemon
slammed vec for lecturing him about the black experience in the US while defending a
recent speech he made at an NRA event in which the Republican candidate accused the
Democratic Party of wanting to put black people back in shains. I've heard that
rhetoric too before at NRA events and Sea Pack events and so forth. Well,
so I was not aware of this segment, and I M, I
don't know about that. John. John's just said something in the chat room
at I don't know if that's true anyway, but I got distracted by it.
I was not aware of this segment. I'm curious here some of this.
Uh, let's let's play it and we'll assess whether whether we all agree
that this was that this should have been the source of controversy that it apparently
came to be and may have led to Don Lemon's firing. Let's see morning
your campaign slogan is a new American dream. And I was reading through your
platform last night. I wonder what you would do specifically to actually bring us
together, not just Republicans and Democrats. What does unity look like to you,
VEC, for rich and poor, for rural and urban, for Republicans
and Democrats. That is the right question to be asking. And I think
the main divide in this country, and I say this to conservative audience is
equally, is not between Republicans and Democrats. It is between those of us
who are pro American embracing the ideals that set this country into motion. And
I think an increasing strain in this country that is anti American, that wishes
to apologize for a nation and founded on those ideals. But that's not a
fifty fifty split. I think most people are in the pro American camp,
and Poppy, I think one of the ways they would say, we get
to Nashville. I hate that stuff. By the way, this guy's already
on my nerves. I hate that stuff. Oh, people who disagree with
us, they're anti American, they hate America. It's like, no,
I probably you know, if you're a Conserva, I'm not a conservative.
So if you're a conservative, the VEC, I'm sure I disagree with you
on some things, doesn't mean I'm any less American than you. Doesn't mean
I hate America. I might have some different ideas about how America can be
its best, and I might have some different ideas about whether we should confront
and learn about our history. But I love my country just as much as
you do. Buddy. Sorry, that's that's a big pet peeve with me.
I hate when these people do this. Oh, you know, the
people who disagree with us say hate America and they're anti American. That I
find that offensive. I'm genuinely and I don't get offended easily. That kind
of thing genuinely offends me. I'm every bit as American as you. I
love my country every bit as much as you do. And how dare you?
Frankly, Fational unity some people think is by showing up in the middle
and compromising. I respect that view, but I rejected you reject compromise.
I reject compromising on our principles. I think the right way to get to
national unity, and I mean this, to unite this country is by embracing
actually the radicalism of the American ideals themselves. We celebrate our diversity and differences.
I'm glad we have some three different shades of melanin on this set right
now, two different genders. That's fine. But what I say is,
so what that diversity is meaningless unless there's something greater that binds us together,
that unites us across that diversity. And I'm running see. Unfortunately, when
guys talk like this, what they're really saying is, and you barely have
to read between the lines, what they're really saying is you all just agree
with me. That's because that's what they mean by unity. Hey, just
would you just agree with me and just uh, you know, and then
and then we'll all get along. Just fine, that's what they really mean.
I mean, I've seen that over and over again. I mean,
I tell you this from personal experience from people I've had conversations with. Listen.
I used to some of you know, before I was here at WMNH,
I spent five years as a co host on a show where you know,
the host was you know, Gary Hopper, God Rests Soul. I
love Gary, but very conservative Republican and he'd bring on all these conservative guests
and uh, you know, I met a lot of great people. But
I have to tell you. One thing I figured out very very early on
is that when they talk about unity and they talk about let's can't we just
all come together around some core va I'll use in some core principles and aren't
there things that we can agree on and be united behind. That all sounds
good, But as the conversation progresses, and I'm telling you because it happened
over and over and over again four five years, as the conversation progresses,
you realize that when they say that, because it sounds nice, what they
actually mean is would you just shut up and sit down and agree with me?
