December 20, 2024 • 38 mins
Alex Stone comes on the show to talk about the bird flu in California. A bunch of people got sick from eating oysters at a LA Times food event. Daniel Guss comes on the show to talk about the LA deputy mayor that is being investigated for calling in a bomb threat. San Francisco's "Weight Czar" said you don't need to be healthy.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't f I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio Villa Ragosa.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
Everybody, come on, sing him on, come on, let's go.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
You know, I want fantastic, but I wanted you know,
but I'll tell you can You've found that, you know,
you know, I like.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I hope he hears this. I hope he hears that
we're playing this.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I heard a couple of times over the years that
he would get really steamed at the stuff we did
about him. It was really easy to get under his skin.
He seems like a guy who's thin skinned.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
He's very vain.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
John Cobalt Show a six forty live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app and we are on every day from one
until fourth after four o'clock John Cobelt Show on demand.
That is the podcast version and in an hour, two
rounds of the Moist Line, two rounds at three twenty
and three fifty last one of the year. Well, I
got to read this email that Deborah forwarded to me.
(01:25):
A listener named Cheryl wrote to Deborah, and this is
off our discussion about using meat beef for cosmetics, and
she writes, Hey, Deborah, I just wanted to thank you
for being such a good animal person. It really tees
me off when people you work with tease you about
(01:46):
being vegan. Oops, like right now one fifty seven pm,
that d head that's laughing at you for I think
vegan cosmetics. Why is it not wanting to eat animals
that have suffered then slaughtered for ten for ten minutes
(02:06):
of a human eating their flesh, it's painfully barbaric.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
By the way, I had the best cheeseburger for today.
I just didn't take about ten minutes to eat it.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, there should be a prerequisite of having to go
to a slaughterhouse before you can purchase meat. Keep representing, girl,
So Cheryl, all right, there you go.
Speaker 7 (02:27):
You go, girl, Cheryl, thank you for your lovely, lovely emails.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And I'm a d head you are, Yeah, except she
spelled the whole thing out.
Speaker 8 (02:34):
She did.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
She called me a word I can't use here. That's correct,
that's not fair. All right, we're gonna go to alex Stone.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's also about animals because the bird flu has gotten
into the milk supply, which shouldn't be a problem, except
a lot of idiots are following Robert Kennedy's recommendation and
drinking raw milk. And now cats are in trouble too
with the bird flu, and Alex has got all the
de Yeah here in La County, more cats have got it.
(03:03):
By the way. I was in the Tom Bradley Terminal
Lax earlier this week doing a story with the chorus
the TSAs and I looked up and it said via
a Gosa Pavilion. I didn't know he had that. I
didn't know that either. Yeah, big letters of the viaa
Gosa Pavilion, the name the tom Bradley Terminal. Come on,
I haven't sended. Hey, guys, I didn't know that. And
(03:24):
they were like, oh, yeah, this is called the Viaa
Gosa Pavilion. So he's been immortalized. Now travelers for one
hundred years are going to be anybody coming in from
Asia and Australia and they see his name.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
That's outrageous.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
So yeah, with bird flu, the warning and we got
an update from the Health Department today that they're really
pushing the stay away from the raw and pasteurized milk,
and it is all the craze right now. RFKJU and
your and others have touted it, but they're finding more
and more of the bird flu virus in samples of
raw milk, and they believe that is how the house cats,
(03:58):
as the numbers have gone up in county out they're
getting it, and some of them are dying that their
owners give them the raw milk and then they get
it that way and then the cats get really sick.
But most of the nation's cases have been here in California.
This briefing today, they said the governor's emergency declaration is
mainly to deal with this as it grows, to not
(04:20):
know where it's going to go. Doctor Erika Pan telling
us today the.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
Overall risk of the public remains low. Thirty five of
our thirty six human cases in California are the direct
result of exposure to infected cattle.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So the one exception is a child Madameta County that
we've covered for a number of weeks and they still
can't figure out how the child got it. The family
didn't have it, the child wasn't around cattle, wasn't around
wild birds. But they are handing out now millions of
pieces of ppe to farm workers, masks, respirators, goggles, face
shields because they're around sick and dying poultry and cattle.
(04:53):
So fifty one poultry farms in California nine backyard flocks
they have had it, chicken, turkey, duck, and they die
quickly and they typically always die or they've got to
be euthanized pretty quickly to not spread it. And doctor
Nett Jones, the state apademiologists, saying the.
Speaker 9 (05:10):
Virus is severe and highly contagious in poultry. It's basically
a death sentence for a poultry flock.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And then when it comes to the cows, six hundred
and seventy nine of California's nine hundred and eighty four
dairy farms have been quarantined because they've got bird flu
since August, and some are coming out of it the
other side now where they've been able to eradicate it
from their farm. But the bird flu JOHN was only
found in cattle beginning last spring in Texas, so they
(05:37):
don't know a lot about how it functions in cows.
They say they've got to learn a lot more.
Speaker 9 (05:41):
The virus is less well understood in cows, given that
it was first discovered only last spring in Texas, but
we know it doesn't impact their health as severely as
it does poultry, so our response is different.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
And they told us today so far they still haven't
seen any person per transmission in the US. They have
seen it outside of the US previously, but typically it
gets contained pretty quickly, and they do think it may
at some point go on. Here the first serious human
case of bird flu is in Louisiana right now, there
is somebody critically ill with a respiratory illness. It's been
mild though for everybody else. Everybody in California it's been
(06:19):
eye redness, little cold symptom, but that's been about it.
They do then't want to watch because it could go
human to human at some point. That they say that
they're well watching that part of it right now, that
they've got labs watching the genetics of it. And they
put it this way, is.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Why we get specific sequence testing to look for any mutations,
and why we are taking these proactive actions to mobilize
our resources if things change.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And just one other thing, we asked about eggs and
they said that eggs in the store are safe because
birds die so quickly from getting bird flu within like
twenty four hours that an egg laying. Hen they know
the eggs are healthy if the bird is healthy, so
they say the eggs in stores. Say. They're doing a
lot of watching right now. They're trying to learn a
lot about this. They know it in poultry, they don't
(07:04):
know as much in cattle or in humans. But they're
trying to put it all together. And the cows are
getting it from the poultry, I guess, yeah, well originally
now they're giving it to each other, the cow to cow.
But they think a lot of this is coming from
migrating birds. And so, I mean it's in a lot
of states right now, California more than others, just because
(07:25):
we've got so many poultry and cattle farms. But they
think as birds move, they're stopping off at these farms
and drop it off bird flu while they're moving around.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So it's in dairy cattle. Yeah, so the milk can
be contaminated with the virus.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You drink the raw milk or give it to your cat,
and then you get it or your cat gets it.
They don't know of anybody who has. They've done a
number of I think about a dozen tests on people
who have been very ill, and it's turned out that
they had just regular influenza, not from the raw milk.
But they say they know that humans can get it
from drinking raw milk that's been infected, and the cats
are deaf getting it. They don't know if the cats
(08:01):
are now going to give it to the humans that
they live with. These are indoor. They haven't proven that
a human has gotten it yet from a cat. Yeah,
we know sixty some odd humans do have it from
cattle and from wild birds nice, but from a cat,
they don't know yet. I see, and I guess those
were farmers actually working with the Yeah, that have been
(08:22):
around them. That's why they think that the risk to
humans is low right now, unless it does begin to
go human to human. Among the cats in La County,
two have died that were confirmed with it. There are
three others that they think had it. Two of those
are dead, one is trying to recover right now, so
it's pretty deadly and cats. There's zoo animals in Arizona,
a mountain lion, a couple others they died from it,
(08:45):
so feline seemed to really be impacted. They say they're
trying to study that. There's a mountainline that I believe,
or two that just died up in Washington State from it.
