The Eric Metaxas Show - Cal Thomas

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Cal Thomas has a new book, "The Watchman in the Night," that covers his extensive career in journalism -- and he weighs in on the state of the nation and culture today.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. They say it's a thin line between love and hate, but we're working every day to thicken that line, or at least to make it a double or triple line. Now here's your line jumping host, Eric Mattaxas.

Hey there, folks. I don't know about you, but Mother Teresa was kind of a hero of mine. I write about her in my book, Seven Women. But she wasn't really known for the work she did among the poorest of the poor until Malcolm Muggeridge, a spectacular British journalist who became a profound Christian, made a film about her called Something Beautiful. for God. That phrase comes to my mind now again, to do something beautiful for God. And in the loony, evil times in which we live, sometimes doing something beautiful for God is the only answer. People say, what can I do? What can I do? Well, if you can't think of anything more practical, just do anything that's an unmitigatedly beautiful,

thing for God. Do something for God. When you do something for God, it's a kind of spiritual warfare. In fact, it is spiritual warfare when you do something for God. So most of you who listen to this program know that a couple times a year, we reach out to you on behalf of our friends at Christian Solidarity International. Christian Solidarity International is in the business, except they don't make money, of helping persecuted Christians, Christians who are persecuted brutally, some of whom are literally enslaved for their Christian faith. Many of you have given to our campaign to free slaves, Christian slaves, in Sudan. We're doing that again this month, and I wanted to kick it off by having our friend Todd Chapman on the program to talk about it.

he's been a spokesperson for CSI, Christian Solidarity International for some time. He's very familiar with the work they do. I want to say it again, this is really important work. And we don't, you know, reach out lightly. We don't say to you, hey, give your money to this charity. This is, you know, to help the arts wing of the local museum. This is literally about freeing slaves. And the idea that we get to do that is almost unbelievable.

So that said, Todd Chapman, welcome back. Hey, thanks, Eric. Always a delight to be with you. Appreciate it. The work that Christian Solidary International does is almost unbelievable. I think most of us who live in the United States or in any place like the United States, we cannot imagine that there is slavery. We just don't want to think about it.

It's too horrible. And I always say to people, I want you to think about how horrible it is only because you have the opportunity to do something about it, which is itself amazing. I cannot free somebody from North Korea today. I wish I could. I don't know. There's no way to help those people except to pray. But in the case of those enslaved in Sudan and elsewhere, Christian Solidarity International has spent years and years and years building networks and relationships so that we actually can do something about it. So you could tell I get very excited about this. But I want to hear more about. about what is going on, how Christian Solidarity International does that.

Some people are new to the program, and they haven't heard about this before. I care about this deeply. So tell my audience, how does this work? How is it possible, first of all, that in this day and age, people are literally enslaved. We're not talking sort of people. We're not talking sort of. We're talking literally enslaved 2023 right now, while we are free, they're people enslaved. horrible to contemplate, but we need to.

Yeah. You know, as I read about the stories, and you can imagine, we freed over 100,000 Sudanese slaves since 1995, and you read their stories because every human being that we free has a story to tell about how they became a slave in the first place, and they're horrific. And there's a lot of common elements, but it's staggering to think that there are still, even though we've freed over 100,000 of these slaves, there are still, we're guessing, 35 to 40,000 more Sudanese slaves,

most of them women, but sometimes men, that have lived their entire life in captivity. And, yeah, you think, boy, how can that be, you know, here in 2023, but it is. And so we are relentless in our pursuit to free more people. We can't do it without generous donors like yours who make it possible. But, you know, just a little primer on history

how this happened. And so it goes all the way back to 1983, civil war, religious persecution in Sudan. And Christians were basically told you can't be a Christian in Sudan. And so they revolted against that. And they ended up the government got in cahoots with some Arab forces and raiders. And they were allowed to go in and destroy farms and take people captive, take them to North Sudan. And those are the people that remain enslaved today. Now, this is not an ongoing issue.

