Jon Stewart's Post-Kimmel Primer on Free Speech in the Glorious Trump Era | Maria Ressa

I didn't think the pain from the shingles rash would affect simple everyday tasks like bathing, getting dressed, or even walking around.

I was wrong.

Though not everyone at risk will develop it, 99% of people over the age of 50 already have the virus that causes shingles, and it could reactivate at any time.

I developed it, and the blistering rash lasted for weeks.

Don't learn the hard way, like I did.

Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today.

Sponsored by GSK.

At Blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments, it's about you, your style, your space, your way.

Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right.

From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows.

Because at blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than windows is you.

Visit blinds.com now for up to 50% off with minimum purchase plus a professional measure at no cost.

Rules and restrictions apply.

You're listening to Comedy Central.

From Comedy Central, it's the all-new government-approved daily show

with your patriotically obedient host, John Stewart.

My name is Jon Stewart, and welcome to The Daily Show on I'm going to guess

Monday.

I don't know.

We have another fun, hilarious

administration-compliant show.

What are you doing?

Shut up,

blow this friend.

So we're

coming to you tonight from a real shithole

for the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City.

It is a tremendous disaster like no one's ever seen before.

Someone's National Guard should invade this place, am I right?

Shut the f off

if you felt a little off these past couple of days it's probably because our great father has not been home

for

father

has been gracing England

with his legendary warmth and radiance

Gaze upon him with a gait even more majestic than that of the royal horses that pranced before him.

He wowed the English with charm, intelligence, and an undeniable sexual charisma

that filled their air like a pheromone-packed London fog.

And as part of this historic trip,

the perfectly tinted Trump

dazzled his hosts at dinner with a demonstration of unmatched oratory skill.

A fifth of all

humanity speaks, writes, thinks, and praise in the language born on these aisles and perfected in the pages of Shakespeare and Dickens and Tolkien and Lewis, Orwell and Kipling.

Incredible people.

He didn't have to look down once,

completely off-book,

as he name-checked his favorite authors from the top of his head.

Trump employing restraint not to quote verbatim these great authors.

Our president has devoured voraciously.

Incredible people indeed.

I'll tell you whose client list Trump's name is on,

Dewey Decimals.

But of course, as great as those authors are,

There can only be one most tremendous author in the English language.

And I think we know that that author begins with the T

and ends

in P.

Oh, how fortune has smiled upon us, for that very scribe is also our dear leader.

We're joined by history and fate, by love and language.

We're like two notes in one chord.

or two verses of the same poem, each beautiful on its own, but really really meant to be played together.

The whole room is enthralled.

That's resting interest's face.

It was a most beautiful recitation, Mr.

President.

It brings me to tears almost as much as your favorite poem about that man from Nantucket

and the variety of things that man can do that rhyme

with tuck it.

Although, Mr.

President, if I may humbly I beg of you, take a small detour off this highway of adoration you have so richly earned for a bit of a comic repast.

What the f is on this guy's head?

hang on the mistletoe you want,

Earl of Higgin-Hoffenbaum.

Our president's luscious lips shall never grace your forehead,

or is that

some sort of second-rate Harry Potter scar shit?

What's on his head?

He's scarred with the mark of the fun,

Neviakis groatosis,

But the president, almost despicably humble,

gave the royals a rare glimpse at his soft-spoken yet prideful side.

We had a very

sick country one year ago, and today I believe we're the hottest country anywhere in the world.

In fact, nobody's even questioning it.

Nobody,

certainly not this guy, am I?

You got something to say to me, King Chuck?

Don't make eye contact, bitch.

I'm the alpha dog.

Trump knows USA is the hottest we've ever been.

And not just because of climate change.

Which is a good thing.

It's actually climate change is a good thing.

Cities

should

be part of the ocean.

If you think about it, because obviously what's more important than staying hydrated

for cities.

Of course, this visit wasn't just an opportunity for President Trump to rub shoulders with lesser royals.

He also met with political lessers, like the British Prime Minister, who had to be reminded that Trump has ended all the wars in the world,

especially the one between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

To think that we settled

Aberbaijan and Albania as an example.

