Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 3083 - The Scott Adams School 01⧸29⧸26

00:00:00.000 i love you guys andy is here in the house andy hi you guys i hope to see mike burt here again

00:00:10.940 you guys get on him um you guys are you are we ready for this sip i think we are and shelly's

00:00:17.840 got it queued up for us it's a just a short little clip today and then we're going to introduce you

00:00:23.660 to our guests so join us now hey everybody come on come on gather around grab your containers

00:00:37.240 all right shelly ready what i'm talking about it's time for the best part of the day we're

00:00:43.400 professional guys we're getting there it's called coffee with scott adams and you like owen's head

00:00:47.180 the right place for that let me tell you hang on guys shelly if not let me know well that's

00:00:54.540 good for you this is a perfect uh entertainment companion for taking a hike look at that tree

00:01:01.440 over there watch your step it's like i'm right there with you all right everybody you know what

00:01:08.420 you need to have a great day to get it off in the right way all you need is a

00:01:12.240 how you guys doing oh it's playing oh they're saying it's playing come on gather around grab

00:01:26.600 your containers you know what i'm talking about it's time for the best part of the day yeah it's

00:01:35.220 called coffee with scott adams and you have come to the right place for that let me tell you

00:01:40.080 how you're doing it and you have to take a look at that tree over there watch your step it's like i'm

00:01:55.860 right there with you all right everybody you know what you need to have a great day to get it off in

00:02:01.260 the right way all you need is a cup or a mug or a glass of tank or chalice or stein a canteen jug or a

00:02:05.700 flask a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid i like coffee and join me now

00:02:14.340 for the dopamine hit of the day the unparalleled pleasure i usually say those in the other order

00:02:19.260 it's called the simultaneous sip and it happens now go

00:02:22.580 do you know why i could never be an actor well lots of reasons but one of them

00:02:34.560 i can't remember lines my memory the way my memory works is uh very different from other people's

00:02:44.700 so i can't remember the exact order of anything i'm a little bit dyslexic anyway so putting things in

00:02:51.500 order is hard but concepts i can remember forever like a joke if i hear a joke remember it forever

00:02:58.640 so i don't have a bad memory i have a different memory i can remember concepts forever but exact

00:03:05.320 things like phone numbers not a chance um i've had a question that i've had for

00:03:13.080 so weird on my end i couldn't see it that's so crazy good morning everybody that's great

00:03:39.300 i'm gonna do a quick introduction of who we are and then we're gonna get to our guests so i'm erica

00:03:46.160 you guys nice to see you we have the beautiful marcella next to me well i don't know where you are

00:03:52.380 here yet uh we have sergio looking dapper owen looking especially fetching this morning and in the

00:04:01.600 middle there i see kim you guys kim is on locals as kimblee so please welcome kim and um i'm gonna

00:04:10.340 turn it over to you kim so you could let everybody know about yourself you have quite the interesting

00:04:16.840 history and you've been through a lot and it's very inspiring so i'm gonna turn it over you to

00:04:24.020 introduce yourself and then we'll come back and talk about what we're doing so take it away

00:04:27.900 okay first i have to say owen's picture i used to work in the news business the tilted head is the

00:04:35.540 anchorman trick for you to fall in love with them like your dog looking at you with their sad little

00:04:43.040 eyes tilting their head so i love the new picture but i um i started let me start with when i uh began

00:04:52.200 to watch scott is after uh greg gutfeld mentioned scott's uh illness that's when i started watching

00:05:00.940 the live stream i i had read dilbert for years and and was a fan and i would see some of his posts on x

00:05:08.800 but um i started watching every day because i was caring for my husband who had terminal brain cancer

00:05:16.360 himself um scott was so fortunate that he had his ability to speak and think up until the very end

00:05:26.820 but uh my husband was losing that and as he began to decline this was my connection to uh having

00:05:36.480 interaction with people and uh you know got me thinking every day and and gave me something to

00:05:45.640 look forward to so i did join uh as a subscriber once my husband passed away in october and fully

00:05:54.360 participating in everything the um you know of course this i would watch the locals a simultaneous sip

00:06:01.180 but going and uh interacting and the first time scott said my name he said kim he said kimberly but he

00:06:09.780 knew what kimberly was short for that so he said it a couple of times he mentioned some of my comments

00:06:13.980 it's like wow you know i would felt included in the community um i wanted to be one of the beloveds

00:06:22.160 that he talked about that persuasion from scott was just so wonderful it reminds me now i'm a boomer i

00:06:29.100 know sergio's mentioned boomers but there was a show on that i watched as a little girl romper room

00:06:35.480 where she would hold up a magic mirror and say i see shelly and marcella and erica and sergio and

00:06:44.020 owen and you know everybody on the list and it was such so inclusive so much love that he gave us

00:06:51.860 so we couldn't help but pour that love back out to him so i'm when he talked about how much love he

00:06:58.700 felt that just really moved me and um so here i am and i do have a little story to tell this is

00:07:08.600 the first time in 40 years i've been on camera i started out as a local news reporter in montgomery

00:07:15.340 alabama when george wallace was in his last term as governor uh i went to atlanta well birmingham

00:07:23.800 then atlanta and eventually cnn international and cnn so i know you hate me now but

00:07:31.120 uh that's okay um i am not a spokesman for cnn or the mainstream media i do have my opinion so uh

00:07:42.880 you know we get to do questions i i cannot say i speak for anybody but i i've got my own

00:07:49.700 take on everything and um so i'll make sure i'm not leaving out any information um but i i have been

00:07:57.880 uh searching for my next chapter i was in virtual isolation covid plus uh 19 months with my husband's

