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Feb. 3, 2022 - The Ben Shapiro Show

47:36

Why Do People Trust Rogan Over CNN? Here’s Why. | Ep. 1426

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	Jeff Zucker resigns from CNN over revelations he was stooping his closest colleague, who happens to be a former comms director for Andrew Cuomo.
	Plus, Whoopi Goldberg reportedly says she might quit The View.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
	Today's show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
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	We'll get to all the news in just one moment.
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	All righty, so the big story of the day is that the head of CNN is no longer the head of CNN.
	Now you'll remember, it was just about three days ago when Brian Stelter, the official propagandist for the most trusted name in news, went on national television and suggested that people are terrible for trusting Joe Rogan, because after all, Joe Rogan has on a wide variety of guests.
	And those guests include people who are not approved by the administration.
	I mean, even the White House has come out in the last 48 hours and suggested that Spotify needs to crack down more on people like Joe Rogan, which is indeed violative of basic First Amendment principles.
	When the government is telling private industry to crack down on speech, that turns those private industries into agents of the government.
	Okay, but for Brian Stelter and CNN, the main question isn't why haven't we at CNN lost credibility?
	It's why do people trust Joe Rogan?
	And so here was Brian Stelter just three days ago, just befuddled at why people would trust Joe Rogan rather than CNN.
	You think about major newsrooms like CNN that have health departments and desks and operations that work hard on verifying information on COVID-19.
	And then you have talk show stars like Joe Rogan who just wing it, who make it up as they go along.
	And because figures like Rogan are trusted by people that don't trust real newsrooms, we have a tension, a problem that's much bigger than Spotify, much bigger than any single platform, Kate.
	But that's what is the heart of this right now.
	Man, why wouldn't people trust CNN?
	I mean, they're so trustworthy.
	All they do all day is fact-checking.
	All they do all day long is objectivity.
	All they do all day long is uncover the muck and grime of everyday politics and expose it to public view, some might being the best disinfectant.
	Unless, of course, you're at the top level of CNN and you're stooping your top deputy.
	And, as it turns out, your top deputy also worked for Andrew Cuomo.
	Because that's exactly what happened.
	So yesterday, Jeff Zucker abruptly stepped down from his post at the top of CNN, according to the New York Times.
	Jeff Zucker resigned on Wednesday as president of CNN, departing one of the most powerful positions in American media after acknowledging he had failed to disclose a romantic relationship with another senior executive at the network.
	A sudden end of Mr. Zucker's nine-year tenure stunned his newsroom and threw CNN's future into flux at a crucial moment.
	The network was about to introduce a high-stakes streaming service, and its parent company, WarnerMedia, is on the verge of being acquired by Discovery, Inc.
	Mr. Zucker, 56, wrote in a memo on Wednesday his relationship had come up during an internal investigation into the conduct of Chris Cuomo, the CNN anchor who was fired in December over his involvement in the political affairs of his brother, former Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York.
	Zucker wrote, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I've worked with for more than 20 years.
	I acknowledge the relationship evolved in recent years.
	I was required to disclose it when it began, but I didn't.
	I was wrong.
	He was referring to Alison Gollust, CNN's executive vice president and one of the network's highest ranking leaders, who said on Wednesday, she would keep her job at CNN.
	She wasn't going to go anywhere because after all, when corruption goes all the way to the top, the only person who needs to lose his job is Zucker, not Gollust.
	Who was sleeping with Zucker.
	I believe they both got divorced in 2018.
	Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years.
	Recently, our relationship changed during COVID.
	I regret we didn't disclose it at the right time.
	Both Zucker and Gala started divorce, I believe they both got divorced in 2018, but they had this very weird living arrangement going back decades apparently, where the two families lived like one above another in the same apartment building.
	It was commented on by Katie Couric in her autobiography.
	Zucker is also leaving his role as WarnerMedia's chairman of news and sports.
	In keeping with a career at the center of the news industry, Mr. Zucker's exit on Wednesday was entwined with another dramatic storyline, according to the New York Times, the downfall of the once powerful Cuomo brothers.
	So what exactly happened here?
	Apparently, it was the biggest open secret in news that Jeff Zucker has been nailing Allison Gallas.
	Like, this is not a giant secret in the news industry.
	Megyn Kelly said this yesterday.
	She says everybody has known for a very, very long time about the relationship between these two.
	And as I mentioned, there was overt talk about this in Katie Couric's autobiography.
	Like, in her autobiography, she openly describes the sort of bizarre relationship between Katie Couric and Jeff Zucker.
	Here's her autobiography, quote, It was a little weird.
	With the Today Show, I just kind of came on and people responded.
	Here, there was product testing.
	It didn't feel organic.
	She's talking about when she was given nightly news.
	At a certain point, Jeff made a huge push to bring on Allison Gallist.
	When we worked together at NBC, she and Jeff cooked up ever bolder ways to draw attention to today, and later to Jeff himself when he moved to entertainment.
	They were joined at the hip.
	The problem was we'd already hired a PR person for the show that really wasn't a role for Allison.
	Jeff asked me to meet with her anyway.
	One weekend when I was out in the Hamptons, I went over to her house and told her what I'd already told Jeff.
