Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and
Speaker 1: Getti and he Armstrong and Yetty. So this hour, in
Speaker 1: case you haven't heard what Jimmy Kimmel actually said on
Speaker 1: Monday Night, we'll play that for you. There's some great
Speaker 1: writing by Mark Halprin today about laying out all the
Speaker 1: different angles of the whole thing. Maybe you'd like to
Speaker 1: actually hear what the FCC chair said that kicked this
Speaker 1: whole thing off. So we'll cover that story pretty thoroughly.
Speaker 1: A little bit later in the hour, we want to
Speaker 1: welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Nope, no yet,
Speaker 1: you're waving your arm Michael. He can just tell me
Speaker 1: on the microphone what seems to be the problem.
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 1: Well, Hanson was talking to him on the phone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, well that's weird.
Speaker 1: So Hanson was talking to him on the phone in
Speaker 1: a different room. You can't talk to him on the
Speaker 1: phone here, all right, we'll figure it out. Can you
Speaker 1: turn Katie's microphone on if you get a chance. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm being censored, yes, yes, you've been silenced for things
Speaker 1: you said about Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 4: No no, no, no, no, no, maybe things I said
Speaker 4: to Jo Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding. So the long and short of the
Speaker 1: take on Jimmy Kimmel for us is I just saw
Speaker 1: a piece of somebody else wrote they stole they stole
Speaker 1: my idea. There are like five different reasons Jimmy Kimmel
Speaker 1: is not on the air last night or tonight. Part
Speaker 1: of it is the FCC pressure, but part of it
Speaker 1: is the ratings. Part of it is a merger that's
Speaker 1: going on. Part of it is the unique political moment
Speaker 1: that is Charlie Kirk being assassinated and people being very
Speaker 1: sensitive to it. You got to mix all of those
Speaker 1: things in. Part of it is the expense of his
Speaker 1: show and how much revenue it was bringing in or not.
Speaker 1: All of those things factor in, Like if he had
Speaker 1: big ratings and was making lots of money, he could
Speaker 1: have said what he said and survived it. So you
Speaker 1: need kind of all the elements end up where it
Speaker 1: ended up. But I still do not like the FCC
Speaker 1: commissioner threatening licenses and everything over content. That is that
Speaker 1: is no good and no road to go down. So
Speaker 1: I need to either go on with this Jimmy Kimmel stuff,
Speaker 1: or do we think we're gonna have our guest? Do
Speaker 1: we know? I'll make a decision one way or the other.
Speaker 3: I was told we're going to have him.
Speaker 1: We're going to have him. Oh well, I guess now
Speaker 1: I'll do a little soft shoe dance until we get
Speaker 1: our guest. Did Wow?
Speaker 3: I didn't know you could soft shoot? Look at you go?
Speaker 1: And I'm in cowboy boots?
Speaker 3: Are you really well? You're always in cowboy goods?
Speaker 1: Pretty much?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Michael, how are you doing? This is where I'm
Speaker 3: hanging in there.
Speaker 1: We're hoping to talk to this guy, Thane Rose, wrote Rosenbaum,
Speaker 1: who I'll set it all up and then hope we
Speaker 1: get him. He's a CBS News legal alndlist and I
Speaker 1: want to talk to about TikTok because he's delving into
Speaker 1: the details on that. There is the belief that there
Speaker 1: is some sort of deal that is going to allow
Speaker 1: TikTok to continue in the United States of America, and uh,
Speaker 1: there are there's different reporting out there as to whether
Speaker 1: that's going to be the same TikTok that you know
Speaker 1: and love, just under American owners, or if it's going
Speaker 1: to be an American company, but with a completely different
Speaker 1: algorithm that you might not dignare as much. I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole reason TikTok people love TikTok so much is
Speaker 1: that I've heard from people that are on TikTok that
Speaker 1: consider it like the great the greatest algorithm's out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but YouTube, what Facebook does and Instagram and all that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff pales in comparison and the ability to
Speaker 1: TikTok to feed you things that you like. I can't
Speaker 1: imagine what that must be like, because like Instagram reels,
Speaker 1: if I if I go on that thing at all,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm there for half an hour. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: so good at Like for me, a lot of it
Speaker 1: is U sports highlights for things that it knows that
Speaker 1: I will like and concert footage. Between those two things. Yes,
Speaker 1: I go sure, I've never seen this clip of Bob
Speaker 1: Dylan playing here in nineteen seventy six or whatever. Just
Speaker 1: end up getting sucked into it. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I watched a pretty fascinating well part of a documentary.
Speaker 4: I couldn't take the kid anymore, but it was on Netflix,
Speaker 4: and it was about this this good looking young kid
Speaker 4: who went on TikTok, and all these women just fell
Speaker 4: in love with him, and he's massive, and like at
Speaker 4: one point they were saying, oh.
Speaker 3: You know, we'd like to donate to you.
Speaker 4: So he put his PayPal account on his bio of
Speaker 4: his Twitter earth I'm sorry on his TikTok page overnight
Speaker 4: sixty thousand dollars.
