Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - No Spin News - Weekend Edition - May 16, 2025

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

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Seamanmobile.com. Welcome to the NoSpin News Weekend Edition. Not much happened in Saudi Arabia today. President had a briefing, but he didn't say anything differently. Ryan can't get a nuke, and we're making all kinds of deals. So on the table is $600 million from Saudi Arabia, billion, I should say, $600 billion. The biggest part of that is U.S. defense firm contracts. All right, so the sultans are going to buy a lot of arms from us.

and then $20 million in AI they're going to buy from us, and then all kinds of other stuff. So $600 billion of deals that the Saudi is going to buy from the USA. And it's a good thing. I know a lot of people don't like Saudi Arabia. I'm not crazy about it, but if they're going to spend that kind of money, okay. Let's get another perspective on this. I've been bloviating too long here.

Let's bring in Edward Gigerian from the Kennedy School at Harvard, up in Cambridge Massachusetts. He is a former U.S. ambassador to Israel appointed by President Clinton. Before that, Ambassador to Syria appointed by Ronald Reagan. Now, that can't ever happen again. So the professor is in a unique position. A Democrat appoints a very important position, Israel, after a Republican, appointed him to Syria. But you never get that now because the two parties are so far apart.

All right, my analysis, Professor, did I make any mistakes here? No, I don't think you're getting any mistakes, Bill. I think you've characterized President Trump's modus operandi on foreign policy, I think, pretty well. He's, as we know, a transactional president. He's not a intellectual strategy president like Richard Nixon. But I like to define his methodology bill as disruptive or constructive uncertainty. What do I mean by that? He throws out a lot of ideas, as we've seen, on domestic policy and foreign policy.

and some of them really seem to be totally wild. But then it causes in the interlocutor, be it a country or another leader, it puts the interlocutor he's dealing with immediately on the back foot. How am I going to respond to this? And it sort of softens him up for the deal. And then he negotiates the deal, as we've seen on the tariffs with China.

You know, we've gone down from 145% down to 30% and the Chinese are putting in 10% against us. And this is his methodology throughout. And I think that's his methodology. I think his principled approach is America first in all dimensions and domestic and foreign policy. What's good for America's prosperity, security, et cetera. And then the other thing I think is very important,

And I may be dead wrong on this, but I really think inherently that Trump is adverse, adverse to America's engagement in foreign wars, the Vietnam, the Afghanistan, the Iraq wars. And he doesn't want, under his watch, to be an American president that is mired in yet another, for example, Middle East War. And this, I think, is really critical because when you look at the team he's put, together, it's really, it's really hard line. Well, I won't call them neocon. Let me jump in. Let me jump in, because I know something about this personally.

You're absolutely right, 100% right. Trump doesn't want any arm conflict. You know, he'll threaten. He'll be bellicose. Yeah, we're going to go invade Panama or going to do this guy. But he doesn't want to do it. He won't do it unless we're attacked. And the proof here this week is, that he went to the Gulf without consulting Netanyahu in Israel at all.

And Netanyahu is an armed confrontation guy. He wants to wipe out every Hamas, Hezbollah terrorists that he can find. Trump doesn't want that. And that's one of the reasons he got the hostage out. Now many people know this, but I was directly involved in December last year in the hostage negotiations. And I can't really explain on television why, but there was a reason that I was involved as a private citizen to and and that was when a lot of the the hostage laydown happened not before Trump was inaugurated because that both

administrations were involved and as you know as former ambassador to Israel there's so many different factions over there working against each other that Trump is just it's blank this I'm going to do what I want, because I'm the big dog, and they're just going to have to follow in line. That's what's happening over there. I could agree with you. It's exactly what he did, and it's remarkable. There's such a body of public opinion in Israel pressuring Netanyahu to prioritize the remaining hostage releases. I think they're 51 now.

24 alive, they say. And I think that number is solid because Trump has sent a message to the Amos people. You lie to me. Then I'm going to let Netanyahu loose. So I think it's 24 alive. All right. I'm using this interview as a personal, and this is kind of like the gutter plane. This is personal to me.

