Local News Under Siege

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Remember, tuning into your local news, the anchors felt like neighbors. The stories were about your town council, the high school football team, maybe even Mrs. Henderson's prize winning zucchini at the county fair. It felt local. [00:00:17] Speaker B: Fast forward to today and that cozy picture is fading faster than a politician's promises. Across America, local news outlets are being snapped up by massive national corporations. We're talking about companies that might be headquartered hundreds, even thousands of miles away with priorities that have absolutely nothing to do with the folks down the street. What happens when these corporations move in? Well, often the first thing to go is ironically, the local part. Experienced journalists who know the community get laid off in their place. Often prepackaged news segments, generic stories that could be about anywhere usa and a whole lot of sensationalized fluff designed to get clicks, not inform citizens. Think about it. That investigative piece about the shady dealings at the water treatment plant, probably not making the corporate cut, but a tear jerking story about a lost puppy that conveniently drives traffic to their website? You bet. [00:01:29] Speaker A: And it's not just the content that changes, it's the perspective. These corporations have their own agendas, their own bottom lines to consider. Suddenly, the stories being told, and crucially the stories being ignored, start to reflect those interests, not the needs of the community. That local election where a controversial development project is on the ballot, you might not get the in depth, unbiased coverage. You need to make an informed decision if the corporation backing the news outlet also stands to profit from that development. This isn't some conspiracy theory, folks. This is happening right now. We're seeing local newspapers wither and die, leaving information vacuums in their wake. And those that remain are often just a shadow of their former selves, churning out content dictated from some distant boardroom. [00:02:20] Speaker B: So what's the real cost of this local news blackout? It's the erosion of our ability to hold power accountable at the local level. It's the silencing of the voices that understand our communities best. It's the slow dimming of the light that shines on the issues that directly impact our daily lives. And that, my friends, is a dangerous place to be. [00:02:47] Speaker A: We need to dig into why this is happening, who's pulling the strings, and most importantly, what we can do about it. Because a well informed citizenry is the bedrock of any healthy democracy. And right now that bedrock is looking mighty shaky. My name is Neil Zolson and I'm here with my co host Bobby socks on Monday, April 21, 2025. It's been quite the week and we're going to start by recapping the big three news stories before we dive into our discussion of local news under siege. [00:03:19] Speaker B: As always, you can follow us, sign up and find out more about the show over@critical defiance.com don't forget to subscribe to us on Spotify or in your favorite podcast app. Hit the like button over and over and over again everywhere you see one. And tell your friends to join us. If you'd like to donate and help boost our efforts, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com critical defiance or pledge your support on our website. Every little bit helps on our journey to bring you great content. [00:03:58] Speaker A: The Big three. Now, there are people in the audience that are going to argue that we got it too baked to come up with three news items. But that's not true. [00:04:09] Speaker B: That's not true. That's not true because we try to. [00:04:11] Speaker A: We had three. [00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, we had three, but we had to move one to a freedom fumble because it belonged there. More. [00:04:18] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, yes. By far, by far. The all singing, all dancing space show. But we'll get to that a little bit later. So this week I think I want to start with the big one, the one that's been occupying one of our slots in the big three since inception, really, which is the Kilnor Abrego Garcia case. It's gotten even crazier. All right, so short version, we'll roll back because it's been a week for the audience. El Salvador's President Bukele, evil dictator that he is, shows up here to visit the White House where he gets on beautifully with Trump. I love the way Rolling Stone put it, they said they bonded over human rights abuses. It was really the best. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Wow. Wow. [00:05:03] Speaker A: But during that meeting, Bukele indicated that he couldn't bring Abrego Garcia back. And Trump said he should be building more prisons because it was going to be the quote, unquote, homegrowns next. And I want to know what exactly the homegrowns are. [00:05:19] Speaker B: Yeah. What does that mean? Because is that the. [00:05:22] Speaker A: That's one hell of a statement, sir. [00:05:25] Speaker B: If this were adjust administration, that would mean like the school shooters that get taken to Burger King after they shoot up the school. [00:05:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And if these criminals are white, they're apprehended without a scratch on them usually. [00:05:38] Speaker B: But I think when Trump says homegrowns, I don't know, what does he mean? Trans people? [00:05:44] Speaker A: I think he means some form of us. I don't know that he knows specifically what part of us he wants to deport. But I think some form of us and a lot of other people. Yeah, it's getting pretty scary. This is not humor. This is the guy floating the idea that he's going to start shipping American citizens out without due process. And so let me explain what due process is for the people out there who don't know. It's a fancy schmancy term for proof in front of a judge. That's all it is. It is really a matter of, okay, we accuse you of a crime in this case, being a member of Ms. 13. Now, I'm trying to find a law that says being a member of a gang is a crime. I can't. But that's a whole separate. Yeah, if that were the case, why do we still have proud boys and kkk? [00:06:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Shouldn't they all been deported to Guatemala? [00:06:42] Speaker B: I've been hearing that they got a sheet of tattoos that ICE is being given. Things like, oh, these are the gang. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Members tattoos to look for. [00:06:52] Speaker B: And like, one of them, you know, that was listed on there was there. We're deporting people based on tattoos. [00:06:58] Speaker A: Now we're deporting people based on hats. In Abrego Garcia's case, part of their rationale is that there is a signed affidavit by a law enforcement officer that says he is a gang member. And when you look at that affidavit, what you find out is this is a disgraced member of law enforcement who's no longer on the job. And his determination that Abrego Garcia was a gang member was based on his clothing being consistent with membership in a gang. Since he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat, the Horns must have represented the horns from MS.13. So this is their evidence so far. [00:07:34] Speaker B: Whoa, talk about jumping. [00:07:37] Speaker A: They say he's human trafficking, Bobby. And their evidence for this is they pulled him over with eight guys in the car who had no luggage on their way to work. So it must have been human trafficking. Too many people on the car. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Hello? Where are we? [00:07:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So his senator, Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, went to El Salvador. He was initially denied entrance to the prison 3km out, denied an audience with anybody. Then the Vice President arranged a meeting between him and Abrego Garcia, dressing Abrego Garcia up nicely, putting margaritas in front of everybody, making it look like he was having a grand old time. Van Holland comes back and says this man is being emotionally and psychologically tortured at a minimum. And he doesn't really know what else is going on. So there's a limit to the cander that went on, I guess. So that's a little scary. But at least we know he's alive, right? [00:08:27] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. [00:08:28] Speaker A: Apparently Cory Booker is queuing up to head out there next, so that's going to make it even more interesting. Van Holland made it very clear, and I agree with this. I think it's kind of our position, too. He said that he is not defending Abrego Garcia. He doesn't know whether the man is innocent or guilty. Yeah, he's defending his right to due process. [00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:08:48] Speaker A: Because this is America. [00:08:50] Speaker B: I don't know his background. I don't know him as a person. I'm not going to say that he's a good or a bad person. All I'm going to say is, at minimum, he has a right, like you explained, to due process. No one in this country should have the fear that they're just going to be taken off the street and deported. And. [00:09:09] Speaker A: And the idea of due process is something this country was founded on. So to make the argument that he doesn't deserve it because he's not a citizen, or he doesn't deserve it because he's a criminal. Well, the first one misses who we are, and the second one misses the point of due process entirely. Now we keep rolling forward. And now, as of this point, Sunday, day before the podcast, the Supreme Court has halted deportations under the Alien Enemies act for now, with Thomas and Alito dissenting. They haven't spoken directly to this case yet, but they kind of paused things so that they could review it, which is a good sign. So far as we know from news reports, the last batch of vans running to the airport with Venezuelans on it was actually turned around. Oh, so there's that. [00:10:00] Speaker B: Okay. All right, so what else have we got? We usually try to keep the news and the big three about what's happening in the US but as a trans human being, I cannot be quiet about what has recently gone on in the UK. [00:10:21] Speaker A: Thank you, J.K. rowling. [00:10:22] Speaker B: Once again, I am so sorry. I don't care how near and dear Harry Potter is to you, if you can't get over it and see the evil. [00:10:32] Speaker A: Next week's episode, we're going to talk about separating the art from the artist in cases where the artist is just deplorable. [00:10:40] Speaker B: So. And over in the uk, in a landmark ruling, five judges agreed that the legal definition of woman under the country's 2010 Equality act refers to a biological woman and a biological sex. So what, this means that the UK just legally said that trans women are not women? [00:11:05] Speaker A: They Basically said that to be a woman, you must be biologically female from. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Birth, which in itself is a huge issue. But what gets to me the most is how much J.K. rowling publicly gave to make sure this bill. [00:11:23] Speaker A: I think it was something like 30% of the funds. [00:11:25] Speaker B: 30% of the lobbying funds. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Was it lobbying funds or legal fees? [00:11:30] Speaker B: I think it was actually a bit of both. I just know that she also celebrated. [00:11:36] Speaker A: Yes. With a cigar afterward and tweeted about it. The thing about this one that struck me was that there were no trans people, no trans rights groups, no activists that provided any testimony, largely because individuals and organizations that fund and support trans rights thought they would be ignored, not believed, or would wind up with negative repercussions. [00:12:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, I know we're scared as a community with what's going on with trans people over here in the us but the UK is not as shiny as they want to make us think when it comes to trans people. And they really haven't been great about queer people in the past either. The legal declaration that trans women are not women is horrifying. [00:12:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:22] Speaker B: And it's kind of becoming a pattern. [00:12:25] Speaker A: Of this rich, conservative takeover of our. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Politics, this technocracy or whatever they're trying to do. [00:12:30] Speaker A: There's all sorts of fun, really bad names for it, like Technocracy Technique, the State of Ilonia, whatever you want to. [00:12:38] Speaker B: I mean, especially with this J.K. rowling wowing, wowing. Woo woo. J.K. wowing with this J.K. rowling thing. It makes me think she's almost like a female Elon over there. [00:12:51] Speaker A: She doesn't have the net worth, but, yeah, she seems to have malice against people that are different from her. And it's kind of sad. It's disheartening. It's mostly yeek, you know, like it's 2025 and we still have people behaving like this. [00:13:03] Speaker B: The whole reason she has her new reboot of Harry Potter is because she wants people on that who agree with her views. [00:13:14] Speaker A: Well, yeah, so that was the big two. [00:13:18] Speaker B: Two, yeah. [00:13:20] Speaker A: We didn't have three this week. There are other things that we want to talk about, but they fit freedom fumbles or big wins better. Rather than, you know, use those in the big three, we decided to save them for a little bit. Later in our intro, we laid out a pretty stark picture of what's happening to our local news landscape. It's not just about fewer papers landing on your doorstep or a smaller number of channels on the dial. It's about a fundamental shift in who gets to tell our stories and what stories even get told? [00:13:46] Speaker B: Exactly. And that's why we wanted to spend some time to really unpack this. What are the real world consequences when these local news outlets, the ones we used to trust to keep an eye on things right here at home, become extensions of massive, often out of state corporations, foreign? [00:14:07] Speaker A: We're going to delve into how this affects everything from local elections and community development to holding our local officials accountable. It's about more than just headlines. It's about the health and vitality of our communities. All right, so picture this. End of the last century, rabbit ears on the TV are going the way of the dodo. Replaced by cable boxes and suddenly everything's digital. Now, back in the day, the FCC had some rules to try and keep things fair, make sure one company couldn't just gobble up all the local stations and control the narrative. But those rules, they got, shall we say, relaxed. Suddenly these big media companies could buy stations left and right all across the country. They kept those familiar abc, CBS and NBC logos, the ones you trusted. But the folks behind the curtain, their names kept changing faster than a politician stance on, well, anything. [00:15:03] Speaker B: Take Sinclair Broadcasting, for example. These guys have become masters of this game. They own or run almost 300 local TV stations and close to 90 markets in Central Pennsylvania, around Penn State and those other college towns. Sinclair basically runs the show on three out of the four local stations, using this sneaky