This is one of the most common questions we get. Hey, if we help CSI secure freedom for a slave, aren't we in essence creating a market for that? And the short answer is, no, you're not, because it's an ongoing problem. The slave taking was abolished, you know, back in late 90s. And so no more slaves are being taken captive. But what they failed to deal with in that legislation

to stop the taking of slaves was that further act to go ahead and free the ones that had been taken. So that's why CSI jumped into that space, you know, some 30 years ago nearly, to free those captives. And so that's the way we do it. We don't pay for the freedom of these women or kids and men with money. We actually exchange cattle vaccine because most of these slaveholders are actually cattle farmers, cattle ranchers, that live along that border of North and South Sudan, and keeping their cattle alive because that's their source of revenue is their primary interest. So we have discovered that we can get them this hard to obtain cattle vaccine, exchange that for a slave who has less value to them than their livestock,

and we can affect the freedom of these women. It's pretty amazing. It is amazing. And before I forget to say it, I want to exhort my audience. Folks, if you can hear my voice, that's you. To do anything you can do, $250 enabled. CSI to free a slave. This is a human being, an actual person, and to set them up in a life of liberty. This is not just to free them, but then to set them up in a life of liberty. To do that,

you have to go to metaxis talk.com. That's the website, it's my radio website, metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner right at the top. You can click on that, and it will tell you how to do this, or you can call 888-253-3522, 888-25-3-35-22. But what you just said, Todd, this is so extraordinary, and I want to talk more with you about this, so people really understand the reality. So it's like when William Wilberforce, about whom I've written a book, Amazing Grace, he set out to abolish the slave trade,

and he was successful in 1807. They abolished the slave trade, but they didn't abolish slavery. Slavery continued until in 1833, the abolition of slavery was affected. But you're telling me that this horror happened and governments around the world get involved and they put an end to this ability

of Muslim, radical Muslims, enslaving human beings. They say you can no longer do that. But if you have a slave, we're not going to do anything about that. You get to keep the slave. So there's a finite number of slaves. And there are enough people in my audience right now

that if they were to give what they could give, if everybody were able to do what they could do, we could free all the rest of the slaves. This is folks, I want you to get your head around this. This is like this is a fine. finite number. This is not an ongoing thing. We're talking about the Sudan.

We're talking about people who have been enslaved for years and decades. And we together have the ability to do something about this, which is itself absolutely extraordinary. So, because we do sometimes get letters from people. Well, wait a minute. I don't understand. Are you, you're, you know, you're going to pay to free a slave, but that's just going to incentivize them to get more slaves.

So we're here to tell you right up front. No, that's not possible. They are not able to do that. So we have an ability to do something about this. Again, I want to tell you to go to metaxis talk.com. Call 888-2533522. 888-253-3522. You can see the banner.

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with a few clicks. Visit legacy pminvestments.com to get started. You're going to love this free new tool they've added. LegacyPMinvestments.com. Legacy pm investments.com. Check it out. Folks, yes, I told you that we'd have Cal Thomas on the program. Now, I told you, before Cal was on the air, that I, you know, I've known him for a long time, and frankly, I don't like him that much. But as a favor, you know, to our mutual friends, I said, maybe I'll have him on the program. So, Cal, welcome. Well, thank you very much, Eric.

I must say it, another indication that standards are falling everywhere if you're having me on. It's true. It's actually true. I said to Albin, Albin, you're kidding. Not Cal Thomas. No, Cal, listen, I love you so much that I can joke with you. It's one of the reasons I do love you. We've known each other for a while, but not nearly as long as you have been writing and reporting.

I still can't believe this. Your book, the book we're going to talk about right now, is called The Watchman in the Night, what I've seen over 50 years reporting on America, Cal Thomas, America's number one syndicated columnist. Holy guacamole. How is that possible? Fifty years isn't what it used to be. Let's be honest. Well, I'm a lot older than I look. I guess it's persistence, you know, Eric, I'd never take no for a answer. I got started doing this column in 1984, the wonderful publisher of the LA Times, Tom Johnson, who's an LBJ Democrat, but a very fair-minded individual opened the door for me, gave me an opportunity, and the column just took off. And he was gracious enough to write the introduction, which I'm very happy about.

