WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 In 2012, the president of the United States picked 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:05.660 up the phone to personally call a 30 year old 00:00:05.660 --> 00:00:08.099 law student. which is, you know, pretty wild 00:00:08.099 --> 00:00:10.140 to think about. Right. I mean, she hadn't pulled 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:12.779 someone from a burning building. She hadn't won 00:00:12.779 --> 00:00:14.980 an Olympic medal. And she certainly wasn't a 00:00:14.980 --> 00:00:17.519 celebrity. No, she was just a student. Exactly. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:19.460 She had simply done something the rest of us 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:22.820 almost never do. She actually read the microscopic 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:25.239 fine print of her student health insurance plan. 00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:27.239 Yeah, the stuff we all just kind of scroll past. 00:00:27.339 --> 00:00:30.980 Right. And somehow that single seemingly mundane 00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:35.439 act accidentally ignited this massive national 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:39.380 political firestorm. So welcome to today's deep 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:41.539 dive. Glad to be here for this one. Today for 00:00:41.539 --> 00:00:43.659 you listening, we are taking a look at a detailed 00:00:43.659 --> 00:00:46.439 biographical overview of Sandra Fluke. She's 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.460 an American lawyer and women's rights activist. 00:00:48.859 --> 00:00:50.500 And a really fascinating figure when you look 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:54.109 at the actual timeline of events. For sure. The 00:00:54.109 --> 00:00:57.390 mission today is to trace her incredibly surreal 00:00:57.390 --> 00:01:00.530 journey from a localized student advocate to 00:01:00.530 --> 00:01:04.329 the dead center of a cultural controversy. We 00:01:04.329 --> 00:01:06.349 really want to understand the actual mechanics 00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:10.510 here. Like, how does a highly localized, painfully 00:01:10.510 --> 00:01:13.790 obscure policy fight become a screaming national 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:16.599 headline? That's a great question. Okay, let's 00:01:16.599 --> 00:01:19.000 unpack this, because the media at the time really 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:22.299 loved to frame Sandra Fluke as just a random 00:01:22.299 --> 00:01:24.260 law student who stumbled blindly in front of 00:01:24.260 --> 00:01:28.120 a microphone. Looking at our sources, that narrative 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:30.379 is just completely backward. Oh, it's a fundamental 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:32.700 misread of who she was. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:34.640 most people don't realize that before she ever 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:36.920 sat down at that congressional hearing, Fluke 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:39.859 had spent almost a decade building a very specific 00:01:39.859 --> 00:01:41.939 set of weapons for this exact type of fight. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:43.780 Which makes sense. You don't just take on a 200 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:45.299 -year -old university without some training. 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:47.340 Right. What kind of training does a person need 00:01:47.340 --> 00:01:50.400 to take on a massive Jesuit University's bureaucracy. 00:01:50.939 --> 00:01:52.959 You don't just walk in off the street and know 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:55.400 how to dismantle institutional policy. You really 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:58.200 have to learn how the plumbing of these organizations 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:00.480 works. So let's look at that toolkit she was 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.459 building. She was born in 1981 in Saxton, Pennsylvania. 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:05.840 But things get really interesting when she goes 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.039 to Cornell University. That's where the foundation 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:10.599 is really laid out. Yeah, she graduates in 2003, 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:13.659 and her degree is a double major in policy analysis 00:02:13.659 --> 00:02:16.819 and management, alongside feminist, gender, and 00:02:16.819 --> 00:02:19.539 sexuality studies. That is not a generic liberal 00:02:19.539 --> 00:02:22.419 arts background. Not at all. That is the exact 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:25.719 academic blueprint for someone whose entire career 00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:29.439 will involve analyzing how large, stubborn institutional 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:33.500 rules impact very specific demographics. And 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:35.659 she didn't just leave that theory in the classroom. 