The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | Guests: Bill O’Reilly & Megyn Kelly | 4/25/23

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Pat Gray joins Glenn and Stu to discuss Tucker Carlson, President Biden’s re-election announcement video, and what the next election may look like. Bill O’Reilly joins to share what he believes ha...ppened behind the scenes that led to Fox News dropping Tucker Carlson. Journalist Megyn Kelly joins to discuss why she believes Tucker Carlson was ousted at Fox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Man, what a show. What a week of shows, honestly, this week. It's crazy. Well, it's only Tuesday, so we've already done two. It feels like we've done 12. It does, doesn't it? It does. You know, we mentioned this briefly during the show, but I don't know if there's any place else so you can get the sort of coverage on the Tucker Carlson situation from the inside than you got in hour two of this program today.
Starting point is 00:00:20 Yeah. We had Bill O'Reilly. He's got quite a bit of experience with this kind of stuff. And Megan Kelly, and they, you know, they, they disagree. with each other on a lot of things, but they disagree with each other's analysis on what happened to Tucker Carlson. I see the truth kind of a little bit from both of them, but we all have Bennett Fox, left Fox, and we feel for Tucker Carlson deeply. By the way, they're saying that he's going to run for president. No.
Starting point is 00:00:54 Not a chance. That does not seem. Not a chance. So you get all your Tucker Carlson news. Also, if you'd like to dump Fox, I mean, I personally think Fox is over. Wait until you hear Bill's analysis of this. Fox is just over. You can't dump your only guy, really, and expect to be that flag bearer for a movement.
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Starting point is 00:02:56 you're here thank you so much for uh listening we were just we're joined by pat gray hi pat hi how are you oh man yeah glad you're here big day huh yeah i'm giddy today are you yeah me too me too me too um i'm I'm getting, not only because they have silenced the most dangerous man to ever be on TV. Thank heaven. Yeah. What a dangerous, dangerous man. Dangerous man, he was. But I hesitate to even say his name.
Starting point is 00:03:26 He's so dangerous. Me too. Well, I will tell you this. I learned from the Atlantic, his replacement is going to be worse. Well, look what happened when they replaced Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck after they were. were both forced out. Yeah. Fired.
Starting point is 00:03:44 Fired. Dragged in the streets. Bloody. Anybody else getting a little sick and tired of seeing that lie repeated even a decade later? Yeah. It really is. I can't take it. Anyway, so glad they got that extremist out.
Starting point is 00:03:58 But another extremist is coming. You know it to be true. One that's worse. Yeah. It's got to be worse. Just like if someone else wins the nomination, that person will be worse than Trump. Yes. No matter who it is.
Starting point is 00:04:10 No. No. already said that. DeSantis is worse. Especially if it's DeSantis, he's worse. Yeah. Yeah. But like you're telling you, if Nikki Haley wins this.
Starting point is 00:04:19 She's worse. She's worse. She's worse. She's worse. And he's worse than Hitler. Yep. Yeah. I don't know where you go from Hitler.
Starting point is 00:04:25 I mean, Genghis Khan was pretty bad. Well, you go to Trump. They've already said Trump is worse than Hitler. So now this person will be worse than Trump. Wow. That's weird. It's, it won't be said until the person wins. Wow.
Starting point is 00:04:36 No one is worse than Trump. All right. So anyway. Really? Yeah. No one. No one. Not Mao.
Starting point is 00:04:43 Not Paul Pot. No. Killed what, two-thirds of his country? Eidiamine. Not worse. No. Nope. Wow.
Starting point is 00:04:51 Ganguscon? No. Gengis-con? No. I mean, you talk about being in a fashion reminiscent of Gengis. You're talking Donald Trump. Wow, that is weird. Okay, so the president did what all, anyone who is running for office, public office,
Starting point is 00:05:11 you know, you could go the old-fashioned way of having a big rally and make a big announcement and have people, you know, screaming behind you and it's like, oh, and you know, hoopla. He went, I think, the much smarter way. He just made a commercial and released it in the middle of the night. Yeah, sure, counterintuitive a little bit, but that's what makes this guy genius. Really? That's one of the many things. Many things that makes him genius.
