September 18, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 4 of A&G features...
- Thane Rosenbaum talks to Jack Armstrong!
- Jack's Ukrainian girlfriend
- Jimmy Kimmel Live & the FCC involvement
- Final Thoughts!
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and
Getti and he Armstrong and Yetty. So this hour, in
(00:22):
case you haven't heard what Jimmy Kimmel actually said on
Monday Night, we'll play that for you. There's some great
writing by Mark Halprin today about laying out all the
different angles of the whole thing. Maybe you'd like to
actually hear what the FCC chair said that kicked this
whole thing off. So we'll cover that story pretty thoroughly.
A little bit later in the hour, we want to
(00:43):
welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Nope, no yet,
you're waving your arm Michael. He can just tell me
on the microphone what seems to be the problem.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, Hanson was talking to him on the phone.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, okay, well that's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So Hanson was talking to him on the phone in
a different room. You can't talk to him on the
phone here, all right, we'll figure it out. Can you
turn Katie's microphone on if you get a chance. Thank you.
I'm being censored, yes, yes, you've been silenced for things
you said about Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
No no, no, no, no, no, maybe things I said
to Jo Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, no kidding. So the long and short of the
take on Jimmy Kimmel for us is I just saw
a piece of somebody else wrote they stole they stole
my idea. There are like five different reasons Jimmy Kimmel
is not on the air last night or tonight. Part
of it is the FCC pressure, but part of it
is the ratings. Part of it is a merger that's
(01:35):
going on. Part of it is the unique political moment
that is Charlie Kirk being assassinated and people being very
sensitive to it. You got to mix all of those
things in. Part of it is the expense of his
show and how much revenue it was bringing in or not.
All of those things factor in, Like if he had
big ratings and was making lots of money, he could
(01:56):
have said what he said and survived it. So you
need kind of all the elements end up where it
ended up. But I still do not like the FCC
commissioner threatening licenses and everything over content. That is that
is no good and no road to go down. So
I need to either go on with this Jimmy Kimmel stuff,
or do we think we're gonna have our guest? Do
we know? I'll make a decision one way or the other.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I was told we're going to have him.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
We're going to have him. Oh well, I guess now
I'll do a little soft shoe dance until we get
our guest. Did Wow?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I didn't know you could soft shoot? Look at you go?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And I'm in cowboy boots?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Are you really well? You're always in cowboy goods?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Pretty much?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, Michael, how are you doing? This is where I'm
hanging in there.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We're hoping to talk to this guy, Thane Rose, wrote Rosenbaum,
who I'll set it all up and then hope we
get him. He's a CBS News legal alndlist and I
want to talk to about TikTok because he's delving into
the details on that. There is the belief that there
is some sort of deal that is going to allow
TikTok to continue in the United States of America, and uh,
(02:59):
there are there's different reporting out there as to whether
that's going to be the same TikTok that you know
and love, just under American owners, or if it's going
to be an American company, but with a completely different
algorithm that you might not dignare as much. I mean,
the whole reason TikTok people love TikTok so much is
that I've heard from people that are on TikTok that
(03:20):
consider it like the great the greatest algorithm's out there. Yeah,
but YouTube, what Facebook does and Instagram and all that
sort of stuff pales in comparison and the ability to
TikTok to feed you things that you like. I can't
imagine what that must be like, because like Instagram reels,
if I if I go on that thing at all,
(03:41):
I'm I'm there for half an hour. Yeah, it's just
so good at Like for me, a lot of it
is U sports highlights for things that it knows that
I will like and concert footage. Between those two things. Yes,
I go sure, I've never seen this clip of Bob
Dylan playing here in nineteen seventy six or whatever. Just
end up getting sucked into it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I watched a pretty fascinating well part of a documentary.
I couldn't take the kid anymore, but it was on Netflix,
and it was about this this good looking young kid
who went on TikTok, and all these women just fell
in love with him, and he's massive, and like at
one point they were saying, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You know, we'd like to donate to you.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
So he put his PayPal account on his bio of
his Twitter earth I'm sorry on his TikTok page overnight
sixty thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
And people are just sending him money because he's cute, yep,
because they think he's good looking. And I'm sitting there going, man,
you're cute. Here's a hundred bucks.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yeah, and he would he would go on there and
say like, oh man, I wish I had this pair
of shoes, and.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
They'd show up at his door the next day.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Wow, that I'm obsessed. Yeah, that is really strange. Okay,
we would like to welcome Thane Rosenbaum to the show
Now CBS News Legal. Anna, sorry, we had so much
trouble technical difficulties getting on. So what is going on
with TikTok? Is it going to this in the United States?
And is it going to be the same algorithm.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
So jacket we we won't know for another ninety days.
This is now the fourth attempt to stave off forcing
TikTok to end operations in the United States. Remember this
started with legislation during the Biden administration that essentially had
a you know, we're not interested in social media companies
(05:25):
that mine data of Americans that come from putative enemies
of ours, and that there was no sufficient insulation or
Chinese wall, so to speak, between the Chinese government and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
That's a reasonable stance in my opinions.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Yeah. Yeah, and the TikTok's epic we're not really owned
by Chinese, and so there became a fight about that
when in fact, Byke Dance did have relationships with the
Chinese government, and it's a it's not as if they
could refuse a request, you know. It's like the Chinese
government is.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Like the father. You don't the request.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
So if they had asked for something, they would have
said yes. So the Biden administration said, look, you know,
you either sell yourself to an independent corporation or you
you shut down in your operations. And I said, you
want to do whatever you do in Europe, that's fine,
but not here. Donald Trump, you know, said, well wait
a minute, I think I won this election in part
(06:23):
because there's TikTok. Probably you know, it rallied an audience
that I didn't really even have the last time, and
everyone seems to have it, and there were an enormous
amount of It's not just apparently I wouldn't know this, Jack,
but apparently it's not just images of people dancing with
their cats. There are, in fact, small businesses all over
(06:44):
the United States that depend on TikTok is their main
marketing technique. So there was a movement among American businesses
they said, well, wait a minute, we're a small business.
This is how we could be. We need TikTok. So
Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, just one
the other day that extended the time period for either
(07:05):
shutting down or selling. And he claims that he knows
of a consortium of venture capital companies, private equity, and
tech companies, including Oracle, and as you know, Larry Ellison
has just his wealth has increased enormously and I think
he's interested in this too. So he apparently is part
(07:27):
of this consortium. And the argument is that well, we
need we have to add a board of director, someone
on the board of director who has some American affiliation.
That's a requirement, and will extend the deadline for ninety days,
(07:50):
hoping that the consortium can pull together the funds and
meet with the regulatory approval that this no longer presents
a national security risks in the United States.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So, uh, do you have TikTok on your phone? No? No,
me neither, and I can't I vaguely know.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
What it is. But Jack, Jack, if you'll remember, you
had trouble calling me. Yeah, well I didn't personally, but
obviously right saying no, I'm blaming myself since I don't
have TikTok. I don't even know how to use a phone, apparently,
so I'm not and I'm not the right guy.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Do you not have TikTok because you're worried it's a
Chinese data harvesting tool. No, not really, you're just not
interested in social media.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
I'm I'm a writer by trade, and I just don't
live in a world where everything has to be visual.
And I worked for CBS Radio. I don't, you know,
I don't I don't focus. I don't need videos all
day to keep me entertained.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, and I understand completely. The only reason I ever
got Instagram, which was fairly recently, is it's kind of
a marketing tool. For the show. But yeah, but we've
had the stats before, and you've probably seen them of
how many hours a day young people spend on TikTok.
