Truth Under Pressure

A brilliant editor dies at 38, and it forces a simple question: what does integrity look like when the world feels like it’s coming apart? We begin by remembering Rose Friedman and the standard she set, from shaping arts and culture coverage to helping win better paid parental leave through union work. It’s a grounding reminder that good media is built by people who care about truth, context, and the lives behind the headlines.

From there we turn to Donald Trump’s United Nations appearance and pull apart what was said versus what holds up. We talk through the false claims, the visible incoherence, and the way a global forum gets converted into self-mythmaking. The Iran war runs underneath the whole analysis, including the logic gaps, the threats, and the downstream damage to U.S. security and credibility.

Then we dig into artificial intelligence and the administration’s push to accelerate development while waving away safeguards. We unpack the “superintelligence” rebrand, why AI safety and alignment experts keep warning about existential risk, and why real AI regulation matters when companies won’t slow down on their own. We also connect policy choices to real economic pain, including a farmer’s account of diesel prices, fertilizer costs, and tariffs squeezing agriculture into “survival mode.”

We close with the escalating clash over press freedom: who gets access to the White House, how the press pool works, why bans can backfire, and what “Trump TV” suggests about state-run messaging. If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more people can find independent analysis that refuses tribalism.

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Welcome And Show Mission

SPEAKER_07 0:46

Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show. I'm your host, Darrell McLean. Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one planet. Nobody is leaving. So let us reason together.

Tribute To Rose Friedman

SPEAKER_07 1:00

We have to come today to talk like we normally do, and we have to start off very somber. As MPR has lost the editor Rose Friedman, who shaped NPR's cultural coverage, and she died at the age of 38 from cancer. A mighty, mighty house has fallen.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

NPR has lost a beloved colleague and friend. For 15 years, Rose Friedman helped shape NPR's arts and culture coverage as an editor and reporter. Rose died Thursday at home in New York City of cancer. She was 38 years old. Elizabeth Blair has this appreciation.

SPEAKER_10 1:47

Rose Friedman was many things: a bookerson, a major foodie, a union shop steward. She was in her early 20s when she got a job as an editorial assistant for NPR Books. Pretty soon she knew the publishing industry inside out and seemed to have read everything. She was voracious. One of the people she worked with on reviews and features was novelist Meg Wallitzer. I thought of Rose as this expert almost immediately in terms of her taste and knowledge in and about books. I feel that it was something that she'd had her whole reading life. Beginning in 2013, Rose and a small team spent weeks putting together NPR's annual Books Concierge, an app that would go on to be called Books We Love. Rose and a few others would whittle down hundreds of books nominated by NPR staff and critics into a kind of robust reading guide. Here's Rose explaining how the app works to NPR's David Folkenflick in 2021.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

So I clicked on eye-opening reads, and then I added nonfiction. And then just for fun, I hit tales from around the world, and it gave me a list of about 15 books.

SPEAKER_09 2:56

So hit me. Hit me on my light.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Okay. So the one I thought you'd get a kick out of is called A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey.

SPEAKER_10 3:07

Even as a young staffer in the newsroom, Rose was like an old school journalist, endlessly curious but highly skeptical. She strived for clarity, context, and emotion, also humor. Rose Friedman loved talking about food. In 2020, she interviewed Chef Bill Buford.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

I swung by his building and he handed over some ingredients he said I'd need, including the chicken, some wine, and what looked like a deflated football loosely wrapped in plastic. He wouldn't tell me where he got it, and it smelled, well, it smelled. But it was part of Buford's plan.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

You prepare your bird in the normal way you would for roasting.

SPEAKER_10 3:44

Rose Friedman grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. She studied labor history at McAllister College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rose brought her passion for labor issues to NPR, acting as a shop steward for SAGAFTRA, the union that represents the company's editorial workers. She was especially proud of her work convincing NPR to increase its paid parental leave policy. Rose Friedman is survived by her partner, Andrew Anastasi, and their two daughters, her parents, Carolyn and Jerry Friedman, her sisters, Sophie and Nina, and numerous admiring friends and colleagues. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

