July 18, 2025 • 36 mins
7/19/25 - Top Story This Week, The Epstein Controversy / MAGA Rift
Host Doug Stephan along with Michael Harrison, Editor/Publisher of Talkers Magazine, review the most talked about stories and people on news/talk radio for the week of July 14th, 2025 through July 18th, 2025. Compiled by the research department at Talkers Magazine - The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media - www.talkers.com
STORIES
Host Doug Stephan along with Michael Harrison, Editor/Publisher of Talkers Magazine, review the most talked about stories and people on news/talk radio for the week of July 14th, 2025 through July 18th, 2025. Compiled by the research department at Talkers Magazine - The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media - www.talkers.com
STORIES
- The Epstein Controversy / MAGA Rift
- Congress Passes DOGE Cuts
- Financial Markets Activity / Trump vs Powell
- Trump Tariffs
- ICE Raids
- Russia Intensifies Ukraine Strikes
- SCOTUS Education Dept. Ruling
- FEMA Criticisms / Texas Floods Aftermath
- Bove Nomination
- Trump vs Rosie O’Donnell
- Donald Trump
- Jeffrey Epstein
- Pam Bondi / Dan Bongino
- Ghislaine Maxwell
- Jerome Powell
- Stephen Miller
- Vladimir Putin
- Kristi Noem / David Richardson
- Emil Bove
- Rosie O’Donnell
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 1 (00:46):
Elizabeth Miller from Caltron here. Use the DOUG code when
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Speaker 2 (01:06):
Counting Down what America is talking about. Welcome to the
talk radio Countdown Show.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
All across America Talk radio at the voices of freedom,
don't stop talk.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It's the middle of July, the middle of the summer.
I don't know when they have the Baseball All Star Game.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
We're about halfway through the season and halfway through the
summer and halfway through the year. That does not stop us.
That encourages us here on the talk radio Countdown Show
to dig in and find out what's going on, what
people are talking about, what people are listening to, what
the big stories are of the week. I'm Doug Stephen
(01:47):
here to introduce my friend Michael Harrison, the editor and
publisher of Talkers Magazine. He's got the story list and
the people list. Go through that and we'll talk about
many of the items that are here and perhaps a
few other an total items. All these lists can be
found every week at Talkers Magazine talkers dot com. So, Michael,
(02:08):
I know you have been working feverishly to find out
what the number one through number ten items.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Are the charts for this week different than last week?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well they are? They are? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Well, isn't that the way time flows? Time is like
it's a it oozes. You know, things don't change on
Tuesday from Wednesday at midnight, and do you ever a notice.
You know, if you're watching a movie that's a period
piece and it takes place eteen fifty seven, Let's say
every car on the road is a nineteen fifty seven
Ford or Chevy. In reality, if you went back to
(02:46):
nineteen fifty seven, it would take you, unless you looked
at a calendar, it would take a while to figure
out what year you're in, because reality blends cars from
the forties the fifties. You know, we tend to think
in black and white when we look get movies and
things of that nature. But you actually hit on something,
and that is time passes in a in a flow,
(03:07):
and things like these charts have a little bit in
common with the ones right before they gradually change and
they have lots different. So let's see if we can
figure out the difference.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Isn't the similarity that song time passages? Who did that
song from the.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
That wonderful guyl Stuart al Stuart? Wow, that was a
great song.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It was.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
The Alan Parsons project, I think produced that. I was
friends with him in those days. Gosh, and I couldn't
remember his name for a second. That tells you something.
But here are names we all recognize. Trump and Rosie O'Donnell. Yeah,
the bow or the bow or the above, whatever his
name is. Nomination is somebody being nominated for something at
(03:58):
number nine. At number eight, criticisms of FEMA, which always
happens after a storm, and speaking of a storm, tied
with the FEMA criticisms at number eight, or the Texas
floods aftermath at number seven, the Scotis Education Department ruling
It's got a lot of people really upset. At number six,
(04:18):
Russia intensifies the Ukraine strikes. That's got a lot of
people upset. The Ice raids at number five. That's got
people upset. The Trump tariffs at number four, ditto the
financial markets activity and Trump versus Powell at number three.
At number two, the Senate has passed the Doge cuts,
(04:39):
and number one the Epstein controversy tied with the Maga rift.
And I guess old Elon Musk really did begin a
lot of trouble for Trump when he said, okay, I'll
get you. He was on the Epstein list, and everyone said,
who cares? Well, look at how that hasks. Yeah, here
are the people. Rosie is a ten Emil Bove At nine,
(05:02):
Christy Noman David Richardson at eight, Vladimir Putin at seven,
Steven Miller number six, Jerome Powell at five, number four,
Gilain Maxwell number three, the dynamic duo Pam Bondi and
Dan Bongino. Jeffrey Epstein has come back from the grave
to occupy number two and Donald Trump at number one.
(05:25):
Isn't it interesting that we have such a distaste for
pedophiles in our society, in our culture, that it's like
okay for everybody to dump on Jeffrey Epstein even in death.
Nothing is off limits with making fun of this guy.
It's really, I think interesting to.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Serve most of the rap that he got from what
my instincts tell me about him.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Speaking of instincts, talking.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
To my daughter last night about Stephen Miller, wondering whether
he is the face really of the government these days?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Is he running it?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I used to say that Susan Rice was the face
of the government when well, not so much Barack Obama,
although she surfaced then, but she was the real power
behind the throne, which a lot of people don't realize,
a lot of people want.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
To remember who she was or is.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
When Biden was president, she was the Stephen Miller of
the Biden administration. There's always somebody, one person behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Who really is pulling all of the strings.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And in this case, my daughter thinks, anyway, Stephen Miller
is that person, and it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
May very well be.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You don't really get you know, you think you get
a look at what's going on in our government.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
It's your government, but we don't really.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I mean, Trump spent the past almost two weeks telling
everybody that he wanted all the Maga crowd stop asking
me about Jeffrey Epstein stopped this.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Whole business of focus on him, and it backfired big
time on him.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
To the point where shook up the administration and a
lot of folks.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I guess I wonder now about Dan Bongino.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Who was a fairly successful syndicated talk show host. He
was on from noon to three East Coast time, and
decided he wanted to be He was offered the position
of being second in command at.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The FBI, so he took it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I'm betting right now that he wished he hadn't. What
do you think, Michael, I'm interested, you know, I don't
know whether he wishes.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I don't know if he wishes he had or hadn't
because there's such an element of look at me, see me,
hear me, spell my name, clicked me, you know, going
on that they might all be sitting around celebrating how
famous they've become. You bring up a very interesting question
(07:49):
about who's pulling the strings at the Trump administration. It
could be Stephen Miller. My feeling about it is the
secret person pulling the strings at the Trump administ is
Trump himself. He has everybody set up for failure. He
has everybody set up to use that expression that is
way overused. But I guess we know what it means,
(08:09):
and that is to be thrown under the bus. Look
at you know, Pam Bondi is the one that's going
to make that decision because he knows that no matter
what she does, mag is going to blame her and
not him. He becomes a victim of his own, of
his own nominations, of his own people. There's a history
of this. So I think that the biggest myth going
(08:33):
around right now in the media sphere, you know, on
YouTube and all the different commentators and talk radio about Trump,
is that somehow he is seen island incompetent. I don't
think he's any more seen island he's ever been. I
think he's clever, almost diabolical, almost like a almost almost
(08:55):
like a like a villain, like a villain in a
comic book, you know, super villain.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It'd be the next villain in the next Superman. Hopefully
the next one's better than the current one.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I think that man.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Did you see it?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Awful, terrible, there's no plot to it. The only thing
good about it is the lady who plays Lois Lane.