I mean, it's crazy. They almost seem made up, but
I assume they're true because I've seen study after study
(09:14):
say that, you know, it's five hours for this group
or seven hours for that group. I don't even know
how that's possible.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
But it's even worse than that, Jack, because if they
were just watching videos of people dancing with their cats,
that would be one thing, it would be it would
be stupid as all get out. But if that's how
you're if that's how you want your kid to spend
your day with another cat, that's dancing. Fine. But what
we're really learning, which is really distressing and it raises
(09:41):
First Amendment issues and other regulatory issues, is that most
young people get their news from TikTok.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
So that's where it's worse than being entertained by silly videos.
It's that algorithms that can easily be manipulated are tailor
making news seed. They tailor it for certain age groups,
for certain sensibilities, perspectives, where they live, you know, whatever. Information.
So that's really what national security means. It doesn't necessarily
(10:11):
mean a bomb is going to go off. It means
that you're going to mind data that tells you everything
you need to know about America, where we're vulnerable, what
kind of stuff we believe in. How easy it is
to manipulate us.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Just give us a video or shade news stories a
certain direction that's in your favor.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
Exactly right as I'm saying about, you know, tailoring news
seeds or blocking news seeds, for instance, make sure that
Jack Armstrong never sees a.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Story about this, right, he.
Speaker 6 (10:40):
Cannot see a story about this because he's the kind
of guy that will it'll, it'll, he'll talk about it
on a show. So you're saying, that's the kind of manipulation.
And you know, remember the social media companies are protected.
The government doesn't can't interfere with their First Amendment right.
So if it TikTok is an American company, if it
(11:01):
becomes one, the government really can't regulate it because they're saying, look,
we have First Amendment rights work. We're essentially like a newspaper.
You can't tell us what's the publish.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Or what not the public right. My final question you're
the CBS News legal analyst put on a quote. So
c NBC reported the other day that the algorithm was
going to that the for the for the deal to happen,
it was going to have to be a different algorithm.
Then I think it was a Wall Street Journal reported that,
though is going to be the same algorithm. Well, that's
a pretty big difference because if it's a different algorithm,
(11:32):
it's you can call it TikTok, but it's not the
same thing. And from what I understand from people who
love TikTok, it's all about that amazing algorithm that can predict,
predict what you want to be entertained by.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Yeah, I mean that's the that's the problem the algorithm.
Although I read somewhere else that they're saying, well nowadays,
at the time that this legislation was created, you know,
algorithms were impenetrable and could never be done. Okay, and
apparently that's no longer true. You know, we've cracked the
code and people can actually duplicate it themselves. That doesn't
(12:06):
change the fact that we don't obligate social media companies
or internet companies to tell balanced stories. It doesn't you know,
it doesn't change the fact that you know, should we
be regulating, should there be subject to the f E,
FCC and other regulations. You know, there used to be
something called probably way too young for this, Jack, the
(12:28):
fairness doctrine, which ended, I think in the late eighties,
where if you had a license for broadcasting NBC, ABC, CBS,
you had to present controversial views and you had to
present other views so that it was more balanced. They
got rid of that. So that's why when I was
a kid and Walter Cronkite was the anchor for CBS
(12:48):
News and a third of the country or half of
the country who was watching him, no one knew if
he was a Democrat or Republican. You had no way
of knowing. That was a different time. Now it's clear
the politics is on your sleeve no matter who you are.
We tell you upfront, and we protect you from differing opinions.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So I got one question. This is this is a
Thane Rosenbaum question. So TikTok is beneath you? Is our
chat bots beneath you to use chat, GPT and stuff
like that, not yet, not yet? Good for you.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Yeah, I'm not saying I'm not saying that I won't.
But you know, I'm a writer and a novelist, and
that stuff scares me.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Here, I'll get my card. I am currently reading Ulysses
and I'm forty percent of the way through. I'm fighting
my way through that book. So to give myself some
credibility in your world, the higher thinking world.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
You really impressed the hell out of me.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
Jack.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
You're the only radio guy that I've talked to the
heater who says anything like that. Joice is something you're reading.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, there you go. Rosenbom, CBS News Legal anadlist. Thanks
for your time today. I appreciate it. Thank you, Jack.
I liked his personality, entertaining guy. Okay, we got more
O the way, stay here, so I don't want to
reset this whole story. Oh by the way, Mark Halpern's
(14:11):
writing about the Jimmy Kimmel thing I thought was really good.
We'll have that next segment. But yesterday we did a
little bit about this Ukrainian girlfriend that I've got.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Jack Armstrong my precious that's.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Right, We've made a song about Jack Armstrong my precious diamond.
That's what she called me. So I don't it's probably
a bot. It might not even be a human being.
If it is a human being, it's some hacker dude
who you know, sends out these emails to try to,
I think, get you to click on a link. So
she sent me another email that had a I sent
(14:47):
you a voice text. I want you to hear my
beautiful voice, and then I'm supposed to click on the
voice text, and then that's how they you know, Then
they're into your phone, into your computer and stealing dat
out of your bank and all that sort of stuff.
So I'm not clicking on any But at the encouragement
of Michael and Katie yesterday I responded to her, which
I hadn't done before yesterday. I responded, funny, I've been
(15:08):
thinking about you since I got up this morning. I
can't stop thinking about you, all right, So she responded
At some point, Yes, they or the bot responded, or
the dude responded, or whoever the heck it is, it's
not a I guarantee it's not this person. And also
she's sent you like six different pictures. She sends these
pictures of beautiful young women, but they're all different. They're
(15:29):
not the same person, which is kind of funny. Sometimes
she's a long haired blonde. Sometimes she's a shorthead Burnett.
All my kisses for you, Jack, and then a bunch
of emojis and stuff like that. Hello, my dearest sweetheart, Jack,
Thank you so very much for your wonderful letter. Your
letter was a real present for me today.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
Jack.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Why don't you write to me every day? If you're
thinking about me? It would be impossible for us to
build a happy relationship if we do not talk to
each other every day. If you do not answer my letters,
don't tell me anything about yourself. You're right, I haven't
told you much about myself. Isn't nothing right? Nowadays? Our
life is so wild and busy. And she goes through
how difficult it is in the modern era for people
(16:06):
to get together and fall in love. If a person
has love and is a heart, then a person is
considered to be happy. I would like my man to
be everything for me, my friend, my lover, or my
husband my everything. Okay, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Well, and we went through how these things work.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
So right now you are in the relationship building stage
and the next step is the crisis.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, that's why I'm playing along with this game. Because
one she sent the hyperlinks that the fishing expeditions were,
but the next thing, yeah, you're gonna be.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
There's a family tragedy or something that's going to require
some form of money.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I'm gonna go with my dearest rose Jack. I got
the worst news today from my doctor. I have some
sort of ailment testicular cancer testicular cancer exactly, and I
do not have the money and I will lose my
testicles by Friday if I do not get one thousand dollars.
But that's why I want to keep playing along. I
(17:02):
want to see when they when she actually asks for
the money.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
And sweet rose Jack, in order to keep my testicles,
you must pay me in the form of Target gift cards.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Okay, So I'll respond to her and keep this going.
She's right, you can't build a relationship with nless your
email every day. Yeah, she's got a point. Yes, Armstrong
and Getty.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Scot I'm not going to tell you anything you don't
know here. You sometimes offend people. I hear about it
on the socials. Do you think that you should then
be held at the same standard that you're asking for
that if someone says that you're offensive, that you're not
doing the civic discourse that CNN should kick you off.
I'm not worried about you and that happening to you
in the present regime, but I am worried about other
people in this build.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Two things we're not.
Speaker 9 (17:44):
We don't fall under the same uh statutory regime. AB
I expect to get fired every day. This is a
tough business. And if I were Jimmy Kimmel, I mean,
I'm surprised that a guy who once wore blackface and
calls large breasted women to jump on trampolines lasted this
long in the media business to begin with, he was
long past his cell date and the fact that he
couldn't realize that and was going down this road of
(18:05):
partisan hackery being unfunny demon.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's a conversation on CNN yesterday with Scott Jennings, usually
the lone Republican, and it says some uh exciting stuff
now and then about getting canceled or booted off the air,
And they were reacting to Jimmy Kimmel's show being indefinitely
suspended as he off forever. Will he be back soon,
I don't know, But ABC Disney made the decision to
(18:32):
yank him because of some things he said on Monday Night.