And, of course, you were in the reporting business, the journalism business. Parentheses, journalism is dead, of course. But back when it existed and when it was alive, you were in that business long before you even got the column. So, Cal, let's just, I want to start with your story because we haven't done that. Where did you grow up? And how did you find your way into the business of journalism? Well, it's a great story. And usually it takes about 30 minutes, which means I'd have to refer you to my agent for a speaking fee.

But just the brief mentioned. My father knew only one person in the broadcast industry. He had no background in this. He happened to be an announcer at the local NBC station in Washington. And when he found out that I was interested in this field, he introduced me to him. And the announcer took me down to the NBC News Department in D.C. And introduced me to people and said, well, we don't have an opening for anything now. But, you know, it fell out an application.

And then I did three weeks later, the house. head copy boy quit. I was 19 years old, and I got the job. And that was the start. I work with some really, really great journalists, most of whom came out of print or broadcast newspapers, wire services to broadcast. And they were huge influences on me. I suspect anybody under, say, 50 or 60 years old wouldn't remember the names David Brinkley, well, maybe him, Richard Harkness, Bryson Rash, Ellie Abel. All of these were really good writers. And they all wrote their own stuff, by the way, as I do.

David Brinkley wrote his own stuff. Oh, yeah, he wrote his own stuff. David Brinkley was the famous of the Huntley Brinkley. I mean, this was gigantic back in the so-called day. But he was a major, major figure. Yes, he was. He came out of UPI. He was a North Carolinian.

and he was a great guy. I think the best compliment I ever had, I saw him many years ago at a social function in Washington. I hadn't seen him in a while and went up to him to say hello. And he said, I read your column. Pause, you write well. Wow, that was like being called a good Catholic by the Pope. It doesn't get any better than that.

And he was the best broadcast. By the previous Pope, I hope you mean. Seriously, though, that's pretty terrific. So you've been in the business a long time. the column. I had the privilege of being mentioned in your column in 2000, and I guess it was 10 when my Bonhoeffer book came out. You wrote a column.

But your column was the number one syndicated column in the country. That is extraordinary, Cal, because there are a lot of columnists writing in this country were. Well, at the top, it was in over 500 newspapers, which is still a miracle to me. Of course, the newspaper industry is now in trouble for a lot of reasons, and not just bias. But we're still 250, 275, something like that.

And I have a high retention rate, which I'm very grateful for. People are very supportive. I go out and speak to groups and tell them, you know, they need to subscribe to their local paper. And if they don't carry them, call the editor, ask them to do so. And that's how I built the column initially. Well, it's extraordinary. So a watchman in the night, you're a Christian, so that has a particularly biblical flavor when you say a watchman in the night.

And then the subtitle, what I've seen over 50 years reporting on America. So that is such a long time. In a nutshell, and then we can go beyond the nutshell version. But in a nutshell, what have you seen in a half a century of reporting on the United States of America? It's a great question, Eric. And what I've seen is that human nature never changes. You can change clothing styles, hairstyles, modes of transportation. You can even change politicians in office.

But human nature never changes. And why I took that title is from a verse in Isaiah. The ancient Israelites posted a watchman on the walls at night to spot any invading armies or other threats to them. And, you know, without sounding too full of myself, I kind of see myself who's, doing that. I'm trying to hold to an old standard that always worked, a standard of right and wrong, a standard of good versus evil, which is being lost in our anything goes culture and generation. So we have economic standards, we have moral standards, or at least we used to, and they always work for those who applied them. And that's the standard I use when I look at events in America and around

the world. Well, what's interesting to me about the book is that you've laid it out chronological, So it's really like a history primer on the last, since you've been writing the column since 1984. You start out with the Reagan landslide, his second term in 84. You go into the Clinton stuff, all kinds of, you know, this sort of the greatest hits. But you were there every week, writing and writing and writing. Well, I'm from Washington, D.C. I like to say we're the only politicians with convictions are in prison. but yeah, I've seen it up close.

Wait a minute. That's a great line. Where did that one come from? Where the only politicians with convictions are in prison. When I go down to Orlando, Florida from Washington, I would say I'm happy to be here tonight from one Mickey Mouse operation to another. Well, you, you, there's a way I can link our conversation to the Marx brothers because what you just said, there's two ways actually.

