Scott Galloway · 1:17:11
On a on a boat, not a navy vessel with survivors and not giving them quarter or the abuse of Palestinian prisoners, I think that the IDF should be held to a higher standard than any military in The Middle East. So it's not that it's not that it's not an important issue, but there's a line in the piece suggesting that dogs were trained to rape prisoners. That's an extraordinary claim, and extraordinary claims require a level of evidence that was not met here. Not vibes, not hearsay, not someone said. If you're going to publish something that incendiary, you need airtight sourcing, multiple corroborated on the record confirmations or clear documentation. And if someone who has a background or experience with Belgian Malinois and has come very close to adopting a canine dog, the notion that a dog can be trained to physically rape somebody, it's just fucking ridiculous. And I feel that they're not informing the public. They're injecting a narrative accelerant into one of the most volatile conflicts on the planet. And here's the bigger problem. When legacy media outlets, especially one that has the prestige, the reputation, the talent of the New York Time, runs with claims like that that aren't bulletproof, they're not risking being wrong. They're they're risking a further erosion and trust in everything else that's true. And they hand ammunition to people who wanna dismiss all reporting as biased or fabricated. And this isn't... I'm trying not to take sides here. I think this is about standards. War is where truth goes to die on both sides, which means journalism needs to be really disciplined. And if you lower the bar because the story aligns with your priors, you're no longer doing journalism. You're doing advocacy with a byline. And I think that these abuses, the ones that can be proven, get discounted because the media couldn't resist the most shocking version of the story. This reminds me of all those stories about child soldiers. They really upset people for the right reason. You take something innocent and talk about killing. Taking dogs and combining it with rape, It just... I read it, and I thought, this is just over the fucking top for The New York Times.
Kara Swisher · 1:19:27
Well, can I just? I'm not gonna push back because I think there's a lot of controversy around this story, that it was in the opinion section, that in this case, it probably... The New York Times reporters on the scene should have written a follow-up story or something to talk about this. Now, Kristoff is known as an excellent journalist, has done amazing surprise. Yeah. Not just that. Not just because he won the Pulitzer Prize, but, like, amazing work on all sorts of abuses across the world. And he's been accurate as a... He's a very good reporter too. But this was an opinion section piece, as you know. And The New York Times has been very supportive of him, but I think in this case, this should have been also reported because of the nature of it. You've got to have, like, extensive reporting on this even if it... Because it's so incendiary. And I I think probably... I don't know what happened, and they need to talk about it. But the New York Times is backing his reporting. The question is, should they do more reporting? Right? On... And if this was the same allegations on the Israeli side as been as been... I mean, on the Hamas side of the same sexual abuses, same thing. Right? Like, allegations, same thing. And so that's what's important here is to do as... I think you double report stuff like this, triple report and quadruple report. It'll be interesting to see how it how it pans out because the Times has been backing him on this stuff. And and he he is citing a lot of UN stuff. He's citing a lot of reports on the scene. He's reciting a lot of stuff. But it requires extra, extra reporting. As much as, you know, that may seem offensive to some, I think I do agree with you here. They've gotta really button it up in a way that because of the incendiary nature and where it is at the same time, even if you you you have a side and you feel like, you know, that war does result in terrible abuses of the citizenry.
Scott Galloway · 1:21:27
Yeah. I'm gonna defer to you on journalistic standards. I just read it and thought, I have trouble. This seems so unbelievable Mhmm. That it required more than
Kara Swisher · 1:21:41
More reporting.
Scott Galloway · 1:21:42
More evidence and better reporting than I felt was evident in the article. And then on something that is so important in terms of how we in the West and I do consider to Israel Israel is an ally in part of the West. The standards they should be held to are really important and they deserve scrutiny. I I get it. People who and when people claim I'm not anti Semitic, I'm anti Israel, I say to them, you know, I can relate to that because I don't like Netanyahu. But I care so much about Israel that I would like to see Netanyahu voted out of office because I don't think they have acquitted themselves well in terms of many of the ways they have approached this conflict. I get it. But when reduce the veracity of your reporting on this key issue and other ones by... As someone... I don't feel like I have domain expertise around how prisons are treated. I have some domain expertise around dogs, quite frankly. And I just thought, okay. I have... I can't even. This is unimaginable for me for someone who has spent a lot of time around Belgian Malinois for them to say that. And then I'm like, where's the evidence? Where the where's the proof? Where's the double, the corroboration, the further investigation? And it wasn't there. And I thought, it reminded me of when you see those in this unthinkable pictures. At the end of the war, Americans were really horrified by what they saw in concentration camps. They were almost as horrified by the Germans enlisting 14 year olds and sending them to the front lines because you took children, something innocent, and you collided it with something heinous, killing other people. And I... This this reeked of that to me. Let's find the most innocent creatures in the world, dogs, and let's combine it with rape.
Kara Swisher · 1:23:26
Well, let let me just read the... For... Just for this for people to know. It'll... We'll see where it zeros out, but I'm assuming there's gonna... They're gonna do further reporting would be my guess internally. And there's a lot of people saying they're gonna they're gonna retract it. Christophe has said this is not true. This was the quote that the New York Times gave, just so we have it. There is no truth to this at all. Nicholas Christophe is a two time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades and is widely regarded as one of the world's best on ground reporters documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones. He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse, and this article collects accounts of the victims' own words backed by independent studies. So we'll see... This has another chapter happening because they're getting such pushback, and including from Netanyahu. So I I I do hate to say, like, you have to do extra reporting on certain topics, but I think there's... You have to anticipate even if it's Netanyahu or whoever it happens to be, and have everything locked up tight. I would agree with you on that. Anyway, we'll see where it goes.