I know, I know, I know, I know the FCC stuff.
I'll get into the details of all this in a second.
I'm just trying to set this up before I get
into the weeds. How about the whole We'll play the
whole long clip. I don't even know if I've heard
the whole. This is a minute worth of what he
said Monday night. That really became the focal point.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
He had some new lows over the weekend, with the
Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered
Charlie Kirk is anything other than one of them, and
everything they can to score political points from it. In
between the finger pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the
White House flew the flags at half staff, which got
some criticism, but on a human level, you can see
(19:14):
how hard the President is taking this.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I've adults just have a lot of your friend.
Speaker 7 (19:18):
Charlie Kirk asked sir personally, how are you holding up
for the last day and a half serve?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I think very good. And by the way, right there,
you see all the trucks. They just started construction of
the new ball room for the White House, which is.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Something they've been trying to.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Get, as you know, for about one hundred and fifty years,
and it's.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Going to be a beauty.
Speaker 10 (19:37):
Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief construction.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
There's demolition construction.
Speaker 10 (19:48):
This is not how an adult griefs the murder of
somebody called a friend. This is how a four year
old mourns a goldfish.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Okay, So part of me wonders if Trump could even hear.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
The reporter.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
During that aside that that tone Monday night. You know
that we're for four days away from that now, but
Monday night, you know that that's a that's a pretty
snarky tone. You don't get fired for snarky tones, or
you can get fired for snarky tones if you're uh,
if your owners don't like it. You don't get booted
(20:22):
out because of government pressure for snarky tones. And was
there government pressure from the FCC. Some of you are
claiming there isn't. I would say that there is. It's
one of the elements in this whole story. There are
many elements in the whole story that I'm going to
pull all together. Let's start with Brendan Carr of the
FCC was on a different talk show. Uh said this
this thirty seven Michael. You know, when you look.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
At the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel,
it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible. Frankly,
when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we
can do this the easy way or the hard way.
These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take
action frankly on Kimmel, or you know, there's gonna be
(21:07):
additional work for the FCC ahead, a very reasonable minimal
step that can be taken. I mean obvious, Look, there's
calls for kim will be fired. I think you know,
you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.
And again you know the FCC is going to have
remedies that we could look at.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, so you got the commissioner of the FCC threatening
threatening pretty plainly. It seems to me of sort of
fines or taking a look at your license if you're
a broadcaster, if you're airing these kinds of shows. I mean,
that seems pretty clear to me that he was threatening
and that is one hundred percent violation of the First Amendment,
(21:47):
which is Congress shill you know, a pass no law
or not infringe on free speech. That is the government
infringing on free speech to pressure these various organizations that
they could lose their license if they're airing Jimmy Kimmel
or at least threatening it. That's just one element of it.
The other element of it is Kimmel's ratings, like all
(22:08):
late night ratings have gone down, down, down, down. He
had made the decision a long time ago, is I'm
gonna pick one side and demonize the other side. So
he cut out half of America. There are a lot
of ABC stations in Red America, lots of them whose
audience have no interest in watching that show, and the
people who own it in that town know it that
(22:29):
that show's just a dead spot for them because nobody
in their audience in where they live is going to
watch the dang thing. And they've been airing into all
these years. We'll get to the new reality here in
just a second. But so some of those stations said
we're gonna drop Kimmel. They've got their own viewers to
deal with. And then there's part of a deal merger
(22:51):
buyout thingy that's happening with ABC and a bunch of
affiliates and all that sort of thing that can get
hung up if the FCC jumps in. There's just a
whole bunch of elements here. I understand some of my
favorite conservative pundits are only concerned about the FC what
the FCC commissioner said, because you're getting to free speech territory.
And I understand that too. I just think it's worth
(23:11):
pointing out that there's a bunch of elements involved. I
think if Kimmel's ratings were good, even if he said
these outlandish things, he would have been safe. His ratings
are not good. Oh and by the way, that thing
he's saying is ridiculous that the guy's clearly maga. MAGA
is trying to make it seem like this guy isn't maga.
This shooter, he's clearly not MAGA. I mean, that's just
(23:33):
a nuts position. I don't think you should get booted
off there for having a nuts position. But that's a
nuts position again, unless your owner thinks you should get
booed off. These are completely different things, whether the government's
telling you should leave or your owner thinks, you know what,
I don't think is good for our audience anymore. Yeah,
those are different things.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
A lot of the Sinclair stations I'm seeing are going
to be airing a Charlie Kirk special in Jimmy Kimmel's
time slot on Friday. That's interesting, which I'm taking a
lot of joy from.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So Mark Alpern wrote a really long piece about this,
and I just picked out some parts of it. The
complaint from the left is that it's very straightforward. A
comedian is out because politics collide with television, but that
completely allides a second reality. For years, broadcast networks shoved
a one sided cultural sermon, and that's what it was,
(24:25):
a sermon into living rooms and told the other half
of the country to smile through it. ABC ran two
daily hours, The View and Kimmel that treated Trump with
unrelieved hostility and insultingly treated Trump voters as a punchline.
If you're looking for reasons, tens of millions migrated into
the former president's camp steady. That steady contempt is perhaps
(24:49):
as good an exhibit a as you will find. That's
just a reality. In my opinion, they are clueless. The
culture war is no longer a one way battle for
decad aids. The left held the megaphone late night award
shows prestige dramas. Oh that's right, all your dramas that
have been on for years that were always so far left,
(25:09):
whether you're watching you know, Knots of Landing or Dynasty
or whatever it was. Over the years, I always had
this left bent to them. Streaming algorithms, the rights tools
were talk radio on a few corners of cable news.
But this is a different time. It requires an entertainment
industry that remembers it is a business, not a ballot
initiative or a propaganda operation. You want the broadest audience
(25:33):
in a fractured country, try something radical. Respect them, not
with forced neutrality or merely both side scripts, but with
a simple rule, no nightly contempt for the people who
pay the bills. If Disney wants to keep Kimmel, it can.
It just has to own the choice and carry the cost.
If it wants to win back affiliates and viewers, it
might ask why the mock the rubs format feels tired
(25:57):
at best and hostile at most outside of your hostal
zip codes. And then finally this the mousehouse topper, that's
what he calls Eiger, the guy who runs Disney ABC
more than most Hollywood liberals knows what time it is
willing to outrage many of his own employees and constituents
to try to stay one step ahead of the new reality.
(26:18):
We are watching something unprecedented set in motion by both
Trump's reelection and the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It is
possible Kimmel will return to the air, and he certainly
won't leave the metaphoric stage without a fight. But we
have not seen the last of this whirlwind. As much
social and political change as Kirk manifested in life, more
upheaval is clearly being caused by his death. That is
(26:42):
Mark Alprin writing to the point that and he does
have paragraphs in there about the FCC leaning on these stations,
which is a part of the mix. But there's no
getting around the fact that d'aul the era of the
left owning all of the culture institutions and being able to,
you know, talk to us the way they talk to us,
(27:02):
and we had to put up with it. It's just over.
Audiences have got other things to do. They're going to boycott.
There's all kinds of different things that can happen. Now.
The reason I hate, and I'll say it for the
fifth time, but I think it's important enough. The reason
I hate the idea of the FCC leaning on any
ABC affiliates for carrying Kimmel is because it's not always
(27:24):
going to be Trump or a Republican president. There's going
to be a Democrat president, Gavin Newsom. You could absolutely
picture Gavin Newsom putting in an FCC commissioner that comes
out and says talk radio is causing division in this country.
