Comedian Bill Burr was venting,
if you will, about the news
coverage on CNN during his own
podcast Monday morning.
And he specifically wanted to
address the fact that they keep
talking about Donald Trump.
He things that's problematic.
Let's hear why.
>> My mother in law comes
over to help watch the kids and
she always puts on CNN.
And do you know what those
morons are doing?
Do you know what those morons
are doing?
Talking about Trump.
I swear to God, I cannot
believe people watch that channel.
They are is so dumb.
It's like do you think these people
give a who's print,
they want Darth Vader to come back.
They want him to come back because
they got nothing to talk
about because it's showbusiness and
Joe Biden is a bore.
They can't bitch about him because
he's wearing a blue tie.
So now what do they do?
They're going out there.
They're doing what they did
the first time to get this guy
elected by giving them all this
free coverage.
While they act like
they allegedly don't like them.
I don't buy it.
They're a corporate news channel.
And they're just treasonous
un-American pieces of
[BLEEP] just like Fox news MSNBC,
just like all of them >> All right.
So obviously his focus seems to be
CNN.
But for the purposes of this
conversation, I think we should
talk about media on just a broader
level because I don't think that
this is really inherent at CNN.
I think you see this all over
the place.
And I don't agree with
some of the hyperbole at
the end with like their treasonous.
I'm guessing he was joking
around there but
I do think there's a lot of
truth in what he's saying regarding
the excessive Trump coverage.
But at the same time,
I think that it would be wrong to
believe that Trump isn't still
the leader of the Republican Party.
He still has an insane amount of
influence and sway over them.
But I do also agree that giving him
a lot of coverage
gives him what he wants, right.
He wants to remain in the news,
he wants to be at the top of mind
among Republican voters.
>> Yeah, so this is
a really interesting question.
And in a minute,
I'm going to give you statistics to
back up what Bill Burr is saying.
So I think we struggle
with it every day.
Let me put it that way.
Do you do a Trump story or
don't you do a Trump story?
The guy is super relevant because
he's clearly the leader of
the Republican Party.
He will easily win the Republican
nomination if he runs if it was
held today.
And he's a not just a menace to
society and to the country but
to our democracy.
I fully believe that he's
a fascist.
And so in a way you gotta
knock him down.
But he's like that creature in the
original Star Trek where you've,
if you fire your phasers at him,
he only grows stronger with that
negative energy.
And so that's why you can agree or
disagree with Bill Burr on whether
to cover him.
But the essence of what he's
saying is definitely correct.
>> Yeah. >> Right.
>> Yeah. >> And he is getting and
he continues to get larger
and larger.
So and I think we got a poll on
it@tyt.com slash polls.
We'd love to hear what you think.
I'm going to give you the stats of
backup Bill Burr and
the quotes in a second.
But Adrian, what do you think?
What do you do with Trump in
a situation like this?
>> No, I definitely think Burrs
comments seem to be very on point
because the reality is that
Cable News experienced
unprecedented ratings during those
four years of absolute chaos where
the American public couldn't avoid
the news cycle.
And it didn't want to step
away because you never knew where
the next fire would pop up.
And so that's how Trump got so
many of us hooked and of course,
mainstream media loved the ratings.
And so they're willing to sacrifice
our sense of peace by essentially
keeping Trump relevant in the news
cycle, which I think is why
Fox News continues to stay on top.
Because they're
creating all the havoc that keeps
people attached and locked in.
And CNN wants a little bit of that,
piece of that pie too.
>> Yeah, the fox news part is
indisputable.
They are giving him positive
coverage and they're spreading his
insane conspiracy theories about
how the Capital riots weren't
Trump's fault.
They were Biden's fault,
they were the FBI's fault etc.
And he actually won that some of
them is at least intimated and
affirmed that he had won
the election.
So all of that with that fox news
is doing is dangerous.
And that's obvious, right?
The question is the CNN and MSNBC.
See honestly us, we got a Trump
story later in the show because he
had the generals were concerned
that he was going to plan a coup.
>> Yeah. >> Now,
is that relevant for you to know?
If we are going to go to another
election with Trump,
it is super relevant, right?
And then this is what
the news is breaking.
On the other hand, when you fire at
the guy he gets stronger so
it's an unsolvable riddle.
So let me give you
now the quotes and stuff.
Anna did you want to say something?
>> I just wanted to say, I don't
think that the CNNs of the world
are really that interested in
calculating how their coverage of
Trump is going to have an impact on
an upcoming election or
anything like that.
I think Adrian like hit the nail on
the head and so
did Bill Burr in mentioning
the real motivation there.
And the motivation is ratings.
Like let's keep it real guys.
Every once in a while when we
do a story and I try to keep Trump
stories at a minimum, because it's
not even about like, whoo it's so
chaotic and I want to cover it.
No, I'm bored.
I'm bored of Trump stories.
I'm tired of them and
I kind of hate them.
But the thing is,
at the same time it's like,
just take a look at how any story
involving Biden does versus any
story involving Trump, right?
Trump stories blow up, right?
And so if you want to survive as
a news organisation, you have to
make those decisions and it sucks
the way that news is funded sucks.
And I think that that's
the main driver in the stuff
that ends up getting covered.
>> So, look, both online media and
traditional media get seduced
by that and
almost every one of them would.
Now if they had impeached and
convicted him last time and part of
that conviction was he's never
allowed to run for office again.
I swear to God,
I'd cut every Trump story.
I'd be like he's irrelevant,
let's move on with our lives.
Okay.
And remember, we're the guys who
originally tried to ban him.
Remember, we wouldn't cover Trump
and then we blurred his face,
this was back in 2015 etc and
then it didn't work.
And so, we had to go to covering
him because as the CNN's of
the world were kissing his ass.
