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Jan. 17, 2017 - The Ben Shapiro Show

21:21

Ep. 235 - So, Does Anybody Care About The Truth Anymore?

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	Donald Trump has not been a fan of the intelligence community.
	For months, he denied, over and over and over and over and over again, the intelligence community's conclusions that the Russian government actors were behind the WikiLeaks targeting Hillary Clinton.
	Now, Trump accuses the intelligence community of leaking information about a confidential briefing.
	Trump went on a rampage on Twitter against the intelligence community over the leaks.
	He said, quote, intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to leak into the public.
	One last shot at me.
	Are we living in Nazi Germany?
	Trump says the briefing did not include information from the now infamous BuzzFeed report that accused Trump of being in bed or peeing on the bed with the Russians.
	Director of National Intelligence James Clapper suggests that Trump was informed of such reports and says the intelligence community was not responsible for the leaks.
	Is the intelligence community at war with Trump?
	If so, that's no real shock.
	Commentators have said for months that anyone who attacks the intelligence community will find themselves on the wrong end of nasty leaks.
	Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened Trump, quote, Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you.
	So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he is being really dumb to do this.
	And the left has accused the intelligence community of tossing the election to Trump as a way of targeting Hillary Clinton thanks to FBI Director James Comey's announcement a week and a half before the election that Hillary's emails were still under investigation.
	This is actually kind of frightening stuff.
	The intelligence community is not its own government.
	Independent executive agencies that have access to classified information are inherently dangerous.
	They require a high level of trust to function well in a democracy.
	Pitting them against democratically elected political actors is a recipe for destroying both the credibility of the intelligence community and the credibility of those government actors.
	It creates the perception that a shadow government has the power to destroy politicians and that they're willing to do so.
	And it appears that such fear isn't totally ill-founded.
	According to The Guardian, quote, Is that legitimate?
	We don't know.
	Is it revenge on Trump for his constant stream of criticism of the intelligence community?
	We don't know.
	He says, Most of all, it could cripple trust Americans have in government and the people tasked with keeping us safe.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
	All righty, so we have lots to get to today.
	We're going to talk a little bit about the Dadaesque politics into which we have descended.
	Basically, everything in politics is now a naked guy in a trash can spewing random words at you, and you have no idea what's going on.
	But you know that it's hilarious.
	That's essentially what it's come down to.
	If you've never been to a piece of Dada theater, it's the most bizarre crap you'll ever see.
	It's always some random guy who for no reason in the middle of the show just gets nude and runs around, and then everybody cheers because they think that there's a deeper meaning underlying it.
	That's sort of what our politics has become, except we either root for or against the naked guy.
	That's pretty much what our politics would be.
	We'll get to all of that in just a second.
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	Okay, so the world is still falling apart over this whole BuzzFeed CNN Donald Trump hubbub.
	Everything is crazy towns.
	And it seems like nobody has much of an interest in the truth.
	And as I said yesterday, and near the end of the show, Usually politics takes place on a chart, and the chart goes like this.
	On the Y-axis, top to bottom, you have Republicans to Democrats, right?
	And there are people who are anywhere on that spectrum.
	And then you have an X-axis, and on the X-axis, it is truth to falsehood.
	It's truth to non-truth.
	And it seems lately like the x-axis has disappeared.
	Nobody really cares about truth.
	And so today's show is going to be an exercise in showing just how little people seem to care about the truth or intellectual honesty or decency and how it's all turned into just partisan bickering and bashing each other, which doesn't do the country any good and isn't likely to inculcate any sort of trust in Americans for either the government or the political process, which of course leads to the rise of demagogues.
	And it's all very dangerous stuff.
	It's all not good stuff.
	Basically, here's my theory about how 2016 went.
	2016, the Trump revolution, it really was all of the chickens coming home to roost.
	People didn't trust the media, Trump ripped the media, the chicken came home to roost.
	People didn't trust Obama, the chicken came home to roost in the form of Donald Trump.
	Lots of chickens coming home to roost.
	The problem is, the left spent so long Maintaining this facade that politics is decent, while ripping away at the heart of politics, ripping away at truth and decency, lying routinely, ripping their opponents, but then putting this false facade of decency and smoothness on top, that eventually people said, screw it, we don't need the facade anymore, this whole thing is a joke.