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:38.539 No, not at all. After Cornell, she moves to New 00:02:38.539 --> 00:02:41.120 York and co -founds the New York Statewide Coalition 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:44.740 for Fair Access to Family Court. Wow. OK. Yeah. 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:47.020 And what they were doing there was highly technical. 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:49.419 They were navigating the legal system to secure 00:02:49.419 --> 00:02:51.780 civil protection orders for victims of intimate 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:55.599 partner violence. So real on the ground legal 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:59.159 advocacy. Exactly. Specifically focusing on teenage 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:02.340 and LGBTQ victims who typically, you know, fall 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:03.939 right through the cracks of the standard legal 00:03:03.939 --> 00:03:06.879 system. She also worked for an organization called 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:09.900 Sanctuary for Families aiding domestic violence 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:12.419 and human trafficking victims. Our sources also 00:03:12.419 --> 00:03:14.360 mentioned she received something called the Fran 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:18.300 Candle Public Interest Grant. Yes. And that was 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:22.240 to produce a video literally teaching people, 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:25.479 step by step, how to obtain a restraining order. 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:27.599 Think about the mechanics of that for a second. 00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:30.800 Obtaining a restraining order is a bureaucratic 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.419 nightmare for someone in crisis. It's incredibly 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:35.639 daunting. You have to fill out specific forms, 00:03:36.219 --> 00:03:38.180 file them in the right jurisdictions, and appear 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:41.580 before judges. She was actively teaching marginalized 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:43.840 people how to force a massive system to work 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:46.280 for them. Which is the perfect lens to view her 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:48.860 next move. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:51.340 with all of that background in policy and navigating 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:53.719 stubborn legal systems, she decides to go to 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.080 Georgetown University Law Center. But she doesn't 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:59.379 just blindly enroll and pay her tuition. She 00:03:59.379 --> 00:04:02.199 sits down and researches the student health plans 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:05.780 before she even steps foot in a classroom. Imagine 00:04:05.780 --> 00:04:08.689 doing that. It's like reading the tedious terms 00:04:08.689 --> 00:04:11.270 and conditions before downloading an app. But 00:04:11.270 --> 00:04:14.210 instead of just clicking accept or walking away 00:04:14.210 --> 00:04:17.089 in frustration, you spend three years trying 00:04:17.089 --> 00:04:19.550 to negotiate a better contract with the developers. 00:04:19.730 --> 00:04:22.149 That's a great analogy. Because when she read 00:04:22.149 --> 00:04:25.269 that fine print, she realized birth control was 00:04:25.269 --> 00:04:27.589 not covered by the Jesuit University student 00:04:27.589 --> 00:04:31.050 health plan. Right. Due to their religious affiliations? 00:04:31.189 --> 00:04:32.910 Exactly. And instead of just saying, oh, well, 00:04:32.910 --> 00:04:35.689 I'll pay out of pocket, she dug in. She actually 00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:37.970 stated she wasn't willing to compromise the quality 00:04:37.970 --> 00:04:40.470 of her education in exchange for her health care. 00:04:40.670 --> 00:04:42.589 And here is where we really have to look at the 00:04:42.589 --> 00:04:44.970 how rather than just the what. What do you mean? 00:04:45.350 --> 00:04:47.449 Well, she didn't just hold a protest sign for 00:04:47.449 --> 00:04:49.589 an afternoon. She spent her first three years 00:04:49.589 --> 00:04:52.410 of law school quietly and persistently trying 00:04:52.410 --> 00:04:54.949 to persuade the Georgetown administration to 00:04:54.949 --> 00:04:57.649 change this policy. Three whole years. Yeah. 