I can hold a quarter right here, in this room, and ask this side of the room to tell me what they see and this side of the room what they see. And they will be looking at the same exact coin, but describing two very different realities. Calling It Insurrection it wasnt. It was peaceful protest. Its anarchists. Breaking the glass of the United States capitol. Facts are indisputable. Ive got secrets i think thats the problem that we have. More people need to be able to stand up and say, thats crazy. Its a quarter, and we can talk about whats on each side of the quarter, but lets not disagree about the fact that it is a quarter. [people shouting] january 6th was predicated on propaganda, in the most terrifying way. So much for those claims that voter fraud never happens. Of course it happens. They knew it happened when they told us it would never happen, because theyre liars. Were at a crossroads today between the promise of truth and the peril of falsity. Between the promise of democracy and the peril of authoritarianism. If i needed alternative facts, like, i would go to a ouija board. It is completely clear that the vaccines dont really work at all. The news has never been more real, yet we are living through the fake news age. Fake news. Every single indicator, from every political scientist that ever has looked at any country in the world, is saying the u. S. Is in big trouble right now. When you think about how were approaching journalism, getting a quote from one perspective and then getting a quote from another perspective, you end up amplifying some of these Talking Points. And then people will interpret these Talking Points as the truth. Disinformation feeds polarization. Fake news has many consequences, and weve seen that in spades recently. I follow the facts, and i follow information. Rampant Election Fraud has been happening. No, no, no, no. And theres so much evidence of it this year. This is what im talking about. Youre saying its a falsehood, and theyre giving sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. But the point remains wait a minute. Look, alternative facts are not facts. [glass cracking] [dramatic music] [indistinct chatter] i was previously employed with the oath keepers, which is one of the largest Militia Organizations in the world. [engine rumbling] theyre the ones that we saw heading up the stairs of the capitol building, in a stacked wedge formation. [people shouting] messaging and storytelling has the power to kind of disconnect our higher functions with decisionmaking and Critical Thinking. Cognitive dissonance, if you will. Well, people like to get riled up now when theyre consuming news and information. They almost want to be angry at the other side, and it works. Controversy sells. Fuck antifa [crowd chanting] fuck antifa [shouting, grunting] [screaming] talk is cheap. Talk excites, and agitates, and inflames. And talk binds you to a personality and often a point of view. Despite commiecrats gnashing their teeth about it for weve now gone from partisan news to sort of hyperpartisan news. Oan, breitbart. All these smaller and smaller silos where you get more and more of an insular political view. You can go back decades and years to think that the role of news is simply to present x, y, and z, and let people make their own decisions. And thats fair, but that reflected a very different time in our country. Im a big fan of the new york times, but i can also see when theyre going off the rails. You know, at times, they become cheerleaders, and when media becomes part of the cheerleading squad, thats where you have a problem. One of the challenges has been this tendency to both sides everything. Theres always this desire to say, let me try to understand what the other side is saying, and that is a noble, lofty goal. But does that mean you give equal time in trying to understand both arguments . It takes so much power out of the hands of citizens when they dont know what to believe. Theres so much active misinformation, and its packaged very well, and it looks the same when you see it on a facebook page. Disinformation is nothing new. Whats different now is Technology Allows it to go much faster, and it takes on very, very different shapes. You cant escape it. In fact, if you click on it, theres algorithms that are gonna make it even harder for you to escape. Your news . Do you get it online . Telegram . No, i just saw on tiktok. Social media changed everything. Suddenly, anyone with a keyboard could be a reporter or convey information, whether it was true or not. As steve bannon said, the zone was flooded, often with lies. Real madeup stories. In some ways, Internet Media is bringing back the days when you could just set up with a Printing Press and put out a paper. Its been quite destructive for political dialogue, in that, immediately, the algorithms push you to people who think like you. I think what social media did was it allowed people to find their tribe. This echo chamber of social media allows people to spread a kind of viral contagion of contempt. You know, you dont even need really sophisticated messaging. We love conspiracies. A justreleased memo says soviet officials thought the assassination was a conspiracy on the part of the ultraright. My realitymy senses tell me that the earth is flat and stationary. Americans fucking love conspiracies. I love conspiracies. To this day, its hard for me not to jump down rabbit holes. If you believe you have encountered a sasquatch, raise your hand nice and high. Part of my job with the oath keepers was to go out to the news aggregates, first thing in the morning, and just see what were the trending stories. What were people getting worked up about . And then we would figure out a way to put a spin on that particular story that would further our messaging. You can see these same techniques on many commercials. Like, the commercials