	That we had the communications piece of it covered.
	And there just wasn't a job there.
	What we needed were talented producers.
	ABC was paying Jeff and me a ton of money.
	I was also an EP of the show.
	My name was on it.
	I felt a certain responsibility to spend the money wisely and have some real agency in the decision making.
	I had to wonder why Jeff was angling so hard to bring Allison on board.
	She and her husband and kids had moved into the apartment right above Jeff and Karen's.
	Everyone who heard about the cozy arrangement thought it was super strange.
	By that point, Karen had become a close friend.
	It made me really uncomfortable.
	And then she continues that when Jeff Zucker got fired, she says that Jeff Zucker got fired, and then Zucker asked Couric to call up Jeff Bukes, who is the CEO of Time Warner, and put in a good word at CNN.
	Apparently, Zucker said to Katie Couric, this is my last chance to have a big job like this.
	And of course, if you want it, there will be a job for you, too.
	In those eight seconds while he waited for my answer, says Katie Couric, our time together flashed before my eyes.
	The excitement and fun, the teamwork, the unstoppable ascent.
	Yes, he'd been a huge disappointment.
	But in spite of everything, we've been through so much together.
	I also knew the news had always been his sweet spot, and CNN would be a much better fit.
	Of course I would, I told him.
	On November 29th, Jeff was named president of CNN.
	His first hire?
	Allison Gallist.
	So this has been a not particularly closed secret in the media industry for a long time.
	So the question is, why now?
	And why does it matter?
	We'll get to that in just one moment.
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	Okay, so...
	The question is, why this matters?
	And the answer is, because Al Sengal's relationship with Andrew Cuomo is one of the reasons why Chris Cuomo ended up being fired, apparently, according to Eric Wemple of the Washington Post.
	Chris Cuomo suggests that all of the bizarre segments that they had in 2020, when CNN was attempting to prop up Andrew Cuomo as the greatest governor in America, while he simultaneously shoved COVID-positive elderly people back into nursing homes, killing thousands of them, and then covering it up by saying that they were dying in the hospitals, not in the nursing homes.
	CNN was having these Knightley Smothers Brothers routines where Chris would go on air and he would do jokes with Andrew Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo was feted as the greatest politician since Winston Churchill.
	He was just an incredible leader in a time of great trauma and tragedy.
	So the question is, how are those segments getting on the air?
	This is Chris's point.
	He's saying, you fired me for helping out my brother.
	Well, I was on air talking with my brother.
	But you guys had to approve all those segments.
	And it turns out not only, according to Eric Wemple, did you approve those segments, you solicited those segments.
	Apparently, the Cuomo team, Andrew Cuomo's team, started getting a little bit perturbed by how often CNN wanted to have him on.
	And so apparently, Allison Golas, who had once been Andrew Cuomo's comms director, called up the team for Andrew Cuomo.
	Again, this is according to Eric Wemple.
	And basically convinced him he needed to come on air at CNN.
	So Chris Cuomo, who got fired for his relationship with his brother, on air and off air, got fired over that.
	Now he is suing.
	And because he is suing, he wants all sorts of discovery on exactly who at CNN was involved in putting those segments on the air.
	Well, in the course of this, it came up that both Jeff Zucker and Alison Golis had been reaching out to Team Andrew Cuomo in the middle of all of this.
	Which just shows you how perverse all of this is.
	It's personally incestuous.
	It's politically incestuous.
	All of these people hang out with each other all the time.
	They're best friends with one another.
	It is all insider-driven.
	I mean, by the way, this is one of the reasons why CNN covered Trump the way that it did in 2015-2016.
	I mean, Jeff Zucker was very open about this.
	It was Jeff Zucker who put Donald Trump on air for The Apprentice in the first place.
	All these people know one another.
	According to the New York Times, Chris Cuomo has fiercely contested the terms of his departure from CNN.
	Mr. Cuomo has retained the powerful Hollywood litigator Brian Friedman.
	In discussions with WarnerMedia lawyers, Mr. Cuomo's legal team raised the subject of Zucker's relationship with Gallist, according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
	Early last week, both Zucker and Gallus were asked about their relationship by lawyers from Cravath, Swain, and Moore, a law firm that WarnerMedia had retained to investigate Cuomo's tenure at the network.
	Cravath is one of the most tony law firms in New York.
	Lawyers from Cravath were interviewing CNN officials broadly about Mr. Cuomo's tenure and the events that led to his termination, in part because CNN executives believed the dispute could eventually lead to litigation, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss company business.
	Mr. Cuomo's lawyers sent a letter asking CNN to preserve messages between Zucker, Gallust, Cuomo, and Cuomo's staff.
	Among other matters, days before Cuomo's firing, CNN had been informed of an accusation of sexual misconduct against the anchor by a former junior colleague at another network.
	Chris Cuomo has denied that accusation.
	WarnerMedia's chief executive Jason Killar spoke with Zucker after the interviews and informed the CNN president he could not remain at the company.
	Zucker offered to stay on for a transition period as the network found a new leader, but Killar rejected that suggestion, one of the people said.
	Apparently, Zucker has been absent from his usual editorial calls in recent days.
	But even some of his closest confidants had no idea he was on the verge of an exit.