sidecar company trick to get around those old ownership limits. They even own the station down in Harrisburg. So if you live anywhere in Central or South pa, chances are your local news is coming from Sinclair. And surprise, surprise, it all sounds pretty much the same now. Sinclair isn't even the biggest fish in this pond. Necstar takes that prize. But Sinclair, they've really made a name for themselves by flat out forcing their own partisan right wing talking points into local news broadcasts. They have these must run segments that have zero to do with what's actually happening in your town. So you think you're getting local news, Think again. You're probably getting a corporate approved message whether you like it or not. It's local news with a national, very specific agenda. Pretty slick and pretty damn scary. So we know local news is shrinking, but it's not just fading away organically. There's a force behind this, the rapid consolidation of media ownership. Nils, paint us a picture of how this buying spree actually happened. What were the key factors driving these big corporations to gobble up our local news outlets? [00:16:57] Speaker A: All right, so think of it like A feeding frenzy, Bobby. But instead of sharks and chum, it's corporations and struggling local TV stations and newspapers. The main ingredient attracting these buyers was cold, hard cash, or rather, the lack thereof on the local level. For years, local news has been battling a perfect storm. The Internet is siphoning away advertising dollars, the rise of free online content training audiences not to pay for news, and, let's be honest, sometimes a failure to adapt quickly enough to the digital age. This left many once proud local institutions financially vulnerable, practically begging for a lifeline. And that lifeline came with a price tag, usually attached to a corporate logo. So these big companies saw an opportunity to what exactly? I guess just expand their empires. Bobby. [00:17:47] Speaker B: More outlets mean more potential reach, more data on consumers, and the ability to streamline operations and cut costs by sharing content and resources across their growing portfolio. It's about economics of scale, squeezing every last drop of profit out of these local markets. Plus, let's not forget the potential to shape narratives across a wider geographic area. And the regulatory environment, or arguably the lack of robust regulation over the years has certainly greased the wheels for these mergers and acquisitions. [00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think, you know, given our current regime, our current administration, the regulatory environment is bound to just get worse. The Telecommunications act kind of held it all together back in the day, and it gave us a way to limit the reach of any one particular broadcaster, really, honestly, for the civic good, for the public good. But changes in FCC regulations over time have pretty much killed that. [00:18:55] Speaker B: So the Telecommunications act, to boil it down as simple as possible, is to make sure the news outlet couldn't have a monopoly. [00:19:03] Speaker A: And among other things, that was one of the things the telecommunications. All right, the Telecommunications act was concerned with monopoly, reach and message. [00:19:11] Speaker B: Okay, all right. [00:19:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that would summarize it. [00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:14] Speaker A: So, you know, and then you've got this. This death by a thousand clicks. That started happening, too. And what that is, is the advertising environment changed. So newspapers and magazines and. And even local news stations were very used to pay for play. You pay us for a certain amount of time or a certain amount of space, and in exchange, you program that space. So it could be X amount of hundreds or thousands of dollars or say, one inch in the newspaper or 30 seconds on your local TV station. All right? Now the Internet comes along, and we start advertising things based on one of two angles. Either the number of impressions, the number of times people actually see it, or the number of clicks, the number of times it's actually been interacted with. So instead of paying in advance what we're Doing now is paying on a per use basis, as little as possible after the fact. So that changed everything, and it kind of put locals and independents on the back foot. [00:20:14] Speaker B: Because now to make money, you want things that are going to grab people's attention on the Internet and make them click, also known as clickbait. Instead of something where like a newspaper or radio station or, you know, tv, like you said, is prepaid, it's like, okay, here you go. This much time now it's how juicy can you make a boring or normal story sound in five words to get people to click on it? [00:20:48] Speaker A: You got it. And then, you know, you have the network effect, too. So you have this dominance of a couple large platforms in online news distribution and also in advertising. So that's squeezed things too. You don't have many ways in the modern world to do what you did. You don't have this infinite variety