The latest violence, and there will always be some violence
to point to the latest violence is a direct result
(27:44):
of out of control right wing talk radio. And we're
going to take a long look at the licenses of
these stations who air shows like and they'll name a
whole bunch of them, maybe even including Armstrong and Getty.
And I don't want to live in that world either.
So that I think is the totality of the whole story.
Oh Kimmel is a smug ass hat, amen to that.
(28:08):
Oh my god, he's hard to take and he's just
so fake, you.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Know, with the crying and the you know, that whole
spiel he went.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
On after Trump got elected this last time around for
the women and the children, the sick, and it's like,
just shut up, Shut up. Do you want to hear
a clip from Johnny Carson talking about Late Night?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, I want to get this on. This is Johnny
Carson on sixty minutes back in the day.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
Oh tell me the last time that Jack Benny red
Skelton Benny comedian used his show to do serious issues.
That's not what I'm there for.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Can't they see that?
Speaker 11 (28:49):
But you and I do they think that just because
you have it Tonight's show, that you must deal in
serious issues. That's a danger. It's a real danger. Once
you start that, do you start to get that self
important feeling. That's what you say has great import and
you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as
a form you could sway people, and I don't think
you should. Asn't entertainment.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, Well, Kimmel and Colbert have made a lot of
money for themselves and for a while, quite a bit
of money from the networks. But that's over. You stuck
your thumb in the eye of probably more than half
the country, yep. And then you got the competition from
all these different things. You just slice the pie down
(29:31):
to the part that you know. I'm sorry, Jimmy Kimmel
and Stephen Colbert, nobody, there aren't enough people to give
a crap about your sermons. I thought that was a
good term, your sermons every night about what's wrong with
those of us who don't agree with you. That there's
no money in it. There's not enough money in it
to support your very very expensive shows, that's for certain.
(29:52):
Oh right, So Jimmy Fallon. Good for him. He by
far tried to stay out of one sided politics the most,
and he's the one left standing. He might really benefit
from this because if he ends up being the only
talk show Joe thinks Kimmel's coming back. I don't know
if I believe that or not, but if Fallon ends
up being the only talk show, he'll get, you know,
(30:12):
the big star promoting the movie every time because there's
no other show to go on. Right, it's just so annoying.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Well, and I liked to what Carson said there. I mean, like,
that's not what they're there for.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, such a different era though in all kinds of
different ways. For one thing, Johnny Carson, I forget what
the number was. I looked this up after Colbert lost
his job, but I think it was twenty percent Carson's
show alone was twenty percent of NBC's revenue. Oh wow,
I mean so he was a big flip and deal
and his ratings were huge, and so he wanted to
talk to as much of America as he could. Now
(30:49):
you got it sliced into a tiny little group of
people agree with your whining sermons every single night, and
those shows are actually losing money. So it's just a
different things. And came up with a great idea on
how I should handle my Ukrainian girlfriend email pen pal.
I'll tell you about that next.
Speaker 6 (31:09):
Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And so we talk a lot about scams online scams
here on the radio show, and they get hot or whatever.
This is. This is an old one. The somebody who
as you're especially for men, I suppose. I guess it
works both ways. Yeah, I've heard it work both ways
men and women. Somebody gets your email address from who
(31:31):
knows where, because we've all been hacked ten different ways
by different The experience or whatever company got hacked and
all your information got out, so so many people have
your email address. So somebody in Russia, Iran or whatever
has been sending me these emails claiming to be some
young Ukrainian hottie who has fallen in love with me
(31:51):
without having having met me or seen me or whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And I like, I like Michael Agelo's suggesting that it's
Joel prank on you anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
And so she'd been emailing me and I finally responded yesterday.
And I've been waiting for the Where are they trying
to get money out of me?
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yeah, the crisis.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
So she's had links. I haven't clicked on the links.
She's now unhappy that I'm not emailing her back enough. Hi,
my dearest sweetheart, Jack, Thank you so much for your
wonderful letter. My response was was my response yesterday. It
was very short. There's something like nice talking.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
To you, something about you've been thinking about her all day?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right right right? I woke up thinking about you. I think, Yeah,
that was it, And she said it's a bot. Thank
you so much for your wonderful letter. Your letter was
a real present for me to do.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Jack.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Why don't you write me every day? If you're thinking
about me? It would be impossible for us to build
a happy relationship if we do not talk to each
other every day. If he did not answer my letters,
my sweet precious diamond Rose, or all these different things.
She calls me. She sounds that is true. Oh my god, yes,
(33:01):
clingiest of all. But so I've been waiting for the
Uh my landlord says he's going to kick me out
if I don't pay my rent. And I just lost
my job. If you could just send me one month's rent,
I'm sure I can find a new job. But my darling,
love sweet Rose, I you know I love you so much,
and blah blah blah. But she hasn't asked for money yet. Well, Hanson,
(33:23):
our executive producer, came up with the idea I should
ask her for money first. That is which I think
is really hilaricous.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
That's the winner, right there?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Did email her back? I know you're in war torn
Ukraine and I'm here in perfectly comfortable United States of America.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Oh, she already told you she was safe.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Remember, I don't know if she's fine. What do I
need money for? Have I been thrown in jail? Do
I have a health problem? Did my car break down?
What should I tell her? I need money for?
Speaker 3 (33:48):
You want to come see her?
Speaker 8 (33:49):
All right?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
I want to come see you, But now is a
bad time for me. I didn't have the money. If
you can just send me eight hundred dollars. I'm sure
I could come see you and my darling love Princess
could be together forever.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Oh my gosh, please do this.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
See how it goes.
Speaker 11 (34:06):
Well, there's Jocko.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
And Michael Langelo there.
Speaker 11 (34:16):
My radio, so let's hear their finals before they have
to go.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
That's creepy.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Oh gosh, I hate that one. I hate that.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Here's your host for final thoughts.
Speaker 7 (34:26):
Me.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Let's get a final thought from our executive director, Michaelangelou.
Press on the button.
Speaker 8 (34:31):
Sorry, you know, I'm picturing a drunk Joe Getty's sitting
around a computer with his golf buddy's saying, yeah, I've
done this for years.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
He falls for it every time.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Look at this.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Guys called him a precious diamond and they all just
start laughing.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
That's so good. Oh man, Uh, there is uh Katie
Katie the news Lady, Katie Green. What's your final thought?
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I really hope that this flip that you're gonna pull
with these emails works out. And I really want some screenshots.
We need to make a whole thing about this on
the website and on social media, all of it.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I do wonder how the bot or the hacker or
whoever it is is going to respond. I asked them
for money. What do we see now? This has never
happened before. I'm going camping with my son this weekend,
and I'm not much of a camper. I love camping.
I just I just I don't know. I've never dedicated
time to figuring out how to do it or whatever.
I mean. We got a tent, we got a cooler,
(35:21):
we got a little cookstove. I got some Hamburger buns
and some Hamburger. Do I need anything else? Flashlight, sleeping bags? Yeah,
hoping not to get attacked by bears. I'll let you
know how it goes. On Monday. Armstrong and Getty wrapping
up another grueling four hour workday. So many people to thank.
That'd be everybody who works on the show and everybody
(35:42):
who listens. You should go to our website Armstrong and
Getty dot com, or you can buy swag and see
a lot of the stuff we were talking about on
hot links. And I hope your darling Diamond Rose sends
you a lovely email this weekend. Also see you Monday.
God bless American. I'm strong and get take There so many.
Speaker 11 (36:00):
Great moments on today's Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
You know that I've got plenty of flocks somewhere and
who knows what.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
They are, because they have this annual event here which
which for journalistic purposes I need to go visit, which
is called Octoberfest. So do you have TikTok on your phone?