Starting point is 00:05:39 So now let's continue on with his announcement that was released in the middle of the night. Here it is. Books and telling people who they can love. All I'm making it more difficult for you to be able to vote. Yeah, that's what the Republicans are doing. That's what they're doing. There he is with Kamala, two of the most popular people on the planet. They're hugging people, sniffing.
Starting point is 00:06:02 When I ran for president four years ago, I said we're in a battle for the soul of America. Yes. And we still are. I haven't killed it yet. The question we're facing is whether in the years ahead, we have more freedom or less freedom. That is the... More rights are fewer.
Starting point is 00:06:17 I know what I want the answer to be, and I think you do too. He wants it less. This is not a time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for re-election. Oh, man. Because I know America. Oh, he does. He does. He knows it.
Starting point is 00:06:34 He's working class. I know we're good and decent people. Lunchback. I know we're still a country that believes in honesty and respect of treating each other with dignity. that we're a nation where we give hate no safe harbor. We believe that everyone is equal, that everyone should be given a fair shot. We do. Even white people.
Starting point is 00:06:51 Thank you. Every generation of America is faced a moment when they have to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote in our civil rights. And this is our moment. That's so great. I have energy, I swear. This is great.
Starting point is 00:07:23 We've got to call a lid at 9 a.m. every day. but I have energy to run three or four steps. No, it was 903 last week. Oh, wow. 903. He didn't all the way to 903? He did. He did.
Starting point is 00:07:35 Well, that's a hard work day. It is. He was probably working on this in the middle of the night. Probably. Okay, so that's the special, special ad. Now, let me just, correct me if I'm wrong. I think we're all clear on the Biden strategy. Here it is.
Starting point is 00:07:54 yesterday you read, he's not giving any press conferences. The fewest press conferences of any president, okay? Fewest press conferences. So he's not out there. He's putting a lid on things as Pat said at 9 o'clock in the morning. Well, Pat said 903. I was only going to give him 9 o'clock. But Pat gave him 903, which is the accurate time.
Starting point is 00:08:14 Okay, yeah. So here's the strategy, I think. Silence everyone who is against you. make sure there's no one that can say anything against you. Then no press conferences, no rallies, stay in your basement, silence your own voice so you can't screw it up. And hope Donald Trump wins the nomination. And then you're done. Worked for him last time.
Starting point is 00:08:46 Yeah. I think that is the same thing that he did last time. That's the strategy. That's a strategy. And the silencing thing is really a huge part of it, where it's not just silencing, you know, people like Tucker Carlson or opponents on social media, taking AM radios out of cars. Yes. They're trying to do that now. By the way, you should Congress is, do you have the text?
Starting point is 00:09:09 You should let Congress know you've got to put AM radios in cars. This is the way to silence talk show. Well, think about this. How long have we talked about this? what would our country be without Fox News channel and talk radio? Those two things are under direct attack right now. Yeah. Right?
Starting point is 00:09:29 Fox News seems to be changing into something else that is not Fox News. Yep. And they are literally talking about seriously taking AM cars radios out of new cars. If you want to get involved with this, by the way, you can text AM to 5286 until Congress we need AM radio in cars. We do desperately. Again, it's text AM to 522886. It's worth your time to do that. They've got a period here of a chance to keep AM radio in cars.
Starting point is 00:10:03 This is extraordinarily important, especially this is the way they've been wanting to get rid of talk radio. They've been wanting to get rid of it since the 1980s. They finally have an opportunity that doesn't look like it's political. It absolutely is political, period. It's political. The AM radio interferes with the electric circuitry of the EV vehicle. Yeah. And that could shut down your car.
Starting point is 00:10:36 It's a lot like if you have your cell phone on, how many times have you crashed in a plane when your cell phone's been on? Oh, man. I forgot to turn mine off one time. And you didn't turn it off or put in an airplane. Horrible fiery plane crash. Yeah. Over and over and over and over.