or invention that we used to have. So, yeah, it's gotten a little bit rough. [00:21:12] Speaker B: So the corporations move in, they tighten the belts, they look for efficiencies. On paper, it might sound like just good business, but what does this actually feel like for the people living in these communities? What are the real world consequences when the local news becomes less local? [00:21:34] Speaker A: This is where the rubber meets the road, Bobby, and it's not a smooth ride. The most immediate impact is the erosion of actual local coverage. Remember those stories about your town council meetings, the debates over local development, the investigations into potential wrongdoing right in your backyard? Those are often the first things to go when budgets get slashed and the focus shifts to broader, cheaper to produce content. We start seeing more syndicated stories, more national news filler, and fewer journalists actually pounding the pavement in our communities. It's like your favorite local diner suddenly serving reheated chain restaurant food. [00:22:10] Speaker B: And we're talking about more than just missing the human interest pieces. Right. This has real implications for how informed we are as citizens. [00:22:21] Speaker A: Absolutely. When local news is weakened, the crucial watchdog function of it diminishes. Who's going to hold local officials accountable if the local paper's been gutted and the remaining staff are stretched thin just trying to cover the basics? The lack of scrutiny can lead to all sorts of problems, from unchecked corruption to environmental issues being ignored. And when people aren't informed about what's happening locally, their ability to participate meaningfully in their communities, to vote in local elections, to engage in civic discussions, also suffers. And it starts, I think, with sort of this case of the missing beat reporter. We talk about it sometimes on the show. But there's a good age gap between us. And for me, when I was a kid watching my local news, I knew those reporters like I knew my own family because I saw them five nights a week, usually both at like 6 and 11. Their spin on things, their take on things, you could count on it. You understood where they were coming from, you knew where they were speaking from and writing from. And they had a beat, they had a rhythm, they had an area they covered or a particular topic they covered and they rolled through it and then went back to the beginning and rolled through it again and that's gone. [00:23:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:37] Speaker A: Beat reporter. Do you even know the term? [00:23:39] Speaker B: I've heard the term. I didn't know beat meant something. And you explaining that sounds so antiquated because when I think of the news, I think of the three to five local or you know, I guess US news stations because they've always been called local. But even as a kid I was like, okay, you're telling me the same story six times a day with like 10 other filler things in the news. [00:24:09] Speaker A: For me, you know, I grew up in a world where we had very different distinct coverage, network to network locally. We had the big three. We had abc, NBC and CBS where I lived growing up. And there was a big flavor difference and a big perspective difference. And they were upfront about it. And it was a different game than it is now. You know, now we have communities that have almost no access or no access to local news. And that's really wild. Like there are communities out there that the only local news they get basically comes from word of mouth. Everything else is national level or state level, usually national level, from TV or from newspapers or online. But it doesn't cover them. And that's got some side effects. [00:24:55] Speaker B: Yeah, and not only does it not cover them, a lot of what they're seeing and what most Americans are seeing ends up being things like standardized stories and corporate outlets relying on basically a pre written script to sell a story. [00:25:15] Speaker A: Yeah. What you basically wind up with is a scenario where you've got pre recorded answers to an interview. So let's say that it's a 10 question interview. Some stations will get all 10 questions, some will get seven, some will get three based on the amount of time coverage they're going to give it. And what they're going to get is a package where they have the footage of the answers with audio and a script for what their reporter needs to say. And then their editor stitches all that together and makes it sound and kind of look like they were together. But the tip here is if you don't see the reporter and the interviewee in the same room, they probably weren't. Hell, they may have never met. [00:25:57] Speaker B: Another issue that comes up from this is the influence of corporate agendas, choosing what to and what not to report on. The first thing I think of is, again, I'm just going to keep referencing pop culture. Futurama Professor Farnsworth is, whenever he is offered money, he will destroy an entire ecosystem. [00:26:25] Speaker A: I don't know about this. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Okay, so in Futurama, Professor Farnsworth is a scientist, right? And there are times when Amy's parents, who live on Mars, a lot of money, will say, hey, we want to get rid of this so we can build a huge golf course. It'll be harmful to the environment. But they'll need a environmental pass from a scientist. So they'll go to Farnsworth, hand them a stack of cash, and say, this won't hurt the environment. Right Then, oh yeah, no it won't. And that's like what the corporate agenda makes me think of is like, you know, if they want to build a factory somewhere that, you know is going to destroy a local ecosystem, we're not going to talk about that local ecosystem dying and what it could do to the rest of the immediate area beyond the news. Exactly. [00:27:15] Speaker A: Or it'll be an afterthought. [00:27:16] Speaker B: So we've laid out the problem, we've seen the consequences, and we've even glimpsed some potential solutions. But for our listeners out there, the big question is, what can we do about this? It feels like a huge systemic issue. [00:27:32] Speaker A: It is a big issue, Bobby, but that doesn't mean we're powerless. Right. There are definitely concrete steps our listeners can take to push back against this trend and support the kind of local journalism that our communities desperately need. One of the most direct things is to actively seek out and support independent local news sources. This could mean subscribing to a local online publication, donating to a community funded news project, or even tuning into community radio. We need to consciously direct our attention and our dollars toward the news organizations that are truly invested in our communities. [00:28:07] Speaker B: And it's not just about where we get our news, but also how we consume it. Right. We need to be more critical of the information we're getting, even from sources that claim to be local. [00:28:20] Speaker A: We need to ask those crucial questions. Who owns this outlet? What are their potential biases? Are they actually providing in depth coverage of local issues? Or are they just regurgitating national talking points? We need to become more discerning news consumers and demand more from our local media. And on a broader level, we can also support initiatives that advocate for policies that promote media diversity and prevent further consolidation. So, yeah, let's talk about this. Where would you start? [00:28:50] Speaker B: I would. I would say one of the first and easiest steps is just becoming a conscious consumer of news. Look into the news outlet that you're watching and see where they put their money, they're donating to certain organizations and see if you align with it. [00:29:11] Speaker A: I can jump directly to another one that I look at and it's pretty obvious, but it's out there is direct financial support. You know, there are all sorts of ways that you can support your favorite journalists. Most sources of news and information nowadays have things like subscriptions, memberships, or donations. You want to look at that and say, okay, is this particular outlet worthy of my time? If it is, then go ahead and vote with a couple dollars. It doesn't have to be much to make a difference. [00:29:39] Speaker B: You can also start getting involved in your local community. Maybe go to your local college campus and talk to their journalists or their radio. See what their perspective is. Make their websites known. Make sure you're getting diverse views on what's going on in your area. [00:30:01] Speaker A: Yeah, Cool. [00:30:03] Speaker B: And, oh, yeah, a very basic one. Spread the word. Talk to your family about this. Talk to your family about thinking critically about where they're getting your news from. Make sure Aunt Cheryl isn't getting her news from that Minions meme on Facebook. And also double check what news channels she's watching. [00:30:24] Speaker A: And if necessary, use parental controls. [00:30:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's the best one. That's the best one. It's so good. It's really easy. Parental controls on TVs, everything's a smart TV. Just block them out of it. They don't know. Make the password like lgbtqia. Plus, make it the whole thing. Make it something they would never know. It is very important to spread the word about thinking critically when it comes to digesting news and supporting your real local news, not just what corporate agendas have that they want you to hear. The state of local news in America is at a critical juncture. The trend towards corporate consolidation poses a real threat to the health and vitality of our communities and our democracy. [00:31:17] Speaker A: But it's not a done deal. We have the power to shape the future of our local news. By being informed, by supporting independent journalism, and by demanding accountability, we can help ensure that our communities don't go dark. The stories of our towns, our cities, our Neighbors, they matter. And it's up to all of us to make sure those stories continue to be told by the people who actually live here. For the people who live here. And that was big thoughts. All right, boys and girls, it is time for Freedom Fumbles in this week's edition of you can't make this