What you just said reminds me, Groucho has a famous line in one of his movies. He says, you want to see my principals here? I have principles. I have principles. And if you don't like these, I have others. Basically, it's the same concept. But you and I were together.

It was the 96th birthday event for Kitty Carlisle Hart. And I remember I went there. she sang at her 96th birthday. This was at what? It was one of the hotels on Park Avenue here. And I went there with Dick Cavett, and I look over, and there's Cal Thomas. I've known you from long before that. But it's hard to believe that the woman who was singing was in a night at the opera, the Marks Brothers film from 1935.

So I just, I'll never forget that evening. I'll never forget seeing you there. Well, let me take a quick Kitty Carlisle Hart's story. Some years ago, I was attending the National. conference of editorial writers in St. Paul, Minnesota. And the gentleman who was heading it up, the editorial page editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, called me in desperation. I had another event that night. I wasn't going to go to this particular event. And he said, look, you've got to come back and help me out. I said, why? Well, our speaker who was supposed to debate, Kitty Carlisle Hart,

has been held up due to bad weather at the airport. And I don't have anybody. I said, you're asking me to come in and debate an old lady. Are you crazy? So, no, No, no, please, come on. You've got to help me out. Hold on. Hold on. Tell me again, what was this year, roughly? This was in the early 90s, as I recall. In the early 90s. And what in the world was the subject of the debate to be? Because she was once the head of what, the national endowment of the humanities or something like that? Right. There was a big controversy then whether federal money should be used to underwrite some of these agencies that featured scatological and other things.

anti-Christian things. Yes, I think you may be referring, I believe it's called PBS or NPR. So yes, that was a hot debate, and she was on the wrong side of it. Poor Kitty. Well, so National Endowment for the Humanities was another one. There were several agencies. But so I go to this thing, and she's already started her remarks, and she has her glasses down over her nose and a little lamp on the lectern.

And so when it was my turn, I said, well, before I, say anything about the subject, Ms. Hart. I want to tell you how much your late husband had met to me with his wonderful biography called Act One. And it influenced me so much in my early days of loving Broadway. Well, after that, I had her eating out of my hand. It was a great evening. And then later, she invited me to her, my wife and I, to her place in New York and showed me all of these original Broadway posters on her wall. Well, most people listening don't know, and we have to tell them, that's our job, Cal, that Kitty Carlyle married, Moss Hart, one of the very, very famous writers, Broadway writers of the 30s and four.

I mean, it's unbelievable. Anyway, we're going to a break. We'll be right back with Cal Thomas. The new book is called The Watchman in the Night, what I've seen over 50 years reporting on America. Don't go away. Americans have had it. They're done supporting companies that rake in hundreds of millions, sometimes billions of dollars, while crashing the country that made their success possible.

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Feel the difference. Hey there, folks. I'm talking to my friend Cal Thomas and you get to listen. It's kind of crazy. Cal, you have a new book out called The Watchman in the Night, what you've seen over 50 years reporting on America. We were just talking about Kitty Carlisle Hart. I don't believe she's featured in the book.

That's why we're talking about her, because people will buy the book, and they're not going to hear about Kitty Carly. So now is the time for us to talk about that. But you had the privilege of meeting her and getting to know her a little bit, and she really was kind of one of those iconic New York Grand Dame's, which neither of us is, let's be honest. Well, that's true.

One of the lessons that I've learned over the years, Eric, is if you want to get a hearing, you have to not just ingratiate yourself to people of a different political or social persuasion, but actually take an interest in them. It's why I counted people like Ted Kennedy as my friend. I got endorsements for the book from Henry Lewis Gates at Harvard, a friend of Obama,

and Pat Sejack, the host of Wheel of Fortune. So that pretty much runs the political gamut from left to right. But we spend so much time these days attacking each other and throwing rhetorical bombs at each other. We don't persuade anyone of the correctness of our point of view when we label other people and call them names. So I try to take the time to develop relationships with people on what we call the other side, although they're my fellow Americans. And that has opened up a whole new world of communication, listening by, by them and listening by me.

