Normally Podcast: NYC Budget Crisis, Colbert “Censorship” Drama & CNN Ratings Collapse

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Normally Podcast: NYC Budget Crisis, Colbert “Censorship” Drama & CNN Ratings Collapse
Date: February 19, 2026
Hosts: Mary Takinoi & Carol Markowitz
Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Mary Takinoi and Carol Markowitz—standing in for Clay Travis and Buck Sexton—deliver their signature blend of wit, skepticism, and blunt political analysis as they dig into three headline stories: New York City's budget crisis, the Stephen Colbert "censorship" debacle, and CNN's continuing ratings collapse. The conversation veers from critiques of progressive economics and city policy failures to the performative outrage of late night hosts, media accountability, and the everyday realities of political gamesmanship, especially in the context of redistricting.

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Key Discussion Points

1. NYC Budget Crisis & Progressive Policy Shortfalls

(Main Segment: 02:27–16:19)

• Opening Riff:
  The hosts joke about the constant weirdness of the news and their attempts to avoid the endless Epstein coverage. Instead, the focus veers to New York City’s fiscal problems.

• Falling for “Free”:

  • Mary lampoons the idea of “free” buses and services in NYC:
    “Turns out free buses aren't free.” (03:31)
  • Suggestion to ship every legislator a copy (or audiobook) of Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics:
    “I will just send a copy of Basic Economics to every... legislator in the country.” – Mary (03:38)

• The Fiscal Reality Check:

  • NY Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani calls for higher property taxes or dipping into reserves to cover deficits. The hosts play and critique his remarks.
    “This would effectively be a tax on working and middle class New Yorkers... withdrawing $980 million from our city's rainy day fund…” – Mamdani (05:12)
  • Commentary on NYC's massive education budget despite falling enrollment:
    “New York City's budget is bigger than Florida's, and 40% of it is going to the Department of Education even though enrollment fell.” – Carol (06:53)

• Comparisons & Consequences:

  • NYC spends $42k per public school student (versus $10k in Florida), raising questions about results and efficiency.
  • Carol highlights how the budget shortfall coincides with Eric Adams' warnings about illegal immigration costs, expressing skepticism about bailout strategies.

• Democratic Policy Critique:

  • The hosts claim the left’s policies backfire and are often followed by attempts to rebrand rather than reform: “The Democrats keep discovering that their policies are abject failures and maybe they could just rename it every few years...” – Carol (10:38)
  • Example: Seattle's minimum wage law for gig workers boomerangs, raising costs, killing demand, and leaving drivers little better off: “Seattle is now the most expensive delivery market in the country... Higher per delivery pay was completely offset by fewer deliveries and lower tips...” – Mary (11:19–12:44)
  • Virginia is now raising minimum wage, and the hosts forecast similar negative impacts.

• Florida as the Counter-Model:

  • Carol lists major corporations relocating to Florida, positioning it as a “boom town” in contrast to blue states:
    “Florida is now home to Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel...” – Carol (13:32)

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2. Colbert, “Censorship,” & Media Narratives

(Segment: 19:30–25:40)

• Colbert’s “Pulled” Interview:

  • CBS pulls a Stephen Colbert interview with James Talarico, citing FCC equal time rules.
  • Colbert presents himself as a victim of censorship and a “brave truth-teller.”
    “He is saying that CBS bowed to political pressure and censored this interview, which is kind of ridiculous... the person not getting equal time is another Democrat.” – Carol (20:29)

• Political Motives:

  • Mary notes Colbert’s actions were likely intended to boost Talarico over Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary, rather than a genuine case of censorship.
    “This disadvantages Jasmine Crockett, which is what I think establishment Democrats... want to do.” – Mary (22:07)

• Media Misrepresentation:

  • The mainstream press, including Vox, spins the situation as heavy-handed censorship, misleading the audience: “Vox says the FCC’s newfound passion for equal time rules is transparently partisan. Again, not at all what happened here. It’s just wrong.” – Carol (24:08)

• Broader Media Skepticism:
  The hosts urge listeners to wait before accepting evolving media narratives. Fact corrections seldom reach the prominence of the initial “crisis.”

