if you. look at. the e.u. slaps export controls on covert vaccines made a feud with british pharma giant astra zeneca it is a move some euro skeptics see as a sign of policy failure in brussels. the european you failed it's all good things that they need in the 1st place and they're very jealous of the speed official growth of the u.k.'s most to do. libya and argentina become the latest latin american states to get hundreds of thousands of russian covert shot cosas as the head of the un heralds the roles we need to be in play in the battle against the pandemic. and a struggling video game retailer is caught up in

a battle between small time investors trying to save the firm and wall street giants are betting on its collapse. that is it for this hour's headlines the big picture is coming up next right here in argentina so we. want to treat to say welcome to larry king. thank you alan i've been to the country many times. and so. do i like the windmills and it's good to be with you was it ever larry was and always will be the king of talk and the secret of his success as an interviewer was simple never know more than the guest i don't know more law a little or another in the senate i've never. didn't operation i never

conducted diplomacy so i respect those who do the things they do the pillow my show so i don't want to have a president i ask a question that runs more than 2 tops 3 sentences. is not a good question i've always admired your gift for the short question i remember asking david do don't you ever get tired of hating and your questions are so short that you kind of catch them off guard and often they'll say something that they weren't expecting to say. hollin they know that the best question of all is why. it's i live my life on wise i am insanely jury is i don't know if you could teach interviewing i can't give you a city i can give you how to pay attention. that you should listen it's very important listening is as important as talking. but the curiosity bad thing which

i have had and i don't know where that gift came from i'm not a religious person i don't know where the give came from but i have been curious since earliest memories of my age i can remember. getting on a bus and asking the bus driver why he wanted to drive a bus and what a gift it was joining us to cap off our weeklong tribute to larry king as michael harrison the publisher of talkers magazine the trade publication of talk radio and t.v. and podcasting and michael when i say talk radio it conjures up a caricature politically a lopsided conversation that is too often more monologue than dialogue would today's practitioners be well advised to go to school on larry's technique. well certainly that was a wonderful clip you played of him and there's a lot of universal truths to what he said about the short question and not trying

to you know upstage the guest in terms of what you know however i do think that talk radio has evolved you know a number of years beyond his heyday and he might have to update his mode of approach if he were to be doing today's talk radio as well you say evolved some might say devolved because even after this a unique and for many uplifting inauguration we've witnessed and despite the curiosity and the enthusiasm that welcomes any new administration so of our brothers and sisters in the talk radio family are doubling down on the previous narrative here's dr jean allowed in who has been a guest on this show and you're a talker as conference tweeting 2 days after the inaugural stealing isn't winning even when you give it and competent staff and a resolute desk and on facebook our pal scott hannan

a legacy local talker in the vibrant fargo radio market that produced ed schultz captions a graphic of trump as george washington proclaiming on inauguration day today the enhanced role for the 45th begins a freedom fighter for forgotten americans armed with only knowledge of just how criminal and deceitful the swamp is his work is not complete michael many of the radio and t.v. talkers are as dug in as the disappointed trump supporters do you think this magazine narrative has legs does that have staying power. but what we are witnessing is the daily dance of affirmation and that is targeting audiences and telling them what they want to hear this is not just in talk radio this is all across the news media almost every newspaper or magazine television network or television news show in america today to one degree or another tries to determine

through research that market studies what does the audience want and then they just serve it up to them so they're not disappointed and this is a an issue that we really do have to think about in terms of media theory and the impact of the media and journalism and talk shows on our society on the other hand holland the 1st amendment and freedom of speech and democracy itself are sloppy affairs this is the 1st amendment in action people take issues it's a rough and tumble blood sport if you will and i fear tempering it down too much in the sake for the sake of unity that will be losing some of our precious freedom of speech and expression so we're walking a very narrow line now between what is ultimately good for the day to day operation and safety of the country versus the long term understanding that running america has always been a contentious affair a very interesting political point you make about the evolution of the media

