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good afternoon everyone my name is alan the air and that president of the
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national press club and a reporter for bloomberg news here in washington d_c_
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today the national press club the world's leading professional
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organization for journalists welcomes comedy central and the leaders of the
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rally to restore sanity and or fear
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jon stewart and stephen called there
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the rally and this news conference put the two entertainers in the spotlight as
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they never had that before
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today they will be answering questions from the press here at the national
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leading the queue and a is calmly central's tony fax
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already got remember our we'd like your name in affiliation uh... i will be
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questions jumps to reform too
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fitment for regional for being here on thomas per with the solid tribune
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as well as gave to me as a sex success what he did accomplish and secondly if i
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could ask tuesday so it's been very bad day for democrats the elections gemini
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advice for democrats in the state of utah
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uh... ye using words today success
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uh... it's we were in the car so i don't know what the complex about or
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we probably will find out right it we will know by tonight what it complicit
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at a slow in so but it's hard to say right now
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was still prod of the platform
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the unseated just introduced to his leaders
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you've had this amazing rally with so many i think hundreds of thousands of
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you williams yourself
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i assume that we were members of our symbols side
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but i think everybody player in the civil society and i don't know about the
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leaders that i think we'd like this
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rally that's for sure
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what what goes on beyond that i don't know ok our attention to that
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yeah that's my story and we don't we'll
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this town's currency were not running for anything we don't have a
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we do television shows for people who like them
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and we just hope that
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people continue to like them so that comedy central can continue to sell beer
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and as long as they do that were allowed to do our show so
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just understand like
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were on the metric system i understand you guys have it's all about who's
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winning who's losing in the strategy of this in the players in that but
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we have tv shows and we wanted to do a really good show for people that at the
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i feel like we accomplished it
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and i'm really happy with
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the hard work to both of our shows put in
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the musicians that took their time to come and see us in the crowd that
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was so wonderfully supportive of everything that happened
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i was wondering about what your plans are here now concert
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sanity restored today's worry ralph
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we have with your money
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and we gotta go right back
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we have a live show tuesday alegria
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normally normally that would be the hardest thing to do this year yeah so we
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we gotta go home for two days that after two days maybe we have a wednesday show
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to aneta fingers that shannon we have to give due in until thanksgiving attract
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now and then we get to relax
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and freed whim personally you should not be able to just make the names of with
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dot i don't think that's fair
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animation mcgann absolutely
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but some things were going to be affair
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how would you do that
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just talking yeah okay
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now the question here is that mike ministry
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hi of alexis on any info reddit dot com
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pakistan now million dollars write it
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uh... donation push the kind of uh... uh... encourage us to do a rally
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two days ago you guys had paid half a million dollars for donors to block
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which is no obviously thank you stephen for inspiring gratitude and i'm just one
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of the co-founders justice department just meaning here asking you this
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what role do the internet campaign play
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in convincing you of this rally don't pander
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international the truth is it was a really kind of a nice thing at the end
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we've been planning this
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and and the thought of it
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for apa few months prior
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uh... and i'd made the deposit down on the on the mall
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uh... over the summer
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and it was it was really nice
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it was very nice nice one we saw the people were drivers reverting us to do a
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rally we know we had a conversation is like uh... old this is not a this is not
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that crazy everything our fancy this might be a natural tensions or the work
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we do already right bed we already talked about doing it but uh... it was
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just a really nice reinforcement right
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nitin heard it was really really nice a sort of validation of of what we were
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uh... if no thinking about them
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john that you most all of the national journal you got semi serious there for
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ten to fifteen minutes
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hedging is that a lot
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ultra ok budget so you can say that was sort of see kind of uh... core message
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alarming but it was a
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stayed up late last night
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just wanted to speak a little bit from her
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improvised everything i did it
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suggestion of a local cason
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uh... user that obama notices it we depressed you spoke at the rally about
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comedians and pundits having
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foundries better established by
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whomever do you really believe
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on your end that you have downed trees as a comedian as a performer as that
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fake guns in the real pundit that you have to set for yourself now the places
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but uh... the boundaries that we set for ourselves or based on
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our own sense of human decency not based on some preordained category
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people who are allowed to speak
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seriously people who have must only speaking jokes or only speak in rhyme
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uh... while our shows are just a reflection of our point of view and
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uh... not exactly sure
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i am taking mother with extra
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uh... just wondering certificate i'm wearing a flannel shirt it's designed by
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you can make flannel
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and very lovely he's back in civic then set something for them
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but that the main the internet
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that's not the end of the economy uh... his work
