Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you, Miles. You're on news radio eight forty wahs.
Todd Purdham joins us a journalist and author. He's written
widely about politics and culture and all kinds of things.
And I think if I checked earlier here, he's the
national editor and political correspondent for Vanity Fair these days.
Is that right, mister Purdham?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
No, thank you very much, Terry for having me. But
that was true up until twenty eighteen. Okay, I left
Vanity Fair then, but I'm very proud of my twelve
years with the magazine.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Good and I want to ask you about all this
shifting sands that are going on to media. We're going
to get to this event with Marine Dow in a
few minutes. But this is crazy what we've seen in
the last couple of years. Who's will some will Bezos
buy condon Nast?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Is that happening?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The New York Times has had to shift around. We've
we've got a president in office who sues media outlets, yes,
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Oh, I mean it's a totally sea change from when
I was covering the White House thirty years ago, and
that seemed like a very contentious time, you know, New Gingerton,
Bill Clinton battling with each other, but it seems very
genteel compared to now.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I want to ask you about what your gut feeling
was when you saw Donald Trump go after Mary Bruce
from ABC News this week and say you're a fake
when she asked a legit question about of the Saudi
Crown prince about the murder of the reporter Kashogi.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
No, it's incredibly upsetting. And you know, my mother tried
to raise me to have good manners, and I've been
grappling with what the you know, what I would have
done if I'd been in that situation. The situation seems
so unimaginable. You can't imagine a president doing that kind
of thing. Of course, the human instinct is to say,
you can't talk to my colleagues that way, mister president.
(01:47):
But I think Trump might seize on that to personalize
it and make it even worse. So what I wish
would happen when that happens is that every other reporter
in the room would keep asking the very same question,
not change the subject at all, but simply, you know,
just bore down, bear down, and keep keep the heat on. Because,
as you say, it's a totally legitimate question, and it's
(02:08):
uncalled for for any public figure to attack a journalist
that way, to call her a terrible person, to threaten
to revoke her station's license. I mean, it's like, it's
the kind of behavior that they have in Saudi Arabia
and other dictatorial regimes, and it's just beyond imagining.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And then Donald Trump steps in and tells us what
whether or not the Crown Prince knew about it. It's like, well,
how could.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
He know when his own intelligence agency has exactly the
opposite conclusion. So it was one of those things that
what are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?
I mean, it was just incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Anyway, You've had a fascinating career and you've written a
lot of really cool books. By the way, I just
went on my phone a few minutes ago and ordered
the Desi Arnez book because.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Thank you very much. I enjoyed doing that book.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I am. I tell people all the time, it's like,
it wasn't Oprah who sees the concept of owning the show,
it was Desi and Lucy.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Indeed, I mean, we now think of owning the IP,
the intellectual property as the key to power and entertainment.
But it's absolutely always been true and that was one
of the crucial decisions that they made.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So give me your windshield view of media today. I've
been on this radio station for forty one years. In
this show I have. Next year's my fiftieth. There aren't
many people like me left in America who go and
make a fifty year run on our business. What is
happening in terms of writers, broadcasters, media in general now
(03:35):
that it's all splintered out to the digital universe.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, well, I mean, on the one hand, you know,
so many journalistic gallets have collapsed, particularly local coverage and
mid sized news organizations, papers, television stations around the country.
There's not coverage of state capitals and city governments the
way there used to be. There aren't opportunities for younger reporters.
On the one hand, there's more information out there than
there ever has been, and there's also more unreliable information
(03:59):
out there because the Internet makes everyone a publisher, every
man a king. And you know, the great glory of
that is the ease with which you can find important
and valuable and accurate information. You can find all sorts
of public records online. You know that you and I
used to have to go down to the courthouse to
get or you know, remember the notion of looking up
(04:19):
out of town phone books if you had to find
somebody's phone number in another city. So you know, now
there are a couple of key strokes away from from
the whole world at your fingertips. But you have to
be careful because a lot of it's unreliable, and the
algorithms of social media spew forth a great deal of
very unreliable information.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
There's like an app somebody showed me a week or
so ago called Sora. I can put myself at the
morning meeting in the White House, you know, you can
put yourself in places and have the AI make lines
for me to say and make it look like the
other people are responding to what I've said. I mean,
that's no bodily.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's incredible. And they're sent sizing the voices of famous
people recreating them, you know. So it's harder and harder
than ever. I notice. Even in my own I'm not
very much on social media, but like all old people,
I'd check Facebook from time to time, and I'm amazed
at how much information is there that is completely made up.