because a couple of decades ago a p.b.s. was having a real identity crisis so there were hundreds of channels that were picking off all the things you could previously only get from public television and now as you called it the daily dance of affirmation p.b.s. is on a roll because there is actual curiosity going on there 15 years ago r.t. america came along and said question more but pick one of the other cable channels you turn on fox news or m s n b c talk about a daily dance of information don't you already know what they're going to say before they say it. people want to hear what they want to hear there's so much emotion attached. in terms of our egos and our investment in the politics of the 21st century or the 3rd decade of the 21st century that's it's become a tonic a drug an addiction to to get that positive reinforcement because everybody that's interested in politics today and our news and talk watchers and the media has more

than just a passing interest in it that it's not a matter about to take it or leave it sort of maybe like sports to a certain degree we get emotional about sports but this has become deeply emotional and therefore people need that daily dose of you're ok that your point is right that your side is going to win you're going to you're going to be able to save face at the thanksgiving table with your crazy uncle next november everything's going to be ok people have so much riding on it and that's why i often say we're living in a time where we're dangerously close to seeking victory at the expense of truth we want to win we don't care what we have to do a winning has become a virtue and that's very very disturbing. yeah we choose to believe what we choose to believe to the extent that those who would wish away the pandemic have demonized dr felt she beautiful carmel california is under water and mud right

now as these wildfires have raged out there and now they've got torrential rains and we've had hurricanes and tornadoes and droughts and floods but there are still climate change deniers and you're right about this affirmation dynamic rush limbaugh is riding shotgun with willie loman and as you say he's telling willie it's not you it's them your right they're wrong as this traveling salesman makes his rounds during the course of a workday but rush is soldiering on now he is the tent pole in political talk radio and we don't know how much longer he's going to be able to continue given his health situation who will be. the next rush limbaugh could there be a next rush limbaugh. the next rush limbaugh will be people talking about how rush

limbaugh was perhaps the most influential and by certain definitions of the term the greatest talk show host on radio for certainly the 2nd half of radio's existence which about a half a century radio celebrating its 100 years there will not be another rush limbaugh i mean anything could happen but it will be somebody else won't be it won't be another wash limbaugh the times are changing the industry is changing things are very uncertain and he's a generational figure a generational celebrity personality influence or of a specific time and place extremely historic and he will not be replaced like the public broadcasting and r.t. america programming i mentioned before podcasting is serving up stuff you just can't get anywhere else is this not now talk radio. what is talk radio what is radio what is a magazine what is

a television show all of the convergence of the changes in this media station world that we live in here in 2021 has made all definitions very difficult so yes podcasting is another platform upon which expressions of talk radio style communications are distributed but that which is radio radio that word is very hard to define because it's based upon a 20th century mode where there were appliances and a radio set a television set a movie theater the front page of a paper all separate appliances that were in their own world and how it's all mishmash and i would tell you these times there's a word that we hear a lot of holland uncertain on certain on every level and certainly keeps it interesting doesn't it yeah you just ticked off a list of mass media and what i have got to think is responsible for the appeal of

pod casting is narrow casting niche topics things i am especially interested in we're speaking with michael harrison who's the publisher of talkers magazine and michael himself is a talker host of the weekly michael harrison rap on wank f.m. in washington and other stations across the usa what's on the show this weekend michael well certainly we have the senate impeachment trial certainly we have a lot of talk about the 1st amendment people are all over there really upset over the fact that some of these platforms these social media platforms are taking people down and there's a big discussion this weekend on our show about the difference between the letter of the law for the 1st amendment and the spirit of free speech per the 1st amendment 2 very different things talk media freaks will enjoy this program indeed . thank you for explaining that difference which is largely misunderstood michael

harrison talker's dot com thank you for stepping into the big picture as corporate media cuts have savaged news coverage and consumers gather news from opinion shows and social media larry king hoped as we do that more of us will question more i hope. intense coverage of events comes back i hope we get news other than politics on the news cares i hope we get good discussions i hope we get more one on one can we count on the media to keep us as informed as we need to be and does rely on social media for news coverage condemn us to being the uninformed. every advance has its problems and there are technical advances leading to the internet and social media while they do wonderful things they politically they produce they they work we have poor

. i don't think they've been a success at all most of the times if i turn on the cable channels it's all panelists they have 6 finalists on one side 2 of the other everyone has concurring opinions you can't make up your mind i like what a baseball manager said last week 3 words nobody knows anything.

what does the left stand for to do. with working people and civil liberties now it appears to prioritize again a general. issues we hear the word a lot but not before and is there a place for marriage you know politics anymore. because there's a survival guide. at the start.