	All the chickens have come home to roost at once.
	And what that means is that there are too many chickens in the coop now.
	The whole thing is going to explode.
	All the chickens are pecking at each other and eating each other, and there's not going to be any chicken left for supper because they're all going to cannibalize one another.
	And that's what we're watching right now.
	If it feels chaotic, it's because it is chaotic.
	So the media is cannibalizing itself.
	The politicians are cannibalizing each other.
	The media are cannibalizing the politicians.
	The politicians are cannibalizing the media.
	Now, normally, I really like conflict in politics because I think it keeps everybody honest.
	But what seems to be happening is because everybody has fallen into such partisan traps and refused to acknowledge any sort of truth at all, and even the notion of objective truth has gone away, instead what you have is chaos not in service I'm trying to get at the truth, but chaos for its own sake.
	Chaos just for the team sport of it.
	So we begin today with BuzzFeed falling apart.
	So BuzzFeed obviously made a mockery of itself by releasing this 35-page memo that includes all of these ridiculous allegations against President-elect Trump.
	Everybody was ripping them up and down.
	Not everybody, actually.
	Nate Silver came out and defended them, which is odd because I don't remember Nate Silver defending other people who released unverified rumors years ago.
	But nonetheless, Most of the media are very unhappy with BuzzFeed for having released this 35-page memo.
	And for good reason.
	If you're the media and you're out to get Trump, then BuzzFeed is the worst thing that ever happened.
	Because BuzzFeed allowed Donald Trump to glom you all in with BuzzFeed.
	BuzzFeed allowed Donald Trump to play the The Media's Awful card, and that's a very powerful card to play.
	And he's right.
	BuzzFeed was awful.
	So Chuck Todd over at NBC News, he had on Ben Smith of BuzzFeed, and he asked him some questions as to why exactly he had released what even Chuck Todd is calling fake news.
	When Chuck Todd is tearing apart BuzzFeed, and for good reason, you know that things are wild.
	When Chuck Todd is suddenly the guardian of truth and justice in the media, you know that things are going crazy.
	So there are really two questions for the media today, and they all come back to the same question.
	Does the media owe Donald Trump an apology?
	Does the media owe Donald Trump an apology?
	So there are two issues here.
	And the reason I ask that is because, as we'll see in a minute, there are a lot of people demanding that CNN apologize to Donald Trump.
	So, there are two things that happened yesterday that are controversial.
	One is the CNN reporter accosting Trump at the press conference and yelling at him and Trump shutting him down.
	And the other thing is the actual CNN report.
	They owe an apology for the CNN report.
	So, to give the background again, the CNN report claimed that intelligence community officials briefed Donald Trump They briefed Donald Trump on these rumors that were going around regarding his relationship with Russia.
	They briefed President Obama about that also.
	That basically, CNN reported that Trump received a summary of information contained in a series of memos that talked about his relationship with Russia.
	CNN says that Trump was informed of this.
	Trump denies that.
	Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Who was the one who supposedly gave the report?
	He released this statement today.
	He said, We also discussed the private security company document, which was widely circulated in recent months among the media, members of Congress, and congressional staff even before the intelligence community became aware of it.
	I emphasize that this document is not a U.S.
	Intel community product.
	I do not believe the leaks came from within the intelligence community.
	This is his phone call with Trump today.
	The intelligence community has not made any judgment that the information in the document is reliable.
	We did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions.
	However, part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.
	So Clapper seems to be backing up the CNN report, right?
	That's what that last sentence means.
	Why else would he say it's our obligation to ensure policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture?
	That means that we showed Trump the document, right?
	We talked to Trump about the document.
	Trump denies that.
	Okay, so the CNN report, at the very least, is disputed.
	It is not an openly false report, as opposed to the stuff that BuzzFeed released, which is completely unverified and unverifiable, as even BuzzFeed acknowledges.
	So, that's question number two.
	Does CNN have to apologize to Trump for that report?
	So, we start with the first question.
	Should Donald Trump get an apology from a CNN reporter for this big blow-up yesterday in which Donald Trump shouted fake news at CNN?
	Here's what that blow-up looked like, in case you missed it yesterday.
	It's a disgrace, and I think they ought to apologize to start with Michael Cohen.