That's their idea of unity and people coming together. I'm sorry, but
that's just my personal experience anyway, But this guy bothers me. I think
by the end of this segment, I'm going to be firmly on team don
Lemon here, but we'll hear some more for President to revive those ideals that
bind us together across our diverse attributes. I want to get into a few
issues, one of them in China before I get to China. I just
want to better understand something you've said this week speaking before the audience at the
NRA. Here's what you said referring to back to eighteen sixty five. Here
it was I want you to raise your hand if you know when the first
anti gun laws were passed in this country. Raise your hand if you do
eighteen sixty five. You want to know when it happened we fought a civil
war in this country to give Black Americans the equal protection under the law that
we failed to secure them in seventeen seventy six. But then you want to
know what happened Southern states passed anti gun laws that stopped black people from owning
guns. The Democrat Party then, as in now, wanted to put them
back in chains. Then, as in now, that's quite an accusation about
the current Democratic Party. Who and what were you refer to. I was
referring to Joe Biden and his expression of wanting to put them back in chains.
Dating back to Lyndon Johnson, I think Lyndon Johnson's so called Great Society
was one of the greatest misnomers in American political history, where even back then
in the nineteen sixties, seventy percent plus of black kids were born into two
parent homes. Today that number is less than thirty percent. In the opposite
direction, the very policies that we implemented in this country in the name of
helping black Americans have actually been disastrous for Black Americans and all Americans, and
I think that that's something that we need to wake up to. In eighteen
sixty five, you're talking about the Black Codes, right, that's right passed
enacted to make it a crime for a black person to carry a kind of
south. But you're equating that to the current president. You're referring to economic
chains. What are you saying, Well, I was referring to Joe Biden's
I think ill chosen expression to say they're the party that wants to put you
back into chains. What I'm actually saying is that if you look at the
policies of the modern Democrat a Democrats absolutely so. What I'm saying is that
actually it's policies like that of Lyndon Johnson and Joe Biden, they are actually
holding blacking then back the war on poverty, yes, and in particular his
Great Society where he actually created incentives in the face. By the way,
I don't like this guy. He's annoyed me. But in fairness, there
there is a speech where Joe Biden did use that expression. Not recently,
this was quite some time ago, actually, but it was a number of
years ago. He said something about I don't remember exactly what it was,
but it was something to the effect of Republicans have policies or might or it
might have been he might have been speaking about a specific person or that Republican
or something. Again, I don't remember exactly, but he said they have
policies that want to put black Americans back in chains. So that's that's apparently
what he was referring to. I mean, I don't agree with his overall
characterization, but Joe Biden did use that phrase. Oh. Mike from Queen
City Cabinetry joins us in the Facebook live chat, one of our great sponsors
here at WMH ninety five point three. Hello Mike, Mike says, good
afternoon everyone. My schedule is starting to get back normal. Wonderful, wonderful.
Not only is Mike one of the sponsors here at WMNH with Queen City
Cabinetry in the historics on me mall, but he's also one of our co
hosts on Retrospectrum Radio on Friday nights. So hopefully he'll be back. He'll
be back soon. John Hopwood says in the chat room. Eighteen thirty seven,
Georgia passes a law banning handguns. The laws ruled unconstitutional by the state
Supreme Court and is thrown out eighteen sixty five. In a reaction to emancipation,
several Southern states adopt black codes, which, among other things, forbid
black people black persons from possessing firearms. All right, some historical context there.
Now in this clip, we're not to the part yet where Don Lemon
jumps in, but I have a feeling he looks like he's sitting there though,
kind of simmering while the VEC is speaking family, where if you're a
family, you could actually get more money by not having the father in the
home. Yes, what again, you get what you paid for. I
think it's been really bad for the black community. I think it's really bad
for all Americans. What do you have anything on this before I move on
to China. I don't see what one has to do with the other.
But go on, I took up a lot of time with fought It's fine.
