Behind The Trial: Reflections on the Diddy Trial and Media Evolution

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm a homegrowl that knows a little bit about everything.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And everybody, you know, if you don't lie about that.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Right, Hey, y'all, what's up. It's Laura de Rosa and
this is the Latest with Laura de Rosa. This is
your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment, news
and all of the conversations that shake the room.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Baby.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Now we are getting into and I'm so happy we've
been doing this so much lately on the podcast. We're
getting into another conversation that is gonna shake the room. Uh,
And it's about conversations that shook the room. So I was,
you know, honored to be invited. Shout out to Jureka
Duncan from CBS News. Uh, I was honored to be
invited by her and her Association of Black Journalists New

(00:48):
York team to speak on a panel about the experience
of covering the Diddy trial. Now, you guys know, here
the Latest with Laura Rosa, the podcast that the Diddy
trial and that coverage was such a you know, a
time for us, not only because I think you know
a lot of people were able to really hear my
voice separately of anywhere else you've ever heard.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
It, but also it was such a hustle.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
I mean every day from you know, early four am,
five am mornings with the breakfast club, going right to court,
finishing my day six seven pm, and getting back up
and doing it again, to the point where I was
like cleetwalking, and you guys will know, we were doubling
up on content.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
And I was very honest about you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
I was very honest with you guys about just how
I was feeling, how I was handling it, and everything
I was seeing in the courtroom.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
And it stuck.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
So I was joined by some amazing journalists, you know
the outlets in the room. Shout out to Picks eleven,
which is a local New York traditional news station. There
was you know, ABC was in the room. You also
had let me actually get their names so I can
make sure giving these beautiful journal journalists their credit. So

(02:01):
on the panel you had Armind Wiggins shout out to
Arma Yaa. I love Armand who is a YouTube content creator.
Celia Bussy who is a senior field producer with TMZ.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
I worked with her there for some time.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Darla Miles who was a reporter for ABC seven, Jay
Dow who is a reporter for Pixe eleven, and then
Jureka Duncan, who was the moderator of the conversation who
I mentioned in the beginning of this from CBS News,
and I was there on behalf of the Breakfast Club
and the Latest with Lona Rosa, and we got into
some conversations. They weren't the easiest because covering the Diddy
trial and all the things we learned weren't but we

(02:36):
had it. Let's get into it.

Speaker 6 (02:37):
Hello, everybody, thank you so much for coming. I'm like, oh,
you look so familiar. I know who you are. I
really appreciate you all taking the time to come together
to hear some of what we had to say and
experience while covering the Diddy trial. Welcome officially to behind
the scenes, behind the headlines covering the p Diddy trial

(02:59):
from start to sentencing. So for many of us, coverage
of Sean Diddy combe started two years ago, almost to
the day when his ex longtime girlfriend, Cassie Ventura filed
her civil lawsuit. More allegations were lodged. Colmes was later
arrested in September of twenty twenty four. A federal criminal

(03:21):
trial followed in May of this year and by now
you know the rest. The now fifty six year old
Grammy Award winning artists mogul and father of seven, was
convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
His release date is June of twenty twenty eight. Combs's
conviction was a pivotal moment in the culture that has

(03:42):
shaped many of us in this room. I grew up
listening to Colms's music, and on the outside he represented
someone who made it in spite of But when it
was all over, I felt it was important to come
back together with my colleagues sitting right here to reflect
on a once in a lifetime memory trial that shaped
all of us in different ways. So tonight you will

(04:04):
get a chance to speak with a diverse group of reporters, producers,
content creators for a revealing and respectful conversation about the
trial of the year. Clap it up, We're gonna make
some noise.

Speaker 7 (04:28):
Hi, it's Selia Simone.

Speaker 8 (04:29):
I'm here with Arma Legasp I'm j Dal This is
the latest with Lona Rosa.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
Well that you have been in every single day.

Speaker 9 (04:40):
Frega, how wout you describe Passi's demeanor which you took
the stands today.

Speaker 10 (04:43):
Welcome to the Dissecting Vinny podcast.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Everybody's talking about jury.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I don't believe that when you're telling you right now,
it's true that I do believe one day, Willie, And
if it is a.

Speaker 10 (04:57):
Thank you love, what do you make of the government
strength in this case compared to when you represented him
twenty six years ago.

Speaker 7 (05:05):
And just stepped out of the courtroom? And tensions were
extremely high on day fourteen of the Ditty trial, prosecutors
accusing Ditty's attorney Ryan Steele of yelling at and humiliating
Ditty's formal assistant Niya, who's on the stands today.

Speaker 11 (05:17):
Mia had a heartbreaking testimony in which she spoke about
being suchly assaulted by did He.

Speaker 7 (05:23):
She mentioned seeing tons of abuse.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Could you imagine somebody telling you, do you know what
your problem is? Could you went away for a view
the video.

Speaker 12 (05:31):
Jurra Island for a hour.

Speaker 7 (05:33):
And I joked with you a couple of days ago
about you know, footsopb the next.

Speaker 10 (05:37):
Generation of news gatherers who offer their own opinion.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
I'm not on either side. Let me just start there.
I'm not on either side.

Speaker 9 (05:44):
Did He is facing life in prison and convicted. So
let's break down what he's actually charged with. There are
five counts total in the indictment, rocketeering conspiracy, rico, two
counts of sex trafficking, and two counts of transportation to
engage in prostitution. Okay, let's start with Rigo. It was
a lot that was passed in nineteen seventy so that
the gun making takedown the mob. So he was found
not guilty of the racketeering charge. He was found not

(06:04):
guilty of trafficking. Well, he was found guilty of was
the prostitution.

Speaker 7 (06:08):
So the first verdict Todd racketearing conspiracy, not guilty. You
saw him do this, pop and so top it all off.

Speaker 11 (06:15):
This week President Nowald Trump was teasing and alluding to possibly.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
Part of thing.

Speaker 11 (06:23):
Sean Combs, Sewan Buffy Combs, SHAWNA did it comes there's
a prostitution for Casy Ventura guilty.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
He was shocked.

Speaker 7 (06:33):
He was visibly affected when that one came. You could
tell he.

Speaker 8 (06:36):
Was not a brain for that to come like a kinetic,
like a real serious shock because I think you know,
once you start hearing the work, heinditive, not guilty.

Speaker 5 (06:45):
Bird, it's there.

Speaker 8 (06:46):
Maybe have been an assumption that there was going to
continue to be a not guilty verdict.

Speaker 6 (06:50):
This was the most important day of this case. His
sentence is fifty months of incarceration at NIFFOLO, which is
the lead of turning for Combs asking for more time
to list the recommendations, also supervised release five years. No
reaction from Colnes. He is still sitting and there's a
five hundred thousand dollars fine.

Speaker 8 (07:09):
Sean Combs dropped a different and just bowed his head
and just pray.

Speaker 6 (07:13):
This is probably the first trial where I've seen so
much social media presence, TikTok, Instagram, bloggers, people out here.
So even though you're not supposed to look at your
phone and you're not supposed to read messages from familin
friends about this case, there's a lot of information out there.

Speaker 13 (07:33):
Man.

Speaker 6 (07:35):
Thank you and thank you to Ron Thompson who put
that lovely video together. So before we get started on
the questions that I have, and we're going to open
it up to Q and A, I want everybody to
just take thirty seconds to introduce themselves, who they are
and why they're here. Thirty seconds, Lauren, you can start
us off.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Hey, everybody, I'm Lauren le Rosa.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
I am the senior news producer at The Breakfast Club
and I am the host and a creator of the
Latest with Lona Roads, of the podcast on the Black
Effect Network via iHeart.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
And I'm here because I was. I was there. We
were in the courthouse and covering the trial.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
I was covering it for the radio show The Breakfast
Club that I worked for, and then it spilled over
into the podcast, and then it took its own life
on social media, and it's just been such a conversation
because it was such a big deal in pop culture
and you know, in conversation.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
So thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
My name is Jay Dawe.

Speaker 10 (08:31):
I'm a correspondent with wpix pix eleven News and the
host of Community Close Up with Jay dow And I
was in the trenches with these amazing journalists. I'm not
going to break it down and call them content creators
because we were all there in the courtroom with pads
in our laps, pens or pencils taking notes that are
re court. You can't bring in cameras, And it was
an amazing experience, an eye opening experience for me.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
I mean, this is my twenty sixty.

Speaker 10 (08:55):
Year reporting in New York City, and this is the
first time that I saw our business come full circle,
the evolution. I felt like this was the transition where
you had, you know, one hundred years ago radio stars
and silent movie stars looking to the future.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
And I saw folks.

Speaker 10 (09:15):
Like Lauren, like armand sitting there doing what they do,
delivering the same material to their own audiences, and I
was I was so impressed. So I'm honored to be
here and it's great to be a part of this.

Speaker 8 (09:29):
Good evening everyone. I'm Darla Miles, a correspondent with ABC
seven New York. I have been on the streets of
New York City for sixteen years. I have been in
this industry for thirty years. Benjamin Button, Yes, and you
know I've I cover crime. I cover a lot of
high profile crime. I produced a documentary set the record straight,

(09:52):
the cold case murder of cham Master Jay. And I
don't do celebrity news or sports news, but whenever they
get arrested, you will see me in court. I just
really can't even remember. Because there's always the thing about
covering news in New York and crime and high profile crime.
Everything is the big story until the next big story.

(10:15):
So there was Trump, there was Jonathan Majors. I've covered
Luigi Mangioni, Weinstein, the Guilgo murders. I was there on
the first day when they found the first body. So
I've just been in the trenches a long time and
being a part of legacy media, I really feel it's
a duty and a calling and a purpose in life

(10:35):
to hold this seat at the table to make sure
there is representation and context and everything that we cover
when it comes to being empathetic as a human right,
not just a person of color, not just a woman,
but being the good Southern person that my family taught

(10:56):
me to be, treat people the way you'd like to
be treated. So I'm very humbled and honored every day
that I get a chance to be one of the
lead reporters at the number one news station in the city,
the number one station in the country, a legacy station
that really shaped local news. And like Jay said, we're
now part of an evolution in our and our industry

(11:17):
where the ecosystem is expanding and we're all better for it.

