Shepard Smith, Bryant Gumbel, the Democrats and More (3/8/19)

Bernie’s Q&A: Shepard Smith, Bryant Gumbel, the Democrats and More (3/8/19)

Welcome to my firstPremium Q&A session for Premium Interactive members. I appreciate you all signing up, and joining me. There were some duplicate questions this week, so I’ve condensed a couple.

Let’s get right to your questions (and my answers):

Please kindly describe your relationship with Mr. Bryant Gumbel? — Matthew Q.

Bryant and I go all the way back to our days at CBS News. I was a correspondent on his magazine show. I didn’t have HBO at home at the time (the late 1990s) and while I was on vacation in Colorado I stumbled onto HBO and Real Sports. I thought it was a strong, real journalism show and when I got home I called Gumbel to tell him how much I liked the show. He immediately recruited me — and I’ve been there for about 20 years. Bryant and I don’t socialize though I was at his surprise birthday party recently. Our relationship is professional mainly. Our politics are quite different — and he’s told me as much before adding with a smile that he likes my work. One more thing: Gumbel knows every joke ever told. If I start to tell him one I just heard, he’s likely to jump in with the punchline before I get 2 words out of my mouth.

Just wondering if you could answer a question I have always wanted to ask. Could you refuse to appear on someone’s show (like Hannity or Tucker) while under contract with FOX NEWS? –Rick

Glad to answer this one Rick: Yes, I could refuse to appear on any show at any time for just about any reason. And I did more than a few times. The reason was usually the same: I didn’t respect the person hosting the show. I don’t like appearing with ideologues, especially ideologues, especially sycophants for Donald Trump. I should add, I only got paid when I was on the air. No show no money. And that was fine with me. At this point in my life my reputation is more important than money.

What news organizations do you believe are really trying to play it down the middle and not favor any one side? I read the Daily Mail a lot and it seems like its writers take shots at everyone pretty equally. What do you think? — JM

I think the straight news people at Fox do a good job. I have no idea what FNC’s White House correspondent John Roberts’ politics are. Can’t say the same for Jim Acosta at CNN. When it comes to opinion I think just about everybody is pandering to the audience — and that goes for the New York Times as much as CNN, MSNBC and Fox.

But for straight news, I like Special Report at 6pm ET with Bret Baier. Best you could hope for, I think, is to read more than one paper and watch more than one newscast — and then try to decipher the truth as best you can.

Shepard Smith is not a fan of president Trump. How do you think Fox feels about that? — George V.

I once heard that Roger Ailes said Shepard Smith sometimes goes “where the buses don’t run.” Great line, meaning Smith at times is off the Fox News reservation. I think he’s a very interesting broadcaster, but I’m not a fan. Way too much opinion for what is billed as a news program. I know Fox gets calls from viewers when he’s on — and they’re not calls from fans. Since everything is about ratings and since some viewers tune in to hate him, he’ll be around for a while. If his ratings go south … anything is possible.

Hello Bernie: I have enjoyed reading all of your books, by any chance are you working on another one? — PJ

A big fat … NO. Writing books is lonely. And then hawking the book on TV and radio is a form of torture. You have to go on radio shows all day long saying the same thing, often to some guy who has no clue as to what the book is about. I used to tell friends if I ever write another book, do me a favor and shoot me. After saying that, I did a few more books. As you can tell, they didn’t hold up their end of the deal — lucky for me. But no more books are in my future. For now. LOL

Mr Goldberg, what are your comments and observations regarding the present Dominion Crisis is Canada, ie the affair with SNC- Lavalin, the demotion and subsequent resignation of Ms Wilson- Reybould, resignation of Ms Philpott, etc.? If PM Trudeau makes a ‘statement of contrition’ how do you see it being received? How successful would a ‘statement of contrition’ play in the present US political arena? (Yes, I know US politics is a cage match, but humor me with an answer, please!) — Gregg Harr

Gregg, just about the only thing I know about Canada is that whenever I’m there, I like it — except in the winter. The people are nice and friendly. But I know nothing about Canadian politics. As for a “statement of contrition” … that’s not in the American DNA … or more precisely, it’s not in Donald Trump’s DNA. He’s never contrite about anything. I did have a Canadian girlfriend many moons ago, if that helps.