	Since you're attacking us, can you give us a question?
	Go ahead.
	No, Mr. President-elect.
	Go ahead.
	Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance?
	Your organization is terrible.
	You are attacking our news organization.
	Your organization is terrible.
	Can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?
	Go ahead.
	Sir, can you stay...
	She's asking a question.
	Don't be rude.
	Don't be rude.
	I'm not going to give you a question.
	You are fake news.
	Mr. President-elect, can you give us a question?
	Go ahead.
	Don't be rude.
	You're attacking us.
	Can you give us a question?
	Don't be rude.
	No, I'm not going to give you a question.
	I'm not going to give you a question.
	Can you stay categorically?
	You are fake news.
	Sir, can you stay categorically that nobody?
	No, Mr. President-elect, that's not appropriate.
	Okay, so this, of course, made all the rounds, and this made people very, very upset on the Trump side of the IOP.
	People were going crazy saying CNN should apologize.
	Here's a congressperson who says that he wants Jim Acosta fired.
	That's the CNN reporter.
	Here's Randy Weber from the 14th district in Texas.
	He says, the CNN reporter who was disruptive to the press briefing and disrespectful to Trump should be fired and prohibited from any press briefings.
	And other people on the right have said this too.
	So Sean Spicer says also CNN should apologize for this reporter shouting at him here as the White House incoming press secretary.
	The office of President-elect of President of the United States deserves a level of respect.
	And having a reporter stand up and basically yell and scream and act as inappropriately and rude as he did is a disgrace.
	We're better than that.
	And he was an embarrassment to the press corps.
	Frankly, beyond the embarrassment that he caused to the President-elect, I think he's an embarrassment to the press corps.
	Because the rest of the press was behaving appropriately, raising their hand, asked to have questions asked.
	His network had already had a question answered.
	And I think he owes an apology not just to the president-elect, but to the entire press corps for his inappropriate behavior.
	Okay, and Sarah Palin put out a statement that was very similar, really, really going after this reporter from CNN and suggesting that these journalists ought to be slammed by Trump.
	It says, thank God, really, literally, thank God we're not facing a third Obama term.
	If you caught President-elect Trump's first presser today, you saw it.
	Thank you for creating the movement that shook things up to get America on the right road.
	And then she says, these journalists, bad characters that they are, hurt our nation tremendously.
	They disrespect those who fought and died to protect America's freedom of the press.
	They spit on the graves of our veterans.
	We deem those reporters and their publications irrelevant now.
	Hope in this arena soars upon seeing a fearless leader take on injustice.
	Appreciation fills our heart when our new president exudes our collective red, white, and blue courage in the face of purveyors of yellow journalism.
	Press members have worked as a herd of lost lazy little sheep.
	The herd is now decimated.
	And an interesting language.
	So she obviously is very thrilled with all that.
	And a lot of people are thrilled with Trump quashing this reporter, Jim Acosta.
	And a lot of people are very, very excited about all of this.
	Now, as I say, as I say, we'll get to sort of my response to all of this in a second.
	It's, it's, It's very frustrating to lack intellectual honesty.
	And let's be real about this.
	There's a lack of intellectual honesty.
	When the press was kissing Obama's ass, everybody on the right was very upset about it.
	But when Matthew Boyle of Breitbart asks a question like this to Donald Trump, nobody on the right seems particularly upset.
	Here's Matthew Boyle of Breitbart asking a question to Donald Trump.
	Well, I don't recommend reforms.
	I recommend people that have some moral compass.
	and all the problems that we've seen throughout the media over the course of the election.
	What reforms do you recommend for this industry here?
	Well, I don't recommend reforms.
	I recommend people that have some moral compass.
	You know, I've been hearing more and more about a thing called fake news, and they're talking about people that go and say all sorts of things.
	But I will tell you, some of the media outlets that I deal with are fake news, more so than anybody.
	I could name them, but I won't bother, but you have a few sitting right in front of us.
	Okay, so the right responds to all of this stuff with CNN and BuzzFeed by basically becoming what the left was to Obama, right?
	You see Matt Boyle just kissing Trump's rear.
	And again, we'll talk in a second about the hypocrisy that exists on the right, then we'll get to the hypocrisy that exists on the left, which is truly astonishing, it really is.
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	All right.