I would like to apologize very quickly.

I stand corrected.

Azerbaijan

is actually pronounced Aberbajan

and

Armenia

is pronounced Albania.

I regret the error?

Trump ended the war between Abor

and Albania.

Do better, do better, do better!

F ⁇ dumb shit, f ⁇ ing fa!

That wasn't smart either.

Now the visit to England couldn't have gone better for our president.

Finally, a country affording our great leader the respect and deference that any sun god would command.

We saw the dismissal of a very well-known chat show host in America last night, Mr.

Kimmel.

Is free speech more under attack in Britain or America?

How dare you, sir!

How dare you, sir!

What outfit are you with, sir?

The Antifa Herald Tribune?

Why, I wouldn't even line my parents' cage with your rag.

There's a very reasonable explanation for what befell this scallywag, Kimball.

Well, Jimmy Kimball was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else.

And he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk and Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person.

He had very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago.

So, you know, you can call that free speech or not.

Shut the f ⁇ up!

Yay!

You may call it free speech in jolly old England.

But in America we have a little something called the First Amendment.

And let me tell you how it works.

There's something called a talentometer.

It's a completely scientific instrument that is kept on the president's desk.

And it tells the president when a performer's TQ, talent quotient,

measured mostly by niceness to the president,

goes below a certain level, at which point the FCC must be notified to threaten the acquisition prospects for billion-dollar mergers of network affiliates.

These affiliates are then asked to give ultimatums to the even larger megacorporation that controls the flow of state-approved content or the FCC can just choose to threaten those licenses directly.

It's basic science.

Read your constitution!

Read it!

Look,

there are certain rules of free speech that we must all abide by, but in case anyone needs a refresher, we're going to go over the rules again.

He does not have a right to have a television show where he lies his ass off to the American people.

All right, but there are are repercussions to spreading lies.

Exactly.

And even though two months ago, our president, because of his grand ability to see the future, it's a curse,

somehow knew that Kimball would be next, as he explicitly said.

You can't just make things up on television.

People cannot just go on television and mislead viewers with made-up crap.

Millions of illegal aliens that Boris Arharis brought into the country will be voting.

The bottom line is this: there is massive voter fraud.

Global warming is a hoax.

Crime.

Crime is at an all-time high right now.

50 million on condoms in Gaza.

They're taking people's pets and killing them and eating them.

On January 6th, two years ago, the overwhelming majority were peaceful.

They were orderly and meek.

These were not insurrectionists, they were sightseers.

All true!

Oh Your Lordship

I do not know whence these peasants come

that last roll of clips all true

Especially that last one about sightseers because technically anything you see

is a sight.

Even if that is you punching a cop,

I see,

therefore I am sightseeing.

But of course even before this

Jason Kringle situation at ABC,

there were plenty of other people in America exercising their free speech incorrectly.

So here's some examples of things you cannot say about your political opponents.

You can't call someone who you disagree with a fascist.

Leaders cannot call their political opponents Nazis and fascists and enemies of the state.

How horrible and dangerous it is to view people with whom we disagree as somehow being less than human.

Thank you.

You can't say fascist.

You can't say enemy of the state.

You can't say less than human.

These are simple rules that any responsible member of a society can easily follow.

The Democrats, they're fascists.

Joe Biden, he's an enemy of the state.

It's a very demonic party.

Nancy Pelosi said, Please don't call them animals.

They're human beings.

I said, no, they're animals.

Of course, I think she's an animal, too.

You want to know the truth?

Technically correct.

She's not a mineral.

Anyway, he said that a long time ago, back when I was doing a semester abroad in Abu Baishin.

You know what?

It's not really about the specific words.

It's about having a basic sense of humanity.

People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.

This is not a both sides problem.

The First Amendment, though, does not protect protect entertainers

who say crass or thoughtless things, as Jimmy Kimmel did.

Thank you.

Thank both of you.

Or I think we only have to be nice to one of you.

You know,

it is true.

I do.

Point taken, only a bad person would celebrate violence or make crass jokes about it.

