[speaker001:] Hi [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Hi.
[speaker001:] Uh, uh [throat clearing] I, I should say something.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] That I'm the, uh, least informed, this is totally accidental that I have to talk about this topic. But, it's, I'm the least informed person in the whole United States.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] This has not been determined yet but I, I, I've never read a newspaper in my entire life and I've, I, I never watch T V news nor listen to the news on the radio unless I'm just happening to be listening to music and they slip it on in the car radio before I can turn it off. But,
[speaker002:] Any particular reason? [throat clearing].
[speaker001:] Well, no. I, I've, I've explored that with lots of people. Uh, they've tried to lock me up and, uh, things like that. But, uh, uh, I'm basically not interested and I also find the, uh, everything is so slick and superficial and misguided and mis-, and off the, uh, uh, what am I trying to say. Uh,
[speaker002:] [Noise].
[speaker001:] I do learn about things.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Huh [very faint].
[speaker001:] Largely from friends and I occasionally will read something like the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS. You know, someone will write a book about something [LAUGHTER] and then I'll learn all about this thing that was in the news two years earlier.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But it, and somehow, and anything I participated in or know about when I read about it in the paper is always so, uh, covered from such a funny and superficial perspective that I don't have much confidence in it. But, I mean, I don't think it's just that I'm lazy [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] I really don't, I, I, I like to refer to this as sort of CONSUMER REPORT phenomenon.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Which is everybody that I know [inhaling] reads CONSUMER REPORTS so the people who do feel that CONSUMER REPORTS does a wholly inadequate job in their area of particular interest.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] But, assume that they do a reasonable job in other areas.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, without thinking that there were people in, who think each other areas, area of, of specialty and, uh, I guess you could explain it two ways. And, and the cynical view is, [NOISE] well these things aren't doing a very good job at all. And the view that I would rather take [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] is that there's a different amount of information you need when you're particularly interested in a topic or, uh, particularly interested in buying something as a, you know
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] as a hobbyist versus when you want to go out and buy a blender because you need to mix things.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] And I think the same thing is true with news. If you want to just have an idea as to what's going on, most papers, a-, and especially the better papers, the, the TIMES, the WALL STREET JOURNAL, the
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] WASHINGTON POST give you a reasonable idea.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] If you were deeply involved in it, then you immediately realize that what they print is stuff that you probably knew already and the stuff that you want they're not printing because the average person doesn't need or want to know
[speaker001:] Right. Doesn't want,
[speaker002:] that much.
[speaker001:] Let me ask, by the way, just for the record. I, I'm, I totally concede that intelligent people read these things and intelligent people write them. So, I mean, I'm not being elitist in that sense, I hope. Uh,
[speaker002:] Well, I mean, there's, there's a reasonable question as to whether it's worth the amount of time it takes [LAUGHTER] to keep up on things [NOISE].
[speaker001:] Yeah. What,
[speaker002:] And most people think it is and I can, I can, you know, accept that some people think it's not and can find better ways to use it.
[speaker001:] Yeah. By the way when you say most people think it is, I think it's like ninety-nine point ninety-nine think it is, percent.
[speaker002:] I don't think it's that high.
[speaker001:] Oh, you don't?
[speaker002:] I know a lot of people who may [clicking] watch the T V news in the evening but don't spend the time to actually read a newspaper.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] And I think they're saying well if something's really important, I'll at least find out that it happened.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] And, and that's a, that's, is a reasonable start and for awhile I didn't read a newspaper when I came out here because I didn't find one that I liked. Uh, and if something important happened, it was covered on T V and I could then go and, and pick up newspapers if, if it were important enough to read about.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And I imagine you get the same level of something that you cared about happened, you'd find out from friends or other channels [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Yeah. Uh, I did, on the, uh, [lipsmack] the Supreme Court hearings, ar-, the, for, uh, uh, the whole business of, uh, see I actually have a, a,
[speaker002:] Clarence Thomas or,
[speaker001:] Yeah, the Thomas and Anita Hill business.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] I, I mean that's, that's the closest thing. I deeply cared about that.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, and I sort of had planned to have dinner with a friend of mine and when I arrived at her house, she was engrossed in that. We ended up watching it for a couple of hours. Zooming out and grabbing something to eat and then zooming back and ea-, watching it some more. And I thought that was terrific because she actually helped me understand what was going on. But even then, I didn't end up doing it on my own. Uh, uh,
[speaker002:] Yeah. I stayed [LAUGHTER] as far away from those as I could.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] I decided I didn't want to waste the time I had, I guess, five years ago now, wasted that kind of time with Oliver North hearings.
[speaker001:] Right, right. Yeah.
[speaker002:] And afterwards, decided that what I had gotten out of it just wasn't worth the time I put in.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And that these things are just very slow in seeing information
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] come out.
[speaker001:] Do you ever read,