00:08:10.340 illness like scott he got much more time than was predicted he got over an extra year and and that

00:08:18.260 was very rewarding and uh but i i do have social anxiety now which has just shocked me um but the

00:08:29.240 isolation even even the community here still wasn't enough so um so i have i have gone back to

00:08:36.960 celebrate recovery which i attended for food addiction but working on these new issues so uh

00:08:43.740 all that ties into the reframe today and my take on the reframe and and all that good stuff

00:08:50.160 that's amazing and let me just tell you kim is kind of shortening her amazing bio i guess for the 1.00

00:08:57.520 sake of time i you know i said just kind of go through it but we're gonna get to know you more kim

00:09:02.220 because you are absolutely a warrior and a fighter and an achiever and you're accomplished and we're

00:09:11.620 so happy that you're here with all of us because you know greg gutfeld always says no you know no

00:09:17.440 one's a picasso right we're all potatoes we're all the same you know so we're happy you're here and

00:09:24.060 and doing this with us today and we want more people to participate and tell their story that being

00:09:29.040 said kim did pick out a reframe okay so kim if you know which page or the name of the reframe okay so

00:09:38.580 it's which which reframe is it uh well it's in the the preface i have the audio book so i can't give

00:09:45.040 you the exact page but it's near the end of the preface if you go to the bold print where it says

00:09:51.200 usual frame alcohol is a beverage you'll be in the general area okay so kim's gonna she's gonna read

00:09:58.240 it to us but she's gonna shorten it a little bit um because it's kind of long so let's listen along

00:10:03.580 and then um we're gonna talk about it after because i i think kim this is i definitely need to hear this

00:10:09.940 one especially the the spin you're gonna put on it for me okay take it away kim thanks all right

00:10:16.000 if you're not excited about this book yet here's my favorite reframe success story if my feedback from

00:10:22.820 social media followers followers is to be believed this reframe has helped hundreds perhaps thousands

00:10:28.480 of people stop drinking alcohol i invented this reframe in 2013 for my book how to fail at almost

00:10:35.660 everything and still win big here's the simple reframe usual frame alcohol is a beverage reframe

00:10:42.880 alcohol is poison some readers of that book lost all interest in alcohol and quit drinking forever

00:10:50.900 because they read those three words alcohol is poison um and and just skipping down a little bit

00:10:57.960 reframes don't need to be true they don't even need to be logical they only need to work is alcohol

00:11:05.200 literally poison no or maybe sort of depends it doesn't matter your brain will process a lie or any

00:11:12.280 form of fiction the same way it processes i guess it says the truth i can't turn the page yeah so that's why a

00:11:20.600 movie can make you laugh cry or feel inspired even while you know the story is made up so when scott

00:11:27.260 talked about that uh i don't know if it was the book or on the stream but i had this instant bond with him

00:11:35.780 because it matched a reframe i had done in my own life which was uh very successful for me and i'm gonna send a

00:11:45.600 a photo for you to you in this the chat that's me at 325 pounds i'm five foot nine about 150 pounds

00:11:55.600 right now um i did lose weight the old-fashioned way weight loss surgery in 2026 um i lost 155 kim is

00:12:08.160 there any way for you to hold that photo up to the screen or no i can do that just because not

00:12:15.000 everybody can see a picture in the chat so i'd like youtube and rumble and x if possible oh yeah not to

00:12:22.040 put you on the spot okay because you guys this is just amazing the there you go tell us again what what

00:12:29.360 happened okay so i had weight loss surgery lost 175 pounds went out bought new clothes the whole

00:12:37.480 shebang oh here's another picture comparing before and after

00:12:42.480 um but then like everybody else weight loss surgery of zempic or whatever the weight eventually starts to

00:12:54.620 come back and it's like oh no what's wrong what's wrong um so i i had to work work on that in

00:13:02.060 several ways i went on a mission to um find out metabolically what was wrong with me some of that

00:13:09.980 worked but i also used a reframe very similar to scott's the reframe uh well it's all food is

00:13:18.740 nourishment the reframe is ultra processed food is poison in fact i was at my sister's for christmas

00:13:27.180 and she brought out a little debbie cake and a wrapper little christmas tree with icing and i said

00:13:33.160 no that's poison terrible host man i mean guest manners i apologize for that but uh if anybody has a cat

00:13:42.400 on their lap i'd recommend that you remove it right now because uh as a good producer i bring props

00:13:50.160 it's some ultra processed food and i just see something in a wrapper because you you can't

00:13:56.640 identify ultra processed instantly but wrapper comes pretty close so ultra processed food oops

00:14:05.280 so there go the uh chips but if it has a wrapper and it says organic it's like you know that's pretty

00:14:17.120 good if it's uh organic peanut butter yeah yeah to that but the the key to the reframe for me was the

00:14:28.400 image every time i see ultra processed food i see this little image here of the skull and

00:14:35.120 crossbones on the food i just picture that and it's really just steered me away from that stuff

00:14:42.960 it's been the biggest successful reframe that i've been able to do in weight loss and um and it's still

00:14:51.920 i still have to tweak it if i find out i'm doing if i start to gain weight it's like what am i doing

00:14:58.800 differently and i i work on that but another thing that's worked for me is

00:15:03.200 no more no diets nothing i'm never on a diet no food is technically off limits even the

00:15:12.000 doritos on the floor right now but um it's it's given me that permission has given me an ability

00:15:20.480 to relax because something you deny yourself for me i i want it more and um i love that deb you know so

00:15:28.800 i almost called you debbie oh my god because we said little debbie thanks kim so i love that also