	In the CNN newsroom, Zucker commands fierce loyalty.
	Well, that's because CNN doesn't do news anymore.
	CNN has really not done news since Zucker entered the picture.
	He basically hired a bunch of bizarre lapdog opinion hosts to host his nightly news.
	From Don Lemon, to Chris Cuomo, to Brandon Keillor, to... I mean, this is what they do at CNN.
	CNN is MSNBC masquerading as the most trusted name in news.
	Well, many of the anchors were very upset about this.
	Many of the anchors were quite perturbed.
	Alison Camerata, for example, she came out yesterday and she defended Jeff Zucker and said, I don't see why he should be fired just because he was shtipping one of the top executives of the company.
	I mean, that's personal business.
	Yeah, until you guys start actually using that personal business as an excuse to have an incestuous relationship with the people that you cover, which is exactly what was happening here.
	Here's Alison Camerata.
	This is an incredible loss.
	It's an incredible loss.
	Jeff is a remarkable person and an incredible leader.
	He has this uncanny ability to make, I think, every one of us feel special and valuable in our own way, even though he is managing an international news organization of thousands of people.
	I just know that he had this unique ability to make us feel special.
	And I don't think that that comes around all the time.
	And I think, again, it's an incredible loss.
	And I just think it's so regrettable how it happened.
	If what you're reporting is true, these are two consenting adults who are both executives.
	That they can't have a private relationship feels wrong.
	Okay, you know what actually feels wrong?
	It feels wrong that it seems as though Zucker was basically keeping Gallist along with him throughout his entire career, according to Katie Couric's autobiography, and also according to pretty much everybody else in media.
	Megyn Kelly, who knows all the players, she said yesterday, Zucker's relationship with Gallist went on for years.
	What he did to keep her near him, as he kept advancing her up the line, will be even more stunning to the CNN newsroom.
	Gallist, of course, is keeping her job.
	And as far as the claim that these two started shipping recently, Megyn Kelly said, yeah, that's not going to hold up.
	That's not even come close to holding up.
	That is just not real.
	And by the way, it is also worth noting here, as pointed out by some commentators over at Twitter, this is correct.
	That Radar Online originally broke this story.
	So Radar Online a month ago printed a photo of Gallust and Zucker together at a public event.
	And the day before that broke, the day before it broke, Brian Stelter wrote in his newsletter a hit piece on Radar Online talking about how Radar Online was totally untrustworthy.
	Literally 24 hours before the story broke about Zucker and Gallust.
	So it turns out that Stelter was sort of informed by the top levels.
	You got to attack Radar Online because they're about to uncover something we don't really want uncovered.
	Things start to get uncomfortable for Brian Stelter, which of course would not be a shock at all.
	At all, at all, at all.
	So that is the... Why would... But why?
	Why would people not trust CNN?
	Why are they trusting Joe Rogan?
	Oh, I don't know.
	You have Chris Cuomo, who apparently was sexually harassing people while he was covering his brother, who was also sexually harassing people.
	And also, his brother was killing old people, and Chris was interviewing him on air about that.
	Meanwhile, you have Jeffrey Toobin, who's jacking off on camera in front of all of his colleagues and he's still the legal analyst over at CNN.
	Also you have Don Lemon, who was currently enmeshed in a lawsuit with another guy who suggested that he was sexually harassing him.
	Also you have Jeff Zucker, who was nailing one of his top associates who he had dragged along with him his entire career and was also using as a go-between with Andrew Cuomo.
	Also you have producers at CNN who are engaged in apparently pedophilia.
	So why?
	I don't understand.
	It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a riddle.
	Who knows why people don't trust CNN?
	How could it be?
	Now again, a big company like CNN, you're going to get employees who do bad things.
	That does happen, of course.
	But when every top person at the network seems to be embroiled in some sort of sexual imbroglio and or news coverage failing, You have to start asking some questions as to whether the rot starts from the head down.
	Whether this entire fish is rotten.
	We'll get to the absolute shock being expressed by the CNN host in just one moment.
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	So apparently...
	All of the CNN hosts were in absolute shock and dismay because they were all personally hired by Jeff Zucker.
	Oliver Darcy tweeted out, staffers inside CNN are in absolute shock right now.
	Employees at the company learned of Zucker's sudden departure all at once via a company-wide email that went out just after 11 a.m.
	Brian Stelter for his part tweeted, Jeff Zucker just announced his resignation to a stunned CNN.
	I mean, I don't know why you're so stunned.
	I mean, it was pretty obvious that this was an investigation that had been going on internally at CNN for quite some time ever since Chris Cuomo.
	But you guys had no problem with Chris Cuomo covering Andrew the entire 2020.
	The poetic justice of this is just amazing to watch.
	You guys spent a year propping up the worst governor in America, Andrew Cuomo, as the best governor in America, while simultaneously attacking both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis as mass killers.
	You took Andrew Cuomo, you put him on air with his brother.
	They spent the entire year patting each other on the back, giving each other noogies, on air.
	This was all arranged by the heads of your network.
	Jeff Zucker and Gallist, and Allison Gallist, who were sleeping together, and who both had histories of being very close with the Cuomos.