Speaker 12 (11:23):
Hello.

Speaker 11 (11:25):
I am Celia Simone. I am a senior fild producer
at TMZ Hence Field so for the Diddy Child, I
was almost exclusively in the field covering the case. I
really was honored to cover the case because, like Jureka said,
I grew up listening to Ditty's music and I was always,
you know, to be honest, a fan. So this was

(11:46):
a different way of seeing someone I looked up to
my whole life, a different way to kind of view them.
I will say that I'm also a YouTuber, so I
was really anxious to talk to my YouTube family and
to also do my field work. But I think what
was really important was my voice. People always notice my voice.
I have a really interesting voice. In this trial really

(12:09):
helped to further the narrative. With my voice, you probably
heard me saying, oh my god, Justin, I love that jacket,
or ms COLEMs, I love your hair, you know was
I kind of was carving out a lane for myself
strictly behind the camera.

Speaker 12 (12:24):
No one could see my face, just in my voice,
and it was great. Loved it.

Speaker 9 (12:29):
I do always recognize your voice, lie Hi. I'm Monico
sar Abdi. I am a senior correspondent for Extra TV
and weekend co host, and I was covering this obviously
because I am an entertainment journalism, so a journalist, so
I was looking through an entertainment lens. But I'm also
a seasoned journalist who was at network news. I was
at ABC before Extra came up through local news. So

(12:51):
for me, hard news meets entertainment news is my bread
and butter.

Speaker 14 (12:55):
This is where I excel to bring kind of just
the background.

Speaker 9 (12:58):
Like Darla said, I covered wins Epstein, Luigi Mangioni so
many cases, Jonathan Major's as well, and to look at
entertainment news through a hard NewsLens.

Speaker 14 (13:09):
It's not very often that they mix, even though more
so now.

Speaker 9 (13:13):
But taking that and also I have a large following
online and bringing it to the audience was a very
interesting experience because we've talked about in this case, this
was the first time that we saw a lot of
creators and a lot of conversation happening online. So there's
no blueprint for covering it, both for legacy media channel

(13:33):
and also for an online platform, and so it was
interesting to see how audiences received it.

Speaker 14 (13:39):
It was interesting to see what people were interested in.

Speaker 9 (13:42):
I will say that this case, I believe a lot
of legacy media outlets thought they were going to cover
it for the first week and that was it. And
then they saw the interest online and they saw the numbers,
and they saw the young people were interested, old people
were interested everyone because of the impact that did He
had in entertainment and how he, you know, transhid in

(14:05):
generations and so it was interesting to see them kind
of course correct and really try to follow this case.
And I think we'll see this impact for many years
to come.

Speaker 6 (14:18):
Turn it up. Turn you into a very large screen here, arman,
we can all see you.

Speaker 4 (14:24):
Hey, yeah, it's my turn. Yeah.

Speaker 15 (14:27):
So hey guys, my name is Armand Wiggins. I am
a YouTuber content creator.

Speaker 13 (14:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (14:33):
I had a great time covering the trial. I've covered
cases before. I've covered the Megan and Tory case, so
I like a lot of like hip hop culture news
and cases. So the did He trial just fell right
in line for me to cover it. I felt like
it was important for me as a content creator to
come get the story for my audience because while you know,

(14:53):
we love legacy media, I think there's something that there's
a trust that's built in when you when you're speaking
to your audience every single day, and I felt like
it was just my duty to be on the ground,
sleeping outside getting the news firsthand for my supporters. You know,
I would love to be there with you now, but
you know, my people literally in one hour, less than

(15:14):
an hour last night, came up with one thousand dollars
to fly me out to Miami to cover the Megan
thee Stallion versus Malagro Gram's case. So, I mean, people
have a real interest in that, and so you know,
I'm now my people They want to hear the news
and from me covering these cases. So I think now
like this is a new lane for me and I'm
really enjoying it. And it's hard work, but I mean

(15:36):
it pays off really well, and I'm excited to be
a part of, you know, such a great conglomerate.

Speaker 6 (15:42):
Thank you, Thank you to all of you guys again
for being here. My name is Jureka Duncan. I'm a
CBS News national correspondent and I have to say this
particular case for me was the first time that I
really leaned into social media my following group by almost
twenty thousand and followers, because I was posting every single

(16:03):
day about the nuances of this case at a time
when our network actually did not cover it the first day,
we covered it, the last day on evening news. We
did cover it in the morning. But when people ask me,
how were you able to do that? I had the
benefit of not having a deadline at five or six
like Darla did or Jay did. And what's so fascinating

(16:24):
with what they were able to do and why I'm
just a study of what we do as a business,
is they were literally doing their social media videos and
then they were getting ready for five o'clock or six
o'clock live shot. Sometimes I think I saw you doing
some stuff at ten or eleven at night or a
couple times. So, I mean, there's a lot that was
asked of us, and we can delve into that, and
of course you all will be able to ask questions.

(16:46):
But the first question that I want to post to
the panel, and you guys can feel free to jump in,
is when you went into this trial, you went into
it thinking what.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
Well for me?

Speaker 3 (16:58):
When I went into the trial, I went into it
this is crazy, Like, of all the places in the
ways that I've seen Diddy, to be with him in
court is like I couldn't even fathom.

Speaker 5 (17:11):
What seeing him in court would be like.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
And you know, all of that because I've been working
in entertainment for some time and I was living in
LA for eight years. I was working at TMC with Salia,
so like you know, I've been in interaction and things
like that. I just remember the first day being at
courtroom and seeing him walk out. I was like, oh wow,
like he man, Nothing's ever going to be the same
for him. So for me, it was kind of like

(17:34):
that shock of like, this is really real. People's lives
have been really impacted and nothing will ever be the
same for him. After this first day of court that
we're sitting in.

Speaker 10 (17:48):
I was fortunate enough, and that's what I'm gonna call
it to be reporting. When Diddy was on trial the
first time, I was working at New York one and
I was what twenty five, I twenty six years old,
and I remember that case, and at the start of
this trial, I knew things were going to be different
because that was a state case the first one. This

(18:09):
time it was a Rico and anyone who's familiar with
a Rico case knows that when the Feds come, they
come hard, you know, And the whole framework of a
Rico case is designed to take down the head of
an organization. It was designed to take down the mob,
and when they're successful, they not only put you in
prison for the rest of your life, but they take
all your assets. And so the stakes were extraordinarily high.

(18:32):
So I knew and you saw it the first time
that Colmbs came into the courtroom. He took it seriously
because he knew how serious it was, and to have
two rows of attorneys there. He was speaking with his wallet,
knowing that he had to beat this, and he did.
He beat the rico and not many people beat Arigo.

(18:52):
So I knew that going into this case, it was
going to be a huge deal. It was going to
be mainstream. It wasn't going to be something that was
just on, you know, in hip hop culture and just
entertainment news. This was going to be a hard news adventure,
and our station luckily made the commitment. I was grateful

(19:13):
to hear that they were going to cover a gavel
to gavel and I've covered several trials gavel to gavel,
and this one was extraordinary, not just because of the
national and international media that came, but because of all
of the content creators that I was just sitting next to,
and Drika, you talked about how, you know, we were

(19:34):
trying to you know, get up our game and do
our social stuff and then also have to do you know,
Darla as to do the noon. We don't have a noon,
but you know, we're doing the four, five, and six,
we're doing the morning show, and I'm trying to figure
out how am I supposed to do all of this
and still put together a piece, you know, for the
for the evening.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
But we had to figure it out.

Speaker 10 (19:54):
We have to figure it out because that is where
everything is going. So yeah, going into this trial, I
was ready for the.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Unknown and we got it.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
Okay.

Speaker 8 (20:14):
So a couple of things. So I was I was
not on the first trial. I think I was somewhere
in the South reporting, but I was, well, yeah, where
is that? But I was at his first arraignment, so
I caught the assignment when it was when he was arrested.
I think it was September seventeenth. He was arrested the

(20:34):
night before. Darling, you're going to be covering the the
US attorney's press conference, are going to be announcing the charges.
So I was there for some of the earlier court
appearances prior to the trial and the first when I
first got there, it was still like old hat because
it's just kind of a routine. The way I approached
my craft is very much the way my father, the scientist,

(20:57):
the coach taught me. It's kind of like as to
make sure I check all the boxes and not to
leave us stone unturned. But again, as my colleagues have stated,
you could kind of feel the natives getting restless and
the interests really simmering. And so I actually went knowing
like this is going to sound crazy, but I was

(21:20):
annoyed because I knew it was going to be crazy,
and you know, and so I'm like, I cover, I cover,
I'm in this courthouse all the time.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
I cover this all the time.

Speaker 8 (21:30):
But there is going to be an element of chaos
that I know is going to be untenable and that
I know it's going to be exhaustive trying to tame it.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
And you know, I'm so I wasn't annoyed.

Speaker 8 (21:45):
I just you know, you just know, it's almost like
cleaning out your garage, right, You're annoyed that you got
to clean it out, but you know you don't have
to do it, and you're going to be happy with
your sense of accomplishment after the fact, So that's a
way to kind of frame it. So I know it
was going to be crazy. What I did not know
is how exhausted it was going to be for such

(22:06):
a long period of time, for eight weeks, getting up
at four o'clock in the morning, committing to standing outside
in line to actually make it inside of the courtroom.
You know, the whole dynamic with that. So you know,
I was I didn't really have an issue with the content.
I didn't have an issue with, you know, having to

(22:28):
cover federal court because I've done it so many times.
But I just knew that there was going to be
an element of chaos that was going to be unexpected,
that was going to make it difficult, and that rained very,
very true.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
But I think we all.