The rest of it is a complete just an ass.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
They should have stopped with George Reeves. That's what it
was meant to me. I still have fondness in my
heart for that terrible show and everything since then.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I mean, how about this guy.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman. He used
to drive that little Nash Rambler convertible.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
That was his car. That was that was that was
his car. He They did that show on such a
low budget. I mean, I you know here we're sort
of digressing here, but that's it's kind of interesting than
some of these people that we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Uh well, Trump thinks of himself as Superman.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I think, as a matter of fact, there's a caricature.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
There was an ai created by somebody probably in his camp,
of him wearing a Superman costume.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
You see that?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, he looked pretty good. You know,
he's got he's got nice whatever they call these things,
poor Trump. They're showing pictures of his ankles. Look at
his ankles, they're swollen. Look at his hand, it's all
just colored. The man's eighty years old. He stands on
his feet all day.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
He wanted to be he wanted to have all this attention.
So he's getting his wish.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Yeah, I guess, so be careful what you wish for
in life. Huh. The book of Trump is not finished
being written yet. Remember one thing, he was elected. This
is his second term. He's got three and a half
years to go. So really, why does he give a
you know what about what Maga thinks of him?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, there are a lot of things have said this
very consistently that he's doing that need to be done.
I think Kennedy's doing a good job in the from
my perspective. Anyway, you still think about human services, Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I still absolutely think that.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
I think Trump has done some things to bring around
a focus on stuff we have wasted a unbelievable amount
of money in the Foreign Aid Department, But does that
mean it should be canceled. I'm not upset at all
about defunding public radio and television because I think that
(11:25):
it does it's overstepped, it has a constituency. But why
should we pay for that service when in fact they
can easily go out And that's the thing that nobody
talks about except those of us in the radio business don't.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Understand how it works. They could easily pay their own way.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
They waste unbelievable amounts of money, and so now we're
they clean up their act or not, depending on what
the you know, the cry babies that are running the
organization come up with. But as far as as you know,
some of these things needed to be they really needed
to be addressed, way beyond way, way out of control
(12:06):
and then there. But that's the way he does it.
It isn't so much that he's doing it. It's great
he's doing something, but it's the way he does it
is disgusting. Look at the MAGA group now they finally
come back around, as you noted a few minutes ago,
to looking at him seriously as a human being?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Is this guy? You know?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Have we made a mistake of supporting him?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Why did we support him in the first place.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's the best question I think of all, that's the
right question. Why do you like Trump? Why do you
support him? Why is there this fascination with this guy
who drops one bombshell after another after another after another.
It's really, you know, the Pied Piper story. Okay, I'm
(12:54):
done well for now. Michael asked me how do I
come by my knowledge? And I'm happy. I love that
question because it's his personal experience at the hands.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I did work for a.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
While when I was earlier in my career as the
voice guys as the announcer quote unquote at w GBH public.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Television station in Boston. It was a very interesting experience.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But I will tell you the more interesting experience that
I had was with our colleague at the time, Ellen Ratner.
She and I went to the director of NPR and
asked him if he would like to have us produce
for him a talk radio countdown show, and he looked
(13:44):
at me. It was a very short conversation. We were
in the office four or five six minutes. We had
prepared a whole outline and this is how it would.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Work for you. Blah blah blah blah blahs would have
cost to produce.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And so he quickly looked at us and he said
he looked at me, and he said, you're not a
member of our club.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And I said, well, this.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Was after I showed him how much we could save
over the way they produce shows, because I know at
the time I had had experience working in a circumstance
that showed me how much they wasted.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Listen even to a.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Public radio program today, and here all the credits that
they do at the end of the show. This one
was the producer, that one's the program director. This guy's
the director. This person answers the phone, this person our
is our outreach for.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It goes on and on and on.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And that's what they're getting at here. And that's why
I think it's a good idea. I think we need
to have public radio, but the public should support it
if it wants to. We're not because it has to,
and it has to if we're using tax money for it.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Is that sufficient?
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Michael, No, that's terrible, terrible answer. You're missing You're missing
one giant point. And I'm not prepared to debate it
with you because I don't I'm not prepared with numbers.
But because you don't like their efficiency, you're leaping to
the assumption that somehow the public, through tax dollars, is
(15:19):
paying for all that.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
What I'm saying it is there the possibility that they
have the right to piss away their money if they
want to.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
If the public's not paying that much that what about
all of those.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
The right to piss away any of my money?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
But what if? What if? And again I I don't
know the numbers. What if it's a very small percentage
of their budget that comes from from government support and
really is inconsequential in terms of their don't considered.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Nine billion dollars to be inconsequential.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Frankly, that is nine billion dollars coming from from the
government every year.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's what they get. That's what the House billion dollars
in spending cuts. The bill was sent to the President's desk.
Not all of it is public radio, but most of
public NPR and CPR CPR incorporate for public broadcasting. It
has become people in our business know because they most
(16:19):
of them have seen how this works, and it is
an extraordinary waste, and why let them do it on
their own if that's what they want to do, but
not with support from the public.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
From the public sector.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Well, you had a good retort there, So it makes
the conversation a little bit more encompassing. But I'm going
to do a little checking and actually see how much
how much it costs the taxpayer to.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Be part of that A dollar ninety I think, I
think I saw that number. Summer dollars sixty a year,
dollar ninety year and your tax bill something like that.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
All right, we have to pause, don't stop talk.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
After all, it's just talk.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And you know, talk is cheap, and anybody can say anything,
and so who holds them accountable? I think that's something
I'm saying some of that with my tongue in cheap,
but certainly, and talk is cheaper when it's commercial talk.