	So I would like to just remind the right before they go completely nuts over this Jim Acosta routine where he said something to a reporter and they say it's so great that Trump quashed it.
	Flashback.
	This is Neil Monroe.
	Neil Monroe is a reporter for the Daily Caller, or was a reporter for the Daily Caller, and this is him at a press conference Barack Obama was holding back in 2013.
	Driven, patriotic young people.
	It is the right thing to do.
	Excuse me, sir.
	It's not time for questions, sir.
	Not while I'm speaking.
	So that was Neil Monroe jumping in while Obama was talking and asking him a question as to why he was treating illegal immigrants better than American citizens.
	Tucker Carlson, who was, you know, kind of egging Sean Spicer along, calling for an apology from Jim Acosta.
	I'm old enough to remember when Tucker Carlson defended his reporter, Neil Monroe.
	In fact, he went ahead and he said that Neil Monroe was doing a service at the time.
	He said, quote, this is what reporters are supposed to do.
	They're supposed to get their questions answered.
	It's hard to know what's wrong with asking the president a question.
	So now the shoe's on the other foot, and of course, nobody cares about the truth, so we all have to pretend that something great and glorious happened here, as opposed to the CNN reporter asked a question, Trump ignored him.
	Trump has every right to do that.
	The reporter has every right to badger Trump.
	I like the adversarial relationship.
	I think it's actually something that's kind of good.
	Okay, so that's how the right responded.
	The left responded with similarly absurd Ridiculous hypocrisy.
	So here's how the left responded to all this.
	So Trevor Noah, the least funny person in America, he and Amy Schumer have been, and Lena Dunham, have been a three-way running gun battle for that title, the least funny person in the United States.
	Trevor Noah from Comedy Central, he says that this was a frightening moment, that this moment at the press conference where Trump steamrolled Jim Acosta, that was a frightening moment.
	You know what, honestly?
	That was one of the most frightening moments of today's presser for me.
	Because in America, the press is supposed to be a check on the president, not the other way around.
	And you realize this is essentially the first step in the authoritarian tango.
	That's what you do.
	You shut down one news organization by alleging that it's all fake.
	That's your move, all right?
	And then if you get away with it, you can shut down another news network.
	And then you can shut down another news network.
	Shut them down, shut them down.
	Until all that's left is breaking news.
	Has President Trump been working out?
	Okay, so I love the fact that the left is now suddenly on board with the idea that it's terrible to shut down news networks.
	When Barack Obama was ripping Fox News regularly, wouldn't do an interview with them virtually the entire news cycle.
	When he was campaigning in 2008, he threw reporters he didn't like off his campaign plane.
	Now the left magically has discovered that it's bad when some of their own reporters come in Trump's crosshairs.
	Again, I want to show you.
	This is how the left responded to Neil Munro.
	Remember I just showed you the Neil Munro video and the right said, good for Neil Munro?
	Here's how the left responded to Neil Munro.
	This is from MSNBC at the time.
	There's actually been some genuine bipartisan agreement on Mr. Munro's actions there.
	I would hope so.
	I mean, no one questions the right of any American, but particularly a journalist, asking the President of the United States a question.
	Where Neil Munro crossed the line by a mile is by questioning the President before he even finished speaking, one, and also yelling out a question where he knew questions wouldn't be entertained.
	Okay, shut up, Jonathan.
	Shut up.
	I'm asking you a question.
	I'm not interrupting you.
	Shut up.
	Crystal, there are some true believers who are actually defending Mr. Monroe, as you know.
	And on Fox, they were suggesting a parallel with a moment from the Iran-Contra scandal where the press and Reagan had a similar kind of conflict.
	But as I understand it, he'd actually finished.
	Right.
	Similar, except for one important thing, which is that he had actually finished his statement before the question was lobbed.
	But, you know, credit where credit is due.
	It's good to see some criticism from Fox News to Neil Monroe.
	Okay, so they're all happy that there was criticism of Neil Munro.
	Now, Jim Acosta's the great hero of the same people on the left.
	I love how Jonathan Capehart basically implies that Neil Munro's a racist for asking a question in the middle of Obama's statement, which is pretty incredible.
	We have to take a break on Facebook.
	If you want to see the rest, then you'll have to go over to dailywire.com and check it out there.
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