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3. Ratings Woes at CNN and Broader Media Trends

(Segment: 25:40–30:59)

• CNN in Freefall:

  • Carol cites Greg Price:
    “Reruns of Hannity at 2am are now getting more viewers than every single show on CNN. Like, at what point do they hang it up?” (25:40)

• Cable News Ecosystem:

  • CNN struggled to maintain audience post-Trump, while Fox News dominates with shows across the political spectrum:
    “Fox is just eating everybody’s lunch. The top show is The Five, which is a lighter show... Number two is Jesse Watters... Number three is Gutfeld, a comedy show... Number four is Bret Baier’s straight news.” – Carol (27:10)

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4. Commentary on Incivility in Political Media

(Segment: 28:01–30:59)

• Media Personalities & Toxicity:
  • Carol and Mary criticize Mehdi Hasan and podcaster Jennifer Welch for personal attacks, such as mocking the appearance of commentator Scott Jennings.
  • Broader reflection on the left’s intolerance for dissent and fondness for echo chambers:
    “There’d be nine people on the panel who disagree with me... and people would tweet me, like, how dare you exist!” – Mary (30:17)

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5. Redistricting Battles in Virginia

(Segment: 34:14–39:48)

• Virginia’s Aggressive Redistricting:

  • The Democratic state government redraws maps to maximize their own advantage (“from a 5-6 split... to 10-1”).
    “What we would like is 10-1. We'd like 10 Democrats to one Republican for a state that is basically a slightly bluer than red state.” – Mary (34:14)

• Gerrymandering and Political Games:

  • Districts are openly named after politicians, and legislators are accused of drawing lines for themselves.
  • The process is criticized as undermining democracy—yet receives little attention outside the New York Times and a few dissenting Democrats.

• Media Bias Tied In:

  • NYT is credited for finally noticing the egregiousness, but generally, the media gives a pass to such maneuvers when Democrats benefit.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Can we get the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to do Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell to every politician in the country?”
  — Mary, riffing on political illiteracy (03:38)

• “At the heart of this path is a property tax increase. This would effectively be a tax on working and middle class New Yorkers...”
  — Audio of Zohran Mamdani’s ultimatum (05:10)

• “You are the extraordinary crisis.”
  — Mary, on Mamdani’s budget rhetoric (05:55)

• “New York City's budget is bigger than Florida's... Why can't you guys make it happen?”
  — Carol, highlighting fiscal mismatches (06:57)

• “Seattle is now the most expensive delivery market in the country... Higher per delivery pay was completely offset by fewer deliveries and lower tips.”
  — Mary, critiquing Seattle’s gig economy policy (12:44)

• “This is why you can't elect Democrats. I mean, their policies don't work.”
  — Carol, summarizing her core argument (10:38)

• “Stephen Colbert... paints himself as this brave truth teller.”
  — Mary, on Colbert’s drama (22:04)

• “Reruns of Hannity at 2am are now getting more viewers than every single show on CNN.”
  — Carol, reading Greg Price’s viral tweet (25:40)

• “When you do the good gerrymandering, you can break all the rules and violate the Virginia state constitution temporarily to get yourself a bunch of new seats.”
  — Mary, on partisan hypocrisy (36:53)

• “I thought... we probably shouldn't be referring to them like that [naming districts after people].”
  — Mary, on the brazenness of the Virginia redistricting process (37:44)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• NYC Budget Woes & Policy Critique: 02:27–16:19
• Colbert “Censorship” Flap: 19:30–25:40
• CNN Ratings & Cable News Trends: 25:40–30:59
• Mehdi Hasan & Media Personalities: 28:01–30:59
• Virginia Redistricting Scandal: 34:14–39:48

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Tone & Style

The conversation is fast-moving, sardonic, and punctuated by in-jokes and cultural references. Mary and Carol maintain a skeptical, occasionally exasperated tone, blending earnest policy criticism with irreverent humor. Both express strong conservative viewpoints and repeatedly jab at progressive policies and their media coverage—but without losing a self-aware or playful edge.

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Takeaway

This episode is a whirlwind tour through the pitfalls of wishful thinking in city and economic policy, the danger of hasty media narratives, and the relentless partisanship that shapes both government and media alike. The hosts’ mix of humor and indignation makes it an engaging resource for anyone following U.S. politics, especially those curious about the practical—and often absurd—effects of policy decisions and media spin.

Transcript

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[Mary Takinoi]

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[Carol Markowitz]

Really?

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[Mary Takinoi]

Hey guys, we are back on Normally the show is normal as it takes for a bunch of news. It's weird. I'm Mary Takinoi.

