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In this video 0:06 The Decline of Legacy Media1:21 Media Bias and Trust5:12 Fiscal Challenges and Political Change18:53 Education Reform and Ideological Battles38:31 Climate Change and Global Policy
The Decline of Legacy Media 0:06 Good afternoon. I'm Victoria Marshall and welcome to a special edition of the Washington Watch news desk. Today, we're going to explore the future of legacy media. Trust in the media is an all0:18 time low with only 31 percent of Americans saying they have a fair amount of trust in mainstream outlets. More and more Americans are now getting their news from social media. Pew Research Center found0:29 that 1 in 5 Americans are getting their news from social media and that number is much higher for Americans under 30. Joining me now to discuss this is Editor in Chief of the Washington0:41 Stand, Jared Bridges. Jared, thanks so much for joining me today.0:46 Good to be here, Victoria.0:48 So, Jared, trust in the media is at an all time low. More Americans are getting their news from social media than ever before. Is legacy media dying?0:59 Oh, I think it's certainly on its death throes and gasping for air. And just the very fact that our viewers right now are watching this on a platform that is not1:10 mainstream media says a lot. We have, people are going from to social media. They're going to other alternative platforms. There have been fragmentationMedia Bias and Trust 1:23 that that's happened all over the place. You know, as as much as, you know, in the early nineties, networks, the big 3 networks, and then Fox came
1:35 in as a as another network. It kind of ruled the airwaves. Then you had in the in the eighties, CNN and cable news kind of taking, route there. But
1:46 now the fragmentation just happened everywhere.
1:50 Do you think that's because Americans distrust legacy media? Or is it more because our attention spans are declining and, you know, it's easier to access news on social media because we're on our phones all the time?
2:02 What do you think
2:03 is causing
2:04 a combination. They're, people do distrust media a lot more now. They've you know, they were tied to these big networks that had
2:16 the huge staffs and, you know, correspondents all over the world. And now it's they have other opportunities. So we're we're seeing the the effect
2:28 of other opportunities coming about and people being able to access them easily, through the Internet. You know, first, the Internet. There were blogs and then social media,
2:41 YouTube now. A hundred and 50000000 people in the US watch YouTube on our TVs every month. So the there are other the other other avenues are available. The
2:52 availability is meeting the demand. I don't I'm not sure. I mean, there there was distrust of the media a long time ago, but it was all you had at the time.
3:03 Yeah. That makes sense. So both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times declined to endorse a nominee for president this past election cycle. Do you think this reflects more on how bad a candidate
3:15 vice president Kamala Harris was? Or was it a desire to appeal to more middle of the road moderate voters and regain their trust?
3:23 I I think it's the latter. I think there's they're trying to they see the problem. They see that they are perceived as very partisan, always in the camp
3:35 of the left, and they see audiences fleeing everywhere. So this this is somewhat of an attempt. I don't know how effective it was, but attempt to say, okay.
3:47 Maybe we shouldn't be in the business of stumping for candidates. And I and I think that the perception of of a lot of people is that that is what they do.
3:58 Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Do you think, do you think this attempt by legacy media outlets to be a little bit more moderate will be successful? Like,
4:10 what can they do to regain Americans' trust?
4:14 I think they have to stop pretending to be objective if they're not. And, you know, follow the lead of of of these alternative outlets and and
4:25 just be who you are. If you're gonna be in the camp of the left, say it. If you're not if you're gonna try to be objective, be objective.
4:35 Yeah. I think that's so true. Well, Jared, thanks so much for joining me today. And that's today's segment. Up next is Watch and Watch. We'll see you next time with more news.
4:52 From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington DC, bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and
5:04 newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Joseph Backholm.
Fiscal Challenges and Political Change
5:12 And welcome to this Wednesday before Thanksgiving special edition of Washington Watch. I'm Joseph Backholm. I'm your senior fellow for Biblical Worldview here at the Family Research Council. It's my pleasure to be
5:24 be with you today. Today on the program, there's a lot of interest in how things will be different in the second Trump administration compared to the Biden administration. Today, we'll talk about the
5:36 changes we should expect in the Department of Education and in education policy more broadly. Also, the United Nations Climate Change Conference recently concluded
5:48 and a lot of money will be changing hands as a result. We'll tell you who's getting that money, what it will be used for, and whether it will save the planet or not coming up later. But
6:00 now, our top story today. When American voters gave president-elect Donald Trump his decisive victory this month, They made clear they want change in Washington. And
6:12 with the announcement of his cabinet picks, Trump is making clear that the status quo is not in his plans. That's a welcome message in a nation that just hit 36000000000000
6:23 dollars in debt. A figure that is rising by 1000000000000 dollars every 100 days.