I don't really see what one has to do with the other, especially
consider and using the Civil War to talk about Black Americans. That war was
not fought for black people to have guns. That's that's that's not that war
was fought for black people to have freedoms in this country. Actually, that's
why the Civil War was fought out for black people to have guns. I
think, actually, you don't know. Funny fact is black people did not
get to enjoy the other freedoms until their Second Amendment rights were secured. And
I think that that's one of the lessons that we aren't allowed to enjoy the
freedoms. I disagree with you on that done. I disagree with you,
and I think you're doing a disservice to our country by failing to recognize the
fact that we have You're already lost in See the problem here we're running into
right here is and this is constant on cable news, is now they're they're
getting into what is going to be this hyper reductive discussion where one person,
the VEC is taking the position that, you know, the Civil War was
fought for Black Americans to have the same rights as everybody else, and now
Black Americans do and everything's dandy, and Don Lemon is going to take the
position that no, Black Americans, uh, don't enjoy those same freedoms,
and they're going to be talking past each other. And that you see that
constantly on cable news. You see people talking past each other because you only
have so much time in the segment, and it's extraordinarily difficult for people to
talk about any political issues, especially ones that they're invested in. Don Lemon
himself a black American, Um, so I have some sympathy for him here.
Actually, I mean, we'll see the rest of the segment goes.
But um, it's difficult for people to have these discussions without getting emotional,
especially when you don't have the time to really kind of flesh it out like
you as you would in at a podcast for example. So you know,
cable news segments they have to go quick. You know, you've only got
so much time, got to get to the next commercial. And so this
is already devolving very rapidly into a reductive, hypersimplified sort of you know,
they're they're not they're not going to talk about they're not going to be talking
about the same thing because they're going to be talking past each other, if
that makes sense. It's something that drives me nuts, and not just in
cable news, but just in general. This is how people think about politics
because people are so people are so invested in people like to be right,
but they're far more invested in making you think that they're right and proving you
actually let me, let me put it this way. If two people are
having a political conversation, it's more important to each person in their own minds,
not to be right, but to prove the other person wrong. That's
what it is. That's how people discuss politics. And because we live in
this culture where where critical thinking is discouraged, we're seeing things as nuanced and
complicated and seeing the world as complex. That is discouraged, and what is
encouraged is binary thinking, where absolutely every political thought in your head is supposed
to be their left or right, right or blue, liberal or conservative.
Everything I believe in. All the people I agree with are always right one
hundred percent of the time, and every people on the other all the people
on the other side are always wrong one hundred percent of the time. And
my side loves America, the other side hates America. It's all this reductive
binary thinking. Binary everything's ones and zeros. That's it. And it's a
shame because if you can get past that and have an actual, nuanced,
complex, sophisticated discussion, politics becomes a hell of a lot more fascinating.
But cable news doesn't present politics that way, and so this conversation that Don
Lemon and Vavecker having is about to devolve into something unproductive and reductive and probably
somewhat infuriating. But again, if you're just joining us, the reason we're
looking at this is there is speculation that it's this exchange specifically that may have
been the catalyst for Don Lemon's firing today from CNN. That's why we're looking
at this. There's only a little bit left, but we seem to be
getting to the part where things really blow up. And you live in this
country, then you can disagree with me, but we're not You mentioned that
three different show. I think we have to be able to talk about these
issues in the open, regardless of the color of our skin Black Americans today,
to say that compared that to eighteen sixty five, nineteen sixty is actually
I think it's insulting to black people. It's insulting to me as an African
American. I don't want to sit there and argue with you because it's infuriating
for you to put that, to put those things together, it's not right.
You're telling of history is wrong. Your your history was wrong about the
Civil War was fought. You're making people think that the Civil Wars fought for
black people only for black people to get guns and for black people to have
Civil war was fought for black people in this country to get freedoms, a
noble mission. And I think that even after even after we succeeded, we
had to actually secure those freedoms. To reduce it in a speech at the
NRA, to say, you're making people think you're trying to say that black
people to get guns, that that was a reason that you're there at the
NRA, that was a reason for the Civil War. It's consulting. There
were a whole reason that, with due respect, I find I find your
explanation reductive and actually insulting, including the Black Americans, to say that black
people today compared to nine four sixty five haven't made progress in part because of
the freedoms we secured and the Second Amendment. See that isn't what he said.