So they seem to be really susceptible to it. But
the doctors today said they got to figure that out,
but they don't know why. Very good, Alex, have a
good Christmas about it. What did that woman call you
in the note? D wait a d head? All right,
(09:06):
you could fill in the blank. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
That's gonna be mining word for you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's really insensitive of all of you. Oh no, no,
we come back more illness people, eighty people got sick.
Go into an La Times food testing tasting festival about that,
and speaking of the La Times, we are going to
play you a clip from Fox Fox News at Night,
(09:37):
Trace Gallagher. In fact, I was on Trace Gallagher show
just a few weeks ago. Patrick soon Sheong, the owner
of the La Times.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
He was on.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We're going to play some of that interview because he's
bringing more changes to the Times to try to make
it more balanced, and a lot of more and more
Times journalists are getting upset. We're also going to talk
with Daniel Guss, the Independent journalist, on what he knows,
not only about the La time situation, but also about
this crackpot deputy mayor who's been accused of calling in
(10:07):
a bomb threat. One of Karen Bass's deputy mayors who's
been in government for decades and who is overseeing the
police and fire department. He was the deputy mayor in
charge of public safety. They say he called in a
bomb threat. So Daniel gust will be on all ahead.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
We're on from one until four and after four o'clock
John Cobelt Show on demand in an hour first round
of the Moistliner at about three twenty. We're trying to
give you as many tips to keep you alive over
this Christmas season. All right, We've told you not to
drink moral milk because pasteurization kills the germs and milk
(10:51):
and milk might be infected with bird flu these days,
so now ive it's pasteurized though.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
See, I have some alternatives for you.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You know what they are.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
I do oh milk on the milk, coconut milk, so
I milk. You don't have to worry about birthlu.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Try whiskey.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
Well, you can put whiskey in those things if you
want to, you know, spice it up.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Also, don't don't eat oysters at the Alle Times Food
Tasting Festival. Okay, no problem, Hey, oysters are gross. Did
you ever have an oyster in your life? I knew
there was a day where you ate normal food.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I did.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
I was not always a vegan or a vegetarian, but
never had an oyster.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Boy, they I remember having a few, and there was
something about the way they slid down your throat so gross.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
That was just I had some Tuesday night. Did you
you like them?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I like them.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, listen to this the Alle Times Food Festival, eighty
people got sick a neurovirus outbreak. Mark Kopcinski was one
of the eighty. It was pretty painful, the most painful
experience I've ever had. I never thought it would be
at this event. These restaurants are too good. Could possibly
(11:59):
be that?
Speaker 8 (12:00):
Well?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Good restaurants are not immune.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
To to bacteria and infections.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Kapschinsky said.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We visited Providence because it was one hundred and one
best restaurants that the La Times had listed, and we
visited Providence. I mean, there are world class restaurants, said
Kopchinski serving fresh oysters and clams with different sauces, and
I ended up having two plates very quickly, he thought,
bloated immediately. By the next day, the abdominal pain just
(12:29):
had me curled up in a ball, tremendous chills. LA
County is investing a neurovirus outbreak from the oysters eighty cases.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Here are the symptoms.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
When the patients come to the er, they're very very ill, vomiting, diarrhea,
abdominal cramping. It's a due to a bug called vibrio,
which sounds like a streaming service.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Vibrio.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's this very specific bacteria that specific to oysters, and
it causes an illness that hits people very very hard. Yes,
and that's what you're going to be hearing for the
rest of Christmas Week. Providence is one of LA's most
celebrated restaurants, said the oysters came from farms near Vancouver.
British Columbia health inspectors that the events signed off on
(13:21):
all the handling and serving regulations. The way neurovirus is
the restaurant's trying to explain itself. The nature of norovirus
is that it would be undetectable to the vendor, the restaurant,
or the health inspectors. The neurovirus does not affect the appearance, odor,
or flavor of the shellfish. In other words, nothing we
can do until you eat it, and then if you
(13:43):
vomit for the next three days, it's like, oh, well,
we're sorry. So there's a statewide alert on Canadian oysters
and you can experience symptoms from up to forty eight hours.
The La Times so far is not responding. In fact,
this is not an La Times story. This is a
(14:03):
CBS story, and they called the La Times. The La
Times doesn't want to talk about it. They're not reporting
on it as far as I know now. Doctor Patrick
Soun Sheong is the owner, and he has caused a
lot of disturbance at the La Times. After losing hundreds
of millions of dollars over the years trying to prop
(14:25):
up this this failing newspaper, he's finally realized that maybe
the content is so absurd and so ridiculous, so progressive,
left wing stupid, that a lot of people don't want
to read that crap anymore.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So he's decided to start with the editorial board.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And now they well, they stopped the Kamala Harris endorsement,
and he wants he wants balanced endorsements where they do
pros and cons of a particular issue. And apparently he's
even told the board to layoff on the anti Trump
editorials for a while.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
He went on.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Trace Gallagher show that I was on a few weeks
ago on it's called Fox newsic Night. Get the name
of it, right, I think it's on at eight o'clock
our time, and let's let's listen to this for a
little bit about the changes sun Chion wants to make the.
Speaker 10 (15:21):
Los Angeles Times. On the headline, this is on the
front page. One of the things reads Trump's big rally
doubles down on hatred. That's the news, it's not the
op ed. And I'm wondering, when you say you want
this paper to be fair and balanced, do you plan
to just fix the editorial section or are you planning
to go over and redo the entire paper?
Speaker 11 (15:42):
I think the latter, I think exactly. I think one
of that concerns is you, as a journalist, would understand
that's news versus opinion, and we've conflated news in the opinion.
So the first thing I want to do is ensure
that we explicitly say this is news, and if it's news,
it should just be the facts, period. And if it's
an opinion, that's maybe an opinion of the news. And
(16:04):
that's what I call now a voice. And so we
want voices from all sides to be heard and we
want the news to be just the facts.
Speaker 10 (16:13):
When you talk about the editorial board, because when you tweeted,
it seemed like you were going to get rid of
the entire editorial board, they haven't all left. Is that
the plan to redo the entire editorial board or just
fill in the people that have left?
Speaker 11 (16:29):
Again, I think it's important for us to differentiate editorial
board is responsible for these opinions on these voices. So
right now we don't have an uitorial board. If we
were truly about ourselves, that are balanced. So I've gotten
beaten up about fair and balance. So I'm looking for
people like Scott Jennings. Scott Jennings who is on CNN
(16:51):
and he's one out of six usually in the room
where we need to have all voices, the right, the left,
and the moderate, the the center. And I think it's
important because the editors are responsible of stories that are told,
Tories are not told. Editors have this nuances of the
word hatred versus. Could the president elect make a real
(17:15):
impact and we need views on both sides, and my
goal is not to change the entire intorial board for
that persuaittive.
Speaker 10 (17:22):
It's interesting because the election, the voters were very clear
on what they wanted the mandate. Even in southern California,
where you have Orange County and you have San Berddino
County and you have Riverside County that are more conservative,
how do you reach.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Out to them? They are your readers.
Speaker 10 (17:38):
How do you trust get their trust back?
Speaker 11 (17:41):
Well? In fact, if you look at the twenty twenty
map of California, look at the twenty twenty four map
of California, the change has been rather dramatic, moving towards
the right as well as being very liberal as before.
So it's our responsibility to maintain democracy, to have the
views of all our hel one readers, in fact, the
(18:01):
views of all the national readers to be aired. Because
if you just have the one side, it becomes nothing
else but an echo chamber. And so it's going to
be risky and difficult. I'm going to take a lot
of heat, which I've really am but you know, I
come from the position that really it's important for all
voices to be heard.
Speaker 10 (18:22):
In her resignation letter, your editor said, quote, we have
spent eight years railing against Trump.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Do you think that hurts the public trust? And do
you have a problem political bias at large?