dont make sense. Puppy monkey baby. It doesnt matter, because theyre getting an emotional reaction and connection associated with their product or logo. Discover the rainbow. Taste the rainbow. Same sort of propagandas, techniques. Theyre infusing it with the conspiracies of the day, along with the seeds of truth coming from actual news and journalism, but then taking and putting a spin on it. The social media age allows us to connect with one another instantly, and sometimes those connections fuel a radicalism. People have questions. People have heard something or misheard something. They want to get more information. People go on 4chan. They find qanon forums. They go on reddit, and they find places to fuel their belief in things that arent credible. Joe biden eats children. So do the democrats. I actually got into q the very beginning of this year. Q is everybody. We dont know who particularly q is. Q is a movement, okay . It says, think for yourself. Qanon is really sort of baffling. I still find it hard to believe that people really think the basic tenets of qanon are true. But apparently some people do, like that guy who showed up at the pizza place in washington. Edgar welch, 28, of salisbury, north carolina, has been arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. Police say welch was selfinvestigating a false news story that circulated online during the president ial campaign. This case shows how fake news can lead to a dangerous situation. An utterly bogus story about child abuse promoted on the internet. Human beings, in general, and americans, in particular, have not necessarily been trained to have an enquiry around the truth. How to figure out whether what were watching is true or not. You know, it sounds totally alien to the normal person, but if you study history, elites are always seeking after the innocents obsessed with the sacrifice of human children. Its the world of alacarte reality. The things that are true, you can just pick and choose among them with a splash of things that are completely untrue. But if thats how you want to create your worldview, perfectly acceptable. We are christian, insofar as we believe in christs principle of love your neighbor as yourself. And with that principle, i challenge every jew in this nation to tell me that he does not believe in it. [cheers and applause] this goes way back. There was, you know, Father Coughlin in the 30s. The great radio demagogue. Hes being listened to by about a quarter of america, and what hes saying are all these foul antisemitic things that were really dangerous. Everyone recognizes the predominance of Atheistic Jews in the pattern of russian communism. Evidence is so overwhelming to substantiate this statement that it is idle for any informed person to attempt disputing it. Then he starts to make up this disinformation where hes actually claiming that ships are secretly bringing people in at night to replace good christians in these jewish stores. Form your battalions take up the shield of your defense, and carry on [all chanting] jews will not replace us jews will not replace us [chanting] fuck antifa fuck antifa fuck antifa fuck antifa its how we start down the road to nonreality. The line for this era is voltaire, who said, those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. [screams] i mean, we had a moment where a Capitol Police officer was being beat almost to death with the flagpole that was flying a Blue Lives Matter flag. That cuts through the bullshit words. That cuts through the propaganda. Like, just look at that image honestly. As americans, we just gotta get over this bullshit. Leave him alone let us unite in banishing fear. You must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. We used to operate from a common sense of what was true. Now, we see that increasingly being frayed. Information now is bombarding us 24 7. And i think we have to have a better understanding of the people who are putting things in front of us, and the biases of what other stories are being told, and which ones are not. Right now, were in a disaster, and i think reporters are beginning to understand that democracy is on the ballot. Music i swear plays jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day. And forgot where she was. [buzz] you can always spot a first timer. Gain flings with oxi boost and febreze. Flu symptoms hit harder than the common cold. So it takes the right tool for the job. To keep it together. Now theres new theraflu flu relief with a max strength fever fighting formula. The right tool for long lasting flu symptom relief. Hot beats flu. With the new law, our family found a healthplan for less than 57 a month and knowing that we are covered, it simplifies life. With my plan for 0 a month, i know i can get the care i need to live my best life. They were able to make sure that i was taken care of. It was really life changing to have that. And i only pay 16 a month for the first time in my life, i found a great plan for 0 a month. Healthcare. Gov is here for millions like you. Ronald wilson reagan, of california. A sports announcer, a film actor is our winner for the presidency. Ronald reagan is our first modern celebrity president. Ask em to go in there with all theyve got. He was a movie star. He had been in showbusiness all his life. Win just one for the gipper. In 1987, during the reagan years, the fcc, the federal communications commission, repealed the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine made sure that broadcasters reported multiple different Points Of View on controversial topics. If you had, you know, an hour of prodemocrat stuff, you had to have an a hour of prorepublican. Lets recap very quickly what has happened here. Equal time, the Fairness Doctrine for broadcasting. In the 1980s, the fcc began to feel pressure from broadcasters who felt the Fairness Doctrine was infringing