When it's public public radio, it's more expensive. That's kind
(17:34):
of the point that I was making. Whether I made
it well or not, it remains to be seen.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
The other thing that it's just below the surface here the
hoopla about CBS canceling the Late Show with Stephen Colbert,
not just canceling him, but canceling the show, And there
are several different ways of analyzing that Colbert is a
radical left of center thinker and is enough of that
(18:02):
now in the Late Night Circle? So whether it af facts,
Jimmy Kimmel said f you to CBS, which of course,
but so what who can't I guess I get to
the point of who the hell do these people think
they are?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And maybe you'll say, Wow, who the hell do you
think you are?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Exactly who the hell do you think you are?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (18:22):
So I think when I hear it, when I hear
talk show hosts saying other talk show hosts don't have
the right to their opinion or to their popularity.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I say you didn't have the right to it.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I mean, I don't argue with you, Doug. I mean
it makes it makes it slightly more interesting. Uh yes,
I mean, I mean, you know, shut up and sing?
Remember that Laura Ingram I think said that about shut
up and sing? Why don't you shut up? And whatever
the hell you do? I mean, oh, I do the
(18:51):
First Amendments for citizens to be able to talk. And
if you happen to get on what.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I'm saying, he shouldn't talk. But under the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
The public seems as easy for Jimmy Kimmel to say
what he said because he has twice as many viewers
as Colbert did. Colbert is so focused on the negativity,
and I think that's what people react to. Negativity. Kimo
is just a wise ass and always has been.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
So you're judging there, you're judging their right to exist
based upon.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Your No, it's not about the right, it's this is
a decision.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
There are two reasons for the decision.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
One of them Colbert had very few viewers anymore, too
very paramount. The company that runs CBS is trying to
make a deal, and and in the government, mister Trump
is in the way of the deal as long as
they keep peddling some of.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
The stuff they're pedling. So they've waffled to him. That's
what they've done.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
They've waffed to bother you. Programming decisions made because of
pressure from the president. In part. This is a serious situation.
Especially perturbs me because one of my only political platforms
as publisher of Talkers is protecting the First Amendment, and
(20:05):
this is this really weakened.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That's been the number one reason for you, and that's
all the years I've known you, that was always number
one on your hip parade.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I would never I would never say, you know, it's
okay for them to do that to Colbert because he's
a radical left wing lunatic. First of all.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well that.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yeah, that's what people, and people say that the other
guy we were talking about is a radical right wing fascist,
the fellow Stephen Miller. I mean, if we want to
demonize these people and then and then find justification and
shutting them down with even a grain of description about
their politics as being justification, I don't know that. Bothers me,
(20:47):
I think we're all about I think we're so hypocritical.
We meaning are the fabric of our society. And it's
reflected through this marvelous medium in which he said talk
is cheap.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Talk's not cheap.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
People spilled blood for hunt some years to be able
to have freedom of speech. It's pretty and I know,
you know that I some of these arguments, you know,
as I said, it makes the show a little bit
more interesting. But there are people out there that don't
think about these things. They think about it in black
and white terms, like okay, it's okay to shut down
(21:20):
Colbert because he's a radical left wing lunatic.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
That's not the reason to shut him down.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
If the reason, if the real reason was if the
only reason was as I spoke before about him and
the number of people watching his program and the fact
that they can't get advertisers support enough to pay what
a cost to produce the show. That's what they'll tell
you publicly, but behind the scenes, at least part of
the reason is, as we've specified here, that paramount, the
(21:49):
parent company, is trying to make a deal to acquire
something that needs government approval, and Trump can say to
the FCC, don't prove that.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And it's big money.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
So this is his way of getting these bound of flesh.
And that's the trouble with the way he's running things.
Everything is based not necessarily on what the real facts
of the matter are. It's whatever emotional thought is in
his brain at the moment.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I don't like him, so let's get rid of him.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It's kind of what you just said about when I.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Was you thought I was saying about Colbert.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I've never never been a fan of Colbert. I've always
I liked Jimmy Kimmel, even though he has the same
political point of view, it doesn't necessarily agree with mine,
but he doesn't he wear it so much. It isn't
It isn't the factor that drives everything on the program.
And you could say that about a lot of the
people on Fox or these other you know, they have
(22:45):
one point of view and that's what they stick to because.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
That's what they think the audience wants. Well, in the
case of Colbert, it isn't really what the audience.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Wants because they can get something better out of Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Yeah, you said something else that I'd like to raise
here from a standpoint of my perspective in the industry.
You said that Colbert has very few listeners or has
a very viewers. You said listeners, but we were radio guys.
Don't be sorry. I mean the people do listen, they
watch TV and those monologues are podcasts unto themselves, with
(23:19):
a life of their own.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
That is that being said.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
What do you mean by very few?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
I'm a right, So I'm going to compare the number.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
This is a very interesting Now you're digging into an
interesting hole. Sean Hannity has approximately eight hundred to nine
hundred thousand viewers a.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Night according to the last stuff that I saw.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
A ratings wise, and that's about the same number that
Colbert has.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So why is to be important and Colbert.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Isn't Because it's a different It's the cable business is
run differently than the network business.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Can you say that in twenty twenty five with confidence?
I mean maybe in five, maybe in ninety five. But
what it tells me is that Fox News Channel is
up there now with CBS Television network.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
That's yeah, I think there's no question about that. But
I think there's so much splintering of what the available
audience is between radio and television, podcasts, all of this
stuff that's.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Around now, it's eating away at.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Whatever the available audiences at whatever the time is we
turn on the television.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You have five hundred channels. I was looking around.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I had to leave my dog home the other day,
so I was living with a pet channel, and I'm
going through all of this stuff and things that I'd
never realized. We're actually on television. We're on there's so
many hundreds of channels, and how many people are there
to watch all this stuff?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Right?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
No, but we have a lot of dogs, and that's
just we do. But I don't know. I don't know
whether criticizing the number of channels, I mean, aren't we
better off with a lot of channels that allows than all?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yalis, all right, we're going to do well. May I
pause for a moment here in this exciting discussion to
bring you up to date on the latest from Caltron,
which is the number one choice to.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Naturally lose weight. When I say naturally, what do I mean?