6:30 It is time to transform this country because if we don't do it now, we're gonna lose it. If we don't constrain spending now, if we don't set the trajectory of lower debt now, we will
6:42 not have a dollar. We will not have a strong economy.
6:47 That was Texas congressman Chip Roy last week on the house floor. So how might the incoming Trump administration deal with the nation's fiscal nightmare? Joining me now to
6:58 discuss this is Paige Hauser, policy director at the Center for Renewing America. She previously served as associate director for domestic policy in the first Trump administration and a special
7:10 assistant at the Department of Education in the Office of Postsecondary Education. Paige, welcome to Washington Watch.
7:18 Hi. Thanks for having me.
7:20 Well, you heard congressman Roy's comments there. In your opinion, just how serious is America's debt problem?
7:27 I mean, 36000000000000 dollars, that's that's more money than I think anybody's ever heard of. The numbers are staggering, so it could not be more serious as, congressman Roy
7:39 articulated there. We are we are on the precipice. We like to say at Center for Renewing America, the the hour is 11 59, and, time is of the essence. So
7:51 the, massive victory of president Trump on election day could not come at a better time.
7:59 So how would you describe the difference in the economic policy of the upcoming Trump administration or at least what we expect compared to what we've seen from the Biden administration over the last 4 years?
8:11 Well, I think it's an important question, and I think it's 1 of the huge reasons why president Trump, 1, you can feel it in your everyday life. You go to the grocery store, things are more expensive than they've ever
8:23 been. Rent is expensive. People are finding it difficult to, buy a house, start a family. That is all part and parcel to the Biden economic agenda. We
8:35 had their Inflation Reduction Act, which did the opposite. It created more inflation. They've got more spending, than we have ever had historically in the country. And all of that
8:47 makes everything more expensive for Americans. And you couple the economic policy, which makes everything more expensive with the lack of border security. And we have an invasion across our
8:58 southern border with millions upon millions of illegal immigrants coming into the country. That creates, job problems. That creates housing problems. It creates strains on our school systems and our
9:10 health care systems. All of that, the American people see every single day, and they said they've had enough. And that's why I think president Trump won.
9:20 And I think you're right. I think there's a a discontent with what has been over the last several years. But when it comes to this 36000000000000 dollar debt problem we have, this has been created
9:32 by bipartisan forces. And we know that President Trump was president before, and he wasn't exactly a slash and and and cut spending kind of president the first time just to go over
9:44 some of the numbers. In 2017, he had a 665000000000 dollar deficit. In 2018, it was a 779000000000 dollar deficit. In 2019,
9:56 it was a 984000000000 dollar deficit. Now that's all before COVID, and we know that was an, an unusual situation, which certainly led to additional government spending. In light of this
10:08 history and even in light of kinda how he campaigned, and he wasn't campaigning as a guy who's gonna dramatically cut government spending necessarily, what do you expect in light of how he has conducted
10:20 himself as president in the past? Is he actually going to cut spending?
10:24 Yeah. I I think you make a good point calling it a bipartisan problem because, everyone knows that the way that spending works for the federal government is congress passes their appropriations bills.
10:36 Usually, it's not the 12 annual appropriations bills, but it's all 1 big 1 jumbled jammed together usually at the end of the year right before Christmas time, and they force a situation where it signed the
10:48 bill or shut the federal government down. And usually a bill gets signed. I will say that President Trump, when he was in office, put forth a balanced budget every time he so, you know,
11:00 the the president proposes a budget and then Congress usually disposes of that budget and they pass their own spending bills. And and on we go, dollars 36000000000000 later. I do think that
11:12 you will see, more from President Trump of balanced budgets. My boss, Russ Boat, has been tapped to go back to the Office of Management and Budget. I think, he will take with him the same
11:24 idea that we put forward at CRA, a budget that balanced in 10 years. It cut trillions of dollars in discretionary, federal spending. And then I think you'll you will see that.
11:35 And then I think the pressure is also going to be on Congress, which will be majority Republican, to actually do something about the federal debt and to not just look at it through the lens of
11:47 what can we afford, what can we not afford, but also the fact that the federal government is woke and weaponized against the American people. That the federal spending is not just
11:59 bad because we can't afford it. We've never heard of numbers like a 36000000000000 dollars But also they are funding things with your taxpayer dollars that are absolutely against your
12:11 interest. It is the DEI. It is the gender fluidity ideology that you see in in public schools across the country. That there is a moral outrage
12:23 over, and I think that congress and the president will have no choice but to stop funding that kind of stuff.
12:28 Yeah. And we certainly hope they will, and there does seem to be momentum in that direction. But though I don't know the numbers, I assume the amount of money that would be saved by cutting out CRT and DEI, kind
12:40 of the ideology, from our federal spending is a a fraction of a fraction of the 36000000000000 dollar problem that we have. Do you think the American people are
12:52 really willing to accept the consequences of reducing spending in a way that will meaningfully impact that kind of a debt problem that we have?