Shit up, per Yahoo News. Have you heard of this company called Colossal? [00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw some things about what we're about to speak about. [00:32:05] Speaker A: So Colossal gets out there and says, we have resurrected the direwolf from extinction. Look, there are puppies. Only shows pictures of these puppies. But when you dig into their published research, you find they did not, in fact, resurrect dire wolves. They placed two genes from them into modern wolves. And then they made a huge publicity event out of de extinction. All right, so the super geniuses over in our executive branch get wind of this. [00:32:37] Speaker B: You can't say de extinct when you have that clown. [00:32:43] Speaker A: No, you can't. Because immediately they all started talking about how there shouldn't be an endangered species list anymore. Because now you can just call Colossal and de extinct whatever you want. You just tell them what you need, and they'll be extinct. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Yep. [00:32:54] Speaker A: All right, man. I need a T. Rex delivered. So you get the idea. Like, these guys just took it and ran with it as an excuse, just a blind excuse me, to stop caring about endangered species. Like, what is going on? I burn the world. Give me money, Screw it, I won't be alive in 50 years. Is that the thesis? [00:33:14] Speaker B: These guys feels like it. How much can they fuck up before they die? [00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So that was Freedom Fumble number one. Like I said, you can't make this shit up. But then freedom from number two. Tell me all about that. [00:33:26] Speaker B: I hate Katy Perry so much. I really do. And other queers look at me wrong, and I'm like, look into who that is as a person. I hate Katy Perry so much. So Katy Perry went to space. [00:33:39] Speaker A: We're using the term space loosely, right? [00:33:41] Speaker B: So I have seen a lot of discourse going on about, oh, they didn't go to space. People are trying to turn this into the conspiracy theory of we didn't land on the moon. That's serious. That's serious. But they went sub orbit. [00:33:55] Speaker A: They didn't quite make it all the way out. [00:33:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:57] Speaker A: So, like, that's what Blue Origin does. They're suborbital. Yeah, they said it was going to encourage STEM amongst young girls. [00:34:04] Speaker B: I don't think so. [00:34:06] Speaker A: I'm not high. You're high. [00:34:08] Speaker B: I mean, when you have women like Sally Ride. Sally Ride inspires girls in stem. She was also the first woman to go to space. She had to deal with the whole, how many tampons you need? Here's 100 for a week in space. [00:34:23] Speaker A: Because the men had no clue. [00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah, but this whole stunt of rich women going to space wasn't inspiring. [00:34:33] Speaker A: No, not at all. It was an 11 minute long freak show. And when she gets back, she kisses the ground. [00:34:38] Speaker B: Okay, the next Freedom Fumble. [00:34:42] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:34:42] Speaker B: Hi, United States. We are currently in an egg shortage. That's why the price of eggs is so high. [00:34:49] Speaker A: So Biden did it. [00:34:51] Speaker B: So we're in the midst of an egg shortage. And what this too Paid Orange decided to do is to say, you know what? For easter this year, 30,000 real eggs. [00:35:02] Speaker A: I think they use wooden eggs. If I remember correctly, the White House had wooden eggs that were very old. [00:35:07] Speaker B: Okay. [00:35:08] Speaker A: I'd have to check into that, though. But I'm pretty sure they had some antique wooden eggs that they've used forever. [00:35:13] Speaker B: Well, but not this year. This year, toddlers are crying because they're cracking open real eggs. [00:35:19] Speaker A: It's hysterical. Of all the things to do to show that you don't care about what's going on with the average person is. [00:35:26] Speaker B: To take a source and throw it on the lawn is trash. [00:35:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Wow. So that was Freedom Fumbles. And there were some standard fumbles. Man. There were some hardcore fumbles. I wish we had funnier fumbles this week. You want to tell me about big wins this week? [00:35:44] Speaker B: Big wins. Keep going with those DEI boycotts. I'm gonna read some of the actual numbers because I'm not a number number person. [00:35:54] Speaker A: I don't remember. I might need notes. [00:35:55] Speaker B: In February 2025, the first month of boycotts, Target's foot traffic was down 9.5%. According to Placer AI, the week of March 31, Target store traffic was down 7.9% compared to the previous year. In Arizona, foot traffic in March was down 7% compared to a year ago. According to Placer AI, target stock price is down on April 14 hit the lowest point in five years at $94. At the end of January, the price per share was $142. So we are actually making waves. We're not going to bankrupt them in. [00:36:40] Speaker A: A night, but you can make it again. Boycotts work. [00:36:42] Speaker