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I saw an interview with a woman who lost.
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We get older, sometimes by design and sometimes you can't
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(26:05):
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Save fifty percent this weekend on that flash deal at
toploss dot com for Caldron. All right, so Michael Harrison
and Doug Stephan back with them. My question is we
think about all of the stuff that's being done, whether
it's showtime or not.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Everything seems to be a show.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
It's all about who can get the ratings, who gets
the most views or likes or whatever it is. So,
while we're busy fighting among ourselves and eating our young,
what do you think the leaders of China and Russia?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, not Russia, not so much.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
But China really is our arch enemy and I can't
imagine that they aren't enjoying all of this stuff back
and forth. Are they afraid of Trump? The only reason
for being afraid of him is because he's so unpredictable.
But you know, under the circumstances, don't you think that
(27:59):
the people who are kind of on our side of
scratching their head out did this guy get there?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And the people who aren't on our side are saying, Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
How can we take advantage of this situation?
Speaker 4 (28:08):
I think that I think that's all of the above.
I think the people in China are not our enemies.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I think that's the that's the people and the government.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
I mean, I mean the people running China. I don't
think there are enemies. I think at best, there are frenemies.
And I think that the real thing that they are
are our competitors in a new world a new world
that is real, no matter how we try to deny it.
China's our competitor, and and it's evident by this whole
thing with the tariffs and and everything else that that
(28:38):
we have mutually beneficial deals. Just the word deal. If
you're making a deal, you're making a deal for a
mutual benefit. So I think the idea that China is
our enemy alliances change every three seconds, depending on what strata,
what track in the station the train is on, and
it changes all the time. I don't think that educated
(29:00):
enough to have these kinds of discussions in the media
that really makes sense, And that's why they always devolved
into show business personalities black and white, you know, cardboard
cutout figures, and you know, I'm still wondering, what the
heck ever happened with the World War III that was
supposed to suddenly be imminent by our bombing Iran? What
happened with all that? Or is it still going on
(29:22):
and the news doesn't cover it anymore? I mean, I
understand that there's all kinds of violence going on in
the Mid East that we don't in the Middle East,
that we don't even talk about anymore.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
In the New Rush well look at it.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Let's come back to home and the ridiculous situation in
Los Angeles where all those troops were sent. There's nothing
going on, and quietly the news media disappeared because there
was nothing going on, and the soldiers were back home
because there was nothing going on. If I were doing
a regular program talking about the news this week, I
would have my first foray into conversation would have been
(29:54):
about the Air India pilots and all the people that
blamed Boeing for the crash of that seven eighty seven,
And in fact, these two morons that were flying the
plane didn't have enough experience in flying that plane, and
the pilot flipped a switch to cut the fuel off
to the engines. He didn't even know what he was doing,
and the guy who's the copilot says, what are you doing?
Meanwhile the plane is heading down to the ground and
(30:16):
crashes and everybody but one person dies. That's because they
didn't know what they were doing right right, Well, there's
a lot of they didn't know what they're doing going
on in the world right now, and that's including the
people that cover the news, to people who make the news,
to people that vote for the newsmakers.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
It's a mess.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Thank you for that's real and that's it.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Michael Arrison with Doug Stephan on this week's TARK Radio
Countdown show, The Top.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Radio Countdown, The Top Radio Countdown.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Doug Stephan now with the doctor Stephen.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Okay Wiseman. Stephen JJ Wiseman is here a doctor of philosophy.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
You're being heard on w g G H and Mary
in the Carbondale area of Illinois and w d O
C in Prestonburg, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Great to have all those folks listening to what's going on.
We're going to talk about the.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Law and the fact that there we seem to have
a lawlessness going on here. It's it's the Epstein controversy.
That's number one this week. What the heck really is
the controversy the legal Is it the legal battle or
is it the contents?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Or is it something else? What is the what's the
what is this? Well?
Speaker 7 (31:46):
You know, you live by the sword, you die by
the sword. Donald Trump has made an entire career out
of pushing these outrageous conspiracy theories, and so he had
earlier talked about a list having to do with Epstein,
Jeffrey Epstein and all of the prominent people, and he
(32:08):
implied that you know, many of them were progressives and
Democrats and that it was being hidden their involvement, and
then even issues with whether he was murdered. So it
turns out then he totally after stoking those fires, backs
off on it, and a lot of his bass says, hey,
you know what's going on here, And so now he's
(32:31):
trying to back off and make some effort at supposed transparency.
The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, said she's going to make
a request for release of grand jury testimony. But as
we say in Boston, good luck to you in the
Red Sox. Grand jury testimony is supposed to be private,
(32:53):
and this is because the president's been stoking a conspiracy theory.
Is no basis for overturning this. Then you've got the
Wall Street Journal who is now under a threat of
presidential lawsuit because they reported in a in a story
on Friday about a fiftieth birthday letter, that card that
(33:15):
came from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein with a picture
of a nude woman Donald signing it, and you know,
implying that they shared the same inclinations. So here again,
you know, the laws for Epstein was tried, convicted, committed suicide.
But all of these conspiracy theories that people these days
(33:37):
are so apt to believe is coming back to bite Trump.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Mm hmm. You really think he committed suicide.
Speaker 7 (33:44):
I don't. I don't see that there was really any
motive of someone or to kill him. And I'm not convinced.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Speaking of motive, A lot of people wonder why the
president takes off after the Associated Press reporters and they're
reporting and nobody really digs around behind the scene. Okay,
these guys are incompetent.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
They're really bad. I mean, whatever platitude Trump comes up
with at the moment.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
But what he really doesn't like is that they're digging
into his business deals and exposing all of the sort
of corruptions going on, and the fact that his family
has enriched themselves five hundred million bucks since the beginning
of the You know, I think to myself, I'd like
to be president. I want to I'd like him.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
How about you?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
You want to split the five hundred may with me,
I'm ready, let's go. But I mean, that's why, seriously,
that's why they're after That's why the administration is frowning
on the AP because they're digging into and they're the
only ones. Where's the rest of the news media, the
investigative group. Why aren't they looking into Trump's business deals?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Just the AP.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Well, it's because they've got as an old friend of ours,
Gen Burns used to say, they have the testicul fortitude
to do it. He attacks the media and threatens the media.