Speaker 8 (22:41):
Grew for it, and I think we all I think
we're here because we all gained a respect for each
ingredient to this news ecosystem. So I think what we
realize it's not legacy versus YouTube versus social I mean,
it's like making, you know, a pie, and you have
little ingredients that feed that pie. So you know, I'm

(23:05):
never my colleague's enemy. We're all here for the greater
good to inform everybody. And for me, the last thing
I will say on this is that I'm really a
stickler for facts and information because it is just it's
like nails on the chalkboard when people don't understand the
legal nuances, because I think that's how it snowballs into

(23:28):
you know, individuals getting jammed up because they don't really
understand how the legal system works. So for me, I
wanted to make sure that you know, I was very
very technical about covering the case, and I left all
the social stuff to the social queens.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Can I jump in there or somebody going.

Speaker 12 (23:47):
I'll be fast.

Speaker 11 (23:49):
What I will say is when they when the office
reached out to me, I felt excited and I felt
like we gonna gie me. You know, I really wanted
to that. I really wanted to get it right. But
it was something you know, I had done a little
bit of Luigi, I'm trying to figure out the timeframe.
I had did some stuff sometimes going to the court,

(24:11):
but I was mainly like the girl who went to
all the morning shows and found talent and got.

Speaker 12 (24:16):
A viral clip.

Speaker 11 (24:17):
So this was really very much structured for me, and
I was just thinking to myself, how am I going
to do this?

Speaker 12 (24:24):
Like how am I going to get up?

Speaker 11 (24:26):
And I went to half earlier do what I normally
get up, and like, you know, I just wanted to
figure out what was expected of me and how I
was going to deliver. And I think the first day
it really proved to me that my job was so important.
There was an intern that I never met.

Speaker 12 (24:47):
She was there. I was like, what the heck.

Speaker 11 (24:49):
Then there's like this other person that they bought in
from another state to help us. And there were so
many people that I had to work with that I
had never met, and we had to figure out who
was going to what. And once we figured out, you know,
everyone set job on that first day, it was it
was like game.

Speaker 12 (25:08):
You know.

Speaker 11 (25:08):
I just remember also getting to the court at about
five am and there was no parking already and I'm like, okay,
I'm gonna have to be here at four thirty to
make sure I get a parking spot. Because the office,
I realized with this case, especially the first day, they
were expecting me to be superwoman, the one who.

Speaker 12 (25:31):
Always figures it out.

Speaker 11 (25:32):
And I was just thinking to myself, what if I
dropped the ball this time? What if I because it
was just so different, you know, and instead of me
knowing who's going to come out that door at like
say a Sherry Shepherd show, I didn't always know who
was going to come out the car. And then then
later on in the case, we had people like popping
up special guests, and then you had witnesses who didn't

(25:55):
look like witnesses. And it was just so many little
components that I didn't know I was going to have
to deal with.

Speaker 12 (26:01):
But overall, I was excited and it was mayhem.

Speaker 11 (26:04):
The first day when I tell you, everybody TikTok, everybody
you too, I said, what the heck? It was like
fifty something social media people screaming at themselves, screaming at
each other, screaming.

Speaker 12 (26:17):
At you, talking to you.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
It was.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
It was a lot.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
It was.

Speaker 11 (26:21):
I was inundated with noises, and but I felt proud
to be there, and I knew I wanted to really
show up and show out, if that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
And died, yeah, okay, and you met me.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yes.

Speaker 15 (26:38):
So for me, I'm gonna be honest, it's a little selfish.
But you know, for one, I did want to go
because I had interest in the case, and I just
felt like, Wow, this is huge. But then too, personally,
i come from a place where I'm independent, and I've
always looked for, you know, a bigger platform to back me.
I've always wanted to be a part of a larger

(26:59):
come GLND. I've always wanted to be a part of
an iHeart or a major news station or a major
network to push me.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
But it just seems like it never happened.

Speaker 15 (27:07):
And so I told myself, listen, I'm gonna stop waiting
for people to give me opportunity and I'm just gonna
create my own opportunity. So for me, I said, I'm
not sitting around waiting for somebody to say, yeah, it's
okay for you to be a journalist. Oh yeah, it's
okay for you to go get the story. I said,
you know, once this case happens, I'm gonna be an icon.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
I'm going to be a legend.

Speaker 15 (27:27):
These people are gonna respect me, and I'm gonna get
out there and I'm going to create my own table
and I'm gonna do a damn good job at it.
So when the thing came, when the Cassie lawsuit first hit,
I told myself, Hey, I'm going to cover this case.
I started saving my money. In January, I took out
a loan for thirty thousand dollars, booked to Airbnb and
soho Manhattan. I said, I don't care who's there, what's happening.

(27:48):
We're covering this case as the armaud Wiggan Show, okay,
and we're gonna go out there and do the best
that we can. You know, And for me, I just
knew that I had to go out there because I
was up against so many different people. It is gonna
be so many different personalities. I didn't know how I
was gonna navigate. I didn't know about press passes, I
didn't know about line sitters. I just knew that I
had to had a duty to get the story from

(28:10):
my audience. And then two, as an independent, I was
going to create some space for me to put this
story out and I was gonna make an impact there.
And I felt like I did that, and I feel
like the story was interesting. And watching Diddy and seeing
his kids and seeing the fact that that man had
to be humbled, it really taught me a personal lesson
about you know, don't ever get to besides yourself, don't

(28:33):
ever get to arrogant don't ever get to cocky because
the universe, God has a way of humbling you in
front of everybody. And that was a big takeaway for me.
So I just thought it was a learning lesson. It
taught me people skills, because child.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Let me tell you something. I had got into it
with a lot of people that first first. That that
first okay, but you know, I was navigating a lot.

Speaker 15 (28:54):
But I felt like I came out of that so
much better, so much stronger. And then I've gotten some
of the oppisodes, one of the greatest opportunities I've been
on television shows, radio. I finally got my chest shot
at radio, I got my shot on the news, and yeah,
a lot of great things have came from it, and
I've learned a lot and I met some great people.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
So yeah, it was dope for me.

Speaker 14 (29:14):
For me, I would say. So I covered the arraignment
before that.

Speaker 9 (29:17):
Once the lawsuit dropped, I usually break things down on
my TikTok anyway, So I broke that down and I
could see the interests and also the need to break
down these complex legal procedures and terms and what's happening
and do it in layman's terms, right, So I did that,
and then I covered the arraignment, and.

Speaker 14 (29:35):
What was shocking to me.

Speaker 9 (29:38):
Was the transformation that did he made from the arraignment
where he was in a black T shirt. He was
kind of a little, you know, a little buff. He
was the person that we saw full head of black hair.
And then the first day when we saw him come
out in a crew next sweater with a collared shirt,
full head of gray hair. This was the first time
I saw him in a really long time in my mind,

(30:00):
and I'm like, this was the guy who was the
king of New York right like you grew up seeing
him on TV.

Speaker 14 (30:05):
He was celebrated for being a shrewd business.

Speaker 9 (30:08):
Man and everything, the bad behavior, the making people walk
for cheesecake, all the things that he was doing and
was celebrated for in the two thousands with reality show.
On Reality show, I want to work for Diddy, making
the band, mistreating people. He is now in this courtroom
in the middle of Manhattan, and I for a while
was just trying to process all of that.

Speaker 14 (30:30):
And then I will say that day, I.

Speaker 9 (30:32):
Think it was two days later, maybe when Cassie first testified.
I again broke it down on my TikTok I think
what was really difficult to try to figure out as
well was the fact that you have no cell phone,
no electronic devices, you have a pen and paper, but
you still have to communicate with your producers. You still
have to communicate with the people who are back at

(30:54):
the office and who do not understand sometimes how all
of this works, and they think like, Okay, just go
come back and make your hit and it'll be fine,
and trying to, you know, deal with what they were
looking for and try to meet those expectations. And then
at the end of Cassie's first day testifying, I went
back and kind of like armand you kind of just

(31:15):
have to do things that you're not being asked to do, right,
you carve out your own lane. So I was like,
you know what, I'm sure people will find this interesting.
So I went through my notes and I broke it down,
and I think that video did twenty million views. That's
how many people from around the world were just trying
to and I think, if you're shit, and then I

(31:37):
like shut my phone off and it was like, girl,
I don't know why you went to sleep, like I
need part two. And so then I realized the demand
and at one point, I was making three to four
videos a day.

Speaker 14 (31:46):
I would go in.

Speaker 9 (31:48):
Cover, sit through the trial the entire day, do my
hits between lunchtime, come out, do any updates. Then I
would go home and do three to four videos a day.
And it went on for like eight weeks.

Speaker 14 (31:58):
It was a lot. I was burned down by the
end of it, but I did see the need.

Speaker 9 (32:02):
To meet the audience where they're at. People are interested
in this, and they're not going to always look for
your report.

Speaker 14 (32:08):
They're not going to always come to you.

Speaker 9 (32:11):
And I think this is a valuable discussion as the
industry evolves, as media changes, how can we bring people information?

Speaker 14 (32:20):
How can we also adapt so that we don't go
extinct because things are looking good sometimes.

Speaker 6 (32:26):
So I want to ask you, guys Rapid Fire, if
you could answer in like twenty seconds, and I'll ask
each of you a different question. Lauren, I'll start with you,
as you're reporting and telling the story, what's the number
one thing you're taking into consideration.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
As I was reporting and telling the story, the number
one thing I was taking into consideration is that any
other outlet is focused on one thing and it's always
like the big thing, like they want to go for like,
what is sensational? What is like you know, because there's
a lot to cover. So I was like, I'm gonna
tell you everything. If he's sweating, if he coughs, if
he like I just wanted to be that Like, so

(33:06):
you have the tmzs and the Rolling Stones, and you
know everybody's sitting here that had their dot coms. I
don't have a dot com. I just had my Instagram
at the breakfast club. So on my Instagram, my main
focus was let me tell you guys every single detail.
So you felt like you were literally like I was
vlogging the case basically, but that was my focus. And
I felt like the more I did that because I

(33:26):
did it the first day in the video ent viral
and I never experienced that. So I was like, if
I do this a lot, people will come here after
they talk to everybody because I'll have things that people
may not get a chance to talk about.

