The Ashley St. Clair podcast you cried out for is here

After a six-month absence from Cockburn’s sights – far too long, really – Ashley St. Clair, baby mama to Elon Musk’s 13th child (that we know of), resurfaced Monday.

St. Clair has launched a 30-minute video podcast sponsored by Polymarket, the cryptocurrency prediction company.

Sitting in what appears to be a luxury bedroom somewhere in Manhattan, wearing a black tank top and looking no worse for the motherhood wear, the Florida-born St. Clair didn’t waste any time, exhibiting some lightly ironic vocal fry, with this opening paragraph:

After a year of unplanned career suicide, many questionable life choices and a gap in my LinkedIn profile that cannot legally be explained, I have decided to start a podcast. Not because anybody asked, but because statistically speaking, it was either this or join an MLM [multilevel marketing company]. So here we are. And unlike a Ben Shapiro or a Megyn Kelly, I’m not starting this because I think my big brain thoughts on the podcast mic are the greatest gift to humanity. I actually think I have the worst ideas. So consider everything out of my mouth a cautionary tale. Also, I’m getting evicted, and Polymarket offered me $10,000 to do an ad read.

Cockburn found this opening appealing, witty and self-deprecating. Unfortunately, St. Clair then puts on sunglasses and Bad Advice with Ashley St. Clair begins in earnest. He had some hope when she mentioned Elon Musk – but that’s just a feint to discuss the assault on “Big Balls” that precipitated the federal takeover of DC. A half-hour of gossip ripped from the headlines ensues, a Gawker-tinged Daily Show knockoff but without the production values or commercial breaks.

This is her advice, St. Clair says, “Take it or leave it. Probably leave it.” Probably!

St. Clair has some potential, but she needs better writers. For $10,000 from Polymarket (a month, in bitcoin, under the table), Cockburn offers his services.

On our radar

BABY I GOT YOUR MONEY Eric Adams has filed a new lawsuit against New York City’s Campaign Finance Board for denying him nearly $5 million in public matching funds over allegations he committed bribery, fraud and obstruction.

MAXED OUT Newsmax settled a lawsuit accusing it of defaming Dominion, a voting equipment company, after President Trump’s 2020 election loss. The network will pay $67 million.

ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL After civil-rights challenges to the immigration detention center Trump dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a federal judge issued a split ruling, dismissing part of the case and sending the remainder to Florida’s Middle District.

Multiple Sclerosis News Opinion World

MSNBC, a news outlet so left-wing it makes NPR look like The Daily Stormer, is about to undergo a name change, to become MS NOW. MS NOW stands apparently for My Source News Opinion World, which sounds like a Waystar Royco product, or the show from The Newsroom, or a North Korean state network.

NBC Universal is ditching a parcel of media properties, including CNBC (which is keeping its name). Even though MSNBC (NOW) is hiring, Axios reports, for “dozens of new positions” in preparation for the rebrand at the end of the year, it really does feel like yesterday’s news network.

It’s no accident that NBC Universal hung on to Bravo, which features Real Housewives, Top Chef, Below Deck and other popular reality franchises. The parent company is also keeping Peacock, a low-rated streaming service that absolutely ruled the Olympics last summer, and NBC itself, which for all the decline in broadcast TV still has the Chicago shows and frankly won’t disappear overnight.

MS NOW, on the other hand, looks fated to have the ratings of a mid-tier YouTube news channel, or worse, to desperately suck up to whatever living shreds of the boomer-lib coalition still watches TV news. Cockburn would like to say he’ll stop watching it NOW. But, frankly, he tuned out years ago.

Please edit my outlet, President Trump

Shari Redstone, the former global chairwoman of Paramount, says she sold the company partly due to the October 7 coverage by its subsidiary CBS. She also hoped that President Trump’s lawsuit against the network would root out anti-Israel bias, she explained in an interview with the New York Times.

Redstone said she believed Trump “could accomplish what I never got done.” Trump sued CBS over its editing of a 60 Minutes interview with his opponent Kamala Harris, which altered her answer to an October 7-related question. Redstone, whose ex-husband and son are rabbis, said CBS’s reporting following the October 7 attacks was “shockingly one-sided, lacked factual accuracy and relied heavily on misguided information.”

Redstone said she was “blown away” by the settlement, since she was expecting a much higher price. Congrats for landing the only bargain in media…

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