Episode 447 Scott Adams: CNN’s Stubborn Insistence on the “Fine People” Hoax
Date: 2019-03-12 | Duration: 29:54
Topics
CNN continues to perpetuate the Charlottesville “Fine People” hoax CNN’s lie is intentionally placing people in physical danger They’ve lied for two years, harder and harder to come clean Brian Stelter is being challenged on the “Fine People” hoax Joel Pollack’s tweet to Stelter and lack of response Tucker Carlson ratings last night were probably excellent Good choice not to apologize, A+ handling by Tucker “Fake Melania” conspiracy theory Illegitimate photos? Security issue?
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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript
[0:08]
hey everybody Andrew come on in here gather around it's time for coffee with Scott Adams I'm Scott Adams and this is coffee some of you call it coffee but I think you should fill your mug your cup your glass your Stein your chalice your thermos bring it to your lips and join me for the simultaneous
microphone so are you watching the news so remember uh for those of you who have been following this uh vast experiment you know that I've been making as much noise as possible in public saying that the the fine people quote the CNN keeps reporting is fake news and that of
[1:08]
reporting is fake news and that of course the president was not referring to Nazis as fine people but he said there were fine people on both sides of the statue controversy but CNN continues to report it including this week that he was saying that there were fine people on both sides so now yesterday uh Joel Pollock at Breitbart tweeted and updated his article calling him out for their their fakeness he he also tweeted directly to Brian stelter to say could you respond to this this fake news many of you sent my tweets to CNN so there's one thing that we can say with some certainty CNN is aware that there are dare I say because I'm just going to say this because it it has has to be said in the context of the story CNN knows there are smart people like me like all of you like
[2:10]
people like me like all of you like Joel who who are calling them out for fake news on one of the most important stories of the last two years and I predicted that they would never respond because they can't to respond would be to either double down on something that's just so clearly made up that it's unsupportable um they can't they can't point me to a link they can't show me a clip to show me I'm wrong because I'm not wrong and what do they do so I promise you that there's a 100% chance that they're talking about it at at least the editorial level so that's the fun part they have to be talking about it and they have to know that they're caught and that their their hand is so far into the cookie jar and probably the most important Scandal maybe of our time I would argue this might be the most important
[3:11]
this might be the most important Scandal of my lifetime yeah I think it is actually I'm trying you know I live through Watergate I live through a lot of stuff but the the Charlottesville fine people hoax which is largely ripped apart the fabric of this country because a lot of racial tension has to do with just that one piece of fake news if you took that away nothing else would really be in its class everything else would be well we heard he did something the president did something 30 years ago but we don't really know the details and it was a long time ago so you you would end up having not enough left so i' would say it's the biggest Scandal of my lifetime and CNN won't comment on it but they still write about it amazingly there are two articles today in which they write about it without talking about it so now they're now they're forced to write about it
[4:12]
now they're forced to write about it without making the claim and so how do they do it well let me tell you uh one way they do it and I just tweeted this but I want to read it um so they're reporting about the press conference yesterday and they go through all of who said what whoops that's not
it uh let's see if I can find it in my feed oh it's in the last paragraph of a story today that says Sarah Anders deflects when asked about Trump calling Democrats anti- Jewish so they put the focus on Sarah Sanders answers about the president saying that Democrats are anti-jewish but at the end of the story about that they they sort of need to mention the fine people hoax because they can't not mention it right it's too prominently part of that press conference so how do
[5:13]
part of that press conference so how do they mention it without mentioning it knowing now that it's fake news and if they say it again they'll be you know not doubling down but quadrupling down or whatever however many times they've gone down with this on the same thing so here's how they cover it this is the last paragraph when when you've already given up reading about it right so nothing goes in the last paragraph unless they want it in the last paragraph so here's an editorial decision that they're going to stick this in the last paragraph that's not a accident that's intentional and it means they're deemphasizing it because the heat is on and here's how they talk about it says and pressed by CNN's Jim aosta on Trump's own claim of quote verifying people on both sides in response to white nationalist deadly violence in Virginia in 2017 where some protesters chanted Jews will not replace us Sanders insisted he'd been very clear and consistent and repeatedly condemned hatred bigotry
[6:14]
repeatedly condemned hatred bigotry racism on all in all its forms Now that statement of what Sanders said is accurate and they describe probably the biggest screw up in in um presidential spokesperson history right I've talked about this before the fact that she didn't directly addressed the LIE the fine people part and instead just made a generic comment about the president's goodness essentially confirms the fake news without confirming it in other words she's not confirming it or anything like that but the way she answered it is accidentally looks like a confirmation of the worst possible fake news could it couldn't be a worst response it's the worst response you could possibly have you should fake your own death before you give this response it it was horrible now I'm