[Carol Markowitz]

I'm Carol Markowitz. The news continues to be Weir continues to be weird. It just does not stop with the weirdness. But we're not going to get into any topics we don't want to talk about today. Although the news remains Epstein wall to wall. I'm watching so many people fall down rabbit holes. And on the flip side of it, every time one of my friends who I trust otherwise posts something about Epstein, I end up Googling because I'm like, well, this can't be right. And a lot of times it's not right because it's like innuendo and questionable commentary. But we're gonna overall stay on the Epstein story, but we're not gonna talk about it every episode.

[Mary Takinoi]

Episode. Yes. I think that is wise.

[Carol Markowitz]

We are wise. We are wise.

[Mary Takinoi]

We do wanna talk about broken promises in New York City already?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. It turns out there is no money tree in the backyard of New York City.

[Mary Takinoi]

Turns out free buses aren't free.

[Carol Markowitz]

It's so weird. Like, how about everything else that's supposed to be free? How come that's not free?

[Mary Takinoi]

Can we get the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to do Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell to every politician in the country? Because that really good idea, actually, that maybe that's my library. I will just send a copy of Basic Economics to every oh man. Legislator in the country.

[Carol Markowitz]

I'm going to donate. Pause. Mary Catherine's Imaginary library.

[Mary Takinoi]

No, Imagine's Financial Information Library.

[Carol Markowitz]

Financial Literacy Imagination Library.

[Mary Takinoi]

We're gonna use on that one, though. Yeah, we'll workshop it. Yeah, it would be useful except nobody would read it. I'd have to read it aloud and send them a podcast.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right?

[Mary Takinoi]

I could do that too.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

So up in New York, Zoran Mandani was trying to get Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, to raise a bunch of taxes so that he could pay for his free stuff.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Takinoi]

He wants to give to everyone in New York. And she's like, nah, bro, I'm not. I'm not sure I'm going to do that.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Takinoi]

And I have an election coming up.

[Carol Markowitz]

Why would I do that?

[Mary Takinoi]

High earners who they want to tax more, even though they pay a substantial majority percentage of taxes in New York, they're like, no, you shouldn't do that.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Takinoi]

So Mamdani's like, well, what else can I do? And now it's gonna fall on the middle class. So here he is announcing this Ultimatum to New York City. Just what are we, a month into this experiment? Here we go. Take it away, Zoran.

[Carol Markowitz]

At the heart of this path is

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a property tax increase. This would effectively be a tax on working and middle class New Yorkers who have a median income of $122,000. The second path also requires us to raid our reserves. It would mean withdrawing $980 million from our city's rainy day fund in fiscal year 2026 and $229 million from the retiree health benefit trust in fiscal year 2027. These are steps that have been taken before, but only in moments of extraordinary external crisis. Mayor Bloomberg's response to the 2008 financial

[Mary Takinoi]

collapse and Mayor de Blasio's response to

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the enormous revenue shortfall caused by the pandemic. We do not want to have to turn to such drastic measures to balance our budget.

[Mary Takinoi]

Can I say something? You are the extraordinary crisis.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. New York elected a socialist and caused an extraordinary crisis.

[Mary Takinoi]

Where's, where's this lack of funds coming from? It's because you want to send everything out the door. And New York has never been particularly fiscally responsible to begin with. Yeah, a couple people flagged for that. 40% of the 127 billion that, that, that is in the budget is 50 billion for the Department of Education. This despite enrollment Falling, I think, 10% over the last couple of years. Just more money, more money, more money, Right?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. And it makes no sense. So I think the same person you're quoting, we got to find out who that is to give them some credit. But they said that New York City's budget is the same. Oh, it's Ian Miller. He's so great. He, he said New York City's budget is bigger than Florida's and 40% of it is going to the Department of Education, even though enrollment fell.

[Mary Takinoi]

Also, let's talk about the fact that New York's budget is bigger than Florida's.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. That's a big deal. I mean, Florida's, you know, 20 plus million people, and New York City is seven and a half million. Why can't you guys make it happen?

[Mary Takinoi]

Also, Jordan Weissman reports that New York is expected to spend 42k per student in public schools. Do DC for perspective, spends 25 to 26 per student. And we were already like in the upper echelons of spending. Just, just for a moment, imagine what that could buy you in a private school. Education.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. It's unbelievable. Florida actually spends around 10,000 a student. So you can make it happen. And I've been in that.

[Mary Takinoi]

And they can learn. They can also learn on top of it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yes, I've been in that New York City public school system. It has its highs and lows, I'll tell you that right now.

