Ep. 485 — Maria Ressa
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
CNN
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2022
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa faces 100 years in prison stemming from what she says are illegitimate charges, but that hasn’t stopped her mission of exposing political malfeasance and lies in her home country of the Philippines. She joined David to talk about immigrating to the US as a child and later returning to the Philippines where she built a career, technology’s corrosive impact on journalism and democracy, founding Rappler and finding herself a government target, and maintaining hope as she fights corruption and disinformation through her journalism.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, |
| 0:12.5 | with your host, David Axelrod. |
| 0:19.0 | Despite threats of violence and prison, she's led her intrepid digital news organization, |
| 0:24.7 | Rappler, to cover the Philippines thoroughly and honestly. |
| 0:28.7 | Even when it's meant shining a bright light in the dark corners of an increasingly violent |
| 0:33.1 | and autocratic regime, she's become the victim of an organized online campaign of disinformation |
| 0:38.9 | and hate, abetted by the policies and algorithms of Facebook. |
| 0:42.6 | Yet with all that, Maria Ressa cheerfully, courageously persists in her battle to report |
| 0:47.8 | the news, clean up social media, and save the Philippines and democracies everywhere, |
| 0:53.3 | including ours, from a world without truth, a world without facts. |
| 0:58.1 | Here's my conversation with the 2021 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the remarkable |
| 1:03.5 | Maria Ressa. |
| 1:11.3 | Maria Ressa, it's so good to see you. |
| 1:13.5 | I saw you last week in Chicago at the conference that the Institute of Politics had in conjunction |
| 1:19.1 | with the Atlantic. |
| 1:20.2 | You were the extraordinary kickoff speaker there and now you're back in the Philippines. |
| 1:24.9 | And it's good to see you again. |
| 1:26.3 | No, it's very good to see you again. |
| 1:28.9 | And congratulations. |
| 1:30.4 | That was an incredible conference. |
| 1:32.4 | Best minds to pull together. |
| 1:34.7 | Not the least of which because of your participation. |
... |
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