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.519 That means drafting proposals, analyzing the 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:03.019 financial impact of the insurance pool, sitting 00:05:03.019 --> 00:05:05.540 in administrative waiting rooms, and having countless 00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:07.600 closed -door meetings with university officials. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:11.199 So she was using that exact policy analysis toolkit 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:13.779 she built at Cornell and in New York. Exactly. 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:17.180 To find a loophole or a gap in the coverage and 00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:20.319 slowly build an airtight case to close it. But 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:24.379 this quiet, persistent, hyper -localized advocacy... 00:05:24.509 --> 00:05:27.269 is exactly what put her on the radar of national 00:05:27.269 --> 00:05:29.910 politicians in Washington D .C. It really is. 00:05:30.050 --> 00:05:32.129 Which moves our story away from a quiet campus 00:05:32.129 --> 00:05:35.029 office and directly to the steps of Capitol Hill. 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:39.120 In February 2012, Democrats invited Fluke to 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.180 speak at a House Oversight and Government Reform 00:05:41.180 --> 00:05:43.100 Committee hearing. Now, we really have to define 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:45.019 what this hearing was actually about, because 00:05:45.019 --> 00:05:47.240 it is the powder keg for everything that follows. 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:49.360 Right. Let's set the stage. It was about the 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:51.819 new administration rules concerning the Conscience 00:05:51.819 --> 00:05:54.139 Clause exceptions in health care, specifically 00:05:54.139 --> 00:05:57.019 tied to the Affordable Care Act. Let's break 00:05:57.019 --> 00:05:59.139 down what a Conscience Clause actually is in 00:05:59.139 --> 00:06:01.699 this context. It essentially acts as a legal 00:06:01.699 --> 00:06:05.199 carve -out. It asks a fundamental question. If 00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:08.019 a federal law mandates that employers provide 00:06:08.019 --> 00:06:10.300 health insurance covering specific services, 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:14.060 like medicinal contraceptives, should a religiously 00:06:14.060 --> 00:06:17.180 affiliated institution be completely exempt from 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:20.300 that mandate if providing it violates their core 00:06:20.300 --> 00:06:23.279 religious beliefs? So the Democrats want Sandra 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:26.740 Fluke on the first panel to represent the perspective 00:06:26.740 --> 00:06:29.519 of the women actually utilizing these specific 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:31.899 health plans. Exactly, the real -world impact. 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:34.139 But Daryl Issa, the Republican chairman of the 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.300 committee blocks her from testifying. Hickey 00:06:36.300 --> 00:06:38.560 does. He gives three explicit reasons for shutting 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:41.540 her out. He says she lacked expertise. He notes 00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:43.540 she wasn't a member of the clergy. And he states 00:06:43.540 --> 00:06:46.139 her name wasn't submitted in time because she 00:06:46.139 --> 00:06:48.519 was blocked. The panel that ended up testifying 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:51.939 was composed entirely of male clergy and theologians. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:54.660 Now I have to play devil's advocate here. OK, 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:56.850 let's hear it. I know it's easy to look at a 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:58.930 panel of men discussing women's health care and 00:06:58.930 --> 00:07:01.329 immediately see the optics problem. But looking 00:07:01.329 --> 00:07:03.829 objectively at the strict rules of congressional 00:07:03.829 --> 00:07:07.269 committees, if the GOP framed this theory specifically 00:07:07.269 --> 00:07:10.670 around religious conscience exceptions, did Chairman 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:14.129 Issa technically have a point? Like, did a law 00:07:14.129 --> 00:07:17.029 student genuinely lack the required theological 00:07:17.029 --> 00:07:19.889 expertise to debate religious doctrine on that 00:07:19.889 --> 00:07:22.680 specific panel? It is a vital question to ask 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:24.819 if we want to understand the mechanics of this 00:07:24.819 --> 00:07:28.000 controversy. You are looking at a total collision 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.100 of two completely different clashing