Speaker 5: And people are just sending him money because he's cute, yep,
Speaker 5: because they think he's good looking. And I'm sitting there going, man,
Speaker 5: you're cute. Here's a hundred bucks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he would he would go on there and
Speaker 4: say like, oh man, I wish I had this pair
Speaker 4: of shoes, and.
Speaker 3: They'd show up at his door the next day.
Speaker 1: Wow, that I'm obsessed. Yeah, that is really strange. Okay,
Speaker 1: we would like to welcome Thane Rosenbaum to the show
Speaker 1: Now CBS News Legal. Anna, sorry, we had so much
Speaker 1: trouble technical difficulties getting on. So what is going on
Speaker 1: with TikTok? Is it going to this in the United States?
Speaker 1: And is it going to be the same algorithm.
Speaker 6: So jacket we we won't know for another ninety days.
Speaker 6: This is now the fourth attempt to stave off forcing
Speaker 6: TikTok to end operations in the United States. Remember this
Speaker 6: started with legislation during the Biden administration that essentially had
Speaker 6: a you know, we're not interested in social media companies
Speaker 6: that mine data of Americans that come from putative enemies
Speaker 6: of ours, and that there was no sufficient insulation or
Speaker 6: Chinese wall, so to speak, between the Chinese government and TikTok.
Speaker 1: That's a reasonable stance in my opinions.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah, and the TikTok's epic we're not really owned
Speaker 6: by Chinese, and so there became a fight about that
Speaker 6: when in fact, Byke Dance did have relationships with the
Speaker 6: Chinese government, and it's a it's not as if they
Speaker 6: could refuse a request, you know. It's like the Chinese
Speaker 6: government is.
Speaker 1: Like the father. You don't the request.
Speaker 6: So if they had asked for something, they would have
Speaker 6: said yes. So the Biden administration said, look, you know,
Speaker 6: you either sell yourself to an independent corporation or you
Speaker 6: you shut down in your operations. And I said, you
Speaker 6: want to do whatever you do in Europe, that's fine,
Speaker 6: but not here. Donald Trump, you know, said, well wait
Speaker 6: a minute, I think I won this election in part
Speaker 6: because there's TikTok. Probably you know, it rallied an audience
Speaker 6: that I didn't really even have the last time, and
Speaker 6: everyone seems to have it, and there were an enormous
Speaker 6: amount of It's not just apparently I wouldn't know this, Jack,
Speaker 6: but apparently it's not just images of people dancing with
Speaker 6: their cats. There are, in fact, small businesses all over
Speaker 6: the United States that depend on TikTok is their main
Speaker 6: marketing technique. So there was a movement among American businesses
Speaker 6: they said, well, wait a minute, we're a small business.
Speaker 6: This is how we could be. We need TikTok. So
Speaker 6: Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, just one
Speaker 6: the other day that extended the time period for either
Speaker 6: shutting down or selling. And he claims that he knows
Speaker 6: of a consortium of venture capital companies, private equity, and
Speaker 6: tech companies, including Oracle, and as you know, Larry Ellison
Speaker 6: has just his wealth has increased enormously and I think
Speaker 6: he's interested in this too. So he apparently is part
Speaker 6: of this consortium. And the argument is that well, we
Speaker 6: need we have to add a board of director, someone
Speaker 6: on the board of director who has some American affiliation.
Speaker 6: That's a requirement, and will extend the deadline for ninety days,
Speaker 6: hoping that the consortium can pull together the funds and
Speaker 6: meet with the regulatory approval that this no longer presents
Speaker 6: a national security risks in the United States.
Speaker 1: So, uh, do you have TikTok on your phone? No? No,
Speaker 1: me neither, and I can't I vaguely know.
Speaker 6: What it is. But Jack, Jack, if you'll remember, you
Speaker 6: had trouble calling me. Yeah, well I didn't personally, but
Speaker 6: obviously right saying no, I'm blaming myself since I don't
Speaker 6: have TikTok. I don't even know how to use a phone, apparently,
Speaker 6: so I'm not and I'm not the right guy.
Speaker 1: Do you not have TikTok because you're worried it's a
Speaker 1: Chinese data harvesting tool. No, not really, you're just not
Speaker 1: interested in social media.
Speaker 6: I'm I'm a writer by trade, and I just don't
Speaker 6: live in a world where everything has to be visual.
Speaker 6: And I worked for CBS Radio. I don't, you know,
Speaker 6: I don't I don't focus. I don't need videos all
Speaker 6: day to keep me entertained.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I understand completely. The only reason I ever
Speaker 1: got Instagram, which was fairly recently, is it's kind of
Speaker 1: a marketing tool. For the show. But yeah, but we've
Speaker 1: had the stats before, and you've probably seen them of
Speaker 1: how many hours a day young people spend on TikTok.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's crazy. They almost seem made up, but
Speaker 1: I assume they're true because I've seen study after study
Speaker 1: say that, you know, it's five hours for this group
Speaker 1: or seven hours for that group. I don't even know
Speaker 1: how that's possible.