[Mary Takinoi]

Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

Not sure it's worth thirty plus thousand dollars, but so is he.

[Mary Takinoi]

Is this political jiu jitsu here where he has a D chess plan that I don't see where he's going to charm everyone into giving him the money he needs from elsewhere and he's going to blame Hochul or he just thinks it's costless to impose this thing because he sounds like the villain in this clip. Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

And I understand he's blaming someone else, but he's going to be the one doing it.

[Mary Takinoi]

He's like, don't force me to do this, but you're forcing yourself by not making other decisions.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, maybe some spending cuts would be better. There's also a lot of people who point to the fact that the budget shortfall matches exactly the amount that previous Mayor Eric Adams said it was going to cost to house and support all the illegal immigrants that came in over the last five years or so. So it's not a surprise. Here it is here. Eric Adams said, we can't pay for this. This is going to be the budget shortfall. And that budget shortfall is here. And I don't like to give Eric Adams credit for that because he was hoping that the federal government would fill in that shortfall and they didn't. And he never said, let's stop this illegal immigration to New York City. He just said, can somebody help me pay for it, please? And now he's getting the blame for the shortfall that he told everybody was coming.

[Mary Takinoi]

Yeah, I just. They always are looking for the bailout. Right. And I think the object for many liberal cities is to run themselves into a ditch so far that there is no way to grow yourself out of it or to tax yourself out of it. And then they go, let's just wait till Democrats are in charge of the federal government and then we'll have them bail us out.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's the plan. Yeah, that's.

[Mary Takinoi]

That's the explicit plan. Although some people are fighting back. In New York, Queensborough President Donovan Richards Jr. Says, As I told Mayor Mandani this afternoon, a property tax hike upwards of 9.5% as considered, is a non starter under new circumstances. Should we consider balancing our budget on the facts of working class New Yorkers, especially seniors on fixed incomes and public sector workers who keep our city running so that's a lot of constituencies jammed into that. Oh yeah, but by the way, wouldn't this robbing the piggy bank of pensions be on the backs of public employee unions who are one of his biggest supporters?

[Carol Markowitz]

He's not doing this. That's where, that's where this comes down to. You know, he's saying it, but he's not doing it.

[Mary Takinoi]

I feel like it's bad to have yourself on video saying this, but again, he has what I called with Obama. You know, Obama's not my cup of tea, but he had a charisma cushion, which means you can get away with some stuff.

[Carol Markowitz]

I mean, not to mention the mainstream media never asking any tough questions or challenging you at all.

[Mary Takinoi]

Common theme on this show, loving you so, so much. Yeah, but this does seem like we're being set up to pay for this eventually. Carol.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, this is why you can't elect Democrats. I mean, their policies don't work. They don't. They just do not work. And now we're having this kind of reckoning where people are, you know, Barack Obama is looking at California and being like, you know, people don't really like tent cities of homeless people. Yeah, this is your party, dude. This is, this is where we are because of your leadership. And you know, the idea that the Democrats keep discovering that their policies are abject failures and maybe they could just rename it every few years, like eventually we just need to face facts that their ideas are horrible and they don't work. And not saying every one of our ideas is great, but they're better than those ideas.

[Mary Takinoi]

But like, I do think there is a need, as I mentioned about basic economics to basic economics, get that some of the things you think you're doing to help people do not actually help them and indeed hurt them. A couple of examples. In Seattle, the gig worker law was supposed to change life for Uber eats drivers and doordash drivers. And what it ended up doing was nothing like that. A National Bureau of Economic Research study confirmed. And this is Joe Wallen tweeting this from partly from an NPR report out in Seattle. So, you know, not exactly a right leaning bias. The NBER study confirmed what the numbers already showed. Higher per delivery pay was completely offset by by fewer deliveries and lower tips. Active drivers saw near zero net gain in monthly earnings. The local NPR outlet reported this week that two years in, the results are undeniable. Seattle is now the most expensive delivery market in the country. Denver, Portland and San Francisco cities without these laws saw Delivery revenue grow 20 to 40%. Seattle stagnated. This is because they jacked up delivery driver pay to 2640 an hour, which meant everyone was like, I'm not going to pay 8750 for a delivery. Yeah, taco plate.

[Carol Markowitz]

But they made the minimum wage $26. How people didn't want to pay that.