I'm going to China in 10 days. And I'm meeting with a lot of Xi's guys. So I mean, I'm doing this, again, as a journalist, number one, but as a private citizen, number two, so I'll be carrying some messages over to Beijing. I have no experience with the Chinese. Can I be me over there? Can I just know spin it and say, look, this is the deal? Can I do that?

Well, I think you can. I think they've done their homework on you, Bill. Yeah, they invited me. They invited you. They invited you. They've done it on you. So that's a green light right there. No, I think you can be very open in your characteristic way with the Chinese. But if you're asking my advice, one thing I would do is, first, I'd listen to what they have to say, listen,

and convey that you know where they're coming from, you want to hear where they're coming from, and then you listen to what they say, and then you discuss that, and see if there's any common ground. I will. It's a Q&A at the Beijing Club. I don't even know there was a Beijing Club.

I'm glad it's inside. For every question they ask me, I'm going to ask them a question. That's what it's going to be. So I'm going to do exactly, exactly what you recommend. Hey, Professor, it's a pleasure to talk with you. I hope you come back. And if you see anything interesting, just let us know.

We appreciate your, you know, realistic view of the world rather than a partisan view. Thank you very much. You're listening to the No Spin News Weekend Edition. Now, on Air Force One, they're whipping around the Gulf, making deals. but not Reuters, the Associated Press in Bloomberg. Trump wouldn't let them on the press plane. Why? Because they're hostile to Trump.

And Trump takes that personally, and if you're hostile to him, you get booted off Air Force One. That's it. Now, I know some of you will write me and say, well, he gives interviews to ABC and something. He does that for a reason. He wants the confrontation. But believe me, if you criticize Trump and I do, every time I do, he's on me. okay hey

you know he takes it all personally there is a crew that monitors all this it is called Reporters Without Borders based in Paris

France and it is issued it's World Press Freedom Index I'm I'm reunying to my family because we're going to Burlington

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We are 57. Romania and Sierra Leone, Africa are ahead of us, according to this organization. Here are the worst countries for press freedom. Eritrea, that's in Africa, North Korea, communist, China, communist, Syria, Syria, chaos, Iran Theocracy, Afghanistan Theocracy, Turkmenistan Theocracy, Vietnam Communists, Nicaragos, Russia, you know, pretty much communist, totalitarian. So those are the worst, all right? So if you're a journalist there, and you don't want to be a journalist in Mexico either, you get a bullet right between the eyes. But the United States is, according to this report, by Report,

without borders, problematic. All right, let's get into that. Problematic. Joining us from Washington, Clayton Weimers, the executive director of Reporters Without Borders, USA. So what's the biggest problem we have here, Mr. Weimers, with the press? Well, thanks for having me, Bill. Really a pleasure to be on, but not a pleasure to be talking about how badly the United States has fallen on the index. RSF started doing this in 2002, at which point the United States was 17th in the world. Not bad. I think, you know, as Americans, we would all like that to be hired because we're so proud of our First Amendment. But we've gone in the other direction in recent years, and it's really been the past decade. We've seen a consistent backslide on press freedom in this country

across the administrations from both parties, Congress changing hands between both parties. So this really isn't tied to one particular political movement. It's really endemic of, I think, Americans starting to take press freedom for granted. I do want to take a step back and talk about how we put together the index. We measure on five categories of indicators, and we've seen a decline on all five of those categories in the United States, and those are economic, political, legislative, security, and social.

And across all five of those, we've seen declines in the past decade. All right. Give me a specific example of something that's horrendous in the United States vis-a-vis the free press. Sure. Well, the biggest indicator that's taken a hit in the United States, and frankly, this is true around the world, is the economic indicator. And I think anyone who's been paying attention in recent years, this shouldn't be too surprising because we've seen massive job losses across the news media. We've seen the consolidation of media companies leading to fewer. voices in the media landscape. And we're seeing the disappearance of small independent local news outlets. There's an estimate that on average, two local newspapers shut down eke in the United States. And that's leading to a situation where more and more Americans simply don't

have access to an independent local news outlet that is based in their community. Yeah, but you use the word independent, very few of these are. Now, I have the most successful independent news agency in the world by revenue. I mean, nobody comes close to us. And the reason we are successful is because, I mean, you could say that I lean traditional, and that's true, but we're not in business to prop up a party or an ideology. Most of the media in America is. They take sides.

and once that began in earnest, and it happened the Iraq war, Bush the Younger, that's when it really fractured when I was doing the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News. Once that happened, Americans lost faith in the media, and then you combine that with the technology where you can go and watch me any time you want around the clock anywhere in the world, on YouTube. So the state, well, one more time.