he should go. oh heck no. repatriations came to the rescue 70. delegates 70. 4. has your dishwasher died from overuse are you having trouble replacing it are you having trouble finding home at service size equipment almost every industry has suffered supply chain interruptions well we're all in stay at home mode and demand changes have many industries at death's door example movie theaters poetically no time to die is the james bond

thriller that sat on the shelf for 2 years now and hollywood is just one business sector in which companies on the edge or are on the verge of the edge are taking legal action against the insurance companies who sold them business interruption insurance type childress was lead lawyer for world trade center properties during the 911 insurance litigation aftermath and he tells the hollywood reporter that there are well over a 1000 coverage cases across the country already and we're still in act one of the play they're exponentially more policyholders in the claims process right now you know what happens if you miss an insurance premium payment but will insurers get away with what could be a cascade of claims that they still if let's turn to sara papen tonio from the 11

papen tonio law firm in pensacola sara fundamentally how does business interruption insurance work. well holland business interruption insurance is there to provide coverage when the day to day aspects of your business have been interrupted by some unforseen event basically if you're forced to close down your business this is the type of insurance that's meant to cover that lost income now oftentimes when we think of business interruption insurance we think of disasters hurricanes floods fires things that business owners can't necessarily 1st see or prevent so our law firms actually handling these cases and what we found that there are 2 different types of policies in terms of this business interruption insurance they've got the all risk policies and what that means is that all losses are covered unless the insurance company has specifically stated that it's not covered and what we found is that many insurance companies don't have

a specific exclusion for their policies for pandemics which means that with cobra 19 these missus's should have coverage now the 2nd type of policies we've seen are the ones that have language that's far more restrictive about coverage especially in terms of this pandemic now those policies are required that businesses suffer what we call a direct physical loss as a result of some unforeseen event now the legal question then becomes with code 19 is a virus a direct physical loss to a business and should these insurance companies have to cover our business losses as i have read about this the insurance industry's position seems at least to this layman to be cry uncle the insurance information institute represents some of the biggest insurers in the world and their spokesperson says pandemic related losses are generally uninsurable because they hit all businesses and all at the same time and if every business in the country is affected by the same catastrophe the

insurance companies don't collect enough money to pay that out in losses so they exclude it sara be the plaintiffs what do you say to that. they're telling the american people that they don't have enough money so then why have hardworking americans been paying these high premiums month after month year after year only to be told by their insurance company sorry we don't have enough money to cover at the very last that you have been paying us to cover all this time all in the very reason we have insurance companies is to support us to help us rebuild and to work through hard times and what these insurance companies are doing is turning their backs trying to save themselves rather than actually providing the insurance for the car the clients that they promised they would one big reason for continuity of business insurance is continuity the ability to keep employees on the payroll during the shutdown and this is cute for the mom and pop businesses who are

bearing the brunt of these pandemic protocols we see how much trouble restaurants and bars are having and how these owners agonize about letting people go bringing them back only to have to let them go again sarah is in david versus goliath cases do juries tend to favor david over go live with the big guy or is that a caricature. well unfortunately we're not we're not really going to see a wave of successful verdicts across across the united states and when we're talking about juries what we have to look at is what we call a reptilian thought processing and that what's on means residing when juries are evaluating a case what they think about when they're making this decision isn't you know the facts in front of them it's how it's going to affect exam in the long run and what

insurance companies have done so well that is what they push this narrative that juries you know that if they award big verdicts that in the long run it's not going to help mom and pop but it's going to hurt them because it's going to raise their premiums so while you know we hope that juries will will rule in our favor what it really depends on what it comes down to is where these cases are being tried because. it fundamentally depends on the location in which things are being tried juries are more in an area where they've suffered catastrophic disaster and what's going to happen is they're going to see firsthand how insurance companies are taking advantage of them we're speaking with attorney sara papen tony 11 papen tony a law firm and we want to update you on a story i have been following ever since they came to our america and before me ed schultz was on this case from the get go here accompanied by his attorney former