[Mary Takinoi]

It's just so obvious that these things have second order effects that Democrats never think about, even though they've been studied over and over again. Virginia Democrats this week are hiking the minimum wage here to I believe it's a 14 something in the beginning and then 15 in a couple of years. And it will do what it does everywhere, which is cut down on job opportunities for low skill workers, for young workers who might want to get a job and then move up. It will not make things more affordable, which is how they're touting it. It will just all the costs will get passed on to us. Or every single person that you wanted to have a job is now going to be a kiosk. Sorry.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, right. That's really the thing that they're. The minimum wage is actually zero and that's what they're going to be paying the automated services that take over these jobs. And it's going to be some unnamed rich person's fault when that happens. But this is dealing with children. It's like they're just like, but why don't we just make the minimum wage a million dollars? It just, it makes no sense and it doesn't work. And it's long past the time for them to know that. I, you know, obviously rave about Florida a lot on this show, but here are some major corporations and this is my friend Jordan Shacktel compiled this on Twitter that have relocated or expanded to Florida recently. Amazon, Palantir, Nvidia, Citadel, ServiceNow, ARK Invest, D Wave, Quantum and BSE. And Florida, he writes, is now home to Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, David Sachs, Jeff Bezos, Ken Griffin, et cetera. And Jordan adds, the free state of Florida is one giant boom town. It's really not an unforeseen consequence of the blue state policies that don't function and don't keep capital there and they certainly don't keep jobs there because people want to live somewhere that they could have normal, functioning governance. That's what they're looking for. They're not looking for a right wing paradise, they're looking for normal.

[Mary Takinoi]

I saw, by the way, and it was somewhat encouraging that at least one person got mad enough at the D.C. mayor about snow removal that she's going to run for mayor against the incumbent mayor. And I thought, oh my gosh, someone actually got mad enough. Someone did it in Washington D.C. could it be the poop filled filled river that over the edge perhaps?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. All right, we'll see how that one turns out. Hopefully when that person runs for office, they don't realize that they have to tell people that they want to make minimum wage $29 and they, they stick to those principles.

[Mary Takinoi]

It won't go well. Sure won't go well.

[Carol Markowitz]

Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, had story a long time ago when he was thinking about running for mayor and I'm talking like 25 years ago that he was in the elevator of a Manhattan building with a little old lady and she said, oh, are you Rich Lowry? And he said, I am. And she said, aren't you thinking of running for mayor? And he said, yes, I am. And she said, but you're going to support rent, rent control, right? And he was like, I couldn't tell her no in the elevator. So that's when I realized I could

[Mary Takinoi]

not run for mayor. Can't do it. Yeah, you gotta tell people what they don't want to hear sometimes.

[Carol Markowitz]

But not the little old lady in the elevator. When you haven't decided to run yet is the is the problem.

[Mary Takinoi]

So. Yes.

[Carol Markowitz]

All right, we're going to take a short break and come right back with some television news. Be right back.

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[Carol Markowitz]

We are back with more on normally, where a completely made up fake scandal is developing right now on X and on your TV screens where Stephen Colbert, the host of the Late show, which has been canceled, but he's still on, leading to a angry, bitter man being

[Mary Takinoi]

on the television as a comedy host. Ha ha ha.

[Carol Markowitz]

Anyway, he planned to broadcast an interview with James Talarico. Now cbs, the network that airs the Late show, pulled this interview from its Monday night broadcast. They say that their lawyers warned that if they aired that interview, it would trigger the FCC's equal time rule, which requires Broadcasters to offer comparable airtime to all the candidates in a race.

[Mary Takinoi]

Colbert says right as the race is happening, which is what's happening in Texas right now.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. Colbert says he was told he couldn't air the interview and he even wasn't supposed to mention it on the air, but he addressed it in public because he's just so brave that way. He, you know, he is saying that CBS bowed to political pressure and censored this interview, which is kind of ridiculous because the person that would be not getting the benefit of this equal time is Jasmine Crockett, another Democrat. So it's not like CBS heard from Donald Trump, which is what the implication is, and was like, you need to get this Democrat off the air. No, the problem is he needed to give equal airtime to the other Democrat in the race. And. And you know, the idea that this was a banned interview is absolutely ridiculous. But Colbert is absolutely ridiculous and he has just become a political activist. Maybe he was always a political activist. He was never a comedian. And I hope that he gets to go follow his real passion when the show is over. I really do.