Speaker 6: But it's even worse than that, Jack, because if they
Speaker 6: were just watching videos of people dancing with their cats,
Speaker 6: that would be one thing, it would be it would
Speaker 6: be stupid as all get out. But if that's how
Speaker 6: you're if that's how you want your kid to spend
Speaker 6: your day with another cat, that's dancing. Fine. But what
Speaker 6: we're really learning, which is really distressing and it raises
Speaker 6: First Amendment issues and other regulatory issues, is that most
Speaker 6: young people get their news from TikTok.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So that's where it's worse than being entertained by silly videos.
Speaker 6: It's that algorithms that can easily be manipulated are tailor
Speaker 6: making news seed. They tailor it for certain age groups,
Speaker 6: for certain sensibilities, perspectives, where they live, you know, whatever. Information.
Speaker 6: So that's really what national security means. It doesn't necessarily
Speaker 6: mean a bomb is going to go off. It means
Speaker 6: that you're going to mind data that tells you everything
Speaker 6: you need to know about America, where we're vulnerable, what
Speaker 6: kind of stuff we believe in. How easy it is
Speaker 6: to manipulate us.
Speaker 1: Just give us a video or shade news stories a
Speaker 1: certain direction that's in your favor.
Speaker 6: Exactly right as I'm saying about, you know, tailoring news
Speaker 6: seeds or blocking news seeds, for instance, make sure that
Speaker 6: Jack Armstrong never sees a.
Speaker 1: Story about this, right, he.
Speaker 6: Cannot see a story about this because he's the kind
Speaker 6: of guy that will it'll, it'll, he'll talk about it
Speaker 6: on a show. So you're saying, that's the kind of manipulation.
Speaker 6: And you know, remember the social media companies are protected.
Speaker 6: The government doesn't can't interfere with their First Amendment right.
Speaker 6: So if it TikTok is an American company, if it
Speaker 6: becomes one, the government really can't regulate it because they're saying, look,
Speaker 6: we have First Amendment rights work. We're essentially like a newspaper.
Speaker 6: You can't tell us what's the publish.
Speaker 1: Or what not the public right. My final question you're
Speaker 1: the CBS News legal analyst put on a quote. So
Speaker 1: c NBC reported the other day that the algorithm was
Speaker 1: going to that the for the for the deal to happen,
Speaker 1: it was going to have to be a different algorithm.
Speaker 1: Then I think it was a Wall Street Journal reported that,
Speaker 1: though is going to be the same algorithm. Well, that's
Speaker 1: a pretty big difference because if it's a different algorithm,
Speaker 1: it's you can call it TikTok, but it's not the
Speaker 1: same thing. And from what I understand from people who
Speaker 1: love TikTok, it's all about that amazing algorithm that can predict,
Speaker 1: predict what you want to be entertained by.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean that's the that's the problem the algorithm.
Speaker 6: Although I read somewhere else that they're saying, well nowadays,
Speaker 6: at the time that this legislation was created, you know,
Speaker 6: algorithms were impenetrable and could never be done. Okay, and
Speaker 6: apparently that's no longer true. You know, we've cracked the
Speaker 6: code and people can actually duplicate it themselves. That doesn't
Speaker 6: change the fact that we don't obligate social media companies
Speaker 6: or internet companies to tell balanced stories. It doesn't you know,
Speaker 6: it doesn't change the fact that you know, should we
Speaker 6: be regulating, should there be subject to the f E,
Speaker 6: FCC and other regulations. You know, there used to be
Speaker 6: something called probably way too young for this, Jack, the
Speaker 6: fairness doctrine, which ended, I think in the late eighties,
Speaker 6: where if you had a license for broadcasting NBC, ABC, CBS,
Speaker 6: you had to present controversial views and you had to
Speaker 6: present other views so that it was more balanced. They
Speaker 6: got rid of that. So that's why when I was
Speaker 6: a kid and Walter Cronkite was the anchor for CBS
Speaker 6: News and a third of the country or half of
Speaker 6: the country who was watching him, no one knew if
Speaker 6: he was a Democrat or Republican. You had no way
Speaker 6: of knowing. That was a different time. Now it's clear
Speaker 6: the politics is on your sleeve no matter who you are.
Speaker 6: We tell you upfront, and we protect you from differing opinions.
Speaker 1: So I got one question. This is this is a
Speaker 1: Thane Rosenbaum question. So TikTok is beneath you? Is our
Speaker 1: chat bots beneath you to use chat, GPT and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, not yet, not yet? Good for you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm not saying I'm not saying that I won't.
Speaker 6: But you know, I'm a writer and a novelist, and
Speaker 6: that stuff scares me.
Speaker 1: Here, I'll get my card. I am currently reading Ulysses
Speaker 1: and I'm forty percent of the way through. I'm fighting
Speaker 1: my way through that book. So to give myself some
Speaker 1: credibility in your world, the higher thinking world.
Speaker 6: You really impressed the hell out of me.
Speaker 7: Jack.
Speaker 6: You're the only radio guy that I've talked to the
Speaker 6: heater who says anything like that. Joice is something you're reading.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. Rosenbom, CBS News Legal anadlist. Thanks
Speaker 1: for your time today. I appreciate it. Thank you, Jack.