Speaker 11 (18:33):
I think that's exactly what the press needs to understand.
The trust of the population in the press is lower
than that even of Congress today because of this. Because
you look at one paper and said, we just writing
one paper, just left. How about having a paper that
is completely having the views of all So the fact
(18:56):
that we wrote over the last four years, I don't
know the way that there's news. So that was opinion
and mostly that was opinion, but conflated as if it's news.
So the first step I want to do is have
the lapers and said, this is just a voice what
I call an opinion, right and not news. And he's
(19:19):
labeled exactly, and I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
It's shocking.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You can just hear all the La Times writers jumping
off bridges all over Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I should be on the editorial board, don't you think.
Speaker 7 (19:33):
Uh No, what do you mean no, you need to
you need to express both sides.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
John, I'll just be on the board.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I'll be expressing my side.
Speaker 9 (19:45):
I stick to.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
What you do best here.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I could write I know everything I say. I could
just write.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I know. You just take transcripts from the ship.
Speaker 7 (19:55):
I mean, look, if you're having I mean, if you
really want.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
To, I think I should be. But we got a
bigger audience.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Than he has.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Some tribule.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
Why don't you pitch it to him?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Well, I am, I'm pitching it down.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Well, he's not listening.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well he should be listening.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Give him a call. You know, if he'd been listening,
we've been talking about this ten years here. Yes, if
he had listened to us ten years ago, he wouldn't
be losing fifty million dollars.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Maybe he did, and it just took a very long
time to make change.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, it finally got through to him. Well, anyway, I
am available to be a member of the editorial board.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Uh, stop laughing.
Speaker 7 (20:32):
You're one side, though, right, isn't he trying to make
things balanced?
Speaker 11 (20:36):
Well?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, but the balance is there's some people on this
side and some people on that side.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
Okay, so then somebody that's not on your side would
have a column and then you would review it.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
So sometimes there's multiple sides.
Speaker 7 (20:46):
All right, I'm a moderate, Okay, you do you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
When we come back, Daniel Gus, the independent online journalist here.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
In Los Angeles, He's going to talk not only.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
About the LA Time Soon situation because he gets a
lot of inside information, but also about this nutball deputy
mayor who's been put on leave because he's accused of
calling in a bomb threat to city Hall. Seriously, we
will talk about that. Brian Williams is his name, Brian K. Williams,
(21:20):
to differentiate from all the other Brian Williams is out
there who are not nuts.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
A six forty on every day from one until four
and after four o'clock John cobelt Show on Demand coming.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Up after Deever's three o'clock news.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Tom McClintock the congressman from northern California, and he was
very forceful speaking out yesterday. He's on the House Border
Security Caucus and he was letting the world know how
swift Trump and Tom Holman the borders are are going
to be taking action once Trump is inaugurated and what
(21:58):
they're gonna do, and we're gonna talk to him about it,
because it looks like good days are coming on the border.
Are they're going to stop all those criminals and rapists
from pouring in and there's gonna there's gonna be mass deportations.
Uh so life, life is getting better. Let's go now
to Daniel Gus.
Speaker 8 (22:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He's a journalist based here in LA Online and we've
had him on many times.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
He's got his own substack, his own substack service. Uh
what you'd call your thing? Well Gus reports correct.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
Uh yeah, on substack. Johnny's Danielgus dot substack dot com.
Two s is on Twitter at the Guts Report. Thank
you for that.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
All right, No, people should should read your stuff because
you're about the only journalist digging around LA politics anymore.
Speaker 8 (22:45):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Certainly you don't get much out of the La Times,
which is why one of the reasons I wanted you
on what do you think of this?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Did?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We just played four minutes of uh Patrick soon shiong
on on Fox. Uh, and it looks like he's remaking
the entire philosophy of the paper, including the editorial section.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I mean including the news gathering section.
Speaker 8 (23:04):
Well, he has a lot of work to do on both.
I don't think he's acknowledged in the dishonest news reporting
at the La Times as much as he has come
to the conclusion that it's needed at the editorial board.
But just so you know, John, I wholehearted the endorse
Patrick sun Scheung adding you to the La Times editorial board.
(23:25):
But if you do take that gig, avoid the raw
oysters and milk at the Times Commissary.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It wouldn't be a great.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
Way to send the herd over there, though, it wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, Well, I'm thinking there's a lot of there's a
lot of La Times journalists now standing at the window
ledge after listening what su Hiang was saying, because it
looks like looks like the ride on Wolk World is over.
I mean that really is a.
Speaker 8 (23:55):
Yeah. I noticed something in recent posts on the La
Times report, in particular on their social media feeds, where
they refer to his financing and ownership of The Times
as his underwriting their brand of journalism. No, it's a
for profit business. It's a struggling business, and it's like,
(24:18):
as I wrote a few days ago, it's their Glen
Garry Glen Ross moment. You either get in line and
produce what the owner wants or listen. Nobody's keeping you there.
You need to start telling us the truth, and you don't.
The LA Times reporters several of whom I know, and
they're good people, but their version of journalism, what it's
(24:39):
supposed to be, is not reflective of reality time and
time again. And you could look at this chaos going
over at least to the Hole now and everything else
that's going there. It's almost as if there's a house
of cards between the LA media, which relies heavily not
talking about KFI, but relies heavily on whatever the LA
(25:00):
Time says, yeah, and LA City Hall and the county supervisors.
And like a game of Djenga, you pull out one
piece and all of a sudden, these epiphanies are happening
every day, and it's not even twenty twenty five yet.
I think it's very healthy and it's very cleansing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I noticed that when I first came out here many
years ago, that I'd watch the TV reports, listen to
radio reports, and they were mimicking the exact story selection
and tone and an angle that The Times had that morning,
and I realized, oh my god, all these assignment editors,
that all these media outlets in town were just regurgitating
(25:39):
whatever The Times decided to do.
Speaker 8 (25:42):
Right, right, exactly, and it's still there. There is like
almost a defiance if you read the social media posts
of the La Times Guild, the union representing the content creators,
or most of them, there is a defiance about this
bubble that they've been living in. Let me give you
a perfect example. And before we get into that whole
LA's City Hall thing with the deputy mayor of Karen Vass.
(26:05):
So they have these updates about this deputy mayor whose
home was raided in Pasadena the other day, you know,
all sorts of glowing endorsements, and he was a nineteen
you know, eighties graduate of UCLA law. And there seems
to be an obsessive focus on how well dressed Brian K.
(26:25):
Williams is. And in an article published earlier today by
Liberal Janney, they say, oh, people talked about what a
sharp dresser he was. And then for some reason later
in the article they described what he was wearing at
the swearing inn of Nathan Hakman a few days ago,
with like a well pressed suit with a bow tie.
(26:47):
Is that virtue signaling or is that news reporting? Why
is the fact that this alleged, alleged person who called
in this fake bomb threat? Why is the fact that
it's a well pressed suit with a bow tie relevant
to the news store.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
That's the subtle way they want to shape your opinion
of him. He seems to be a very well dressed,
intelligent professional man. Obviously a guy like that couldn't possibly
call in a fake bomb threat. That's the kind of
subtle bias that you know at first glance, you don't
quite notice it, but you have to have a sharp
critical lie. And then I noticed the same thing you did,
(27:27):
because you and I have sharp critical lies, and we
know what the LA Times is up to.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
That's not an accident.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
They're suddenly getting into fashion journalism for a deputy mayor.
Speaker 8 (27:37):
Right, And I'm looking at the press release issued by
Karen Bass's office, which you can discount at least by
two thirds in its veracity, and which they say they
released this press release on December eighteenth, a couple of
days ago, and said that we were notified that the
LA that the FBI searched the home of Deputy Mayor
(27:58):
Brian Williams yesterday part of an investigation of an alleged
bomb threat that took place, I believe last October. So
what is that? What can we glean from that?