Speaker 6 (36:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
No, me, neither, and I can't.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I don't.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
I vaguely know what it is.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and
Getti and he Armstrong and Yetty. So this hour, in
(00:22):
case you haven't heard what Jimmy Kimmel actually said on
Monday Night, we'll play that for you. There's some great
writing by Mark Halprin today about laying out all the
different angles of the whole thing. Maybe you'd like to
actually hear what the FCC chair said that kicked this
whole thing off. So we'll cover that story pretty thoroughly.
A little bit later in the hour, we want to
(00:43):
welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Nope, no yet,
you're waving your arm Michael. He can just tell me
on the microphone what seems to be the problem.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, Hanson was talking to him on the phone.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, okay, well that's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So Hanson was talking to him on the phone in
a different room. You can't talk to him on the
phone here, all right, we'll figure it out. Can you
turn Katie's microphone on if you get a chance. Thank you.
I'm being censored, yes, yes, you've been silenced for things
you said about Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
No no, no, no, no, no, maybe things I said
to Jo Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, no kidding. So the long and short of the
take on Jimmy Kimmel for us is I just saw
a piece of somebody else wrote they stole they stole
my idea. There are like five different reasons Jimmy Kimmel
is not on the air last night or tonight. Part
of it is the FCC pressure, but part of it
is the ratings. Part of it is a merger that's
(01:35):
going on. Part of it is the unique political moment
that is Charlie Kirk being assassinated and people being very
sensitive to it. You got to mix all of those
things in. Part of it is the expense of his
show and how much revenue it was bringing in or not.
All of those things factor in, Like if he had
big ratings and was making lots of money, he could
(01:56):
have said what he said and survived it. So you
need kind of all the elements end up where it
ended up. But I still do not like the FCC
commissioner threatening licenses and everything over content. That is that
is no good and no road to go down. So
I need to either go on with this Jimmy Kimmel stuff,
or do we think we're gonna have our guest? Do
we know? I'll make a decision one way or the other.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I was told we're going to have him.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
We're going to have him. Oh well, I guess now
I'll do a little soft shoe dance until we get
our guest. Did Wow?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I didn't know you could soft shoot? Look at you go?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And I'm in cowboy boots?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Are you really well? You're always in cowboy goods?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Pretty much?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, Michael, how are you doing? This is where I'm
hanging in there.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We're hoping to talk to this guy, Thane Rose, wrote Rosenbaum,
who I'll set it all up and then hope we
get him. He's a CBS News legal alndlist and I
want to talk to about TikTok because he's delving into
the details on that. There is the belief that there
is some sort of deal that is going to allow
TikTok to continue in the United States of America, and uh,
(02:59):
there are there's different reporting out there as to whether
that's going to be the same TikTok that you know
and love, just under American owners, or if it's going
to be an American company, but with a completely different
algorithm that you might not dignare as much. I mean,
the whole reason TikTok people love TikTok so much is
that I've heard from people that are on TikTok that
(03:20):
consider it like the great the greatest algorithm's out there. Yeah,
but YouTube, what Facebook does and Instagram and all that
sort of stuff pales in comparison and the ability to
TikTok to feed you things that you like. I can't
imagine what that must be like, because like Instagram reels,
if I if I go on that thing at all,
(03:41):
I'm I'm there for half an hour. Yeah, it's just
so good at Like for me, a lot of it
is U sports highlights for things that it knows that
I will like and concert footage. Between those two things. Yes,
I go sure, I've never seen this clip of Bob
Dylan playing here in nineteen seventy six or whatever. Just
end up getting sucked into it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I watched a pretty fascinating well part of a documentary.
I couldn't take the kid anymore, but it was on Netflix,
and it was about this this good looking young kid
who went on TikTok, and all these women just fell
in love with him, and he's massive, and like at
one point they were saying, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You know, we'd like to donate to you.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
So he put his PayPal account on his bio of
his Twitter earth I'm sorry on his TikTok page overnight
sixty thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
And people are just sending him money because he's cute, yep,
because they think he's good looking. And I'm sitting there going, man,
you're cute. Here's a hundred bucks.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yeah, and he would he would go on there and
say like, oh man, I wish I had this pair
of shoes, and.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
They'd show up at his door the next day.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Wow, that I'm obsessed. Yeah, that is really strange. Okay,
we would like to welcome Thane Rosenbaum to the show
Now CBS News Legal. Anna, sorry, we had so much
trouble technical difficulties getting on. So what is going on
with TikTok? Is it going to this in the United States?
And is it going to be the same algorithm.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
So jacket we we won't know for another ninety days.
This is now the fourth attempt to stave off forcing
TikTok to end operations in the United States. Remember this
started with legislation during the Biden administration that essentially had
a you know, we're not interested in social media companies
(05:25):
that mine data of Americans that come from putative enemies
of ours, and that there was no sufficient insulation or
Chinese wall, so to speak, between the Chinese government and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
That's a reasonable stance in my opinions.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Yeah. Yeah, and the TikTok's epic we're not really owned
by Chinese, and so there became a fight about that
when in fact, Byke Dance did have relationships with the
Chinese government, and it's a it's not as if they
could refuse a request, you know. It's like the Chinese
government is.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Like the father. You don't the request.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
So if they had asked for something, they would have
said yes. So the Biden administration said, look, you know,
you either sell yourself to an independent corporation or you
you shut down in your operations. And I said, you
want to do whatever you do in Europe, that's fine,
but not here. Donald Trump, you know, said, well wait
a minute, I think I won this election in part
(06:23):
because there's TikTok. Probably you know, it rallied an audience
that I didn't really even have the last time, and
everyone seems to have it, and there were an enormous
amount of It's not just apparently I wouldn't know this, Jack,
but apparently it's not just images of people dancing with
their cats. There are, in fact, small businesses all over
(06:44):
the United States that depend on TikTok is their main
marketing technique. So there was a movement among American businesses
they said, well, wait a minute, we're a small business.
This is how we could be. We need TikTok. So
Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, just one
the other day that extended the time period for either
(07:05):
shutting down or selling. And he claims that he knows
of a consortium of venture capital companies, private equity, and
tech companies, including Oracle, and as you know, Larry Ellison
has just his wealth has increased enormously and I think
he's interested in this too. So he apparently is part
(07:27):
of this consortium. And the argument is that well, we
need we have to add a board of director, someone
on the board of director who has some American affiliation.
That's a requirement, and will extend the deadline for ninety days,
(07:50):
hoping that the consortium can pull together the funds and
meet with the regulatory approval that this no longer presents
a national security risks in the United States.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So, uh, do you have TikTok on your phone? No? No,
me neither, and I can't I vaguely know.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
What it is. But Jack, Jack, if you'll remember, you
had trouble calling me. Yeah, well I didn't personally, but
obviously right saying no, I'm blaming myself since I don't
have TikTok. I don't even know how to use a phone, apparently,
so I'm not and I'm not the right guy.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Do you not have TikTok because you're worried it's a
Chinese data harvesting tool. No, not really, you're just not
interested in social media.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
I'm I'm a writer by trade, and I just don't
live in a world where everything has to be visual.
And I worked for CBS Radio. I don't, you know,
I don't I don't focus. I don't need videos all
day to keep me entertained.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, and I understand completely. The only reason I ever
got Instagram, which was fairly recently, is it's kind of
a marketing tool. For the show. But yeah, but we've
had the stats before, and you've probably seen them of
how many hours a day young people spend on TikTok.
I mean, it's crazy. They almost seem made up, but
I assume they're true because I've seen study after study
(09:14):
say that, you know, it's five hours for this group
or seven hours for that group. I don't even know
how that's possible.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
But it's even worse than that, Jack, because if they
were just watching videos of people dancing with their cats,
that would be one thing, it would be it would
be stupid as all get out. But if that's how
you're if that's how you want your kid to spend
your day with another cat, that's dancing. Fine. But what
we're really learning, which is really distressing and it raises
(09:41):
First Amendment issues and other regulatory issues, is that most
young people get their news from TikTok.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
So that's where it's worse than being entertained by silly videos.
