I’m not sure how much of yesterday’s show you caught, but in the our “E Block” (complicated code for ‘the 5th segment) we had a conversation, about the conversation about gun control. Meta.
But what you missed was the discussion beforehand, in the meetings leading up the to show. I worked with Steve Kornacki on the segment’s intro, and we tried to make sure we gave a honest, historical framing for how guns are talked about in politics. When meeting with the 4 members of the show, the predominant thought was “we don’t want to argue gun control.” The reason is simple: We’ve heard it a thousand times before, and S.E. wins. We don’t need to steal 8 minutes on air to establish that Touré wants guns off the street, Krystal sits on the fence, S.E. is packing, and Steve is fascinated – get this – from a purely political standpoint.
I have to say, most shows struggle to bypass that clash because 1. They mistakenly think it’s entertaining, and 2. The people on air think they’re scoring points with their readers/followers/fans. It was really interesting to watch four people with such different views mutually agree to advance the collective dialogue, even though it was against a few of their personal interests.
The chemistry of the group has been so natural – it’s easy to forget that these guys really don’t know each other. And really, they’re not dependent on each other – if this show fell apart today, they’d all continue to put food on the table (and I’d be stealing Lunchables from local summer camps). I’m sure there’s a pull – on each of them – to make sure they don’t lose their own voice to The Cycle. But, watching the group naturally come to the conclusion that there was a better way for the show to talk about guns & politics, I felt like a threshold was crossed.








