Trust In Media at New Low of 28% & Trump Brags “We took the freedom of speech away."
October 17, 2025
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: What’s the most important thing for you to leave behind?
Are America’s News Media Cowering In a Corner?: We are in a news media crisis that threatens America.
Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S.: This is less the media’s fault and more the fault of people too easily manipulated by politicians who don’t want Americans to have the truth.
Bari Weiss’s ascension to top of CBS News highlights the political winds driving U.S. media rightward: This is not good news for CBS—or for journalism in general.
Washington Post, NYT and More Reject Trump’s Revised Pentagon Press Policy, Citing First Amendment Rights: The press is finally fighting back against the repressive demands of the administration. I hope this is an opening salvo.
Video Break: The Unliftable Man stymied Muhammad Ali and a lot of other strong men. Here’s how.
Condemned By Their Own Words: Trump Literally Brags About Taking Away People’s Free Speech: What kind of American celebrates taking away free speech?
What I’m Watching on TV and at the Movies: Roofman is an unfocused crime comedy that is not enough comedy and not convincing as a romance. Dalziel and Pascoe is a highly entertaining and compelling British mystery series that I can’t get enough of.
Magical Moments in Sports: An amazing baseball play that you’ll want to see more than once.
Diane Keaton Sings “Seems Like Old Times” (1977): This clip from Annie Hall shows why Keaton was such a charming presence in American movies for nearly 50 years. And why we’ll miss her.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
William James (1842-1910), American philosopher and psychologist
This is a tricky quote because it can be misleading. Many people might assume that the “something that will outlast” life is some sort of inanimate physical legacy, like a hospital wing, an ongoing charity, a monument, or even championship rings and trophies. While those things are nice, they can also be deceptive. Many famous names adorn buildings, bridges, and other structures that aggrandize undeserving people. Rockefeller, Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Vanderbilt are prominent names in our society that money and time have sanitized. In their time, they were exposed as “robber barons” because of their ruthlessness and corruption in business. The edifices named after them have outlived them and their crimes. When people attend a concert at Carnegie Hall, they don’t think about how he hired guards to break up strikers which led to many worker deaths. They associate him with great performers.
I have a charity foundation, I have a statue of me, I have trophies, I have books with my name on the covers. They will outlast me. Clips of games I played in will live forever on the internet. They form a legacy that will outlast me. But that isn’t the legacy that matters most to me.
I hope my greatest accomplishments are the personal relationships and interactions I’ve had that positively affected someone. One of my fondest memories is when I first met Muhammad Ali. I was a freshman at UCLA, walking down the street with a friend, when I spotted Ali walking ahead of me. He was already an international superstar. But as he walked happily down the street, he would randomly stop people and perform a magic trick that would make them laugh with delight. Millions watched him box, but those moments on that Westwood street would live on with those people and their children through the retelling, for years and years.
That is the most valuable legacy—the acts that aren’t done to enhance a legacy, but that are motivated by the desire to brighten a day, even if only for a little while. Many years ago, I was attending a function at UCLA where I was dining with a friend’s family. He had a young daughter about three years old. I reached out the window and into the garden that surrounded the building and plucked a flower for her. She was giddy with delight. She had no idea about my fame, only that I gave her that flower. She’s in her twenties now and still remembers that day with fondness. Her happy memory will outlast me.
The most valuable legacy will outlast the individual because it consists of acts of kindness, joy, and compassion that ripple through society and time forever. Everything else just collects dust.