It's that algorithms that can easily be manipulated are tailor
making news seed. They tailor it for certain age groups,
for certain sensibilities, perspectives, where they live, you know, whatever. Information.
So that's really what national security means. It doesn't necessarily
(10:11):
mean a bomb is going to go off. It means
that you're going to mind data that tells you everything
you need to know about America, where we're vulnerable, what
kind of stuff we believe in. How easy it is
to manipulate us.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Just give us a video or shade news stories a
certain direction that's in your favor.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
Exactly right as I'm saying about, you know, tailoring news
seeds or blocking news seeds, for instance, make sure that
Jack Armstrong never sees a.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Story about this, right, he.
Speaker 6 (10:40):
Cannot see a story about this because he's the kind
of guy that will it'll, it'll, he'll talk about it
on a show. So you're saying, that's the kind of manipulation.
And you know, remember the social media companies are protected.
The government doesn't can't interfere with their First Amendment right.
So if it TikTok is an American company, if it
(11:01):
becomes one, the government really can't regulate it because they're saying, look,
we have First Amendment rights work. We're essentially like a newspaper.
You can't tell us what's the publish.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Or what not the public right. My final question you're
the CBS News legal analyst put on a quote. So
c NBC reported the other day that the algorithm was
going to that the for the for the deal to happen,
it was going to have to be a different algorithm.
Then I think it was a Wall Street Journal reported that,
though is going to be the same algorithm. Well, that's
a pretty big difference because if it's a different algorithm,
(11:32):
it's you can call it TikTok, but it's not the
same thing. And from what I understand from people who
love TikTok, it's all about that amazing algorithm that can predict,
predict what you want to be entertained by.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Yeah, I mean that's the that's the problem the algorithm.
Although I read somewhere else that they're saying, well nowadays,
at the time that this legislation was created, you know,
algorithms were impenetrable and could never be done. Okay, and
apparently that's no longer true. You know, we've cracked the
code and people can actually duplicate it themselves. That doesn't
(12:06):
change the fact that we don't obligate social media companies
or internet companies to tell balanced stories. It doesn't you know,
it doesn't change the fact that you know, should we
be regulating, should there be subject to the f E,
FCC and other regulations. You know, there used to be
something called probably way too young for this, Jack, the
(12:28):
fairness doctrine, which ended, I think in the late eighties,
where if you had a license for broadcasting NBC, ABC, CBS,
you had to present controversial views and you had to
present other views so that it was more balanced. They
got rid of that. So that's why when I was
a kid and Walter Cronkite was the anchor for CBS
(12:48):
News and a third of the country or half of
the country who was watching him, no one knew if
he was a Democrat or Republican. You had no way
of knowing. That was a different time. Now it's clear
the politics is on your sleeve no matter who you are.
We tell you upfront, and we protect you from differing opinions.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So I got one question. This is this is a
Thane Rosenbaum question. So TikTok is beneath you? Is our
chat bots beneath you to use chat, GPT and stuff
like that, not yet, not yet? Good for you.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Yeah, I'm not saying I'm not saying that I won't.
But you know, I'm a writer and a novelist, and
that stuff scares me.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Here, I'll get my card. I am currently reading Ulysses
and I'm forty percent of the way through. I'm fighting
my way through that book. So to give myself some
credibility in your world, the higher thinking world.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
You really impressed the hell out of me.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
Jack.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
You're the only radio guy that I've talked to the
heater who says anything like that. Joice is something you're reading.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah, there you go. Rosenbom, CBS News Legal anadlist. Thanks
for your time today. I appreciate it. Thank you, Jack.
I liked his personality, entertaining guy. Okay, we got more
O the way, stay here, so I don't want to
reset this whole story. Oh by the way, Mark Halpern's
(14:11):
writing about the Jimmy Kimmel thing I thought was really good.
We'll have that next segment. But yesterday we did a
little bit about this Ukrainian girlfriend that I've got.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Jack Armstrong my precious that's.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Right, We've made a song about Jack Armstrong my precious diamond.
That's what she called me. So I don't it's probably
a bot. It might not even be a human being.
If it is a human being, it's some hacker dude
who you know, sends out these emails to try to,
I think, get you to click on a link. So
she sent me another email that had a I sent
(14:47):
you a voice text. I want you to hear my
beautiful voice, and then I'm supposed to click on the
voice text, and then that's how they you know, Then
they're into your phone, into your computer and stealing dat
out of your bank and all that sort of stuff.
So I'm not clicking on any But at the encouragement
of Michael and Katie yesterday I responded to her, which
I hadn't done before yesterday. I responded, funny, I've been
(15:08):
thinking about you since I got up this morning. I
can't stop thinking about you, all right, So she responded
At some point, Yes, they or the bot responded, or
the dude responded, or whoever the heck it is, it's
not a I guarantee it's not this person. And also
she's sent you like six different pictures. She sends these
pictures of beautiful young women, but they're all different. They're
(15:29):
not the same person, which is kind of funny. Sometimes
she's a long haired blonde. Sometimes she's a shorthead Burnett.
All my kisses for you, Jack, and then a bunch
of emojis and stuff like that. Hello, my dearest sweetheart, Jack,
Thank you so very much for your wonderful letter. Your
letter was a real present for me today.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
Jack.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Why don't you write to me every day? If you're
thinking about me? It would be impossible for us to
build a happy relationship if we do not talk to
each other every day. If you do not answer my letters,
don't tell me anything about yourself. You're right, I haven't
told you much about myself. Isn't nothing right? Nowadays? Our
life is so wild and busy. And she goes through
how difficult it is in the modern era for people
(16:06):
to get together and fall in love. If a person
has love and is a heart, then a person is
considered to be happy. I would like my man to
be everything for me, my friend, my lover, or my
husband my everything. Okay, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Well, and we went through how these things work.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
So right now you are in the relationship building stage
and the next step is the crisis.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, that's why I'm playing along with this game. Because
one she sent the hyperlinks that the fishing expeditions were,
but the next thing, yeah, you're gonna be.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
There's a family tragedy or something that's going to require
some form of money.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I'm gonna go with my dearest rose Jack. I got
the worst news today from my doctor. I have some
sort of ailment testicular cancer testicular cancer exactly, and I
do not have the money and I will lose my
testicles by Friday if I do not get one thousand dollars.
But that's why I want to keep playing along. I
(17:02):
want to see when they when she actually asks for
the money.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
And sweet rose Jack, in order to keep my testicles,
you must pay me in the form of Target gift cards.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Okay, So I'll respond to her and keep this going.
She's right, you can't build a relationship with nless your
email every day. Yeah, she's got a point. Yes, Armstrong
and Getty.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Scot I'm not going to tell you anything you don't
know here. You sometimes offend people. I hear about it
on the socials. Do you think that you should then
be held at the same standard that you're asking for
that if someone says that you're offensive, that you're not
doing the civic discourse that CNN should kick you off.
I'm not worried about you and that happening to you
in the present regime, but I am worried about other
people in this build.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Two things we're not.
Speaker 9 (17:44):
We don't fall under the same uh statutory regime. AB
I expect to get fired every day. This is a
tough business. And if I were Jimmy Kimmel, I mean,
I'm surprised that a guy who once wore blackface and
calls large breasted women to jump on trampolines lasted this
long in the media business to begin with, he was
long past his cell date and the fact that he
couldn't realize that and was going down this road of
(18:05):
partisan hackery being unfunny demon.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's a conversation on CNN yesterday with Scott Jennings, usually
the lone Republican, and it says some uh exciting stuff
now and then about getting canceled or booted off the air,
And they were reacting to Jimmy Kimmel's show being indefinitely
suspended as he off forever. Will he be back soon,
I don't know, But ABC Disney made the decision to
(18:32):
yank him because of some things he said on Monday Night.