Starting point is 00:10:49 you see it. Same thing will happen with AM radios and EVs. Wow. Gosh, they don't want to. They just have to for our own safety. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So that's... So we got that going for us. We should also know part of the silencing strategy is silencing his opponents in the Democratic primary. None of them are going to get debates. I mean, again, Marion Williams. He's already said, hasn't he? They're not doing debates. They're not going to do debates. I mean, maybe if Gavin Newsom or somebody who is more of a threat came in. They would do a debate, who knows, but likely you will get no debates. And you will get very few words from the actual president.
Starting point is 00:11:27 He will do very, very little and try to avoid the spotlight because every time he talks, he's a literal embarrassment to all of the country. So this is the strategy. Hide in your basement and hope. And the reason, again, Donald Trump, who, by the way, they had the same strategy in 2016, didn't work out all that well for them. But the idea is everyone's made up their mind on Donald Trump. And there's a good chunk of the country that doesn't like him, as we all know.
Starting point is 00:11:54 And the media will be there to reinforce every one of those themes. And they will go down this road with a built-in 47% voting for them just out of default. And all they have to do is pick off a few people. They have to have violence from the right. They have to have it. It's the only thing because things will get so bad in the next 18 months. I really believe we are just an event away, just an event away from collapse. And they're not going to introduce this currency right away.
Starting point is 00:12:32 They're just going to let inflation just eat us alive. I was talking to Tim Kennedy yesterday, did a podcast. It'll be out on Thursday. And Tim and I were talking and he said this, this inflation, nobody knows. He said in a year from now, you know, when your eggs are nine bucks, it's going to be a problem. And he's watching what's going on. He's seeing that the dollar is losing its value overnight. It's losing value.
Starting point is 00:13:04 Already the price is what, tripled on eggs? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's out of control. Out of control already. And England is going through this. You know, just the regular British breakfast, which I think has blood pudding in it. So, I mean, you can pass on that one.
Starting point is 00:13:23 But I just read an article today. The average English breakfast is off the charts. I mean, if you look at the price of just breakfast over in England, it's almost a straight line up. That just ravages a country. Yeah. And unless they have riots in the streets, that's all anybody's going to be talking about. Well, and the gas prices are skyrocketing again, too. And nobody's really talking about that very much.
Starting point is 00:13:54 So what is the possible plan? And also, may I just say, when he says there's no such thing as someone else's child, as he did yesterday, I think that's a problem. Let me play this. Cut one. I could put a teacher's creed into words when she said, there's no such thing as someone else's child. No such thing as someone else's child. Our nation's children are all our children.
Starting point is 00:14:20 No, no, that's not true. That's not true. That's the opposite of true, though. Yes, it is. So it has true in the sentence. Sort of to the truth. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 00:14:32 Okay. Yeah, sure. Not true. Not true at all. And if, you know, if you look at where we've been, And the things we called crazy back then, in fact, this was said before. This happened to be said in 2013, and America went wild when it was a talk show host on MSNBC. Listen.
Starting point is 00:14:56 We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we've always had kind of a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven't had a very collective notion of these are our children. So part of it is we have to break. through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it's everybody's responsibility and not just the households, then we start making better investments. That is exactly what the president means when he says, you know, it's our collective children. That's exactly what he mean. Now,
Starting point is 00:15:33 when he said it, have we moved so far since 2013 that we no longer care about that? statement, that's the way it happens. But this is, of course, why the strategy is to keep him in his basement and not for him to speak, because he says things like this. This is reminiscent of what's his face, reminiscent of Jen Gis Khan and also reminiscent of the guy in Virginia, McColliffe, who ran and got on stage and said, hey, actually, you shouldn't have any input at how your kids are taught. That's the thing you're not supposed to say, right? He keeps saying the things you're not supposed to say. You're supposed to do those things as a good progressive. You're not supposed to admit them in public.