00:15:35.040 i have a friend who's um recovering alcoholic for a long time and you know there was a lot of people

00:15:44.320 that were getting involved with gossip and this and that and i was trying to say to him

00:15:49.280 you know i i do this with everything i feel like the alcohol is poison is probably one of the best ones

00:15:55.840 because i was saying to him every time someone tries to feed you some toxic gossip i said they're

00:16:03.680 trying to feed you poison so every time you hear something like that picture it as like a shot of vodka

00:16:09.680 or a shot of gin and they're just trying to feed you this poison because alcohol is poison and it was

00:16:16.320 his poison and it does so much damage so i kind of feel like that all the time so even if um food is your

00:16:23.520 addiction or gossips your addiction or whatever it is think of that thing as the alcohol because

00:16:30.720 alcohol is poison it there's there's no benefit to it you know some people will say oh erica it's fun

00:16:36.400 and my mood and whatever but technically there's no health advantage to alcohol it does more damage

00:16:42.320 than most drugs so i like this reframe for food um sugar is poison for sure and we know that sugar

00:16:52.720 has been linked to i'm not a doctor i'm just saying what i hear causing cancer because it's putting

00:16:58.880 your body in a more acidic state and cancer loves to grow in acidity so you know link it however you

00:17:05.120 have to for whatever the addiction or the poison is in your life it's such a useful reframe do you guys

00:17:13.440 want to chime in on that because i i find it very useful you know i want to say something first that

00:17:20.720 it's kind of um i understand now why scat is a little sideways why scats um can stay with it you

00:17:28.640 know not distracted by the by the memes because you say like you know dead and poisons and i'm smiling

00:17:35.040 and laughing because i'm looking at memes you know so i just wanted to say that but uh yeah so ultra

00:17:41.120 processed food it is poison right i like that because especially because a good frame a good reframe

00:17:48.240 chemically that you did i didn't know what you're gonna do and because the idea is great but the key

00:17:55.360 of the reframe that you did was applying it in the wording and that's what i liked about it so i just

00:18:01.120 wanted to say that um it's very you can repeat that often it's like ultra processed food is poison

00:18:07.840 right so it's it's uh instead of i mean excuse me um yeah if you say like ultra processed sugar

00:18:14.640 it's poison too because if you say you like sugar you know sometimes not but ultra processed up i love

00:18:22.160 that that's it thank you i do use uh organic maple syrup to sweeten my coffee which is you know healthy

00:18:32.240 and good for you it's good for your brain and i did did a reframe for other things related to that

00:18:38.000 you'll see over my shoulder uh the cookie jar it's now a pistachio jar and uh my my husband loved those

00:18:48.240 duplex cream cookies and i said okay what am i doing with the jar pistachio jar what i was gonna add to

00:18:57.280 this kim um is you talked about how you're not in a diet of all the time um and i'm wondering how

00:19:06.480 systems versus goals helped you because it sounds like you have a system versus a goal of like 10

00:19:14.720 lose 10 pounds and um and then gain another 10 pounds after and then it's like this yo-yo dieting but

00:19:24.000 you've realized on your own that that the best i guess the best option is to do a system can you talk

00:19:33.360 about that yeah i i basically well i have a dual system exercise and food is i start the morning

00:19:43.680 with i have a vibration plate which happens to help i have an autoimmune disease too and i i do have a

00:19:50.880 photo of me in an autoimmune flare so you could see how much puffiness how much inflammation is how much

00:19:58.960 misery is there um so the vibration plate helps my neuropathy it gets my mighty mitochondria fired up

00:20:08.320 and uh y'all were talking about the little pinky move when you you know want to get out of bed

00:20:13.920 this is the pinky move of exercise so it gets me going um and i i have some health drinks that i do

00:20:21.120 with that and then i do trx straps for resistance training and then eccentrics as also known as

00:20:31.200 classical stretch on many public tv stations uh for mobility and flexibility i've i've had some

00:20:39.280 bad falls where i've broken bones and i was caring for my husband and i did not want anything to happen

00:20:45.680 to me and i i said to myself i'm training like an avenger i was training really hard got in the best

00:20:53.360 shape of my life and even after he was gone it was like i feel so amazing i'm going to keep this up so

00:21:00.640 that's my system in the morning then i have two poached eggs and um then sometimes i'll add something

00:21:10.800 else um avocados um and then lunch i'm usually a grazer for lunch i like nuts of course one of my

00:21:21.600 favorites uh back to avocados um evening i was using prepared meals with my husband uh the tavala meals

00:21:33.600 and i really like the variety in those so i've stuck with those mainly for the evening

00:21:38.320 evening it's called tavala t-o-v-a-l-a you basically the the meal arrives once a week the package of

00:21:47.520 meals you scan it you cook it he was a uh hamburger guy i was a uh an indian and thai food type person

00:21:58.400 so it's perfect if you have a household where you have different kinds of food tastes that's awesome

00:22:04.240 and if somebody has parents so they're worried about what they're eating that's a great thing

00:22:10.240 to suggest to them like that is good i am a boomer and uh and i i've not i don't regret getting old

00:22:20.560 i'm great i regret that i did get old that's a reframe and uh and it's well your your system is to

00:22:29.200 to to think and move toward being an avenger and so yeah it's like what what does it take to do that

00:22:37.600 instead of just saying like i'm gonna be you're like okay here's what i need to do to hit that peak

00:22:43.440 performance for kim and it's working for you um i love that kim thank you so much i i you guys so make

00:22:53.840 sure um i posted kim's twitter handle for today's show notes on locals she's at kimblee and you guys

00:23:02.560 could we drop that in the chat for locals and if you have any questions i know kim would be happy to