I know, I know, I know, I know the FCC stuff.
I'll get into the details of all this in a second.
I'm just trying to set this up before I get
into the weeds. How about the whole We'll play the
whole long clip. I don't even know if I've heard
the whole. This is a minute worth of what he
said Monday night. That really became the focal point.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
He had some new lows over the weekend, with the
Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered
Charlie Kirk is anything other than one of them, and
everything they can to score political points from it. In
between the finger pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the
White House flew the flags at half staff, which got
some criticism, but on a human level, you can see
(19:14):
how hard the President is taking this.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I've adults just have a lot of your friend.
Speaker 7 (19:18):
Charlie Kirk asked sir personally, how are you holding up
for the last day and a half serve?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I think very good. And by the way, right there,
you see all the trucks. They just started construction of
the new ball room for the White House, which is.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Something they've been trying to.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Get, as you know, for about one hundred and fifty years,
and it's.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Going to be a beauty.
Speaker 10 (19:37):
Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief construction.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
There's demolition construction.
Speaker 10 (19:48):
This is not how an adult griefs the murder of
somebody called a friend. This is how a four year
old mourns a goldfish.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Okay, So part of me wonders if Trump could even hear.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
The reporter.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
During that aside that that tone Monday night. You know
that we're for four days away from that now, but
Monday night, you know that that's a that's a pretty
snarky tone. You don't get fired for snarky tones, or
you can get fired for snarky tones if you're uh,
if your owners don't like it. You don't get booted
(20:22):
out because of government pressure for snarky tones. And was
there government pressure from the FCC. Some of you are
claiming there isn't. I would say that there is. It's
one of the elements in this whole story. There are
many elements in the whole story that I'm going to
pull all together. Let's start with Brendan Carr of the
FCC was on a different talk show. Uh said this
this thirty seven Michael. You know, when you look.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
At the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel,
it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible. Frankly,
when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we
can do this the easy way or the hard way.
These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take
action frankly on Kimmel, or you know, there's gonna be
(21:07):
additional work for the FCC ahead, a very reasonable minimal
step that can be taken. I mean obvious, Look, there's
calls for kim will be fired. I think you know,
you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.
And again you know the FCC is going to have
remedies that we could look at.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, so you got the commissioner of the FCC threatening
threatening pretty plainly. It seems to me of sort of
fines or taking a look at your license if you're
a broadcaster, if you're airing these kinds of shows. I mean,
that seems pretty clear to me that he was threatening
and that is one hundred percent violation of the First Amendment,
(21:47):
which is Congress shill you know, a pass no law
or not infringe on free speech. That is the government
infringing on free speech to pressure these various organizations that
they could lose their license if they're airing Jimmy Kimmel
or at least threatening it. That's just one element of it.
The other element of it is Kimmel's ratings, like all
(22:08):
late night ratings have gone down, down, down, down. He
had made the decision a long time ago, is I'm
gonna pick one side and demonize the other side. So
he cut out half of America. There are a lot
of ABC stations in Red America, lots of them whose
audience have no interest in watching that show, and the
people who own it in that town know it that
(22:29):
that show's just a dead spot for them because nobody
in their audience in where they live is going to
watch the dang thing. And they've been airing into all
these years. We'll get to the new reality here in
just a second. But so some of those stations said
we're gonna drop Kimmel. They've got their own viewers to
deal with. And then there's part of a deal merger
(22:51):
buyout thingy that's happening with ABC and a bunch of
affiliates and all that sort of thing that can get
hung up if the FCC jumps in. There's just a
whole bunch of elements here. I understand some of my
favorite conservative pundits are only concerned about the FC what
the FCC commissioner said, because you're getting to free speech territory.
And I understand that too. I just think it's worth
(23:11):
pointing out that there's a bunch of elements involved. I
think if Kimmel's ratings were good, even if he said
these outlandish things, he would have been safe. His ratings
are not good. Oh and by the way, that thing
he's saying is ridiculous that the guy's clearly maga. MAGA
is trying to make it seem like this guy isn't maga.
This shooter, he's clearly not MAGA. I mean, that's just
(23:33):
a nuts position. I don't think you should get booted
off there for having a nuts position. But that's a
nuts position again, unless your owner thinks you should get
booed off. These are completely different things, whether the government's
telling you should leave or your owner thinks, you know what,
I don't think is good for our audience anymore. Yeah,
those are different things.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
A lot of the Sinclair stations I'm seeing are going
to be airing a Charlie Kirk special in Jimmy Kimmel's
time slot on Friday. That's interesting, which I'm taking a
lot of joy from.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So Mark Alpern wrote a really long piece about this,
and I just picked out some parts of it. The
complaint from the left is that it's very straightforward. A
comedian is out because politics collide with television, but that
completely allides a second reality. For years, broadcast networks shoved
a one sided cultural sermon, and that's what it was,
(24:25):
a sermon into living rooms and told the other half
of the country to smile through it. ABC ran two
daily hours, The View and Kimmel that treated Trump with
unrelieved hostility and insultingly treated Trump voters as a punchline.
If you're looking for reasons, tens of millions migrated into
the former president's camp steady. That steady contempt is perhaps
(24:49):
as good an exhibit a as you will find. That's
just a reality. In my opinion, they are clueless. The
culture war is no longer a one way battle for
decad aids. The left held the megaphone late night award
shows prestige dramas. Oh that's right, all your dramas that
have been on for years that were always so far left,
(25:09):
whether you're watching you know, Knots of Landing or Dynasty
or whatever it was. Over the years, I always had
this left bent to them. Streaming algorithms, the rights tools
were talk radio on a few corners of cable news.
But this is a different time. It requires an entertainment
industry that remembers it is a business, not a ballot
initiative or a propaganda operation. You want the broadest audience
(25:33):
in a fractured country, try something radical. Respect them, not
with forced neutrality or merely both side scripts, but with
a simple rule, no nightly contempt for the people who
pay the bills. If Disney wants to keep Kimmel, it can.
It just has to own the choice and carry the cost.
If it wants to win back affiliates and viewers, it
might ask why the mock the rubs format feels tired
(25:57):
at best and hostile at most outside of your hostal
zip codes. And then finally this the mousehouse topper, that's
what he calls Eiger, the guy who runs Disney ABC
more than most Hollywood liberals knows what time it is
willing to outrage many of his own employees and constituents
to try to stay one step ahead of the new reality.
(26:18):
We are watching something unprecedented set in motion by both
Trump's reelection and the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It is
possible Kimmel will return to the air, and he certainly
won't leave the metaphoric stage without a fight. But we
have not seen the last of this whirlwind. As much
social and political change as Kirk manifested in life, more
upheaval is clearly being caused by his death. That is
(26:42):
Mark Alprin writing to the point that and he does
have paragraphs in there about the FCC leaning on these stations,
which is a part of the mix. But there's no
getting around the fact that d'aul the era of the
left owning all of the culture institutions and being able to,
you know, talk to us the way they talk to us,
(27:02):
and we had to put up with it. It's just over.
Audiences have got other things to do. They're going to boycott.
There's all kinds of different things that can happen. Now.
The reason I hate, and I'll say it for the
fifth time, but I think it's important enough. The reason
I hate the idea of the FCC leaning on any
ABC affiliates for carrying Kimmel is because it's not always
(27:24):
going to be Trump or a Republican president. There's going
to be a Democrat president, Gavin Newsom. You could absolutely
picture Gavin Newsom putting in an FCC commissioner that comes
out and says talk radio is causing division in this country.