Then and we're like,
no wait a minute,
the guy is a monster and
remember it now CNN attacks him.
But when he was running for
president in 2016 they show empty
podiums, Trump's about to speak.
>> Right? >> I mean, CNN was
the biggest fans of Donald Trump.
In fact, I have evidence of that.
So let's now first is it's all
about mainstream media.
I'm going to give you a quote from
Leslie Moonves.
He used to be the former head of
CBS and he said it about this Trump
phenomenon.
It may not be good for America,
but it's damn good for CBS.
I've never seen anything like this
and this is going to be a very
good year for us.
Sorry. It's
a terrible thing to say.
But bring it on, Donald.
Keep going.
The money's rolling in.
>> Exactly. >> This is fun.
>> That's what it's about.
It's about the money.
It's about the ratings and
bring back the fairness
Doctrine anyway and
expand it from what it was before.
>> Yeah, I don't agree with that,
but that's a different story.
>> Yeah. >> Okay, all right, so but
now let me give you stats.
Trump received 78% of all coverage
on CNN between August 24 and
September 4 of 2015, okay?
So that's the height of the talk
of the race in 2016.
They have not started voting
yet,okay?
But this is when people
are beginning to formulate their
ideas about who they're going to
vote for, the debates have begun.
There's 17 people in
the race on the Republican side,
hello 17 people, but he received
78% of all the coverage on CNN.
Okay not Fox News, CNN.
Now let's continue.
He also dominated evening network
news coverage in the first half
of 2015 despite announcing his
candidacy late in this period.
By November of 2015,
Trump had received more evening
network news coverage 234 minutes
than the entire democratic field.
By contrast, Ted Cruz had received
seven minutes, 234 to 7.
>> I mean I don't blame them for
the Ted Cruz coverage.
>> Right?
That was the right effort for real.
>> Okay, yeah.
And by the way, if you wanted to
give Ted Cruz seven minutes and
Donald Trump nine minutes,
no one cares.
God bless, right?
But 234 to 7 is.
You might as well just hand
election to Donald Trump.
I've told you the guys this in many
contexts, media is almost
everything in elections
because when you go in to vote,
there's only a name and
your brand is everything right.
And so CNN and remember
CNN was owned by Jeff Zucker.
And Jeff Zucker used to run NBC
when they greenlit and produced the
apprentice starring Donald Trump.
And remember that Zucker knew that
Donald Trump had had six
bankruptcies and was a complete and
utter loser.
He built a mirage of
a really successful businessman for
the purposes of good ratings for
that NBC reality show full well
knowing that he's not only pumping
up a guy who was a total failure in
business, but
was also a grotesque human being.
Everyone who knew Trump at the time
would say, he's terrible,
including Tucker Carlson.
That's another story that's in
the news today.
Everybody knows he's
a terrible guy.
So Jeff sucker says, yeah,
I don't care.
I want the money okay?
I want the money in NBC.
I want the money at CNN,
Moonves and
CBS because I love money too.
Let's all pump Donald Trump.
And guess what?
When they only talk about
Donald Trump, of
course Donald Trump gets elected.
One last thing, Bernie Sanders.
I don't have those stats in front
of me, but we covered it before.
In 2016 when Joe Biden was not
running for president, in the lead
up to that election in 2015,
Joe Biden got more news
coverage than Bernie Sanders did.
As Bernie Sanders was closing a 50
point lead on Hillary Clinton.
Is one of the most remarkable
political stories of our lifetimes.
And they refuse to cover
Bernie Sanders almost under
penalty of law.
Okay, so when you have a monster
like Donald Trump sucking up all of
the airtime and they won't even
talk about Bernie Sanders.
Gee, I wonder why 2016 turned out
the way that it did.
Because if you talk about Bernie,
he talks about how
corporations are screwing us.
What are these entities making
these decisions, giant
multinational corporations, okay?
And so they don't want the anti
corporate message of
Bernie Sanders.
Donald Trump is a con man and he'll
give people whatever they want as
long as you play ball with him.
So they think Donald Trump is good
for ratings and he'll give
corporations tax cuts everything,
which he did.
So they promote him,
they bury Bernie Sanders.
Back to Bill Burr,
the second thing, I don't want you
to lose track of this.
Not only is he right about
the cable news coverage,
especially in the 2016 election,
but his vitriol towards mainstream
media is even more correct.
Because for their own agenda,
they're brainwashing you.
So we talk about the cult of Trump.
And that definitely exists, right?
But the original cult is mainstream
media telling you corporate rules.
Awesome.
The status quo is wonderful and you
should trust the establishment and
all these corporate politicians.
And so when you got brave comics
like Bill Burr saying, no,
don't believe the height obviously
reminds me of George Carlin and
they're both right and that's why
the Daily Show did so well.
Because you need the comedians to
tell you because the news people
are fake.
I mean, it's in a lot of
ways is true.
They're either fake towards
corporate rule or they're
fake towards Donald Trump and
his personal corruption.
So everybody tyt.com slash polls.
It is super interesting whether you
continue to cover the atrocities of
Donald Trump going forward or
you try not to.
And remember, if we stop, it
doesn't mean CNN is going to stop.
And so that's why it's even more
complicated.
>> Yeah, I mean, exactly.
I mean, how do you rebut
the lies coming from right
wing media because they're going to
continue doing their thing.
So it's damned if you do,
damned if you don't.
But I will say just on a very
personal level.
I know not everyone
agrees with this.
Trump's stories are super boring.
That coup story from yesterday,
like I didn't want to do it.
But Jake finds it interesting.
He has stuff to say about it.
For me it's like a bunch
of generals decided to stay quiet
during the Trump administration and
now they're tryna sell a bunch of
books and they're saying that they
were worried about another coup.