Speaker 5 (28:10):
John?
Speaker 8 (28:11):
We can glean that the FBI has been investigating this
and didn't tell the mayor's office until just when this happened.
At least according to their press release, the FBI kept
this away from Karen Vass's office. And that's probably because
my conclusion is, when you see the FBI doing a
home a rate of a politicians right hand person, it
(28:35):
goes to a different level. If it was the LAPP
doing it, I wouldn't trust it. I do not trust listen.
I'm in favor of of the good cops who are
doing hard work dealing with really difficult situations, and by
the way, a good number of them are not trustworthy.
But if the La Times the LAPD were to put
this out, I would look at it very suspiciously. But
(28:57):
the fact that it's the FEDS and they apparently kept
this information away from Karen Bass's office, it tells me
there's a lot more to this than meets the eye,
and By the way, an earlier statement I believe by
the LAPD said that they believe that Williams is the
quote unquote likely perpetrator of this.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
So and you know, Deputy mayor in charge of public safety,
he oversaw the police department and the fire department and
other law enforcement agencies in.
Speaker 8 (29:22):
The city right and the fire department in Los Angeles world,
there was he is Karen Bass's eyes and ears to
these agencies. And this is the second biggest city in
in on major things where we have the Olympics coming up,
(29:43):
and this is what's going on. I'm going to tell
you something, John Taren Bass's office does not vet a
lot of the people that has hiring and acting on
her behalf at this level and at lower levels, and
city Council just rougher stamps them and they process them through.
They need a top down approach to vetting all of
(30:04):
these people from an outside source not paid by city hall.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Now, he has been various government positions for over twenty years.
I mean he was a deputy in the James Haunt
administration twenty years ago. So this is he's not an
unknown quantity. They didn't pick him up off the street
I'm just wondering, was there a hidden screw loose or
is this connected to some larger story, like he wanted
to disrupt city Hall that day? Was there a reason
(30:32):
it wasn't just you know, he went out of a
vendor and called them a bomb threat. Was there like
a purpose to the bomb threat, not just some strange
impulsive act.
Speaker 8 (30:41):
You know, it's entirely possible, perfect imperfect analogy is what happened,
I believe earlier this year when a Congressman, Jabal Bowman
Jamal Bowman, a former school principal, pulled the fire alarm,
removed fire alarm warning signs as Congress was going to
vote on a big bill. Denied it. Well guess what
(31:05):
they centered him and he ended up losing his shower.
He should be in jail as if a sixteen year
old kid did it. And so whatever's going on here,
I don't know. But here's a little something from mister
mister William's LinkedIn page which says that he is the
present owner owner of a law firm in Pasadena. But
(31:28):
there's no active website for it. It has an active email,
it has an active phone number, So that is that
an issue? So he's a deputy mayor to a deputy
mayor to Karen Bass. But he has a law firm
but no website. There's all sorts of things like this,
(31:50):
and it just I don't know yet, but we will
know soon.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah. I get the sense there's a lot more to
this story. Daniel, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
Anytime. John, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Daniel Gus.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
KFI A six.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
We're on the air from one until four and then
after four o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Oh oh.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Tom McClintock right after Denbra's news at three o'clock. And
McClintock the congressman up in northern California.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
He's on.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
A immigration committee, it's called the House Border Security Caucus,
and he was speaking yesterday laying out what Trump and
Tom Homan are going to do. This is real, They're
really going to do it on day one and we'll
get to that coming up. I want to play this
clip while we have a minute. There is a San
Francisco apparently has money in the budget. They hired a
(32:47):
weight czar, a considerably overweight woman. Let's say, she's very
well fed, overfed, and she is going to try to
shape the public perception of what you should think and
say about heavy people. And we have a little clip
(33:10):
of her and her philosophy. She was on the All
to Beauty podcast that was hosted by a celebrity hairstylist
named David Lopez. San Francisco taxpayers are now paying for
this woman's salary.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Virgie Tovar, listen to this. What is your definition of health? Yeah,
that's really complicated.
Speaker 12 (33:33):
I think I want to sort of I want to
talk about that question, and I want to start by
saying that, you know, no one has to be healthy,
you know, right, Like I mean, it's like no, like
there is no governing body that's like out there putting
you know what I mean, No one owes anybody that
in either the traditional sense of the word or any
(33:53):
other more innovative or you know, more politicized maybe even
version of that words. I think it's important to say.
And I want to back up and bring an intersectionality
and say, like, great, like, look at the disabled community,
right like, I think people with disabilities have an activist
within that space have consistently been saying like I'm never
going to be your notion of healthy. That doesn't mean
(34:14):
I don't get to be a full human. You get
to treat me some kind of way, right, And so
I think I love taking that principle within disability rights too,
fat activism and two understandings of fatness.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So I want to.
Speaker 12 (34:25):
Start there right like, no matter what size you are,
you don't owe anybody else your health. But I mean
for me, like in an ideal world, where like in
an ideal world, there wouldn't be health based gatekeeping at all.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Of course she got a government job. She is the
hell with the weight stigma Zar. She's written a book,
You Have the Right to Be Fat, and she also
describes herself as a DEI professional. On Instagram, she wrote,
I'm unbelievably proud to serve the city I've called home
(35:04):
for almost twenty years. This consultancy is an absolute dream
come true, and it's my biggest hope and belief that
weight neutrality will be the future of public health.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Well, it's just scientific fact. You can be as fat
as you want.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
But all I'm all I know is if you go
to a nursing home, there's no fat people in a
nursing home.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
You walk in there and it's.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
All people in their seventies and eighties, not one fat person.
The fat people are all underground now, they're all eating dirt.
Tovars describes herself as a leading expert on weight based
discrimination and body positivity. Oo, man, do all these phrases
have to be retired? She also details her diversity, equity
(35:51):
and inclusion work. Virgie's corporate trainings focus on creating a
non judgmental environment where professionals can build awareness, will cat abulary,
and best practices at decreasing occupational weight based discrimination. Oh
if they bring in this lady for some mandated corporate seminar,
I'm not going.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I'm not gonna get a weight stigma lecture. Geez, is
that how she said it?
Speaker 8 (36:16):
Eric?
Speaker 7 (36:17):
Was that close?
Speaker 8 (36:18):
What?
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Hmm?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I think she makes that sound a lot.
Speaker 7 (36:26):
Yes, John, that was rude and that's not what I
was saying.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
In fact, in this story, she explains why asking for
a small cake slice is fat phobic and anti feminist.
Oh my god, She says examples of fat liberation are
putting as much butter as she wants in her toast,
and she wears a bikini to the beach.
Speaker 7 (36:57):
All right, Well, she's allowed to do what she wants.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I know, but have you seen that?
Speaker 7 (37:02):
Have you seen that sort of I have, but I'm
not going to be judgment.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
All right, Well it ruins my day. You don't have
to look well, sometimes you can't help.
Speaker 7 (37:11):
You can look away.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
It covers so much territory on the horizon, she says. Inevitably,
there's always someone at the party who has to decover
publicly that there's slice is too large, and that the
person who's cutting the cake, almost invariably woman, must do
some disproportionate amount of labor to fill their need to
feel superior. I don't even follow all that. It's just
(37:32):
somebody wants a small slice of cake. That's all a
cake related fat phobic incident. It's called CRFI. Is that
moment when it's time to eat delicious cake and it's
interrupted by a moralizing impulse.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Is this the same crowd that promotes food insecurity? Yes?