The latest violence, and there will always be some violence
to point to the latest violence is a direct result
(27:44):
of out of control right wing talk radio. And we're
going to take a long look at the licenses of
these stations who air shows like and they'll name a
whole bunch of them, maybe even including Armstrong and Getty.
And I don't want to live in that world either.
So that I think is the totality of the whole story.
Oh Kimmel is a smug ass hat, amen to that.
(28:08):
Oh my god, he's hard to take and he's just
so fake, you.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Know, with the crying and the you know, that whole
spiel he went.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
On after Trump got elected this last time around for
the women and the children, the sick, and it's like,
just shut up, Shut up. Do you want to hear
a clip from Johnny Carson talking about Late Night?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, I want to get this on. This is Johnny
Carson on sixty minutes back in the day.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
Oh tell me the last time that Jack Benny red
Skelton Benny comedian used his show to do serious issues.
That's not what I'm there for.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Can't they see that?
Speaker 11 (28:49):
But you and I do they think that just because
you have it Tonight's show, that you must deal in
serious issues. That's a danger. It's a real danger. Once
you start that, do you start to get that self
important feeling. That's what you say has great import and
you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as
a form you could sway people, and I don't think
you should. Asn't entertainment.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, Well, Kimmel and Colbert have made a lot of
money for themselves and for a while, quite a bit
of money from the networks. But that's over. You stuck
your thumb in the eye of probably more than half
the country, yep. And then you got the competition from
all these different things. You just slice the pie down
(29:31):
to the part that you know. I'm sorry, Jimmy Kimmel
and Stephen Colbert, nobody, there aren't enough people to give
a crap about your sermons. I thought that was a
good term, your sermons every night about what's wrong with
those of us who don't agree with you. That there's
no money in it. There's not enough money in it
to support your very very expensive shows, that's for certain.
(29:52):
Oh right, So Jimmy Fallon. Good for him. He by
far tried to stay out of one sided politics the most,
and he's the one left standing. He might really benefit
from this because if he ends up being the only
talk show Joe thinks Kimmel's coming back. I don't know
if I believe that or not, but if Fallon ends
up being the only talk show, he'll get, you know,
(30:12):
the big star promoting the movie every time because there's
no other show to go on. Right, it's just so annoying.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Well, and I liked to what Carson said there. I mean, like,
that's not what they're there for.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, such a different era though in all kinds of
different ways. For one thing, Johnny Carson, I forget what
the number was. I looked this up after Colbert lost
his job, but I think it was twenty percent Carson's
show alone was twenty percent of NBC's revenue. Oh wow,
I mean so he was a big flip and deal
and his ratings were huge, and so he wanted to
talk to as much of America as he could. Now
(30:49):
you got it sliced into a tiny little group of
people agree with your whining sermons every single night, and
those shows are actually losing money. So it's just a
different things. And came up with a great idea on
how I should handle my Ukrainian girlfriend email pen pal.
I'll tell you about that next.
Speaker 6 (31:09):
Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And so we talk a lot about scams online scams
here on the radio show, and they get hot or whatever.
This is. This is an old one. The somebody who
as you're especially for men, I suppose. I guess it
works both ways. Yeah, I've heard it work both ways
men and women. Somebody gets your email address from who
(31:31):
knows where, because we've all been hacked ten different ways
by different The experience or whatever company got hacked and
all your information got out, so so many people have
your email address. So somebody in Russia, Iran or whatever
has been sending me these emails claiming to be some
young Ukrainian hottie who has fallen in love with me
(31:51):
without having having met me or seen me or whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
And I like, I like Michael Agelo's suggesting that it's
Joel prank on you anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
And so she'd been emailing me and I finally responded yesterday.
And I've been waiting for the Where are they trying
to get money out of me?
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yeah, the crisis.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
So she's had links. I haven't clicked on the links.
She's now unhappy that I'm not emailing her back enough. Hi,
my dearest sweetheart, Jack, Thank you so much for your
wonderful letter. My response was was my response yesterday. It
was very short. There's something like nice talking.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
To you, something about you've been thinking about her all day?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right right right? I woke up thinking about you. I think, Yeah,
that was it, And she said it's a bot. Thank
you so much for your wonderful letter. Your letter was
a real present for me to do.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Jack.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Why don't you write me every day? If you're thinking
about me? It would be impossible for us to build
a happy relationship if we do not talk to each
other every day. If he did not answer my letters,
my sweet precious diamond Rose, or all these different things.
She calls me. She sounds that is true. Oh my god, yes,
(33:01):
clingiest of all. But so I've been waiting for the
Uh my landlord says he's going to kick me out
if I don't pay my rent. And I just lost
my job. If you could just send me one month's rent,
I'm sure I can find a new job. But my darling,
love sweet Rose, I you know I love you so much,
and blah blah blah. But she hasn't asked for money yet. Well, Hanson,
(33:23):
our executive producer, came up with the idea I should
ask her for money first. That is which I think
is really hilaricous.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
That's the winner, right there?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Did email her back? I know you're in war torn
Ukraine and I'm here in perfectly comfortable United States of America.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Oh, she already told you she was safe.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Remember, I don't know if she's fine. What do I
need money for? Have I been thrown in jail? Do
I have a health problem? Did my car break down?
What should I tell her? I need money for?
Speaker 3 (33:48):
You want to come see her?
Speaker 8 (33:49):
All right?
Speaker 1 (33:50):
I want to come see you, But now is a
bad time for me. I didn't have the money. If
you can just send me eight hundred dollars. I'm sure
I could come see you and my darling love Princess
could be together forever.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Oh my gosh, please do this.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
See how it goes.
Speaker 11 (34:06):
Well, there's Jocko.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
And Michael Langelo there.
Speaker 11 (34:16):
My radio, so let's hear their finals before they have
to go.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
That's creepy.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Oh gosh, I hate that one. I hate that.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Here's your host for final thoughts.
Speaker 7 (34:26):
Me.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Let's get a final thought from our executive director, Michaelangelou.
Press on the button.
Speaker 8 (34:31):
Sorry, you know, I'm picturing a drunk Joe Getty's sitting
around a computer with his golf buddy's saying, yeah, I've
done this for years.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
He falls for it every time.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Look at this.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Guys called him a precious diamond and they all just
start laughing.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
That's so good. Oh man, Uh, there is uh Katie
Katie the news Lady, Katie Green. What's your final thought?
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I really hope that this flip that you're gonna pull
with these emails works out. And I really want some screenshots.
We need to make a whole thing about this on
the website and on social media, all of it.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I do wonder how the bot or the hacker or
whoever it is is going to respond. I asked them
for money. What do we see now? This has never
happened before. I'm going camping with my son this weekend,
and I'm not much of a camper. I love camping.
I just I just I don't know. I've never dedicated
time to figuring out how to do it or whatever.
I mean. We got a tent, we got a cooler,
(35:21):
we got a little cookstove. I got some Hamburger buns
and some Hamburger. Do I need anything else? Flashlight, sleeping bags? Yeah,
hoping not to get attacked by bears. I'll let you
know how it goes. On Monday. Armstrong and Getty wrapping
up another grueling four hour workday. So many people to thank.
That'd be everybody who works on the show and everybody
(35:42):
who listens. You should go to our website Armstrong and
Getty dot com, or you can buy swag and see
a lot of the stuff we were talking about on
hot links. And I hope your darling Diamond Rose sends
you a lovely email this weekend. Also see you Monday.
God bless American. I'm strong and get take There so many.
Speaker 11 (36:00):
Great moments on today's Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
You know that I've got plenty of flocks somewhere and
who knows what.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
They are, because they have this annual event here which
which for journalistic purposes I need to go visit, which
is called Octoberfest. So do you have TikTok on your phone?
Speaker 6 (36:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
No, me, neither, and I can't.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I don't.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
I vaguely know what it is.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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