michigan governor rick snyder is seen in a booth in the genesee county jail pleading guilty vs zoom as he one of 9 charged is arraigned in the latest chapter of this sad flint waters story it's the 1st time in michigan history a current or former governor is facing criminal charges for alleged misconduct in office to counsel willful neglect of duty a misdemeanor each count punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine up to $1000.00 to catch you up here is the mercifully short version of this sad time line 2012 genesee county announces a plan for a new pipeline to deliver the clear glacial waters of lake huron 2014 after construction delays the state a point of emergency manager switches the city water sorest of the flint river without corrosion controls lead to leeches from old pipes discolored water smells

and tastes bad the general motors plant discontinues using flint water as engine parts corrode due to high chlorine levels children test with high lead levels and it was later determined that some of those test results were falsified 12 people died of legionnaires disease 2015 virginia tech scientists test and determined that the water is not safe for drinking or cooking 2016 fed. state of emergency is declared the national guard is mobilized to distribute bottled water 2017 lead levels are measured below 15 parts per 1000000000 that's the e.p.a. action level and the state ends water bill subsidies study demonstrates decreased fertility rates and increased fetal deaths since the 2014 switch 2019 pipes are being replaced 7 of 15 officials accused of fouling flints water and

failing to address the crisis take pleas with no jail time 2 years ago on this show legalities from detroit is for environmental justice was already pointing the finger at snyder he was the one that put people in harm's way by putting emergency manager in him as it was him and his cronies and his agents that act the water switch over and if it wasn't for people inside d.e.q. that notified me that they were falsifying the test results and i went on ed schultz show and announced it but the people in flint knew it from day one people need to be held accountable because if you if i went to flint and i poisoned one well i would be in jail for murder but obviously you can be the governor and poison the whole city and not be held accountable as we tape this week show governor snyder's attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss get this they claim that the court in genesee county

where flint is lax jurisdiction because michigan state capital is in lansing which is an county sara. thousands were exposed to contaminated water dozen or more died from legionnaire's disease can justice be served and where do you see this case heading. you know we certainly hope justice will be served but but right now it hasn't here's what they've done is charged the governor with 2 misdemeanors 2 misdemeanors is never going to justify what this man's done to the people flint that's only 2 years in jail that will never be enough to provide justice for the 12 people that we've seen dead and over 80 people who have been diagnosed with the state so we certainly hope for justice but right now it's not being served behind what we can say is that this is finally a step in the right direction it's certainly a start because our justice system is finally finding the courage to hold people of

and power criminally responsible for their actions because i wish that flint was the only place that this this was happening but it is not the only place where people's waterways have been poisoned by corporations yeah make a real good point this is not just about water in flint this is not just about water but this is about other cases unrelated where government has failed the government sarah papen tony 11 papen tony a law firm thanks again for your time we may have you back as this story continues and thank you for watching the big picture we're going to be back same time next week and if you want to set your d.v.r. and have directv we're on channel 321 if you have the dish dish we're on channel 280 and you can see the live stream of our t.v. america youtube dot com slash r t america and you can see our show archive every one i've ever done at youtube dot com slash the big picture r.t.

and if you haven't yet you really should download our super cool portable t.v. app it's free in the app store and that google play or it's portable dot t.v. and among the shows archives there are a bunch of interviews by the late great larry king the king is gone long live. the king. question more. l. look forward to talking to you all that technology should work for people. i robot must obey the orders given by human beings except when such orders to conflict with the 1st law show your identification for should be very careful about official

intelligence and the point home p.c. is to trace trusts everyone of them shia. conflict on various shots and with artificial intelligence will summon the demon. the obama's protect its own existence is a mix of. stocks bonds commodities currencies everywhere you look in the world you have price discovery is broken and the ability to make markets has been shattered because access to free money is now ubiquitous and virtually infinite. war suspenders in my honor and. i've never told.

anyone of the my long career just to be in the same boat with you. you've always described yourself to me and to just about everybody as a kid from brooklyn that's where i am was i mean. kid from brooklyn who. i walked the streets with my friends and who always wanted to be on the air i don't know why but i was transcripts radio and i was that little poor kid we were on relief my father had died when i was in. new york city bought my 1st pair of glasses i think what it means is rick i never forgot where i came from and that's true to this minute i never forgot where i came from so i'm 85 years old but i'm the kid from brooklyn i left brooklyn but brooklyn every.