SPEAKER_07 4:23

So, like I said, a mighty house has fallen in, just so young, only at 38. For 15 years, Rose was an editor and reporter who helped shape NPR's art and cultural coverage. She was one of the co-creators of the popular Books We Love reading guide, and most recently helped lead MPR's America 250 series. This was on September the 17th at the age of 38, so that would have been Thursday. Rose Freeman was the editor to the in. She said she wanted the second line of her obituary to acknowledge her role as a shop steward for the SAG slash AFTRA. The union that represents NPR's editorial workers. She wanted the line to say that her proudest achievement was helping convince ER MPR to increase its paid paternal leave. Now, not the second line, but it's still pretty high up in the story. Rose would understand. Rose Freeman was in her early 20s when she landed her first position as an editorial assistant at MPR Books. She became deeply sourced in the publishing industry and seemed to have read everything. She edited book reviews and features such as The Weeks Must Read. She wrote numerous appreciations of authors, including Harmon Walk and the legendary editor Sonia Kametta. For the book Concierge, which was later renamed The Books We Love. Rose helped pour over hundreds of titles nominated by MPR staffs and critics and wilted them down into robust readers' guides. She was the vociferous said said um novelist Meg Watser, who worked with Rose on a number of NPR reviews and features. What a gifted, delightful, brilliant, deeply kind person, and I would say a true enthusiast. I got so much working with Rose. Even as a young staffer in the NPR room, newsroom that is, Rose had an old school journalistic sensibility. She was endlessly curious, but always skeptical. She strived for clarity and depth, but also humor and surprise. Food was one of her favorite subjects. The first thing we'd hear her say in her profile of the chef uh Bill Burford, I have to tell you, this does not smell very good. And quote, for many years, Rose was my editor. When I once pitched her a story on an artist who was trending, Rose scoffed. Isn't she just for Instagram? She always pushed back on hot takes and stories and didn't think that she didn't think had substance, but sometimes the pushback was intended to make reporters work harder and not to kill an idea altogether. She had so much integrity, said Theo Balcom, a former supervising editor for the NPR's All Things Considered. And now the senior editor at The Atlantic, she and Rose met early in their careers at NPR and became close friends. She would care more about what was this truth, or as a holistic as we could get than is it buzzy. Uh Balcom said she had a strong sense of purpose. In 2020, Rose was MPR's lead reporter on the sexual assault trial of former movie executive Harvey Weinstein. The testimony from Weinstein alleged victims haunted her. Rose edited numerous hashtag MeToo Stories in 2018, and we shared a national headliner award for our feature, Women Are Speaking Up About Harassment and Abuse, but Why Now? Rose Freeman grew up in Newtown, Massachusetts. She studied labor history at uh Malcaster College in St. Paul. For her dissertation, she researched worker solidarity across ethnic lines in the Iron Range in Minnesota. Her paper won the Barbara Waltzer Prize in labor history from the New York Labor History Association. Rose brought her passion for labor rights to MPR. She and MPR correspondent uh Tom Dribett wrote the SAG slash A F T R A committee that convinced the company to increase his paid paternal leave. Rose thought was let's go big. Uh Drabush remember. Rose loved being a mom to her two children. She said having babies is the best thing in the world. And that's the first six months with a baby, you don't get it back, said uh Drabush. Rose and her partner Andrew Anastasia were avid travelers and daring foodies. Um Balcom remembered them ordering an entire pig's head at a beer garden in Washington, D.C. on a visit with Rose. Andrew, when they were living in Italy, he said she insisted they ordered the spleen sandwich at a certain market in Palomaro. He also said he will remember Rose as one who was able to find more delight in life than almost anyone. Every day is a new adventure. Her friends and colleague, uh Natalie Wilson, agreed no one lives in the moment more than Rose. Winston visited Rose in the spring of 2025 after she had surgery. She figured they would stay home and that they would cook for Rose and help clean up the apartment. And she's like, we're going to Chinatown to get dumplings, eat them on a park bench, take the ferry to Ica in Brooklyn. She just wanted to explore and her infect and disease at the young age of 38 year old.

Trump’s UN Speech Fact-Checked

SPEAKER_09 11:54

Donald Trump just wrapped up what is arguably the most unhinged speech of his entire political career at the United Nations General Assembly and visibly stunned the UN into silence with his incoherence, his dishonesty, his narcissistic impulse to make everything all about him. And we have to talk about this because, in addition to all of that, Trump addressed the topic of artificial intelligence and reiterated that he does not intend to do anything other than accelerate the development of AI despite the risks. But before we unpack all that, if you end up liking this video and you want to support the channel, please be sure to hit the like, subscribe, and notification bells before you go. All right, folks, we have got a lot to dive into, okay? So multiple clips from Trump's uh UN speech starting with this.

SPEAKER_05 12:45

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, First Lady of the United States, distinguished delegates, ambassadors, and fellow leaders. It's my great honor to welcome the world to America as we celebrate 250 years of glorious freedom and independence. Two and a half centuries after the cause of liberty found its home on this continent, I can report to you with pride that America is back and our country is stronger today than ever before. Our economy is the envy of the world. Our military is the most powerful on earth. Our technology is second to none, and we are leading in virtually everything. Our energy is fueling the planet. America is rising, our nation is growing, our power is expanding, our country is doing better than ever before, and our future is very, very bright. Since I took office, we have created more than one million new private sector jobs, and more Americans are working today by far than ever before.

SPEAKER_09 14:01

All of that is untrue. All of it, from start to finish. Okay, Trump's job creation numbers have been atrocious. More Americans are not working by far than at any other point in history. Um the U.S. economy is not doing better than it ever has before. It's just one lie after another. And note, no reaction. Again, they were stunned into silence because this is supposed to be about the United Nations, not the United States of America.

SPEAKER_05 14:26

Tourism is if you take a look, and I guess a lot of you have been there.

SPEAKER_09 14:30

Tourism is You see that verbal gap, that glitch? He meant to say tourism, but he basically stroked out during his speech. Um here, Trump falsely takes credit for the idea of world peace, saying that he is some sort of like messianic peacemaker, unlike any other president.

SPEAKER_05 16:42

They only become harder to solve. So while others have talked, I have acted. While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace.

SPEAKER_09 16:54

So we are literally in an unnecessary war of choice with Iran that Trump started. That's plaguing the global energy market and the United States economy. Just categorical bullshit from Trump. He does. He just like he's visibly struggling to deliver that speech. He sounds and looks like shit. It gets worse.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

But I have a big decision to make. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we'll make a deal.