And the reason there's some people suffering from food insecurity
is this crowd is eating too much.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
They ought to tell you, guys are mean.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
All right, more coming up.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
I can go on, I know you can.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
But Tom Mcclicktock's going to be here next Debor Mark
live in the CAFI twenty for our newsroom. Hey, you've
been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You can
always hear the show live on KFI AM six forty
from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Can't f I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio Villa Ragosa.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
Everybody, come on, sing him on, come on, let's go.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
You know, I want fantastic, but I wanted you know,
but I'll tell you can You've found that, you know,
you know, I like.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I hope he hears this. I hope he hears that
we're playing this.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I heard a couple of times over the years that
he would get really steamed at the stuff we did
about him. It was really easy to get under his skin.
He seems like a guy who's thin skinned.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
He's very vain.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
John Cobalt Show a six forty live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app and we are on every day from one
until fourth after four o'clock John Cobelt Show on demand.
That is the podcast version and in an hour, two
rounds of the Moist Line, two rounds at three twenty
and three fifty last one of the year. Well, I
got to read this email that Deborah forwarded to me.
(01:25):
A listener named Cheryl wrote to Deborah, and this is
off our discussion about using meat beef for cosmetics, and
she writes, Hey, Deborah, I just wanted to thank you
for being such a good animal person. It really tees
me off when people you work with tease you about
(01:46):
being vegan. Oops, like right now one fifty seven pm,
that d head that's laughing at you for I think
vegan cosmetics. Why is it not wanting to eat animals
that have suffered then slaughtered for ten for ten minutes
(02:06):
of a human eating their flesh, it's painfully barbaric.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
By the way, I had the best cheeseburger for today.
I just didn't take about ten minutes to eat it.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, there should be a prerequisite of having to go
to a slaughterhouse before you can purchase meat. Keep representing, girl,
So Cheryl, all right, there you go.
Speaker 7 (02:27):
You go, girl, Cheryl, thank you for your lovely, lovely emails.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And I'm a d head you are, Yeah, except she
spelled the whole thing out.
Speaker 8 (02:34):
She did.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
She called me a word I can't use here. That's correct,
that's not fair. All right, we're gonna go to alex Stone.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's also about animals because the bird flu has gotten
into the milk supply, which shouldn't be a problem, except
a lot of idiots are following Robert Kennedy's recommendation and
drinking raw milk. And now cats are in trouble too
with the bird flu, and Alex has got all the
de Yeah here in La County, more cats have got it.
(03:03):
By the way. I was in the Tom Bradley Terminal
Lax earlier this week doing a story with the chorus
the TSAs and I looked up and it said via
a Gosa Pavilion. I didn't know he had that. I
didn't know that either. Yeah, big letters of the viaa
Gosa Pavilion, the name the tom Bradley Terminal. Come on,
I haven't sended. Hey, guys, I didn't know that. And
(03:24):
they were like, oh, yeah, this is called the Viaa
Gosa Pavilion. So he's been immortalized. Now travelers for one
hundred years are going to be anybody coming in from
Asia and Australia and they see his name.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
That's outrageous.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
So yeah, with bird flu, the warning and we got
an update from the Health Department today that they're really
pushing the stay away from the raw and pasteurized milk,
and it is all the craze right now. RFKJU and
your and others have touted it, but they're finding more
and more of the bird flu virus in samples of
raw milk, and they believe that is how the house cats,
(03:58):
as the numbers have gone up in county out they're
getting it, and some of them are dying that their
owners give them the raw milk and then they get
it that way and then the cats get really sick.
But most of the nation's cases have been here in California.
This briefing today, they said the governor's emergency declaration is
mainly to deal with this as it grows, to not
(04:20):
know where it's going to go. Doctor Erika Pan telling
us today the.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
Overall risk of the public remains low. Thirty five of
our thirty six human cases in California are the direct
result of exposure to infected cattle.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So the one exception is a child Madameta County that
we've covered for a number of weeks and they still
can't figure out how the child got it. The family
didn't have it, the child wasn't around cattle, wasn't around
wild birds. But they are handing out now millions of
pieces of ppe to farm workers, masks, respirators, goggles, face
shields because they're around sick and dying poultry and cattle.
(04:53):
So fifty one poultry farms in California nine backyard flocks
they have had it, chicken, turkey, duck, and they die
quickly and they typically always die or they've got to
be euthanized pretty quickly to not spread it. And doctor
Nett Jones, the state apademiologists, saying the.
Speaker 9 (05:10):
Virus is severe and highly contagious in poultry. It's basically
a death sentence for a poultry flock.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And then when it comes to the cows, six hundred
and seventy nine of California's nine hundred and eighty four
dairy farms have been quarantined because they've got bird flu
since August, and some are coming out of it the
other side now where they've been able to eradicate it
from their farm. But the bird flu JOHN was only
found in cattle beginning last spring in Texas, so they
(05:37):
don't know a lot about how it functions in cows.
They say they've got to learn a lot more.
Speaker 9 (05:41):
The virus is less well understood in cows, given that
it was first discovered only last spring in Texas, but
we know it doesn't impact their health as severely as
it does poultry, so our response is different.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
And they told us today so far they still haven't
seen any person per transmission in the US. They have
seen it outside of the US previously, but typically it
gets contained pretty quickly, and they do think it may
at some point go on. Here the first serious human
case of bird flu is in Louisiana right now, there
is somebody critically ill with a respiratory illness. It's been
mild though for everybody else. Everybody in California it's been
(06:19):
eye redness, little cold symptom, but that's been about it.
They do then't want to watch because it could go
human to human at some point. That they say that
they're well watching that part of it right now, that
they've got labs watching the genetics of it. And they
put it this way, is.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Why we get specific sequence testing to look for any mutations,
and why we are taking these proactive actions to mobilize
our resources if things change.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And just one other thing, we asked about eggs and
they said that eggs in the store are safe because
birds die so quickly from getting bird flu within like
twenty four hours that an egg laying. Hen they know
the eggs are healthy if the bird is healthy, so
they say the eggs in stores. Say. They're doing a
lot of watching right now. They're trying to learn a
lot about this. They know it in poultry, they don't
(07:04):
know as much in cattle or in humans. But they're
trying to put it all together. And the cows are
getting it from the poultry, I guess, yeah, well originally
now they're giving it to each other, the cow to cow.
But they think a lot of this is coming from
migrating birds. And so, I mean it's in a lot
of states right now, California more than others, just because
(07:25):
we've got so many poultry and cattle farms. But they
think as birds move, they're stopping off at these farms
and drop it off bird flu while they're moving around.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So it's in dairy cattle. Yeah, so the milk can
be contaminated with the virus.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You drink the raw milk or give it to your cat,
and then you get it or your cat gets it.
They don't know of anybody who has. They've done a
number of I think about a dozen tests on people
who have been very ill, and it's turned out that
they had just regular influenza, not from the raw milk.
But they say they know that humans can get it
from drinking raw milk that's been infected, and the cats
are deaf getting it. They don't know if the cats
(08:01):
are now going to give it to the humans that
they live with. These are indoor. They haven't proven that
a human has gotten it yet from a cat. Yeah,
we know sixty some odd humans do have it from
cattle and from wild birds nice, but from a cat,
they don't know yet. I see, and I guess those
were farmers actually working with the Yeah, that have been
(08:22):
around them. That's why they think that the risk to
humans is low right now, unless it does begin to
go human to human. Among the cats in La County,
two have died that were confirmed with it. There are
three others that they think had it. Two of those
are dead, one is trying to recover right now, so
it's pretty deadly and cats. There's zoo animals in Arizona,
a mountain lion, a couple others they died from it,
(08:45):
so feline seemed to really be impacted. They say they're
trying to study that. There's a mountainline that I believe,
or two that just died up in Washington State from it.