	Then, when things got ugly, you took Chris Cuomo and you chopped off his head.
	And Chris Cuomo, who is not a shrinking violet, he immediately came back at you with a lawsuit that exposes That you are sleeping together and also we're involved in this whole debacle from the very beginning.
	Meanwhile, the only people who are still standing are like Ron DeSantis in Florida because Andrew Cuomo is out on his ass as governor because he couldn't keep his hands off ass as it turns out.
	So the poetic justice of all this is just wonderful.
	First of all, it exposes that Andrew Cuomo is political herpes.
	He's the gift that keeps on giving.
	He infects all the people around him, and then they have outbreaks of Andrew Cuomo every so often, debilitating outbreaks of Andrew Cuomo, and it completely destroys them.
	So don't get too close to Andrew Cuomo, gang, and this won't happen to you.
	But beyond that, the pure exposure of what CNN is from the top levels down, a corrupt organization that works hand in glove with its favorite political players, while simultaneously bashing places like Fox for being too close with Trump, Let's be real about this.
	CNN is not a news organization.
	CNN is an organization that has some news people at it, but overall it is an entertainment organization in which the personal Connections of the people at the top levels were being used in order to propagate particular political narratives.
	The greatest in-kind contribution in the media to Democrats happens every day, not even from MSNBC, which is pretty open about its bias, but from CNN, which pretends that Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon and Allison Camerota and Brian Stelter and all the rest of this crew are all objective news sources, which, of course, they are not.
	Casey Hunt, who's one of the reporters over there, she says Jeff Zucker's support has meant the world to me both at work and in life.
	When I was suddenly faced with my biggest ever personal challenge, getting a brain tumor, I'm so proud of what we've built.
	CNN Plus under Jeff's leadership.
	I can't wait to share it with you.
	Alison Camerota, she spoke to the Washington Post.
	Jeff is a remarkable person and boss.
	He has a way of making everyone at CNN feel valuable and special.
	I will miss his guidance and compassion in this challenging news climate more than words can say.
	Don Lemon said, I am devastated.
	I just think so highly of Jeff.
	He's the best boss we've ever had.
	One of the best things that has ever happened to CNN.
	That is a debatable question as to whether he is one of the best things that has ever happened to CNN.
	CNN has lower ratings than wallpaper.
	CNN is the watching the grass grow of news.
	The individuals who are devastated at CNN losing Jeff Zucker are probably also the same individuals who watch CNN because their ratings are not even charitable.
	You need a microscope to find CNN's ratings.
	Don Lemon said there are probably going to be a lot of nervous people at CNN because Jeff is really the glue there.
	Yeah, from their mouth to God's ears.
	Mary Catherine Ham, she said, I'm neither stunned nor in the know.
	Delighted to add the tales of yet another colleague public figures errant member to list of things about which I'm called to opine publicly or clarify knowledge.
	None.
	Really didn't realize the old career would have so much of this.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I'm with Mary Catherine here.
	But again, it just demonstrates the incestuous nature of the modern media.
	In just one second, we'll get to the Whoopi Goldberg of it all.
	Because now, Whoopi Goldberg is saying she might quit.
	And Whoopi Goldberg is not going to quit.
	Number one.
	Number two, the suspension that they placed on Whoopi Goldberg is designed to protect Whoopi Goldberg.
	We'll get to all of that in just one moment.
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	Okay, meanwhile, Fallout continues over Whoopi Goldberg making bizarre and anti-Semitic statements about the Holocaust in which she suggested that Jews were white people, so white people fighting white people is basically no concern of hers.
	As I explained on the show, this is part of a broader intersectional theory of racism in which white people can never be victimized.
	They can only be the victimizers.
	Therefore, Jews cannot really have been the true victims of the Holocaust.
	Truly, the victims of the Holocaust were all of us because it was man's inhumanity toward man.
	She was suspended for a couple of weeks by ABC News by, hilariously enough, Kim Godwin.
	So Godwin's law now applies.
	So she was suspended for a couple of weeks.
	And rightly, she is angry.
	Because here is the thing.
	She shouldn't really be suspended.
	She shouldn't.
	Her job is to give dumb opinions on the air to a bunch of low IQ fellow hosts.
	That is her job.
	And the combined IQ of the four hosts on The View at any one time is generally below 300.
	So the fact that you have Whoopi Goldberg saying really dumb, uninformed stuff, that's just called the view.
	So really, she shouldn't be suspended.
	Now, I think that the standard the left has set up is that if you say a bad thing, you need to get fired.
	So she shouldn't just be suspended.
	According to the left, she should be fired.
	And here's my new standard.
	Here is my standard.
	My standard is I will now defend you from being fired.
	I will say that you should not be fired and I will stand up for you and say you should not be fired if you are not a member of the cancel culture yourself.
	If you're a person who believes that people should be fired for the bad things, you get to eat it.
	Then I hope you are fired because you need to live by the rule that you make and you uphold and you are a member of the mob in upholding.
	Whoopi Goldberg is a cancel culture maven.
	She loves it.
	She loves when people lose their jobs for saying the wrong thing.
	So if she loses her job for saying the wrong thing, all I can say is justice has now applied.
	Now, if she wishes to not just apologize for her dumb comments, and learn more about why she was wrong.