00:23:09.440 answer them for you so please reach out to her for like what she's doing even about her cnn and news

00:23:15.920 journey um dealing with caretaking and grief like you've been through a lot and you know we're so happy

00:23:22.880 that you're here with us and you know you're you're um part of what we're doing moving forward

00:23:29.040 i love that sergio did you want to say something yeah i wanted to uh i i haven't seen um owen speak

00:23:36.080 or move in a long time i want to i know well we're gonna we're gonna check with owen right now and do

00:23:42.480 some news so that's that's what's happening i don't want to hear his voice i want to hear his voice you

00:23:46.880 know owen are you okay are you all right oh yeah just checking owen

00:23:57.520 all right all right well we're gonna we're gonna switch over to talking about the news i know marcella

00:24:07.040 you have the um news stories to kick us off and then owen will regain his composition and he'll be joining

00:24:14.080 us to the day that i'm like not as ready lord i have i have the i have a list of stories yes okay

00:24:23.920 now i have my backup oh owen can anyone hear me oh i can we can hear you now okay sorry something

00:24:31.280 went wrong with my sound yeah no i was i was actually waiting for my turn to jump in and ask

00:24:35.280 some questions to kim um i did want to make a comment that on on the systems i can see that you've picked

00:24:40.800 up some of the tips from scott that like you know the the jar of pistachios is a great example where

00:24:45.520 you clearly have just gotten rid of all the bad things and not you don't keep them in the house

00:24:50.320 right and you have replacements which i think is something that's got talked about it it's like

00:24:56.320 if you have bad thoughts you can't just focus on the bad thoughts and make them go away but if you

00:25:00.800 replace them with good thoughts then they do go away you just have to do it the opposite way that you

00:25:06.480 might be normally thinking about it and i think this is the same thing with food it's like if you

00:25:10.880 just you know have a bunch of bad food in the cupboard and try to resist it that's never going

00:25:16.000 to work but if you just get rid of it completely and then if you also have good things to eat then it's

00:25:22.320 it just makes everything work and it seems like exactly what you've been doing i also wanted to mention

00:25:27.200 i love your simultaneous swaddle jacket yeah looks like it was made directly on verica's blanket

00:25:34.800 yeah yeah that's perfect so um and you know i think you mentioned that you you might be able

00:25:41.840 to tell us like what it was like putting together the news at cnn i'd love to hear about that yeah um

00:25:49.200 well somehow a lot of people from viewer comments they seem to think anchors just show up on the set

00:25:57.120 and they have the news memorized they're reading a teleprompter they're reading what's been hours

00:26:04.320 in the making hours of work um when i was a producer before i was an executive producer i produced um

00:26:14.160 a show on cnn international which had anchors in london and atlanta and the show aired at one o'clock

00:26:22.160 eastern i'd show up at 5 a.m and i would do what you do owen i would read every story out there

00:26:32.400 i would read every story on ap reuters uh afp which is a french news agency yeah but and uh read all the

00:26:43.280 inputs from cnn what what they have available which reporters which live shots there there is a massive

00:26:51.200 army putting the news together there's a futures editor looking at news they know is going to

00:26:58.160 happen of course they have uh assignment desk editors domestic and foreign oh they they wouldn't

00:27:06.480 use the f word international and um ready to have the pounce on news so you would decide what's going

00:27:14.960 in the show um i had shows that range from 30 minutes uh the show i was talking about now is an hour

00:27:24.800 when i was an executive producer of the weekend morning shows with miles o'brien and kira phillips i had

00:27:32.240 three hours there was a producer for each hour of the show and i oversaw the whole thing so uh oh and your

00:27:40.640 concept of the long form um stream is uh very similar to putting together a three-hour block

00:27:52.400 of uh of news okay so you would do the rundown i would do the rundown and then have a meeting

00:27:58.160 with uh copy editors and writers and they would normally start writing on the show about two hours

00:28:06.560 before it airs and sometimes many times the stories would be written still being written as the show

00:28:14.800 went on which is uh a a source of panic that you get used to that your show isn't even complete yet

00:28:24.320 uh but you would i would assign a uh a time to the story how long it it was it would they get 20

00:28:33.680 seconds to write this story a 30 second story is the reporter going to get three minutes for their live

00:28:40.080 shot two minutes and by that very nature you have to know that uh any news you watch on tv you're not

00:28:49.840 getting all the news you're just getting the uh skimming over of what's in the news and um

00:28:57.280 um so so how do you how do you pick the stories and how do you pick like what order they should go

00:29:04.240 in is do you know do you group things by topics or um and then you know is there kind of a narrative

00:29:10.400 that gets woven into that yeah uh well obviously the first priority for news is new so what's new

00:29:19.040 what's what has the biggest impact uh what's what are people going to be interested in um so of course

00:29:29.280 what's available for news gathering one of the most boring things in news gathering is what they call

00:29:36.400 a beeper or a phone interview uh i don't know if you or any of you are old enough to recall when you

00:29:43.360 would be on a recorded phone conversation there would be a beeping noise in the background so that's

00:29:48.800 why they uh they call it a beeper i i was privileged to be on the phone a few times with uh jimmy carter

00:29:58.320 benjamin yahoo is mr president hold on you know we'll be on the air in about one minute um i got to cover

00:30:06.080 several presidents when i was a reporter and producer i got to cover inauguration

00:30:10.960 uh a republican convention uh a republican convention i got to go in the white house in the east room

00:30:17.120 for cabinet swearing in i mean i'm kind of like this forrest gump geek uh all the cool stuff uh i was

00:30:24.960 i was in london when princess diana passed away and i was the control room producer for that for the first 12

