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SCHNATTER V WASSERMAN MEDIA GROUP, LLC Unsealed Discovery Material Audio Transcript – MAY 22, 2018

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SCHNATTER V WASSERMAN MEDIA GROUP, LLC Unsealed Discovery Material Audio Transcript – MAY 22, 2018 SCHNATTER v WASSERMAN MEDIA GROUP, LLC Unsealed Discovery Material Audio Transcript – MAY 22, 2018 00:00:00 – [UNINTELLIGIBLE] 00:00:04 – JASON STEIN: I do want to use the time for us to ask you the questions that we think you're going to get and just hear your point of view on it so we can make sure that we're integrating an honest, truthful answer, but also helping avoid any potential issues that could come up. Is that okay? 00:00:21 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Yeah. When did this go out? [UNINTELLIGIBLE] 00:00:26 – KATIE WOLLRICH: It's the same paper. It's an extra copy. 00:00:28 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Oh, when did this go out? 00:00:32 – KATIE WOLLRICH: We just got it. 00:00:33 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Why wouldn't you give this to me previous to the meeting? I mean, I’ll read it, but I mean it could be a lot more helpful if I had already read it coming into the meeting. 00:00:41 – JASON STEIN: Because we just did it last night and over the weekend, so we were just getting it together, to be honest with you. We also don't want to put words in your mouth, John, and we really want to understand your point of view on these things so we can work with the truth and not make you say things that you don't want to say. 00:01:01 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Okay. 00:01:04 – JASON STEIN: So, so, do you want to do this exercise now, or do you want to just take the time and jump back on the call once you've had it because again this was just completed. 00:01:11 – JOHN SCHNATTER: No, no, no, you guys go ahead and do your thing. 00:01:14 – JASON STEIN: Okay. So, the first question -- or one question you'll get in some form is ‘John, are you racist?’ How would you respond to that question or what are some of the things you'd want to talk about in response to that question? 00:01:28 – JOHN SCHNATTER: And who am I talking to? Who is the audience? 00:01:30 – JASON STEIN: Say Stephen A. Smith. 00:01:36 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Um, I'm fine with your, you know -- I wouldn't use a positive to describe a negative, but I'm fine with, you know, that's just not the case, you know, aside through it all, something like that. 00:01:52 – JASON STEIN: Got it. And we want to be able to point to things that you've done in the past to sort of prove that because that's one of the best ways to sort of just, like, end it quickly. So, what are some of the things that you would want to point to for that? 00:02:17 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Are we still involved with Antron, are we still involved with the bus [UNINTELLIGIBLE] Pittsburgh? 00:02:23 – KATIE WOLLRICH: We don't have an official endorsement. 00:02:25 – JOHN SCHNATTER: I think he owns part of the market. 00:02:26 – KATIE WOLLRICH: Part of the market [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. 00:02:35 – JASON STEIN: I know it's been mentioned in prison reform activities, but I'm not sure the details on that. Is there something there we could go to? 00:02:45 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Yeah, we could. I mean we're involved with Deion Sanders down in Dallas. You know, I think we're sending, you know -- I’m working on this number, but probably dozens and dozens of minorities are in our four business schools. You know, I think these questions -- I think shorter sweeter, you know, frankly. You know, my security detail on Sundays, a guy I grew up with since I was eight, he's black. Again, you guys caught me off guard because I hadn't seen the quotes yet and seen the questions. 00:03:29 – JASON STEIN: Got it. 00:03:30 – JOHN SCHNATTER: So, let me chew on that a little bit. 00:03:33 – JASON STEIN: Yeah. The point of this document and this call is to sort of like line up what this process should be. So, we want you to take a look at what we've said, think about any of the potential examples or things you would want to say or not want to say, and let's get that back from you, or do another test run through it so that we can put together very tight talking points. 00:03:58 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Yeah. You know, what I don't want to do in real time is doing what we're doing now, and that's kind of shoot from the hip. 00:04:04 – JASON STEIN: Okay. 00:04:06 – JOHN SCHNATTER: And I want to do it in a way that's thought out just to make sure that we make our point without, you know, in some way offending somebody else and all of a sudden creating a, you know, a bunch of vectors off each separate direction we didn't intend. You know I think the law of unintended consequences is very applicable to this kind of exercise. 00:04:28 – JASON STEIN: Yeah, agree, agree. We just want to make sure that we do enough sort of testing and throw out enough sort of unexpected questions so that we're prepared for anything that comes up in an interview, because you will get some of that, and we just want to make sure that we've kind of run through all those different angles beforehand. 00:04:50 – STEVE RITCHIE: So, Jason, you know maybe so we don't have to go through all the questions, it may be a good time to just absorb it or whatever, but just stepping back a bit, understanding the idea around you know going toward the interview path, why you've kind of identified these individuals, just your thinking around that so also we can give John some opportunity to kind of make sure we're in sync with the thinking along why this path and why these individuals and why through these channels. 00:05:19 – JASON STEIN: Yeah, for sure. So, for one thing, again, the goal is get - to clear the air and John's name to as many consumers as possible in as broad a way as possible as quickly as possible. So that's the point of this sort of small media blitz tour. The first person we thought of was Stephen A. Smith. This came from Pete, and we like him because he's black and he agreed with John's comments, or maybe didn't agree, but didn't have an issue with them. He got the whole story right, so he's someone who I think would be a safe and okay person to go to. At the same time, he can't be the only person because everyone will say well, he's one of the few people in the world who agrees with you. What about everyone who disagrees, where’s that point of view? So, we also thought it would be smart to do a live interview on Twitter with Darren Rovell, who I know John and Darren have done some good interviews together before on Twitter. I think they did one at the Super Bowl that's positive and Darren got the headline wrong, but he doesn't necessarily agree or disagree with the statements, but he would be a good person to represent that internet audience, maybe take some questions from Twitter, and let John speak candidly and humanize him a little bit to social media audiences, while Stephen A. gets the TV audience. 00:06:47 – JOHN SCHNATTER: And Jason, when do you want to do these interviews? 00:06:50 – JASON STEIN: We would like to do them as quickly as possible, John, as soon as we feel comfortable with the messaging and the rehearsing of it. We would like to get them done right away so we can get back to business, get you back in the advertising. 00:07:04 – JOHN SCHNATTER: How close do you want to do this to Chicago? 00:07:07 – KATIE WOLLRICH: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] I don't know what the timeline is, but we could make it happen if this got finalized pretty quickly. We're still following up on the Antron thing to make sure that because of the Toyota car that he can even be in it, talked to Ted this morning, He said Don is putting a lot of pressure on him to make it happen, so... 00:07:25 – JOHN SCHNATTER: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] Don has a deal [UNINTELLIGIBLE] race cars. 00:07:29 – KATIE WOLLRICH: Yeah, so, we're waiting on confirmation on that. 00:07:33 – JOHN SCHNATTER: And Adam Silver, you think he got it right? 00:07:40 – JASON STEIN: Yes. 00:07:44 – JOHN SCHNATTER: Do we have a list of, you know, announcers or anchors that got did get it right? Do we have a list of that by chance, Jason? 00:07:56 – JASON STEIN: We have a short list. The reason we went to Adam and a few other examples is because of the tie to the Commissioner of the NFL who got it so wrong versus Adam who got it so right, and there were very few people, but we have a list of brands, like the Anheuser Busch brand got it right, so we have enough examples for you.
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