on their First Amendment rights. That they were being forced to say things that they did not want to say. Congress attempted to codify the Fairness Doctrine with a law, and that was vetoed by ronald reagan. Today, we reaffirm our faith in the American People. Our faith in their ability to distinguish between fact and fiction without any help from government. Without the Fairness Doctrine, television and radio can simply decide they are not going to report any controversial issue of public importance of their choice, or they can decide that they will only report one side of it. And so you have a complete erosion of accountability around the facts. This is a great day for all rich racists, liars, antisemites, idealogues, and extremists. And suddenly, a guy like Rush Limbaugh could flourish. New york city. Our next call. Michael, hello. Thanks for waiting. Youre on the Rush Limbaugh talk radio show was a rightwing talk show that premiered in 1988 and became the highestrated talk show in the United States. If you listen to this show every day, you never need to read another newspaper again. Never read another magazine. I do it for you, and you get a bonus. I tell you what to think. Rush limbaugh was a constant source of misinformation. Really, of disinformation. Purposeful misinformation. We just keep going, and going, and going limbaugh championed opinions that were reflexively antiregulation, antitax, but also reflexively partisan. While serving humanity in new york, on the i interviewed him at length. He said, listen, i know what im doing. I want to attract the largest possible audience i can, so i can charge confiscatory rates to major advertisers. And i do that by being an entertainer. The Undisputed Wwe i grew up a big wwe fan, and i immediately recognized the showmanship. The theatrics that donald trump was trafficking in. Whats going on, over here . Donald trump is in a world he is not familiar with. Go watch two hours of wwe raw or friday night smackdown, and it will all make sense to you how he just wiped the floor with everybody. [all chanting] we want trump he had personality. He had a watchable quality. Everybodys covering trump because it gets great ratings. The ratings are up. It means you cant do without donald trump. Theres not much sense of, lets step back. Lets calm down, and the media doesnt have much interest in encouraging, lets step back. Lets calm down. 60 minutes with their stormy interview got record ratings. Their highest ratings in ten years. It may not be good for america, but its damn good for cbs. Thats all i gotta say. [laughter] the moneys rolling in, and this is the polls are open. This is funny. I have never seen anything like this, and you know, this is gonna be a very good year for us. When youve got news rooms that have been moved into the Entertainment Divisions of these Massive Media corporations the news becomes entertainment. And what is entertaining . Well, drama and conflict sells. This marriage between journalism and capitalism was always a bad match. The difference with fox news is that, if hillary had won, our ratings would still be good. Id just like to say how delighted i am that weve now reached this moment when we can firmly announce the starting of a fox news channel. Weve had tremendous success in Entertainment Programming and childrens programming, sports programming, and now we have to move to making ourselves the best in news programming. Rupert murdoch came to this country, and it was a bank shot coming here. He had done business with American Television companies. Always had an eye on the american market. Some people say im a conservative. Thats not really true. Now, he has described himself as a radical. He sees himself as a disruptor. Because i believe in change. What makes fox unique, in some ways, is the way in which its integrated to the Political Activities of a specific american party. Mr. Ailes is here, and he might like to roger ailes actually advised nixon in the white house, on communications matters, and ailes and murdoch sought to make foxs studios the replacement for the smokefilled backrooms that the old party bosses used to have. [crowd cheering] the thing about trump like murdoch, like aileshe was willing to steamroll a convention. The United States is run by stupid people. We have stupid leadership. He was willing to steamroll norms. Hes not a war hero. Hes a war hero. Hes a war hero cause he was captured. I like people that werent captured, okay . I hate to he didnt really care about playing by anybody elses rules, and many of the figures that trump was attacking were the figures that fox had been attacking. But im glad to have you. I think its very important that it wasnt just trump. It was trump and one of our two Major Political parties, and it was a whole Media Echo System that surrounds that party. This defines reality. Were in cold spring, which is part of philipstown. I was the supervisor of philipstown, so i generally call it philipstown, although i grew up calling it cold spring, cause i live right down by the river. I was born here, and my parents were born here. My sons the fifth generation to be born here. Like every small town, you gotta find your slot to fit in. I always say i was born in a snow globe. I mean, seriously. This town was like a rockwell painting. I think that my primary qualification for running a news channel is that i dont have a degree in journalism. When i was running for supervisor, ailes came up to me and said, you know, roger ailes. Im the owner of Putnam County news. im not happy with this Zoning Initiative youre taking on. And if im not happy, youre not gonna be happy. [tense music] he went to town on me. He started running, you know, negative articles in the paper pretty much continuously about my performance on the town board. If wed have a success with something, no coverage. Any kind of, you know, hit