SPEAKER_09 18:12

So once again, publicly, publicly issuing a threat of genocide against the people of Iran. I don't say about that. Delivering mass speech in front of the entire global community at the United Nations, threatening to genocide 90 million Iranians because Trump started a ridiculous war of choice and is getting humiliated on the global stage. That's what we're reduced to.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

They're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don't realize is that I'm not running. I did that already, and won in a landslide. We won in a giant landslide, and I'll be here for two and a half years. The Republican Party is running, and I'll be helping them. But I am not running. I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence to the election. When it comes to Iran, it doesn't even enter my mind. The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

SPEAKER_09 19:21

So Trump said he got rid of their nuclear capability during Operation Midnight Hammer in 2025, the 12-day war. So if that is Trump's singular goal, then unless he's lying or wrong or stupid, he already accomplished that goal last year, which means this war, this year, is totally unnecessary. Number two, Trump did not win in a landslide. Trump didn't even win a popular vote majority. He won a plurality. More people voted against Trump than voted for him. But that message that he's not going to factor the midterms into the equation, there's mixed reporting about that. But every Republican running for office right now is terrified at the prospect that Trump truly doesn't give a shit about winning the midterms and will not factor that into his decision making on Iran at all. Because out of all the many, many, many things dragging down Trump's approval rating, and therefore the Republican Party with the midterms, what, 43, 42 days away, is the Iran war most of all.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

The cowards and traders would love to say the United States is low on munitions, but that's not true. We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using. And we're building them at levels that we have never done before. We are adding to our stockpiles faster than we have ever been able to do before. Top of the line stuff.

SPEAKER_09 20:48

So multiple leaks from within the Trump administration, and Aaron Blake of CNN corroborates this with a Pentagon inspector general. That's a government official, government watchdog, that looks at the Pentagon. They've all confirmed that Trump is lying. Trump at UN, quote, the ha cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions, but that's not true. Pentagon Inspector General last week, quote, the munitions expenditure in OEF has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial-based bottlenecks for munitions resupply. In other words, Trump is categorically lying and is contradicted by his own government. The Iran war has seriously depleted much of the U.S. arsenal from Reaper drones, interceptors, attappums, prisms. We are much more vulnerable, and it now poses a national security threat, not just to other, you know, uh global theaters, you know, other uh command operations by the United States, but also national security here at the homeland.

SPEAKER_05 21:50

Qatar, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan.

SPEAKER_09 21:55

Kazakhstan, not Kazakhstan. Um Aaron Rupart notes, oh, he really doesn't know how to pronounce it because he said it again.

SPEAKER_05 22:02

Well, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Kazakhstan.

SPEAKER_09 22:08

Oh man. It's crazy. Um then, of course, he takes the time at a UN speech, again to the global community, to insult the Democratic Party.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

Cultivated ties to subversive and radical groups such as the Communist Party, USA, Antifa, and the Democrat Socialists of America. Cultivated ties.

SPEAKER_09 22:30

Democrats, right? Remember, you take you take the E and you replace it with a U, you call it a Democrat, by the way. Dumb has a B in it. Nobody knows that's a silent B. Now, let's turn to the topic of artificial intelligence. Um, as we've discussed in multiple recent videos, industry experts within artificial

Superintelligence And AI Risk

SPEAKER_09 22:49

intelligence have been sounding the alarm for the past few weeks. It's gone viral, that artificial superintelligence poses an existential threat to the human race. Uh, one of the top um you know technical experts at Anthropic, which is seen as one of the more reputable, one of the more ethical, uh, one of the more serious artificial intelligence companies, resigned in protest because he says even anthropic, which is better than the competition, even they are insufficiently serious about safeguarding artificial intelligence and making sure it's properly aligned with human interests. And he said, in his estimation, that not just his professional opinion, but also the consensus behind the scenes is that some of the biggest supporters of artificial intelligence admit that there's a very good chance that AI will kill the entire human race, just end us within the end of by the end of the decade. So within the next four years. Okay. And then you have anthropic CEO shortly thereafter, as well as Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk also indicating that, yeah, actually, this guy is correct. And that's why we need to have government regulation, because we're not going to still slow down individually because we're in competition with each other. And if we slow down, then our competitors get ahead. So we're going to have to be forced to do so by the federal government. And then, of course, even if you do that, then you've got to deal with China and whether or not China will engage in that sort of ethical behavior and also try to properly align artificial intelligence. So all sorts of things to consider. Donald Trump, unfortunately, because of his financial stake in AI companies, has absolutely no interest in slowing down artificial intelligence development, even if it would be better for the human race. And so with that in mind, I want to play these two clips for you.

SPEAKER_05 24:38

The United States also talks. Rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much now. Here and after officially called super intelligence, changing the name, and that the use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake. It makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. It's actually amazing. And we have to be careful. In fact, it is exactly the opposite of what it purports. From this point forward, all of United States documents and hopefully the worlds will be changed to use the much more accurate term super as opposed to artificial. So it's super intelligence. In other words, welcome to the new world of superintelligence-si. SI.