So they seem to be really susceptible to it. But
the doctors today said they got to figure that out,
but they don't know why. Very good, Alex, have a
good Christmas about it. What did that woman call you
in the note? D wait a d head? All right,
(09:06):
you could fill in the blank. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
That's gonna be mining word for you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's really insensitive of all of you. Oh no, no,
we come back more illness people, eighty people got sick.
Go into an La Times food testing tasting festival about that,
and speaking of the La Times, we are going to
play you a clip from Fox Fox News at Night,
(09:37):
Trace Gallagher. In fact, I was on Trace Gallagher show
just a few weeks ago. Patrick soon Sheong, the owner
of the La Times.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
He was on.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We're going to play some of that interview because he's
bringing more changes to the Times to try to make
it more balanced, and a lot of more and more
Times journalists are getting upset. We're also going to talk
with Daniel Guss, the Independent journalist, on what he knows,
not only about the La time situation, but also about
this crackpot deputy mayor who's been accused of calling in
(10:07):
a bomb threat. One of Karen Bass's deputy mayors who's
been in government for decades and who is overseeing the
police and fire department. He was the deputy mayor in
charge of public safety. They say he called in a
bomb threat. So Daniel gust will be on all ahead.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
We're on from one until four and after four o'clock
John Cobelt Show on demand in an hour first round
of the Moistliner at about three twenty. We're trying to
give you as many tips to keep you alive over
this Christmas season. All right, We've told you not to
drink moral milk because pasteurization kills the germs and milk
(10:51):
and milk might be infected with bird flu these days,
so now ive it's pasteurized though.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
See, I have some alternatives for you.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You know what they are.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
I do oh milk on the milk, coconut milk, so
I milk. You don't have to worry about birthlu.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Try whiskey.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
Well, you can put whiskey in those things if you
want to, you know, spice it up.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Also, don't don't eat oysters at the Alle Times Food
Tasting Festival. Okay, no problem, Hey, oysters are gross. Did
you ever have an oyster in your life? I knew
there was a day where you ate normal food.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I did.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
I was not always a vegan or a vegetarian, but
never had an oyster.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Boy, they I remember having a few, and there was
something about the way they slid down your throat so gross.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
That was just I had some Tuesday night. Did you
you like them?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I like them.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, listen to this the Alle Times Food Festival, eighty
people got sick a neurovirus outbreak. Mark Kopcinski was one
of the eighty. It was pretty painful, the most painful
experience I've ever had. I never thought it would be
at this event. These restaurants are too good. Could possibly
(11:59):
be that?
Speaker 8 (12:00):
Well?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Good restaurants are not immune.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
To to bacteria and infections.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Kapschinsky said.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We visited Providence because it was one hundred and one
best restaurants that the La Times had listed, and we
visited Providence. I mean, there are world class restaurants, said
Kopchinski serving fresh oysters and clams with different sauces, and
I ended up having two plates very quickly, he thought,
bloated immediately. By the next day, the abdominal pain just
(12:29):
had me curled up in a ball, tremendous chills. LA
County is investing a neurovirus outbreak from the oysters eighty cases.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Here are the symptoms.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
When the patients come to the er, they're very very ill, vomiting, diarrhea,
abdominal cramping. It's a due to a bug called vibrio,
which sounds like a streaming service.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Vibrio.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's this very specific bacteria that specific to oysters, and
it causes an illness that hits people very very hard. Yes,
and that's what you're going to be hearing for the
rest of Christmas Week. Providence is one of LA's most
celebrated restaurants, said the oysters came from farms near Vancouver.
British Columbia health inspectors that the events signed off on
(13:21):
all the handling and serving regulations. The way neurovirus is
the restaurant's trying to explain itself. The nature of norovirus
is that it would be undetectable to the vendor, the restaurant,
or the health inspectors. The neurovirus does not affect the appearance, odor,
or flavor of the shellfish. In other words, nothing we
can do until you eat it, and then if you
(13:43):
vomit for the next three days, it's like, oh, well,
we're sorry. So there's a statewide alert on Canadian oysters
and you can experience symptoms from up to forty eight hours.
The La Times so far is not responding. In fact,
this is not an La Times story. This is a
(14:03):
CBS story, and they called the La Times. The La
Times doesn't want to talk about it. They're not reporting
on it as far as I know now. Doctor Patrick
Soun Sheong is the owner, and he has caused a
lot of disturbance at the La Times. After losing hundreds
of millions of dollars over the years trying to prop
(14:25):
up this this failing newspaper, he's finally realized that maybe
the content is so absurd and so ridiculous, so progressive,
left wing stupid, that a lot of people don't want
to read that crap anymore.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So he's decided to start with the editorial board.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And now they well, they stopped the Kamala Harris endorsement,
and he wants he wants balanced endorsements where they do
pros and cons of a particular issue. And apparently he's
even told the board to layoff on the anti Trump
editorials for a while.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
He went on.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Trace Gallagher show that I was on a few weeks
ago on it's called Fox newsic Night. Get the name
of it, right, I think it's on at eight o'clock
our time, and let's let's listen to this for a
little bit about the changes sun Chion wants to make the.
Speaker 10 (15:21):
Los Angeles Times. On the headline, this is on the
front page. One of the things reads Trump's big rally
doubles down on hatred. That's the news, it's not the
op ed. And I'm wondering, when you say you want
this paper to be fair and balanced, do you plan
to just fix the editorial section or are you planning
to go over and redo the entire paper?
Speaker 11 (15:42):
I think the latter, I think exactly. I think one
of that concerns is you, as a journalist, would understand
that's news versus opinion, and we've conflated news in the opinion.
So the first thing I want to do is ensure
that we explicitly say this is news, and if it's news,
it should just be the facts, period. And if it's
an opinion, that's maybe an opinion of the news. And
(16:04):
that's what I call now a voice. And so we
want voices from all sides to be heard and we
want the news to be just the facts.
Speaker 10 (16:13):
When you talk about the editorial board, because when you tweeted,
it seemed like you were going to get rid of
the entire editorial board, they haven't all left. Is that
the plan to redo the entire editorial board or just
fill in the people that have left?
Speaker 11 (16:29):
Again, I think it's important for us to differentiate editorial
board is responsible for these opinions on these voices. So
right now we don't have an uitorial board. If we
were truly about ourselves, that are balanced. So I've gotten
beaten up about fair and balance. So I'm looking for
people like Scott Jennings. Scott Jennings who is on CNN
(16:51):
and he's one out of six usually in the room
where we need to have all voices, the right, the left,
and the moderate, the the center. And I think it's
important because the editors are responsible of stories that are told,
Tories are not told. Editors have this nuances of the
word hatred versus. Could the president elect make a real
(17:15):
impact and we need views on both sides, and my
goal is not to change the entire intorial board for
that persuaittive.
Speaker 10 (17:22):
It's interesting because the election, the voters were very clear
on what they wanted the mandate. Even in southern California,
where you have Orange County and you have San Berddino
County and you have Riverside County that are more conservative,
how do you reach.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Out to them? They are your readers.
Speaker 10 (17:38):
How do you trust get their trust back?
Speaker 11 (17:41):
Well? In fact, if you look at the twenty twenty
map of California, look at the twenty twenty four map
of California, the change has been rather dramatic, moving towards
the right as well as being very liberal as before.
So it's our responsibility to maintain democracy, to have the
views of all our hel one readers, in fact, the
(18:01):
views of all the national readers to be aired. Because
if you just have the one side, it becomes nothing
else but an echo chamber. And so it's going to
be risky and difficult. I'm going to take a lot
of heat, which I've really am but you know, I
come from the position that really it's important for all
voices to be heard.
Speaker 10 (18:22):
In her resignation letter, your editor said, quote, we have
spent eight years railing against Trump.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Do you think that hurts the public trust? And do
you have a problem political bias at large?
Speaker 11 (18:33):
I think that's exactly what the press needs to understand.