political 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:33.699 frameworks here. How so? From the perspective 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:35.839 of Chairman Issa and the committee's Republican 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:38.339 leadership, the scope of the hearing was strictly 00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:40.839 about constitutional law, the First Amendment, 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:43.740 and religious liberty. OK, so a legal and theological 00:07:43.740 --> 00:07:46.699 debate. Yes. So in their framework, the required 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:48.980 experts for a congressional record are indeed 00:07:48.980 --> 00:07:51.350 theologians, bishops, and religious scholars 00:07:51.350 --> 00:07:54.189 who can debate the granular nuances of religious 00:07:54.189 --> 00:07:57.069 doctrine versus government overreach. Fluke, 00:07:57.250 --> 00:07:59.329 a law student advocating for insurance coding 00:07:59.329 --> 00:08:01.610 changes, does not fit that strict definition 00:08:01.610 --> 00:08:04.329 of expertise. I see. So the two sides were essentially 00:08:04.329 --> 00:08:06.009 speaking different languages and wondering why 00:08:06.009 --> 00:08:08.209 the other couldn't understand them. Precisely. 00:08:08.750 --> 00:08:10.870 The Democrats viewed the hearing scope through 00:08:10.870 --> 00:08:13.029 the framework of practical health care access 00:08:13.029 --> 00:08:15.860 and the real world application of the law. the 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:18.120 human element. Right. In their framework, the 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.899 most vital expertise isn't theological at all. 00:08:21.379 --> 00:08:24.220 It's the lived experience of the citizens directly 00:08:24.220 --> 00:08:27.019 impacted by the policy gap. That is why they 00:08:27.019 --> 00:08:30.060 wanted fluke. Both sides are operating on entirely 00:08:30.060 --> 00:08:32.159 different definitions of what the hearing is 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:35.000 fundamentally meant to achieve. So the tension 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.460 is immense. She gets blocked from the official 00:08:37.460 --> 00:08:40.960 committee. But a week later, on February 23rd, 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:43.460 the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee 00:08:43.460 --> 00:08:46.480 convenes their own separate meeting specifically 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:48.580 to invite her to speak. And this is where she 00:08:48.580 --> 00:08:51.159 finally delivers her testimony. And what is fascinating 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:53.000 is that she doesn't sit there and talk about 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.899 her own sex life or her own use of contraceptives. 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:59.000 She takes a hyper analytical approach. Very analytical. 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:01.120 She talks about the systemic financial and medical 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:03.789 impact on her fellow students. She testifies 00:09:03.789 --> 00:09:06.629 that 40 % of Georgetown Law's female population 00:09:06.629 --> 00:09:09.690 suffered financial hardship because of this specific 00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:12.590 insurance gap. And she anchors this data with 00:09:12.590 --> 00:09:16.230 a very specific, undeniable story. She brings 00:09:16.230 --> 00:09:19.220 up a friend who suffered from... polycystic ovary 00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:22.200 syndrome, or PCOS. For those unfamiliar with 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:25.279 that, what is PCOS? PCOS is a hormonal disorder 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:28.159 that can cause severe complications. And one 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:30.799 of the standard medical treatments is prescribing 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.179 contraceptive hormones to regulate the body. 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:35.639 So it's not just for preventing pregnancy? Not 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:38.120 at all. Fluke's friend needed... these hormones 00:09:38.120 --> 00:09:40.500 just to treat the disease, which cost over $100 00:09:40.500 --> 00:09:43.200 a month out of pocket. And here is the bureaucratic 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:46.159 friction that is so infuriating. Georgetown's 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.039 insurance plan actually covered PCOS. It was 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:51.200 a recognized covered medical condition. Right, 00:09:51.299 --> 00:09:53.259 they agreed she had a medical problem. But the 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:55.340 insurance company repeatedly denied the medication 00:09:55.340 --> 