Mr. Goldberg, which democrat do you think has the best chance at unseating Mr. Trump from the Oval Office? — Terry & Kathi

Good question: Joe Biden. He’s a moderate, relatively speaking and so could win independents, a group that anyone running for president needs to have. If enough voters are fed up with Donald Trump even a progressive might be able to beat him. But if Dems want to play it safe I’d go with Biden and a progressive on the bottom half of the ticket, someone like Kamala Harris. Man-Woman … Old-Young … Moderate-Progressive … White-Black.

How is it possible to trust the mainstream media product? Is journalism dead? — Geoff

It’s very difficult to trust the media because too much of it is aimed at pandering to the audience. Cable panders for ratings. But the New York Times is no different on its opinion pages — and too often on its Front Page. Journalism may not be dead — but a lot of it is on life support. Do I trust FNC’s John Roberts when he reports from the White House? Yes. Do I trust CNN’s Jim Acosta? No. So there are journalists who keep their biases out of their reporting but too many don’t. The old networks still have their biases but they’re a lot better than cable, which I have said is not a journalism model so much as it is a business model: Give the audience what it wants. Validate their biases. Keep them riled up and coming back for more.

Thank everyone! You can send me questions for next week using the form below!

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Message: * Submit New Year’s Predictions — What to Look for in 2019

2019 will be here in just a couple of weeks, and before I start throwing out my annual predictions, I must say that 2018 has left me with several nagging questions that I can’t wait to have answered in the New Year.

No, I’m not talking about anything related to the Mueller investigation, or possible impeachment, or whether or not President Trump really will run for a second term. I’m referring to that last Avengers film.

Did the superheroes who disappeared at the end of the movie die or end up in some parallel universe?

Doesn’t Star-Lord and his temper bear blame for half the universe suffering this mysterious fate?

And where the heck was Hawkeye? Heck of a time to go dark, Clint! Anywho… Let’s get to the good stuff. My predictions for 2019:

And They’re Off!

Starting in May, a barrage of hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination will officially announce their candidacies. The field will consist of several currently talked about individuals including Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Eric Holder, along with wildcard entrants Oscar De La Hoya and Cynthia Nixon.

Notable in their absence will be Hillary Clinton (citing personal issues), Elizabeth Warren (citing a drawn-out legal battle with Ancestry.com), and Beto O’Rourke (citing health issues following a freak skateboarding accident).

But the primary race will be turned upside-down in late July, when eccentric actor Randy Quaid appears outside the north fence at the White House (wearing only thick-framed glasses and an enormous beard) to announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination.

The declaration will be laughed off by many as a bizarre publicity stunt, but having received a presidential pardon from all past crimes three weeks earlier for saying nice things about Donald Trump on Twitter, Quaid will file the appropriate papers and officially enter the race.

Using the campaign slogan, “Make the Universe Great Again,” and running on a platform of building an enormous wall around the planet (paid for by Mars) to protect Earth from an imminent attack by extraterrestrial invaders, Quaid will respond to debate-stage questions only by whistling old show- tunes and making fart noises with his armpits.

Despite deep concerns among the Democratic establishment, Quaid’s candidacy will draw unexpected support from far-left environmental groups who will believe that the proposed wall may actually help reduce the effects of man-made climate change. Further assisted by a massive, English-challenged Internet campaign funded by an unknown source, Quaid will narrowly lose the Iowa Caucus (after no-showing a debate in protest of Megyn Kelly), but win subsequent state primaries with a plurality of Democratic votes.

Much to the dismay of most Democrats, Quaid will remain the party front-runner heading into 2020.

Cable News Enters a New Era

After trailing Fox News in the ratings for 17 straight years, CNN will shock the world by finally regaining the #1 cable news spot. The stunning victory will be credited almost entirely to the 25 million viewers tuning in each and every Sunday night to watch an innovative new show called “Acosted.”