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was pretty anti-semitic
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but searches vicious just a lot of that and i just finally said like uh... like
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now he was a you know maritime honestly
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began we've all had you know
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we've all had moments we've all been an airport
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uh... under normal circumstances
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is fine personally tells the ticket agent that they're going to happen
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it's just human and he's not a of about dining trap
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is abuse you have to call me
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tend to have a cell like catholic sets in
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uh... jill's their careers and wall street journal to afford to know what
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was the most difficult part
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entire rally precast poor and i think within the higher note
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uh... uh... a pop-up i can tell you from my perspective
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uh... deadening the yusuf archie and the old jaise
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and coordinating the timing
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not just the music in the stagecraft
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when you're trying to get somebody in from uh... dubai and another group in
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from cleveland and to get out the infirm wherever it is a lousy zarli hot and get
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them all together and and one of the nicest things about
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in performing together
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sort of you know there was a moment where we were in the trailer with the
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use of two mile after and positive my right
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and i was like ok no no no use and they were going between peace trippin
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but could you see on their faces
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just a pure we all felt like twelve year olds
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in this little trailer and uh... and it was produced purely joy and and that to
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the best and the hardest thing to to pull off and put together
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yeah but but the heart of the hardness kind of leads to the job
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i think that's probably right
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gentleman over here please
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steve margaret chicagotribune uh... you gave them at all to a woman
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question the president and what you call the same way in i'm just here is are
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your own thoughts about the questions you gotta ask president obama
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uber satisfactory answers
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dot so i thought we had a a really nice conversation that but i don't think
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there's any interview that i've ever done
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leave going i wish i had done that better
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francis you know i i called him dude and then but i also pointing a bill of
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jordan was on a called him
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so it's just something i do
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in a moment uh... hi-fi enjoy
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conversation and and our interviews are obviously the most erratic portion of
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spontaneous and annalise structured
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but they can also be the most rebel tori and and that's why i'd like them i think
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at times it's a high-wire act and at times it works sometimes it doesn't but
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the the joy of it is in
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some time to get there sometimes you don't
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i might just have john
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did you and i felt so bad for you did you drive any of the buses yourself by
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the way do you think you with us all they have time for pop pop pop pop
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inaccurately will have to be fair pop pop pop
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the one that i think and thousand people
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and uh... i want to abandon my
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journalistic objectivity independently and say that was arthur by edward the
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moved in and i have a question why
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had financed argued that that i wasn't able rather than many people in some of
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you said something in your finance the two thousand forever but put it in
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about the media being the menu system of our democracy right and uh... well
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that's actually mean
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frederick right at this time mister
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not me as much ideas edited a mailing address a native people because i had a
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lot of them as a rocking out talking about that than many of them are members
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of the media to them and i think right now because it would
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dragons and you can an objective leaking out that that day an end to the media
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it's their blood involuntary could have a lot of rituals complication brian
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biting intended that's and i think when i was trying to do an unusual incense
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and things happen to have look as though it may lose their jobs and and dot bands
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that you talked uh... that you talk to us so
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resonate because i think that's the thinks about where we should be putting
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the last night i mean
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when i have an idea of capitalize on it and right into the mix is look spooky
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and i thank you john initiative with the financing
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well i i think the again it's its
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for me to decide where to put the gloves that i think the flashlights probably in
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the right place it's it's a matter of
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how bright the ladies in each area and and using i think it's all about
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exercising editorial authority and earning that credibility and not being
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afraid to exercise that editorial authority
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and the moral authority that comes from proving yourself
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objectivity doesn't mean
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lack of passion and taking a stand but you have to prove
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your objectivity through your own
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experienced an action
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high and julie comes angela come uh... any message for the people who are able
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the complete comedy central dot com gave a spectacular show hot can work with us
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added outlined the lady
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work are i what i would call would say
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uh... i completely understand why you couldn't make it and i hope i hope their
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put it out there live
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gave me a chance to watch it
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cuz i hope it was a fun show on tv
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it was fun for us to do because there were four million streams on the
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internet history i don't know what that means no that's a lot yes
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and mike madden licensees ever his intention to and you think you should
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expressed that message from steve
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i think people should do it
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they want what moves them
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that's not my place to make them to make that choice for them
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lisa merrett from number of new style europeans have come the news media how
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do you see here shows is contributing to the national dialogue and more
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you know it's good very hard to
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the get a sense of perspective from that from the outside
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uh... it provides a certain clarity
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that's a hard judgment
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to make us for others
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you know that again that's
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that's it that's kind of a difficult one to suggest like uh...