00:09:57.600 anyway because the company suspected the pills 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:59.679 were being used for contraception rather than 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:02.480 treatment. This is exactly what Fluke was trained 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.720 to dismantle. You have a covered disease, but 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:08.820 the patient is denied a standard necessary treatment 00:10:08.820 --> 00:10:11.200 strictly because of the bureaucratic classification 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.820 of the medication itself. It's madness. It's 00:10:13.820 --> 00:10:16.659 an insurance coding issue that is having devastating 00:10:16.659 --> 00:10:19.200 physical and financial effects on a student. 00:10:19.379 --> 00:10:22.080 And it leads to this incredibly powerful quote 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:25.440 from her testimony. She tells the room, we refuse 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:28.600 to pick between a quality education and our health. 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:31.299 A very strong statement. It was clear. It was 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:33.960 policy focused and it was deeply rooted in the 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.480 dry mechanics of insurance coding. So you would 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:38.620 logically think a debate about the nuances of 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:41.240 insurance coding for PCOS would stay buried on 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:43.940 C -SPAN 3. You would think so. But here's where 00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:47.340 it gets really interesting. How on earth does 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:50.519 a specific unglamorous testimony about medical 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:53.299 bureaucracy end up as the center of the American 00:10:53.299 --> 00:10:56.120 culture wars just days later? What's fascinating 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:58.620 here is it's like dropping a single drop of water 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:01.259 into a pan of boiling hot oil. Oh, that's a good 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:03.259 way to put it. The water isn't trying to cause 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:06.000 an explosion, it's just existing. But because 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.019 of the volatile environment it lands in, the 00:11:08.019 --> 00:11:11.100 reaction is violent and instantaneous. This is 00:11:11.100 --> 00:11:13.559 a textbook study in how the modern media ecosystem 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:16.120 can completely hijack and reframe a narrative. 00:11:16.460 --> 00:11:19.679 So what exactly happened? On February 29th, less 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:22.370 than a week after her testimony, The conservative 00:11:22.370 --> 00:11:25.710 radio host Rush Limbaugh discussed her appearance 00:11:25.710 --> 00:11:28.830 on his nationally syndicated show, and he didn't 00:11:28.830 --> 00:11:31.710 spend a single second attacking her policy analysis 00:11:31.710 --> 00:11:34.809 or her insurance coding arguments. No, he didn't. 00:11:34.889 --> 00:11:37.889 He immediately made it intensely personal and 00:11:37.889 --> 00:11:41.330 vitriolic. He really did. And to accurately report 00:11:41.330 --> 00:11:43.110 what happened here, we just have to look at his 00:11:43.110 --> 00:11:46.379 exact words from the broadcast. According to 00:11:46.379 --> 00:11:49.480 our sources, Limbaugh called her a slut and a 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:52.639 prostitute on air. His exact quote from the broadcast 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:58.960 was, She wants you and me and the taxpayers to 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:01.480 pay her to have sex. Notice how the discourse 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:03.559 completely detaches from the original source 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:05.000 material? It's like they're talking about two 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:07.480 completely different events. Exactly. The original 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:09.820 debate was about whether a private university's 00:12:09.820 --> 00:12:11.940 health insurance policy should cover a specific 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:14.460 class of medication for its tuition -paying students. 