Latest / Connecting the Dots / Starlink’s 10,000th Launch, Student Press Solidarity, and Bari Weiss Shakes Up CBS

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Starlink’s 10,000th Launch, Student Press Solidarity, and Bari Weiss Shakes Up CBS · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfl Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Docs, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome to Connecting the Docs, where
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  we help make sense of tech and infrastructure
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  news and how it, well... connects to your world.
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  I'm Alex. And I'm Morgan. It's great to be with
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  you on Monday, October 20th, 2025. Okay, before
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  we get into the Morningstar Report, just a quick
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  look around. Let's do it. Right here in Sacramento,
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  looking really nice, sunny, high of 79 Fahrenheit
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  expected. Just a perfect Monday. Sounds lovely.
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  Yeah. Nationally, though, it's a bit more mixed.
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  We've got gusty winds, dry conditions, sparking
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  some fire concerns across the Plains states.
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  Right. Meanwhile, Parts the Northeast could see
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  some heavy rain, maybe gusty winds too. And the
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  good news is the mountain snow in the northern
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  Rockies seems to be finally winding down. Okay,
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  so a bit of everything out there. Now the markets.
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  We ended last week on a pretty positive note.
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  We did, yeah. The Dow Jones finished Friday up
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  over 300 points. That gave it a weekly gain of
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  over 1%. Nice. And the S &P 500, pretty much
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  the same story. Strong daily games there as well.
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  And crypto. Still chaotic seems like the word.
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  Huh, yeah. That's the one way to put it. Bitcoin
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  actually had a significant daily bounce of almost
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  $2 ,000, opened today around $108 ,671. And this
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  is the key bit, isn't it? You have to remember
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  that came after losing, what, 4 % over the previous
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  week? Exactly. Volatility is just, you know,
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  part of the deal there. It really is. OK, before
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  we jump into our main stories from the Morningstar
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  at OldGlory .com. OldGlory .com. Got it. All
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  right, let's get into it. First story today.
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  It really highlights the just incredible scale
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  of the infrastructure being built literally over
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  our heads. We're talking SpaceX, right? They
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  hit a huge milestone this weekend. Exactly. On
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  Sunday, they launched 56 more Starlink satellites,
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  and that launch pushed the total number they've
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  put into orbit past 10 ,000. 10 ,000. Wow. That
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  number is just hard to grasp for some time. It
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  really is. And get this, that single launch day,
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  help them tie their previous annual launch record
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  from last year already and we've still got what
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  over two months left in 2025 right that frequency
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  that pace that's maybe the bigger story here
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  it is and you know it makes that frequency possible
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  it's the reusability so while 10 000 launched
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  as a big number the real like engineering marvel
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  involves one of the falcon 9 boosters they used
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  it just completed its 31st mission 31st For one
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  rocket booster. 31st. And it lands successfully
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  back on the drone ship, you know, ready for another
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  go. That is the number that changes everything,
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  isn't it? The economics of space just completely
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  flip when you can reuse the hardware that many
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  times. Totally. It takes orbital delivery from
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  this like super expensive custom project. Yeah.
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  And makes it more like a repeatable shuttle service.
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  Almost routine. Yeah, the cost structure for
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  building this global infrastructure just fundamentally
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  shifts. Exactly. Now, there is a reality check
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  here. It's important. Of those 10 ,000 launched,
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  only about 8 ,600 are actually operational right
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  now. Right, because they have a limited lifespan,
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  don't they? About five years or so before they
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  de -orbit. That's it. Planned obsolescence, but
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  for space hardware. So, looking bigger picture,
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  SpaceX already has approval for 12 ,000 satellites.
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  And they have plans for 30 ,000. 30 ,000. Yeah.
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  We're moving past just technological cool factor
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  here and into, well, some real political and
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  environmental questions. And that's the dot we're
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  connecting for you. This sheer scale is driving
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  those growing concerns about satellite overcrowding
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  space debris. Because it's not just SpaceX anymore.
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  Not at all. You've got Amazon's Project Kuiper
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  ramping up. Big efforts in Europe, in China too.
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  Low Earth orbit or ILEO. It's quickly becoming
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  essential infrastructure. But also pretty contested
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  territory. Crowded skies. Okay, from the crowding
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  up there, let's bring it back down to Earth.
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  A different kind of battleground. the fight for
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  independent media specifically on college campuses.
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  Ah, yes. This next story, I have to say, gives
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  you a little bit of hope for student journalism.
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  You're right. Pretty cool. Okay, lay it out for
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  us. So you know the rivalry between Purdue University
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  and Indiana University, right? It's pretty heated.
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  Decades long. Oh, yeah. Big 10 rivals. Exactly.
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  Well, students from Purdue's newspaper, The Exponent.
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  did something extraordinary. On Friday, they
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  printed and then drove down and distributed 3
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  ,000 copies of a special solidarity edition on
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  the rival IU campus in Bloomington. Wow. Crossing
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  enemy lines for journalism. I love it. Do they
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  call it something dramatic? They did. Operation
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  clandestine delivery. Perfect. Okay, so what
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  prompted this journalistic truce? It was a response
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  to a decision by IU administrators. They decided
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  to end the final print editions of IU's own paper,
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  the Indiana Daily Student, or ITS. And pretty
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  controversially, they also fired the director
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  of student media. Oof. What was the official
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  reason? And what was the suspected reason? Well,
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  the dispute apparently started over whether a
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  special homecoming edition of the paper could
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  include non -homecoming news. IU claimed the
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  decision to end print was purely financial, about
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  the medium of distribution, not editorial content.
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  Said they were trying to reduce debt. But the
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  students and press groups saw it differently.
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  Right. They immediately called it censorship.