SPEAKER_09 25:34

Let's So the best, he's like, ah, the best I can do is um rename, try to rebrand artificial intelligence to superintelligence to try to avoid the reputational baggage associated with artificial intelligence. Because if you poll Americans, they're definitely not sold on data centers, which power AI, and even on artificial intelligence, they have serious concerns. So this is Trump's desperate attempt to try to avoid the bad publicity and just rebrand. It's not going to catch on. But as bad as that clip was, this clip is even worse because he's even more explicit.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

But we will only encourage superintelligence. We're going to encourage it, not rein it in. We're going to watch it closely through the Department of Justice. The United States leads the world in superintelligence and will continue to do so safely and responsibly.

SPEAKER_09 26:27

Two words that do not describe the Trump administration, safe and responsible. So there you have it, folks. Genuinely unhinged speech by Donald Trump at the United Nations, full of falsehood, full of grandiose self-aggrandizement and malignant narcissistic rambling, and a commitment to do absolutely nothing about artificial intelligence other than to let it advance at a rapid pace without any interest in regulating it or safeguarding it. In the meantime, let me know what you think in the comments.

SPEAKER_07 26:59

Crazy, crazy stuff. Crazy times we live in. What can you say about the president's speech that um would not already have been said?

Who Enables Trump’s Worst Impulses

SPEAKER_07 27:15

Incoherent, rambling, um, shocking, sad uh decline of what could have been a very great republic. That is, of course, uh the United States of America. The problem with Trump is, of course, not Trump himself. The problem would always and will always be the people who don't seem to have the capacity who uh is in his direct vicinity to reign him in. Now, when it comes to the voters, they seem to be some of them, you know, you obviously you have the 30% of people who will stick with uh the president no matter what. But in that group of people who are starting to sour, it has been the farmers. We were hearing this all last year, and the tone and tenor has not changed. Uh farmer

Farmers Hit By War Costs

SPEAKER_07 28:33

who voted for Trump went on CBS News to talk about the high costs of the Iran war tariffs, and he basically says, We are just in survival mode. The name is Matt Bell, and he's 52 years old. He's been farming for more than half of his life in the central North Carolina. He grows soybeans, corn, wheat, and raises beef cattle on more than 1,000 acres. But Bell, who voted for Trump, says sowing prices for fuel, fertilizer, and equipment is herding his farm and leading some of his fellow farmers to consider calling it quits once this growing season ends. He goes on to say he's done it for 34 years, and he is never worried and stressed like he has this last year. Bell told CBS News in an interview on Wednesday at his farm in the King Mountain up North Carolina. Uh Bell has been forced to make significant changes to his operation as a result of high cost. He's shifting some of his acreage, tried to stretch out the lifespan of his equipment and producing his own fertilizer. His children have also opened up a storefront where visitors can pick pumpkins and take hay rides in the fall, but Bell is still filling the pitch. We've cut everything we can cut, he said. The last several years and agriculture have been terrible. And we have, you know, just cut the fat anywhere we could. But we're just getting to the point now, there's nothing left to cut. You cannot run without fuel. You cannot run without fertilizer. You have to have that. Bell says his diesel fuel costs have about doubled since last year. The war in Iran has driven up fuel costs and created supply chain disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz and remains under a depth remains able and able blockade with the limited number of oil tankers allowed through the critical waterway. And the intensified conflict between Yemen-Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia and the attacks by the other Iranian proxy forces on Saudi infrastructure are squeezing global fuel supplies in the Red Sea and contributing to a spike in global fuel costs. Um fighting in Russia and Ukraine has also limited the oil refining capacity and driven up prices further. Diesel prices nationwide are averaging roughly six dollars and forty cents per gallon, according to AAA, and nearly the double the average price a year ago. In North Carolina, Thursday diesel prices hit the highest record average, $6.19 per gallon. Prices have been so volatile that Bell said the price he quoted for his distributor in the morning is only valid until later that afternoon when the price rises again. He can't avoid the expenses. His farm equipment runs on diesel. Bell showed CBS News his com his combined, which says he's now requires about $600 worth of his diesel fuel per day. That's more than twice what he paid last year. Bell said he blew through his yearly fuel budget of $35,000 in August. Now he expects his total for the year to be closer to $50,000 to $60,000. Wow, let me say that again. He blew through his yearly fuel budget of $35,000 in August, and now expects his total for the year to be closer to $50,000 to $60,000. Every piece of equipment on his farm runs on diesel, he said. Without his, his farm wouldn't be able to function. Tariff impacts, everything that we touch has gone up. It's not just diesel prices that are hurting the business, Bell says. President Trump's wide-ranging tariffs have also driven up costs and left him and other farmers in limbo as the president continues to threaten and impose more tariffs. Everything we're touching, the fertilizer, the fuel, the chemicals, the seeds, the parts you know, the whole nine yards, everything that we touch has gone up, Bell said, noting that many of the price hikes resulted from President Trump's tariffs policies. Farmers welcomed Trump's announcement in May that he had reached a deal for China to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans from the United States annually through 2028. China has purchased significantly more soybeans in 2026 compared to 2025, but its 10% retaliatory tariff on U.S. soybeans remains in place. China imposed a levy in response to Trump's fentanyl-related tariffs on China. Bell said China soybeans tariffs have left the market in limbo. That is, if China hasn't increased the prices it's paying for soybeans, even though everything's farmers touch in producing soybeans has gone up. In a letter to President Trump on Thursday, ahead of the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, the American Soybean Association called him to push for the elimination of the 10% tariff. I think we've been misled. Bell initially supported Trump's policies, even thought short-term prices resulting uh from Iran could be worth the ensuring Iran never had a nuclear weapon. One of President uh Trump stated goals. But now he says the administration has made miscalculations in the war. We were just being strung along as a country, and that's not good, Bell said. Bell criticized the Trump administration's decision, making around the world and around the war, saying, I think we've been misled. He also says the administration's agricultural policy is not what he was promised. We were sold a build of goods that agriculture was going to be on the forefront, and there was going to be some policy that would put American farmers and ranchers first. And right now, that has not happened. Bell said that while the administration's farmer bailout program sounds significant, it's not a lot of money. This November Bell says he'll be voting for candidates who says they have common sense and listens to Americans' concerns. I'm a Republican, but I'm probably going to vote split ticket, he said. We are fighting for survival. Bell said he knows farmers who have been forced out of the business as a result of high costs, unable to sustain their businesses with rising prices. I do not want any American to feel sorry for the American farmer, Bell said. I want Americans to be mad that we have been put in this situation. We are fighting for survival and we are running out of options. And he acknowledges it's possible he could be forced to shutter his farm. Money's not the problem. I could care less about the money, he said, but we take a lot of pride in what we do. You can't put a dollar sign on that. But I can't stand business under these conditions. Something has got to give. But as what he would do if he wasn't a farmer, Bell hesitated. I don't know. It's all I have ever done. So the one farmer's story, and that's uh story comes from CBS News. Speaking of the news, um, the media, uh, President Trump did what he tries to do all