[7:15]
horrible now I'm partly um worked up about this because this sort of response puts me in physical danger and many of you too because let me give you an example yesterday I'm at the gym I'm in the wait room and a Gentleman I'd met some time ago um in a different context comes over and he reintroduces himself and he says loudly in in the gym surrounded by other people so how's that Trump support coming along in public in a place where I need to go to be comfortable do you think I was still comfortable after he shouted that I was a trump supporter in a public place and my own gym
gym nope I told him to be quiet that was my response no answer I just told him to stop talking about it now I think he was just being friendly but it was I felt endangered
[8:18]
friendly but it was I felt endangered and I felt that I lost my most comfortable place that's not my own home which is the gym I've been going to for 30 years and I actually considered quitting the gym right then I almost turned and walked to the the front office and quit the gym because of that one guy ruining my my nice place to go so
so um so that happened so when I see when I see the fine people hoax being propagated or in this case not being shot down when when Sarah Sanders had a chance it puts me at risk this is personal it's not just me watching the news I'm not a spectator I I'm in the news you know if you're a little bit connected to the administration as a you know as a as a pundit you're part of the news whether you like it or not ask ask talk Carlson about being part of the
[9:19]
talk Carlson about being part of the news so um so that was the the first thing now here's the there's another story in the New York Times the title is the New York Times uh this is in other words it's the story um about the New York Times or from the new New York Times I can't tell but it says book claims aanka Trump so there's some new book tell all book surprise and it says it claims that aanka Trump told Cohen her father wasn't racist following Charlesville so once again they found a way to put this in the headlines because there's some another tell all book that's full of lies obviously so how do they deal with it
it well
says um I got to find the exact quote because it really makes a difference um so the book The Times
[10:22]
um so the book The Times reported said that in his meeting with ianka Trump so this is Gary con so when Gary con had had a meeting with ianka Trump he was quote shocked in quotes by her reaction to his concerns and that she told him of her father's comments that's not what he said so they're reporting that the fine people thing is not what he actually said but you know how they've they've couched it so you can't really tell what she's denying and they don't put it in context because if they did if they did put what she said in context they couldn't report it it couldn't be on CNN because it would refute everything they've reported for two years so if ianka presumably said no he wasn't talking about them being the fine people just look at what he said what you think he said he didn't say just look at it again probably she
[11:22]
say just look at it again probably she said something like that because that's what you and I say that's what we're saying just look at the quote it's obvious he didn't say what you're reporting you said you can just look at it yourself there's no ambiguity on it at
at all so the way CNN has treated it is Once by reporting the question from aosta so they don't have to report its fact again they can just report that he asked the question and then sort of couch it that way and then the second one they just take all the context away and put this generic statement that ianka said that's not what he said that's not what he said about what exactly no
no context but you know we know what she meant so um you know Brian stelter is the CNN um you'd say host personality what whatever they call on air personality who talks most about the media itself so a story about the media even if CNN is the story would be a
[12:23]
even if CNN is the story would be a Brian stealth to repeat so Joel poock tweeted at him yesterday and asked him to explain the situation explain the fine people hoax and why it keeps being reported as if it's fact and do you think you'll get a response not a chance and if they do respond do you think it'll be an honest response or you think they'll just leave stuff out to try to get back to their original position I'll tell you what won't happen they won't mention me because if they do it's going to drive traffic toward the truth and they won't mention Joel Pollock because if they do it will drive traffic toward the truth and they can't have that right now here's another bit of fake news do you remember the headline that said that President Trump called Tim Cook Tim apple and it was reported like he misspoke and I saw that headline and I said oh big deal he probably did misspeak you know it would be easy to do
[13:25]
misspeak you know it would be easy to do because he's thinking of Apple he's talking in public he's talking about Tim that'd be an easy mistake to make right so when I saw the headline I thought oh he probably did he probably did confuse those words completely ordinary and then I saw the actual clip and it didn't even happen it didn't freaking happen when you see it in context you can tell it's just the way he talks so he's saying talking about him he goes uh you know Tim Apple so because he talked about Tim Cook in the prior sentence without framing it for the public to say that Tim Cook is the head of Apple so he had now talked about Tim Cook a little bit without telling the public who was listen listening that he was representing apple and maybe the whole the whole world doesn't necessarily know who Tim Cook is so he says you know and Tim
Tim Apple that's all it was complete fake news which you can see right in front of
[14:27]
news which you can see right in front of you you can actually look at it yourself and you say I don't have to interpret that that's obviously fake news when you see that it's just it's mind blowing um here's the let's talk we have to talk about Tucker right excuse me have to talk about Tucker Carlson so um I saw a tweet by Britt Hume which made me laugh because he just tweeted out the prime time cable news uh ratings you for all the The Prime Time Shows MSNBC CNN and Fox News and the number one show on all three networks for all of prime time is Tucker Carlson all right so you know as Britt said in his uh his tweet you know something like success is is the best uh is the best response and then here's the best part
[15:29]
response and then here's the best part instead of
apologizing Tucker tells people to watch his
his show my guess is that his show last night was probably the most watched Tucker Carlson show of all time and you know wouldn't you assume wouldn't you think that Tucker Carlson show last night was the most watched cable news show of the of the week and probably His Highest ratings that he's ever gotten and you know what his ratings will be tonight probably just about as I it's going to be good now uh when I read that he had said these terrible things on Bubba the love sponges shock jock radio show I said to myself my God what kinds of horrible things has Tucker Carlson said on these shows I must go watch now so I you know fire up the the audio and I I read the transcripts and look looking for all the
[16:29]
transcripts and look looking for all the bad stuff I'm like H okay that's a little bit bad not that bad oh this is close to the line well not over the line well this makes me feel uncomfortable but it's true so I'm listening to all this stuff and I'm thinking yeah he did go about as close to the line as you can get but when he did he was either saying something that was true or it was a valid opinion maybe it was opinion you're not supposed to say but he was saying it on a shock jock context which was fine so if you take everything he said there to be absolutely serious and you imagined it happened in a different context well my God how bad that would be but he wasn't completely serious it was literally in a comedy shock jock context and none of it was over the line it was in a humorous way he went right
[17:30]
it was in a humorous way he went right up to the discomfort line which is what made it interesting all right he was in he was doing the job of being interesting in public and one of the ways he did it among others was he would walk up to that that line where you're not supposed to cross and he would just tease crossing the line essentially now if you were less smart than Tucker Carlson you would probably accidentally cross that line line but if you're as smart as he is and as good as he is at this stuff you don't and he didn't so uh I I find I found myself I thought I was going to be in the position of uh you know wanting to be on his side just because I like him um and then it would be hard because maybe he said something that was so bad that I just couldn't go there and then I saw what he actually said and I thought are you kidding me this is it this is what
[18:33]
kidding me this is it this is what they're complaining about in that context if he said it at you know somebody's wedding I'd be concerned but if he says it in the context of the people who say bad things context let's put it this way here's my summary my summary of the entire Tucker car Carlson controversy Tucker said inappropriate things on a show where you say inappropriate things that was it he said inappropriate things on a show dedicated to saying inappropriate things that's about as nothing as you can get so they're still after him it does uh this whole episode does lay be what's going on they were looking for a scalp and they were trying to take him out of his job largely for disagreeing with them effectively had he not been effective I don't think they'd care but because he's effective he's the
[19:35]
care but because he's effective he's the number one uh ratings drawer uh on cable news prime time they they have a Target on his back and they're out out to get him uh and what I loved about it is that he decided to not um to not apologize uh I didn't think any apology was necessary in fact I would think an apology would be a mistake in this particular case you know I think if it had been me had it been me I probably would have offered something like an apology I'm happier that he didn't by the way so this is not a critici criticism I love the way he handled it like he handled it A+ by not apologizing and simply explaining the whole thing and making a point about it Etc but I probably would have said um well it was said in a certain context when it's moved into a different context it's offensive I
[20:36]
different context it's offensive I certainly uh didn't expect that to happen and I'm sorry if anybody was offended when when bad people moved it to the wrong context but I would not apologize for saying inappropriate things on a show where you say inappropriate things for entertainment that I wouldn't do that all right um did you see the story about the fake Melania the the story of I guess it was when the president was uh visiting the was it the tornado disaster scene and you see him him standing there holding hands with Melania and then there was a conspiracy theory uh on the internet where people would compare the pictures of that Melania to the one we know is Melania and they they said this is not even the same person and somebody you know on Twitter uh I I saw the pictures
[21:38]
know on Twitter uh I I saw the pictures and it's a really interesting situation um I don't know the truth of it so I'll start by saying I don't know really if that was actually Melania or not I will tell you that the picture I saw definitely wasn't Melania but I don't know was it photoshopped you was it really taken the same day um all I can say for sure is that the pictures that were shown to me of the fake Melania and the real one didn't didn't have the same chin and you can't really fake that right it was clearly not the same person um now the question would be why now you know the The Conspiracy Theory version of that the why would be um that you know they're having a fight and she couldn't come but they wanted to make it look good so they put in a substitute well you know maybe uh anything's possible but here's seems it seems to me