CBS just canceled Stephen Colbert show. Calbert was a adamant
critic of the president. They canceled a show that has
(35:15):
two million people watching it every night. It is the
most successful late night show. And they did that because
they're looking to have a merger, and that merger would
be tied up and wouldn't go through so ap. Congratulations
to him as a president who has taken the presidency
to totally enriching himself. No one's ever done this. And
(35:38):
good luck to them in the battle because he's going
to go after him.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
The numbers that I was looking at for Colbert showed
a weakness there as.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Part of the reason. But I think you're right. The
real reason is.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Because they got to make sure the deal that they're
trying to put together the parent company doesn't get screwed
up by Trump's FCC anyway. It's always there's always another,
there's another bit. There are a few ants under the
leaf for every every time you see a leaf, and
an answer to underneath it.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
The talk radio countdown
Elizabeth Miller is here one of the counselors that you
may be exposed to if you go to toploss dot com,
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What are we going to see? Elizabeth?
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Elizabeth Miller from Caltron here. Use the DOUG code when
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Speaker 2 (01:06):
Counting Down what America is talking about. Welcome to the
talk radio Countdown Show.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
All across America Talk radio at the voices of freedom,
don't stop talk.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It's the middle of July, the middle of the summer.
I don't know when they have the Baseball All Star Game.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
We're about halfway through the season and halfway through the
summer and halfway through the year. That does not stop us.
That encourages us here on the talk radio Countdown Show
to dig in and find out what's going on, what
people are talking about, what people are listening to, what
the big stories are of the week. I'm Doug Stephen
(01:47):
here to introduce my friend Michael Harrison, the editor and
publisher of Talkers Magazine. He's got the story list and
the people list. Go through that and we'll talk about
many of the items that are here and perhaps a
few other an total items. All these lists can be
found every week at Talkers Magazine talkers dot com. So, Michael,
(02:08):
I know you have been working feverishly to find out
what the number one through number ten items.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Are the charts for this week different than last week?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well they are? They are? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Well, isn't that the way time flows? Time is like
it's a it oozes. You know, things don't change on
Tuesday from Wednesday at midnight, and do you ever a notice.
You know, if you're watching a movie that's a period
piece and it takes place eteen fifty seven, Let's say
every car on the road is a nineteen fifty seven
Ford or Chevy. In reality, if you went back to
(02:46):
nineteen fifty seven, it would take you, unless you looked
at a calendar, it would take a while to figure
out what year you're in, because reality blends cars from
the forties the fifties. You know, we tend to think
in black and white when we look get movies and
things of that nature. But you actually hit on something,
and that is time passes in a in a flow,
(03:07):
and things like these charts have a little bit in
common with the ones right before they gradually change and
they have lots different. So let's see if we can
figure out the difference.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Isn't the similarity that song time passages? Who did that
song from the.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
That wonderful guyl Stuart al Stuart? Wow, that was a
great song.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It was.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
The Alan Parsons project, I think produced that. I was
friends with him in those days. Gosh, and I couldn't
remember his name for a second. That tells you something.
But here are names we all recognize. Trump and Rosie O'Donnell. Yeah,
the bow or the bow or the above, whatever his
name is. Nomination is somebody being nominated for something at
(03:58):
number nine. At number eight, criticisms of FEMA, which always
happens after a storm, and speaking of a storm, tied
with the FEMA criticisms at number eight, or the Texas
floods aftermath at number seven, the Scotis Education Department ruling
It's got a lot of people really upset. At number six,
(04:18):
Russia intensifies the Ukraine strikes. That's got a lot of
people upset. The Ice raids at number five. That's got
people upset. The Trump tariffs at number four, ditto the
financial markets activity and Trump versus Powell at number three.
At number two, the Senate has passed the Doge cuts,
(04:39):
and number one the Epstein controversy tied with the Maga rift.
And I guess old Elon Musk really did begin a
lot of trouble for Trump when he said, okay, I'll
get you. He was on the Epstein list, and everyone said,
who cares? Well, look at how that hasks. Yeah, here
are the people. Rosie is a ten Emil Bove At nine,
(05:02):
Christy Noman David Richardson at eight, Vladimir Putin at seven,
Steven Miller number six, Jerome Powell at five, number four,
Gilain Maxwell number three, the dynamic duo Pam Bondi and
Dan Bongino. Jeffrey Epstein has come back from the grave
to occupy number two and Donald Trump at number one.
(05:25):
Isn't it interesting that we have such a distaste for
pedophiles in our society, in our culture, that it's like
okay for everybody to dump on Jeffrey Epstein even in death.
Nothing is off limits with making fun of this guy.
It's really, I think interesting to.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Serve most of the rap that he got from what
my instincts tell me about him.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Speaking of instincts, talking.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
To my daughter last night about Stephen Miller, wondering whether
he is the face really of the government these days?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Is he running it?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I used to say that Susan Rice was the face
of the government when well, not so much Barack Obama,
although she surfaced then, but she was the real power
behind the throne, which a lot of people don't realize,
a lot of people want.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
To remember who she was or is.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
When Biden was president, she was the Stephen Miller of
the Biden administration. There's always somebody, one person behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Who really is pulling all of the strings.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And in this case, my daughter thinks, anyway, Stephen Miller
is that person, and it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
May very well be.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You don't really get you know, you think you get
a look at what's going on in our government.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
It's your government, but we don't really.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I mean, Trump spent the past almost two weeks telling
everybody that he wanted all the Maga crowd stop asking
me about Jeffrey Epstein stopped this.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Whole business of focus on him, and it backfired big
time on him.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
To the point where shook up the administration and a
lot of folks.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I guess I wonder now about Dan Bongino.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Who was a fairly successful syndicated talk show host. He
was on from noon to three East Coast time, and
decided he wanted to be He was offered the position
of being second in command at.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
The FBI, so he took it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I'm betting right now that he wished he hadn't. What
do you think, Michael, I'm interested, you know, I don't
know whether he wishes.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I don't know if he wishes he had or hadn't
because there's such an element of look at me, see me,
hear me, spell my name, clicked me, you know, going
on that they might all be sitting around celebrating how
famous they've become. You bring up a very interesting question
(07:49):
about who's pulling the strings at the Trump administration. It
could be Stephen Miller. My feeling about it is the
secret person pulling the strings at the Trump administ is
Trump himself. He has everybody set up for failure. He
has everybody set up to use that expression that is
way overused. But I guess we know what it means,
(08:09):
and that is to be thrown under the bus. Look
at you know, Pam Bondi is the one that's going
to make that decision because he knows that no matter
what she does, mag is going to blame her and
not him. He becomes a victim of his own, of
his own nominations, of his own people. There's a history
of this. So I think that the biggest myth going
(08:33):
around right now in the media sphere, you know, on
YouTube and all the different commentators and talk radio about Trump,
is that somehow he is seen island incompetent. I don't
think he's any more seen island he's ever been. I
think he's clever, almost diabolical, almost like a almost almost
(08:55):
like a like a villain, like a villain in a
comic book, you know, super villain.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It'd be the next villain in the next Superman. Hopefully
the next one's better than the current one.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I think that man.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Did you see it?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Awful, terrible, there's no plot to it. The only thing
good about it is the lady who plays Lois Lane.