The trust of the population in the press is lower
than that even of Congress today because of this. Because
you look at one paper and said, we just writing
one paper, just left. How about having a paper that
is completely having the views of all So the fact
(18:56):
that we wrote over the last four years, I don't
know the way that there's news. So that was opinion
and mostly that was opinion, but conflated as if it's news.
So the first step I want to do is have
the lapers and said, this is just a voice what
I call an opinion, right and not news. And he's
(19:19):
labeled exactly, and I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
It's shocking.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You can just hear all the La Times writers jumping
off bridges all over Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I should be on the editorial board, don't you think.
Speaker 7 (19:33):
Uh No, what do you mean no, you need to
you need to express both sides.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
John, I'll just be on the board.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I'll be expressing my side.
Speaker 9 (19:45):
I stick to.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
What you do best here.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I could write I know everything I say. I could
just write.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I know. You just take transcripts from the ship.
Speaker 7 (19:55):
I mean, look, if you're having I mean, if you
really want.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
To, I think I should be. But we got a
bigger audience.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Than he has.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Some tribule.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
Why don't you pitch it to him?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Well, I am, I'm pitching it down.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Well, he's not listening.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well he should be listening.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Give him a call. You know, if he'd been listening,
we've been talking about this ten years here. Yes, if
he had listened to us ten years ago, he wouldn't
be losing fifty million dollars.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Maybe he did, and it just took a very long
time to make change.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, it finally got through to him. Well, anyway, I
am available to be a member of the editorial board.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Uh, stop laughing.
Speaker 7 (20:32):
You're one side, though, right, isn't he trying to make
things balanced?
Speaker 11 (20:36):
Well?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, but the balance is there's some people on this
side and some people on that side.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
Okay, so then somebody that's not on your side would
have a column and then you would review it.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
So sometimes there's multiple sides.
Speaker 7 (20:46):
All right, I'm a moderate, Okay, you do you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
When we come back, Daniel Gus, the independent online journalist here.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
In Los Angeles, He's going to talk not only.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
About the LA Time Soon situation because he gets a
lot of inside information, but also about this nutball deputy
mayor who's been put on leave because he's accused of
calling in a bomb threat to city Hall. Seriously, we
will talk about that. Brian Williams is his name, Brian K. Williams,
(21:20):
to differentiate from all the other Brian Williams is out
there who are not nuts.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
A six forty on every day from one until four
and after four o'clock John cobelt Show on Demand coming.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Up after Deever's three o'clock news.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Tom McClintock the congressman from northern California, and he was
very forceful speaking out yesterday. He's on the House Border
Security Caucus and he was letting the world know how
swift Trump and Tom Holman the borders are are going
to be taking action once Trump is inaugurated and what
(21:58):
they're gonna do, and we're gonna talk to him about it,
because it looks like good days are coming on the border.
Are they're going to stop all those criminals and rapists
from pouring in and there's gonna there's gonna be mass deportations.
Uh so life, life is getting better. Let's go now
to Daniel Gus.
Speaker 8 (22:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He's a journalist based here in LA Online and we've
had him on many times.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
He's got his own substack, his own substack service. Uh
what you'd call your thing? Well Gus reports correct.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
Uh yeah, on substack. Johnny's Danielgus dot substack dot com.
Two s is on Twitter at the Guts Report. Thank
you for that.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
All right, No, people should should read your stuff because
you're about the only journalist digging around LA politics anymore.
Speaker 8 (22:45):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Certainly you don't get much out of the La Times,
which is why one of the reasons I wanted you
on what do you think of this?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Did?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We just played four minutes of uh Patrick soon shiong
on on Fox. Uh, and it looks like he's remaking
the entire philosophy of the paper, including the editorial section.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I mean including the news gathering section.
Speaker 8 (23:04):
Well, he has a lot of work to do on both.
I don't think he's acknowledged in the dishonest news reporting
at the La Times as much as he has come
to the conclusion that it's needed at the editorial board.
But just so you know, John, I wholehearted the endorse
Patrick sun Scheung adding you to the La Times editorial board.
(23:25):
But if you do take that gig, avoid the raw
oysters and milk at the Times Commissary.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It wouldn't be a great.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
Way to send the herd over there, though, it wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, Well, I'm thinking there's a lot of there's a
lot of La Times journalists now standing at the window
ledge after listening what su Hiang was saying, because it
looks like looks like the ride on Wolk World is over.
I mean that really is a.
Speaker 8 (23:55):
Yeah. I noticed something in recent posts on the La
Times report, in particular on their social media feeds, where
they refer to his financing and ownership of The Times
as his underwriting their brand of journalism. No, it's a
for profit business. It's a struggling business, and it's like,
(24:18):
as I wrote a few days ago, it's their Glen
Garry Glen Ross moment. You either get in line and
produce what the owner wants or listen. Nobody's keeping you there.
You need to start telling us the truth, and you don't.
The LA Times reporters several of whom I know, and
they're good people, but their version of journalism, what it's
(24:39):
supposed to be, is not reflective of reality time and
time again. And you could look at this chaos going
over at least to the Hole now and everything else
that's going there. It's almost as if there's a house
of cards between the LA media, which relies heavily not
talking about KFI, but relies heavily on whatever the LA
(25:00):
Time says, yeah, and LA City Hall and the county supervisors.
And like a game of Djenga, you pull out one
piece and all of a sudden, these epiphanies are happening
every day, and it's not even twenty twenty five yet.
I think it's very healthy and it's very cleansing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I noticed that when I first came out here many
years ago, that I'd watch the TV reports, listen to
radio reports, and they were mimicking the exact story selection
and tone and an angle that The Times had that morning,
and I realized, oh my god, all these assignment editors,
that all these media outlets in town were just regurgitating
(25:39):
whatever The Times decided to do.
Speaker 8 (25:42):
Right, right, exactly, and it's still there. There is like
almost a defiance if you read the social media posts
of the La Times Guild, the union representing the content creators,
or most of them, there is a defiance about this
bubble that they've been living in. Let me give you
a perfect example. And before we get into that whole
LA's City Hall thing with the deputy mayor of Karen Vass.
(26:05):
So they have these updates about this deputy mayor whose
home was raided in Pasadena the other day, you know,
all sorts of glowing endorsements, and he was a nineteen
you know, eighties graduate of UCLA law. And there seems
to be an obsessive focus on how well dressed Brian K.
(26:25):
Williams is. And in an article published earlier today by
Liberal Janney, they say, oh, people talked about what a
sharp dresser he was. And then for some reason later
in the article they described what he was wearing at
the swearing inn of Nathan Hakman a few days ago,
with like a well pressed suit with a bow tie.
(26:47):
Is that virtue signaling or is that news reporting? Why
is the fact that this alleged, alleged person who called
in this fake bomb threat? Why is the fact that
it's a well pressed suit with a bow tie relevant
to the news store.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
That's the subtle way they want to shape your opinion
of him. He seems to be a very well dressed,
intelligent professional man. Obviously a guy like that couldn't possibly
call in a fake bomb threat. That's the kind of
subtle bias that you know at first glance, you don't
quite notice it, but you have to have a sharp
critical lie. And then I noticed the same thing you did,
(27:27):
because you and I have sharp critical lies, and we
know what the LA Times is up to.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
That's not an accident.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
They're suddenly getting into fashion journalism for a deputy mayor.
Speaker 8 (27:37):
Right, And I'm looking at the press release issued by
Karen Bass's office, which you can discount at least by
two thirds in its veracity, and which they say they
released this press release on December eighteenth, a couple of
days ago, and said that we were notified that the
LA that the FBI searched the home of Deputy Mayor
(27:58):
Brian Williams yesterday part of an investigation of an alleged
bomb threat that took place, I believe last October. So
what is that? What can we glean from that?
Speaker 5 (28:10):
John?