00:30:31.200 hours and um but as far as the constructing the news there is a morning meeting every day

00:30:41.520 where uh the the head of the network uh he's like the conductor of an orchestra each um division the

00:30:52.880 national international the feature features units like science and health they report on the stories

00:31:00.640 of the day what's available reporter wise what what they call packages the pre-recorded segments are

00:31:08.160 available so you you take all of those elements and put them together and and try to make it interesting

00:31:17.040 and uh the stories that i like to put in uh we're usually kind of outside of the k here's the news of the

00:31:27.200 day and and that is why you see everybody covering the same thing if you watch my husband used to like to

00:31:34.720 watch fox news all day long which to me watching news all day long is a form of torture news is not

00:31:43.360 meant to be watched all day long it's meant you're meant to watch an hour and get the news and then go

00:31:48.320 about your business but uh one viewer wrote us said that our news was like pistachios and she couldn't

00:31:55.520 stop watching like you can't stop eating pistachios it's bad for your mental health but um the news

00:32:05.040 you you want to have a complete package and you want to make the bosses happy and include the stories

00:32:10.960 that they think are important uh but you'll watch one network all day long and say the same same

00:32:18.400 stories at every single hour which is so boring to me but one of my favorite stories that i would

00:32:25.120 stick in were and this sounds like something you would dig up owen bubonic plague breakout in the american

00:32:33.040 west every time there was a bubonic plague breakout i would put that story in there and it's one thing

00:32:43.280 you should also know about new news is the news stories give you dopamine hits like scott used to

00:32:49.520 talk about dopamine mean hits a lot yeah that's why when you see a spectacular story or a clickbait story

00:32:56.480 you're getting that dopamine hit and those stories that i recognize that caused that hit those were

00:33:04.720 the stories i would tease at the beginning of the newscast you'll watch some network newscasts like

00:33:11.040 cbs they do 30 full seconds of teases what's in the newscast down to the fuzzy animal at the end of

00:33:19.200 the newscast and they call that the kicker uh to get you roped in to stick around for the whole

00:33:24.880 thing so they'll get the ratings so did i answer that enough for you or do you have some more oh

00:33:29.920 definitely yeah that's very insightful um did you ever get in trouble for any stories that you put in

00:33:34.400 the show uh i actually no um i did okay they gave me a lot of leeway and i did get promoted to the london

00:33:49.920 position based on that show i was talking about the one o'clock international show and um

00:34:00.400 so do it is your perception that the news process has changed a lot though because it it seems like

00:34:06.480 it has to me at least it's gotten more polarized and it seems like it's more of an activist sort of

00:34:12.080 thing where they do mostly present one side whereas i think 20 or 30 years ago it was not like that i think

00:34:18.000 they were i thought they were kind of like required to present both sides especially on a political

00:34:24.480 type of story or something um but it seems like that's just totally gone by the wayside yeah that

00:34:31.840 and also you get what you you have the the panels with the four people on one side then the foil who has

00:34:39.760 the opposite political belief it's just carloff on fox um uh scott jennings on cnn the one person

00:34:50.240 that's not balanced they're they're they're setting this up for conflict and part of the turnaround

00:34:58.400 happened when fox news came into existence and it it threatened cnn um fox news was putting a lot more

00:35:08.080 talking heads on because that was cheaper than actually covering the news and these these panels

00:35:13.600 that have evolved from that i i cannot watch many of those programs for very long uh that's not news

00:35:23.680 that's just discussion yeah i see those as more like entertainment rather than news they talk about

00:35:30.160 the news but it's more of an entertainment thing to me but we would have discussions on uh we had these

00:35:37.120 called we called guest bookers who would uh arrange for the guests be on the news it's okay how do we

00:35:43.600 balance the segment we would we would have those discussions we would either have um a second guest

00:35:50.160 with a different opinion in the same segment or as another guest to follow that guest or we would

00:35:58.320 decide okay next hour we're going to have a guest with a different opinion and we're going to tease it

00:36:03.440 that it's coming up and then we come to that second hour we have a clip of the first guest

00:36:09.360 so i remember that they used to do it like you're right they would get their own slot and it wasn't

00:36:16.160 always like this debate of yelling back and forth and i appreciated that because it was like everything's so

00:36:23.040 angry now yeah and yeah so i i feel like that's really um changed the way we discuss things

00:36:30.960 in our everyday life like everything's got to be a battle i think it's a terrible model

00:36:35.920 well i was at cnn from 95 to 2003 and i have a little pop to show you this is the war book for

00:36:47.760 uh the iraq war created before it started and it does say it's for internal use only so somebody might

00:36:56.160 be at the door before but um there was something that happened there that really jarred me is uh

00:37:07.200 i was working the night the uh or the day the war broke out and uh one of the vice presidents

00:37:18.400 came up to me i was an executive executive producer of regular cnn at the time she said to me and a

00:37:24.880 small group of other people she said we're supporting the war and to me as a journalist

00:37:32.880 i was floored it should be we're covering the war yeah now i think uh and i i think the pressure

00:37:42.480 pressure from fox news had a lot to do with it because uh you know it's flag waving patriotism

00:37:50.160 that no matter what would happen they would still be supporting the war and that's why cnn went on and

00:37:56.800 that's i don't know if that's ever been made public that was the um i certainly see that as kind

00:38:03.280 of obvious yeah yeah like i mean it's you know i wasn't alive during the vietnam war but i'm pretty

00:38:09.200 sure the coverage was pretty different and and i think any of these recent wars and you know it just

00:38:16.080 seems like especially cnn because i remember those days but you know maybe they spearheaded it and then