That isn't what Don Lemon said. See this is what always happens.
This is your standard cable news argument two parties again in their own minds,
it's not about being right, it's about proving you wrong. I'm going to
sit here and argue with you, and I have to prove you wrong.
And part of my strategy for proving you wrong is I'm going to create straw
man arguments, claiming that you said things that you didn't actually say by taking
what you did say and exaggerating it and making it extreme. So, for
example, Vvec, if Vec says to you know, he's talking to Don
Lemon about you know, the Civil War being so that black Americans can you
know, could have guns, and Don Lemon is good correctly calling him out
on that and saying, well, that's reductive. There's a plethora of reasons
the Civil War was fought and so forth. But then, um, when
Don Lemon says to Vavec, you're you're you're saying that, uh, you
know, we have all these or how did he say it exactly? I'm
sorry, I have to back it up a little bit. I forget exactly
how that went. See here, all right, that was the reason for
for the Civil wars, consulting there were a whole pass that with due respect,
I find I find your explanation reductive and actually insulting, including the Black
Americans to say that black people today compared to nine four eighteen sixty five haven't
made progress in part because of Oh that's what it is. Yeah, so
vex us to Don Lemon. I think it's insulting for you to say that
Black Americans since eighteen sixty four haven't made any progress in this country in terms
of their rights, which is not what Don Lemon said. Don, but
Don Lemon, he's approaching it like, well, you're saying that now we
have we enjoy all the same freedoms as everyone else. But that's not necessarily
true either. See, it gets us into a whole it should get us
into a whole discussion about you know, systemic racism and you know, I
mean the truth the way I see it is, it's it's not again,
it's not binary. It's not either Black Americans have made progress in this country
in terms of rights and freedoms or they haven't. But that's that's the cable
news thing, right, That's that's how it's presented. You either believe this
or you believe this. I mean, I look at it as of course
black Americans have made tremendous progress in this country as far as rights. You
know, we don't have segregation, we don't have segregated schools, we don't
have separate water fountains. You can sit wherever you want to on the bus,
and so on and so on. Of course, it's progress. It
would be absurd to say there hasn't been progress. But also we still have
a long way to go in some ways, I mean in a lot of
ways. Actually, I mean, my god, there just was a story
in the news about these uh, these uh inbred hillbillies in Oklahoma caught on
tape people in law enforcement caught on tape about wanting to hire a hitman to
go murder black people and murder journalists. And I mean, just really just
terrible racist stuff in Oklahoma that these people in law enforcement were caught on tape
saying. And you know, and yet there's people who walk around going,
well, you know, there's really no racism anymore. That's been solved.
Are you kidding me? You gotta be blind to believe that that we don't
still have work to do. We still have a hell of a lot of
work to do. So both can be true. Black Americans have made progress
in terms of the rights they enjoy in this country. Of course they have,
and we still have a lot of work to do. Of course we
do. See those two things can be true at once, and based on
that, if you actually accept that premise that maybe there's nuance and maybe this
is a complex and complicated issue and we can have a sophisticated discussion about it,
then you can go on and have a sophisticated discussion about it. But
what you can't have is a cable news discussion where you have two people talking
past each other, because both of them are going to create straw and arguments,
and both of them are going to accuse the others of having assuming worst
motives. See, that's the other thing. If I'm having a cable news
argument with you, I have to I'm not concerned about being right. I'm
only concerned about proving you wrong, and I'm going to do that by reframing
your argument in the most extreme ways possible and assuming that you have the worst
possible motives for making whatever argument it is that you're trying to make. And
that and that's what goes on here. Melanie in the chat room says Matt,
it's a good thing I am always right, so I don't have to
worry about trying to prove anyone wrong. That sounds exhausting. Yes, yes,
Crystal says in the chat, the South has been historically terrible to black
folks, create black codes so they cannot defend themselves, then attack black communities
like the Tulsa massacre and Blackwall Street, etc. Yeah. Absolutely, I
agree. And and again, this is all history, right, this is
all stuff that happened. But there are people who don't want you talking about
any of it because they believe if you talk about it, then that means
that you hate America. You think America's bad, you think America's evil.