Starting point is 00:16:13 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program, and we really want to thank you for listening. Mr. Bill O'Reilly, how are you, sir? Hey, how you doing, Beck? Good. You know, I was talking to you, and I couldn't remember if you said this on the air or if you told me this off the air, but this is kind of what you said would happen if they settled or lost the Dominion case. You said you thought there would be a lot of house cleaning at Fox just because of the monetary. damage. Do you think that's what happened to Tucker Carlson? No. You know, it's a shame that we live in a country where the reporting is so lazy,
Starting point is 00:17:03 sloppy, and dishonest because of agenda. That's number one. And, you know, I appreciate you have me on the program. I appreciate your listeners, actually trying to figure out what's going on, because it's important. you know, the Fox News Channel led to Donald Trump being elected president. That's a pretty strong historical situation. Donald Trump would not have been president, if not for the Fox News channel. Agreed. So now that's gone.
Starting point is 00:17:37 I mean, Trump doesn't have that. He doesn't have that advantage in this upcoming election. So that's the big story here, other than that. of personalities. Now, shoot me the question you want to know about what happened, and I will tell you what I know, which is most of it. Okay, so then tell me the story. What happened? Well, the company itself is in turmoil, not because of the Dominion settlement. They can well afford the $800 million because of people like you and me, which made them countless dollars in the past. So they got a $4 million war chest. It was the future lawsuits that led to Mr. Carlson's
Starting point is 00:18:29 demise. And he didn't even know it, by the way. He had no clue. So yesterday at this time, 24 hours ago, the Tucker Carlson producers were in their morning meeting setting the lineup for Monday night. So all is a bull about, they made the decision on Thursday, last Thursday, Friday, it's all a bunch of crap. Okay? And I don't know. They might have made that decision.
Starting point is 00:18:53 No, they didn't back. Wow. There's only one guy who could make that decision. Yeah. Rupert. That's it. Yeah. Nobody else had anything to do with this decision other than to tell him.
Starting point is 00:19:04 Agree. Yeah. You should get rid of Carson. And Carlson didn't have a lot of allies because nobody does. There's no Tammy Wynette in. in television news standing by your man. No. Okay?
Starting point is 00:19:15 If the seas get choppy, you drown. And they'll help you drown. They'll throw you overboard. So, anyway, the reason that Rupert Murdoch made the decision was because his lawyers, Fox News lawyers are saying, we got a lawsuit by this producer who came in and taped everything. So what does that tell you? Tells you she came in with a, you know, perhaps a plan, all right? Not unusual in these days. I'll tell you what. It's unbelievable. It's happening in corporate America. But they have a lawsuit already filed in New York City. Apparently they have tapes that the lawyer for the woman says, you know, we might put them out there.
Starting point is 00:20:07 and those tapes do not make the Carlson broadcast look good. Number one. Number two, 60 minutes Sunday night. Who's there? Ray Epps. Hey, Ray, looking into the camera, go, hey, Tucker Carlson rule my life to wrap my family. It's a lawsuit. What do you think is going to happen now, Beck?
Starting point is 00:20:24 Lawsuit. You bet. You bet. Big one. Then you have Smartmatic. You've already gone over that. The other voting machine company, which really isn't that big a concern because they only had one county, L.A. County, that they did business with in the last election. So they'll
Starting point is 00:20:43 get paid off, and it's not a big deal. But then they have the shareholders of people that bought Fox News stock, that company's stock, and they're getting hammered, and they're going to sue people inside Fox News. That means board members. That means the Murdox. That means all of those people for fraud. And that's going to be massive. It's interesting to me that Black Rock just increased by, I think, 14% their holdings of News Corp, but they did it back in February. Yeah, I don't know if that's a good play now.
Starting point is 00:21:25 I'm not sure. And so all of this is kept from the American public. They don't understand the political implication, which this hurts the Trump campaign, big time. All right. And the business equation that was made, and that caused removal of Tucker Cross. It was, as they say in the godfather, it's business, not personal, sonny. Okay. So, Bill, how is this hurting the Trump campaign just because you think that this will really hurt?
Starting point is 00:22:03 Fox in ratings? No, because and I was there, I did the first interview with Trump after he announced he was running for president. In 16, the Fox News channel was very favorable to Donald Trump. And the ratings skyrocketed.
Starting point is 00:22:22 And he had access to almost every program to say what he wanted. I gave him the hardest time. But basically the whole operation was pro-Trump and anti-Hillary. Now, the operation doesn't want Trump to be president, all right?
