Biden Abroad, Trump at Home

Is there a better photo op for ambitious Mayor Pete?

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The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio was should have been a moment for the Biden administration to publicly transcend politics. Sarah, David, and Declan wonder why this chance was frittered. Plus: between a new DeSantis bill and the Dominion lawsuit, what should we think about the state of defamation law?

Show Notes:

-Train crew had little warning before Ohio wreck, probe finds

-‘Incredibly damning:’ Fox News documents stun some legal experts

-Meet the Woke Activists behind the Roald Dahl Book Purge

-Donald Trump visits flood-ravaged Louisiana (David’s mention)

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Comments (41)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Brianj

    When the vast majority of Dispatch subscribers critique the same thing, it warrants a reply. Comment sections are demoralizing when they never get a response. The response could come here or on another podcast episode. Sarah or others might walk back a few things, defend their position, or add some nuance. It would be a wonderful way to acknowledge and converse with subscribers.

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  2. GregS

    Wow a real swing and a miss on Fox on this podcast Sarah. Claiming that MSNBC and NYT are just as bad? Really? You saw the emails and internal Slack messages with the Palin lawsuit. Did they strike you as being similar to the internal messages at Fox regarding Dominion?
    It'll be hard to ever take you guys seriously again regarding "media bias" when you talk like this.

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  3. Stephen.Fenwick

    Fox vs Dom. - Sarah is certainly a lawyer to have on one's side - started by stating that she knows little of the legal proceedings and then proceeded to dominate the discussion and tie MSNBC to Fox and move away from the original topic - both networks are biased but to avoid discussion on Fox's position was interesting, if not unfortunate.

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    1. GregS

      Yeah that was hilarious...
      Let me paraphrase:
      Yes Fox is terrible, but if we could see the emails at MSNBC and NYT they'd be just as bad. I'm just going to claim this without any evidence. In fact, we have evidence from the Palin defamation trial which shows a *very* different internal email chain at NYT than the ones found at Fox, but lets just ignore that.
      Both sides!

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      1. Seth Champlin

        Yes, I was really disappointed with the Dispatch Hosts on this one. I appreciate Sarah a lot on the AO podcast and have benefited immensely from the light she and David have shown, particularly on the 2020 election lies by Trump. However, the failure of any of the hosts to clearly condemn Fox, instead quickly moving to critique other media institutions was really disappointing. And yes, I agree that the *assumption* that other sights internal discussions would be just as bad is also really sloppy. I’m happy for the hosts to critique any bias or inaccuracies in whatever news organization, but they need to be able to speak unequivocally about the huge damage Fox did to public trust in our elections and the utterly cynical character of the Fox hosts who foisted this kind of propaganda on so many good people who honestly believe this stuff.

        I’m sorry to say, but I am cancelling my Dispatch subscription.

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    Reading451

    Any news on an ad-less podcast feed for subscribers yet?

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    1. Avatar photo
      JohnF

      I don't get any ads on any Dispatch podcasts (they're probably being inserted by your podcast provider).

      That being said, a few ads might have been a welcome break from Sarah's "wallow into whataboutism" on this particular podcast.

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    2. Stephen.Fenwick

      Even if one has to pay a more - positive idea

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    Reading451

    What about the footage from 1/6 being given to Carlson by McCarthy?

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  6. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Also what absolutely was worth our time was the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion, which I felt got short shrift on this podcast. Drucker’s Dr. Strangelove interview was related, but I still think this podcast could have focused more on Ukraine.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    The Roald Dahl thing was absolutely worth our time - although, admittedly, only a tiny part of it. I think National Review has covered it well.

    Yes, I tend to think the culture war doesn’t matter nearly as much as other issues (Ukraine, China, markets, etc.), and so all culture war issues deserve a bit of downplaying, but at the same time this isn’t just a “right-wing freak out.” Kat Rosenfeld is on the left and has been pretty strong on this question, and free speech generally. Both freedom of speech and intellectual property are at issue here: as an absolutist on intellectual property, I think it is a violation of the sacred and the good to change an author’s work after his/her death.

    But, you’ll rightly point out, the copyright is owned by the publishing company. Reason number one to self-publish. The creator did the hard work to create the content. The rest of us get to enjoy it (or not - our choice), and we can either be grateful or keep our mouths shut and go read something else.

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    1. Avatar photo
      The Bell Tower

      Absolutely. One point Mr. Drucker overlooked: if you are concerned about Mr. Dahl’s anti-Semitism, allowing his estate to scrub the less lovely portions of his work also burnishes his reputation. Why should he be made to sound more tolerant than he was?

      I felt the same about the Dr Seuss baloney. Sure, technically his estate can edit the work to which they have rights but art is an individual endeavor. Whenever it is edited through collective will, it ceases to be art and instead becomes propaganda.

      So, we should be greatly concerned about bullying organizations like Inclusive Minds precisely because government is powerless to control such forces. I recommend Ray Bradbury’s Coda to Fahrenheit 451 for my favorite perspective on all this. Steinbeck also addresses it in East of Eden:

      “And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost.“

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        Ben Connelly

        Absolutely on Dahl!

        Thanks for sharing the passage from Bradbury. I hadn’t actually read that (even though I read the novel)!

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  8. Don Thiry

    I haven’t been this disappointed in Sarah since the softball Mulvaney interview, happens rarely enough I’ll chalk it up to bad sleep. Acknowledging the obstruction section of the mueller report without conceding that said obstruction obstructed the “collusion” section was weak.

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    Seth B

    I feel as though the "Not Worth Your Time" section appeared right at the top of this episode. I was unaware that right-wing media was making a story of Biden not going to East Palestine. Now that I know, I somehow feel dirtier.

    The damage in Ohio is a serious story. That's well worth our time. But... the fact that Biden didn't go there? Really? Would anyone even have thought to be offended by this without Fox News et al. telling them that they should be?

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  10. Avatar photo
    Kevin Johnson

    Sorry kids, but your chuckles about Orwellian Dahl incident is misguided and, now that you are a pirate fleet, dangerous. “Just some whining about fat shaming” you say. But did you see that Kipling was erased? Do you think it was his weight? Might he have a sin in common with Churchill? Might we have seen this approach more starkly in statue dumping?

    This is part of a broad leftist attack on language, history, and literature designed to promote a uniform ideology. They have every right to push this. But we also have a right to resist.

    The name of the “sensitivity editors” behind this move, “inclusive minds” says it all. The DEI religion and industrial complex wants to stamp out dissent by progressively labeling it sexist, racist, and bigoted. Defining “inclusion” in this case as in US government, NGO, business, and education, as literally meaning EXCLUSION of ideas not accepted by the revolution is the essence of Orwellian Newspeak.

    The private decision to change Dahl’s work (since overturned) is indeed permissible in a free society. But it’s also free to notice that this is part of a broad strategy to progressively change language to make all dissent appear bigoted. “Mother” “woman” “color blind” “merit” are all alleged to be bigoted speech. It’s not just childrens’ books, kids. The left wants “equality” and many other words/values totally transformed. Are we really gonna laugh this off?

    French and Spanish editors announced before the Dahl folks caved that they would not accept this Orwellian efforts. That’s great. But do good folk dedicated to finding and publishing truth not see Orwell’s warning inching ever closer? Are we happy to defeat “Latinx” and “Oompa Loompa” while “color blindness” and “equality” slide in favor of group rights and equality of outcome? The word wars are not silly culture wars. They are vital to our values.

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