Media Ban Backfires On White House

SPEAKER_07 36:49

a lot, which is uh ban news organizations that don't give him favorable news coverage, and it is backfiring, backfiring spectacularly.

SPEAKER_12 37:01

Got some updates for you in Trump's war on the media. So you may have already heard that he decided to kick CNN, MSNow, and Politico out of the White House. Well, the other mainstream media outlets, to include Fox News, decided that in solidarity with those outlets, they would not participate in the White House press pool. So that led to a very unusual situation yesterday where Trump was doing an event, some sort of ribbon cutting ceremony or some sort of thing like that. And you had the video, but you had no audio whatsoever. Let's take a listen to how they handled that.

SPEAKER_11 37:41

Okay, so there is no microphone because there's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there. So maybe uh, Tim, this is one example of it backfiring just a little bit. Um pick up on some of the things Michael was saying. And um, obviously the ramifications are right here. Can't hear what the president's saying.

SPEAKER_12 38:01

Particularly amusing, Sugar, because that was newsmax, which is obviously very much in the tank for Trump. So for them to even say, like, maybe this backfired just a little bit on him is a pretty uh stunning admission.

SPEAKER_08 38:12

Yeah, it's like his worst nightmare is not having television. In fact, the only time we saw Trump on camera yesterday is when he did an event with Mayor Mamdani. And that was only because New York City media was there at the request of Mamdani and not the White House press pool. I will not cape for the White House Correspondents Association. I was a member, frankly, they are a cartel which is extremely old and control. Like it and it's not me saying this. Ryan would reiterate a lot of this too from a lot of the same problems that he's had with drop site for credential. Like the way that they run these organizations like the White House or Congress, it's very legacy media forward. However, the White House is trying to hijack some of that to basically control what type of coverage that they get. So there are no heroes in particular in this story. I just want to make that clear. However, what they've done is they have created a situation where once again they preemptively ban the White House press pool. Well, everyone could have predicted that everyone would stand tall with the organizations which have been booted out. Why? Because as even when I was there, attack on one is attack on all. It's literally a cartel. We're like, we can't let the cartel be broken. And so if they get to decide who you know is in charge of the camera footage or not, then all of us need to stand for that person. They did it when Obama attacked Fox News. He tried to kick them out back in 2009, I want to say. The entire White House press corps kind of stood with Fox News then at the time specifically, so that Fox would stand with them as they are now. Yeah. And what it all means is, you know, even to say the pool, what does it mean? All the journalists who cover the White House, there's hundreds of them, cannot all fit into the same room with the president. And so every day there is an assigned member of that press corps to be the representative of the rest of the press corps. I used to do this job where you kind of sit there and you wait for Trump and see what he's going to say, and then you send the message to the rest of the press corps. You're not allowed to exclusively report it for yourself. That's the same thing with the TV camera. There's a guy there with a TV camera. Even though he works for CNN, let's say on that day, that footage is being broadcast to all of the networks and the people who subscribe to the pool. They also pay for that privilege and they pay a lot of money to be able to do so. So that's what it all means. And that's why they're all boycotting. And that's why some of the boycotts are happening right now. But it has backfired on Trump, actually, because they're all now saying, not only will I not publish any of the video, even the still photographers, including Trump's favorites, a guy named Doug Mills, he works for the New York Times, best photographer I've ever seen in my life. This guy, even he, they're now saying, like, oh, you we won't be publishing still images or any of their images that they're trying to distribute to try and circumvent the hold that the White House press corps has.

SPEAKER_12 40:56

Yeah. And I mean, basically the idea is that you should have anytime the president is in public, you should have a camera and audio on him because he's just inherently newsworthy.

SPEAKER_08 41:06

Anything like 9-11. I mean, that's what that's literally the story. And part of the reason why the president should always have him with him is you don't know what the hell is going to happen. I mean, one day you're in a Florida classroom, and the next day you're on Air Force One, you know, taking on going to Barksdale Air Force Base and trying to broadcast the most important statements that the president can make because war can break out literally at any time. They tell us that whenever you're you're there. You never know what's gonna happen. You may be sitting in a damn golf course for the 90th time. Yeah. Uh, and then you don't know. You know, you don't know what will happen.