The stayed traditional media that was in the tank for one party or the other, they lost a lot of credibility and a lot of attractiveness. I think that's largely a correct analysis. The spread of partisan media, the kind of media that just tells you

what you want to hear. It has been a net negative. for press freedom. And by the way, it's a model that the United States has been exporting to other countries. And we've seen that become a big part of the media landscape in a lot of other countries around. But it was already there in other countries. Come on, the BBC. Are you kidding me? I mean, I lived in England for a year. I was already there. We didn't have to export anything. We can't force anything. Look, when you had the Dominion voting machine scandal, all right, where certain news agencies were basically telling their audience,

they knew that the stuff wasn't true what they were saying, and they said it anyway. That was it. That was it. It was it. But it didn't have anything to do with the Constitution. It didn't have anything to do with the folks. It had to do with these big media corporations that are going to say, we're going to make money, and we don't care how we do it.

Am I wrong? I don't think you're wrong. And I think actually there's an additional element here that has exacerbated the problem since what you identified during the Iraq war, which is the way people get information largely now is through social media platforms and it's delivered by algorithm. And these are systems that are set up to incentivize engagement, not education and propaganda. And they're set up to disseminate propaganda, right. And the only goal of the algorithm is they get you to keep clicking me. That's the fault of the people, though. They're not seeking the truth.

Many Americans don't want to know the truth. They want to believe what they want to believe, right? Well, I don't know if I would go that far. I have a lot of faith that Americans do indeed want to know what's going on in the world. Oh, come on. Come on. Clayton, you think people who sit there watch MSNBC want to know the truth or CNN or even Fox? 95% of people that watch FNC are conservatives.

95% it was 60 when I was there. You think you want to know the truth? Come on. They want to hear what they believe reinforced. You know that. And that is why the whole media thing landscape is collapsing in this country. Last word. I think that's a big part of it.

And it's hard to separate those things out from things like safety, which is what we traditionally think of as press freedom. when you have this diminished standing of the news media in the public mind, you're really lowering the bar for harassment and attacks. And that's one of the reasons we see attacks against journalists on the rise in this country, which also contributes to the United States falling on the index in terms of the safety score. You know, I'm going to bring you back. I want you to research the attacks on journalists in this country. If you would do me a favor, because I'm the most controversial journalists

in a country, I think. But it's an argument. I'm up there. In the beginning, when I started, I got attacked. I had people on my property, I have to have security. And even now, if I go to Madison Square Garden or someplace like that, I got to have a couple of guys with me. So I know what you're talking about. But I want to get deeper into the physicality and what you see as putting US journalists in danger.

That's a fascinating topic. And we appreciate your point of view, Mr. Weimarmer. Thanks to taking time today. This episode is brought to you by San Pellegrino Chau. A new kind of flavor of sparkling water. The kind made with real fruit juice, a pinch of Sicilian salt, and the sparkle of the Italian sun.

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I wrote a message of the day about this book, Let Them, which has been number one for like five weeks by Mel Robbins, a self-help book. And I don't read self-help books because I'm beyond help. And that's why I wrote the message of the day, if you want to check it out. But another Mel is a guy that I is desperate. I'm desperate to see what he does. And that's Mel Brooks, because he's the funniest guy. The producers in Young Frankenstein, you want laughs? those two movies