Starting point is 00:22:42 And their viewership, already on the decline, and pretty seriously in the 25 to 54 range, as we discussed last time I was on a program, is going to be a free fall, an absolute free fall. They don't have anybody to put in at 8 o'clock. So that's the most key slot. There isn't one program on Fox News channel that's growing in the ratings. Not one. They have no bench. And most importantly, everyone who works there is frightened. So you do the math, Beck.
Starting point is 00:23:28 What do you think of, I've heard a lot of people are canceling Fox Nation because he was a big part of that. did documentaries, et cetera, et cetera. How do you think their online is going to do? Well, all I can tell you is that last night, Bill O'Reilly.com, picked up 400 new premium members. Yeah. Yeah, we're seeing an increase as well. I think people are canceling Fox Nation and canceling Fox.
Starting point is 00:23:58 I think there's going to be real turmoil. What do you think Tucker does? he's going to make a fortune. Do you think he has a non-compete in play? And if so, for how long? Well, it doesn't even matter. Nobody's going to hire him in the corporate media. No, I know that.
Starting point is 00:24:17 He's got nowhere to go there. His non-compete would include anything electronic. You can't do electronic? No. We absolutely can't do it. All you can do is direct competitor non-competes. So what he'll do is form, his own agency like you have with the blaze and i have with bill o'reilly dot com he'll do a roganesque
Starting point is 00:24:40 um podcast yeah and he'll make a bloody fortune yeah he will he will uh do you think he'll have the same impact that he had at fox well look this is what people don't understand again um the impact that television news has is maybe 60 percent less than it was was when I left six years ago. It's ironic. It's almost to the week six years that I left because the bulk of the balkanization of the news driven by social media and the availability that people can watch whenever they want on their devices has lessened the impact that the cables and the network
Starting point is 00:25:32 news used to have. So, yeah, he's not going to be seen on a channel every night. But I could argue that in my operation, since I left Fox News, I've had four number one bestselling books, tens of millions of dollars in revenue for my television operation. I've got 300 radio stations carrying my daily commentary. So you tell me. Yeah, I will tell you that our footprint now is bigger than it was.
Starting point is 00:26:04 was when we were at Fox, and we're having our best year ever right now. And it's just different because people are, there is no one gathering place. And that's the thing with cable news the way it was before. There was one gathering place. And you would see those on in bars and everything else. There isn't that now. And that's the only. But nobody's paying attention to it.
Starting point is 00:26:34 it because it's boring. Correct. Look, the reason that you succeed is that you're not boring, Beck. It's not because of your good looks. That's ridiculous. Yeah, I don't know that. Okay. But you put on a program that people tune in to listen to on the radio because they don't
Starting point is 00:26:52 know what you're going to say. You don't know where you're going to go. Carlson had that same appeal. So many most television news presentations, you turn on the show, you know exactly. exactly what you're going to get. Because you get it every night. With Carlson, his talent was that he would come after situations in a different way. Now, if I had produced his program, I would have required more discipline
Starting point is 00:27:22 and not because he got himself into trouble on a number of occasions when he didn't have to. Okay, you just had to do a little bit more reporting and back up stuff, a little bit more, but that's just not important. He alienated the corporate media. They got them just like they got me. I don't know about your circumstance, but surely over the years, you've had a lot of pain brought to you. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:54 And that's the bottom line on it. Again, these media corporations, whether it's Fox or CBS, NBC, they have no loyalty to anyone but the bank teller. Okay? That's it. No matter how loyal you are, no matter how much money you made them, no matter what the circumstances,
Starting point is 00:28:17 if they feel your liability, it's avalanche time for you. The best of the Glenn Beck program. Welcome to the one and only, Megan Kelly, from the Megan Kelly show. She does on XM Serious right after this program on the Triumph Channel 111. She also has her YouTube channel that you can watch her show every day, the Megan Kelly show on YouTube. Welcome.