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  An attempt to control the narrative, basically.
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  So Purdue's paper steps in. What did their solidarity
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  edition say? The front page was pretty blunt.
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  We student journalists must stand together. Inside,
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  it had strong pieces about the value of press
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  freedom, editorial independence, and get this,
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  op -eds written by the editors -in -chief from
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  both the Purdue and the IU papers. That's powerful.
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  Rivals uniting. It really is. And here's the
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  kicker, the real irony. Purdue's own paper, The
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  Exponent, is fighting its own battles with its
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  university. Oh, really? Yeah. Just this past
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  summer, Purdue University basically ended its
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  formal relationship with the exponent. They revoked
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  things like on -campus distribution rights, parking
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  passes, even the right to use the name Purdue
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  commercially. Wow. So they're fighting for IU's
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  papers independence while simultaneously fighting
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  for their own survival against their own administration.
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  Exactly. It adds so much weight to their actions,
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  doesn't it? It shows this isn't just some, you
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  know, isolated spat at IU. It's part of a bigger
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  ongoing struggle everywhere for editorial independence
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  against, well, institutional control, financial
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  and otherwise. Definitely. The publisher, the
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  exponent, Kyle Charters, summed it up perfectly.
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  He said, I think some things are more important
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  than the rivalry. For us and for a lot of people,
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  freedom of the press and student media is very
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  important. A good reminder that the fight for
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  the First Amendment happens everywhere, even
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  maybe especially on college campuses. It's a
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  training ground. Well said. OK, that theme of
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  established institutions may be resisting independent
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  ideas. It brings us nicely to our third story,
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  a major culture clash happening right now inside
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  CBS News. Yeah, this one is fascinating. It's
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  like watching old media collide head on. with
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  new media philosophy we're talking about barry
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  vice right the very outspoken opinion journalist
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  co -founder of the free press online she just
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  became the new editor in chief of cbs news started
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  what october six that's right and it's a really
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  unorthodox choice i mean her background is entirely
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  in digital media opinion writing not. legacy
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  broadcast television and she basically built
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  her brand in part by criticizing the very kind
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  of legacy media organization she now leads often
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  calling them biased or out of touch exactly so
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  as you might imagine the reception inside the
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  cbs newsroom has been. Frosty. Reports describe
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  things like hostility and stunned awkwardness.
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  A culture clash waiting to happen. Pretty much.
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  It seems to be a fundamental disagreement over
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  what journalistic objectivity even means today.
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  There are already some notable anecdotes coming
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  out. Well, in her first meeting with the staff
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  of 60 Minutes, the flagship news program, she
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  reportedly asked them point blank, why does the
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  country think you're biased? Wow. That's direct,
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  especially since the 60 Minutes team probably
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  sees their work as the definition of nonpartisan
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  reporting. Precisely. But Vice is basically forcing
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  them to confront the perception of bias, which
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  is exactly how many digital native critics view
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  these big legacy institutions. It frames the
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  problem differently. So she's bringing the outside
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  critique inside. How else is she shaking things
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  up? Well, details from her first big editorial
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  call are interesting. Apparently she was five
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  minutes late. suggested going after really big
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  A -list interviews like Hillary Clinton, maybe
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  booking them directly via text message, bypassing
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  traditional channels. Okay, disrupting the process.
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  And according to reports, she also used some,
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  let's say, colorful language. Drop an F -bomb,
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  reportedly saying something like, let's do the
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  effing news. Okay, so definitely making waves,
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  not just ripples. You could say that. She's also
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  apparently complained about leaks already coming
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  out about her first couple of weeks and urged
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  executives to find out who's talking. So it's
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  not just about style, is it? There's an ideological
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  component here, too. For sure. Weiss identifies,
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  I believe, as center -left, but she's a very
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  vocal critic of what she sees as excesses on
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  the far left or, you know, wokeness. And her
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  public stances on certain issues like the conflict
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  in Israel or gender -affirming care. They've
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  definitely alienated some progressives, likely
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  including some within CBS News itself. Right,
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  so what you're really watching here is legacy
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  media grappling, maybe struggling, with disruption.
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  This isn't just about hiring a new boss. It feels
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  more like an established institution fighting
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  over its own identity, its culture, in an era
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  where public trust is, frankly, way down. Yeah,
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  it's a battle over who gets to define the news
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  and how it's delivered. Really interesting to
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  watch unfold. Okay, so... from SpaceX building
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  infrastructure that changes space economics,
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  to student journalists fighting for Prince independence,
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  and Barry Weiss challenging broadcast news culture.
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  Quite a day of institutional friction stories.
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  Absolutely. Hey, before we wrap things up with
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  a final thought for you, we should also give
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  Okay, so let's try and tie these three seemingly
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  pretty different stories together. Yeah, the
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  common thread seems to be about established institutions
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  hitting friction points, doesn't it? Whether
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  it's how we regulate space, how universities
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  handle student press, or how legacy media defines
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  itself. Exactly. They're all dealing with these
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  massive growing pains right now. They're being
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  forced really to adapt to new technologies new
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  distribution models new cultural expectations
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  like reusable Rockets the shift from print to
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  digital or just the entirely different landscape
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  of post cable news culture The struggle isn't
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  really if they'll change is it it seems more
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  about how much they resist the change. That's
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  well already happening. Yeah It makes you wonder,
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  doesn't it, which big institution that you rely
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  on every day might be facing its own internal
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  shakeup, its own breaking point right now? That
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  is a good question to chew on. We're here to
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  help at Snarful, so reach out on our website
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  if you have any more questions. That's a wrap
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  on today's top stories. Remember, tech doesn't
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  have to be complicated and we're here to help
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  connect the dots. If you've got questions or
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  want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
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  Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next
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  time.