Nancy Pelosi, well, she's got protection when she's in DC.

Apparently, her house doesn't have a lot of protection.

Donald Trump Jr.

shared an image of a hammer in a pair of underwear that had the caption, Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.

Well, maybe Paul Pelosi needs the hammer instead of the metal.

Well,

it's metal.

All right, Rachel.

It's metal.

No, no, no,

And by the way,

there were consequences.

This gentleman had to leave television.

I'm not sure where he went, but I'm sure it's not some prestigious, consequential position he's not remotely qualified for.

Listen,

these two,

these two,

these two could learn a lesson from our dear president, who,

like Santa,

knows that we are all all God's children.

And would never, that is what Santa is, right?

God's children.

I'm not so up on the lore.

I know he's good.

But the president knows we're all God's children, and the president would never make light of a politically motivated attack.

Well, stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi who ruined San Francisco.

How's her husband doing, by the way?

Anybody know?

You see, that's how it's done.

You stop in the middle of a speech to inquire about the condition of an 82-year-old man who was attacked with a hammer in his own home.

He has a fractured skull, Mr.

President, but thank you for asking.

Your kindness is only outshined by your manliness.

So I don't know who this

I don't know who this

Johnny Drimmel live ABC character is, but the point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech.

Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration's speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smokescreen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principle-less and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance.

Some people would say that.

Not me though, I think it's great.

For more, we go to our correspondents who are live at the Donald Ham Luth Trump Monument Constitution.

Very much appreciate it.

Very much appreciate you joining us.

Guys,

you know,

all this swirling around,

are the naysayers and the critics right?

Is Donald Trump stifling free speech?

Of course not, John.

Americans are free to express any opinion we want.

To suggest otherwise is laughable.

Ha ha ha.

We are a nation of diverse perspectives, and we are not afraid to be different.

Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie, what's up with your tie?

You're going to get us in trouble?

No, no,

this is the only red tie I have.

Okay, it's fine.

That's not red, it's pink.

It's not pink.

It's at least salmon, all right?

That's a shade of red.

It's not red enough, it's gotta be MACA red.

Calm down.

God, is this your first dictator?

Listen.

Listen!

They don't care about the exact shade, okay?

It's just about being visibly uncomfortable while you praise them like a toddler.

We love you, Donna.

You did so good.

You get all your poopy in your party.

So good, so good.

Thank you so good.

I couldn't have said it any differently without obviously getting into trouble.

Now,

before we go to our commercial break,

We'd like to end this segment like we do every night here at the Daily Show and have been ending our segments for years.

Oh, Donald,

we pledge to thee our

world

from the hottest

country in the world

with no fake news,

and we don't even

notice your kinkles

or your bruises.

You ended eight to ten your wars.

And even though some of those countries don't really exist,

you deserve all the prizes.

I'm talking Nobel Prizes.

You have a massive penis,

much

bigger than normal.

Your Operation Warp Speed got us the COVID vax, which we don't like, but it was a great thing.

But don't take it.

Y'all come back to me, please.

He's a superhero who needs no cape,

and he was not technically convicted of

Yeah, Donald, we love you, bro, because you're in the

okay.

Oh, Donald,

we hold you

back.

My guest is journalist Maria Reta.

Don't go right.

I didn't think the pain from the shingles rash would affect simple, everyday tasks like bathing, getting dressed, or even walking around.

I was wrong.

Though not everyone at risk will develop it, 99% of people over the age of 50 already have the virus that causes shingles, and it could reactivate at any time.

I developed it, and the blistering rash lasted for weeks.

Don't learn the hard way, like I did.

Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today.

Sponsored by GSK.

Welcome back to the Daily Tell My Guest Tonight.

My guest tonight is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, CEO of the Philippine news site, Rappler, and author of the book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator.

Please welcome to the program, Maria Russa.

Very nice people.

You got to do it for the Graham.

Maria's always said she does it for the Graham.

First of all, thank you for being available on short notice.

Generally, I have a Rolodex of all Nobel Prize winners

and I had to get to R.

So that's how hard it is.

Your Nobel Peace Prize.