[22:38]
possible but here's seems it seems to me the more likely uh explanation did it not seem to you that the president seemed to be wearing a bulletproof vest you he had a he had a windbreaker on and I thought I could see some structure underneath the windbreaker in other words it looked like he was wearing a bulletproof vest in public I don't know how often he does that you know that has to be something that happens once in a while and I imagine it happens just a guess I imagine it happens when he's in a a place where the secret um secret service can't can't control it as well as they'd want in other words there might be somebody who could squeeze a shot off from the woods or something so it's entirely possible that the risk was higher than Milani wanted to take or here's here's the you know the best spin on it uh it could have been a higher risk than the president wanted to take so it's possible that that they said to the president look we can't secure this
[23:40]
the president look we can't secure this site you know the nature of it is there's going to be a hill or whatever we can't secure it all and so I we can't tell you this will be safe so you could imagine the president saying I'm going anyway but Milani is not you know at the last minute what are we going to do well you you substitute in the Secret Service person take some photos and see if you can get away with it so anyway the um if I had to rank the possibilities I would say possibility number one is that the photos were illegitimate either either for some photographic reason they took a picture that was the only picture in the world that didn't look like Melania that's possible you've seen pictures of people that just don't look like the people haven't you seen pictures of yourself that doesn't even look like you I mean that's a that's a thing so the most likely explanation is that the photo that was the fake looking
[24:42]
that was the fake looking Melania that wasn't really from the event or there's something weird about the photo that made just a few of them look unreal or something so there could be just normal explanations the second most likely explanation is it was a security issue and so the president took the risk that's his job having his wife take the risk was too much risk so he just didn't do it um so I think those are your two top possibilities all right
um anyway so I'm going to be talking more about the fine people hoax today if you've watched the Twitter responses they're really interesting because there are a lot of spunky people feisty I might say borrowing a line from Saturday Night Live which was pretty funny um no feisty was from a a viral uh video that I tweeted around in which uh I and some
[25:43]
I tweeted around in which uh I and some other characters like um like uh never mind I got bored with my own story so I trailed off I talked about Candace versus hawk I understand the Prager is being metered or um they've got a problem on Facebook is it Facebook has a problem with the Candace owens's interview of of Hawk um anyway so a lot of people are coming into Twitter and saying what do you mean it's a hoax he said those words and then I'm watching the people who have who are up to date on the real story they're they're pasting in the exact text so a number of people have cut in P you know they they've copied the exact text of the president talking about chville and they put it in there or they they include the actual uh trans not the transcript but the video uh even um diamond and silk were were tweeting
[26:45]
um diamond and silk were were tweeting around the actual video today so the number of people who have been weaponized to respond to the trolls it's a lot more right wouldn't you say oh it's YouTube YouTube censorship on the Candace Owen show it's not Facebook so I I correct myself um on that oh it's Warren who had a problem with Facebook well just the fact that we keep talking about this uh about you know one platform or another having a problem with people by the way I remind you that my company's app interfaced by whenhub has a donation button now so if you want to have a platform for raising money for your Creations your art you have another option if you don't like how patreon is treating conservatives or other people um please try interface by whenhub and
[27:45]
um please try interface by whenhub and if enough people use it it will stay around and be good for the world um somebody says they love the app thank you um
right did you see the SUV trying to drive into the barrier trying to hit pus mocade head on I didn't see that although I have to admit as much as I would not want to see an attack on this or any other president I would love to see somebody try to attack the Beast you know the president's uh armored car I love love to see what would happen if somebody tried to Ram that with a regular
car it was just an accident on the other side of the road that makes more sense oh you just read wind bigley thank you
[28:45]
you um I was just an ordinary accident they were distracted by the motor cave that makes a lot more sense I did watch Candace and Hawk and I did already do a periscope on that thanks if you haven't read wind bigley yet my book you really should oh so let's talk about Andrew Yang so I'm watching Andrew Yang uh he continues to pick up um support and he's getting some momentum because he keeps saying interesting things so uh I would say keep an eye on him he just keeps saying interesting things and the news is starting to or social media anyways at least starting to move his way and he's he's got some fundraising going on now and I think things are starting to pick up for him um I will give you a drum lesson maybe today I was going to do it yesterday but there was some noise happening so I couldn't all right um I think I'm done
[29:48]
couldn't all right um I think I'm done for now and I'm going to talk to you later bye for now