13:04 Or do we have this debt because it's what the American people are currently demanding? Are the politicians willing to tell the people the truth about this situation?
13:13 Well, you say it's a fraction of a fraction. I would just push back a little bit and say it's a huge amount of money. I mean, the the federal department of education is something like a 70000000000 dollar
13:25 agency right now. The state department is a 50000000000 dollar agency, and they spend that every single year. And that begins to add up to the point where you do get 36000000000000 dollars We at the Center for Renewing
13:37 America put out a budget, which would balance over 10 years by just mainly cutting the discretionary spending. Discretionary spending is what we're saying is primarily woke and weaponized
13:49 against the American people. It is not going after the Medicare and the Social Security, those so called entitlement programs. We have a budget that says you can actually balance without touching
14:00 Medicare and Social Security. You can actually go after and reduce the size of woke and weaponized government. You have to grow the economy. You made the difference between or you pointed out the difference between the
14:11 Biden economy and the Trump economy. You have to grow as well, but you can cut huge amounts of spending. And I do think the American people want that. I, in fact, think that they will demand it. When they find
14:23 out that their federal taxpayer dollars are funding critical race theory in the schools, social emotional learning, that they are, doing the gender fluidity unicorns at in k
14:35 through 12 schools instead of actually teaching them to read and to, do math. All of that is is outrageous to the American people. And I think, 1, as I said before, that's why president
14:47 Trump won. But I also think that they will demand that their taxpayer dollars stop funding that.
14:53 Yeah. To that point, Paige, Scott Besant has recently been nominated to be the treasury secretary. And he said very recently that he thinks we can grow our
15:05 way out of the debt problem, which is a way of saying we can grow our economy in such a way that we have so much more revenue that we can pay down that problem. Do you agree? I mean, that's the optimistic view of this.
15:16 We'd all like to think, hey. We're just gonna grow. There's gonna be so much more money that we don't even have to cut our spending in order to do that. Is that realistic? And is that 10 year budget you referenced that
15:25 you put together, part of that answer? Yeah.
15:29 I think it is part of the answer. I do not think that you can only grow. Growing is essential. It is important. I think, there are other sources of revenue. We've looked at changes to the tax code that actually
15:41 increase revenues into the federal, Treasury. If you if President Trump does what he, has said he wants to do and raises a tariff, that will increase
15:52 revenues into the federal Treasury. You have to be able to grow your economy. But no, that is not enough. You must also cut spending. And I think that the president
16:04 and Congress will have the moral high ground to do that cutting. It is necessary. And and that is what the American people demand, especially when they've when they hear that their money is
16:16 being spent on gay pride parades in Prague and drag shows in Ecuador. That is not something that they think that their money should be spent on. DOJ
16:28 has a huge responsibility in this. Rating school boards and parents that show up at school boards and treating them as domestic terrorists, all of that costs money. All of that is being fueled and
16:40 funded by federal spending. Stop spending that and, yes, grow the economy. And we would get way a way closer to a better a balanced federal budget.
16:51 1 of the controversies in Congress in recent years when it comes to spending is the process congress goes through in order to pass budgets. And these omnibuses has have become normal. Instead
17:03 of considering different packages, different budgets where members of congress get to debate those provisions and propose amendments in a way that perhaps that would perhaps
17:15 lead to greater efficiency. Everything is just put is put together in 1 giant bill under the pressure of is the government gonna shut down? And so everybody feels an obligation to to pass it without,
17:27 real deliberation of the details. Do you think that's something that's going to change in the next 2 years when Republicans are in control of the White House and both houses of Congress?
17:38 Yeah. We euphemistically call them Christmas tree bills because they usually show up at the end of the year, and they are not very nice, though. They are loaded with all kinds of bad spending that of course, if
17:50 anybody knew or if it was broadcast what was in the bills, they would never pass. And as you say, they don't read them anyways and they just go on business as usual. I think there will be enormous pressure to stop doing
18:02 that. You heard, Congresswoman Roy at the beginning of the segment. They're they cannot keep doing this. And they do not have the excuse anymore of saying, oh, well, we're in divided government. We just have to do this
18:13 or else the federal government will shut down. No, you have a Republican controlled house, a Republican controlled senate, and you will have the presidency. We do have a spending fight coming up at the end of this this
18:25 year before all of that change takes place. There will be pressure to do a Christmas tree, but I think that that can be resisted knowing that if they just do
18:34 a short term funding bill
18:36 We are up against the deadline. I'm sorry to cut you off, but thank you so much for joining me.
18:41 Thanks for having me.
18:43 When we return, we're gonna talk about some of the cuts that might be able to happen in the Department of Education. Stay with us.Show more
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