	But she also wishes to get over her own unearned moral superiority and determine that perhaps people who make mistakes or say bad things in public or people with whom she disagrees should not be deplatformed.
	Then I'm happy to welcome her into the cadre of classical liberals.
	Otherwise, she can burn.
	I don't care.
	Not only do I not care, I celebrate her going down.
	Now, she's not going to go down.
	And herein lies the irony, right?
	So ABC is the network that airs The View.
	ABC is also owned by Disney.
	Disney is the company that fired Gina Carano.
	Gina Carano was on Mandalorian.
	She was one of the stars of Mandalorian.
	And she put out a meme that suggested that man's inhumanity toward man during the Holocaust can be extended as a lesson for lots of other people.
	And this was taken as anti-Semitism.
	She didn't say the Jews weren't specifically targeted, by the way.
	She didn't actually say an anti-Semitic thing the way that Whoopi Goldberg did.
	She just said that when people are inhumane to each other, bad things happen.
	For this great crime, she was not suspended.
	She was fired outright from The Mandalorian, losing presumably hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary because she was one of the main characters and they were considering a spinoff of The Mandalorian with Gina.
	They fired Gina, so we hired her.
	We have a new movie that's coming out with Gina Carano in the next couple of months, which I'm excited to tell you about.
	But they fired her outright, did Disney.
	Whoopi Goldberg says something far worse in every respect than Gina Carano ever said about the Holocaust.
	And she's gonna get a two-week suspension.
	And she's mad about being suspended for two weeks.
	As she should be, because again, they're only mad when the rules apply to them.
	When the rules apply to everybody else, then they're happy.
	Mercy for my friends, the law for everyone else.
	So apparently, Whoopi is Superman.
	First of all, I'm amazed that it's taken people this long to recognize that it's pretty wild that Whoopi Goldberg, who's not actually named Whoopi Goldberg, right, that's her stage name, Like how is that not cultural appropriation, by the way, just picking up a name like Goldberg?
	Apparently the actual reason that Whoopi Goldberg picked up the name, her real name is Karen Johnson.
	And apparently, the way that she picked up that name is she was looking for a stage name, and so she called herself on stage, Whoopi Cushion.
	Not kidding you, this is back in the 80s.
	She called herself Whoopi Cushion and her mom said to her, you need something that stands out more and so she picked Whoopi Goldberg because she knew about the inherent oddity of a black woman calling herself Goldberg and also Goldberg meant not white.
	She didn't call herself Whoopi Smith or something.
	She didn't call herself, you know, Whoopi Thompson.
	She called herself Whoopi Goldberg because the idea was that this was very odd.
	In any case, This led to the most hilarious defense of Whoopi Goldberg.
	Al Franken suggesting Whoopi Goldberg is not anti-semitic because her last name is Goldberg.
	Okay then.
	Al Franken, go ahead.
	I know Whoopi.
	She is not anti-semitic.
	She chose Goldberg for her last name, for her stage name.
	She I think she gave a really fulsome and sincere apology.
	I think what she said wasn't quite what she meant.
	And I thought it was great that she had the they had the Anti-Defamation League, they had the Anti-Defamation League on.
	I don't know how they've handled other guests or hosts on that show before.
	But I was I was very taken with how sincere and wholesome the apology was.
	Oh, were you, Al?
	It's funny how quick they are to accept apologies when it's members of their own side.
	Again, I'm perfectly willing to accept Whoopi Goldberg's apology, and I think she should learn some things and get out of her own intersectional mindset.
	I think that'd be a good thing.
	But I'm not going to accept apologies from people who refuse to accept apologies from anybody else.
	This does not work only one way.
	I do love Al Franken suggesting that because she culturally appropriated the name Goldberg, this means she's not anti-Semitic.
	Okay then.
	First of all, I'd love to see him apply that logic to, say, the Cleveland Indians.
	And the same people on the left who are like, hey, if Whoopi Goldberg says her last name is Goldberg, this means she probably likes Jews.
	I'm like, Cleveland Indians?
	It's because they hate Indians!
	Never look for consistency with the left.
	It is all just a game of power.
	In any case, Goldberg apparently is livid and feels humiliated over the suspension.
	She feels ABC executives mishandled this.
	She followed their playbook.
	She went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and then apologized again on The View the next day, the source told the Post.
	Her ego has been hurt.
	She's telling people she's going to quit.
	Suspension from The View is like getting suspended from Bravo.
	The bar is very low.
	Prior to her suspension, sources that spoke with Page Six said that employees and executives, including insiders at Disney, were furious over her remarks and the fact she had not been disciplined yet.
	One insider told pigshakes the controversy was not just going to blow over.
	According to that insider, ABC staffers and Disney Network execs are saying Whoopi went way too far, and board members are not happy with her apology and want a fuller retraction.
	The word is that Whoopi is in deep bleep, said the ABC insider.
	Why does Whoopi seemingly get a pass when others don't?
	Perhaps this time she won't.
	Many at the network, including her fellow host, believe Whoopi is too controversial now for the show.
	That's not true.
	She's going to be back in two weeks.
	The purpose of the two-week break, by the way, is to protect her from media questions.