Speaker 6 (33:38):
Jay, so much was seen and heard in that trial,
how were you able to process that? And I know personally,
when the jurors were looking at those sex videos, there
was a moment in the beginning where we could hear
certain sounds, but there were graphic details of combsists and
Cassie and people's sex lives, pictures of escorts. How do

(34:02):
you process something like that, even though again, I know
you've been covering colms for a while and covering the
streets to New York City, but it was a lot.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
It was a lot. And you know, unlike unlike Lauren,
unlike Armand, you know, where they can say what they want.

Speaker 10 (34:18):
I mean, I was cracking up watching some of Armand's episodes, right,
I mean, hilarious, man.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
But you know, we have the FCC to worry about.

Speaker 10 (34:31):
So yeah, I mean, there was so much graphic material
and we had to figure out a way to kind
of filter it in a way that it did not
lose its impact. But at the same time, we stayed
within the guardrails of traditional broadcast news. We work for
a network, and content creators have evolved to become their

(34:53):
own network, and so yeah, there were some considerations that
we had to make.

Speaker 6 (35:00):
Carla, what did you learn most from covering this trial?

Speaker 8 (35:04):
You know, one of the biggest lessons came from Salaia Me. Yes,
and I will tell this story over and over again
because you.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
Know, like you said, it was exhausting.

Speaker 8 (35:17):
Getting up early, having to log all of this information
by hand.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
And for me, I don't have a.

Speaker 8 (35:23):
Producer, so I have multiple hits a day and I'm
creating graphics and I'm like, oh, there's a BlackBerry, so
let me make sure I have a graphic that has
a BlackBerry, and let me make sure I can make
this case that has no pictures and no video as
you know, as demonstrative as I possibly can. And so
I'm I really got into the details. And so the

(35:45):
next week Seleia was like, Celia, sorry, I always get
there wrong. She was like, did you go did you
do a social media I was like, I'm tired, I
cannot do.

Speaker 5 (35:54):
I'm like, I just can't. I'm old, I'm tired.

Speaker 8 (35:57):
She goes, no, this is what you have to do.
So she literally walk me through how to do a
TikTok in like seven minutes on the steps of the courthouse,
and you know, she was like, no, this is how
you record click click, and you can do the double
I'm like, oh, you know, and go to cap cut
and use this. And so I tell that story all
the time that I literally learned how to social media

(36:21):
from the queen next to me in this trial because
and just such a healthy respect.

Speaker 12 (36:27):
So yeah, that was your girl, you got it. So
Celia described trial day, Oh my god, well.

Speaker 11 (36:40):
Intense and intense and also just like getting a lot
of demands from the office because one thing, I kind
of I didn't start it. I definitely didn't start it,
but I think I've done it a lot. I realized
that they didn't say it, but they wanted viral.

Speaker 12 (37:02):
But that makes sense.

Speaker 11 (37:03):
They didn't say that, but they wanted that, and they
didn't say go get something viral.

Speaker 12 (37:08):
It was like, get what you can get. I'm like, okay,
you know.

Speaker 11 (37:12):
So it was really intense, but I think, like Lauren said,
it was really important for us to get content that
other people weren't going to get. And every day it
was struggle to kind of be super creative and not
be redundant. So specifically on trial day, one of the
images that I got normally I would cover the front
of the courthouse, and that one day, one of the

(37:34):
head producers said, Celia, go to the pack. I need
you to get the prosecutors and whoever else.

Speaker 12 (37:39):
You can get.

Speaker 11 (37:40):
And I don't know, I was just standing there and
someone just walks by and he had a backpack on
I'm like, he looks like the judge filmed him, and
then they were like, Celia, that was the judge and
that went viral and they were like.

Speaker 12 (37:53):
Hey, we need more of this every day.

Speaker 11 (37:57):
So it kind of I feel like I felt that
pressure to repeat that every single day and to create
fireroom moments every day, and I think we started to
become the lead of all the people that were outside
getting outside content on what was important. And it was
nerve wracking because every day it was like trying to

(38:18):
beat and top what you got that first day. And
we got that like seven am in the morning, so
then it was like, okay, at noon, make sure you
guys get this. So it was constant struggle to top
each clip to go viral.

Speaker 6 (38:34):
To Darlas point, I remember watching where you were going
when there were the rumors about Kanye. I said, I'm
following Celia, Selia gonna know where Kanye is at.

Speaker 11 (38:43):
Oh wait, really quickly, I just did a video on that. Yeah,
I just did a video on that on my Instagram
and ten seconds vet every tip.

Speaker 12 (38:54):
If you are a journalist, some random.

Speaker 11 (38:57):
Kid that's like twenty years old, he's out there covering
the case he kept me saying Kanye was gonna come.
Everybody's like he's crazy. And I made a phone call
and confirmed that Kanye was in New York City and
the rest is history. And the next day and no
one believed me, and the next day he came to
the court.

Speaker 6 (39:10):
I believe you, Mona. In terms of the sentencing day,
if you can describe the mood, because I feel like
it's tense and for me, everything that we learned was
coming to ahead. In terms of people also asking predict
what do you think how much time do you think
is going to get? It's like, we're not attorneys, but

(39:32):
it was the moment where you knew he could get
as much as twenty or he could get you know,
something a lot lower, which he obviously did. But just
describe the atmosphere inside and sort of outside the courtroom.

Speaker 14 (39:44):
Yeah, I'll start with verdict day.

Speaker 9 (39:46):
I mean, it was something that inside the courtroom for
Team Diddy was celebratory.

Speaker 14 (39:52):
They beat the Feds, and then that messaging kind.

Speaker 9 (39:55):
Of permeated through to the public where everyone was like,
oh my god, he beat the Feds, he beat the cave.
But that wasn't the case. Obviously, he was still found
guilty on two counts. But I feel like there was
this idea of you know, this was a hit for
the me too movement, and you know, he's not going
to be held accountable. But then as different motions were

(40:16):
happening for there was like about two three month gap,
right it, guys can for two months right between the yeah,
between the verdict and the sentencing, and there are different
motions and you realize that the judge, particularly when he
did not let him walk out on veil after the verdict,
you could tell that the judge was going to hold
him accountable. But what that looked like he could get

(40:37):
anywhere up to twenty years, But he also was never
he wasn't a previously convicted of a felony, right, he
had no record. The day of the verdict, again there
was that okay, is the judge going to throw the
book at him? Is he going to make an example
out of him? And then the judge went on this
long speech after I mean, I would explain this as

(41:00):
you know, both sides described a completely different didty. You
had the prosecutor saying that this man still needs to
be held accountable even though he wasn't found guilty for
what he did to Cassie, what he did to Jane.
He still exhibited violent behavior, he still used all of
his resources to control these women. And then the defense

(41:20):
was making it seem like, oh, no, he was a john,
he was just engaging in prostitution services. He wasn't even
running the prostitution services, right, And then came in the
judge who basically said that Cassie and Jane were so
brave for sharing their story, and this is a man
who's gotten away with a lot for a very long
time and is a violent person, has a history.

Speaker 14 (41:42):
Of being violent.

Speaker 9 (41:43):
And then when he read his sentence of fifty months,
I feel like you could see the air.

Speaker 14 (41:50):
Being sucked out of ditty.

Speaker 9 (41:51):
Before that, his kids we heard from them for the
first time where his girls gave this powerful plea to
the judge where they were saying that this is their father.
They already lost their mother. And I will say I
started getting emotional. These are two young three young girls
who are eighteen and nineteen years old, and for the
comes twins, we know that they lost their mother a kimporter,

(42:13):
and to say that again they were going to lose
their father. They already he already missed graduation and prom
So I will say for me, I kind of didn't
know exactly which way it was going to go because
it all rest on if the judge was going to
make an example out of him or if what his
children said really did affect the judge.

Speaker 14 (42:30):
But I think he kind of fell somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 6 (42:32):
I would say for me, Armand there are times I think, yes,
I'm ready. There are times as journalists, as producers I
would imagine as a content creator where you feel like
you grew up because we don't cover these types of
stories every day. Do you think this trial did that

(42:54):
for you? And how are you a different person as
a result of covering this case?

Speaker 15 (43:00):
Yeah, I definitely feel like I grew up, and I
feel like I have the stamina to do a lot
more and I feel like, you know, the stretch that
I was looking for I got.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
I got.

Speaker 15 (43:10):
I felt more inspired, and I realized where my superpower
lies within this space and I and it makes me
appreciate everybody in media because.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
For me, specifically our storytelling.

Speaker 15 (43:25):
You know, I think for me, like the way that
I did this case, like you would see everybody going
out going live in front of the courthouse or outside
the courthouse during every break. I didn't do that or
people would you know, you guys had your hits and
stuff like that. For me, I would wait till the
end of the night because I know that, you know,
once traditional media gets the story out, everybody time everyone

(43:47):
gets to me, everybody knows what happened. I'm not there
to report to you play by play, like what happened
and have it all buttoned up. I'm here now here's
we all know what happened. Sit and let's talk about
it from a more raw, unfiltered lens and like I'm
going to give you the nuances kind of like Laura

(44:08):
la Rossa was saying, like what did he look like?

Speaker 4 (44:10):
What was the hair? What did the outfit give?

Speaker 16 (44:12):
Like?

Speaker 4 (44:12):
What was the posture?

Speaker 15 (44:14):
You know, And let's really have the conversations that once
we read the article, once we see what they say
on the news, what are we sitting around the table
and how are we discussing what we've actually consumed or
what we watched or what we read. And I felt
like for me, I found my spot where I was
like I don't have to be this buttoned up version

(44:34):
of like what a reporter supposed to be, because there's
a space for that person to sit back and be like,
all right, now this is now, we know what's going on.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
Now let's really get into it.