SPEAKER_12 41:35

Well, and I mean, it's obviously of a piece with his whole war in the press. The man literally thinks it should be illegal for people to criticize him. And he said this. This is not me making this up. That is his view is that the press should never be critical of him, that he should get only fawning coverage, that if you don't, I mean, he goes after Fox News all the time for not being fawning enough in their worshipful praise of him, or if they put out a poll that looks bad for him or his party because their polling outfit is actually pretty legit. Um, he gets upset about that and about their fake polls. So he has this incredibly authoritarian view of what the news media should be. And we've obviously seen the lawsuits and the threats of lawsuits and the use of the FCC to, you know, badger late-night comedians who tell a joke that he doesn't like. This is a part and parcel. And then that's without even getting into the fact that, you know, the Ellisons are taking over vast swaths of our media empires so that you have Trump-aligned um oligarchs in control of important media outlets, including, you know, I think CNN will probably be allowed back in once the Ellisons are fully in control because they promise major changes to the network. So this is obviously how he operates. He does not believe in having a press that is adversarial whatsoever. Um, we can put uh D2 up on the screen. This is him defending his decision to kick them out. He says the White House is not instituting an assault on the free press, something which I cherish. LOL. It is instituting an assault on fake news, something that has grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, totally out of control. It's a threat to our national security and must be stopped. Now, that's the other thing they hate is all of the accurate reporting about what is actually going on in Iran, to include, you know, the images that have now come out of all of the destruction of our bases and our military equipment on the ground in the Middle East. He was at a press conference with Zoran Mamdani yesterday, which is a whole other whole other thing that was going on there. He voted, he uh met with Zoran at Gracie Mansion in New York City. The romance does continue. In any case, he got asked about this media ban. Let's go ahead and take a listen to that.

SPEAKER_05 43:48

You would think that an outlet would write at least reasonably well, but never. If you look at CNN as fake news, if you look at MS Now, I don't even know what MS Now is. I guess it's the MSNBC, what it used to be, or MSDNC, as some people call it. That's the Democrat National Committee. But it's just biased news. And I think that these outlets have an obligation to be fair. And if they're fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them into another very special house. This is a special house where she mentioned, well, the White House is the most special of all houses, I have to say. And I don't even think the mayor would argue with that. And I think I have an obligation not to let fake news they're very bad for the country, very bad for national security, so I have that obligation.

SPEAKER_12 44:33

Not a really comfortable moment for Zoran there, sort of staring off into the distance, like, okay, I just have to stand here and take it.

SPEAKER_08 44:42

Something I have not considered is how much of this is about munitions. Because what I see now, literally from this morning, Trump. The cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions, is not true. We have more munitions than we could ever possibly think of using and building them now at levels we've never seen before. Previously, the three Albus had been banned, had all published stories specifically about munitions. So it is actually very possible that this is not even necessarily about him, but of his anger of publishing some of these classified information, or classified information. You don't even need classified information to figure it out, but some of the classified stories. So it actually makes it worse, in my opinion, because you're not being banned over some stupid stormy thing, you know, some FCC, which I'm not saying that would be bad. Like that would be bad too. But to ban over accurate wartime reporting in the middle of said war, that makes it actually a lot worse. I think that's definitely what's going on here. Yeah. That is about panic, about the accuracy of what's being reported from the battle.

SPEAKER_12 45:38

I I think that is absolutely part of what is going on here, for sure. And in addition to his just general, you know, hatred of any sort of adversarial press. But I think in this specific moment, that's why this is blowing up. Um Republicans are being pressed on this. They had Steve Scalise um being interviewed on the Sunday shows. This is D6, guys. Let's take a listen to how this has went for him.

SPEAKER_06 45:58

First of all, I don't think we've had a president that's been more open to the press. Look, I've been at you go to a bill signing with President Trump, and the first thing he does before he even signs the bill is he brings in the press. And everybody gets to not only take pictures, but ask questions. Uh go look at Joe Biden. Joe Biden removed the press credentials from over 400 different agencies. You know, what President Trump's done is brought a lot of those back in. Uh, but he wants a free and fair press. He's you know, been to the White House correspondence dinner. He just the other day he was answering prep questions about this to the press, and they're asking him about his attitude towards the press while he's holding a press conference. Yeah, you never saw. That under President Biden.

SPEAKER_00 46:43

So, first of all, that's actually not true about Biden. The 400 uh individual reporters who had credentials did not reapply. There was only one that was actually denied a credential. And all of those who didn't reapply were allowed to come in. They were not banned from the White House. That did not happen.

SPEAKER_12 47:00

The other thing that Republicans bring up is what you referenced before, which was under Obama, there was an attempt to ban Fox News from one particular interview. So not even like blanket ban and you know, it was Fox News, this one particular interview. And there was a whole Republican freak down over it.

