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down lemon is back and he says he's bigger Bolder Freer he was pretty free lemon announced this week that he's
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starting a new show that will stream exclusively first on X so it's a podcast that's going to be first on X I guess
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which you know they've been Linda's been going around I knew a lot about this because I talked to Don about it quite a
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bit I had other suggestions for him I suggested he' do a deal with Ben Shapiro or do the Megan Kelly route I didn't
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think this was a good idea so that that's just full closure um and I told him so and I said you know get the money
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up front um I just don't think it's going to go well for you on this platform uh but uh but he did he did it
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he he's other things he's doing you know he's but he also called X the biggest space for free speech in the world um I
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think uh it was also telsey gabard and sports commentator Jim Rome were doing video Partnerships obviously Tucker
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Carlson's been there but then moved to his own subscription based platform um scottt what do you think I I said he
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shouldn't do it I thought there were lots of other choices and again if I'm recommending Ben airo who I who I think
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is abhorent in many ways but he's quite a good media executive that's the kind of outfit I thought he should have
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affiliate you know to to create a great media property I think you're right so first off I think I think Don is a is a
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real talent and I think he's unafraid he connects with people he's really handsome which I think is incredibly
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important in media um not as important in podcasting but if I were him I would have just started with a podcast with a
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Vox or you know daily you know whatever it's called daily wire and developed a following there because X sort of
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creates a Halo that okay congratulations you're now you know on the same platform
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as Alex Jones and the guy who runs it is just sort of Reckless and strange and I
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don't this reminds me a little bit of when Yahoo did a big deal with Katie kurick it just it's not yes I broke all
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those I don't this is not what I would have done if I was Dawn if I were Dawn I would have figured out an outlet where I
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could still have a 30 or 60 Minute show because he has a face for television and uh I do think him in TV
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is still uh he would still do well even if he had to go to a quote unquote second tier Network and he should have
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done a great po to kind of announce this it's it's it's not just Don Lemon and what the topic is
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going to talk about it's Don Lemon and x and x in my view is a bad umbrella brand
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uh but on the whole he's a big talent and the thing I do like about this is that he is doing something the key for
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all of these folks and I I I've spoken to a lot of them recently as they're all trying to figure out their third or
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fourth Act is don't let perfect be the enemy of good and that is just get get on to the next thing and iterate and
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most of them don't most of them well they're used to a different world because they're used to being coddled in
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the whole network system right you know um in Katie's case I actually did break that St that's how I got to know Katie
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from that story um she got a ton of money up front but then they buried her inside of Yahoo never was on the front
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page she only got one% for Tumblr who is obviously the arguably one of the worst cosos in
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attack but true I I I think they paid Don a pile of money I know they did pile of
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money really yes M oh I didn't know well if that's the case then I I you know I think Economic Security is important if
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he's if he's he has a lot of money he's still you know he he got when they fired him I
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got I think they had to pay out his contract so um I don't know he could have had more money I think I again
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can't stand with Megan Kelly doing she's I get it yes that's what I mean I'm like
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uhhuh I see what she's doing and I talked to her before she did that um and I recommended the other thing I
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recommended to Don is if you want to stay on television go to a big market like Los Angeles and be the anchor for
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the top TV station and start to do never gocal National they just couldn't do it
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I get it but like you could do some interesting things that's a great kind of place cuz there anyway um you know
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whatever I just I don't think this was good idea but you know I guess you got a pile money X has the money to pay these
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kind of things I would think X would be yeah I said get it up front Don like get
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like like Bitcoin or something yeah just be just be mindful if you get fired you
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might not get the severance or Healthcare you were contractually obligated to well speaking of which I
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was in San Francisco there's going to be some lawsuits soon because he hasn't paid any
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of them what he owes them from top to bottom the Twitter employees and he's using specious uh like ideas of why I
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forget what the one was there was a couple different people told me different things they're accusing them
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of so they don't have but it goes back to the same thing with this around well I'm a billionaire so I can
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put a chill on all of media it's so abusive it really is um but the video strategy that they have now now ex CEO
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Linda yakar was at CES this week getting asked why advertisers should put ads on
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x given the hateful content RIS she said that hate speech is an issue on every platform can they pivot to video no I I
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said you know YouTube Reddit Instagram uh uh uh would like and YouTube would like to have a word Twitter like I
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they're so behind they've they blew all their chances early they have comp Tik Tok I'm sorry I left out Tik Tok their
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competitors are superb and good at what they do they have no CH I don't see how they have any chance this is another you
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know thing thing that they they aren't going to like a lot of the Twitter blue stuff is now falling off of
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Twitter blue all their promises so I don't see them being able to Pivot to to this well sort of back in the day one of
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my investors was Tim Armstrong like a really talented nice man and I don't know if it was him or has had a strategy
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said what would you do if you were Yahoo this probably a decade ago and I'm be like I oh yeah that's right I would be
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the world's largest TV network and that your distribution platform is is the internet and a lot word is out that
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video is big and to your point yeah YouTube does a really good job Tik Tok does a really good job so I'm not saying
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yeah it might be the right strategy but it feels a little bit late it feels like
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they don't have the capital the engineering talent I would say eight years and they were there already eight
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years I yeah it it makes sense but the notion that uh you know I just don't if I
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were we'll see I look Twitter X has to do something right they have to innovate they have to do something to have to
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experiment work it does feel late this is this is a this is a media strategy by someone who doesn't know media which
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would be musk and Lind yurino who came from NBC so this is her move and she was not in programming or editorial or any
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she knows how to you know putting names like Chelsea gabard and Don Lemon out she thinks is going to this is she goes
