rant · moment 14 of 21
Watergate, Russ Baker, and Truth Without Reward
from Searching For Bobby Fischer · #81
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minExtended riff on how a once-legitimate press corps that broke Watergate has degraded into partisan tribalism, and how truth-tellers like Russ Baker and Nick Bryant get no reward for their diligent research.
- 35:07No one calls bullshit until the country becomes completely fractured and there's no objective information left.
- 35:40Bob Woodward worked for the CIA, but during Watergate there was at least a pretense of a legitimate press corps willing to investigate.
- 36:36The problem is truth is meaningless and not rewarded by anything—there's no monetary compensation for being right.
- 36:46Russ Baker uncovered major facts about one of America's most infamous presidents and received no great reward for it.
- 37:06Tim compares pursuing truth to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark: you can find everything and explain it, but people just put it in a pile and ignore it.
- 37:37People choose to believe what they want to believe anyway, just like religion—explaining facts doesn't change their minds.
- 38:08During the mortgage industry frenzy, people were rewarded for not living in the world of facts, and those who questioned it were attacked.
- 38:34When the country is in a stampede, anyone coming out with a sober rational take from the other side gets exiled from society immediately.
mortgage industryCIAWatergateRuss BakerBob WoodwardNick BryantThe Big ShortThe Pentagon Papers