Is there any chance you would give it to our guy and save us all?

I know you were good at.

Son of it.

How are you doing?

As you're watching

not really the market working, but the government interceding in putting pressure on various things.

How much is this moment resonating with you, with your experiences?

For those who don't know, you were imprisoned in the Philippines for writing truth.

I have 11 arrest warrants, or had 11 arrest warrants in a little over a year.

But only four were Coke.

Which is, I want to make sure people know that.

But it's the same type of thing.

You know, I got to say, since 2016, I've been saying over and over and over, and I guess I'm just going to say, I told you so.

You've said it to me many times.

And I've always said, we're resilient in our civic institutions.

And he really has.

I really have said that to him.

Yeah, he said, no, it's not going to happen.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Hello.

What was it about how you were watching it?

Are you at least surprised by the speed of it and the breadth of it?

When we talked in March, I was saying this is going much faster than in the Philippines when Rodrigo Duterte took office.

So the Philippines has a constitution patterned after the United States, three co-equal branches of government.

And he collapsed our institutions within six months.

Do you think it's weird it's taken Trump eight?

I think he did it in the first hundred days.

No, he did, yeah.

Yeah, because if you think about it, 143 executive orders.

Right.

And then if you look at the way that shaped the reality of everybody, right?

I think that was why we spoke in March, because I was like, this is happening.

If you do not reclaim your rights, if you don't stand up, it's going to be significantly harder to claw them back.

Let me ask you about, you know, you've got three branches of government.

Were they compliant?

I think in this moment, they're compliant here, right?

It hasn't been at their objection, it's been at their inaction.

So it's identical to what happened.

Identical.

Identical to what happened in the Philippines, right?

And so I feel like it's both deja vu and PTSD.

I mean, you know, we have you have an executive, very powerful, which by the way, our first president, Marcos, declared martial law by executive order.

Right.

That was in the 70s.

Anyway, you have an executive.

The legislature is the one that's supposed to hold him in check in in real time, and the judiciary maintains the rule of law, right?

Well, what happened in the Philippines is the same.

I want you to have a third hand to show me.

I want to see how this model actually works.

Well, so what happened?

This collapsed.

Right.

Which was shocking.

It was shocking to watch, but the very first line of defense you had were the Republicans.

Right.

Right?

And then when that collapsed, that meant in real time, I mean, are you going to get USAID workers back?

All of those things that happened that were implemented in the first

appropriations and money that was done.

All of that has happened, and that now is normal, right?

And you can, whether it's in the physical world or in the virtual world.

And then the judiciary, what's I watched the same thing happen here that happened to us, which is the individual judges and justices become targeted.

And holding up rule of law becomes

that much harder.

But here's your other thing, and this is Silicon Valley is American after all, right?

How can you have rule of law if you don't have facts?

What is that last word?

We were told,

so here's what's interesting.

We've been told that any attempt to check facts was a curb on free speech, that any policing on public platforms of anything that occurred, and by the way, some of it was not right, some of it was unjust, some of it was censorious, but it didn't mean, and we were told that the principle here, they've said it, we're going to be the most free speech, we're going to be the most open, and they've just redefined what speech means.

What free speech means is free speech is speech that supports the president.

And that's the new definition.

Are you talking about the tech CEOs or the president's men and women?

Well, but are they different?

I mean,

when you have that kind of meshing, right?

Yes.

It was, he threatened Mark Zuckerberg with jail because of Zuckerbucks, which were bipartisan.

They went out.

It wasn't even electioneering.

Yeah.

Mark Zuckerberg went, did you see jail?

Which apparently is the only thing that's worse than being in the metaverse.

I'm not sure which is worse, actually, but

he flips over.

Now we've got tech.

I mean, Elon Musk spent over $100 million to get this man elected, but that's not seen as interference.

They go

join together,

and they're consolidating their power.

Yes.

Is that a similar, you know, in Philippines it's a little different.

Basically, social media in the Philippines was more like it was Facebook.

No, I mean, primarily Facebook, but, you know, I would say for six years, these are stats, for six years in a row until 2021, Filipinos spent the most time online and on social media globally.