00:38:21.840 everybody else copied it is just like any kind of war was like you know we're going to put that on

00:38:27.920 constantly any we're going to embed ourselves in the troops and we're going to you know like just

00:38:32.720 have as much live coverage as we can and we're going to always talk about it like it's amazing and

00:38:39.040 one of the examples that really struck me was in trump's first term when he fired that first missile

00:38:44.560 into syria or afghanistan or wherever it was like all the news stations jumped on that and said

00:38:50.480 trump for the first time seems presidential that's right and it's like he dropped the mother of all

00:38:56.880 bombs like that was the first positive coverage trump got from the news yeah was when he fired a

00:39:01.440 missile ratings yeah well i think there was a turning point uh against trump um that has to do with cnn

00:39:10.720 uh you know i wasn't there then but this is from my observations uh jeff zucker was in charge of the

00:39:17.360 today show when uh during the 2016 campaign and trump was always doing something outlandish controversial

00:39:27.280 on the verge of helm supposedly having to drop out of the race so they would have him on there doing

00:39:32.480 telephone interviews almost daily and uh at the top of the show eating up tons of time just totally 0.88

00:39:40.880 drowning out all the other candidates and i think when trump got elected that sucker felt a guilt about

00:39:49.360 that and then he became head of cnn and then it becomes the anti-trump network and um which i think

00:39:58.720 drove even more attention to him yeah and once you as a network tilt one way or the other it's hard to

00:40:07.280 get back to the middle because then the people that are supporting the tilt get angry and they leave so

00:40:13.760 you've got people on both sides just leaving um so i i think that was a lot behind it but um

00:40:24.000 like the covet thing talking about you know we're supporting the war i think there had to be some

00:40:29.040 behind the scenes we're supporting the lockdown yeah supporting we're supporting the uh mrna vaccines um

00:40:39.120 and it's the media has lost its uh posture of objectivity and i wouldn't say that every single

00:40:52.560 person that works there has because i know there were a lot of internal uh advocacy for fair journalism

00:41:00.480 in cnn when i was there and there had to be there after i left yeah so what do you think of the recent

00:41:08.480 story that that the trump administration is going to start requiring the networks to have balanced coverage

00:41:12.960 i i i think there's still has to be hands off on the media uh the first amendment um but wasn't that an

00:41:26.640 existing law that it it it's been in place for a long time and now they're just talking about enforcing

00:41:31.440 it are you saying you don't think they should enforce it well the the broadcast networks are under the fcc

00:41:37.680 yeah the public airways so they do have some uh public obligation public service obligation that

00:41:47.280 they could be providing because of that um yeah and i think that's what we're talking about where

00:41:52.880 they're going to try and enforce it it's just the public airwaves like cbs nbc uh abc and maybe pbs

00:41:59.520 or you know npr i don't know about npr anymore because they're not funded by the government anymore so

00:42:04.000 that might mean they're outside of it but the mostly the ones that are on the the major stations

00:42:08.640 like that right and and i think cnn and fox can still do whatever they want but um but what i mean

00:42:15.280 do you do you think that's gonna work and do you think it are you saying that it shouldn't be enforced

00:42:20.960 oh and it was called the fairness doctrine cynthia just told me okay yeah and in that the fairness

00:42:26.560 doctrine was repealed i don't remember which year where you actually had to like people

00:42:33.840 like rush limbaugh couldn't couldn't be on the radio if the fairness doctrine had been

00:42:40.160 enforced because the the station would require equal time to someone with an opposing point of view

00:42:49.440 and um so that that gave rise to the the partisan talk radio boom um

00:42:57.360 um so to me government doing things to quash the journalism troubles me a lot um

00:43:11.200 that the the shows if they're not doing public affairs shows i think the fcc could step in

00:43:19.280 and say okay you need to have these balanced public affairs shows to uh to serve the public interest

00:43:28.480 it just any time any kind of censorship is discussed the the democratic side discussed it a lot

00:43:37.040 uh hillary clinton john carrey that the the whole free speech thing was an obstacle to them

00:43:44.240 uh i'm very much a free speech advocate and i would hate to see a heavy hand of government cracking down

00:43:55.760 but if there are specific things they are doing to deliberately exclude all sides i i could see fines

00:44:06.720 but i couldn't see anything you know more yeah well i mean i think it is probably all money related in

00:44:12.880 terms of it would be some sort of fine if that was what it came down to but i i certainly think um

00:44:18.560 you know there's there's like outlets like mrc newsbusters that cover this a lot where the coverage

00:44:23.600 is is heavily skewed like on these networks you know it's like 90 plus percent left-leaning

00:44:31.200 guests left-leaning points of view they don't cover stories that are good for the right

00:44:36.240 um the late night shows which i don't know if that really is really in the same category but you

00:44:40.880 know they have something like 99 left-leaning guests and and so i think statistically there

00:44:46.960 we have the information that says this is completely unbalanced but i think um you know as far as what

00:44:53.520 the rules should be or how that should happen i don't know you know how they could do that because

00:44:59.920 you know first of all i don't even know if the right-leaning people want to go on these things

00:45:03.120 but even if they do you know it's it would seem like you know somebody would have to be the scorekeeper and

00:45:09.600 maybe it would be someone like newsbusters that would keep score but um you know it does seem

00:45:15.600 difficult to me because how do you measure a point of view you know like i understand we we kind of

00:45:22.800 know when we see it but um like you said you know someone could just have a different point of view

00:45:28.880 investing is all about the future so what do you think is going to happen bitcoin is sort of

00:45:34.000 inevitable at this point i think it would come down to precious metals i hope we don't go