	That's what it's about.
	That's why they're suspending her.
	They're not making her publicly available.
	They're not going to make her go into interviews with people who actually know something about this topic.
	They trotted out Jonathan Greenblatt from the ADL so that he could exonerate her and exorcise her demons on air after having screwed up, by the way, his own redefinition of racism.
	Jonathan Greenblatt, inside the last couple of months, redefined racism from, you know, thinking poorly of somebody based solely on their race to white people harming people of color.
	That was literally the ADL's redefinition of racism.
	Whoopi Goldberg then took that redefinition of racism, ran with it, and then when things went sideways, when the train ran off the rails like the fugitive, tracking down Harrison Ford, jumping into a ditch.
	Once that happened, then she brought Jonathan Greenblatt back on to explain why Whoopi Goldberg was fine.
	By the way, this is so bad for the ADL that the ADL now had to revise its own racism definition again.
	They went back to it.
	So it used to define racism as, quote, the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person's social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics, which is normally the definition of racism.
	Then they switched it in July 2020 to mirror Black Lives Matter.
	Racism now meant, quote, the marginalization and or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.
	By that definition, by the way, the Holocaust was not racism.
	Also, the Genocide against the Uighur Muslims in China is not racist or anything else.
	So now they've changed it again.
	So now it says racism occurs when individuals or institutions show more favorable evaluation or treatment of an individual or group based on race or ethnicity.
	So the new definition makes some more sense.
	But the definition of systemic racism is still bad over the ADL website because they haven't shifted back over from the woke definition.
	So they say that institutional racism and systemic racism can only exist if they are targeting black people, basically.
	So the ADL has made a mockery of itself along this process.
	I will say, I'm enjoying this period of all masks coming off and all veils being revealed.
	I really am enjoying this.
	All of these organizations that pretended that they were about one thing actually are about another thing.
	The ADL, which was supposed to be an anti-Semitism fighting organization, is just a woke left organization.
	Black Lives Matter, which was supposed to be about forwarding the aspirations of black Americans, was actually just a giant grift.
	So bad that the Black Lives Matter organization apparently has reportedly been suspended from receiving donations in the state of California because it was such a grift and nobody knows where the money is going.
	Whoopi Goldberg has been exposed for what she is.
	Jeff Zucker has been exposed for what he is.
	Andrew Cuomo has been exposed for what he is.
	Chris Cuomo's been... Like, I'm enjoying it.
	When all the masks come off, it's good times all around.
	Alrighty, in just one second.
	We're going to get to the latest in economic news because Joe Biden is having a tough time of it.
	First, let's talk about how you can save money.
	So one of the big problems for Joe Biden, gas prices out of control.
	One way you can save on your gas is by heading on over to the App Store or Google Play and picking up the free Get Upside app.
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	Use promo code Shapiro for 25 cents per gallon or more on your first fill up.
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	All righty.
	Meanwhile, big things are happening at The Daily Wire, so we are very pumped about this.
	Our first original production, Shut In, will be ready for your eyes one week from today.
	I have seen it.
	It's fantastic.
	It is a tense thriller directed by DJ Caruso, executive produced by The Daily Wire.
	The film is centered around a young single mother who's barricaded inside a pantry by her violent ex-boyfriend, using nothing but her voice to guide her two small children to escape escalating danger.
	It's a tale of redemption.
	It has some moral messages.
	Check out the trailer.
	Your daughter, she's very pretty.
	AHHH!
	you you You're scared.
	It is super intense.
	I've seen the whole film.
	I was watching it next to my wife, actually, and it definitely freaked her out.
	The film premieres one week from today, Thursday, February 10th.
	It will be free for all to stream on YouTube and DailyWire.com.
	After that, it is only available to DailyWire members.
	So now would be the perfect time for you to sign up.
	Remember, we entered the entertainment space to send Hollywood a message.
	You don't have a monopoly on the film industry.
	The release of Shudden is just the next step in proving it.
	If you haven't yet heard of Jonathan Isaac, then you might be living under a rock.
	Jonathan Isaac is the NBA star who stood strong for his values while everyone else was kneeling in the bubble.
	He faced huge criticism from the media for his views on social issues and vaccines over the past couple of years.
	This is why I am pumped to announce he has decided to write a book with The Daily Wire called Why I Stand.
	Jonathan's book will be about the rise of his basketball career, his journey into faith, his strength to stand alone in the face of immense pressure.
	Jonathan is just a class act.
	Check out this teaser.
	The Orlando Magic's 23-year-old starting forward is deeply religious and proudly unvaccinated.
	On Friday, Isaac got attention for choosing not to kneel in unison with his teammates or to wear a Black Lives Matter shirt.
	My name is Jonathan Isaac.
	I play for the Orlando Magic, and I'm writing a book with The Daily Wire.
	Courage does not mean the absence of fear.
	And in today's day, there are so many things that you can be afraid of facing because of believing what you believe or deciding to stand for what you believe in.
	And I believe this book gives you a blueprint of my story of how crisis made the difference in my life.
	from a young kid who struggled with fear, anxiety, self-insecurity, to a man willing to stand for what he believes in.
	I'm Jonathan Essek, one of the nicest people in the world, and also a truly principled human being.