00:12:15.220 --> 00:12:17.799 But within days, the media machine transformed 00:12:17.799 --> 00:12:20.840 it into a battle over entitlement, taxpayer dollars, 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.009 and highly charged gendered language. The nuance 00:12:24.009 --> 00:12:27.330 of the PCOS medical story was instantly vaporized 00:12:27.330 --> 00:12:29.690 in the noise. Completely gone. Put yourself in 00:12:29.690 --> 00:12:31.730 Sandra Fluke's shoes for a second. You have spent 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:34.669 years researching university policy. You prepare 00:12:34.669 --> 00:12:37.350 a hyper logical data backed argument. You present 00:12:37.350 --> 00:12:39.950 it to Congress and suddenly you turn on the radio 00:12:39.950 --> 00:12:42.590 and a national host with millions of listeners 00:12:42.590 --> 00:12:45.549 is calling you a prostitute. The psychological 00:12:45.549 --> 00:12:48.350 whiplash of that is just staggering. Her response 00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:51.220 was immediate though. She stated she was stunned 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:54.840 and outraged, and she brilliantly framed Limbaugh's 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:57.259 comments not just as a personal insult to her, 00:12:57.539 --> 00:13:00.600 but as a deliberate tactical attempt to silence 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:02.899 all women from speaking out about their health 00:13:02.899 --> 00:13:05.379 care needs. And the institutional fallout from 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:08.240 this was massive. Georgetown president John J. 00:13:08.340 --> 00:13:10.840 DeGioia, representing the very Jesuit university 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:13.019 she was actively fighting against regarding their 00:13:13.019 --> 00:13:15.620 health plan, actually stepped up to publicly 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:18.399 defend her. Wow, that is significant. It is. 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:20.779 He issued a statement calling Limbaugh's words 00:13:20.779 --> 00:13:23.620 misogynistic and vitriolic and praised fluke 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:26.200 as a model of civil discourse. And then it reaches 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:28.519 the absolute highest levels of government. President 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:30.519 Barack Obama actually calls her. Which brings 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:33.419 us back to that incredible phone call. Right. 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:36.200 The White House explicitly stated the president 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:38.379 called to express his disappointment over the 00:13:38.379 --> 00:13:41.519 attacks and to thank her for exercising her rights 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:45.129 as a citizen to speak out on public policy. But, 00:13:45.129 --> 00:13:47.690 you know, the real mechanics of change in this 00:13:47.690 --> 00:13:50.649 media firestorm didn't come from statements of 00:13:50.649 --> 00:13:53.970 support. They came from the economics of broadcasting. 00:13:54.330 --> 00:13:57.049 Following the money. Always. The pressure mounted 00:13:57.049 --> 00:13:59.990 incredibly fast on the business side. Several 00:13:59.990 --> 00:14:02.070 major companies started pulling their advertising 00:14:02.070 --> 00:14:05.330 dollars from the Rush Limbaugh show, and advertisers 00:14:05.330 --> 00:14:07.529 pulling their money shifts the power dynamic 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:10.230 instantly. Which forces a reaction. On March 00:14:10.230 --> 00:14:12.330 3rd, Limbaugh issues an apology on his website. 00:14:12.409 --> 00:14:14.639 Yes, he does. He states that his choice of words 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:16.759 was not the best, he claims he was attempting 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:20.080 to be humorous, and he apologizes for his quote 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:23.500 insulting word choices. But for Fluke, that apology 00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:26.779 rang completely hollow. She publicly stated she 00:14:26.779 --> 00:14:28.799 found it insufficient. And she had a specific 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:30.960 reason for that. Right. Yeah. She pointed out 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:34.100 the mechanism of the apology itself. He only 00:14:34.100 --> 00:14:36.480 issued it after he was under significant financial 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:38.679 pressure from sponsors who were abandoning the 00:14:38.679 --> 00:14:41.379 show. The cultural ripple effects just kept expanding, 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:44.419 too. In response to Limbaugh's initial remarks, 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:47.769 an activist named Susan McMillan Emery. launched 00:14:47.769 --> 00:14:51.029 a public relations campaign called Rock the Slut 00:14:51.029 --> 00:14:53.769 Vote. I remember that. The campaign's stated 00:14:53.769 --> 00:14:56.549 mission was to aggressively reappropriate the 00:14:56.549 --> 00:14:59.309 word Limbaugh used and encourage women to get 00:14:59.309 --> 00:15:02.309 informed, get registered, and vote in the upcoming 00:15:02.309 --> 00:15:05.149 elections. It perfectly illustrates how a single 00:15:05.149 --> 00:15:08.509 highly publicized media attack can organically 00:15:08.509 --> 00:15:11.429 spawn entirely new independent political movements 00:15:11.429 --> 00:15:13.870 that take on a life of their own, completely 00:15:13.870 --> 00:15:16.149 separate from the original insurance policy debate. 00:15:16.649 --> 00:15:19.549 forces fluke into an entirely new reality. This 00:15:19.549 --> 00:15:22.190 intense, completely unasked for media spotlight 00:15:22.190 --> 00:15:24.870 inevitably demands a transition. She has to adapt. 00:15:24.970 --> 00:15:26.809 Yeah, she can no longer just be a law student 00:15:26.809 --> 00:15:29.490 advocating for her campus. The media ecosystem 00:15:29.490 --> 00:15:32.070 has pushed her to become an active, highly visible 00:15:32.070 --> 00:15:34.230 political figure on the national campaign trail. 00:15:34.570 --> 00:15:37.330 By June of 2012, she is writing an op -ed for 00:15:37.330 --> 00:15:39.669 CNN directly supporting President Obama's re 00:15:39.669 --> 00:15:41.570 -election. What were her main points in that 00:15:41.570 --> 00:15:44.490 piece? In it, she cites his support for the Lilly 00:15:44.490 --> 00:15:47.350 Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was legislation 00:15:47.350 --> 00:15:50.049 aimed at closing the gender wage gap, as well 00:15:50.049 --> 00:15:52.610 as Pell Grants for Student Aid and the Affordable 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:55.850 Care Act. She has fully integrated into the national 00:15:55.850 --> 00:15:58.330 political apparatus at this point. She goes on 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:00.830 the road, too. She introduces President Obama 00:16:00.830 --> 00:16:04.100 at a massive campaign rally in Denver. And then 00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:06.820 she gets a featured speaking slot at the 2012 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:09.360 Democratic National Convention. That's a huge 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:12.539 stage. In her speech, she takes direct aim at 00:16:12.539 --> 00:16:14.799 the Republican Party's platform, calling it an 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:17.440 offensive, obsolete relic. Which naturally invites 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:20.779 a new wave of partisan pushback. Republican Representative 00:16:20.779 --> 00:16:23.220 Joe Walsh of Illinois responds to her convention 00:16:23.220 --> 00:16:25.980 speech by calling her entitled and literally 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:28.840 telling her to get a job. Fluke fires back, saying 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:31.179 Walsh was disparaging her entire generation. 00:16:31.580 --> 00:16:33.879 We're seeing the debate operate in on the level 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:36.059 of cultural symbolism and generational warfare 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.720 now. Yeah, the PCOS insurance coding is a ghost 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:41.179 of a memory. But let's look at the fascinating 00:16:41.179 --> 00:16:44.059 trajectory of where this takes her. Fast forward 00:16:44.059 --> 00:16:47.480 a couple years to 2014. Fluke is living in West 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:50.200 Hollywood, she has passed the California bar, 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:53.250 and she decides to run for office herself. She 00:16:53.250 --> 00:16:55.269 runs for the California State Senate in District 00:16:55.269 --> 00:16:58.129 26 as a Democrat. And this is where the mechanics 00:16:58.129 --> 00:17:00.769 of political capital become really clear. Yeah. 00:17:01.070 --> 00:17:03.350 Despite her massive national profile, despite 00:17:03.350 --> 00:17:06.250 having spoken at the DNC to millions of viewers 00:17:06.250 --> 00:17:08.430 and having the backing of the president of the 00:17:08.430 --> 00:17:10.589 United States just two years prior, she loses 00:17:10.589 --> 00:17:13.430 the election. She lost. She faced a fellow Democrat, 00:17:13.869 --> 00:17:17.029 Ben Allen, in the general election and was defeated 00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:19.910 61 percent to 39 percent. So what does this all 00:17:19.910 --> 00:17:23.750 mean? The contrast there is genuinely wild. She 00:17:23.750 --> 00:17:26.529 reaches the absolute peak of national political 00:17:26.529 --> 00:17:29.130 fame. She has the kind of name recognition that 00:17:29.130 --> 00:17:31.650 politicians spend tens of millions of dollars 00:17:31.650 --> 00:17:34.250 trying to build. She's a household name getting 00:17:34.250 --> 00:17:36.950 calls from the Oval Office. But two years later, 00:17:37.289 --> 00:17:39.829 she cannot secure a local state Senate seat in 00:17:39.829 --> 00:17:42.670 her own district against someone in her own party. 00:17:42.849 --> 00:17:44.509 It's quite the paradox. How does that happen? 00:17:44.670 --> 00:17:47.490 Well, this raises an important question. It exposes 00:17:47.490 --> 00:17:50.650 a massive difference between being a powerful, 00:17:50.910 --> 00:17:54.410 unifying symbol for a national movement and dealing 00:17:54.410 --> 00:17:57.369 with the localized, practical realities of running 00:17:57.369 --> 00:17:59.990 as an administrator in a specific district. Oh, 00:17:59.990 --> 00:18:02.109 that makes a lot of sense. When you are a national 00:18:02.109 --> 00:18:04.509 symbol, people project their broader values onto 00:18:04.509 --> 00:18:07.710 you. To the country, Sandra Fluke represented 00:18:07.710 --> 00:18:11.519 access to health care or fighting misogyny. broad 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:14.420 sweeping ideals. Exactly. But when you run for 00:18:14.420 --> 00:18:16.920 state Senate, voters don't just want symbols. 00:18:17.059 --> 00:18:19.380 They want to know your highly specific stance 00:18:19.380 --> 00:18:22.819 on local zoning laws, state property taxes, and 00:18:22.819 --> 00:18:25.579 local traffic infrastructure. Being a famous 00:18:25.579 --> 00:18:28.319 national lighten rod doesn't necessarily translate 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:30.579 into being the preferred local administrator 00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:33.099 for fixing potholes and balancing a municipal 00:18:33.099 --> 00:18:35.660 budget. That is such an incredible distinction. 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:38.119 It's the difference between holding a megaphone 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:40.539 and holding a blueprint. Perfectly said. Just 00:18:40.539 --> 00:18:43.099 to round out the personal details from our source, 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.299 she did marry television producer Adam Mutterpearl. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:50.519 And they live in the Los Angeles area. And I 00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:52.119 have to mention this because it's just a brilliant 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:55.099 detail. They have a dog named Mr. President. 00:18:55.440 --> 00:18:58.140 A very fitting nod to the surreal phone call 00:18:58.140 --> 00:19:00.339 that permanently altered the trajectory of her 00:19:00.339 --> 00:19:02.559 life. So let's bring this all together for you 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:04.920 listening right now. We started with a law student 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:08.279 who was just deeply annoyed by the fine print 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:10.380 of her university's health plan. Just trying 00:19:10.380 --> 00:19:12.819 to get her friends some medication. Right. She 00:19:12.819 --> 00:19:15.519 applies her background in policy analysis to 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:18.680 quietly push for a change. Because she refuses 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:21.160 to give up, she gets invited to Congress, gets 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:23.460 blocked by committee rules, testifies anyway, 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:26.759 and suddenly finds herself the target of a national 00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:30.019 radio host's vitriol. Which then catapults her 00:19:30.019 --> 00:19:32.660 onto the stage of the Democratic National Convention. 00:19:32.839 --> 00:19:35.440 It is an incredible reminder. that speaking up 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:38.960 about a hyperlocal, tedious policy gap in your 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.539 own life can have unimaginable ripple effects. 00:19:41.819 --> 00:19:43.700 And as we wrap up today, I'd like to leave you 00:19:43.700 --> 00:19:45.880 with a final thought to mull over. Think about 00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:48.319 the concept of the accidental public figure. 00:19:48.569 --> 00:19:52.150 When an everyday person steps up to fix a hyperlocal 00:19:52.150 --> 00:19:55.029 problem in their community, are they ever truly 00:19:55.029 --> 00:19:57.789 prepared for the massive machinery of national 00:19:57.789 --> 00:20:00.569 partisan politics to turn them into a symbol? 00:20:01.049 --> 00:20:03.490 And ultimately, does becoming a massive national 00:20:03.490 --> 00:20:06.569 symbol actually help solve the original localized 00:20:06.569 --> 00:20:09.190 problem they set out to fix? Or does the media 00:20:09.190 --> 00:20:11.509 machine permanently change the message they were 00:20:11.509 --> 00:20:13.490 trying to share in the first place? That is a 00:20:13.490 --> 00:20:15.890 fascinating question to chew on, especially the 00:20:15.890 --> 00:20:18.339 next time you scroll blindly past it. terms and 00:20:18.339 --> 00:20:20.599 conditions agreement. Thank you so much for joining 00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:22.500 us for this deep dive. We will catch you next 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:22.660 time.