00:45:39.280 cashless i would say land is a safe investment technology companies solar energy robotic pollinators

00:45:46.400 might be a thing a wrestler to face a robot that will have they'll have to happen so whatever you

00:45:52.480 think is going to happen in the future you can invest in it at wealth simple start now at wealth

00:45:57.840 simple.com and well oh and i necessarily mean left and right i think that you know like scott always

00:46:04.880 says you know you 80 20 rule you know you can't i don't believe anything personally but what my issue

00:46:12.480 is is that people are acting as if they're journalists and that they're news and i feel like

00:46:19.120 um so as someone told me here that the fairness doctrine did not pertain to cable news so there's that

00:46:24.880 also somebody said on locals i'm sorry i didn't see who it was um define news or define journalism

00:46:33.120 so also i just feel like someone like rachel maddow or whatever all of them even sean hannity all these

00:46:40.160 people it should say opinion it's this is an opinion piece this is and then also i don't think

00:46:48.480 i am a free speech absolutist but i also think that if we can't trust our

00:46:52.640 our news sources just like if we can't trust voting you know it's um it's wrong because

00:47:01.520 just like the fine people hoax i mean obama was just still talking about it they're still bringing

00:47:07.440 it up and it's a known hoax and i feel like if you do that and it's blatant and it's already known to be

00:47:14.960 a lie that you should have your credentials pulled because you're spreading propaganda without

00:47:21.280 saying it's proper i know marcella's dying because she's the attorney but that's so misleading it's

00:47:27.280 actually the news pushing an agenda and lying to the people under the guise of journalism and

00:47:34.720 protected speech and i just feel like the news people should be held to a higher standard done

00:47:41.280 the fairness doctrine um was repealed it does not apply to uh it does not apply in current world um i

00:47:49.680 don't think it should come back um and it never applied and it never will apply to cnn and fox news

00:47:58.240 you know how you are able to control cnn fox news by walking away from it by not giving it credence by not

00:48:08.320 saying that they're correct and by not giving them ratings which their ratings are way down you know um so i

00:48:17.760 think most people realize that they're not true um and i think that's important is that in the world

00:48:26.800 of capitalism if you're not going to buy the product they're going to stop selling that type of product

00:48:32.320 and i think that's the power that we have as consumers but i don't believe that the government

00:48:39.360 should control the press well that was going to be one of my follow-up questions was where do you think

00:48:44.800 this is headed in terms of how many people are watching these stations because i i get the

00:48:49.840 perception that their their demographics are just boomers at this point and once those people start

00:48:55.200 dying they're just going to continue to have less and less ratings and i don't i don't see how they

00:49:00.160 could ever get more people to watch because you know cnn is in theory at least and somewhat in practice

00:49:06.880 moving more towards the middle they have scott jennings you know they they at least they have

00:49:12.800 harry enton you know they're doing some things where they're putting things on air that are more

00:49:17.520 balanced or that talk about the other side and um i know cbs is doing that whole thing with barry weiss

00:49:23.680 and the new um anchor and they do seem to be trying to do that to to be you know closer to moderate or

00:49:31.440 both sides but i don't see any sign that that means their ratings are going up if anything i think

00:49:37.440 it's more of a whiplash thing where they were so left-leaning for so long that they purged all of

00:49:42.080 their right-leaning viewers and now that they're going back towards the middle they're just going to

00:49:46.240 purge all their left-leaning viewers and no one's going to be left do you see it that way kim yeah uh 0.99

00:49:53.200 ratings have been declining on cable news uh for years and as more news outlets become available

00:50:04.720 most of us get the news on our phone right now in fact if i see a news story being teased i don't

00:50:11.520 have to stick around for the news i can look it up and see what it is and go about my day so these

00:50:17.440 stations these broadcast stations are losing their power and i i think that will continue but there

00:50:24.720 there is a an event in history journalism history that might be relevant and interesting

00:50:31.360 uh i don't know if you've heard the term yellow journalism yeah the 19th century newspapers uh in new

00:50:39.040 york they were they were running stories that were sensationalized with fabricated facts it sounds

00:50:47.440 like fake news uh crime scandal and war uh they would have misleading content prioritizing entertainment

00:50:58.240 over uh terrified facts and you know the two newspapers that were doing that they were run by

00:51:07.120 william randolph hearst and joseph pulitzer was funny who's now a his name is associated with quality

00:51:14.480 journalism the response to that was the rise of the new york times which is very interesting so it was uh

00:51:26.640 replaced by real journalism which they need to get back to um and

00:51:35.520 so it's something things that are arising now that are going to replace these new source these

00:51:46.400 traditional news sources um as as our top forms of information in fact until news was viewed as a

00:51:56.160 money-making tool it was created the evening broadcast was created to serve the public interest

00:52:04.000 and once these networks realized they could make money that's where the ball started rolling for

00:52:11.600 things to go awry to uh to put sponsors uh of the programs that are the ones that these news shows

00:52:22.560 should be covering and how how do you have pfizer as your sponsor and you're talking about pfizer 0.85

00:52:28.320 vaccines like it's just it's all stupid erica when you have a chance can i would like to jump in for

00:52:33.360 a second do it okay thank you okay so simply the most important thing you said today was when they 0.99

00:52:41.040 whispered at you that they're supporting the war that was they they they they wanted uh i i felt

00:52:48.800 how you you got goosebumps when they told you that right yeah because uh i can i can i can feel it and um

00:52:57.520 and and that's what they they revealed to you that uh all the news channels and uh in the sky inside

00:53:02.800 of mist about to explode the whole show you know because it scott um told us that all the news