Starting point is 00:28:49 Megan, how are you? Hi there. I'm great. How are you doing? Good. So I just talked to Bill O'Reilly, and his take on Tucker Carlson was that this, this is because of the threats of lawsuits. For instance, Ray Epps was on 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Starting point is 00:29:11 It's not only just to destroy voices, but this gravely hurts the Trump campaign as well. What is your opinion on what happened with Tucker Carlson? Well, Bill and I have had our disagreements, but he's brilliant. However, this is another disagreement. I don't think that Fox would be scared. by that Ray Epps lawsuit at all. And I also think all the reporting that they got scared by this Abby Grossberg's lawsuit, a disgruntled, fired former low-level producer for Tucker and at one point
Starting point is 00:29:46 Maria scared them even a little. She's got tapes, okay, what does she have tapes of, people on his staff saying things? Tucker was never in the office. Tucker works from his home, either in Maine or down in Florida. He's, I guarantee you, Tucker's never had more than one conversation with Abby Grisberg. So she's not going to have Tucker Carlson on tape. And even if she did, Glenn, Fox does not fire people over random nasty comments to a low-level producer. It's certainly not their number one star. That doesn't make sense. Now, Tucker's very controversial.
Starting point is 00:30:24 Tucker's in the news every week for yet another thing. it is possible Rupert reached the end of his tether for Tucker. And there are reports that there may be some emails in connection with the Dominion lawsuit that we haven't seen that Tucker, that they have in which Tucker lambasts people like Rupert. I also find it hard to believe that would lead him to fire Tucker because Rupert's been around the block. He's a tough guy. He doesn't offend easily.
Starting point is 00:30:52 Correct. But it is true that if they think you're getting too big for your britches over there, Oh, yeah. They're not shy about sending you a message. So at the end of the day, do you think that's it? I mean... I don't know. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:31:07 It's weird. Look, they do have to worry about shareholder lawsuits, which are coming in now in the wake of Dominion. You know, and it's not entirely Rupert's shop anymore. You know, he does have a bored. He has to answer to. I also think that if they have any desire to sell Fox News, and there's been rumblings about that, especially once Rupert is gone, Um, they're going to want it to be, quote, more mainstream and getting rid of Tucker,
Starting point is 00:31:32 would be a good step, getting rid of Dan Bungino would be another step. Maria Bartaromo might be another one, though I'm told Rupert absolutely loves her. So it's probably not an accident. She didn't go, even though they just paid out $800 million in connection with some of the things she said. So I don't know. Uh, but that makes sense to me, but I'm told by people who are in a position to know, no sale pending, no seller came the tires at the moment. Now, there is something else going on.
Starting point is 00:31:59 They're going into negotiation for their cable news contracts. I think that might play a role. You know, that always comes up, but it takes a lot for these cable providers to tell somebody like Fox, we're not going to carry you because of the controversial man at 8. I mean, you saw, like, when that happened to OAN, it was a big deal. And that was because the whole channel is controversial. But one guy, I just don't believe it. Tucker's too much of a draw with the audience.
Starting point is 00:32:37 And it would have to be a uniform position by, you know, direct TV and Time Warner Cable and all of these people, which it wouldn't be. Fox is too much of a moneymaker for the cable providers, too. I don't know what happened, but I do believe there's, No way it happened without personal sign-off by Rupert. So you left at the height of your career to go to NBC. I left, arguably, at the height, to start the blaze, which was crazy insane. Tucker is gone now, but I don't think he's going to get a mainstream cable network or show,
Starting point is 00:33:19 and I don't think he would want it. But now there's endless opportunities for him to make gobs of money, if that's what he's looking to do, and to have a real impact, just not with any corporation, right? Yes. He'll be financially even better off once he goes on his own. I mean, I have no doubt of that. If he's smart, Tucker will do a subscription show where he never has to,
Starting point is 00:33:49 to worry about advertiser boycotts again. You know, you always have to worry about lawsuits. You have to say factual, but there's insurance for that and so on. But I think he'd probably do a subscription service, and if he goes directly from Fox, he'll be well positioned to just crush it. I don't think he'll wind up signing up with a larger media ecosystem, whether it's the Blaze or the daily wire or I just think he's going to, if he does it, he'll do it on his own, just knowing Tucker. But look, there are certain tradeoffs, you know, having, you and I are in the unique position of having worked, you know, at the very, very top of this cable company and then gone off on our own. For sure, your influence wanes in some ways, you know. I mean, I don't know that Tucker's going to have Ron DeSantis personally crafting his Ukraine policy to please Tucker if he's hosting a digital show.