The rest of it is a complete just an ass.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
They should have stopped with George Reeves. That's what it
was meant to me. I still have fondness in my
heart for that terrible show and everything since then.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I mean, how about this guy.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman. He used
to drive that little Nash Rambler convertible.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
That was his car. That was that was that was
his car. He They did that show on such a
low budget. I mean, I you know here we're sort
of digressing here, but that's it's kind of interesting than
some of these people that we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Uh well, Trump thinks of himself as Superman.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I think, as a matter of fact, there's a caricature.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
There was an ai created by somebody probably in his camp,
of him wearing a Superman costume.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
You see that?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, he looked pretty good. You know,
he's got he's got nice whatever they call these things,
poor Trump. They're showing pictures of his ankles. Look at
his ankles, they're swollen. Look at his hand, it's all
just colored. The man's eighty years old. He stands on
his feet all day.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
He wanted to be he wanted to have all this attention.
So he's getting his wish.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Yeah, I guess, so be careful what you wish for
in life. Huh. The book of Trump is not finished
being written yet. Remember one thing, he was elected. This
is his second term. He's got three and a half
years to go. So really, why does he give a
you know what about what Maga thinks of him?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, there are a lot of things have said this
very consistently that he's doing that need to be done.
I think Kennedy's doing a good job in the from
my perspective. Anyway, you still think about human services, Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I still absolutely think that.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
I think Trump has done some things to bring around
a focus on stuff we have wasted a unbelievable amount
of money in the Foreign Aid Department, But does that
mean it should be canceled. I'm not upset at all
about defunding public radio and television because I think that
(11:25):
it does it's overstepped, it has a constituency. But why
should we pay for that service when in fact they
can easily go out And that's the thing that nobody
talks about except those of us in the radio business don't.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Understand how it works. They could easily pay their own way.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
They waste unbelievable amounts of money, and so now we're
they clean up their act or not, depending on what
the you know, the cry babies that are running the
organization come up with. But as far as as you know,
some of these things needed to be they really needed
to be addressed, way beyond way, way out of control
(12:06):
and then there. But that's the way he does it.
It isn't so much that he's doing it. It's great
he's doing something, but it's the way he does it
is disgusting. Look at the MAGA group now they finally
come back around, as you noted a few minutes ago,
to looking at him seriously as a human being?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Is this guy? You know?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Have we made a mistake of supporting him?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Why did we support him in the first place.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's the best question I think of all, that's the
right question. Why do you like Trump? Why do you
support him? Why is there this fascination with this guy
who drops one bombshell after another after another after another.
It's really, you know, the Pied Piper story. Okay, I'm
(12:54):
done well for now. Michael asked me how do I
come by my knowledge? And I'm happy. I love that
question because it's his personal experience at the hands.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I did work for a.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
While when I was earlier in my career as the
voice guys as the announcer quote unquote at w GBH public.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Television station in Boston. It was a very interesting experience.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But I will tell you the more interesting experience that
I had was with our colleague at the time, Ellen Ratner.
She and I went to the director of NPR and
asked him if he would like to have us produce
for him a talk radio countdown show, and he looked
(13:44):
at me. It was a very short conversation. We were
in the office four or five six minutes. We had
prepared a whole outline and this is how it would.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Work for you. Blah blah blah blah blahs would have
cost to produce.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And so he quickly looked at us and he said
he looked at me, and he said, you're not a
member of our club.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And I said, well, this.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Was after I showed him how much we could save
over the way they produce shows, because I know at
the time I had had experience working in a circumstance
that showed me how much they wasted.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Listen even to a.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Public radio program today, and here all the credits that
they do at the end of the show. This one
was the producer, that one's the program director. This guy's
the director. This person answers the phone, this person our
is our outreach for.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It goes on and on and on.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And that's what they're getting at here. And that's why
I think it's a good idea. I think we need
to have public radio, but the public should support it
if it wants to. We're not because it has to,
and it has to if we're using tax money for it.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Is that sufficient?
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Michael, No, that's terrible, terrible answer. You're missing You're missing
one giant point. And I'm not prepared to debate it
with you because I don't I'm not prepared with numbers.
But because you don't like their efficiency, you're leaping to
the assumption that somehow the public, through tax dollars, is
(15:19):
paying for all that.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
What I'm saying it is there the possibility that they
have the right to piss away their money if they
want to.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
If the public's not paying that much that what about
all of those.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
The right to piss away any of my money?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
But what if? What if? And again I I don't
know the numbers. What if it's a very small percentage
of their budget that comes from from government support and
really is inconsequential in terms of their don't considered.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Nine billion dollars to be inconsequential.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Frankly, that is nine billion dollars coming from from the
government every year.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's what they get. That's what the House billion dollars
in spending cuts. The bill was sent to the President's desk.
Not all of it is public radio, but most of
public NPR and CPR CPR incorporate for public broadcasting. It
has become people in our business know because they most
(16:19):
of them have seen how this works, and it is
an extraordinary waste, and why let them do it on
their own if that's what they want to do, but
not with support from the public.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
From the public sector.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Well, you had a good retort there, So it makes
the conversation a little bit more encompassing. But I'm going
to do a little checking and actually see how much
how much it costs the taxpayer to.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Be part of that A dollar ninety I think, I
think I saw that number. Summer dollars sixty a year,
dollar ninety year and your tax bill something like that.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
All right, we have to pause, don't stop talk.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
After all, it's just talk.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And you know, talk is cheap, and anybody can say anything,
and so who holds them accountable? I think that's something
I'm saying some of that with my tongue in cheap,
but certainly, and talk is cheaper when it's commercial talk.