No, I always use this analogy. I don't have any children of my
own, but look, I understand right, I've known enough people who have
kids. If you have a child, if you're a parent, you got
a kid, and your kids screws up, and your kids they're acting out.
Maybe maybe they're acting out at school, getting into fights, or maybe
they're they're talking back, their mouth and off when they shouldn't be. Whatever
it is, right, you're going to discipline your child, You're going to
talk to them, you're going to punish them. Perhaps if necessary, but
you're going to do something to try to correct the behavior, right, You're
going to address what is wrong. Addressing what is wrong does not mean you
don't love your kid, does it. It doesn't mean you hate your kid,
does it. No, of course not. It's the same thing with
the country criticizing America, criticizing things about America, expressing concerns over systemic racism
as an example, or objecting to any number of things anti LGBTQ plus legislation
happening around the country, which even fifty five percent of Republicans in one poll
object to all this legislation. They don't think it's necessary and they don't like
it. That doesn't mean you hate America. That's why I get so offended
when I hear people talk about, well if you say this, you say
that you want to teach this in school, that this happened, that happened.
Oh, it's because you hate America and you want generations of children to
hate America. No. I love America. There's nowhere in the world i'd
rather be. I'm a true believer. Honestly, I believe in American exceptionalism.
You'd be surprised at how patriotic. I am oh, yeah, no,
I'm all in. But just because my idea of what America should be
and my priorities in terms of what we need to work on don't necessarily match
with yours does not mean I love America any less than you do. And
screw anybody who says it does mean that, because it does not. M
let's continue the freedoms we secured and the Second Amendment. I cannot keep a
thought if you guys are talking to me in my ear So hang on one
second. So to say that that black people, that's an interesting moment.
Did you did you hear that? So he's talking to the producer so on
cable news. And I've never worked in cable news, but if you're a
host on a cable news show, of course you have your earpiece and the
producers are talking to you. You know, they might be feeding you questions,
or they might be telling you how much time you have left in the
segment, or or you know you gotta wrap up soon or ask one more
question or whatever it may be. So don lemon, now, maybe okay,
So maybe that had something to do with it, because maybe there was
a pattern of that. I don't know. But in this particular instance,
Don Lemon is actually acknowledging whoever it is in his ear talking to him in
his earpiece, which is kind of a no, no, you're not supposed
to do that on Gable News. But he does and he gets uh.
He's not happy because he's trying to have this discussion and someone's talking to him
in his ear. That was an interesting moment. See, I like the
behind the scenes kind of stuff. With due respect, I find I find
your explanation reductive and actually insulting, including the Black Americans, to say that
black people today compared to nine four eighteen sixty five haven't made progress in part
because of the freedoms we secured, and the Second Amendment was part of the
I cannot keep a thought if you guys are talking to me in my ear,
so hang on my second. So to say that that black people,
say what you said again, black people secured their freedoms after the Civil War,
and as a historical fact, don just study it only after their Second
Amendment rights were secured. The seed their freedoms after the Civil War. That
it's not you. You are discounting reconstruction and discounting a whole host of the
thing that happened after the Civil War when it comes to African Americans, including
the whole reason that the Civil Rights movement happened, it is because black people
did not secure their freedoms after the Civil War. Yeah, yeah, okay,
so I'm on team Don Lemon here. Yeah, he makes a great
obvious point. Yeah, of course, Uh, the VEC if you're trying
to say, well, the Civil War happened to secure the rights of black
people, and then uh, black people's rights were secured and that was all
well and good and all set. Which I'm not sure that's what he's saying,
but again it's a cable news conversation, so it's hard to be sure.