Out of anybody?

Out of anybody globally.

And so, what the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower said, you guys remember that 2018, right?

I do indeed.

So, what he said was that they tested tactics of mass manipulation in our country, and if they worked in our country, they ported it to yours.

Wait, this is like the McRib?

They took a...

They did a test sandwich and ran it in like someplace in Columbus and were like, these people love this shit.

And we kept telling you this was happening.

In 2016, I said this in Silicon Valley.

I said, what is happening to us is coming for you.

2016, right?

And nothing was done.

And if anything, all those safeguards

that they tried to put in place have been ripped off in time for the 2024 elections.

But it hadn't to that point, point, in my mind, they had weaponized that brain hack for profit.

They hadn't yet weaponized that brain hack for political consolidation and power.

That's what feels different.

No,

what happened in the Philippines is just happening to you.

Yes, no, I meant in our country.

In our country.

It felt like they weaponized the algorithm for profit.

Now they're weaponizing it for both profit and political consolidation.

They went hand in hand for most of the rest of the world.

I mean, you're not exceptional in this sense.

There is a dictator's playbook.

Right?

You think we fell for it?

We're just a run-in-the-mill country that falls for this?

It really is a playbook.

They studied Hungary.

They studied soft autocracy.

They studied hard autocracy.

They use the same, man, when I watch them and they go on and they go, we fired a missile at a Venezuelan drug boat.

I think about Duterte and I think about that's extrajudicial killings in our country.

That's what we called it, right?

And that's how we consolidated through the fear,

anger, fear, anger, hate, fear, anger, hate.

So it's like,

we'll say this one more time because I feel like, you know, Sisyphus and Cassandra combined.

We kept saying this.

Hold on, that is a great idea for a movie.

Hold on.

By design, these platforms spread lies.

Social media spreads lies by a 2018 MIT study at least six times faster.

So by design, lies spread faster.

That's the incentive.

And then in 2017, we saw in our country, in the Philippines, that if you lace it with fear, anger, and hate, it can go viral.

That's the incentive structure.

So that was used to attack us.

Now, imagine

if you're pumped full of, in the Nobel lecture I called it toxic sludge.

Online violence is real world violence.

So they hacked our biology, thinking fast, thinking slow, we're thinking fast people, our emotions, they change the way we feel

to change the way we look at the world, to change the way we act, to change the way we vote.

And as of March this year, VDEM in Sweden said that we are 72% of the world is now under authoritarian rule, that we are electing illiberal leaders democratically

because of insidious manipulation.

So they go hand in hand, money and power.

And now with the horrific events in Utah, everybody has the Zapruder film of it in their pocket.

It wasn't taken down on social media.

No, right?

Yeah.

Horrifying.

And it's, you know what I liken it to to some extent?

Because this type of manipulation will always exist.

I liken it to this.

It's like a chef.

A chef has a couple of tricks.

You come into a restaurant, what's a chef going to do?

He's going to be like, you know what, I want these people to come back.

I'm going to throw in a little extra butter.

I'm going to add a little bit of sugar to the marinara.

But it's still within the realm of, but then you look at ultra-processed food and you realize that's different.

That's guys in lab coats trying to figure out how to bypass

whatever biological signals you give that cause you to stop eating, to bypass that, to make you sick.

And it's so interesting because you watch Maha

talk about we have to get rid of ultra-processed foods, it's killing us, it's making us fat, and then big pharma comes in and they give us GLPs, and it's a big cycle.

But nobody talks about ultra-processed speech, and that's the difference.

The algorithm is ultra-processed, it's not about adding a little bit of humor, or a little bit of fear, or a little bit of outrage, it's about

designing a machine.

Yes, absolutely.

Me and Maria won the Nobel Prize!

I won it too!

We, oh my God, I can't.

I can't believe we're both Nobel Prize winners.

Maria, I want to talk about,

right now in this country,

so many people are living on eggshells on the whims of one man, whether you're a researcher in a university or a day laborer outside of

a home depot or someone who shitposts on Twitter or any of there are so many people in so many spheres.