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for the deal the Splashy deal at CES that's not how it works anymore it's people you don't know it's interesting
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like Mr Beast or it's h it's just not this people are native I will say I saw I watched Tulsi
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on on Fox she has and I think she's I think she's talented I was shocked at how good she was on there I think she's
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good the yeah if I I would have done a deal and maybe they just got bought you know they just threw so much money at
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that which and if that's the case I think they did D lemon I take it back good for
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you no it's not good it's not good for him he could have made just Megan Kelly is making bank and she controls her
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Destiny I'm sorry again I can't you know you don't need it it's it's I was talking to someone about this and they
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about my own career and they're like why don't you come with us full time I said
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you can't afford me you don't understand but you know what I mean like I can do better by myself like you don't things
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have changed and I'm not even very big I mean you you stay at the nicest hotels in manhatt oh wait never mind never
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mind you go through my closets and comment on my food I love do you know what I actually I actually love it's
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nice isn't it it actually and I'm I'm kidding it makes me happy to know you're there I like it I you know I I love
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people's homes I stayed with Brooke hammerling in Los Angeles she has a beautiful home I don't like hotels I'm
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not a hotel like I love hotels but I love people where are my eggs no I don't like
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it I don't like it I like your apartment quite a bit I and I don't know why I have an I have a an affection for it I
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really do and it's not because it's it's not that fancy it's just really lovely it's it's a lovely F apartment anyway
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it's got a nice Vibe it's got a good vibe it's full of love SE Alice it's full of love last thing is this world of
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online video changing then where do you think it's going I I did interview Mark Thompson in an offsite for Warner
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Brothers I don't know if it was off the Record or not I was never told it was but it was really interesting
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conversation um but he said uh among other things the conventional TV can no longer Define us although he wasn't
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abandoning TV that wasn't what he meant what does that mean um that's when he started well I think he's like I think I
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was trying to get more out of him about it actually because it was you know I think he has to they're trying to figure
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out where how to how to move their where and how to move their stuff and control
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it a little like you know he said it wasn't one thing I'm going to just say what he said he he said it wasn't a a
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shift and lift from or lift and shift from what he did at the New York Times which was move it over to digital while
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keeping the print thing going because he thought video like TV distribution linear would be around for several
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decades and I would agree with him um and it's already there so why not take advantage of it um but that you have to
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sort of move everything uh think of it as as a dis digal product over over time and she he said we have to own it and
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not be subject to other people's platforms it was interesting it was he's a what is the what strategy if you were
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to Define maybe you didn't get this information how Mark Thompson is going what is the strategy or the shift in
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programming or distribution that we'll see under Mark Thompson that we weren't going to see under Chris lck a
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subscription subscription a subscription survey I that's my she didn't say it but
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there's no other way like what they did the New York Times some of it's free what okay yes exactly I that's what I
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said I said the problem with CNN plus was directionally was correct but there was no CNN it was like hamburger Plus
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without hamburger right like I don't get it why don't you but I think some of the
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stuff I think he's right some news does lend itself to television fast news fast
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moving um but I think the dependence on the platforms like Twitter or YouTube or whatever there's not the monetization
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is not there and I think the times was doing that too just the way everybody gave all their content to Netflix and
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regretted it I think in a lot of ways um and didn't own it themselves and take the cost of doing it I think that's his
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inclination I think he's correct that it has to be a product that people want to
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buy um a news product that people want to buy from CNN and some of it is free some of it's not um I mean he has to
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he's you know they could look at Netflix is now very successful sucessfully doing
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advertising a Amazon is about to make its ad tier for default for its millions of Prime video subscribers so you know
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there's a lot of add stuff in a different and interesting way so they have they have some they have some
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interesting opportunities and he's very canny so I don't know what would you do if you were running
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CNN great brand globally great brand glob I would try and elegantly integrated into um kind of the the max offering and
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always have a CNN bug where you can click it and they did you know they had 6 10 20 minute Loops kind of becomes the
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ingredient news brand for the subscription service Max I don't think it's a standalone Subscription Service I
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think it's it's the ingredient it's the neutr suite of Max around news and because when you think about it yeah the
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biggest players whether it's whether it's Disney Plus or Netflix what they lack is
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news so it is yeah it's the asame or I don't know what you would want to call it it's the Intel inside of Max is what
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I would I would try and build I'll tell you the most interesting thing he said offand which which was this idea of you
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wake up and it you're like I want to know more about that I want it like an AI gener you know that that their news
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done by people is then applied you know digitally and with AI with gener of AI so that you start to get they're they're
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exploring deals with open AI that was just reported yesterday and he he didn't say as much but obviously everyone's
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talking to them but um that you have some kind of relationship with your news it's not um because Google laid off all
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the assist a bunch of assistant people so did um uh you know uh C hundreds of jobs to voice activity assistance
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software this is all going to be uh AI generated and he had some ideas around that and I thought that was smart so
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he's working it out but it's definitely a transition uh David zazo was there he was wearing he was wearing his David sof
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outfit and everything but it was it was interesting it was he's I think this is going to be a great year for
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anyway yeah I do too he's very Mark is very thoughtful I really enjoy talking to him and I can see he's working it out
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I think he's woring it's not it's not going to be unlike what happened at the New York Times using this amazing brand
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and there huge amounts of reporters to really uh bring to bear there's monetization there and as opposed to
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like Linda doing these oneoff dealss and it's just not an editorial product very
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similar to what happened at Yahoo