	Jonathan's book will be one of the first under The Daily Wire's new publishing arm, DW Books.
	We couldn't be happier to have him on board.
	The book is available for pre-order right now at Amazon, so reserve your copy today.
	You're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.
	All righty, meanwhile, things are going poorly for Joe Biden.
	So I do have to give credit to Joe Biden for one story of the day that actually is a good story.
	The leader of ISIS in Syria has been killed by U.S.
	Special Forces.
	Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qureishi exploded a bomb that killed himself and members of his family as a raid began on a house in the rebel-held province of Idlib.
	He was among 13 people who died during the operation that lasted two hours, according to Sky News in Britain.
	There were no U.S.
	military casualties.
	President Biden announced the killing in a statement.
	Saying, thanks to the skill and bravery of our armed forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qureishi.
	He said that the troops successfully undertook a counter-terrorism operation to protect the American people.
	Al-Qureishi was named the second leader of ISIS after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in October 2019.
	A U.S.
	official said, while we are still assessing the results of the operation, this appears to be the same cowardly terrorist tactic we saw in the 2019 operation that eliminated al-Baghdadi.
	Remember that he was in a complex, and we had dogs chasing him, and he blew himself up in order to avoid being captured or killed by enemy forces.
	So that is definitely a good thing for the United States.
	The fact is that ISIS had been gaining some semblance of power for the last couple of months.
	They've been taking over towns again, and so that is a good move for the United States.
	With that said, Joe Biden is still having some pretty significant struggles.
	I mean, in every respect.
	Yesterday, there was video that came out of the White House, and honestly, like, I don't mean to pick on the poor guy, but, like, there's a video of him walking away from the podium, and Jill Biden guiding the President of the United States away from the podium, and it looks like me guiding my grandmother down the steps in the final years of her life.
	I mean, it's just...
	It's just not a good look.
	As producer Austin says, you normally don't hear clapping at a funeral.
	It's very, very awkward.
	Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is announcing she thinks things are going so well that she needs 25 people at the State of the Union, according to a report.
	According to Axios, Kevin McCarthy told members of Republican leadership at an ELC meeting that Pelosi told him she was instituting a 25-member attendance cap for Biden's State of the Union address.
	Nothing like ensuring that everybody still thinks we are in the middle of a brutal pandemic in which all of life cannot go back to normal, like making sure that the State of the Union, which is an institution I absolutely despise.
	I hate the State of the Union.
	I don't care who gives it.
	I think it's an imperial, monarchic Bull crap institution.
	I think we should just send letters.
	I mean, this would be a great time for Biden to reinstitute this.
	Just send a letter.
	State of the Union's fine.
	Send it off to Congress.
	Be done with it.
	That's all that's in the Constitution.
	You don't have to do anything else.
	But in any case, it is normally this imperial majestic scene with grandeur and people cheering and clapping and standing.
	And so if you reduce it to like 25 people in the room, it seems kind of pathetic.
	Does it not?
	According to Axios, McCarthy and other Republican leaders were frustrated by the declaration.
	McCarthy said something to the effect of, Democrats fly on planes with more people than they plan to allow on the floor.
	Although a spokesperson for Pelosi has said no final decisions have yet been reached, McCarthy reportedly told colleagues attendance could be limited to 50 people total, 25 members from each party.
	His joint address last year was attended by 55 House Democrats and 25 House Republicans, along with 35 Senate Democrats and 25 Senate Republicans.
	So there'd be fewer people now.
	In the chamber than there were last year, despite the fact that Washington D.C.
	recorded 61 new cases total on February 1.
	So they just can't get a grip on any of this.
	It's pretty astonishing stuff.
	And you understand why.
	I mean, they don't want a full room for Joe Biden because, again, Joe Biden is very, very unpopular.
	And we're about to head into a particularly difficult economic patch right here.
	A report came out yesterday showing that private payrolls actually lost workers last month.
	Remember, we're supposed to be in economic boom times.
	We're in the middle of an artificially induced economic coma in 2020.
	The economy was sailing until that point.
	We had higher wages.
	We had higher growth.
	We had more people in the employment force.
	And then we put the economy into a coma for no reason.
	At the beginning, we thought there was a reason.
	It turns out there was no reason.
	We put the economy into a complete coma.
	We told everybody to stay in their home for like a year and a half, and we just blew money Out the wazoo.
	And then, we got the vaccines.
	And at that point, Joe Biden should have been like, okay, we're done.
	Everybody back to normal.
	Enjoy your lives.
	But he couldn't.
	Because he had boxed himself in by saying that he was going to end the virus.
	So instead, we are still doing this stupid nonsense.
	Which means that the U.S.
	private sector lost 301,000 jobs in January as the Omicron variant of COVID forced millions of Americans out of work, according to data released Wednesday by payroll processor ADP.
	The ADP National Employment Report showed sharp, broad declines in private sector payrolls for the first time since December of 2020.
	The labor market recovery took a step back at the start of 2022 due to the effect of the Omicron variant and its significant, though likely temporary, impact to job growth, said the ADP Chief Economist, Nilo Richardson.
	Now, the experts had suggested we were going to gain about 200,000 jobs in January.