I know Blazing Saddles that a little crude for me but boy the producers zero nostalgia Wilder and young Frankenstein

so I got to have laughs so I was looking at the comedy landscape in the United States most comedians

are left-wingers but that's changing is a guy named Nate Bergaz or something And I looked at. He'd get a pretty good set. Clean, not particularly political. Jeff Dunham, the guy with the puppets, fantastic. That guy is so talented. But they're not liberals. And I started this. I'm taking credit for the non-liberal comedy surge. So I want to show you. You want to back it up, as we always do, October 7, 2015, Dennis Miller and O'Reilly. go now trump i got him a bumper sticker that said by other plane is air force one and uh he'll be the only guy who's going to be president and slumigan on the plane bernie sanders i'm sending him a bill

for half of what he has because if we're going to go down this row he wants way more than half he should start at that right give me half your stuff burney we'll go from there and i don't mean any of that bad pomade on what's left of your head here biden speaking a bad head hair i got him an eight by ten of william proxmire to remind them while his plugs are bad It can be worse. I haven't heard that name in about 30 years. All right, so Miller and O'Reilly, a huge hit. Okay, we went on the road, and we had a lot of fun,

and Miller's doing very well out in California. I think he's semi-retired now. So after that, then you had Gutfeld on Fox. You know, a very successful program at 10. He's very right-wing. You still have the liberal guys late night. you got Colbert, he's not even a comedian. I don't know what he is, but I don't know what he's doing there.

Kimmel, yeah, he's funny, but he's very left, too. Fallon doesn't care about politics. Fallon just wants to be in the band. That's all he wants to do. But if you watch the late-night TV, it's 90% left-wing, guess and point of view and all of that. But on the Internet, no, there are more and more traditional conservative comedians. One of them is a guy named Jeff Ahern,

Out of California, roll of tape. One book is even by former CNN anchor and Biden's sycophant, Jack Taper, called Original Sin. It details the cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline. Jack, you're one of the people covering it up. Watching you hunt for the killers of honest journalism is a little bit like watching O.J. Simpson, hunting for the killers of Nicole Brown. Another of the new books claims Biden needed a makeup artist on foreign trips. Not for TV, but to liven him up for in-person meetings.

You know, so he didn't look like he just rolled out of the coffin. Well, if you can put lipstick on a pig, why not rouge on a corpse? It wasn't every meeting, the less important ones, they kept him closed casket. Well, when a puppet needs the last four years, sometimes it's best to keep him in a box. Yet through it all, the mainstream media showed their contempt for viewers' intelligence, making excuses for the president and saying he was in great shape. Come on, he needed a Sherpa to get from one side of the stage to the other. Yet many Democrats still use the mainstream media as their only news source, which begs the question, who is more far gone?

Joe Biden, or those who, for four years, were willing to believe that he wasn't. All right, Jeff Ehern joins us now from Glendale, California, outside of L.A. He's a host of news on The Day on Rumble. See, I don't even know what Rumble is. I don't know, Roku, Rumble, Toku, tofu, I get. But I know that you're pretty hot. But you've been around 30 years. You've been around a long time doing stand-up.

Have things changed in your industry? Oh, yeah, very dramatically. You used to be able to just go out and do jokes and people would laugh. And, you know, it's pretty easy. You know, you just do your act. And then I live in California, so there came a time, you know, probably, I don't know, I'd say seven, eight years ago, where you literally couldn't say

anything that was not narrative-friendly. And if you did so, the club owners wouldn't book you. You'd have to play out of state. Other comics would, you know, kick you out of the group, so to speak. And the thing is, a lot of them held the same exact beliefs that you did,

but they were afraid to say it. So it's often interesting to me when someone is a leftist comedian. Are they really leftist, or are they leftist for the work, so to speak? All right, let's get specific, though. You've worked with almost everybody.

them all. You work with Amy Poehler and Tina Faye. You can't get more awoke than those two. Can't get more left wing. When I did my gig on Saturday Night Live, I walked in. I thought that Amy Poehler was going to throw up when I showed up. I mean, the look I got, like, what the deuce, who let him in, and why isn't security dragging him out? Both of those women are about as far left as you can get. Now, when you interacted with them, Jeff, any problem? The best coast just got better. Introducing Quantum of the Seas sailing from L.A. this fall. Conquer next level thrills on the boldest ship in the west, like flowrider surf sessions, bumper cars, and soaring 300 feet above sea level on the North Star. Plus more than

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No, no, when I, when I interacted with them, I was, you know, I was, I was on the left, too. I was, I was an idiot. This was, you know, when I was a moron in my 20s. And I was just like, oh, yeah, whatever. What are we supposed to do? You know, I just took instructions. I didn't think for myself. And then I got to the point where I started thinking for myself.

