If you’re looking for South Park humor that’s a different podcast! Sure, it’s good for a few laughs, but you deserve a substantive conversation. We kick off this week’s episode with analysis of new reporting that the Democratic National Committee’s upcoming autopsy report, or post-mortem, on the 2024 election leaves out the most relevant questions from the November election. According to Reid Epstein and Shane Goldmacher at the New York Times, sources briefed on early drafts said that the report will not include issues such as whether former President Joe Biden should have “run for re-election in the first place…whether former Vice President Kamala Harris was the right choice to replace him…nor…key decisions by the Harris campaign — like framing the election as a choice between democracy and fascism…” Understandably, that seems laughable. But the Democratic Party is not really a single entity. Our country has a weak party system in which candidates set the tone, and the DNC was never in a position to tell President Biden or anyone else that they could or could not run. If the initial briefings were a trial balloon, the DNC has a pretty clear answer. It cannot entirely ignore those questions and will have to at least explain why some of them are beyond their purview, especially because attacks against the party will come from the anti-establishment left as much as from the Republicans. Also, to fail to provide an assessment of whether the case for democracy vs fascism didn’t work seems like a missed opportunity given that voters are seeing our government unravel and authoritarianism take hold on a daily basis. It hits different when it’s not a hypothetical. Understanding the impact of outside groups is useful, but getting your own house in order is necessary.
We also cover the firing of Stephen Colbert and provide analysis on the changing media landscape that led to it. Late night television simply doesn’t have the audience it once did on television, and its success in short clips on social media does not generate anywhere near the same revenue for the networks. More likely than not, ABC isn’t far behind in making a similar move.
You’ll also hear a tribute to Malcolm-Jamal Warner and a discussion on why the Cosby show and the character Theo he made famous had such an impact on an entire generation. Simply put, inclusion and representation in media became normal, even if we didn’t realize it in the moment.
We also revisit the Epstein controversy in light of new reporting this week in the Wall Street Journal that Donald Trump was briefed in May by Attorney General Pam Bondi that he appeared in the Epstein files multiple times. We also touch on the ridiculous accusations he is making against former President Obama, but that’s just a hoax to distract from Epstein so we don’t give it much air. Here’s the reality, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to call August recess early might have only made things worse. Members will return from recess after six weeks of leaks, and a steady drip of old footage and comments being resurfaced online, like the gross comments Trump made on the Howard Stern show decades ago now making the rounds on social media.
There are also two other podcast episodes we strongly recommend:
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat (NYT) has a fascinating conversation with Julie K. Brown, the investigative reporter whose coverage ultimately led to Epstein’s arrest; and
Wednesday’s episode of The Daily (NYT), which features former U.S. Department of Justice Attorney Erez Reuveni, whose whistleblower complaint has shed light on what looks like the Trump Administration lying to the Court and disregarding judicial orders. When we talk about our government unraveling, this is what that looks like.
Thank you for subscribing and sharing the podcast!
-Luis