Speaker 1: I liked his personality, entertaining guy. Okay, we got more
Speaker 1: O the way, stay here, so I don't want to
Speaker 1: reset this whole story. Oh by the way, Mark Halpern's
Speaker 1: writing about the Jimmy Kimmel thing I thought was really good.
Speaker 1: We'll have that next segment. But yesterday we did a
Speaker 1: little bit about this Ukrainian girlfriend that I've got.
Speaker 6: Jack Armstrong my precious that's.
Speaker 1: Right, We've made a song about Jack Armstrong my precious diamond.
Speaker 1: That's what she called me. So I don't it's probably
Speaker 1: a bot. It might not even be a human being.
Speaker 1: If it is a human being, it's some hacker dude
Speaker 1: who you know, sends out these emails to try to,
Speaker 1: I think, get you to click on a link. So
Speaker 1: she sent me another email that had a I sent
Speaker 1: you a voice text. I want you to hear my
Speaker 1: beautiful voice, and then I'm supposed to click on the
Speaker 1: voice text, and then that's how they you know, Then
Speaker 1: they're into your phone, into your computer and stealing dat
Speaker 1: out of your bank and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: So I'm not clicking on any But at the encouragement
Speaker 1: of Michael and Katie yesterday I responded to her, which
Speaker 1: I hadn't done before yesterday. I responded, funny, I've been
Speaker 1: thinking about you since I got up this morning. I
Speaker 1: can't stop thinking about you, all right, So she responded
Speaker 1: At some point, Yes, they or the bot responded, or
Speaker 1: the dude responded, or whoever the heck it is, it's
Speaker 1: not a I guarantee it's not this person. And also
Speaker 1: she's sent you like six different pictures. She sends these
Speaker 1: pictures of beautiful young women, but they're all different. They're
Speaker 1: not the same person, which is kind of funny. Sometimes
Speaker 1: she's a long haired blonde. Sometimes she's a shorthead Burnett.
Speaker 1: All my kisses for you, Jack, and then a bunch
Speaker 1: of emojis and stuff like that. Hello, my dearest sweetheart, Jack,
Speaker 1: Thank you so very much for your wonderful letter. Your
Speaker 1: letter was a real present for me today.
Speaker 6: Jack.
Speaker 1: Why don't you write to me every day? If you're
Speaker 1: thinking about me? It would be impossible for us to
Speaker 1: build a happy relationship if we do not talk to
Speaker 1: each other every day. If you do not answer my letters,
Speaker 1: don't tell me anything about yourself. You're right, I haven't
Speaker 1: told you much about myself. Isn't nothing right? Nowadays? Our
Speaker 1: life is so wild and busy. And she goes through
Speaker 1: how difficult it is in the modern era for people
Speaker 1: to get together and fall in love. If a person
Speaker 1: has love and is a heart, then a person is
Speaker 1: considered to be happy. I would like my man to
Speaker 1: be everything for me, my friend, my lover, or my
Speaker 1: husband my everything. Okay, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Well, and we went through how these things work.
Speaker 4: So right now you are in the relationship building stage
Speaker 4: and the next step is the crisis.
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I'm playing along with this game. Because
Speaker 1: one she sent the hyperlinks that the fishing expeditions were,
Speaker 1: but the next thing, yeah, you're gonna be.
Speaker 4: There's a family tragedy or something that's going to require
Speaker 4: some form of money.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with my dearest rose Jack. I got
Speaker 1: the worst news today from my doctor. I have some
Speaker 1: sort of ailment testicular cancer testicular cancer exactly, and I
Speaker 1: do not have the money and I will lose my
Speaker 1: testicles by Friday if I do not get one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: But that's why I want to keep playing along. I
Speaker 1: want to see when they when she actually asks for
Speaker 1: the money.
Speaker 4: And sweet rose Jack, in order to keep my testicles,
Speaker 4: you must pay me in the form of Target gift cards.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I'll respond to her and keep this going.
Speaker 1: She's right, you can't build a relationship with nless your
Speaker 1: email every day. Yeah, she's got a point. Yes, Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Getty.
Speaker 8: Scot I'm not going to tell you anything you don't
Speaker 8: know here. You sometimes offend people. I hear about it
Speaker 8: on the socials. Do you think that you should then
Speaker 8: be held at the same standard that you're asking for
Speaker 8: that if someone says that you're offensive, that you're not
Speaker 8: doing the civic discourse that CNN should kick you off.
Speaker 8: I'm not worried about you and that happening to you
Speaker 8: in the present regime, but I am worried about other
Speaker 8: people in this build.
Speaker 5: Two things we're not.
Speaker 9: We don't fall under the same uh statutory regime. AB
Speaker 9: I expect to get fired every day. This is a
Speaker 9: tough business. And if I were Jimmy Kimmel, I mean,
Speaker 9: I'm surprised that a guy who once wore blackface and
Speaker 9: calls large breasted women to jump on trampolines lasted this
Speaker 9: long in the media business to begin with, he was
Speaker 9: long past his cell date and the fact that he
Speaker 9: couldn't realize that and was going down this road of
Speaker 9: partisan hackery being unfunny demon.