When it's public public radio, it's more expensive. That's kind
(17:34):
of the point that I was making. Whether I made
it well or not, it remains to be seen.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
The other thing that it's just below the surface here the
hoopla about CBS canceling the Late Show with Stephen Colbert,
not just canceling him, but canceling the show, And there
are several different ways of analyzing that Colbert is a
radical left of center thinker and is enough of that
(18:02):
now in the Late Night Circle? So whether it af facts,
Jimmy Kimmel said f you to CBS, which of course,
but so what who can't I guess I get to
the point of who the hell do these people think
they are?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And maybe you'll say, Wow, who the hell do you
think you are?
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Exactly who the hell do you think you are?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (18:22):
So I think when I hear it, when I hear
talk show hosts saying other talk show hosts don't have
the right to their opinion or to their popularity.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I say you didn't have the right to it.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I mean, I don't argue with you, Doug. I mean
it makes it makes it slightly more interesting. Uh yes,
I mean, I mean, you know, shut up and sing?
Remember that Laura Ingram I think said that about shut
up and sing? Why don't you shut up? And whatever
the hell you do? I mean, oh, I do the
(18:51):
First Amendments for citizens to be able to talk. And
if you happen to get on what.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I'm saying, he shouldn't talk. But under the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
The public seems as easy for Jimmy Kimmel to say
what he said because he has twice as many viewers
as Colbert did. Colbert is so focused on the negativity,
and I think that's what people react to. Negativity. Kimo
is just a wise ass and always has been.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
So you're judging there, you're judging their right to exist
based upon.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Your No, it's not about the right, it's this is
a decision.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
There are two reasons for the decision.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
One of them Colbert had very few viewers anymore, too
very paramount. The company that runs CBS is trying to
make a deal, and and in the government, mister Trump
is in the way of the deal as long as
they keep peddling some of.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
The stuff they're pedling. So they've waffled to him. That's
what they've done.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
They've waffed to bother you. Programming decisions made because of
pressure from the president. In part. This is a serious situation.
Especially perturbs me because one of my only political platforms
as publisher of Talkers is protecting the First Amendment, and
(20:05):
this is this really weakened.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That's been the number one reason for you, and that's
all the years I've known you, that was always number
one on your hip parade.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That's it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I would never I would never say, you know, it's
okay for them to do that to Colbert because he's
a radical left wing lunatic. First of all.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well that.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yeah, that's what people, and people say that the other
guy we were talking about is a radical right wing fascist,
the fellow Stephen Miller. I mean, if we want to
demonize these people and then and then find justification and
shutting them down with even a grain of description about
their politics as being justification, I don't know that. Bothers me,
(20:47):
I think we're all about I think we're so hypocritical.
We meaning are the fabric of our society. And it's
reflected through this marvelous medium in which he said talk
is cheap.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Talk's not cheap.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
People spilled blood for hunt some years to be able
to have freedom of speech. It's pretty and I know,
you know that I some of these arguments, you know,
as I said, it makes the show a little bit
more interesting. But there are people out there that don't
think about these things. They think about it in black
and white terms, like okay, it's okay to shut down
(21:20):
Colbert because he's a radical left wing lunatic.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
That's not the reason to shut him down.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
If the reason, if the real reason was if the
only reason was as I spoke before about him and
the number of people watching his program and the fact
that they can't get advertisers support enough to pay what
a cost to produce the show. That's what they'll tell
you publicly, but behind the scenes, at least part of
the reason is, as we've specified here, that paramount, the
(21:49):
parent company, is trying to make a deal to acquire
something that needs government approval, and Trump can say to
the FCC, don't prove that.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And it's big money.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
So this is his way of getting these bound of flesh.
And that's the trouble with the way he's running things.
Everything is based not necessarily on what the real facts
of the matter are. It's whatever emotional thought is in
his brain at the moment.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I don't like him, so let's get rid of him.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It's kind of what you just said about when I.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Was you thought I was saying about Colbert.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I've never never been a fan of Colbert. I've always
I liked Jimmy Kimmel, even though he has the same
political point of view, it doesn't necessarily agree with mine,
but he doesn't he wear it so much. It isn't
It isn't the factor that drives everything on the program.
And you could say that about a lot of the
people on Fox or these other you know, they have
(22:45):
one point of view and that's what they stick to because.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
That's what they think the audience wants. Well, in the
case of Colbert, it isn't really what the audience.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Wants because they can get something better out of Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Yeah, you said something else that I'd like to raise
here from a standpoint of my perspective in the industry.
You said that Colbert has very few listeners or has
a very viewers. You said listeners, but we were radio guys.
Don't be sorry. I mean the people do listen, they
watch TV and those monologues are podcasts unto themselves, with
(23:19):
a life of their own.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
That is that being said.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
What do you mean by very few?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
I'm a right, So I'm going to compare the number.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
This is a very interesting Now you're digging into an
interesting hole. Sean Hannity has approximately eight hundred to nine
hundred thousand viewers a.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Night according to the last stuff that I saw.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
A ratings wise, and that's about the same number that
Colbert has.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So why is to be important and Colbert.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Isn't Because it's a different It's the cable business is
run differently than the network business.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Can you say that in twenty twenty five with confidence?
I mean maybe in five, maybe in ninety five. But
what it tells me is that Fox News Channel is
up there now with CBS Television network.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
That's yeah, I think there's no question about that. But
I think there's so much splintering of what the available
audience is between radio and television, podcasts, all of this
stuff that's.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Around now, it's eating away at.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Whatever the available audiences at whatever the time is we
turn on the television.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You have five hundred channels. I was looking around.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I had to leave my dog home the other day,
so I was living with a pet channel, and I'm
going through all of this stuff and things that I'd
never realized. We're actually on television. We're on there's so
many hundreds of channels, and how many people are there
to watch all this stuff?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Right?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
No, but we have a lot of dogs, and that's
just we do. But I don't know. I don't know
whether criticizing the number of channels, I mean, aren't we
better off with a lot of channels that allows than all?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yalis, all right, we're going to do well. May I
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Save fifty percent this weekend on that flash deal at
toploss dot com for Caldron. All right, so Michael Harrison
and Doug Stephan back with them. My question is we
think about all of the stuff that's being done, whether
it's showtime or not.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Everything seems to be a show.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
It's all about who can get the ratings, who gets
the most views or likes or whatever it is. So,
while we're busy fighting among ourselves and eating our young,
what do you think the leaders of China and Russia?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, not Russia, not so much.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
But China really is our arch enemy and I can't
imagine that they aren't enjoying all of this stuff back
and forth. Are they afraid of Trump? The only reason
for being afraid of him is because he's so unpredictable.