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we're helping out hurting
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and of course we feel that way
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everybody thinks they're saying
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you know have elector i'm sure walks by salad bars and those carrots and
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tomatoes book blow it out
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so it's hard enough
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you know about heptane repose if us alone dot com
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onto on do you think the media is going to treat you
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or in israeli tomorrow need annexed duties if the even preview at all
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just don't care we're proud of ourselves
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we're proud of the show we did
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and for us the success of it was the execution of the idea and the intention
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people's reaction to it
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john a student at johnson rory
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welcome to our pressure
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what uh... what surprised you at the most just about the process of putting
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that it happened inner here
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it was a series six weeks ago
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we've been talking about it since march but
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around the time these people start posting we had made the decision to do
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it in the fact that came together this quickly the number of scripts regenerate
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the number of ideas the number of people we talked to
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habit all coalesced into final through
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three hour window for that to happen
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is just incredible joy and and as we were doing the other shows i mean that
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i it became you know we had we had the book out and we were doing our own shows
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uh... it became sort of a midnight oil
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situation where we were both kind of
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talked on the phone and and
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shaped it in our conversations as we went along and you know yesterday was
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really interesting day because we just got up to date
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we send a room together
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and just walk through it mandated relate are free to other teach others offering
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shuffle that the government of canada japan and in which there was a really
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fun for me to pick one hundred surprises was good
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the joy of seeing the audience out there like where came and when the mythbusters
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gotten all jumbled wants to create an earthquake dollars right right before i
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got stop in the carolina and i stopped in to see that happen and we can talk
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with jamie and adam about something they could do amanda punch a really great
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ideas was that i will do what we can help you and
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laugh i mean alot to do
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we went out there and right before on stage i saw the crowd all jump and this
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wave just cascade down for the washington monument manually levitated
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stagecraft joy at outlays of joy for a certain level of kind of stupid it is to
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try to care at quaker oats
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and um... that the audience so clearly were eight getters they're like they
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were there to have bond they were there to play a game along with this and and
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and then we knew although it's got their effort there game as hard as we can
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haha hopefully they enjoy our intentions to like the just lovely
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experience and and really enjoyed it
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and on the flip side of that was the moment where i was introduced and i
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walked out and thought
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if you propose to do the national anthem before this and
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i'm just trying to look at somebody and said
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and i was stuck in the cap so i don't know the state's rights parasite areas
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so i just went out and said uh... please write will be
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and all of us of the stage that's up
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no i dont rather if you if you didn't think that flag uniformed that are not
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that i was on our enough times the speaking of the crab by the way the
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interfaced unofficial last night was over two hundred and two handouts
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million people have
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and i didn't believe them gentleman in the front row there
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hi brian carney from cuba geeta combo
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uh... i've been covering all you guys did a funny uh... with a visit there for
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all the hand-wringing azmi that i was really good while action when i was here
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the rally online uh...
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generally positive reaction from the bodies here uh... button you know
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so-called cultural clinic critics
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uh... who have this sort of soap box either and print media online tended to
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use it to to criticize the rally and i'm wondering why you think it
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these folks in particular were the most negative of
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uh... you know of all responses frankly for the rally
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broken human beings
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no i belive north nine
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u_n_ mandates that certainly the right it's not you know
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nothing happens again
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more and and unanimity or any of those things but it's
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we've been in this business of really long time and develop
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a pretty thick skin as far as uh... criticism weren't born on pretty or or
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or praise quite frankly
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believe me that comes with a huge grain of salt as well
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i have failed miserably in this business and i have succeeded in sometimes as
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will settle down short attention span p td cheryl braun pull faculty alright
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japanese moto list goes on
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all right we have time for just one more question gentleman standing in the back
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there right mix you know from tvsquad
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uh... a lot of comedians when you ask them about a serious issue that they've
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brought up in their comedy will sort of fall back to
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you know i'm just a comedienne
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don't take any of these seriously
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considering that the scope of work what happened today
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you do you feel personally committed to to the message today and this is this
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something you keep doing after this
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and i don't think there's anything new about
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the message this was an this is in keeping with what
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by the way i don't but you know
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when people say i'm a comedian that's not i'm just a comedian
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i'm really proud that i'm a canadian i think it's hard
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i think it's harder to distil
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most valued thoughts into comedy and
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let things that you feel strongly about the the subtext
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uh... what you create
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that's not a way of dismissing what you're saying we stand by
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the subtext that is everything i'll defend what we do on the show and if it
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turns out to be something that were wrong about
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by the way we screwed up
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i'm and i screwed up yes
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give almost no parking the dot
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well folks asking wrap it up thank you all so much for joining us today we do
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thank you very much john stephen thank you the national press conferences