Speaker 15 (44:43):
And you know, this case, for me, a lot of
people kind of they had mixed feelings about how I
was reporting it, but I felt like it was such
a dark and kind of like sexual case that at
some point like we had to kind of make light
of it just a little bit because all of the stuff,
even though it was kind of creepy, it was funny,

(45:03):
you know what I mean, in an interesting way.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
And so I thought that, you know, for the people back.

Speaker 15 (45:08):
At home, you know, sitting in court every day, it's
not the funnest thing, you know, and reading a bunch
of paperwork, a bunch of words on the paper on
your screen, that's boring. So my thing was I didn't
want people to feel like they were sitting in court
again with me.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
So the idea was, all right, I'm gonna sit.

Speaker 15 (45:25):
In court, y'all read the news or y'all read your articles,
and then when we come back, we're gonna have fun
with this story, and I'm gonna tell you the little
things that I noticed that I seen or you know,
things that may I feel like other people may have
left out. And so I think that I think that
I grew a lot, and I think that I gained
a lot of confidence to where, you know now, I'm

(45:45):
not intimidated to say, yeah, I cover trials in the past.
I will be well, I'm not a reporter. I don't
have a journalism degree. I don't think i'm no. I
think I'm good enough and I think I can do it,
and I think I know my lane and I feel
like I've grown, and you know, the the biggest thing
for me was the fact that my parents were proud
of me, you know, and people were inspired by me,

(46:05):
and you know, not to toot my own horn, but
I feel like, you know, once they saw me up there,
and a lot of people saw me there, we were
getting those numbers and we were going viral everybody, and
they mama flew out with an iPhone and started doing
YouTube videos and tiktoks like it's no shade. So I
feel like we've inspired a community of creators, and you know,
I think that was great.

Speaker 4 (46:27):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (46:36):
I want to open it up now to Q and
A if you guys had any questions and I'll come
out to you.

Speaker 12 (46:49):
And tell us who you are.

Speaker 16 (46:51):
Okay, Hi everyone, my name is Asia Alexander.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
This is really inspiring.

Speaker 16 (46:55):
Great panel, by the way, But I was wondering if
you guys ever had any like death threats or like
anything come to you guys while covering this case, because
I know that could be a real big thing when
you're talking about like mafia's.

Speaker 6 (47:07):
And all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
Oh, well, I can jump in there.

Speaker 15 (47:10):
I'll just say for me, I don't know if it's
necessarily well, I did get some death threats. Well, there
was a woman who attacked me outside the courthouse.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 15 (47:18):
She came and started attacking me out of nowhere for Diddy.
She was harassing me, following me. Everybody was telling me
to go inside. It was just really really weird. And
this is the thing about the cases too, because it
made me feel a little bit uncomfortable about going to
cases because it's such a public place. You do have
to watch when you have visibility, people will try to

(47:41):
get cloud off of you.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
It's really really weird.

Speaker 15 (47:43):
So they have people that are looking for moments, and
then they have people that are just kind of crazed fans,
So you always have to protect yourself out there because
people really will get over stimulated and try to attack you.
I mean I've been I was harassed, Lauren was harassed.
It was crazy out there.

Speaker 12 (48:03):
Yes, I go, are you gonna tell?

Speaker 6 (48:05):
Well?

Speaker 12 (48:05):
I was gonna just I mean really quickly.

Speaker 11 (48:07):
People actually came down to the court to see people. Yeah,
Like people came to visit Lauren.

Speaker 12 (48:13):
People came to visit on my and I was surprised.

Speaker 11 (48:16):
People would say, hey, you're that girl from TMZ right,
and I'm like, and I couldn't say no because my
phone had a big TMZ on the back of it.
But people, and honestly, even people who I didn't have
communication with in years, came to visit me at the court,
and I don't really know how I felt about that.
So that's the one thing I didn't love about the
court was having people show up just to like see

(48:40):
what's going on.

Speaker 12 (48:41):
And what the hype was about.

Speaker 11 (48:43):
Even though the police were there, I didn't feel like
they were going to help them help people jump or
get off me if if somebody did jump on me,
so whatever.

Speaker 8 (48:50):
But yeah, I will say I did speak to a
content creator who had been threatened. They threatened sexual violence
against her and physical violence. And one thing I told her,
I said, this is New York City. You go report
that to the NYPD. You keep track of that. So
I was happy to be that voice. And I would

(49:11):
tell anyone in this room listening, if you are threatened,
don't brush it off, report it immediately. Just don't play
like that. And that was the advice I gave this
particular content creator who thought, well, I don't want to
be extra, I don't want to be too much. And
I was like, absolutely not. That is nothing to play

(49:31):
around with. So that did happen?

Speaker 5 (49:36):
Did Hi?

Speaker 6 (49:37):
You guys?

Speaker 5 (49:37):
My name is Chelsea.

Speaker 17 (49:38):
I am and while you graduate student, this is my
professor right here. I am also a freelance production coordinator
and social video manager for one of the public affair
sials at ABC seven. And the question that I have
is what did this teach you about the algorithm or
how people engage with your content. I hear a lot

(49:58):
the way you report things on TikTok is different than Instagram.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
So there's one thing that it taught you.

Speaker 12 (50:05):
What would it be?

Speaker 3 (50:06):
I think it taught me that that whole it's saturated
conversation doesn't matter when you get at what you do
because the first day, from like the jewelry selection to
the first day of trial to the last day, the
number of content creators and people they're covering it grew.
Some days it was like kind of chill when certain
things weren't going on. But we literally in real time

(50:28):
watch the world realize, oh, we're not gonna get this
from just our regular outlets. We need to be everywhere,
so we need to be on the legacy media, on
social all these things. So it's very saturate. Like it
got to a point where outside of the courtroom you
wouldn't even kind of want to record anything because people
are recording you recorded. There's just so much going on.

(50:49):
But my numbers never stopped growing, like at all. People
still found me and still found what they wanted to
get from me. Like my numbers grew insanely, and yes,
saw all. So, I mean, I'd already kind of knew
that different platforms are for different things, but I think
that the Diddy.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Trial really.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
It just really taught me just I guess, like the
importance of social media. Like I knew that when I
left TMZ, I told myself that there was no one
on social media who was actually vetting certain things but
also able to kind of like be out get with
certain things, understand what's happening culturally, really be outside right
and know what's happening, like not be disconnected from the

(51:30):
world and people and things. So I was like, that's it,
Like that's me naturally, I'm going to lean into that.
But during the Diddy trial, I think that was the
first time ever in my life and in my career
where it was and it wasn't about an outlet, Like
people were listening to me because they wanted to hear
me and hear certain things. And I think the same
thing happened for everybody, even if you were with the outlet.

Speaker 14 (51:50):
People were looking for certain people.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
So it just made me realize, like I mean, people say, oh,
social media is so saturated and this and that, and
I'm like, you can go at what you do and
you cutting through that's what you doing, Like none of
that matters.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
People will come and find what they need.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
To chime in on that.

Speaker 8 (52:06):
I think it taught that the algorithms really don't matter really,
just like Lauren and everyone else has said. For example,
I had no idea what I was doing when Seleia
taught me. But I know that some of the shorts
that I did based on your tutelage, they were like
part of the YouTube top five shorts globally based on whatever.

(52:30):
So it just taught me it doesn't really matter. Good
content is good content, and people when they can't get
enough of something, they're going to The algorithm just doesn't
really make that much of a difference.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
To add.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
It's it's about giving value. That's it.

Speaker 15 (52:47):
Like I'd never worried about the algorithm one time. I
never chased it. Like I was saying before, everybody was
going live and getting hundreds of thousands of views during
the day. I literally went live once a day at
six sometimes nine clock at night, and I didn't I
gained hundreds of thousands of followers, and my numbers were
always up, like we had twenty thousand and thirty thousand people,

(53:09):
like every single day. It didn't matter what happened throughout
the day. So I would wait everybody. I would meet
me and Lauren and Silly. We would go to eat
chicken and we would go baste. I was not running
out of the court like there were some people.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 15 (53:24):
There were people that were running out of the courtroom
trying to be as soon as something would be said,
they would run out of the corporroom to try to
be first.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
I never got flustered with that because I.

Speaker 15 (53:31):
Knew what I knew and knew where my power landed,
and I knew that I was gonna be able to deliver.
I don't chase the algorithms because that's when you don't
get that double meaning of that algorithm, or you don't
get that initial hit that you've maybe gotten it once before.
If you don't get it again, you don't feel like
you're good enough. And so for me, I just get
on camera. I'm gonna do my thing.

Speaker 12 (53:52):
Can I say one thing too.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
I come from TMZ and I was there for eight
years when I started, as I was on the tour bus.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
When I left, I was seeing news producer.

Speaker 5 (54:00):
Right.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
So when you have been in a newsroom like that,
you are literally trained to go like you are a sniper.
I swear like I don't know nothing but to be
first and to live brief, starve or you don't eat period.
Literally they will fire you. That has been my life
for eight years. And then I come to breakfast club
and things still are there, but it changes because your
person now and also everybody hangs on your word. I

(54:24):
had a hard lesson just trying to learn you don't
have to be first backing off of what our mama
was saying. Right with the Diddy trial in the beginning,
I was always so worried about that. Toward the middle
of it, when I started realizing, like, no people are
really paying attention, I was like, I actually want to
have something to say, Like I don't want to just
tell you guys what's happening.

Speaker 12 (54:44):
I'm going to do.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
That, but like, I also think you're here too, because
it's like culturally, you want to kind of understand where
my mind is like as a person, and I really
want to process what I just heard, so there'd be
some nice where Like my podcast is supposed to be
live at six, I might not even do a pot
guest episode that day. I would wait and literally tell
my audience show. I didn't really know how I felt
when I left court today, and that was such a

(55:07):
eye changing moment for me as a journalist, because I
think because things move so fast, and especially in a
lot of newsrooms, I mean, you do have to be
first and finance on a lot of things. But man,
it's so important today to have something to say for
real outside of just being factual, because there's so much
stuff that is just like what are you talking about.
I didn't really understand the power of that until this
trial also and being.