[Mary Takinoi]

I think there will be a never ending stream of Democratic fundraisers that he can emcee. I think that is his future. That's already what he's doing.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Takinoi]

And not just on tv, but actually outside of that as well. And this thing, I took like 12 to 18 hours on this thing before I decided how I felt about it because I was like, oh, if the SEC did do this, like, it does feel heavy handed. And then it's like, no, it all comes out that CBS was like, we gave him a couple of options for ways that we thought we could do this. And I think somewhat cleverly, Colbert paints himself as this brave truth teller.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yes. Yes. He's just a free speech warrior.

[Mary Takinoi]

Mary Catherine slaps the talarico interview onto YouTube, brings a bunch of attention to it giving Talarico a bunch of donations and attention right as this primary is kicking off, which disadvantages Jasmine Crockett, which is what I think establishment Democrats.

[Carol Markowitz]

Of whom want to do.

[Mary Takinoi]

Yeah. Of whom he is one. Mm. Want to do. Because Crockett is more of a liability in a general election than Talarico is. I don't think either one of them is winning Texas.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

But she is a tougher sell than Talarico, who at least is like, I'm a preacher. I stand in the back of a pickup.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. Yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

And she now has come out and said, yeah, the administration didn't ban this. Now she's not the most reliable narrator either.

[Carol Markowitz]

No, she certainly is not.

[Mary Takinoi]

But it does seem to me like this was a ginned up thing.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. And the thing is that you're absolutely right in that they want to stop Jasmine Crockett and this is sort of the way to do that. Outlets like Vox, for example, are covering this as if it were the Trump administration stepping in and saying, no, you can't have this interview happen. Which again, is not at all what is happening here. And I think that they like this. They want it to be a story of the Democrats in Texas are really putting up a fight against that Donald Trump. It's like it's not at all what it's about.

[Mary Takinoi]

No. And we shall see what comes of this. But I do think it's instructional for everyone who consumes modern media to watch that story unfold and go, wait a second, this is not at all what was presented to me in the first hour of this story 12 to 24 hours later.

[Carol Markowitz]

But they're not going to correct this. So, like the VOX story, which, you know, Vox bills itself as like the Explainer website, they, they explain things to you. One time they explained that there was a bridge from Gaza to the west bank and no such bridge exists.

[Mary Takinoi]

But a classic of the thank you

[Carol Markowitz]

so much for letting us in on that information. But here is like, what's the context? President Donald Trump has long headed out for America's late night hosts. Most notably, his administration intervened last year to briefly force the comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who hosts ABC Jimmy Kimmel, off the air for Kimmel's comments regarding the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Sidebar. Kimmel lied about the shooting death about Charlie Kirk. It wasn't that they didn't like what he was saying. He was actually lying. But Also, Trump celebrated CBS's decision last year to cancel Colbert's Late Show. And why does it matter? Vox says the FCC's newfound passion for equal time rules is transparently partisan. Again, not at all what happened here. It's just wrong. I get that you want to be partisan. I get that you want to have a position. Don't you want to be right? I hate being wrong.

[Mary Takinoi]

I know. Well, this is the thing that gets me, and I'm going slightly on a tangent here, but this is the thing that gets me about reporting about shooters or criminals who happen to be trans. Just tell me the truth. Tell me the truth. Don't tell me that two women shot up public spaces this week because two women did not.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, right.

[Mary Takinoi]

That's not what happened. So I need to know what actually happened. And sometimes in this modern age it's very hard to get to the bottom of it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Very like two different articles about the trans shooter didn't in Rhode island didn't mention that the person was trans and instead said that he had two names. Like what, what does that mean?

[Mary Takinoi]

Interesting. A person with two names. Oh my goodness. Can I do the CNN thing real quick?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, cnn, they are not doing too hot. I will read you some stats. Greg Price on Twitter writes absolutely hysterical that reruns of Hannity at 2am are now getting more viewers than every single show on cnn. Like at what point do they hang it up? At what point is there no more cnn? Because these numbers are embarrassing. I mean, Ms. Now, which is what MSNBC is now called now now is doing far better than cnn. And it really, I guess people really want the insane lunatic asylum that MSNBC is and has been and CNN is just not cutting it. I don't understand what they can do to make their situation better because they are just disliked overall.