B: Boycotts work. It's making an impact. Don't think it's doing nothing. I think we're still working with boycotting Walmart and Amazon. Those are two much bigger ones that are Difficult to get to. But if you can at any point when you go to Amazon, buy that thing from the actual maker instead of Amazon. [00:37:03] Speaker A: I just did it. With our new mics, we're going to sound so much sexier next week. A who I'll be able to use my ASMR voice. [00:37:10] Speaker B: So. [00:37:10] Speaker A: So I've got a feel good story this week. Little Michigan town residents of all ages came together and created a 300 person human chain. They called it the Book Brigade. They stood in two lines running along the sidewalk in downtown Chelsea in Michigan last Sunday. Not the most recent Sunday, but the Sunday prior. They basically passed each title, each book from Serendipity Book's former location directly to the correct shelves in the new building, down the block and around the corner. Yeah, it's one of those scenarios where everybody came together, not because of politics or divisive stuff, but to do something good for a member of the community. We need more of that. [00:37:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we definitely need more of that. So there were nationwide protests against the Trump administration. What were they called? [00:38:02] Speaker A: It was. These were organized by the 50:51 protest group. [00:38:05] Speaker B: Okay. [00:38:06] Speaker A: On their website, which I will attempt to throw in the episode notes. [00:38:09] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:38:10] Speaker A: But yeah, it's another round of protest against Trump, against his regime and against the shit they're pulling. Like I said last episode, now is the time to think about whether or not you want to join one of these. Because we need to be heard. We all need to be heard, all of us, when they're trying to rip apart our government and replace it with something from a bad dystopian horror film. [00:38:29] Speaker B: Yeah. The fact that those types of protests are going nationwide is huge. It's huge. And it needs to keep happening and just keep going out there, keep the pressure up. Steps are being taken. Cool. [00:38:42] Speaker A: So every week we like to talk about things we can do. And this week we talked a lot about local news and local journalism. And I came up with three, Bobby. The first one and the third one are actually the same one. So I came up with two. And the first one, the obvious one, is fact check things. When in doubt, check your news. Just because it claims to be news doesn't mean it's unbiased, real, or 100% truthful. In order to fact check, you need to do two things. You need to check other sources and you need to read the credits, see who produces your show, who's associated with it, and who owns it. Go and look those people up if you need to. If it turns out that what you're watching is owned by a national or multinational conglomerate with a specific set of interests. You can bet your bottom dollar that yours aren't being represented. Yeah, read the credits and see who's behind your local news channels and newspapers. And try to stick to the ones that are actually local and still independent. [00:39:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Alright folks, that's our time for this week. We hope you're now armed with some critical perspectives on the shifting sands of our local news landscape. It's a fight worth having to keep our communities informed and our powerful in check. But next time on Critical Defiance, we're shifting gears to wrestle with something that's often a lot more personal and frankly, a a bit of a minefield. The complicated relationship between art, the artist and, well, when those artists turn out to be problematic. [00:40:17] Speaker A: Join us for Beyond Good and Evil Art Consumption and the Problematic Creator. We'll be diving into the thorny questions of whether we can or should separate the art from the artist when creators have engaged in harmful or offensive behavior behavior Can a brilliant song still move us if the singer is a terrible person? Does a groundbreaking film lose its impact if the director is exposed as abusive? We'll be grappling with these uncomfortable truths and exploring how our consumption of art reflects our values and our willingness to confront uncomfortable realities. Trust us, this is going to be a conversation you won't want to miss. Until then, keep questioning everything and stay defiant. If you'd like to check out the show notes, sign up for our newsletter or find out some more about us. Head over to critical defiance.com don't forget to add us on Spotify or your favorite podcast app. Hit the like button wherever you can and follow us on social media. You can find out where on our website or search for us like it's the Dark Ages. We're thanking you in advance because it's really important to us to get our subscriber numbers up and that we have a good number of listeners. We haven't gotten you all to hit the button yet, so please, please go hit the button. Hit the button. [00:41:32] Speaker B: Until next time, stay curious, stay critical, and stay defiant.