And once in a while, not often, I actually learn some things from liberals. I believe that was possible up until about six years ago, but thank you for trying. So let's go back to the book. This is really extraordinary because you've been writing these columns since 84, and you go down the list, and it really is the greatest hits of the past, you know, nearly 40 years of writing the column. The Clinton years were particularly dramatic, and it's kind of funny because suddenly, even those years, strike one as quaint in comparison to where we are now. You're absolutely right. And the book is kind of a diary. You know, it's not a column collection, but it's a diary of what I've seen. And you'll remember the Monica Lewinsky scandal, of course, which was broken on drudge. I mean, the media sat on this for some time, even though they had the story.

But now that would be seen as, you know, no big deal. Anything goes. Right or wrong has been thrown out the window, the standard by which we judge things. You have your truth, I have my truth, even if they are countered to one another. As long as they make you and I feel good, it's all that matters. So objective truth has been replaced by subjective truth, which is really not truth at all. I'm trying to hold to the old standard, not just because I'm an age. white male, but because I believe these standards work. And what I try to do is instead of

defending my principles, get the other side, the liberals to defend theirs. Wasn't my principles that gave us a $31 trillion debt, not my principles that have destroyed male-female relationships, not my principles that created 56 gender identification categories on Facebook and other in case they missed one. These are not mine. I think those of us who are conservative and Christian need to get off the defense and start playing offense. You can't score unless you got the ball. I agree with that wholeheartedly. But I think what's happened is things have become so divided, so the left has become, and I think Trump inadvertently caused them to go crazy and begin actually saying the things that they had been hiding or sort of ignoring,

and to be just full-throated crazy. So when you talk about the idea that men can become women, most Americans are quite aware that that's preposterous. And I think we need to be bolder in proclaiming what is obvious, what is true, because most people, when they're confronted with lunacy, they look around to see, does anybody see what I see? And the media has been particularly guilty.

in kind of going along with the narrative, whatever that is, which is, you know, I've made the case. That's how we got to the death camps, you know, in the 30s, is when people just go along, they don't say, hold on a second, wait a minute. And that's kind of where we are in America today, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And people are afraid of being denounced. Look at what's happening in this whole transgender movement, where you have male swimmers and other athletes, participating in women's sports.

Where are the feminists? Why are they not standing up for women? I mean, women's sports is a tremendous thing. Great achievers in women's sports, in golf and swimming and so many other things. And yet these men come in here, and they want to use the locker room, too, and they still get the male body parts, and they want to be called women. And the women are shunted aside. It's disgraceful.

But the feminists say nothing. You don't hear anything from them at all. Well, that's what's so extraordinary to my mind is that people are afraid. to challenge any narrative to speak the truth. There have been some brave voices. Martina Navratilova, God bless her, has spoken bravely. J.K. Rowling has spoken bravely. I mean, all kinds of people have.

But those are the kind of people you would have expected to go along with the crowd. So it's interesting. Things have gotten so bad that there are dissenting voices, even in what we would consider the left. They're saying, hang on a second. I've just got to ask you before we go to the break, I want to talk about what are some of the favorite things that you wrote about because there are so many to choose from in here.

When we come back, what should we talk about? I like when I read about 1997, the year of farewell, the princess Diana and mother Teresa, can we go to that when we come back? Sure. All right. Folks, hold on. We're talking to Cal Thomas. He has a new book out called A Watchman in the Moines.

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Cal, I mean, I don't know where to start. I want to talk to you about the Reagan landslide. I want to talk to you about Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. Can we start with the Reagan landslide? Because that was a big moment in America. I certainly remember it. Why don't we start there? Because that's when you wrote your first column in 1984.

Yeah, well, of course, Reagan was one of the most. optimistic presidents we've ever had, even in his last letter to the American people, when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He said he still believed America's greatest days were ahead. This kind of optimism is catchy. It's a wonderful thing. And recall that, you know, when he first ran for president, the media were completely against him, calling him a cowboy with a hair trigger was going to get us in a nuclear war. By the way, did that happen? Did Armageddon happen under his watch? I'm pretty sure it must have because they were so sure. that it would.