[Mary Takinoi]

I mean, this is a problem of all major media coverage. Right. Is if you tailor yourself to the far side of each ideological end, you'll get a lot of clicks, right?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

And CNN did try that for years. Washington Post did try that for years. To the left, right. And it, they couldn't hang on once the Biden administration came along because then it was like, well, who do we fight now? We like this guy. We're going to cover up for this guy. And it just doesn't bring you the same kind of hate clicks as you used to get, particularly when you're in competition with msn. Ms. Now, who's gonna be more hate clicky, I guess, right?

[Carol Markowitz]

I mean, Fox is just eating everybody's lunch. Continues to. And I have to say, like, you know, for all the, like, people like to be in their silos and I know that they do the top show is the Five, which is a lighter show and not so much tearing into, you know, the other side. And I, I just think it's, it's not quite the super right wingy show that people might expect. Number two is Jesse Waters, which is more like that. I mean, I feel like he, he does it with a smile, but still. And then number three is Gutfeld comedy show, basically. And number four is Special Report with Brett Baer, which is straight news.

[Mary Takinoi]

So for the Fives part, Jessica Tarloff gives as good as she gets.

[Carol Markowitz]

Oh yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

On that panel. She's very prepared and she will go to war. So she. She puts in the work for the other side of those arguments.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, that's right. All right. Also in television news, Mehdi Hasan, one of the just most. I just dislike him very, very much. I just find him to be not only not great at his job, but also just says crazy things. During the pandemic, he said, you know, we have to basically mask forever, and who cares what these conservatives say? Put the kids back in masks. And he said also like that we have to pack the Supreme Court and just. He says very outlandish things. And then it's kind of taken seriously, which I don't think he should be. But anyway, he was interviewing Jennifer Welch, who is another person I just don't think should be taken seriously at all. She's insane. Anti a Trump leftist who has become popular. Anyway, they start reality.

[Mary Takinoi]

She's a reality show star turned an interior decorator turned podcaster, who they think is the lib Joe Rogan. Although we've always pointed out Joe Rogan was a man of the left.

[Carol Markowitz]

Joe Rogan continues to be the lib Joe Rogan.

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[Carol Markowitz]

She's just so angry and nasty. But they. Mehdi Hassan and Jennifer Welch, who, by the way, her face does not move at all. They go into, why does Scott Jennings have such an annoying face? Like, ma', am, sir, both of you. No, really. And then they talk about masculinity and how people talk about masculinity a lot. And Mehdi Hassan calls Scott Jennings the most loathsome man on cable news. Scott Jennings. Scott Jennings is the most loathsome man on cable news. I couldn't help myself. I said, you're mad because you're not a man. And also not on cable news.

[Mary Takinoi]

Yeah. I just. There's. I know there's a market for this. I know there's a market for just being mean to people. And also it is telling with people left of center how allergic they are to one person, effectively countering their messages. They flip out. And I used to get this when I was on CNN panels. There'd be nine people on the panel who disagree with me.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

And people would tweet me, like, how dare you? How dare you exist? Is what. Like, how dare you exist? Why would they allow you to speak? I want to hear 10 people who agree with me.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, yeah. They have some problems. If these are your, you know, superstars, good luck with that. The left, I find them both deeply unlikable, and I do not think they will be appealing to the middle again. The people I named on Fox, they might you might not agree with them. You might find them too far right. Whatever. They're all doing it with a smile. They're not talking about how annoying somebody's face is on the opposite side.

[Mary Takinoi]

Well, Gutfeld might occasionally.

[Carol Markowitz]

Well, okay, fine. That's comedy. All right, we'll take a short break and come back with some more Virginia Redistrict, Inc. It's not going so great over there. Be right back.

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[Mary Takinoi]

All right, who's ready for some more redistricting news? This is important, of course, because a bunch of states are trying to redistrict to add to the numbers of various parties before the 2026 election. So all of these lawsuits and all of this redistricting is happening as we speak. In some states you might know know which district you're in or who's running for it. Until much later into 2026, Virginia has become one of those states they claim in retaliation for Texas's mid decade redistricting. Now Republicans had a sort of rationale for their redistricting, which was the census robbed a bunch of red states of districts and population. In 2020, when it was run badly, Democrats were awarded seats they should not have gotten. So we're going to do a little correction on this and redistrict. So Texas does that and then a bunch of lefty states who I underestimated and thought they had gone as far as they could and they had not. And so California was like, oh no, we'll do more. So California does more for Democrats to sort of try to rebalance this situation and take back their advantage. And then Virginia in 2025 gets, quote, unquote moderate governor, Democrat Abigail Spamberger, and both of the houses of the legislature are now run by Democrats. So they say, you know what, this 5, 6 split of congressional districts between Republicans and Democrats here, not working for us. What we would like is 10 1. We'd like 10110 Democrats to one Republican for a state that is basically a slightly bluer than red state. And the way they're doing this is drawing a bunch of districts that snake out of Northern Virginia where there's a ton of blue population and into more rural areas. So basically everybody who wants to be a congressman can live up in Northern Virginia, in the D.C. area, never leave and keep winning those congressional districts because they never have to like talk to the central Virginia or rural Virginia people. You know, Republicans real flat footed on this. Yeah, there was a lawsuit. It went to the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Supreme Court was like, even though Democrats broke a bunch of rules to get this thing on the ballot, we're not going to rule on the merits until after you guys vote.