00:53:09.040 channels are there to uh provide an opinion for us uh if they can be self-sustaining and make some money

00:53:16.640 so you know you don't have to subsidize them that's great but all the new shows scott told us many times

00:53:23.040 that they were there to assign an opinion to all of us that's all they're for so if they make money

00:53:28.800 or not you know some of them make more money when they start start losing ratings that's not what they

00:53:36.400 won the most that's a uh that's a symbol and a measurement how many people are under that message

00:53:44.320 on that opinion right so whenever the ratings fall from the news the ratings will go up on a youtube channel

00:53:51.520 now right and a lot of youtube has taken over uh that and people feel like i don't watch the news

00:53:57.600 anymore i'm not brainwashed i watch youtube only and uh and it's the same thing so uh because it's

00:54:04.480 it's all the people so so the the the the word fair and balance uh from the beginning scar has told us 0.75

00:54:12.160 that we invented those words for children and for idiots to fight over okay so because that's all is 0.71

00:54:20.800 going to happen it's like it's not fair or it is balance the truth is that there's a changing of 0.99

00:54:27.280 the guard now there's a golden age uh whoever has the power is going to take control of things cbs

00:54:34.960 changes uh um like what owen was saying the the shift to the right so yeah that's going to happen

00:54:41.280 because none of that is organic it's all about the the who has the control at the moment and not

00:54:48.880 expecting that they're going to be nice to you when they take over the control back right so right now

00:54:54.560 uh all this news there's no fair or no balance to any of this stuff okay it's just what they want us

00:55:02.640 to to they want to sell what they want to sell the most is war war and medicines right war and drugs

00:55:10.560 war gets huge ratings war yeah the ratings are great so they can pay they can buy more cars and get more

00:55:18.000 salaries but that's not the biggest the best part they're selling the war because the war is the

00:55:23.680 biggest racket that's why you get the most money and that's why it has taken five years to stop ukraine

00:55:29.520 that's why uh all this world lasted for 10 20 years because of that because there's the biggest

00:55:34.720 money maker there is and uh and that's what they're for they're infomercials they're not information

00:55:40.480 all these channels they're just informationals and you said it when trump was pro-war

00:55:46.000 on the first term they're like great let's go for him let's support trump right but then after they

00:55:51.920 saw that he wasn't like starting too many wars he he got you know taken down right and then now he's

00:55:59.600 back do you think they're gonna you know let him uh do that again they're gonna try to take him down

00:56:05.360 with everything they got and um so we'll see what happens but um yeah i think they're hoping they're

00:56:11.600 hoping for a war with iran at this point that's probably the next one but i think they i did see

00:56:16.080 them cheering on the venezuela and talking about it like breathlessly about the new sonic weapon and

00:56:21.680 how it was such an amazing operation and all that stuff and and and now they're talking about cuba and

00:56:27.760 they they talk about invading greenland even though trump has said he's not going to do that and um you

00:56:34.320 know it anything that's a little whiff of a war just gets lots and lots of coverage and attention

00:56:41.040 i wish we could have war without the killings you know that would be nice if you had like

00:56:47.360 right the drones against drones that's what's coming if we can watch it on tv that would be fun

00:56:52.080 you know i posted today about the drones and all the drone swarms are the new thing that they're

00:56:57.040 coming out with all these different drone swarm solutions where it would just be impossible to do

00:57:00.640 anything against them so scary it's so scary i i do i do appreciate the drones because i you know

00:57:08.880 obviously it'll save lives hopefully for troops and people's sons and husbands and fathers um

00:57:17.840 kim when the drone wars start i'm going to go over to sergio's house and he's going to protect oh

00:57:23.280 yes sergio you guys sergio has a drone it's like a little pet it flies off of his hand and it comes

00:57:29.600 back to him and he's actually going to show it to us one day um we'll we'll do that one day it's

00:57:34.720 pretty interesting he's our our gadget guru love it kim um we really like you're like i said your bio

00:57:44.800 is so interesting and i hope you'll come back again it's really fun to talk about the behind the curtain

00:57:51.680 on the news and get a glimpse into what's happening and everybody in the chat did you love having kim on

00:57:58.160 today you know let us know because we did and owen had great questions and um i just appreciate the

00:58:07.680 insight and um we all have to be careful with our news sources what is news where do we get it from a

00:58:14.640 lot of us got it from scott every day i know i counted on him to help me figure things out luckily owen's

00:58:22.240 got his show on saturday where you can just talk news non-stop for hours and hours um but i hope you

00:58:30.880 had fun kim i hope we made you feel welcomed oh you did and i do not want to miss an episode of uh scott

00:58:39.120 adams school i'm loving this i'm growing and learning and i'm just so honored to be a part of it today and i

00:58:46.640 just love all of you and love everybody in the chat thank you so much thank you you guys um so

00:58:52.560 we'll tomorrow is a special show you guys um shelly will be on and we ask somebody else to come on we'll

00:58:59.680 introduce you to tomorrow but we're going to talk about scott's memorial service um and just uh about

00:59:07.840 scott in general so we would love for you all to be here for that and um then we will have owen on

00:59:15.600 saturday for more news but tomorrow um please i'll be here let's have a closing sip for our beloved

00:59:22.960 scott we miss him so much and everyone please go out there today and be useful help somebody that

00:59:29.600 needs help with something and kim is um her information has been dropped in the chats and

00:59:35.360 it's on my x feed if you want to get in touch with her i see a lot of you have different questions for

00:59:40.160 her and she's very open to that so all right guys we'll see you tomorrow and to scott to scott

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - January 29, 2026

Episode 3083 - The Scott Adams School 01⧸29⧸26

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