Speaker 14 (55:28):
Right, yeah, no exactly.

Speaker 9 (55:30):
So from my experience, I would say that I use
the skills that I acquired from legacy media, like my
twelve year career, about using a hook, framing the story
so that people can digest it, giving the details that matter,
not giving every single detail, but like what is this
adding to the story? And so I kind of framed
all my tiktoks like that. But then I've been on

(55:51):
TikTok for a few years now and so I know,
cut out the braths.

Speaker 14 (55:55):
Don't start by.

Speaker 9 (55:56):
Saying okay, guys today, we got no like really at
them with the hook. And so mixing those two I
realized that it would just trigger the algorithm. And then
the people want to hear because you're concise, you're giving
the facts. You're giving them details that they didn't have
in court, you know, was he rubbing his hands? They
wanted to know, was what were the jurors doing. Were

(56:18):
they laughing, were they smiling, were they crying? And giving
those details.

Speaker 14 (56:22):
I feel like was.

Speaker 9 (56:23):
The advantage the fact that we were in the courtroom,
that we were there and they were there every day,
and that you could be reliable.

Speaker 14 (56:30):
Also the consistency. You knew that every night I was
going to.

Speaker 9 (56:33):
Give you at least three to four videos, and if
I didn't immediately in the morning I would as well.
I think where some of the other reporters struggled, like
if you were with CBS, NBC, ABC, is that it
was such a hard shift to now like okay, well
now you guys need to go make TikTok videos And
it was just like okay, and they're fixing their camera

(56:56):
and starting the sentence with like okay and many words
too many brass like we gotta we gotta jump right
to it. And so I could see how you know,
it's a powerful tool and how it can be utilized,
but also the skills that you learn for storytelling and
being factually accurate and structuring the story in a way

(57:17):
that people can understand it and why should you care?

Speaker 5 (57:19):
Right?

Speaker 9 (57:19):
The why of it all is important, and that's things
that you know, whether you're reporting on the five o'clock
news or you're sharing a TikTok. Don't change and they're transferable.

Speaker 11 (57:29):
Skills really really quickly ten seconds. I think social media wise,
TMD dominated because we constantly stay true to TMZ. We
didn't try to switch up because we're covering case. No,
it was we're gonna get you walking in, We're gonna
chase you down the block. And literally when the lawyers

(57:50):
would come out, people would laugh at me. At first,
I would go, I would be walking backwards. What do
you think happened? Either, they didn't say anything. People wanted
that footage and when teens would post it, it would go crazy.
So we stay true to the brand. I'm going to
chase you down because that's what I do, and it
worked out for us. We never shifted from that. As
far as street coverage, eh oh, I.

Speaker 10 (58:16):
Just wanted to add something and then, you know what,
let's hear your question.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
I don't want to take time away from you.

Speaker 18 (58:21):
So hi everyone. My name is Crystal and I'm a producer.
I'm currently working in documentary. First, I want to say
I love that you were collaborative with Darla and supporting
each other in the field, but also as a producer,
something you said kind of raised the red flag for me.
So I did a documentary series in Dallas where I
filmed with a judge, and you filming a judge in

(58:45):
turning a building. It raises ethical concerns for me because
the judge I filmed within Dallas, they have a separate
insurance for a reason. And as the young woman asked
the question about your security, as Lauren is saying, you
gotta first, right, this is one of the reasons why
I transitioned out of local news into longer form storytelling.

(59:06):
I'm like, where is the ethical concern or pause about
this judge's safety as everyone is rushing to be first,
rushing to hurry up and get it on there. As
a producer, I'm concerned because I don't hear that moment
for pause and reflection because everyone is just like, we
gotta go. So I wonder if you guys can speak

(59:26):
to how you handle that. Okay, I just need to just.

Speaker 8 (59:31):
Set the record straight, just on one thing that this
is a sticking point for me. It's not just local news, right,
So I know some people move away. I'm very passionate
about the fact that I've been in local news for
twenty years, and I always try to dispel myths about
what it is we do and how we do things.
And you're absolutely right, there has to be a moment.

(59:54):
But in that it's a personal thing. So I don't
want you to just say it's local news news or
it's TikTok or whatever it's it's a reflection of that person.
So I always have to, like, you know, throw a
little flag on the play when someone says, oh, I
don't like local news for that, because I think you're
just painting a broad brush for an industry when it's

(01:00:17):
still about that individual journalist.

Speaker 5 (01:00:20):
I just had to just jump in and say that, really.

Speaker 11 (01:00:21):
Quous, Well, I do want to speak to it, so
I'm not gonna lie like, of course the company I
work for. Of course, sometimes people we've had a history,
you know, but I cannot speak for them because I will.

Speaker 12 (01:00:36):
Never do that. But overall there has been a history.
I'll leave it at that.

Speaker 11 (01:00:41):
What I will say is when I did shoot that clip,
I wasn't sure how it was going to be received.
But I also am not the person who approves those
things either, so I sent it in like hmm, okay,
let's see if they wanted, they'll use it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
If not.

Speaker 14 (01:00:55):
Did I feel a little bit worried about.

Speaker 11 (01:00:57):
It, Yes, but I also kind of felt like, Okay, okay,
what's done is done. The next day, we continue to
shoot the entire prosecutor judge, everyone coming in.

Speaker 12 (01:01:08):
What we did not do was we did.

Speaker 11 (01:01:10):
Not, of course shoot people who were hidden witnesses or
try to find those witnesses. We also did not publicly
say the names of witnesses that we probably didn't know
who they were. And I stand by that. I feel
like we did a great job. I feel like I
did a great job. I do see where it does
raise some ethically, maybe some immoral, but I feel like

(01:01:35):
overall we set the tone for the way the rest
of the child was going to go. I feel like
everyone started to follow suit and started to try to
create content that was off the wall.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
I also think there were already profiles on the judge
as well too, Like so coming from TMZ and now
being in a space where I have to make those
same decisions because if not, I'm under fire. Right, it
is a personal thing. That's number one will also say too,
It's just that there's a job to do and how
you do it, So there weren't profiles on the judge
like I knew when I researched, and I read about

(01:02:07):
this judge prior too, because I was trying to figure
out what the case would be like, and the judge
is important. When Selia grabbed that shot, TMC is not
known for humanizing a lot of people and a lot
of things right like no shade to them. I was there, cool,
she can't say it.

Speaker 5 (01:02:20):
I will.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
But at the same time, that clip in that photo
she got, he was wearing a backpack, he was listening
to music. The conversation went from this is the judge,
will he throw Diddy in jail for the rest of
his life? To this judge is a person, he listens
to music, he's young. It's set a different conversation, and
I get what you're you're saying, but I think a
lot of times in this people have to also have

(01:02:43):
a conversation about There are certain stories that if Celia
doesn't do the story, someone's going to do it. And
the way she goes about it is something to say, okay,
I mean and again it is above her being in
the newsroom. I remember she would get clips and it
would send it, and a lot of times we would
look at things when I was there and I would say, Okay,

(01:03:04):
I know that this is coming from Sali.

Speaker 6 (01:03:05):
I know her.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
I'm a black woman as well, so I know her heart.
They don't care about that, and a lot of times
you don't have leadership that does. She's not in control
of that. But at the same time, there are those
moments where when you put those things out, it does
kind of like the opposite of what you're saying. And
that was that moment for that judge. I remember the
shot that she's talking about, and it's just it's an
internal battle. I think if you choose a step away

(01:03:28):
from it, I don't fall anybody because I chose to
step away from a platform because I wanted to figure
out was there a balance of sanity I can have.
But at the same time, I do think that there
are times where I'm like, man, I don't want to
have to, but how can I bring my person into it?
And that's the beauty the platform I'm at now, So
I think it's about personal platform choice too.

Speaker 12 (01:03:48):
But lastly, I have.

Speaker 11 (01:03:51):
I was told this, I have the most published clips
out of any field producer ever at TMZ.

Speaker 12 (01:03:58):
Let's put that on the table, right. I have been.

Speaker 11 (01:04:01):
Able to constantly talk to people who have never talked
to TMZ. Halle Berry, jay Z two weeks ago, people
who would run from us come to us now. Jada
Pinkett never talked to TMZ. I've been able to break
down those barriers because I am a human being first,

(01:04:21):
and even down with the diddy ks, I had phone
calls from some people who I cannot mention, who are
linked to the family, that said they love you and
they love watching your clips because you are so nice
to them. So I stand by that stuff because it's real.
People wouldn't say that if it wasn't real, and the
numbers don't lie. And jay Z talking to me twice.

(01:04:43):
The first time they didn't publish it. The second time,
he said, Sis, I don't want to have to embarrass
you today. I don't got a story for you, but
I'm proud of you. This is my story, and I
stand by everything that I shoot.

Speaker 10 (01:04:55):
Yes, I think I'm glad that I didn't say what
I had to say a few minutes ago, and I'm
glad for your question because I think multiple things are
allowed to be true at the same time. What is
true a is that social media is built on viral moments,
as opposed to the traditional training that Jureika, myself and
Darla and Mona that you have where you know, we're

(01:05:18):
in local news and our job is to tell the
story objectively.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
We're not supposed to insert our opinions.

Speaker 10 (01:05:23):
We're supposed to just give you the facts and the
spirit of Walter Cronkite. But social media is built on
viral moments. So we heard Selena talking about, oh, you know,
like what's going to be viral next? Waking up every
day worrying about how are you going to feed the beast.
We're all feeding the beast, just in a different way.
So I think that, you know, we're talking around a

(01:05:43):
lot of things. I'm sorry, but there is an appetite
for viral moments on social and I think that as
a society we have been trained to only need.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Here's an analogy.

Speaker 10 (01:05:57):
Do you remember when you were a kid, you had
tropicana orange juice in the frozen thing in the freezer.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
I would eat that.