Actually, no, no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It was Barry Goldwater that destroyed the world in nuclear Armageddon. I always get that mixed up. Anyway, so Reagan was optimistic. He wins in a huge landslide in 84, just as Trump did three years ago, except that election was rigged. But so back when we had actual elections, Reagan connected with the people, and he was allowed

to have a second term. Yes, he was. And he inspired an awful lot of other people who still, were doubtful about America's future. Remember, this was still in the middle of the Cold War. He stood up to the Soviet. See, when they put Pershing missiles in Eastern Europe, the media went crazy when Reagan announced Star Wars,

as they derisively called it. He was going to build up America's military and crush the Soviet Union, which he did. Editorials, columnists were full of stuff. We were all going to die because of Reagan. Oh, my goodness, what are we going to do? And, of course, the thing about the left is when they're wrong, as they always are.

They never apologize or say they're sorry or issue a correction. They just move on to the next thing. That's what you're seeing now with the climate change Armageddon people. We're all going to be underwater in five years. Five years go by, we're not underwater. Okay, well, it's going to be 10 years. They keep moving the gold post.

And the same thing happened with Reagan. You mentioned a minute ago, Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. I was over in the UK when Diana died, and I was appalled at some of the coverage. They even had on these clergy with their cassocks and their crosses around the neck. Instead of talking about the shortness of beauty and the afterlife, they were talking about her work with landmines.

And when Mother Teresa dies at the same time, they practically shunted her aside. Here was a woman of real accomplishment. Here was a woman who actually benefited people by helping the poor. I always forget which one of those two who died, Mother Teresa or Princess Diana, which is the one of those two who famously danced with John Travolta? Well, it sure wasn't Mother Teresa. Oh, you're right. You're right. My mistake.

My mistake. I always get them confused, yeah. You may remember, I think you were there. Mother Teresa spoke in the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington and got up on this little stand and Clinton and Gore were on either side. She wouldn't come out until it was her time to speak. and she made an incredible pro-life statement. And the two of them, Clinton and Gore, were just looking at their water glasses.

They didn't even want to look at her. Well, listen, I have to. It was powerful. You know, I wasn't going to bring it up, but for sure, when I was invited, had the great honor in 2012, was speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast. I watched a bunch of the videos of previous speakers. And frankly, I don't know if I've ever said this on the air, but it was one dud after the other. They were so bipartisan, they were afraid to say anything.

Then I watched her. 1994, I was astonished. She spoke with moral authority. This was a holy woman of God speaking in a way that was not calculated to be incendiary, but the power of her words, she inspired me to say what I said when I spoke. She and none other. There was no one else that came close to speaking with the authority. that she did. She was not afraid to bring up the unborn. And because of Mother Teresa,

I brought up the unborn when I spoke. So it's extraordinary. Isn't it how some figures, because of their boldness, they inspire others to boldness. You mentioned Reagan a moment ago. You see this over and over. Well, you do. And I quote Ted Cople, the former ABC anchor of Nightline and a reporter in the book. He said once, that truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. Truth is a howling reproach. I always love that line. Truth has such power when it's spoken boldly as you did at the prayer breakfast, as Mother Teresa did, and as others do. I don't know why we shy away from truth. I mean, scripture tells us we're going to be attacked and persecuted if we speak truth, especially truth to power. But it's okay. Speak it.

Live it, proclaim it. It has a power of its own. It's interesting. Because we're talking to you about this book, A Watchman in the Night, brand new book, what I've seen over 50 years reporting on America, we seem to have figures in journalism who understood the idea of truth.