And I'm like, what am I doing? This is a terrible idea. You know, what do we, what are we letting criminals out of jail free for? What are we hiring based on race for? What, you know, to end race, all these things. Basically, everything that the left had as a narrative point. you'd look at intellectually and be like, this is insane. Was that a St. Paul moment?

Was that a St. Paul moment? Like lightning hit you? Or did that evolve over a period of time? I wish it was like a spontaneous, like lightning strike. No, it evolved over time. Well, just one more thing after another, after another, after another. I'm like, you know, I don't actually think for myself. I just sit here and I just do what everyone tells me I'm supposed to do.

If I actually analyze this and then it got to the point where I'm like, well, now where do I go to get my news sources from? because it's all basically just left us dribble, you know. But here's my dilemma here. I know what you're saying, but a lot of these people are very, very smart, okay? So Kimmel is no idiot, but he is so deeply ingrained, but it helps him. Because if you are a conservative comic or a traditional comic, your job opportunities in these corporations are far fewer. than if you're left, isn't that correct?

Yeah, they're almost non-existent. It's the status quo, and I feel like a lot of these comedians, I don't know, I think Kimmel is a leftist, but I feel like they've gone so far forward in that direction. There is no turning back. They've got to keep going. No, for them, there is a... But remember, Kimmel was on The Man Show.

Yes. Okay, and he was not a raving lunatic on ideology back then. He was funny. And he was way politically incorrect. He wasn't woke. I mean, my God, the guy was what the guy was doing. But anyway, so the industry in Hollywood has not evolved, has not changed. And I'm taking the three Americans concept out now with Stephen A. Smith and Chris Cuomo and me, which is a really good concept.

It's funny. It's sharp. It's this. It's that. But when we go out to talk to these people in Hollywood, I mean, they're living in a total. different world than the world that you and I live in, Jeff. They're not in our world here. No, they're in an insulated bubble.

And it's kind of, you brought up a Newsom, and it was shocking to me when I heard what Newsom's speech today, and how he's literally pivoting. He's trying to become a Republican. He's trying to. Well, he has to. He wants to be president, but that just shows you who he is. It just shows you who he is. Now, one of the guys who helped you do what you do, and I should mention that you do

five days a week political commentary that's a lot um yeah and you can find a jeff on rumble if you know what rumble is and that's just it nobody knows that rumble is well anybody under 50 knows uh you'll can find it anyway the uh what there was a turning point before gutfeld gutfeld was a big turning point you he made a ton of money for fox doing the right wing human yeah but norm macdonnell oh i i love norm norm mcdonnell was the first one who really say you know what this is a bunch of bull i'm going to play it straight as far as looking at the world the way it is am i wrong there no norm was ahead of his time and it was just that's why everyone loved norm because he just didn't care if you told them not to do something he would do it even harder you know

he didn't want to be pushed around but his point of view and i got to know norm before he died was very sharp but he just rejected the insanity on both sides final thing you see a guy like bill mar was really the only one now uh at that level on hbo and hboh is a very left-wing organization oh for sure he goes to see trump mar and says good things about trump the vitriol directed at mar unbelievable unbelievable right they know they know they're losing it and mar is just a

a flaming firework example of just how bad they're losing he's even like coming over to our side because he's like enough enough I can't do it anymore enough well you're not don't think he's coming over he's not because he knows where his paycheck comes from

he's tipping his toe in the water you know he's special mark he's a contrarian yeah he's a contrary that's sure but he'll stay where HBO wants in this day. He will.

All right, Jeff, when you get something that you feel is ridiculous, not just on the left, but just absurd, you let us know, all right? So I'll kind of treat you a little like Miller. I'll actually treat you better than Miller because I made fun Miller all the time. You let us know, and we'll pop you right in. We wish you the best, and thank you for helping us out tonight.

Thank you for listening to the NoSpin News Weekend Edition. To watch the full episodes of the NoSpin News, visit Bill O'Reilly.com and sign up to become a premium or concierge member. That's Bill O'Reilly.com. Sign up and start watching today.