Speaker 10 (01:06:03):
My grandmother would be all over me, like she wait
until I make the orange juice. You have to pour
the water in it, like I just wanted to concentrate.
And that's literally, it is right and by dating myself,
but but that is literally what social media is. Everybody
wants the orange juice concentrate. They don't want it diluted,
they don't want it served to you in a glass.
What is also true is there is an appetite for

(01:06:25):
long form journalism. And so, you know, just as in
legacy media, I have been you know, I'm grateful and
fortunate enough to have my own show where I can
do those long form stories, where Armand is able to
sit down and do a two hour show and people
are there for it. People the diminishing eyes, the audience

(01:06:48):
that is on Legacy is there for my show, and
everyone else is watching Armand right, and so there is,
you know, an appetite for long form stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
The breakfast, you know, like Lord is on the air
for how many.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Hours in the morning, three or four hours.

Speaker 10 (01:07:02):
Four hours. It's not just about the thirty second hit.
It's not just about the one minute clip. They will
sit there and listen to what Lauren has to say
for hours. They would sit there and listen to what
Armand has to say for hours. Sixty minutes is still
where it is because it's good television fifteen minute pieces.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
So I think that, yeah, multiple things are allowed to
be true.

Speaker 6 (01:07:23):
At the same time, before we asked another quick question,
I know Mona wanted to jump in in the car lit.

Speaker 9 (01:07:27):
Jump in real quick because I think this is a
conversation that goes beyond this table.

Speaker 14 (01:07:31):
I feel like where before there were.

Speaker 9 (01:07:34):
Gatekeepers, and this is a reason why a lot of
people weren't able to get the opportunities that for example,
I've been fortunate enough to have, because journalism is not easy.
It wasn't easy to break into right and then getting
our stories told was even harder. You had an uphill
battle to fight. And so now with social media, it's

(01:07:54):
allowed a new wave of people to enter the space
and take up space. But with that comes some murky
waters that we're navigating right where people for example, we're
revealing the identity of witnesses that we're going under pseudonyms,
and so you know, personally, I'm a decision not to
do that, But that doesn't mean that everyone who you

(01:08:15):
know walks in and is able to see the same
court proceeding that that I'm watching won't go back and
put two and two together and get those viral moments,
and so I think it's not just about one clip.
It's more about things are changing and how are we
going to navigate that when the gatekeeper are gone? Which
is great because now more people get opportunities. But the

(01:08:36):
gatekeepers are gone, which means things are not being vetted.
Ethic codes are not being you know, legal and standards
are no longer you know, vetting everything.

Speaker 8 (01:08:45):
So I just want to add them in thirty seconds.
Thirty seconds, I think to tie a bow on that.
Thank you for that question, and I apologize.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm actually glad you asked
the girl. You aren't well be acting like you can't
do both.

Speaker 5 (01:08:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:08:59):
Yeah, let me just just say, every day of my career,
every day that I'm gathering, I always have to answer
that question.

Speaker 5 (01:09:10):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:09:11):
So when I did a story today about a Jersey
City police officer who just got arrested for sexual assault
with a miner who was incapacitated, and you know, I
had to have that conversation. WHOA, I had a conversation. Okay,

(01:09:32):
do I show his life and children?

Speaker 5 (01:09:34):
Right?

Speaker 8 (01:09:35):
So so I think, yeah, So what I what I
say is every day, every decision as a journalist, whether
your legacy, whether you're armand whether you're Celeiah, Celia, Celia,
Celia Mona. And that's why, you know, we thank Dareka
for putting this panel together, because this is the panel

(01:09:58):
that you ask the questions too, because we all have
our different platforms, but you know, cream rises to the
top when you answer when you ask that question. Guess what,
Sometimes you're going to get it wrong right, sometimes you're
going to get it right, but you learn from each time,
so it doesn't matter.

Speaker 5 (01:10:16):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:10:17):
We all have to ask in this world, in the
murky waters, the buck stops with us, and it's good
to ask that question.

Speaker 5 (01:10:26):
And sometimes it's just what it is.

Speaker 19 (01:10:36):
Shante from Short and Sweet Well, the trial obviously brought
up so many triggering topics. What did you do specifically
to trigger or not trigger, but center yourself in your
personal life.

Speaker 3 (01:10:50):
I will go out for dinner and drinks with Arma
and Celia a lot. And I also took a couple
of days to just go to sleep and to not
go to court like I needed to do that I
was sleep It was one point I was sleepwalking so bad.
I was at I was leaving a breakfast club and
our EP was like, do you need me to call
you a uber home? Like, I'm scared for you to
drive home cause I was so tired. I got to

(01:11:10):
be at breakfast club at like five thirty, then at
court until six so and then I'm doing my podcast
so and it's just bringing in the information is draining,
and then the type of information is draining as well too.
So I physically had to disconnect a couple days in
a couple of times, and I felt like, dang, I'm
missing it. And I was like, if I don't miss it,
I don't even know what I'm gonna be talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:11:30):
I'm'na be so delirious.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
But also to community was a big thing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
At the end of the trial, me and our mom
were talking about how it kind of felt like I
went back to college, or like we went back to college,
because we all got so close going through it together
and we were able to talk to each other about
it and be upset with each other about certain things,
and you know, just and that was so important because
unless you were at that courthouse every day, you really
couldn't fathom the intensity of certain things that we were experiencing.

(01:11:56):
So leaning into community was like a big thing for
me too.

Speaker 15 (01:12:00):
I missed the question, guys, can can y'all just tell
me what the worst one?

Speaker 6 (01:12:04):
What were you responding to the question was about things
that were triggering and how folks processed it. Lauren was
saying going out to drinks with you helped.

Speaker 15 (01:12:13):
No, Oh, I have a triggering thing really quick. It
wasn't until after the trial though.

Speaker 4 (01:12:19):
I think a lot of people do.

Speaker 15 (01:12:20):
Well, maybe you guys didn't experience, but I did, and
I know a lot of like my peers kind of
felt it. But after all of that, I think I
fell into like a whole I don't know, I kind
of got it. It was like a little week they
were calling like a giddy depression.

Speaker 4 (01:12:32):
I don't know.

Speaker 15 (01:12:33):
It just kind of felt like ugh, Like once it
was like all over, I had felt like it's what's next.

Speaker 4 (01:12:40):
I didn't know what. I didn't know what I felt.

Speaker 15 (01:12:42):
I felt like it was so much energy there, but
I was like doing it for the to eight weeks
that I was there. Then once it was over, like
it was just this weird cloud over me where I
kind of was like.

Speaker 4 (01:12:52):
Sad, I was fatigued. I didn't really want to work.

Speaker 15 (01:12:56):
I didn't know what was going on with me, and
I think I didn't know what that was, but I
started to slowly pull myself out, you know, like talking
to my friends me, I would go to New York,
hang out with Salid, we would go out, have dreams,
running to Lauren, like, I would just start doing stuff
and then I would find myself getting inspired to get
back to it again. But that was something that kind
of hit me hard after the trial, Like you know,

(01:13:19):
went there, made a bunch of money, did a bunch
of content, had some big highs, and then like I think,
people we don't talk about enough when you hit those
big highs like that and then you just drop, it's
like you feel it, like I definitely did.

Speaker 9 (01:13:34):
I will say the information is difficult to listen to.
I mean there's a lot of things that came out
and they was it was disturbing and you know information
that was coming out. I will say my years of
covering court has helped me compartmentalize things and not take things.

Speaker 14 (01:13:50):
Home because it will wreck you.

Speaker 9 (01:13:52):
It is why I kind of distanced myself from hard
news and started getting into entertainment news because after years
of that, it is difficult, right, But I will say
the amount of work that I was doing, all of
the you know, the long days in Core trying to
get all the content out all this stuff.

Speaker 14 (01:14:08):
At the end of it, I was beat. I was
burnt out.

Speaker 9 (01:14:11):
And it was something that I realized our newsrooms are
demanding so much of us these days. Like when I
first started, it was one hit, and then it was like, oh,
we added a four o'clock show, and then now you
got to produce yourself, and then you have to now
do something on social media.

Speaker 14 (01:14:24):
And so I feel like a.

Speaker 9 (01:14:25):
Lot of the reporters that were out there can can
agree that we are being stretched really thin. And at
the end of it, by summer, I'm like, first of all,
my summer was gone because you look up and it's
mid July. We started this in like May, so you
look up and you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't
go on vacation. I was in this courtroom and and
processing all this difficult information. But also the workload was

(01:14:46):
so much that by August I was burnt out and
how to just keep going?

Speaker 14 (01:14:51):
And so I think trying to figure out how to navigate.

Speaker 9 (01:14:54):
This and the demands and you know, more content and
great people want it, but we're only just one person
trying to produce all of that as well.

Speaker 11 (01:15:04):
Hello.

Speaker 5 (01:15:05):
My name is Cynthia Horner.

Speaker 20 (01:15:06):
I'm on the board of New York Association of Black Journalists,
and I want to thank you all for having such
wonderful comments. And we've learned so much from what you've
had to say. There's so many diverse viewpoints. My question
is what was the most difficult moment for you in

(01:15:27):
covering this trial? Because there are some people that are
readers of publications or viewers of television shows who felt
that there were some moments in that trial that were
so horrific, the depravity and all of that that they
couldn't even stomach listening to it. So what was your

(01:15:50):
take on how did you navigate with that? Because you
have the reporter in you, but you also have the
human side, and you know, especially women, hearing testimony from
women who had been sexually assaulted and all of that
kind of thing. So if you could just give us

(01:16:11):
quick comments on how you navigated and if there was
one moment where you just.

Speaker 5 (01:16:19):
Said, I don't know if I can keep doing this.

Speaker 6 (01:16:22):
And if one person wants to take that, because we
got one more question and then we have announcements, so
we got like five minutes left. Sorry.