SPEAKER_08 47:18

To be fair, it was part of a bigger strategy. Ben Rhodes and those people had a long-standing, they hated, I mean, I get it. They hated Fox. Um they were like, they're, you know, at this point. It is genuinely a partisan. It was like OG founding as part of a Republican political problem. In the same way, you know, they hate MSNBC. Like, I get it. They were especially furious about bertherism, uh, which was happening uh at the time. And they were like, screw it, let's ban them. And so that was like the intro to it. What they didn't anticipate was Jake Tapper and all those people at the time being like, hey, you can't be doing this. Like, you can't be telling us what we can and can't. And ultimately they did fold. Yeah. Uh Trump also tried to ban Caitlin Collins from the White House in 2019, around when I was there. They sued and they won. Uh, there is long-standing court precedence. They basically, at every turn, they have been able to overturn bans from the actual White House grounds on First Amendment principles. That said, the pool is actually a little bit of a different story. And that one, I'm not sure that will be resolved because there is no constitutional right, you know, to the White House press pool or to the cartel. I would not expect that one to be resolved. We do also have D7. Let's put it up here on the screen. Trump is launching something called Trump TV, which is the uh White House Essentials. It will be official state-run media. The White House has

Trump TV And Press Norms Erode

SPEAKER_08 48:36

always had a YouTube uh account and has broadcast some of their events. I think what they're trying to get around is what happened yesterday, which again I presume Trump is furious about. Is normally the White House does not have coverage, uh, or at least the same type of coverage that these networks have for obviously a good reason. They don't have boom mics and you know, making sure that you know the president is mic'd up while he's doing event. That's usually the job of the press corps itself. But by and large, I mean, this is the White House had already set up press and you know, apologize for too much inside baseball, but already what they have done has made it so that when by, you know, whenever whoever Democrat wins, they're not going back to the way that things used to be. The way it is right now is far preferable for the people who are in power. They've cut off extraordinary amounts of normal press acts, stupid stuff which sounds dumb, but is actually important. You usually can't go into the press secretary's office anymore. It used to be, you can just walk in there. Now you can't do that.

SPEAKER_12 49:40

Well, Ryan loves to point out, you know, all those State Department briefings that we got all those tortured, you know, from the fat sucker that would go up there. He doesn't look like that. He doesn't look like that.

SPEAKER_08 49:49

I've got even saying that. Many people are saying, anyways, we don't even share the same genetics.

SPEAKER_12 49:53

I'm just saying there and be tort, you know, give these tortures answers about like, oh no, but we don't think it's a war crime. We'll look into it, we'll get back to you. But we don't get that anymore because they don't do those briefings. And then you also have, and and those are a great way for like, you know, a reporter like Ryan, who may not get credentials for the White House, but can show up to those briefings and they ask drop site ask all kinds of really consequential questions there and at least were, you know, exposed some things and made those people uncomfortable and have to answer questions. That just doesn't happen anymore. And then you have the whole Pentagon thing, where basically anyone who was legit who had any sort of scruples in their reporting whatsoever could not agree to the terms of effectively like you won't report anything we don't want you to report. What journalists would agree to that? Well, a bunch of like shoddy influencers who are completely famous.

SPEAKER_08 50:42

And they still have they haven't even held briefings for them. But that's my point is we're not going back. Is that these Biden press conferences?

SPEAKER_12 50:49

I don't know. You really think so? You don't, you sometimes you don't understand the way the Democrats operate. Truly. Like there is still this very like liberal normie veneration for like the free press, and this is the way things should be done, and we don't want to be like them. So I it depends. If we get a John Noss off, is he gonna kick out all the right-wing like reporters out of the room? Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_08 51:11

Well, a lot of them though are not reporters, right? Like a lot of them are literally work for like Lindell TV.

SPEAKER_12 51:18

Yeah, that's what I mean. I think they probably won't. Yeah, in terms of like, you know, is he gonna ban Fox News? Oh, I see. No, he's not gonna do that. And so, yeah, I just um it's Trump is fairly unique in what he's willing to do and how far he's willing to go. Now, I think these sorts of breaking of these norms and institutions, you can never put it all the way back together. But I don't know that I would be so convinced that a Democrat will like go so hard against media they see as being biased or unfair as Trump does.

SPEAKER_08 51:49

That's my last thing, because we have a little bit of time, is you know, this doesn't make you, this is it does it's not good for you. Like many, what I have watched with the Pentagon, for example, you know, you're bringing in Logan Paul, you're becowning yourself. Like it and a good friend who worked in the Pentagon was telling me, you know, hex that's screwed up because these people are already kind of they're already baked in pro-military neocons. The best thing that the press did for the military over the last 20 years is they laundered a lot of their bullshit because to you know, maintain the relationships. So by declaring war on them, a lot of them actually started reporting the truth. Whereas previously, when you have to maintain relationships and access in the building, you would be much more on their side. You know, to report and there's also, and there is, I truly believe this. In fact, I know I do. Iron sharpens iron. You are way better off when you're sharp. I mean, one of the things is, and you see this when candidates are in fighting form on the campaign to Abdul is a good example. I mean, the guy just, you know, is hit after hit after hit. And in fact, you know, ever since that whole Jesse Waters thing, I think he's he's become a little bit better. But that was an important moment for him of like, oh man, no, this didn't work out entirely. Um I behalf of created a national news cycle that I probably shouldn't have. I need to sharpen up. And I have seen how Trump and a lot of the other Republicans, when you get ensconced in your you know, GOP podcast bubble, then all of a sudden you know come back up for air and you get hit, you know, in a debate or something, and you just you don't have it anymore. And I've seen that time and time again with a lot of these politicians.