And I have to say, I really don't see that very much anymore, certainly not in what we call the mainstream media. They seem to have jumped on to the, the leftist narrative and seem to be apologists for the current regime. And when I say regime, I don't just mean this administration, generally the cultural regime in which we find ourselves. Well, a friend of mine says the greatest power the media have is the power to ignore. If you put, let's just say an experiment, if you put the Wall Street Journal and the Washington

Post next to each other, you would think you're living in two different countries. The one covers things that really matter, the Washington of the Wall Street Journal, and the other, the Washington Post is basically all opinion. Yesterday's, or recent, rather, front page, it was all transgender and the abortion pill and crazy right-wingers. And you look at the journal or the Washington Times, and you see something totally different. This is why I tell people to, you know, have a balanced media diet. Don't just go to one source for your information. Yeah, eat a little poison and a little non-poison. Read both. No, seriously, I can't imagine that anyone would. Unless you're a professional journalist who has some kind of obligation to read the Washington Post or the New York Times, in this day and age, honestly, I don't know why anyone would because they really, they've killed themselves. They've died by their own hand. There was a time when they were merely left-leaning. They are not. now practically fiction. We'll be right back. Final segment talking to Cal Thomas, the new book, A Watchman in the night. Folks, welcome back.

Cal Thomas, by the grace of God, is a friend of mine. And some of you might think, I'm just having him on for that. Wrong. Cal Thomas, if he were my enemy, which at times he has been, is someone who understands the world of journalism pretty much better than anybody. and he has written a book, a watchman in the night, talking about what he's seen over 50 years reporting on America.

Now, Cal, I just have to say it again because we were talking about it a moment ago. It seems to me, generally speaking, that journalism has died in America. Something happened. There was a time when I could watch CNN. I could read the New York Times. I have to say, with the advent of Trump,

they seem to have lost their minds. They seem to have convinced themselves, this is Hitler 2.0. All the rules go out the window, do everything you can to destroy him, because he is a threat to whatever version of democracy they claim to be interested in that day. So it's very hard for me to take, I mean, the New York Times are CNN. Seriously, that's an understatement. As far as I'm concerned, they are as Yale and Harvard are dead. They are no longer, they're drafting off of, or I should say, they're operating. principally on fumes. They are, they have a legacy, they have a name, but they are effectively dead. It's like Time Magazine, any of these great institutions, but they are effectively dead and

people need to reckon them as such, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, they become propaganda organs, much like some dictatorships in other countries. I just think that a lot of this is because of worldview. People go to these public schools and then these universities, they have a secular progressive worldview. They want to get into journalism to, quote, change the world, unquote. And yet, you know, I remember having Leslie Stahl on my old Fox show once and asking about the dearth of conservatives in the media. She said, oh, I'm sure we have lots of conservatives at CBS. I said, name one. And she went silent. She couldn't name one in a decision-making capacity. They're just art and they all come at the news or events with the same political and religious and social worldview.

everything the secular progressive say is good, everything a conservative political or Christian person says is bad. And that's the way they filter all of these stories through that prison. Well, but as I say, I think that they have essentially killed themselves. In other words, they were operating for a while semi-sphyxiated. But I really think that they're dead. I don't think that anybody can take the New York Times seriously. I mean, I saw it happen. I mean, the idea that I could read the Times through my own lens up to a point.

But once Trump came on the scene, what they were printing as news was clearly opinion, which to me is like strike three if you're in the journalism game. Yeah, that's right. It's all opinion now. They have opinion sections, but it doesn't really matter. I like to say that I read two things every day, my Bible in the New York Times, so I know what each side is doing. Ha.

Ha. That was funny. It's more true than not. That was good. Okay, so if people want to read your column, can they find it online? What's the best way for them to find it, you know, right away? Well, I would hope they could find it in their local newspaper. And I still think that especially newspapers out of New York and Washington and Los Angeles still have an influence and at least cover the local news in their respective areas.

They should write or call the editor and thank them for carrying my column. if they do and asking them to carry it if they don't. Or they can go to my website, caltomaths.com, and help with their sleep process by reading my columns and radio transcripts there. Now, I just want to conclude, you're not related to Helen Thomas. Not related to Helen Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Doubting Thomas, or Thomas English. Okay, all right, just want to be very clear, Cal Thomas. Cal Thomas, always just a joy to see you, to talk to you.

Thanks for being on the program. Ladies and gentlemen, the book is a watchman in the night, what I've seen over 50 years reporting on America. Again, Cal, thank you. Thank you, Eric. You're the best. Appreciate it.