The Legal Media is Still in Denial [SUBSCRIBER-ONLY]

Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael take a hard look at media coverage of this Supreme Court term. Thank you to our wonderful subscribers. 5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. This episode was produced by Allison Rodgers . Leon Neyfakh provides editorial support. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations. Follow the show at @fivefourpod on most platforms. On BlueSky, find Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social, Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social, and Rhiannon @aywarhiannon.bsky.social. Our Sponsors: * Check out Mint Mobile and use my code mintmobile.com/fivefour for a great deal: https://www.mintmobile.com * Check out Quince and use my code FIVEFOUR for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Hey, everyone. This is Leon from Prologue Projects. On this week's subscriber-only episode of Five to Four, Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael are talking about how the Supreme Court term that just wrapped up has been covered and analyzed by their friends in the mainstream media. Now that the term is over, pundits everywhere are rushing to declare once again that the court has done a great job, offering a steady hand of nonpartisan moderation when the nation needs it most. The hosts are here to ask, is what the fuck is everyone talking about? This is Five to Four, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.

• 0:46Peter Shamshiri?

  Welcome to Five to Four, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have left our civil rights in absolute shambles, like the Maine Senate race. I'm Peter, I'm here with Michael.

• 0:55Michael Liroff?

  Hi, everybody.

• 0:56Peter Shamshiri?

  And Rhiannon.

• 0:57Speaker 03

  Hello, everyone.

• 0:58Michael Liroff?

  Yeah, so, oh, boy. Graham Plathner is credibly accused of sexual assault.

• 1:05Peter Shamshiri?

  One controversy of many with our friend Graham Plathner.

• 1:08Michael Liroff?

  If only there'd been some signs, if only there'd been some hints about his character.

• 1:12Peter Shamshiri?

  I will say, some people on the left, some personalities on the left, podcaster types, online types, they went all in on Graham Plathner. But me, I've got a sort of sixth sense, right? I'm sort of a political genius. So when a guy who was a Blackwater mercenary pops up with a Nazi tattoo and says it was a joke, I actually, I hold my endorsement back. And that's, that's an across-the-board policy. You can adopt that yourself.

• 1:41Speaker 03

  That's deft, that's discerning, that's smart.

• 1:45Peter Shamshiri?

  Look, I've been around, I've been around the block, you know?

• 1:47Speaker 03

  I mean, this guy gave us absolutely zero reasons to trust him and then proved himself to be completely untrustworthy.

• 1:53Michael Liroff?

  Yeah. Plathner is very clearly a piece of shit. That's been obvious for a while. But he was, he's a gifted communicator. Like, the guy would thrive in Republican politics, I'll tell you what.

• 2:04Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 2:05Michael Liroff?

  The guy would crush in Republican politics.

• 2:07Peter Shamshiri?

  Yeah.

• 2:08Michael Liroff?

  He knows how to talk, he knows how to present. Present himself.

• 2:10Peter Shamshiri?

  We might see it happen.

• 2:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, they would have welcomed him with open arms. So if he was talking the way he does about, you know, their policy preferences. So.

• 2:18Michael Liroff?

  I do think it speaks to like, even in left spaces, people do not take antisemitism seriously. They do not take misogyny seriously. You still have like these like very retrograde ideas of masculinity. And as a result, people like this still do fine. They still flourish in what you would think are nominally like feminist spaces, anti racist spaces, which should be just like projected insecurity from the left. Like, oh, this guy, this guy was in the military and he's all tough and shit. You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. Yeah.

• 2:50Speaker 03

  Big eye roll from me.

• 2:51Peter Shamshiri?

  This week, it's really become an annual tradition on the podcast. We are talking about the media's reaction to the past Supreme Court term, technically still the ongoing Supreme Court term, but whatever. We are coming off what is really one of the most radical terms in modern court history. The near complete decimation of the Voting Rights Act, the enabling of racial discrimination by ICE, the dismantling of agency independence, attacks on trans rights, not to mention that even foundational constitutional doctrines like birthright citizenship are holding on by a thread. So how's the media reacting? How are politicians reacting?

• 3:32Speaker 03

  So good, so normal, so cool.

• 3:34Peter Shamshiri?

  We read through a bunch of their bullshit, so you don't have to. And we're gonna go over it. And what better place to start than with the New York Times, which is just back on its bullshit?

• 3:47Michael Liroff?

  Absolutely. I want to talk about a couple of pieces from them, mainly one called headline, "The Supreme Court Remembers Its Principles," which came out the day after the term ended.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Is that what was happening?

• 3:58Michael Liroff?

  Yeah, yeah. This is a response to the Supreme Court narrowly upholding the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.

• 4:07Peter Shamshiri?

  Hey folks, if you want to hear the rest of this episode, you're going to have to subscribe. This episode is one of our premium Patreon only episodes. Membership starts at just five bucks a month. So if you want to hear the rest, join us at patreon.com. Slash five four pod. That's five four pod all spelled out. Members get a bunch of stuff. Not only do you get access to the premium episodes, but access to subscriber only events, discounts on merch. And at the $10 a month level, you get bigger discounts on merch and membership in the incredibly rowdy five to four Slack. So again, that's patreon.com slash five four pod. Five four pod all spelled out. Become a member today.