	So that means they missed by half a million jobs because they went the wrong direction in January.
	The U.S.
	added just 199,000 jobs in December.
	Economists are bracing for overall job losses in January.
	They expect the labor market to bounce back as Omicron fades, but we keep hearing that over and over.
	See, the thing is, you actually have to let Omicron fade if Omicron is going to fade.
	But it doesn't matter.
	You keep treating it as a crisis.
	And the Democrats keep boxing themselves in on this stuff because they're treating it as a crisis.
	So, for example, this is the best story of the day on Omicron.
	L.A.
	Mayor Eric Garcetti, who's just an incompetent, just a wild incompetent, Garcetti claimed that he held his breath when he posed for a maskless photo with Magic Johnson at a football game.
	So apparently everybody was going to take a photo with Magic Johnson at this football game, this L.A.
	Rams football game.
	Governor Gavin Newsom took one with Magic.
	Magic, of course, is 62 years old and HIV positive, which means he's immunocompromised and he is slightly overweight at this point.
	And he is, you know, in that age range that is not particularly safe.
	And Newsom got blasted for it.
	Well, it turns out Garcetti also took a picture with Magic at this football game.
	So Newsom's answer was that he was carrying his mask, which obviously protects you from COVID because it's magic.
	It's like a talismanic totem that you carry around.
	It's fantastic.
	Also, Eric Garcetti said, I held my breath.
	That's a good one.
	He held his breath.
	He said, I'll take personal responsibility.
	If it makes you and everybody else happy, or even the photographers with people where I'm literally holding my breath for two seconds, I won't even do that.
	Wow.
	So mask mandates remain in place.
	In Los Angeles.
	But also, you could hold your breath.
	By the way, that should always be your excuse from now on.
	If somebody ever tells... There are so many excuses you can use that the left has used here.
	If you're not wearing a mask in a public place, and somebody questions you about it, you can say, like San Francisco Mayor London Breed, that you feel the spirit moving you.
	And if that doesn't work, you can always just say that you've been holding your breath.
	For like two hours, you've just been holding your breath.
	No biggie.
	You've been holding your breath.
	Or you can use the Gavin Newsom excuse.
	And you can say, look, here's my mask right here.
	It's on my hand.
	Right here, on my hand.
	And my hand is how COVID transmits.
	Here's the thing.
	If they can't let go of it, nobody else is gonna let go of it either.
	I mean, right now, the army is already firing unvaccinated soldiers.
	Firing them!
	Okay, this is the youngest, healthiest cohort of Americans.
	Pretty much everybody at this point has gotten Omicron, right?
	Omicron is extraordinarily transmissible.
	Omicron is, again, something like 140 times as transmissible as the original variant, which was more transmissible than the flu in the first place.
	And now there's a new variant that has cropped up that's 50% more transmissible than that.
	But now they're getting rid.
	They're literally making us less militarily ready because people are not vaccinated, even though vaccination does not prevent you transmitting the virus or getting the virus.
	In a statement, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth described the action as necessary for Army readiness, adding that unvaccinated soldiers present a risk to the force.
	Why?
	You have to explain.
	Why do unvaccinated soldiers present a risk to the force?
	We now know that the Pfizer shots are not preventing the transmission of COVID.
	So if that is the case, that's the CDC that says that, by the way, not me, the CDC.
	If that's the case, how does it?
	How is it worse for military readiness to have people who are unvaxxed in the military than it is to just get rid of all of those people in the military?
	Genius upon genius.
	Meanwhile, on the economy, the same folks who have been blowing money out the wazoo are now facing some pretty severe economic riptides here.
	According to the Wall Street Journal, Greg Ip reporting, if you were born after 1980, The monetary tightening that the Fed said this week will begin in March will be like any you've ever seen.
	This is for two reasons, both unsettling for markets.
	First, when the Fed began raising interest rates in 94, 99, 2000 and 2015, inflation was near or below its desired level.
	The tightening was preemptive.
	Today, inflation is too high.
	Even if December's 7% rate is adjusted for temporary effects like oil prices and used car shortages, underlying inflation is well above 2%.
	The Fed is so far behind the curve, it needs to get interest rates up almost irrespective of what incoming data say about the economy or inflation.
	Also, the Fed won't hold the market's hand by committing to a particular path of rate increases, so this is uncertainty and deflation at the same point.
	Which is dangerous stuff in a market that is still being roiled by the regulatory excesses of the Biden administration.
	So if you think things are bad for Joe Biden right now, just wait a couple of months because things can get a lot worse.
	It always goes darkest just before it goes pitch black.
	Alrighty, we'll be back here later today with an additional hour of content.
	In the meantime, go check out our newest podcast, Morning Wire.
	Today's episode is available right now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure to tune in.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	Shapiro, this is the Ben Shapiro Show.
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	Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.
	Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.
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	Associate producer, Bradford Carrington.
	Editing is by Adam Sajovic.
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	The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.
	Copyright Daily Wire 2022.
	John Vickley here, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief.
	Wake up every morning with our show, Morning Wire.
	On today's episode, CNN President Jeff Zucker resigns amid controversy, Whoopi Goldberg is suspended, and a new study finds that COVID lockdowns are counterproductive.

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