Acosted, hosted by CNN reporter Jim Acosta, will adopt a reality-TV challenge format in which Acosta will diligently work to make himself the primary focus of three major stories in the current national news cycle.

Initially met with skepticism from viewers and advertisers alike, Acosta will quickly demonstrate that he’s up for the task, launching his first episode in mid March at the Michael Flynn sentencing in Washington. Mere seconds after Flynn’s fate is declared by Judge Emmet Sullivan, Acosta will leap over a courtroom banister, sprint toward the defense table, and personally snap a pair of handcuffs onto Flynn’s wrists.

“You’ve just been Acosted!” Acosta will shout as he’s forcibly removed by bailiffs.

The show will become an instant hit, with Acosta successfully making some of the nation’s top stories all about him. Emmy nominated episodes will include:

Acosta showing up at a White House press conference on the topic of Russian election interference, dressed as 1980s professional wrestler Nikolai Volkoff. Acosta, during a post-victory lap, clinging to the hood of the winning car at the Winston 500. Acosta sneaking on-stage during the last stop of Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, and turning the iconic singer’s performance of Candle in the Wind into an unsolicited and unwelcome duet.

“You’ve just been Acosted!” gear will become hottest merchandise brand of 2019.

Actor Wars Are Good and Easy to Win

In mid July, at a Comic-Con panel discussion in San Diego, British film actor Simon Pegg will make a derogatory joke about President Trump. The incident will be featured that night in a two-block segment on Fox News’s Hannity, with Sean Hannity, Sebastian Gorka, and Dan Bongino all concluding that Pegg is an enemy combatant of the United States who was probably paid off by Hillary Clinton to deliver the joke. The three commentators will agree that Pegg must either serve hard time at Gitmo or be deported back to the U.K.

At approximately five o’clock the next morning, President Trump will take to Twitter to further blast the actor. Referring to him as “Simple Simon” and declaring Shaun of the Dead to be a “highly overrated zombie movie,” Trump will complain of America’s “actor deficit” with the U.K., calling it a “one-sided deal.”

“British movies hardly ever use American actors,” Trump will complain in a followup tweet. “Half of Hollywood’s leading actors are Brits! UK is eating our lunch! Sad! Must change!”

While pundits and entertainers alike struggle to figure out what Trump is talking about, the president will announce a new tariff on the U.K., tying it to American film production companies’ hiring of British actors. He will do the same thing with Australia and New Zealand, citing the countries’ similar flags and accents.

After months of struggling with the added costs of employing British and British-sounding actors, and losing notable box- office draws like Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett, and Chris Hemsworth, Hollywood will report financial losses in the billions. Those losses will soon after be recouped, however, with an emergency tax-payer bailout directed their way by President Trump. The administration will hail the Hollywood subsidy as a “historic victory of epic proportions.”

The Social Network Apology

Still reeling from the outrage over Facebook having given tech companies secret access to users’ private messages and personal data, CEO Mark Zuckerberg will announce a “We’re Sorry” public relations campaign in an attempt to make good with their users.

As part of the campaign, Zuckerberg will vow to permanently close the accounts of any Facebook user who asks that their Facebook friends reply to their posts with a word describing their first meeting. He’ll also promise to apply the same punishment to those who ask friends to copy and paste their cause-related posts into their own statuses as a show of solidarity.

The vast majority of Facebook users will be so delighted with the new policies, that they’ll quickly forgive and forget the whole security-violation issue.

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey will later garnish similar positive PR by requiring that Twitter users actually click on linked columns before replying to them.

Lastly…

In all seriousness, I wish you all a happy and healthy new year. Whatever disagreements we may have in 2019 (and like last year, I predict there will be many), I’m hoping we can approach them with relative civility and — at times — a good laugh.

Oh, and if you’re looking for some good holiday reads at a great price, the banner below might just be of some help.

Trump Versus Acosta Is Bad for the Brain Editor’s Note:

Here’s another take on the confrontation between Jim Acosta and President Trump. It’s by John Daly.