Speaker 10 (01:16:30):
I think with every story you try to approach it
as a person. I'm a father of two daughters, so
hearing stories of domestic violence in that graphic nature was hard.
But at the same time, compartmentalizing is key to be
able to tell the you know, the audience, what's happening

(01:16:51):
without getting personally emotionally involved to the point where you
can't do your job.

Speaker 21 (01:16:58):
All right, I'll respect all you ladies, and I don't
feel like I respect black journalists. I love black journalism.
Lonald Rossa, Dollar Miles, Jerika ducclan, I love y'all. Don't
suppress anything that y'all do. I'm from Jersey, and if
y'all feel suppressed or threatened by any way, I got

(01:17:20):
a hundred goons that will protect yourup, keep your foot on.

Speaker 4 (01:17:24):
Donald Trumps. I'm not here to tear puff down or none.

Speaker 22 (01:17:29):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:17:29):
I don't got nothing to do with that.

Speaker 21 (01:17:31):
I do know the dude that dropped the book, Courtney,
that dropped the book with Kim Porter book.

Speaker 4 (01:17:38):
I do know where.

Speaker 21 (01:17:40):
I don't know how legit that book is, and I
don't know if y'all read the book or.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
Whatever, whatever, but keep your foot on Donald Trump net.

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
You know what I'm saying, and know.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
Where you were going with that conversation. Brother, I said,
wait a minute, wait a minute.

Speaker 12 (01:17:54):
So I thank you for your support.

Speaker 4 (01:17:57):
Now support you.

Speaker 14 (01:18:00):
No, I appreciate hard.

Speaker 22 (01:18:02):
I support y'all whole heartedly. I support y'all whole horribly.
I respect y'all journalism. I love black journalism. You know
what I'm saying, Like our story needs to be told.

Speaker 5 (01:18:13):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
What joy read to the fullest?

Speaker 8 (01:18:16):
I got you. You know, we got five now, we
got like three minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Oh, I support you all right.

Speaker 8 (01:18:20):
I appreciate what we got like, we got you all.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
Right, thank you.

Speaker 8 (01:18:25):
The one thing I want to end with appreciate you.
Appreciate that. You know we'll get your number outside. So
I heard the same question twice. How did we deal
with it? And I don't think.

Speaker 13 (01:18:39):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:18:42):
I didn't address it.

Speaker 8 (01:18:43):
I don't know if you got the answer that you
were looking for from a woman's perspective, from a black
woman's perspective, from my point of view, right, I mean,
I think we've addressed it. The only thing I will
say because I do get that question a lot. Let
me just land a plane. You know, we're coming back
over from your But you know, I've seen a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:19:02):
I've seen a lot in New York City.

Speaker 8 (01:19:05):
I've covered a lot, and I kind of feel like
we're second responders.

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
So like first responders, they go.

Speaker 8 (01:19:12):
Out and they compartmentalize, they compartmentalize and they just go home.
And so we're kind of like second responders and we,
whether we know it or not, we do compartmentalize in
that way. And I'll say, just to Lawrence's point, the
community of us who kind of like we're pledging the

(01:19:34):
Diddy trial together, you know, really made it great. Jay
and I would talk about Armand's show in the morning,
did you see Armand? Last night I would see Salia
and what you This panel is a product of the
community that we built during that experience.

Speaker 5 (01:19:53):
And I'll say that that's not the worst I've ever covered.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
That's how I felt.

Speaker 8 (01:20:00):
So I've covered so much more that was also horrific.
It really wasn't the worst that I've ever covered. And
I was very happy that they didn't show us the
tapes because I didn't want that in my brain. I'm
very particular about what I put in my brain. So
I was happy that they kept some of the stuff

(01:20:22):
away from us and I protected my brain and we
just were second responders and we comportmentalized blast.

Speaker 11 (01:20:28):
Every woman, black, white, Asian.

Speaker 12 (01:20:30):
Everybody talked about every little detail being flewed out. I mean,
you had Emmy award winning.

Speaker 11 (01:20:40):
Journalists that you see on TV that are like, well,
I was flewed out. I don't remember that experience. We
were all comparing that was not me. I'm just saying,
it's like I never.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
Been flewed out.

Speaker 11 (01:20:51):
The thing women got together of all different racist ethnicities
and we're like, well, I don't know. I mean when
I looked that this could have been me, we were
all like wow, Like it was like stories.

Speaker 12 (01:21:04):
Anybody staring sharing stories. It was insane.

Speaker 11 (01:21:07):
And then people kept telling me that TMZ loved Diddy,
which really was weird, and I was like, that's not true,
and I felt like I had to defend myself and
it was just weird. But so there was so many
different components, but yeah, everybody got together and talked about
it and it was a great bonding experience.

Speaker 4 (01:21:25):
Can I follow up that question? Sure, it's it's real
fast because you know, we gotta.

Speaker 2 (01:21:30):
All live through our felly and now the ditty trip.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
I just wanted to follow up usively that do you guys.

Speaker 13 (01:21:37):
Think that as a society we're talking about sexual violence
and the next like our conversation around this GB's sexual violence,
is it evolving?

Speaker 8 (01:21:49):
Because it just seems like, you know, no, no, yeah,
Epstein files, No no, no.

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:22:01):
Ten years ago, we wouldn't this conversation now, yes, yes, yes,
our kick off the.

Speaker 4 (01:22:08):
Conversation good night.

Speaker 5 (01:22:09):
I remember when r Kelly and Alijah came.

Speaker 10 (01:22:11):
Out and to my night he could when the whole
marriage story broke, I thought it was a marketing floor.

Speaker 5 (01:22:18):
I was speaking to myself at the time.

Speaker 4 (01:22:20):
Her uncle was her manager. Might there's no way her
parents were coach signs.

Speaker 5 (01:22:24):
I truly thought it was a marketing ploor to sell age.

Speaker 4 (01:22:27):
Ain't nothing one enough. It wouldn't have occurred to.

Speaker 12 (01:22:29):
Me at that time that it was a real thing.

Speaker 4 (01:22:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:22:34):
So I think my answer, and I can't speak to anybody,
but I will say my answer is yes.

Speaker 8 (01:22:39):
Because again, ten years ago, we wouldn't be having the
conversation we would have it now. You're right, I mean,
I think the conversation with me too has advanced the discussion.
I think to quantify my earlier knee jerk reaction is
and maybe that is my perspective as a woman, because

(01:22:59):
I don't think justice has caught up with a conversation.

Speaker 10 (01:23:04):
Hmmm, no, no, And you know, really quick social media.
We've said it before. It's about everybody wants to see
the car accident, so you know, the most graphic details
that you can imagine that we were not discussing ten
years ago, because everyone wants the you know, the most
salacious details on their feed that they can just scroll through.

(01:23:26):
A lot of it is falling through the cracks into
our phone and onto our feeds. And I know we're
about to wrap up, but I just wanted to say
this that, you know, for people like me and Darla
I love, I don't want there to be any kind
of misperception about what's happening in this business. I love
seeing Lauren Win, I love seeing Celia Win.

Speaker 2 (01:23:48):
I love seeing armand Win. And I told Armand that
to his face.

Speaker 4 (01:23:52):
You know, I it's so now you put me on
your show. I did.

Speaker 10 (01:23:56):
I did, And you know what my producers are like,
who is that and why is he a guest on
your show. But as the managing editor and the creator
of it and the co producer of it, I get
to call the shots and who's on the show man,
And I said, I want armand on my show. And so,
you know, to have people who look like us carry
us into the next generation about of what is going

(01:24:18):
to be seen. I think it's so important. And there's
another The plate is big enough for all of us
to eat, and I'm looking to them to teach me
how to evolve. And so I just wanted to say that,
you know, I'm so grateful to all of all of
you for leading the way.

Speaker 6 (01:24:35):
I just yes, thank you guys. I know this went
by so fast. I wish we had more time. Mona,
you had one more thought? Did you want to say
one more thing.

Speaker 9 (01:24:43):
Just quickly, about the conversation about sexual violence and if
we're having these conversations. I think we've come a long
way since the days of normalizing R. Kelly and making
jokes on the Chappelle Show about what he was doing.
But I also think that what was complicated about this
case is you had it. We were almost saying that
it was, you know, a test for the me too movement?

(01:25:05):
Is a me too movement done, and I don't think
that one case dictates if the Me Too movement is effective.
But also what I think happened is people were torn
between is this a black man who is, you know,
being the government's trying to throw a black man, a
successful black man in jail. Or is this someone who

(01:25:25):
was a very powerful, rich man who was taking advantage
of women and using his power to do so. And
I think sometimes that mix of a conversation was happening
as well.

Speaker 6 (01:25:36):
Hopefully with a reporting that everybody here did you get
to make that decision, We're not here to tell you
how to think so, and then.

Speaker 4 (01:25:44):
Lastly the real quick, real quick. Okay, but I think too.

Speaker 15 (01:25:48):
Because I always got to add the LGBTQ factor into
I think people also were having conversations they were so
interested in is.

Speaker 4 (01:25:56):
D D gay? What about the men? What about the escorts?

Speaker 15 (01:25:59):
So you know, they people were becoming desentitized because they
were so infatuated with whether.

Speaker 4 (01:26:04):
Or not he was interested in the men or not.

Speaker 15 (01:26:06):
So it's just a lot of things that kind of
went into that when we get into the sexual stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:26:10):
So you make sure you follow everybody on this panel.
Check out our Moms Show Jay's show, Darla, all of
us please, we need to support you.

Speaker 3 (01:26:19):
Thank you guys so much for joining me for this conversation. Look,
I always say I can't ever be afraid to answer
a question because I'm the girl that's gonna ask him.
I know y'all hate the way I say ask. I'm
also never going to learn how to say that the
correct way. But thank you guys for joining me in
this episode. You know I tell y'all every single episode.

(01:26:39):
I appreciate you guys because y'all could be anywhere with anybody,
having these conversations, and you choose to be right here
with me. By Lowriders, I will see you in my
next episode.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Behind The Trial: Reflections on the Diddy Trial and Media Evolution