“Don't you think, though, that as a reporter, there's something like, there's a kind of news, my only real superstition, that there's a kind of news luck, and some people have it. That was that I had it. Like, sometimes you just wind up in a room. Somebody invites you to a thing. Who knows? I think, Jessica, you have had it in your career, too. Like, reporters who get soups have a kind of luck.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ben Smith
Opinion
Ben Smith: Signal leak is the first massive breach in Trump's narrative
“Trump has had this remarkable three months of, and I think we looked at, I'm not sure we'll say that he got a lot done. I think the jury is very, very much out on like, wait, what exactly didn't get held up in court and what happened, but of absolutely dominat…”
Ben SmithMar 28, 2025▶ 9:19The Signal Scandal & DOGE Drama! (with Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson) | More or Less #92 · More or Less Podcast
AssertionContradicted
Ben Smith: Pentagon advised Trump administration officials to use Signal
“And in fact, they had been told by the Pentagon they should be using Signal.”
Ben SmithMar 28, 2025▶ 14:38The Signal Scandal & DOGE Drama! (with Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson) | More or Less #92 · More or Less Podcast
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Ben Smith: Pete Hegseth will survive Signal leak; Trump team blames Waltz
“Nobody's, I think the Trump people's view is you can't start throwing people overboard, so I think no. And in fact, they seem to be madder at Mike Waltz that he had Jeffrey Goldberg's number in his phone than they are mad at Pete Hegseth.”
Ben SmithMar 28, 2025▶ 16:18The Signal Scandal & DOGE Drama! (with Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson) | More or Less #92 · More or Less Podcast
Insight
Ben Smith: Media startups winning a Pulitzer guarantees imminent layoffs
“So the, my thesis about Pulitzers is that when a new media company wins a Pulitzer, you can just set the clock on layoffs.”
Ben SmithMar 28, 2025▶ 23:07The Signal Scandal & DOGE Drama! (with Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson) | More or Less #92 · More or Less Podcast
PredictionOpen · timeframe Nov 2026
Ben Smith: House Democrats will convene corruption committees targeting Big Tech CEOs
“If the Democrats take the House, we're talking in 20 months, there will be a corruption committee convened, which will have Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and whoever talking in great detail, but every penny that was directed, and, you know, and I t…”
Ben SmithMar 28, 2025▶ 35:47The Signal Scandal & DOGE Drama! (with Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson) | More or Less #92 · More or Less Podcast
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Ben Smith: Trump administration is not easing Big Tech antitrust enforcement
“If there's one thing that Trump is not doing, it's laying off the antitrust stuff.”
Ben SmithMar 28, 2025▶ 39:26The Signal Scandal & DOGE Drama! (with Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson) | More or Less #92 · More or Less Podcast
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