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When word came out that the White House was temporarily suspending the press pass of CNN reporter Jim Acosta for “placing his hands” on a White House intern, I was reminded of a tweet I read last year from Iraq War veteran, J.R. Salzman:

Modern-day politics is just one giant game of soccer with everyone falling down pretending to be hurt.

— J.R. Salzman (@jrsalzman) May 11, 2018

I can’t think of a better way to describe this latest chapter in the ongoing saga between President Trump and the mainstream press.

For those who missed yesterday’s drama, here’s a quick recap: Mr. Trump held a post-midterms press conference in which he got into several heated (and sometimes bizarre) exchanges with reporters. When Jim Acosta (CNN’s chief White House correspondent) was called on, the back and forth (which included some inappropriate editorializing by Acosta) grew particularly contentious. After delivering some barbs, the president instructed a White House intern to retrieve Acosta’s microphone to hand it to another journalist. But when the young woman reached for it, Acosta improperly refused to give it up and continued to ask questions. The two bumped arms in the process:

One can certainly (and successfully) argue that Acosta was rude and obnoxious, and was trying (as he so often does) to make himself the story. Frankly, I think his showboating and temperament should have compelled CNN to remove him from the White House beat a long time ago. But the implication that he in any way assaulted or ‘placed his hands on’ the intern is ridiculous and insulting (it was incidental contact at worst). Yet, that’s what the White House stated as grounds for the suspension of Acosta’s credentials, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders even tweeting out a subtly sped-up version of the video to make the contact look stiffer than it actually was:

We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video. pic.twitter.com/T8X1Ng912y

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018

Unsurprisingly, pro-Trump partisans in the media were quick to bolster the “assault” theme, even before the White House made its announcement:

Acosta assaulted that woman. Watch the tape. That’s not acceptable. https://t.co/FmFo2noZN9 — Melissa Francis (@MelissaAFrancis) November 7, 2018

The only thing physical about this video is Jim Acosta slamming down the arm of a woman doing her job https://t.co/vSv91AK4ue

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 7, 2018

The only person attack today was a female White House staffer who is attacked by Jim Acosta for doing her job https://t.co/OoCnzMTg4S

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 7, 2018

And on the other side, anti-Trump partisans categorized the suspension as an assault on the First Amendment, despite the fact that CNN can (and will) simply send another reporter in Acosta’s place for the time being:

News the White House pulled Jim @Acosta’s credentials is not an attack on one journalist but all of the press. There should be complete solidarity. This is a moment for any Republican who says they believe in the Constitution to stand up.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) November 8, 2018

Quite a few people even pushed this mind-numbing narrative on social media, assuring that all sides got to be a victim for the day:

That intern assaulted Mr. Acosta. She attacked him in order to wrest the microphone from his hand and was therefore making an assault on the 1st Amendment. — Jeff Lacey (@JeffLacey6) November 8, 2018

Perhaps the most ironic response came from Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who insisted that Sarah Sanders categorized Acosta’s offense correctly:

.@benshapiro clearly didn’t see what happened. Why would he let the facts get in the way. What @SHSanders45 wrote is exactly what happened. Guess it’s okay when it’s a “Memeber of the Club” #Hypocrite https://t.co/fnq40QwADH

— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) November 8, 2018

Some of you may recall that Lewandowski actually did grab and yank a woman by the arm back in 2016, during the election. She was journalist Michelle Fields, and she came away from the incident with a good-sized bruise. Notably, both Lewandowski and Trump claimed at the time that Fields was lying about the incident. But a video was eventually produced that proved her right. Unfortunately, shameless hypocrisy is par for the course these days.

Anyway, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find the phony outrage in these instances to be exhausting, especially when both sides are benefiting from the theatrics. Jim Acosta gets the attention he craves, while presenting himself as a First Amendment martyr. President Trump and the White House get to change the news cycle off of the GOP losing the House to the Democrats.

The only person in this story that I have any sympathy for is the White House intern, who was placed in an awkward situation (which she handled well), and is now being disingenuously cast as either an assault victim or assailant, depending on who you listen to. As Mr. Salzman said, it’s all one big game. And in this game, the spectators (aka the American people) are once again being treated as utter fools.