Starting point is 00:34:43 Right, right. You know, there's something about the Fox powerhouse that makes a lot of these politicians and bend the knee and Tucker in particular in that role. However, it's also the case that, you know, who's more influential? Ben Shapiro or Wolf Blitzer? Right. Like, we should go down the list. There are your voice, Ben Shapiro's right, Joe Rogan.
Starting point is 00:35:07 A lot of these voices in the digital space are much more relevant than 95% of the cable news anchors. So Tucker will have a bit of an influence drop in that way, but he will no longer have to do Fox's bidding. He will be able to cover whatever story he wants and whatever way he wants, and believe me, though the outside world might not know it. There were constraints put on him by Fox News, and there were things that he wanted to say that he couldn't because you're not allowed to shoot inside the tent. And he can be free now to just say whatever he wants as soon as he gets out is non-compete. I will tell you that while it doesn't seem like your influence is as big, something has happened to me on influence in the last six months. I was at a store before Easter,
Starting point is 00:35:56 a grocery store, and my wife said, oh, we forgot this. Can you go back and get it? I had to come back to the checkout counter, and I said, I couldn't get it. I was stopped too many times. And my kids have said, Dad, what's going on with you? Because I am, I'm being stopped so much now. Thank God in a positive way, because I live in Texas. But you just don't recognize the influence because it's not in one place. Does that make sense? Yes.
Starting point is 00:36:30 Well, I'll tell you the other thing. Ben Shapiro said this to me when I was trying to decide what my next move would be after NBC. And he said, you know, which is true, cable news is a dinosaur. It's dying. And only very, very old people are watching it. And he said, if somebody stops me on the street who's over the age of 50 and says, oh, I love your work, I always know they know me from Fox News. And anybody under that age, I know they know me from my podcast.
Starting point is 00:36:56 Yes. And I think that's true. I mean, the digital space is for tomorrow. It's much more forward-looking. Cable News has still got, you know, some loyal viewers for sure. but not to sound like I'm 200, but the kids today are watching digital shows, YouTube, and podcasts. That's how they get their news.
Starting point is 00:37:15 They don't sit in front of the television 8 o'clock at night anymore. That's why the advertising demo is dropping precipitously for all of these anchors. And so I do think for our ecosphere, where you and I now are, it's great that Tucker's leaving Fox because he'll be another powerful voice, probably in our space. And it's one less reason to tune into this stilted, let's face it, boring, predetermined way of programming the news that has to please Paul Ryan and Rupert Murdoch and Suzanne Scott. Why don't we have to please them? Why can't we just deliver the news the way we want? Well, you and I now can and Tucker's about to be there too. Yeah. Megan, one last question
Starting point is 00:38:00 on Donald Trump, Bill said this really hurts the Trump campaign because Fox was so important the first time around. I agree with him. I don't think it's any accident that clearly the Murdox have turned on Trump. I mean, just read the journal in the post if you have any doubt. Right. And Tucker was an important voice for, I think Tucker loves the Trump fans. I don't think Tucker loves Trump. You know, I believe that behind the scenes text where he was looking forward to like not having to cover him every night.
Starting point is 00:38:35 Right. But I think Tucker loves the Trump fans. And they know that at Fox. They don't have a more powerful voice who gets them than Tucker. And I don't think it's any accident. They got rid of Bungino. And now Tucker. Tucker's going.
Starting point is 00:38:51 There's not another person at Fox who gets the MAGA Corps the way Tucker does. And always has, by the way. Always has. Megan, thanks a lot. We'll look forward to your show here in just a minute. If you are listening to us on XM Serious, the Triumph Channel, 111. She follows this program, and she's always great. You can also get her wherever you get your podcasts or you can watch it on her YouTube channel.
Starting point is 00:39:16 Thanks so much, Megan. Appreciate it. Great to talk you, guys. You bet. Bye-bye.

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