There are AI images, there are AI videos. You have
(05:18):
to really be a discerning consumer to know what's real
and what isn't. And it's frightening. It's frightening how quickly
a lie can get traction right.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Nothing's verified anymore?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
No, no, all right?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Is your relationship with your wife the one that was
mirrored in the TV show The West Wing?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yes, I think it's fair to say that, broadly speaking,
Ddie and I were the basis for CJ. Craig and
Danny Kinkannon and The West Wing. Although we never dated
when she was working in the White House and I
was covering the White House. Our relationship started long after
she'd left, and I never gave her goldfish of any kind,
not the crackers or the fish. But yes, Aaron Sorkin
I think has acknowledged that we were at least a
(05:59):
loose inspiration for that plotline.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
We're speaking to Todd Purdham. He's going to be here
in Louisville on December first for an event with Maureene
Dowd at the bomb Art Theater. Marine. Dowd, of course,
is the New York Times opinion columnist and writer who
has written a bunch of books herself. So the two
of you are going to be at the University of Louisville,
understand earlier in the day, and then you're doing this
Q and A on stage in front of folks at
(06:22):
the bomb Art Theater.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yes, it'll be a privilege to be in conversation with Maureene,
who's my old friend of roughly forty years. We were
colleagues at the Times together for a long time in
New York and in Washington, and she's a delightful person
who's just published a new collection of her profiles of
people leading figures of the past forty years in politics,
entertainment and public life. And I'm very eager to have.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The chance to Todd. You can answer your other phone
if you want. It's just that's okay.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's our daughter calling from New York and I'll call
her right back.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But that's ok.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thank you, thank you. But anyway, I'm very much looking
forward to coming to Louisville and to being with Maureen.
And it sounds like the University of Louisville Author Form
is a fantastic event and one very it is.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
We've had some excellent guests and speakers and So do
you like that position of the Q and a person
against someone who's a colleague. Does it make it tougher
for you to ask a piercing question of a friend.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, in some ways, I suppose you want to be
respectful of the person. But I think the fact is
that I know Maureen very well, so I have a
pretty good sense of the richness and interesting, you know
called the sacks of her life and career. And I'm
I think it will be natural to talk with her.
She's a very powerful voice in print and sometimes in person,
(07:47):
so I think it should be should be of special
privilege to be able to talk with her.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I mean, I've read her for decades and she's
a fascinating person, to say the least. And so you're
going to do the Q and A there, and we'll
give the tales here with Lesley. In just a moment
or two, I'm going to kick back to your real
life again. You and Bill Clinton are not friendlies. We'll
say your wife worked for him, and he's called you
all kinds of names.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
But well, I think that was I think that was
one explosion, you know, in two thousand and eight. But
I think I think everything is correct. Now. I haven't
actually spoken to the former president in quite a while,
but I would like to hope that our relationship has
reverted to the norm. As they say, he was angry
(08:30):
at a particular piece I wrote in the two thousand
and eight campaign, and I think he later expressed some
regret for some of the names he called me in
a moment of anger. But again, it all seems mild
compared to what we see in the White House.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Today, exactly right. But with the Epstein Files release, if
we get the whole thing, the whole trove of documents,
Bill Clinton may not look so magnanimous in that either.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean, we'll have to see you see that
right now. The former president of Harvard, Larry Summers is
in the barrel for his long ongoing relationship with Epstein
and the fact that he was in contact with him
even after his conviction and staying in touch with him.
So I think at Epstein Files may be an equal
opportunity employer or destroyer, as the case may be. There
(09:17):
are plenty of people who have some explaining to do. Yeah,
to borrow a Dozier and Nasry.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
There you go, Thanks, you spun it back to that book.