Scott Galloway · 1:24:34
I thought that was a productive conversation. I appreciate it.
Kara Swisher · 1:24:36
Yes. No problem. No problem. People People are gonna be mad anyway no matter what.
— Predictions segment begins —
Scott Galloway · 1:24:40
But There's no talking about this without everyone going to their corner Yep. Yeah. And and getting very upset, and I understand that. Look. My... This is I'm not supposed to do prediction, but I couldn't help it. It just struck me as fairly obvious. You're going to see an invasion of some of the islands off the coast of China. Well, let me back up. Basically, my prediction is Kinmen And Matsu Islands are gonna be invaded in the next twenty four months or seized, and you're gonna have what would By the Chinese. Yeah. You'll probably have an economic blockade. You can have I don't think an amphibious assault of Taiwan is feasible. And I think China, after seeing what's happened in Ukraine and Iran and the fact there isn't a single single person in the Chinese military who has any combat experience, I don't think they want to get... An amphibious landing in Taiwan is unthinkable. However, the Straits Of Taiwan are where where 50% of all shipping goes through. I think a soft economic blockade is coming for the following reasons. A show went down my spine when on Air Force one, Trump was asked if he would support and defend Taiwan. And he said, I'm not going to let anybody know that. What is clear to me, and the fact pattern is just so obvious here, is that Trump is concerned with one thing, and that is becoming the wealthiest man in the world. And I believe he sold out Taiwan in a private meeting at that summit. And evidence of that was for the first time an American president has said, well, I'm not gonna say anything about how I feel about America's continued support of Taiwan. And it's not only turning our back on a democratic ally, but the basic the basic counterbalance... Counterbalances amongst between US senior relations is the following. They control 90% of the processing of rare earth materials. We control 90% of the most advanced chips because because of our tight relationship with Taiwan. If China gets access to those Taiwanese chips, which is another reason they wouldn't do an amphibious invasion because they don't wanna destroy those factories, but if they use their economic clout to do what is effectively a soft creeping takeover of Taiwan and we're not there to support them, China has won.
Kara Swisher · 1:27:04
100%. One... It's it's it's the move. It's the move. And you and
Scott Galloway · 1:27:09
them And I think Trump... I don't think Trump gives a shit about geopolitics, the decline of US negotiating leverage. Think he cares
Kara Swisher · 1:27:20
about consumers he doesn't care about.
Scott Galloway · 1:27:21
I think he cares about one thing. I think Xi... If I were Xi, I would have said the following. You know, you realize I'm super interested in your coin. And with just a fraction of our budget, I can use offshore accounts to take the Trump coin. I think I can get it worth... Here's my math guy here. I think I can get it worth to be $203,100,000,000,000 because price discovery is at the margins. I think I can take it there within, say, ninety days, six months before your presidency ends, and then you'll have ninety days to divest of your holdings. And by the way, is there any way you can move out Ohio class submarines from all the Straits Of Taiwan? And by the way, I think economic reintegration of Taiwan into the great nation of China would make sense without any bloodshed. What do you think? I think that conversation has already happened, and I think evidence of it was what he said on Air Force One.
Kara Swisher · 1:28:16
Yeah. He's in war.
Scott Galloway · 1:28:17
And again, another talking point for a Democrat. We will back Taiwan economically and militarily if necessary because chips are the future. Don't don't don't get backed into a corner about threatening another forever war. Say chips are the future, folks, and Taiwan is an amazing ally of ours. And the only reason that we have control over 90% of what is the new oil in an information economy, and that's chips, we cannot let Taiwan go to the Chinese. Make an economic argument, not a military argument.
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Kara Swisher · 1:28:51
what I would do on top of that? I would make Jensen Wan move to Taiwan, see how he feels about that, like, with the Chinese blockade. Like, let's have some... These... This... Selling chips to the Chinese is such a mistake. It is such an advantage we have. You are a 100... I love this prediction. Scott, you should be mayor of Los Angeles. That's why you should run.
Scott Galloway · 1:29:11
I'd run on the Internet... On the In N Out ticket? In N Out Burger ticket?
Kara Swisher · 1:29:15
Yeah. We could run. I'd be your top adviser in speech right
Scott Galloway · 1:29:18
I can. I'm in.
Kara Swisher · 1:29:19
I'm in. Okay. Anyway, Scott, that is really smart. That is a really... You're absolutely right. That's exactly how they're gonna do it, And Trump has sold out a critical, critical part of our, security. And calling David Sanger... By the way, can I just? Just last thing. David Sanger, speaking of great New York Times reporters, is one of the top reporters in this area. Calling him a traitor is is the... One of the more... There's so many heinous things Trump says, but just just absolutely, as I always say, every accusation is a confession. He's the traitor. Anyway, we wanna hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot. Submit a question for the show or call 85551 Okay. That's the show. Thank you for listening to pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday.
— Predictions segment ends —
Scott Galloway · 1:30:04
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Todd Weissman. Ernie and her Todd introduced this episode. Thanks also to Gibrales, Miss Severian, and Dan Shalonda Chakaroz, Box Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York York Magazine Box Media. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Kara, I will see you on Thursday.
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