SPEAKER_12 53:24

So yeah, no doubt about it. You see that with candidates, the ones who are willing to go on. I mean, Rokan is another good example. Yeah, he'll go on. Go on everywhere and he can handle it because there's no question that he hasn't already dealt with and anticipated.

SPEAKER_08 53:35

Whereas uh AOC, different story. All right, uh, draft teams, let's get to it. Hey, if you like that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people.

SPEAKER_12 53:44

And if you'd like to get the full show, ad-free, and in your inbox every morning,

How To Support The Show

SPEAKER_12 53:48

you can sign up at breakingpoints.com.

SPEAKER_08 53:50

That's right. Get the full show, help support the future of independent media at breakingpoints.com.

SPEAKER_07 53:55

So I got a show question today, uh, which the question actually asked me to do something that I generally don't like doing,

Midterm Races Without False Certainty

SPEAKER_07 54:04

which is election predictions. So I got what are the odds of James Tallerico and John Ossoff win in Texas and Georgia? So date James Tallerico is running in Texas and John Ossoff in Georgia. So I'll put it this way. Um if that was a real question, I always say you gotta be careful because Oz can mean different things. So in Texas, James Tallerico's race is very close within the margin of error. And some models actually give him the lead, but I've seen other models give the Republicans the lead. It has been very difficult for Democrats to win in uh these Texas races. Hell, um, there was a famous football player that went up against Ted Cruz, who's like the most unlikable person in the world. I think Ted Cruz still won. Now, Ossoff polling looks a bit stronger right now, but it's still months away from campaigning. So I'm treating uh each race as if it's a toss-up. It's not settled. And I I don't want to put numbers out on the air because I don't really trust the polling models anymore. And this stuff isn't certain. So picture like this uh early morning in Texas with your coffee steaming, the air still a little cool before the sun turns it into this reckless. And that is um what we call campaign season energy. Uh the boots on the pavement, clipboards in hand. In Georgia, it's humid, the air, and there's crowded town halls, and races like these aren't just numbers. They're people deciding what matters most to them in their lives. In Texas, Tal Rico's energy is actually real, but so is the Texas opposition to voting for Democrats. Georgia is leaning slightly Democratic in a lot of the models I looked at, but the history in Georgia also says Democrats should not be that comfortable. Campaigns turn out to be just about what it always is about, and that is turnout. Who shows up when and why. And that's the part that actually matters the most. It's not what looks good now in September, which it does seem like the Democrats look good at the moment, but it's about who can organize the people to actually get their feet on the ground in November. And historically, uh that's when it seems to uh Democrats have a difficult time. I will say that a lot of times it's much easier to be out of power than it is to be in power, because when you are out of power, you can just Monday morning quarterback everything and reel against the people in power because they're probably gonna be doing things that the general public will tend to disagree with, because if you happen to be in the United States of America, one of the things we do quite well is find things to gripe about. So um that's my prediction. A non-prediction. Thank you for the question. I will tell you this though, uh Marjorie Taylor Green, the former Republican congresswoman, is uh not uh having it

MTG Calls Out Check Promises

SPEAKER_07 57:54

at this moment. Not having it.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

You have to vote Republican because you have to stop socialism or communism. Yet what are we seeing as the policy ideas coming out of Republicans? Well, Vice President Vance came out and he rolled out his idea to give $9,000 to stay-at-home parents. I'm a big believer in stay-at-home parents. As a matter of fact, I've been a stay-at-home parent before in my life. And I believe that's the best thing for a family, having a stay-at-home mom or dad. But you want to know something? You know what socialism is? It's creating a welfare program and writing checks to Americans. $9,000 for stay-at-home parents. That is socialism. That's not defeating it, it's bringing it in and ushering it in. And then we saw President Trump come out there and literally tell Americans that he wants to buy their votes with a $5,000 check. Oh, come on. Do you think Americans are gonna fall for that? We were already promised our dodge checks because we were going to get rid of so much waste, fraud, and abuse that was gonna save the American taxpayers so much money that everyone was going to receive a dodge check. And then never forget our tariff checks. We were gonna bring in so much money through tariffs that we were charging all these foreign countries that all the Americans were going to receive a tariff refund check. You didn't receive a tariff refund check. As a matter of fact, you got price gouged because everything you bought, the prices of these goods that these companies were paying tariffs on, those prices went up. And then when the court kicked it out and said that the president had no right to do this, why? Because he didn't get approval through Congress. He did it through an executive order. Guess what? All those big corporations, they're the ones that got the tariff checks. They got huge refunds by billions and billions of dollars. And it's outrageous. American people never got a tariff check. You never got anything. But President Trump wants to buy your vote for the bid terms for $5,000. Yeah, but guess what? All you peasants, you don't get your $5,000 check unless you show up and vote for Republicans. The only way you can get a $5,000 check from the government is it would take a Congress voting on legislation to make that happen. And it would have to go through the House and the Senate. They can't even pass the Save America Act, the election integrity bill through the Senate. Do you think they're actually going to give you $5,000 checks? They're not. It's a lie.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:37

Oh, Marjorie Taylor Green. Uh, it's always amazing what people say and do when they no longer have power to affect public policy. At any rate, thanks for you for tuning in to the Darrell McClain show. Uh, we'll see you on the next episode.