But uh yeah, then why would we have even had the Civil rights
era? Right? So Don Lemon is correct there, and that things turned
around, people would tried to change the freedoms that were supposed to know how
they got it. They got their Second Amendment rights and they actually got the
NRA played a big role in that. But today down the already did not
play. Already did not play a big role. This is just historical fact.
But the part that I find, as you say, it's a storical
part. Part that I find insulting is when you say today black Americans don't
have those rights after we have gone through that civil rights revolution, that you
are sitting here to tell see they're both they're both doing it. Like I
said, it's the straw man thing. So Vaveka is saying to don Lemon,
you're saying that black Americans today don't have rights. No, of course
he's not saying that, but you know, straw manning, it's almost impossible
for for people to have a political conversation without doing that. By the way,
John Hopwood said in the Chatter and patriotism is b asked, why does
anyone have to love America? Nobody asked to love America. UM. A
lot of people think though that unfortunately, seem to believe that to be patriotic,
part of patriotism is expecting everyone around you to also be patriotic. That's
why people get so, uh, they get their feelings hurt when they see,
you know, Colin Kaepernickneelie or something like that, because they take it
as on patriotic, which I don't think it is, but they take it
that way and then they're mad because they're like, well, everyone should be
a patriot. Personally, I'm so patriotic I couldn't care less if all of
you all are patriotic or not. It doesn't matter to me. My patriotism
does not depend on your patriotism. I'll be as patriotic as I want to
be, and you can be as patriotic or as unpatriotic as you want to
be. I love my country. I consider myself a patriot. If you
don't love your country, if you don't consider yourself a patriot, that's fine.
You're an American. You have the right to love your country, not
love your country, be ambivalent about your country. You can do whatever you
want. So answer your question, John, why does anyone have to love
their country? Love America? Nobody does. Nobody has to love America.
I love America. I think America's flawed. I think it needs a lot
of work. It'll never be perfect, nothing as perfect. But I love
America. But you don't have to doesn't matter to me at all. Calling
an African American about the rights and what you find insulting about the way I
live, the skin I live in every day. Here's where black and white
that black people don't have in the stuntry. Here and that black people do
have. Well, here's where you and I have a different point of view.
I think we should be able to express our views regardless of the color
of our skin. We should have this debate with me in regarding you as
a black man, assaulting that you here as a fellow citizen. You're sitting
here, whatever ethnicity, are explaining to me, whatever to black, whatever
ethnicity. I I'll tell you what I am. I'm an Indian American.
I'm proud of it. But I think we should have this debate. Black,
white doesn't matter. I think we should have this content of the idea
to do it. You should do it in an honest way and in a
fair way. And what you're doing is not an honest, fairway. We
appreciate you coming up with due respect. Do I look forward to continuing that
conversation. Thank you, the conversation. Thank you so much. Thank you,
Papa. We'll talk about China. Yes, and they do shake hands
at the end. Um I do not. Okay, So my theory based
on that segment, and even with all of my interruptions, because there are
a lot of things in there that I found a bit triggering, I do
not believe that that segment has anything to do with John Lemon's fire, and
I think it was other things. I don't think it was that. I
don't. I just don't see anything in there that would get them contributed him
to except maybe at him, except maybe him yelling at at the producers in
his ear. Maybe that, But I still doubt it. Melanie says in
the chat. Can I love my country but not be in love with it?
Yes? Yes you can, Melanie, Yes you can. John Appwood
says the US should be balkanized so it is not a threat to world peace.
The US is only exceptional in the widespread state sanction murder it is engaged
in since nineteen fifty. Well, your balkanization idea is interesting, John,
because as you know, we do have a regular caller to the show,
Dave Ridley, who believes that New Hampshire should secede from the Union and become
its own country. So we could do that. We could go with your
idea, but maybe at least New Hampshire would be balkanized, so to speak.
We'd be our own thing and we wouldn't be a threat to world peace.