Speaker 1: That's a conversation on CNN yesterday with Scott Jennings, usually
Speaker 1: the lone Republican, and it says some uh exciting stuff
Speaker 1: now and then about getting canceled or booted off the air,
Speaker 1: And they were reacting to Jimmy Kimmel's show being indefinitely
Speaker 1: suspended as he off forever. Will he be back soon,
Speaker 1: I don't know, But ABC Disney made the decision to
Speaker 1: yank him because of some things he said on Monday Night.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know, I know the FCC stuff.
Speaker 1: I'll get into the details of all this in a second.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to set this up before I get
Speaker 1: into the weeds. How about the whole We'll play the
Speaker 1: whole long clip. I don't even know if I've heard
Speaker 1: the whole. This is a minute worth of what he
Speaker 1: said Monday night. That really became the focal point.
Speaker 10: He had some new lows over the weekend, with the
Speaker 10: Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered
Speaker 10: Charlie Kirk is anything other than one of them, and
Speaker 10: everything they can to score political points from it. In
Speaker 10: between the finger pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the
Speaker 10: White House flew the flags at half staff, which got
Speaker 10: some criticism, but on a human level, you can see
Speaker 10: how hard the President is taking this.
Speaker 1: I've adults just have a lot of your friend.
Speaker 7: Charlie Kirk asked sir personally, how are you holding up
Speaker 7: for the last day and a half serve?
Speaker 2: I think very good. And by the way, right there,
Speaker 2: you see all the trucks. They just started construction of
Speaker 2: the new ball room for the White House, which is.
Speaker 1: Something they've been trying to.
Speaker 2: Get, as you know, for about one hundred and fifty years,
Speaker 2: and it's.
Speaker 1: Going to be a beauty.
Speaker 10: Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief construction.
Speaker 1: There's demolition construction.
Speaker 10: This is not how an adult griefs the murder of
Speaker 10: somebody called a friend. This is how a four year
Speaker 10: old mourns a goldfish.
Speaker 4: Okay, So part of me wonders if Trump could even hear.
Speaker 3: The reporter.
Speaker 1: During that aside that that tone Monday night. You know
Speaker 1: that we're for four days away from that now, but
Speaker 1: Monday night, you know that that's a that's a pretty
Speaker 1: snarky tone. You don't get fired for snarky tones, or
Speaker 1: you can get fired for snarky tones if you're uh,
Speaker 1: if your owners don't like it. You don't get booted
Speaker 1: out because of government pressure for snarky tones. And was
Speaker 1: there government pressure from the FCC. Some of you are
Speaker 1: claiming there isn't. I would say that there is. It's
Speaker 1: one of the elements in this whole story. There are
Speaker 1: many elements in the whole story that I'm going to
Speaker 1: pull all together. Let's start with Brendan Carr of the
Speaker 1: FCC was on a different talk show. Uh said this
Speaker 1: this thirty seven Michael. You know, when you look.
Speaker 7: At the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel,
Speaker 7: it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible. Frankly,
Speaker 7: when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we
Speaker 7: can do this the easy way or the hard way.
Speaker 7: These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take
Speaker 7: action frankly on Kimmel, or you know, there's gonna be
Speaker 7: additional work for the FCC ahead, a very reasonable minimal
Speaker 7: step that can be taken. I mean obvious, Look, there's
Speaker 7: calls for kim will be fired. I think you know,
Speaker 7: you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.
Speaker 7: And again you know the FCC is going to have
Speaker 7: remedies that we could look at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you got the commissioner of the FCC threatening
Speaker 1: threatening pretty plainly. It seems to me of sort of
Speaker 1: fines or taking a look at your license if you're
Speaker 1: a broadcaster, if you're airing these kinds of shows. I mean,
Speaker 1: that seems pretty clear to me that he was threatening
Speaker 1: and that is one hundred percent violation of the First Amendment,
Speaker 1: which is Congress shill you know, a pass no law
Speaker 1: or not infringe on free speech. That is the government
Speaker 1: infringing on free speech to pressure these various organizations that
Speaker 1: they could lose their license if they're airing Jimmy Kimmel
Speaker 1: or at least threatening it. That's just one element of it.
Speaker 1: The other element of it is Kimmel's ratings, like all
Speaker 1: late night ratings have gone down, down, down, down. He
Speaker 1: had made the decision a long time ago, is I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pick one side and demonize the other side. So
Speaker 1: he cut out half of America. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of ABC stations in Red America, lots of them whose
Speaker 1: audience have no interest in watching that show, and the
Speaker 1: people who own it in that town know it that
Speaker 1: that show's just a dead spot for them because nobody
Speaker 1: in their audience in where they live is going to
Speaker 1: watch the dang thing. And they've been airing into all
Speaker 1: these years. We'll get to the new reality here in
Speaker 1: just a second. But so some of those stations said
Speaker 1: we're gonna drop Kimmel. They've got their own viewers to
Speaker 1: deal with. And then there's part of a deal merger
Speaker 1: buyout thingy that's happening with ABC and a bunch of
Speaker 1: affiliates and all that sort of thing that can get
Speaker 1: hung up if the FCC jumps in. There's just a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of elements here. I understand some of my
Speaker 1: favorite conservative pundits are only concerned about the FC what
Speaker 1: the FCC commissioner said, because you're getting to free speech territory.