Speaker 8 (28:11):
We can glean that the FBI has been investigating this
and didn't tell the mayor's office until just when this happened.
At least according to their press release, the FBI kept
this away from Karen Vass's office. And that's probably because
my conclusion is, when you see the FBI doing a
home a rate of a politicians right hand person, it
(28:35):
goes to a different level. If it was the LAPP
doing it, I wouldn't trust it. I do not trust listen.
I'm in favor of of the good cops who are
doing hard work dealing with really difficult situations, and by
the way, a good number of them are not trustworthy.
But if the La Times the LAPD were to put
this out, I would look at it very suspiciously. But
(28:57):
the fact that it's the FEDS and they apparently kept
this information away from Karen Bass's office, it tells me
there's a lot more to this than meets the eye,
and By the way, an earlier statement I believe by
the LAPD said that they believe that Williams is the
quote unquote likely perpetrator of this.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
So and you know, Deputy mayor in charge of public safety,
he oversaw the police department and the fire department and
other law enforcement agencies in.
Speaker 8 (29:22):
The city right and the fire department in Los Angeles world,
there was he is Karen Bass's eyes and ears to
these agencies. And this is the second biggest city in
in on major things where we have the Olympics coming up,
(29:43):
and this is what's going on. I'm going to tell
you something, John Taren Bass's office does not vet a
lot of the people that has hiring and acting on
her behalf at this level and at lower levels, and
city Council just rougher stamps them and they process them through.
They need a top down approach to vetting all of
(30:04):
these people from an outside source not paid by city hall.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Now, he has been various government positions for over twenty years.
I mean he was a deputy in the James Haunt
administration twenty years ago. So this is he's not an
unknown quantity. They didn't pick him up off the street
I'm just wondering, was there a hidden screw loose or
is this connected to some larger story, like he wanted
to disrupt city Hall that day? Was there a reason
(30:32):
it wasn't just you know, he went out of a
vendor and called them a bomb threat. Was there like
a purpose to the bomb threat, not just some strange
impulsive act.
Speaker 8 (30:41):
You know, it's entirely possible, perfect imperfect analogy is what happened,
I believe earlier this year when a Congressman, Jabal Bowman
Jamal Bowman, a former school principal, pulled the fire alarm,
removed fire alarm warning signs as Congress was going to
vote on a big bill. Denied it. Well guess what
(31:05):
they centered him and he ended up losing his shower.
He should be in jail as if a sixteen year
old kid did it. And so whatever's going on here,
I don't know. But here's a little something from mister
mister William's LinkedIn page which says that he is the
present owner owner of a law firm in Pasadena. But
(31:28):
there's no active website for it. It has an active email,
it has an active phone number, So that is that
an issue? So he's a deputy mayor to a deputy
mayor to Karen Bass. But he has a law firm
but no website. There's all sorts of things like this,
(31:50):
and it just I don't know yet, but we will
know soon.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah. I get the sense there's a lot more to
this story. Daniel, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
Anytime. John, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Daniel Gus.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
KFI A six.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
We're on the air from one until four and then
after four o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Oh oh.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Tom McClintock right after Denbra's news at three o'clock. And
McClintock the congressman up in northern California.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
He's on.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
A immigration committee, it's called the House Border Security Caucus,
and he was speaking yesterday laying out what Trump and
Tom Homan are going to do. This is real, They're
really going to do it on day one and we'll
get to that coming up. I want to play this
clip while we have a minute. There is a San
Francisco apparently has money in the budget. They hired a
(32:47):
weight czar, a considerably overweight woman. Let's say, she's very
well fed, overfed, and she is going to try to
shape the public perception of what you should think and
say about heavy people. And we have a little clip
(33:10):
of her and her philosophy. She was on the All
to Beauty podcast that was hosted by a celebrity hairstylist
named David Lopez. San Francisco taxpayers are now paying for
this woman's salary.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Virgie Tovar, listen to this. What is your definition of health? Yeah,
that's really complicated.
Speaker 12 (33:33):
I think I want to sort of I want to
talk about that question, and I want to start by
saying that, you know, no one has to be healthy,
you know, right, Like I mean, it's like no, like
there is no governing body that's like out there putting
you know what I mean, No one owes anybody that
in either the traditional sense of the word or any
(33:53):
other more innovative or you know, more politicized maybe even
version of that words. I think it's important to say.
And I want to back up and bring an intersectionality
and say, like, great, like, look at the disabled community,
right like, I think people with disabilities have an activist
within that space have consistently been saying like I'm never
going to be your notion of healthy. That doesn't mean
(34:14):
I don't get to be a full human. You get
to treat me some kind of way, right, And so
I think I love taking that principle within disability rights too,
fat activism and two understandings of fatness.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So I want to.
Speaker 12 (34:25):
Start there right like, no matter what size you are,
you don't owe anybody else your health. But I mean
for me, like in an ideal world, where like in
an ideal world, there wouldn't be health based gatekeeping at all.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Of course she got a government job. She is the
hell with the weight stigma Zar. She's written a book,
You Have the Right to Be Fat, and she also
describes herself as a DEI professional. On Instagram, she wrote,
I'm unbelievably proud to serve the city I've called home
(35:04):
for almost twenty years. This consultancy is an absolute dream
come true, and it's my biggest hope and belief that
weight neutrality will be the future of public health.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Well, it's just scientific fact. You can be as fat
as you want.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
But all I'm all I know is if you go
to a nursing home, there's no fat people in a
nursing home.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
You walk in there and it's.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
All people in their seventies and eighties, not one fat person.
The fat people are all underground now, they're all eating dirt.
Tovars describes herself as a leading expert on weight based
discrimination and body positivity. Oo, man, do all these phrases
have to be retired? She also details her diversity, equity
(35:51):
and inclusion work. Virgie's corporate trainings focus on creating a
non judgmental environment where professionals can build awareness, will cat abulary,
and best practices at decreasing occupational weight based discrimination. Oh
if they bring in this lady for some mandated corporate seminar,
I'm not going.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I'm not gonna get a weight stigma lecture. Geez, is
that how she said it?
Speaker 8 (36:16):
Eric?
Speaker 7 (36:17):
Was that close?
Speaker 8 (36:18):
What?
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Hmm?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I think she makes that sound a lot.
Speaker 7 (36:26):
Yes, John, that was rude and that's not what I
was saying.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
In fact, in this story, she explains why asking for
a small cake slice is fat phobic and anti feminist.
Oh my god, She says examples of fat liberation are
putting as much butter as she wants in her toast,
and she wears a bikini to the beach.
Speaker 7 (36:57):
All right, Well, she's allowed to do what she wants.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I know, but have you seen that?
Speaker 7 (37:02):
Have you seen that sort of I have, but I'm
not going to be judgment.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
All right, Well it ruins my day. You don't have
to look well, sometimes you can't help.
Speaker 7 (37:11):
You can look away.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
It covers so much territory on the horizon, she says. Inevitably,
there's always someone at the party who has to decover
publicly that there's slice is too large, and that the
person who's cutting the cake, almost invariably woman, must do
some disproportionate amount of labor to fill their need to
feel superior. I don't even follow all that. It's just
(37:32):
somebody wants a small slice of cake. That's all a
cake related fat phobic incident. It's called CRFI. Is that
moment when it's time to eat delicious cake and it's
interrupted by a moralizing impulse.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Is this the same crowd that promotes food insecurity? Yes?
And the reason there's some people suffering from food insecurity
is this crowd is eating too much.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
They ought to tell you, guys are mean.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
All right, more coming up.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
I can go on, I know you can.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
But Tom Mcclicktock's going to be here next Debor Mark
live in the CAFI twenty for our newsroom. Hey, you've
been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You can
always hear the show live on KFI AM six forty
from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
Popular Podcasts
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com