[Carol Markowitz]

Isn't there like a whole concern among Democrats that the Texas redistricting was an affront to democracy?

[Mary Takinoi]

Oh, no, no. That's not an issue anymore because this is the good gerrymandering.

[Carol Markowitz]

I see, I see. Right, right.

[Mary Takinoi]

When you do the good gerrymandering, you can break all the rules and violate the Virginia state constitution temporarily to get yourself a bunch of new seats. So they didn't give people enough notice that this was happening. That's on purpose. So that energized Democrat activists will go out and vote and no one else will. It's going to be on the ballot and like starts voting on March 6th. Vote no, by the way, by April 21st. And it turns out that the a bunch of people in Virginia legislature wrote themselves their own districts.

[Carol Markowitz]

Nice. Yeah. And the New York Democracy for you.

[Mary Takinoi]

For democracy. They actually were naming them for these people like quite openly in the discussions,

[Carol Markowitz]

like Mary Catherine's district.

[Mary Takinoi]

No, they were, they were like, so this will be Dan Helmer's district and this will be Shannon Taylor's district. And even some Democrats in Virginia were like, ah, we probably shouldn't be referring to them like that.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

Well, the New York Times has caught up and says. Huh. An architect of Virginia's aggressive redistricting scheme will announce on Wednesday that he intends to run for one of the newly drawn Democratic seats himself. Dan Helmer, a four term state delegate who played a key behind the scenes role in last October's surprise move to redraw Virginia's congressional maps, is entering the race for the lobster shaped 7th congressional district. The lobster shaped that they all created for him. It's quite an audacious thing they're doing here and Democrats are very excited and they're probably excited to go vote. And Republicans are not as engaged right now. Although there is an effort to counter this. I do think it helps that the New York Times is noticing how obviously backroom deal, corrupt.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Takinoi]

Like when you name the districts after people.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. Maybe that's not democracy. Maybe. Do you think this is ultimately to push Republican voters out of the state? Like, because, I mean, my, my thought, of course is, are you staying, Mary Catherine?

[Mary Takinoi]

Are you? I don't know, Carol.

[Carol Markowitz]

It.

[Mary Takinoi]

Look, I was already basically disenfranchised by living in this area to be begin with. But I do think truly the people who live in central and southern and southwestern Virginia.

[Carol Markowitz]

Wrong.

[Mary Takinoi]

And over in western Virginia, north, north towards West Virginia, deserve congressional leaders who have to occasionally leave northern Virginia. The idea that you would never be able to. You don't have to do that to win is bad. The idea that you would split these very, very similar districts into five congressional districts.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Takinoi]

Is wild to me. But look, gerrymandering is never pretty. It's rarely noble. I don't think it's ever been noble. It's part of the game and they're playing to win here and they're playing in some real shady ways. But I do appreciate the New York Times occasionally telling the truth about it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Very, very occasionally.

[Mary Takinoi]

But one more Virginia point for you and for media bias. The New York Times did a profile on Abigail Spamberger the other day and of course it didn't have anything like really tough in it or any tough questions for her, but it did have a quote and some like really glorified coverage of her CIA stint because she was an intel operative. And one of the quotes where she illustrated how awesome she was at this job is that she says, well, when you talk to somebody, you want to seem trustworthy. And I thought.

[Carol Markowitz]

Seem, huh?

[Mary Takinoi]

That's a. There's a politician for you. Strategically seeming trustworthy. Yeah, thanks, gov.

[Carol Markowitz]

Rather you be trustworthy, but okay, we'll take it. Yeah. Well, thank you for joining us on Normally. Normally air Tuesdays and Thursdays and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcast. Get in touch with us@ normallythepodmail.com thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.

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