Speaker 1: And I understand that too. I just think it's worth
Speaker 1: pointing out that there's a bunch of elements involved. I
Speaker 1: think if Kimmel's ratings were good, even if he said
Speaker 1: these outlandish things, he would have been safe. His ratings
Speaker 1: are not good. Oh and by the way, that thing
Speaker 1: he's saying is ridiculous that the guy's clearly maga. MAGA
Speaker 1: is trying to make it seem like this guy isn't maga.
Speaker 1: This shooter, he's clearly not MAGA. I mean, that's just
Speaker 1: a nuts position. I don't think you should get booted
Speaker 1: off there for having a nuts position. But that's a
Speaker 1: nuts position again, unless your owner thinks you should get
Speaker 1: booed off. These are completely different things, whether the government's
Speaker 1: telling you should leave or your owner thinks, you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't think is good for our audience anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are different things.
Speaker 4: A lot of the Sinclair stations I'm seeing are going
Speaker 4: to be airing a Charlie Kirk special in Jimmy Kimmel's
Speaker 4: time slot on Friday. That's interesting, which I'm taking a
Speaker 4: lot of joy from.
Speaker 1: So Mark Alpern wrote a really long piece about this,
Speaker 1: and I just picked out some parts of it. The
Speaker 1: complaint from the left is that it's very straightforward. A
Speaker 1: comedian is out because politics collide with television, but that
Speaker 1: completely allides a second reality. For years, broadcast networks shoved
Speaker 1: a one sided cultural sermon, and that's what it was,
Speaker 1: a sermon into living rooms and told the other half
Speaker 1: of the country to smile through it. ABC ran two
Speaker 1: daily hours, The View and Kimmel that treated Trump with
Speaker 1: unrelieved hostility and insultingly treated Trump voters as a punchline.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for reasons, tens of millions migrated into
Speaker 1: the former president's camp steady. That steady contempt is perhaps
Speaker 1: as good an exhibit a as you will find. That's
Speaker 1: just a reality. In my opinion, they are clueless. The
Speaker 1: culture war is no longer a one way battle for
Speaker 1: decad aids. The left held the megaphone late night award
Speaker 1: shows prestige dramas. Oh that's right, all your dramas that
Speaker 1: have been on for years that were always so far left,
Speaker 1: whether you're watching you know, Knots of Landing or Dynasty
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. Over the years, I always had
Speaker 1: this left bent to them. Streaming algorithms, the rights tools
Speaker 1: were talk radio on a few corners of cable news.
Speaker 1: But this is a different time. It requires an entertainment
Speaker 1: industry that remembers it is a business, not a ballot
Speaker 1: initiative or a propaganda operation. You want the broadest audience
Speaker 1: in a fractured country, try something radical. Respect them, not
Speaker 1: with forced neutrality or merely both side scripts, but with
Speaker 1: a simple rule, no nightly contempt for the people who
Speaker 1: pay the bills. If Disney wants to keep Kimmel, it can.
Speaker 1: It just has to own the choice and carry the cost.
Speaker 1: If it wants to win back affiliates and viewers, it
Speaker 1: might ask why the mock the rubs format feels tired
Speaker 1: at best and hostile at most outside of your hostal
Speaker 1: zip codes. And then finally this the mousehouse topper, that's
Speaker 1: what he calls Eiger, the guy who runs Disney ABC
Speaker 1: more than most Hollywood liberals knows what time it is
Speaker 1: willing to outrage many of his own employees and constituents
Speaker 1: to try to stay one step ahead of the new reality.
Speaker 1: We are watching something unprecedented set in motion by both
Speaker 1: Trump's reelection and the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It is
Speaker 1: possible Kimmel will return to the air, and he certainly
Speaker 1: won't leave the metaphoric stage without a fight. But we
Speaker 1: have not seen the last of this whirlwind. As much
Speaker 1: social and political change as Kirk manifested in life, more
Speaker 1: upheaval is clearly being caused by his death. That is
Speaker 1: Mark Alprin writing to the point that and he does
Speaker 1: have paragraphs in there about the FCC leaning on these stations,
Speaker 1: which is a part of the mix. But there's no
Speaker 1: getting around the fact that d'aul the era of the
Speaker 1: left owning all of the culture institutions and being able to,
Speaker 1: you know, talk to us the way they talk to us,
Speaker 1: and we had to put up with it. It's just over.
Speaker 1: Audiences have got other things to do. They're going to boycott.
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of different things that can happen. Now.
Speaker 1: The reason I hate, and I'll say it for the
Speaker 1: fifth time, but I think it's important enough. The reason
Speaker 1: I hate the idea of the FCC leaning on any
Speaker 1: ABC affiliates for carrying Kimmel is because it's not always
Speaker 1: going to be Trump or a Republican president. There's going
Speaker 1: to be a Democrat president, Gavin Newsom. You could absolutely
Speaker 1: picture Gavin Newsom putting in an FCC commissioner that comes
Speaker 1: out and says talk radio is causing division in this country.