I'm sure it's going to be fascinating. I'll give you
a great review online. I promised, So Todd had this
great speaking with you. Almost talked to Leslie about the
details about your appearance. But enjoy your time in Louisville
here soon.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I'm very much looking forward and thanks so much for
having me and take care.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Appreciate you. Todd Perdam the writer belonged he's called your daughter.
Call your daughter back as he didn't hang up yet.
There you go, it's got to do that. Hi, Leslie,
It's good.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
To see you all right, Terry, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
So tell me about this particular event with that guy
Todd and Maureen.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Dud It's on Monday, December first, and the interview is
at six pm Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in
the Bombhart Theater. I have to tell you it is
a sold out event. It's very popular, but I should
really say it's currently sold out. When you have six
hundred people, someone gets sick, someone has a family emergency.
So you should keep checking for tickets because they do
(10:15):
pop up. The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts has
them on sale five oh two, five eight four seven
seven seven seven.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's good advice. I like that sometimes people have to
drop out. They turn their tickets back in five zero
two five eight four seven seven seven seven, and that
is when December first.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
That's right Monday after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Okay, Monday after Thanksgiving, So jump on that. Maureen dud
being interviewed by Todd Purdham, both accomplished writers. Although I
don't think he's got a pulletzer, he deserves one. We'll
just say that. And you're the Kentucky Author Forum actually
has a whole series of these conversations that are going on.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
We do. We're kicking off our season this coming Monday,
and that's when we'll have Congressman Jim Clyburn in conversation
with John Yard very good and Morgan McGarvey is going
to be our master's ceremonies. And there are still tickets available.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So you can use that number for that, and then
there are a few others. I know that there's a
whole list of those. But thanks for keeping up the conversations. Oh,
there's nothing like it. Q and A's on stage are
great because it gives an audience a chance to sort
of watch a reporter work well.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
The audience can actually participate because after the interview, the
audience is able to ask questions of both the interviewer
and the author while they're on stage.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Very nice, Thank you, Leslie, appreciate you, Thank you. Terry
All right back in a minute on news radio, Wait
forty whas
Thank you, Miles. You're on news radio eight forty wahs.
Todd Purdham joins us a journalist and author. He's written
widely about politics and culture and all kinds of things.
And I think if I checked earlier here, he's the
national editor and political correspondent for Vanity Fair these days.
Is that right, mister Purdham?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
No, thank you very much, Terry for having me. But
that was true up until twenty eighteen. Okay, I left
Vanity Fair then, but I'm very proud of my twelve
years with the magazine.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Good and I want to ask you about all this
shifting sands that are going on to media. We're going
to get to this event with Marine Dow in a
few minutes. But this is crazy what we've seen in
the last couple of years. Who's will some will Bezos
buy condon Nast?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Is that happening?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The New York Times has had to shift around. We've
we've got a president in office who sues media outlets, yes,
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Oh, I mean it's a totally sea change from when
I was covering the White House thirty years ago, and
that seemed like a very contentious time, you know, New Gingerton,
Bill Clinton battling with each other, but it seems very
genteel compared to now.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I want to ask you about what your gut feeling
was when you saw Donald Trump go after Mary Bruce
from ABC News this week and say you're a fake
when she asked a legit question about of the Saudi
Crown prince about the murder of the reporter Kashogi.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
No, it's incredibly upsetting. And you know, my mother tried
to raise me to have good manners, and I've been
grappling with what the you know, what I would have
done if I'd been in that situation. The situation seems
so unimaginable. You can't imagine a president doing that kind
of thing. Of course, the human instinct is to say,
you can't talk to my colleagues that way, mister president.
(01:47):
But I think Trump might seize on that to personalize
it and make it even worse. So what I wish
would happen when that happens is that every other reporter
in the room would keep asking the very same question,
not change the subject at all, but simply, you know,
just bore down, bear down, and keep keep the heat on. Because,
as you say, it's a totally legitimate question, and it's
(02:08):
uncalled for for any public figure to attack a journalist
that way, to call her a terrible person, to threaten
to revoke her station's license. I mean, it's like, it's
the kind of behavior that they have in Saudi Arabia
and other dictatorial regimes, and it's just beyond imagining.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And then Donald Trump steps in and tells us what
whether or not the Crown Prince knew about it. It's like, well,
how could.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
He know when his own intelligence agency has exactly the
opposite conclusion. So it was one of those things that
what are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?
I mean, it was just incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Anyway, You've had a fascinating career and you've written a
lot of really cool books. By the way, I just
went on my phone a few minutes ago and ordered
the Desi Arnez book because.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Thank you very much. I enjoyed doing that book.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I am. I tell people all the time, it's like,
it wasn't Oprah who sees the concept of owning the show,
it was Desi and Lucy.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Indeed, I mean, we now think of owning the IP,
the intellectual property as the key to power and entertainment.
But it's absolutely always been true and that was one
of the crucial decisions that they made.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So give me your windshield view of media today. I've
been on this radio station for forty one years. In
this show I have. Next year's my fiftieth. There aren't
many people like me left in America who go and
make a fifty year run on our business. What is
happening in terms of writers, broadcasters, media in general now
(03:35):
that it's all splintered out to the digital universe.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, well, I mean, on the one hand, you know,
so many journalistic gallets have collapsed, particularly local coverage and
mid sized news organizations, papers, television stations around the country.
There's not coverage of state capitals and city governments the
way there used to be. There aren't opportunities for younger reporters.
On the one hand, there's more information out there than
there ever has been, and there's also more unreliable information
(03:59):
out there because the Internet makes everyone a publisher, every
man a king. And you know, the great glory of
that is the ease with which you can find important
and valuable and accurate information. You can find all sorts
of public records online. You know that you and I
used to have to go down to the courthouse to
get or you know, remember the notion of looking up
(04:19):
out of town phone books if you had to find
somebody's phone number in another city. So you know, now
there are a couple of key strokes away from from
the whole world at your fingertips. But you have to
be careful because a lot of it's unreliable, and the
algorithms of social media spew forth a great deal of
very unreliable information.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
There's like an app somebody showed me a week or
so ago called Sora. I can put myself at the
morning meeting in the White House, you know, you can
put yourself in places and have the AI make lines
for me to say and make it look like the
other people are responding to what I've said. I mean,
that's no bodily.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's incredible. And they're sent sizing the voices of famous
people recreating them, you know. So it's harder and harder
than ever. I notice. Even in my own I'm not
very much on social media, but like all old people,
I'd check Facebook from time to time, and I'm amazed
at how much information is there that is completely made up.
There are AI images, there are AI videos. You have
(05:18):
to really be a discerning consumer to know what's real
and what isn't. And it's frightening. It's frightening how quickly
a lie can get traction right.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Nothing's verified anymore?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
No, no, all right?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Is your relationship with your wife the one that was
mirrored in the TV show The West Wing?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yes, I think it's fair to say that, broadly speaking,
Ddie and I were the basis for CJ. Craig and
Danny Kinkannon and The West Wing. Although we never dated
when she was working in the White House and I
was covering the White House. Our relationship started long after
she'd left, and I never gave her goldfish of any kind,
not the crackers or the fish. But yes, Aaron Sorkin
I think has acknowledged that we were at least a
(05:59):
loose inspiration for that plotline.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
We're speaking to Todd Purdham. He's going to be here
in Louisville on December first for an event with Maureene
Dowd at the bomb Art Theater. Marine. Dowd, of course,
is the New York Times opinion columnist and writer who
has written a bunch of books herself. So the two
of you are going to be at the University of Louisville,
understand earlier in the day, and then you're doing this
Q and A on stage in front of folks at
(06:22):
the bomb Art Theater.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yes, it'll be a privilege to be in conversation with Maureene,
who's my old friend of roughly forty years. We were
colleagues at the Times together for a long time in
New York and in Washington, and she's a delightful person
who's just published a new collection of her profiles of
people leading figures of the past forty years in politics,
entertainment and public life. And I'm very eager to have.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The chance to Todd. You can answer your other phone
if you want. It's just that's okay.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's our daughter calling from New York and I'll call
her right back.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But that's ok.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thank you, thank you. But anyway, I'm very much looking
forward to coming to Louisville and to being with Maureen.
And it sounds like the University of Louisville Author Form
is a fantastic event and one very it is.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
We've had some excellent guests and speakers and So do
you like that position of the Q and a person
against someone who's a colleague. Does it make it tougher
for you to ask a piercing question of a friend.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, in some ways, I suppose you want to be
respectful of the person. But I think the fact is
that I know Maureen very well, so I have a
pretty good sense of the richness and interesting, you know
called the sacks of her life and career. And I'm
I think it will be natural to talk with her.
She's a very powerful voice in print and sometimes in person,
(07:47):
so I think it should be should be of special
privilege to be able to talk with her.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I mean, I've read her for decades and she's
a fascinating person, to say the least. And so you're
going to do the Q and A there, and we'll
give the tales here with Lesley. In just a moment
or two, I'm going to kick back to your real
life again. You and Bill Clinton are not friendlies. We'll
say your wife worked for him, and he's called you
all kinds of names.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
But well, I think that was I think that was
one explosion, you know, in two thousand and eight. But
I think I think everything is correct. Now. I haven't
actually spoken to the former president in quite a while,
but I would like to hope that our relationship has
reverted to the norm. As they say, he was angry
(08:30):
at a particular piece I wrote in the two thousand
and eight campaign, and I think he later expressed some
regret for some of the names he called me in
a moment of anger. But again, it all seems mild
compared to what we see in the White House.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Today, exactly right. But with the Epstein Files release, if
we get the whole thing, the whole trove of documents,
Bill Clinton may not look so magnanimous in that either.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean, we'll have to see you see that
right now. The former president of Harvard, Larry Summers is
in the barrel for his long ongoing relationship with Epstein
and the fact that he was in contact with him
even after his conviction and staying in touch with him.
So I think at Epstein Files may be an equal
opportunity employer or destroyer, as the case may be. There
(09:17):
are plenty of people who have some explaining to do. Yeah,
to borrow a Dozier and Nasry.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
There you go, Thanks, you spun it back to that book.
I'm sure it's going to be fascinating. I'll give you
a great review online. I promised, So Todd had this
great speaking with you. Almost talked to Leslie about the
details about your appearance. But enjoy your time in Louisville
here soon.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I'm very much looking forward and thanks so much for
having me and take care.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Appreciate you. Todd Perdam the writer belonged he's called your daughter.
Call your daughter back as he didn't hang up yet.
There you go, it's got to do that. Hi, Leslie,
It's good.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
To see you all right, Terry, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
So tell me about this particular event with that guy
Todd and Maureen.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Dud It's on Monday, December first, and the interview is
at six pm Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in
the Bombhart Theater. I have to tell you it is
a sold out event. It's very popular, but I should
really say it's currently sold out. When you have six
hundred people, someone gets sick, someone has a family emergency.
So you should keep checking for tickets because they do
(10:15):
pop up. The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts has
them on sale five oh two, five eight four seven
seven seven seven.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's good advice. I like that sometimes people have to
drop out. They turn their tickets back in five zero
two five eight four seven seven seven seven, and that
is when December first.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
That's right Monday after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Okay, Monday after Thanksgiving, So jump on that. Maureen dud
being interviewed by Todd Purdham, both accomplished writers. Although I
don't think he's got a pulletzer, he deserves one. We'll
just say that. And you're the Kentucky Author Forum actually
has a whole series of these conversations that are going on.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
We do. We're kicking off our season this coming Monday,
and that's when we'll have Congressman Jim Clyburn in conversation
with John Yard very good and Morgan McGarvey is going
to be our master's ceremonies. And there are still tickets available.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So you can use that number for that, and then
there are a few others. I know that there's a
whole list of those. But thanks for keeping up the conversations. Oh,
there's nothing like it. Q and A's on stage are
great because it gives an audience a chance to sort
of watch a reporter work well.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
The audience can actually participate because after the interview, the
audience is able to ask questions of both the interviewer
and the author while they're on stage.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Very nice, Thank you, Leslie, appreciate you, Thank you. Terry
All right back in a minute on news radio, Wait
forty whas
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