Or whether you're a small business that doesn't understand the diabolical whims of tariffs and how they're being laid out just willy-nilly.

What do you do with that?

I know that must have been what it's like in the Philippines.

An authoritarian regime, civic institutions and the way that they function, they can be abysmal, but they provide a certain stability.

I've never seen this country where so many are living on eggshells.

And part of that is precisely because there hasn't been enough.

I mean, we were talking about this.

There hasn't been, it feels like Americans are like deer in headlights.

Yeah.

You know?

I feel that way.

But if you don't move and protect the rights you have, you lose them.

And it's so much harder to reclaim them.

It's, it will be.

You know, they keep saying, our leaders, the ones that we elected to keep an eye on this, keep going on TV and going, you've got to speak up.

And you're like,

here?

Like, right now?

Out the window?

Like, for what?

Like, there is no

real sense of process or scaffolding that could create a ladder out of this hole.

But this is, this is.

You're about to choke me.

No, no, no, no, no.

No.

You know, so let me just say what this moment is, right?

I've been struggling, and I just came from Australia.

You're a very optimistic person.

I know that.

So this is everything you've been through.

There were two ways I was going to describe this moment, and it does start with the manipulation and the corruption of our public information ecosystem, right?

So I was saying, is this an information apocalypse or is it an information Armageddon?

Okay.

Those are our, so

you are a very optimistic person.

And that.

And our choice is apocalypse or Armageddon.

But that's why, because I'm optimistic, I chose Armageddon.

Yep.

Right?

Yep.

No, think about it.

Think about it.

Part of it is the apocalypse is done.

It's the end of the world.

It's the end.

But our Mageddon is the battle.

This is the battle.

Right.

Right?

Peaceful.

Peaceful.

Peaceful.

And by the way, so without this going in that direction then, I want to do talk about

this was, when was Duterte?

When did he take power?

2016.

He's gone.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, so

this isn't, it didn't last forever.

And your work,

your lone voice crying out from the apartment that they forced you to be in and

the imprisonment that they were looking for,

it's over.

He's not there anymore.

So it wasn't, I wasn't jailed for very long.

I'm very lucky in this, right?

But let me put it this way.

Our lawyers told us I was crazy and I had a company.

And by the way, nothing puts a news organization coheres, makes it feel so good to be a journalist than a news organization that is mission-driven.

When we came under attack,

Rappler came together in ways we could never have done that.

Reach that to the heavens.

That is so true and so missing.

So what we saw was that if you stand up, if you just keep going, because our lawyers told us I was crazy.

Do you negotiate with President Duterte or not?

How can you negotiate when you can't give him what he wants?

So we did.

I.e., you can't do your job.

So, and then here's what happened.

We just kept doing our jobs.

We just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

A year where I had 11 arrest warrants and then was convicted.

And I still have, I have to ask for permission to travel from the Philippine Supreme Court until today.

But in March this year, Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on alleged crimes against humanity, and he is now in jail in The Hague waiting for his trial.

Wow.

And it's not, listen, and that doesn't mean it's over.

And I understand that, you know, in the Philippines, his daughter, and certainly the Philippines has a long tradition of family dynasties, and that still exists there, and there's still, I'm sure, choppy waters ahead for Maria Ressa.

Well let's say we move from hell to purgatory right?

It's not bad.

It's not bad.

The next book has got to be from Apocalypse to Armageddon.

A story of optimism.

Maria Ressa.

Maria I can't tell you enough what a salve for the soul you always are whenever I get a chance to talk to you, whenever I get a chance to see you.

Thank you so much for coming by in this unbelievably strange deer and headlight time.

And I so appreciate you coming on.

No, thanks for having me.

It's such a pleasure.

We're going to take a break.

We'll be right back.

Maria Russell.

Hey, everybody!

That's our show for tonight.

Here it is, your mum and your dad.

Mr.

President, you have spoken of your pride in your British roots.

In fact, not only have you set foot on British soil twice in the last two months alone,

but I understand that British soil makes for rather splendid golf courses.

Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts.

Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus.

This has been a Comedy Central podcast.