Speaker 1: The latest violence, and there will always be some violence
Speaker 1: to point to the latest violence is a direct result
Speaker 1: of out of control right wing talk radio. And we're
Speaker 1: going to take a long look at the licenses of
Speaker 1: these stations who air shows like and they'll name a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of them, maybe even including Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to live in that world either.
Speaker 1: So that I think is the totality of the whole story.
Speaker 1: Oh Kimmel is a smug ass hat, amen to that.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, he's hard to take and he's just
Speaker 1: so fake, you.
Speaker 4: Know, with the crying and the you know, that whole
Speaker 4: spiel he went.
Speaker 3: On after Trump got elected this last time around for
Speaker 3: the women and the children, the sick, and it's like,
Speaker 3: just shut up, Shut up. Do you want to hear
Speaker 3: a clip from Johnny Carson talking about Late Night?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to get this on. This is Johnny
Speaker 1: Carson on sixty minutes back in the day.
Speaker 11: Oh tell me the last time that Jack Benny red
Speaker 11: Skelton Benny comedian used his show to do serious issues.
Speaker 11: That's not what I'm there for.
Speaker 4: Can't they see that?
Speaker 11: But you and I do they think that just because
Speaker 11: you have it Tonight's show, that you must deal in
Speaker 11: serious issues. That's a danger. It's a real danger. Once
Speaker 11: you start that, do you start to get that self
Speaker 11: important feeling. That's what you say has great import and
Speaker 11: you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as
Speaker 11: a form you could sway people, and I don't think
Speaker 11: you should. Asn't entertainment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, Kimmel and Colbert have made a lot of
Speaker 1: money for themselves and for a while, quite a bit
Speaker 1: of money from the networks. But that's over. You stuck
Speaker 1: your thumb in the eye of probably more than half
Speaker 1: the country, yep. And then you got the competition from
Speaker 1: all these different things. You just slice the pie down
Speaker 1: to the part that you know. I'm sorry, Jimmy Kimmel
Speaker 1: and Stephen Colbert, nobody, there aren't enough people to give
Speaker 1: a crap about your sermons. I thought that was a
Speaker 1: good term, your sermons every night about what's wrong with
Speaker 1: those of us who don't agree with you. That there's
Speaker 1: no money in it. There's not enough money in it
Speaker 1: to support your very very expensive shows, that's for certain.
Speaker 1: Oh right, So Jimmy Fallon. Good for him. He by
Speaker 1: far tried to stay out of one sided politics the most,
Speaker 1: and he's the one left standing. He might really benefit
Speaker 1: from this because if he ends up being the only
Speaker 1: talk show Joe thinks Kimmel's coming back. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I believe that or not, but if Fallon ends
Speaker 1: up being the only talk show, he'll get, you know,
Speaker 1: the big star promoting the movie every time because there's
Speaker 1: no other show to go on. Right, it's just so annoying.
Speaker 3: Well, and I liked to what Carson said there. I mean, like,
Speaker 3: that's not what they're there for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, such a different era though in all kinds of
Speaker 1: different ways. For one thing, Johnny Carson, I forget what
Speaker 1: the number was. I looked this up after Colbert lost
Speaker 1: his job, but I think it was twenty percent Carson's
Speaker 1: show alone was twenty percent of NBC's revenue. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: I mean so he was a big flip and deal
Speaker 1: and his ratings were huge, and so he wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to as much of America as he could. Now
Speaker 1: you got it sliced into a tiny little group of
Speaker 1: people agree with your whining sermons every single night, and
Speaker 1: those shows are actually losing money. So it's just a
Speaker 1: different things. And came up with a great idea on
Speaker 1: how I should handle my Ukrainian girlfriend email pen pal.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about that next.
Speaker 6: Armstrong.
Speaker 1: And so we talk a lot about scams online scams
Speaker 1: here on the radio show, and they get hot or whatever.
Speaker 1: This is. This is an old one. The somebody who
Speaker 1: as you're especially for men, I suppose. I guess it
Speaker 1: works both ways. Yeah, I've heard it work both ways
Speaker 1: men and women. Somebody gets your email address from who
Speaker 1: knows where, because we've all been hacked ten different ways
Speaker 1: by different The experience or whatever company got hacked and
Speaker 1: all your information got out, so so many people have
Speaker 1: your email address. So somebody in Russia, Iran or whatever
Speaker 1: has been sending me these emails claiming to be some
Speaker 1: young Ukrainian hottie who has fallen in love with me
Speaker 1: without having having met me or seen me or whatever.
Speaker 4: And I like, I like Michael Agelo's suggesting that it's
Speaker 4: Joel prank on you anyway.
Speaker 1: And so she'd been emailing me and I finally responded yesterday.
Speaker 1: And I've been waiting for the Where are they trying
Speaker 1: to get money out of me?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the crisis.
Speaker 1: So she's had links. I haven't clicked on the links.