But you know, under the circumstances, don't you think that
(27:59):
the people who are kind of on our side of
scratching their head out did this guy get there?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And the people who aren't on our side are saying, Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
How can we take advantage of this situation?
Speaker 4 (28:08):
I think that I think that's all of the above.
I think the people in China are not our enemies.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I think that's the that's the people and the government.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
I mean, I mean the people running China. I don't
think there are enemies. I think at best, there are frenemies.
And I think that the real thing that they are
are our competitors in a new world a new world
that is real, no matter how we try to deny it.
China's our competitor, and and it's evident by this whole
thing with the tariffs and and everything else that that
(28:38):
we have mutually beneficial deals. Just the word deal. If
you're making a deal, you're making a deal for a
mutual benefit. So I think the idea that China is
our enemy alliances change every three seconds, depending on what strata,
what track in the station the train is on, and
it changes all the time. I don't think that educated
(29:00):
enough to have these kinds of discussions in the media
that really makes sense, And that's why they always devolved
into show business personalities black and white, you know, cardboard
cutout figures, and you know, I'm still wondering, what the
heck ever happened with the World War III that was
supposed to suddenly be imminent by our bombing Iran? What
happened with all that? Or is it still going on
(29:22):
and the news doesn't cover it anymore? I mean, I
understand that there's all kinds of violence going on in
the Mid East that we don't in the Middle East,
that we don't even talk about anymore.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
In the New Rush well look at it.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Let's come back to home and the ridiculous situation in
Los Angeles where all those troops were sent. There's nothing
going on, and quietly the news media disappeared because there
was nothing going on, and the soldiers were back home
because there was nothing going on. If I were doing
a regular program talking about the news this week, I
would have my first foray into conversation would have been
(29:54):
about the Air India pilots and all the people that
blamed Boeing for the crash of that seven eighty seven,
And in fact, these two morons that were flying the
plane didn't have enough experience in flying that plane, and
the pilot flipped a switch to cut the fuel off
to the engines. He didn't even know what he was doing,
and the guy who's the copilot says, what are you doing?
Meanwhile the plane is heading down to the ground and
(30:16):
crashes and everybody but one person dies. That's because they
didn't know what they were doing right right, Well, there's
a lot of they didn't know what they're doing going
on in the world right now, and that's including the
people that cover the news, to people who make the news,
to people that vote for the newsmakers.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
It's a mess.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Thank you for that's real and that's it.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Michael Arrison with Doug Stephan on this week's TARK Radio
Countdown show, The Top.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Radio Countdown, The Top Radio Countdown.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Doug Stephan now with the doctor Stephen.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Okay Wiseman. Stephen JJ Wiseman is here a doctor of philosophy.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
You're being heard on w g G H and Mary
in the Carbondale area of Illinois and w d O
C in Prestonburg, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Great to have all those folks listening to what's going on.
We're going to talk about the.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Law and the fact that there we seem to have
a lawlessness going on here. It's it's the Epstein controversy.
That's number one this week. What the heck really is
the controversy the legal Is it the legal battle or
is it the contents?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Or is it something else? What is the what's the
what is this? Well?
Speaker 7 (31:46):
You know, you live by the sword, you die by
the sword. Donald Trump has made an entire career out
of pushing these outrageous conspiracy theories, and so he had
earlier talked about a list having to do with Epstein,
Jeffrey Epstein and all of the prominent people, and he
(32:08):
implied that you know, many of them were progressives and
Democrats and that it was being hidden their involvement, and
then even issues with whether he was murdered. So it
turns out then he totally after stoking those fires, backs
off on it, and a lot of his bass says, hey,
you know what's going on here, And so now he's
(32:31):
trying to back off and make some effort at supposed transparency.
The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, said she's going to make
a request for release of grand jury testimony. But as
we say in Boston, good luck to you in the
Red Sox. Grand jury testimony is supposed to be private,
(32:53):
and this is because the president's been stoking a conspiracy theory.
Is no basis for overturning this. Then you've got the
Wall Street Journal who is now under a threat of
presidential lawsuit because they reported in a in a story
on Friday about a fiftieth birthday letter, that card that
(33:15):
came from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein with a picture
of a nude woman Donald signing it, and you know,
implying that they shared the same inclinations. So here again,
you know, the laws for Epstein was tried, convicted, committed suicide.
But all of these conspiracy theories that people these days
(33:37):
are so apt to believe is coming back to bite Trump.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Mm hmm. You really think he committed suicide.
Speaker 7 (33:44):
I don't. I don't see that there was really any
motive of someone or to kill him. And I'm not convinced.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Speaking of motive, A lot of people wonder why the
president takes off after the Associated Press reporters and they're
reporting and nobody really digs around behind the scene. Okay,
these guys are incompetent.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
They're really bad. I mean, whatever platitude Trump comes up
with at the moment.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
But what he really doesn't like is that they're digging
into his business deals and exposing all of the sort
of corruptions going on, and the fact that his family
has enriched themselves five hundred million bucks since the beginning
of the You know, I think to myself, I'd like
to be president. I want to I'd like him.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
How about you?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
You want to split the five hundred may with me,
I'm ready, let's go. But I mean, that's why, seriously,
that's why they're after That's why the administration is frowning
on the AP because they're digging into and they're the
only ones. Where's the rest of the news media, the
investigative group. Why aren't they looking into Trump's business deals?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Just the AP.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Well, it's because they've got as an old friend of ours,
Gen Burns used to say, they have the testicul fortitude
to do it. He attacks the media and threatens the media.
CBS just canceled Stephen Colbert show. Calbert was a adamant
critic of the president. They canceled a show that has
(35:15):
two million people watching it every night. It is the
most successful late night show. And they did that because
they're looking to have a merger, and that merger would
be tied up and wouldn't go through so ap. Congratulations
to him as a president who has taken the presidency
to totally enriching himself. No one's ever done this. And
(35:38):
good luck to them in the battle because he's going
to go after him.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
The numbers that I was looking at for Colbert showed
a weakness there as.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Part of the reason. But I think you're right. The
real reason is.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Because they got to make sure the deal that they're
trying to put together the parent company doesn't get screwed
up by Trump's FCC anyway. It's always there's always another,
there's another bit. There are a few ants under the
leaf for every every time you see a leaf, and
an answer to underneath it.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
The talk radio countdown
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