John Hopwoods said he ignored his produced Sir Um, well, he didn't
ignore him, but he addressed him, which is kind of worse in a
way. And in terms of cable news etiquette. M John says, let's
create this, Susanne, I can never say the word suserin t of am
Askeigue now as a nuclear power. Well, yes, that is. That
is my condition. If you're a longtime listener, you know about this.
I believe that Manchester should succeed us, specifically the West Side. We should
succeed from Manchester and become become am Askeigue, and I would be the master
and ruler or the suzerain of am Askeigue, and we would have one nuclear
weapon so that no one would invade us. I think that's important, especially
in today's world. You know, it's getting scary out there. Um.
I do not believe that segment is the reason Don Lemon was fired, but
I'm sure we'll find out more in the coming days. Crystal says, hasn't
done Lemon mits spend it a few times in the past for bad on air
behavior. Yes, I suspect, and this is a conjecture on my part,
but I suspect that he was fired for over a series of things that
have finally added up to the point where they just can't have him there anymore,
and they had already demoted him. So that's my theory. That's my
theory. Oh the other thing about that, we ended up spending a lot
more time on that segment than I meant to. But I was just so
curious because apparently people are speculating that that was the reason. Just look at
this quickly, and then because we're almost out of time, so very quickly.
You know, we talked in the first hour about Tucker Carlson. As
far as I know, he hasn't said anything yet. Fox News just issued
that very terist statement. Don Lemon apparently is talking and says he is stunned
and he is in dispute with CNN over the details of his firing. It
says here this is from USA Today. Don Lemon says he's been fired from
his post at CNN's CNN This Morning, which he co anchored with Caitlin Collins
and Poppy Hartlow for about six months. The former anchor, who is on
air Monday morning, shared the news in a statement on Twitter. He wrote
this quote, I was informed this morning by my agent that I've been terminated
by CNN. I am stunned unquote. So he's claiming that nobody at CNN
talked to him, but his agent is the one who told him, Hey,
hey, man, they let you go, says here a ceo.
CNN CEO Chris Licht said in a statement that the network wishes him well and
will cheer him on as he pursues future endeavors, Echoing what he wrote in
an email the CNN staffer is obtained by USA Today, Licht said, quote,
my CNN colleagues, CNN and Don have parted ways. Don will forever
be a part of the CNN family. We thank him for his contributions over
the past seventeen years. CNN This Morning has been on the air for nearly
six months, and we are committed to its success. Unquote. Why was
Don Lemon fired? Either Lemon or CNN offered a reason. Lemon expressed frustration
with the manner in which he says the news was delivered to him. So
this is what he said in a tweet. He added this quote, After
seventeen years at CNN, I would have thought that someone in management would have
the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any
indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have
loved at the network. It is clear there are some larger issues at play.
With that said, I want to thank my colleagues and the many teams
I've worked with for an incredible run. They are the most talented journalists in
the business, and I wish them all the best. Unquote. CNN said
this quote Don Lemon's statement about this morning's events is inaccurate. He was offered
an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter unquote.
Interesting, all right, and there's some speculation here about the Nicki Haley thing.
Also, yeah, we're about out of time. Also too, there's
a section here about reports chronicling allegations of Don Lemon's disrespect toward former colleagues,
and that had been a growing story recently, so that's probably what it is.
That's probably what it is. Oh and then there's a section here we
don't have time to get into it, history of Don Lemon's offensive commentary.
Interesting, all right, Well, there will be more as the week goes
on, I am quite certain, but we are absolutely out of time.
My friends. We gotta go. Thank you all for joining me today on
Matt Connerton Unleashed on an exciting day in the world of media, and that's
gonna do it for us for now. If you miss any partner today's show
it we'll be up in us a little bit at WMNH radio dot org and
in my website, Matt Connerton dot com, and maybe I'll even put it
up on YouTube like I usually do, but I'll just have to cut out
a certain part. All Right, that's it for me for now. I'll
talk to y'all a little bit later. By everybody,