Speaker 1: She's now unhappy that I'm not emailing her back enough. Hi,
Speaker 1: my dearest sweetheart, Jack, Thank you so much for your
Speaker 1: wonderful letter. My response was was my response yesterday. It
Speaker 1: was very short. There's something like nice talking.
Speaker 4: To you, something about you've been thinking about her all day?
Speaker 1: Right right right? I woke up thinking about you. I think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was it, And she said it's a bot. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your wonderful letter. Your letter was
Speaker 1: a real present for me to do.
Speaker 6: Jack.
Speaker 1: Why don't you write me every day? If you're thinking
Speaker 1: about me? It would be impossible for us to build
Speaker 1: a happy relationship if we do not talk to each
Speaker 1: other every day. If he did not answer my letters,
Speaker 1: my sweet precious diamond Rose, or all these different things.
Speaker 1: She calls me. She sounds that is true. Oh my god, yes,
Speaker 1: clingiest of all. But so I've been waiting for the
Speaker 1: Uh my landlord says he's going to kick me out
Speaker 1: if I don't pay my rent. And I just lost
Speaker 1: my job. If you could just send me one month's rent,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I can find a new job. But my darling,
Speaker 1: love sweet Rose, I you know I love you so much,
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah. But she hasn't asked for money yet. Well, Hanson,
Speaker 1: our executive producer, came up with the idea I should
Speaker 1: ask her for money first. That is which I think
Speaker 1: is really hilaricous.
Speaker 3: That's the winner, right there?
Speaker 1: Did email her back? I know you're in war torn
Speaker 1: Ukraine and I'm here in perfectly comfortable United States of America.
Speaker 3: Oh, she already told you she was safe.
Speaker 1: Remember, I don't know if she's fine. What do I
Speaker 1: need money for? Have I been thrown in jail? Do
Speaker 1: I have a health problem? Did my car break down?
Speaker 1: What should I tell her? I need money for?
Speaker 3: You want to come see her?
Speaker 8: All right?
Speaker 1: I want to come see you, But now is a
Speaker 1: bad time for me. I didn't have the money. If
Speaker 1: you can just send me eight hundred dollars. I'm sure
Speaker 1: I could come see you and my darling love Princess
Speaker 1: could be together forever.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, please do this.
Speaker 1: See how it goes.
Speaker 11: Well, there's Jocko.
Speaker 3: And Michael Langelo there.
Speaker 11: My radio, so let's hear their finals before they have
Speaker 11: to go.
Speaker 1: That's creepy.
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I hate that one. I hate that.
Speaker 1: Here's your host for final thoughts.
Speaker 7: Me.
Speaker 1: Let's get a final thought from our executive director, Michaelangelou.
Speaker 1: Press on the button.
Speaker 8: Sorry, you know, I'm picturing a drunk Joe Getty's sitting
Speaker 8: around a computer with his golf buddy's saying, yeah, I've
Speaker 8: done this for years.
Speaker 1: He falls for it every time.
Speaker 2: Look at this.
Speaker 4: Guys called him a precious diamond and they all just
Speaker 4: start laughing.
Speaker 1: That's so good. Oh man, Uh, there is uh Katie
Speaker 1: Katie the news Lady, Katie Green. What's your final thought?
Speaker 4: I really hope that this flip that you're gonna pull
Speaker 4: with these emails works out. And I really want some screenshots.
Speaker 4: We need to make a whole thing about this on
Speaker 4: the website and on social media, all of it.
Speaker 1: I do wonder how the bot or the hacker or
Speaker 1: whoever it is is going to respond. I asked them
Speaker 1: for money. What do we see now? This has never
Speaker 1: happened before. I'm going camping with my son this weekend,
Speaker 1: and I'm not much of a camper. I love camping.
Speaker 1: I just I just I don't know. I've never dedicated
Speaker 1: time to figuring out how to do it or whatever.
Speaker 1: I mean. We got a tent, we got a cooler,
Speaker 1: we got a little cookstove. I got some Hamburger buns
Speaker 1: and some Hamburger. Do I need anything else? Flashlight, sleeping bags? Yeah,
Speaker 1: hoping not to get attacked by bears. I'll let you
Speaker 1: know how it goes. On Monday. Armstrong and Getty wrapping
Speaker 1: up another grueling four hour workday. So many people to thank.
Speaker 1: That'd be everybody who works on the show and everybody
Speaker 1: who listens. You should go to our website Armstrong and
Speaker 1: Getty dot com, or you can buy swag and see
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff we were talking about on
Speaker 1: hot links. And I hope your darling Diamond Rose sends
Speaker 1: you a lovely email this weekend. Also see you Monday.
Speaker 1: God bless American. I'm strong and get take There so many.
Speaker 11: Great moments on today's Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 6: You know that I've got plenty of flocks somewhere and
Speaker 6: who knows what.
Speaker 1: They are, because they have this annual event here which
Speaker 1: which for journalistic purposes I need to go visit, which
Speaker 1: is called Octoberfest. So do you have TikTok on your phone?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 1: No, me, neither, and I can't.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 6: I vaguely know what it is.
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty