September 19, 2025 • 44 mins
Recorded live on Friday, September 19, 2025, at 8:00 PM EST, hosts Billy Dees and Cynthia Elliott dive into the controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel’s dismissal from ABC. From there, the conversation expands into a deeper examination of free speech—both on the broadcast airwaves and in the broader public forum.
The airwaves are public property, leased by the government to private broadcasters under the expectation that they serve the common good. But what happens when programming delivers heavily slanted political commentary or outright misinformation? Is that really in service of the public?
This thought-provoking discussion explores multiple dimensions of free expression, responsibility, and the balance between profit and the public interest.
Billy Dees on X https://x.com/BillyDees
Cynthia Elliott on X https://x.com/shamanisis
The airwaves are public property, leased by the government to private broadcasters under the expectation that they serve the common good. But what happens when programming delivers heavily slanted political commentary or outright misinformation? Is that really in service of the public?
This thought-provoking discussion explores multiple dimensions of free expression, responsibility, and the balance between profit and the public interest.
Billy Dees on X https://x.com/BillyDees
Cynthia Elliott on X https://x.com/shamanisis
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You are listening to The Billy D's Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hello everyone, and welcome to The Billy D's Podcast. As always,
I am absolutely thrilled that you are here. If you've
never checked us out before, we are primarily an interview
and a commentary based podcast. Today we're live on X
and we're doing commentary and with me is the lovely
(00:33):
and the Esteemed Cynthia Elliott.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
More like fear and I don't know how to steam.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I'm Billy. It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It's awesome to have you on the program. A lot
going on today because well not just I mean today
in the macro sense these times, with the issue of
free speech. We're going to talk about that. We've talked
about it actually quite a bit on this program. It's
(01:02):
a big debate, you know, is it?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Is it really a big debate because it was a
big debate during the election because we'd all sort of
lost our freedom of speech for a few years.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yes, but a lot of people are slicing and dicing
this in regard to Jimmy Kimmel. Yeah, okay, and Jimmy
Kimmel is just the latest one. Stephen Colbert was another
one that touched this debate off. But let me a
lot of this started too in the wake of the
horrible murder of Charlie Kirk, with the online celebrations that
(01:37):
took place. And I get people telling, oh, the I
have you got to see one? Well, then you don't
know how to navigate the internet, because these online celebrations
were everywhere. Yeah, and it wasn't just a few isolated ones.
Now I'm talking. I mean, I couldn't pick a number,
(01:58):
but I'm sure it's in the tens of thou And
from what I understand, they are investigating this, and I'll talk.
I'll talk a little bit as to why. Let's start
with Jimmy Kimmel, who next to Stephen Colbert. Stephen Colbert
is probably one of the people I detest the most. Okay,
not firstly, I wish him no, weal will. And then
(02:20):
you know, there's a big distinction here between how people
like myself talk and the radicals out there. With the
radicals on both sides, I don't wish anybody any you will,
just because I disagree with them, but I detest what
these individuals stand up for and how they present facts.
I absolutely detest them.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
They play journalists without actually being or acting like a
real journalist.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
To set the tone for this, I want to play
this clip for you right here. Let's take a listen
to this. This is just a few seconds long. Take
a listen to this.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Do you get tensitive about the fact that people say
he'll never take a serious controversy. Well, I have an
answer to that.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Tell me the last time that Jack Benny red Skeleton
Benny comedian used his show to do serious issues.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's not what I'm there for.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Can't they see that?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
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, you start to forget that self important
feeling that 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
(03:33):
as an entertainer.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, yes, yes, Johnny Carson from many many years ago,
that is a distinction. And quite frankly, Elvis said the
same thing. When you have the ability to and I'm
not speaking for them, I'm paraphrasing here, when you have
(03:56):
the ability to just sway people's emotions. When you have
the ability, whether it's an entertainment show, whether it's the
music that you do, you wield a power. You will
the power of influence, and that has to be considered
very deeply. When these people get on their high horse
(04:20):
and exert an influence over people that they themselves may
not fully understand, and that's giving them the benefit of
the doubt. Some of them know that they are full
of shit, and they use their power and influence to
manage public opinion. And now this we're not talking about
(04:45):
free speech here. This is something that is ethical, not
necessarily legal. You know, this is a discussion that has
to do with ethics. What's your let's start there, what's
your opinion of that?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So, first of all, if Jimmy Kimmel wanted to deal
in topics like that which are political and they are
sharing his political opinion, then he should have changed his
show to the Jimmy Kimmel Political Commentary Show. But it's
supposedly labeled entertainment, and I think when you are dealing
with the public that your job is well, first of all,
(05:20):
if you're calling yourself a comedian an entertainer, that's really
what you're supposed to do. But lecturing people as though
people are effing idiots and trying to tell people what
choices that they should make for themselves and then emotionally
blackmailing them if you don't agree with their choices is disgusting.
And this kind of behavior has been going on for years,
you know, when you go back to the closures, the lecturing,
(05:43):
the condescending, the asking for people to be fired, to
lose their jobs, not to get healthcare and hospitals. Just
as Jimmy Kimmel telling people all these things, he was
really on this bandwagon with a bunch of other celebrities
who decided that they knew better than human beings knew
about their own body or what they believed themselves. And
they were I mean, I want you to think about that.
They were literally trying to emotionally blackmail people into getting
(06:07):
what were and we now know we're experimental shots which
have now been shown to have to damage people. And
they just didn't stop there. It was like they were
so high on themselves in their own opinion that they
couldn't they couldn't get let go of the power that
they were experiencing by being in that position. And it's
been disturbing to watch as a communications professional. And I'll
(06:30):
have to share in a second. I want to share
a story with you which I think will really drive
home how long this has been going on.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, I'm just I'm showing that some
of the class that Jimmy Kimmel has shown.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yea, and none of these I mean, let's be honest,
that all the talk shows are just trash.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
They've been trash for years.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
They're not funny, they're not entertaining, the hosts are boring,
they're too political. But they're not on a political show.
They're an entertainment show. But I have to show the
story really quick, because I was thinking about this this morning.
About sixteen or seventeen years ago, I was at the
Sundance Film Festival and I was there for ten days,
and I did it every year for years, and so
I knew a lot of people, and it was a
big thing. It's all Hollywood, it's all stars and James
(07:11):
Woods and I wasn't gonna name him, but it's out
there anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
James Woods came and.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I remember how profoundly disturbed I was by all the
conversations that were going on and the pressure that was
even being applied to me not to help support talk
to because he's a Republican, Like this was the It
was from the time he got there until the time
he left, the dominant conversation and the treatment that he
(07:39):
received was so appalling to me.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I couldn't believe what I was I was like, Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You guys are all running around telling everybody else that
they can't help support her or do anything for this
man because of his political decisions. And it made me
realize how much media. And I knew this from a
journalism standpoint, I knew media was really being utilized in
terrible ways, but I really began to understand the pressure
going on in Hollywood to speak to one very particular
(08:06):
narrative and one particular idea of the way we should
live in this country. And that's not what Hollywood was
built for.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
No, it wasn't. Let's talk about the incident itself of
Jimmy Kimmel. Let's back up a little bit here. It's
one thing to say something in terms of media, I
mean the actual media, whether it be broadcast, Internet, or
what have you. Broadcast is in kind of its own
(08:36):
little category because broadcast uses the airwaves, okay, and the
airwaves belong to the people. Acting as our agent, the
federal government leases this public property, this stage to a
select group of tenants who profit from its use on
(08:58):
the condition they serve the common good. That is in
a nutshell with the FCC when you're talking about terrestrial broadcast,
that is awaves terra meaning earth airwaves that travel through
the air over the surface of the Earth. Okay, And
(09:20):
in this case, when it's in the United States, the
public domain, that public domain is managed by the federal government,
which is of course financed through tax dollars. So you
have an obligation to serve the common good, which means
entertaining information. All this other stuff, no matter what kind
(09:44):
of content it is, has to basically cover the common good. Now,
this doesn't mean that every single person you have to
make happy all the time. That's not what it is.
But this here is an outright lie, and let's listen
to this.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
We hit some new.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Lows over the weekend with the Maga gang desperately trying
to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything
other than one of them, and everything they can to
score political points.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
From Robinson's mother explained that over the last year or so,
Robinson had become more political and had started to lean
more to the left, becoming more pro gay and trance
writes Oriented. She stated that Robinson began to date his roommate,
a biological male who was transitioning genders. This resulted in
(10:38):
several discussions with family members, but especially between Robinson and
his father, who have very different political views.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Ok Now, this is coming from the person who says
we should respect government so much when it comes to vaccinations,
saying that all these governmental officials, whether it be FBI,
whether it be the governor of Utah, all these people
are just making this stuff up that this guy was
a maga radical.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Oh, it's He's clearly a political show for somebody. There's
some the Democratic Party or some of the people running
the show there have got to be telling him what
angle to take.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I would be stunned if that wasn't the case.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Okay. The bottom line here, though, is Jimmy Kimmel misrepresented
nobody here, Nobody at this point. I mean, you know,
and that's the thing. You follow the facts and the
facts right now surrounding this suspect, whether it be his family,
(11:39):
his friends, his associations, his behavior online, the horrible things
he wrote on the bullet casings, the bulge or whatever
that is. That's in reference to women who have a bulge,
and you know what that means. The idea that these
were mega principles is absolutely ridiculous so far. And you
(11:59):
know what, if the facts change, that's fine because people
I'll speak for myself, people like me, follow the facts.
If this was a Christian white male, I would be
up here saying this was a Christian white mother effort, okay,
that the truth should not need to be hidden, sheltered whatever.
(12:23):
So getting back to the common good, what you could say,
what you could say here is that those remarks by
Jimmy Kimmel swayed people, which by the at this point
are are. You can't bring them back. The damage has
been done. No matter how much you discredit what Jimmy
Kimmel just said, he influenced god knows how many people
(12:47):
to think something opposite from what the facts are.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And this because we need liberals with more fear driving
their choices, because that's what that is. When the way
he did that, the lie he told and blaming Maga
He's basically pointing a gun at them and saying, you know,
this is what the mag is doing to you. Now
behave the way we want you to. Like, that's just
my personal opinion. Yeah, sure, he's clearly he knew if
(13:10):
he knew how to do his job. And we used
to actually have this in American media. We actually used
to have journalists and TV hosts whose job it was
was to present the facts and present points on both
sides and let you make up your mind.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But that's not what he's doing here.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
He's literally ignoring what we actually know to be fact
and saying something to stoke fear within his base.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yes, and this is not serving the common good. There's
no wiggle room on this. He's using public airwaves and
for the people who want the truth, for the people
who do support right leaning politicians for whatever reason, their
tax dollars fund the forum that he is on, and
(13:53):
you cannot slap them in the face that many times
when it comes to the FCC. Now, to be clear,
this really and oven by itself, is not a free
speech issue. Jimmy Kimmel is not being silenced. He is
not being put away somewhere where he can never speak again.
All that's happened here is his forum that his current
(14:15):
forum on ABC has been suspended. And there's economics involved
in this as well, because behind the scenes, when a
lot of very powerful companies who are advertising on ABC,
especially on the Jimmy Kimmel shows, saw this, they said,
we don't want our advertising dollars being spent in this manner,
(14:38):
so we're pulling out. So his ratings were almost a
secondary issue, whether they were good or bad, because he
had violated FCC regulations. He had violated that trust that
we haven't given him by letting him use the public airwaves,
and he lost his supporters, the people that financed the program.
(14:59):
So did this here? Again, This isn't some governmental thing,
you know, like like some dark vision of the future
where you say something against the government and you disappear.
That isn't what happened here. And if he's truly and
we could debate his ratings, if you go by the
eighteen to forty nine demographic, all the late night talk
(15:19):
shows are in the basement.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Oh yeah, I mean, I know social media people that
they get better ratings for yes and a clip than
Jimmy Kimmels is getting.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
The number. The number I heard, and I don't know
if this is true or not. Now this is eighteen
to forty nine. Eighteen to forty nine, he got about
one hundred and twenty five thousand viewers, which is dog shit.
If that numbers show, that's the number that keeps coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And I've got videos with that many views.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Now, if you go into older demographics, now that's where
they get really high. And if you get over the
age of six, these guys still have respectable ratings. But
this is where and there's not that there's anything wrong
with older people. I'm heading in that direction. I'm you know,
(16:11):
I'm a lot closer to the edge. Yeah, I'm gen x,
I'm getting a lot. I'm just at the point in
my life I'm a lot closer to the end than
I am in the beginning. And it's probably influencing me
in a bad way, because I got to tell you,
you know, every once in all, somebody makes me really mad.
And what's in the back of my mind is, yeah,
sentence to life in prison is not that much of
(16:32):
a threat at this point.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
So you're so funny.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, But anyway, getting back to this situation, there's nothing
wrong with the Jaritol crowd. I think they're a great
group of people.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Okay, I actually honestly think it's habitual for them. I
think they're turning it on and I frankly, I'm not
sure if they're actually really listening.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's more like background noise.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, when you're talking about baby boomers, they've been conditioned,
you know. They put on their slippers and then you
get into bed, and they watch the local news and
they listen to the weather and all that explanation of stuff,
and all they have to do is say, hey, tomorrow
it's probably going to rain and it's going to be
sixty seven degrees, so it's all you really need to hear.
(17:14):
But you go through all this satellite imagery and then
all the things about the pollen and all the little
weeds that are in your lawn and all this sudden
and they listen to all that bullshit and then they
turn and as part of their going to sleep procedure,
they're winding down for the day, they listen to these
three people, by the way, that are indistinguishable. I was
(17:37):
listening to Jimmy Fallon and he actually said something that
was objectively funny. He said, yes, we're you know, it's
a sad day. I got about one hundred texts today
talking about Jimmy Kimmel, and everybody was so sad, including
(17:57):
my own parents, that I lost my sh show. The said,
he goes, no, it's not me. But the fact of
the matter is is not only do these guys look similar,
they do exactly the same show.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, and they're they're literally and they're like an arm
of the Democratic Party. They've been they've all been pushing
the Democratic narrative for years. You know, I have to say, Billy,
this the whole thing with Charlie Kirk and then Jimmy
kimmelake the Democratic Party, Like I am not sure just
how far down the toilet they have to go before
they actually sit back and go you know what, what
(18:32):
we're doing is not working because the number of people
that I saw putting out videos saying I'm absolutely humiliated.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
To be a Democrat.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I mean the countless videos of people saying I can't
do it anymore, like I can't, I cannot identify as Democrat.
I'm too embarrassed by the behavior, the disgusting videos.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
It is.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
It is a has to be some special form of
mental illness because they keep making the same mist They
keep pushing the people that have supported them, that are
moderate or leaning towards conservetive, they just keep pushing them away,
and every decision they make, like what they've been doing
for the last week.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yes, it is so stupid.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
They're literally just gonna get what are they going to
not exist in a couple of years if they keep
up with this rating? I mean they they could have
they could have stepped up after Charlie Cook happened. Charlie
Cook happened and you know, been graceful and elegant, extended
the hand, come together as a nation, and it could
have helped restabilize their their their party. But they are
(19:32):
so constantly being negative that they can't stop. It's like
there's like they have rabies, yes something.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Oh, that's a great way to put it. They absolutely do.
They absolutely do have rabies. And I'm not going to
accept the what's the word I'm looking for the outrage?
That's the outrage. That's they're the outrage group from the
left talking about free speech. Who who are they kidding?
(20:02):
After a decade of absolute woke insanity, they're.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
DISI from telling people how they could speak, what words
they could use? I mean, are they for real? They've
literally been lecturing Americans and making laws and rules that
tell you that you can't say what you think, and
trying to convince the entire country that a man can
get pregnant and have a miscarriage.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, and if you say otherwise, you lose your job.
That is canceling somebody that is hurting them. Okay, what
happened to Jimmy Kimmel. If he's really as popular as
everybody says he is and there's all this, okay, but
let's say he is, There's nothing stopping him from doing
what Glenn Beck did. There's nothing stopping him from doing
what Tucker Carlson is doing. That all of these individuals
(20:51):
had their problems with broadcast media, and they landed better
than what they were before. So if Jimmy Kimmel is
really that popular and really such an urgent voice that
we need, he can join me right here. He can
join me right here. There's absolutely nothing stopping him from
(21:12):
doing it, and he will have a lot more rain
when he has not beholden to a group of advertisers
or beholden to FCC regulations. He can say, whatever brilliance
that he can possibly come up with, and we can
be treated to more of this. You know, this is
this is the idea of entertainment that the left will
(21:37):
condone when it's supposedly one of their own. Okay, imagine
if there was a video like that coming out of
let's say, what Trump Trump doing that. Imagine the outrage
that there would be. So yeah, spare me this moral
(21:58):
high ground about free speech from the left. The witch hunts,
the microaggressions, and here's where I'm going to get into
a little bit about the celebrations of what happened to
Charlie Kirk, which we're signing. The left will take a
tweet that somebody did in grade school, ten, fifteen years ago,
(22:25):
and now they're, you know, in their twenties or approaching
thirty or whatever the mass comes out to be, and
they're running for Congress, or they're running for some seat
in government, or they're doing something, and somebody finds this
tweet from fifteen years ago and wants to cancel this individual.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And they did it to plenty of people.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Okay, this is the left. These are the people that
are now cry babying about free speech because of Jimmy
effing Kimmel, you can kiss my ass. And here here's
here's the thing with getting back to the celebrations. I'm
a free speech absolutist, I absolutely am, and I'm going
(23:12):
to say that free speech, by most people's, most legal
scholars will tell you does cover hate speech. So if
somebody wants to come on you know, the airwaves or
the whatever is to stand in the public form and
say I hate Billy Dees, I hate him, I hate
his guts, I'm sure a lot of people do you
(23:36):
know that? No, no, no, that was Keith Oberman famously blocked.
I don't know if I might have the image here,
let me see if I have the image. I'm oh,
here you go, Here you go, Keith Oberman. So yes
(24:02):
I did, And actually we were talking about this very topic.
I did a podcast about a year or so ago
where I did a commentary about why the Democrats were
on their way to lose the election and had nothing
to do with partisanship. Okay, from a marketing standpoint, they
weren't cultivating a candidate and they weren't cultivating a message.
That was the essence. And during the the commentary that
(24:26):
I did I got into some talk about free speech
and Keith that that that episode hit big. I mean,
hundreds of thousands of yous go you know, I don't
remember what it was, half a million impressions something like that.
It was an extraordinary number. And I caught the attention
of a lot of national figures, and Keith Olberman was
one of them. And he did not like the fact
(24:47):
that I said that he hate speech was covered by
free speech.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
He said, no, it's not, and I said, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I said, yes it is, because what is hate speech
speech that you don't like? Hate speech is what some
people they did that they they hate, They hate the speech,
so therefore it's hate speech. And that was a reasonable
reply in my opinion, I read it.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
It was a reasonable reply. He was just super sensitive.
But isn't that the hallmark.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And and and and and he he he know again,
this wasn't a whole very active threat because of this
big episode. I didn't really follow the whole thing. But
because of that he blocked me.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So yes, yeah, yeah, I just had what I say,
something that I think is really important, the behavior of
the liberals. Uh. And I know this is not all Democrats,
and you know, I was a Democrat at one point
and and still believe in a lot of the things
that they that they used to believe in. They have
got to stop gas lighting their their people, their followers.
(25:52):
Is it is not only is it turning off a
lot of a lot more of their followers, but it's
it's causing a lot of the alarming behavior, the assassinations
that we've seen this last year. It's the constant gaslighting
and fear mongering that is causing these violent incidents to happen.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And say that again, and it is what's happening.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
But it's not just them, the gas lighting across mass
media as well as some of the you know, I'm
I actually like Candace. I'm going to go Candace Owns Candace,
I like Candace Owens, and I like Tucker Carlson. But
they're all doing the gas lighting. They're all doing the
thing where you know, it's like, oh, this is popular,
right now, let me just beat it to death. And
(26:35):
and you know, some of the claims like and I
really do I like Candace and goble that's good for
her that she's managed to be able to be successful
on her own. But but I feel like a lot
of it is just it's just gaslighting the public. And
you know, we need we need harmony, we need peace,
and we're just not going to get there if if
that we're bombarded constantly.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
What I was getting to with the celebratory things about
the assassination, what shocked me was, you know, I remember
Reagan getting shot, and I'm sure there were people who said, yeah,
I'm glad it happened. I'm sure, I'm sure it happened.
I'm sure there were people who celebrated when MLK got shot.
I'm sure there were people who celebrated when JFK got shot.
(27:15):
But it was it was It wasn't in the public square.
It was maybe in the local bar, you know, a
bunch of rednecks or whatever, and you do without him.
The public display of what happened with Charlie Kirk, the
absolute by thousands upon thousands, and we're not talking about
(27:36):
a few fringe cooks. We're talking about thousands. It was sickning.
But as a free speech absolutist, I got to say
most of it's got. I don't like it, but it's
something that's probably going to have to fly. But there's
some exceptions, and this is another. This is another area
(27:56):
that people quite don't quite understand about free speech. You've
got to be very careful about wishing harm on somebody,
even though you're not even though you're not saying you're
doing it yourself. Or let's say you're a very you're
an influencer, you have a two million followers. Okay, And
(28:17):
I was actually very disappointed in somebody actually had on
the program who's got millions of followers. She was on
the program about something else a couple of years ago.
You know, she went viral for wishing something bad to
happen to the president, and you know she was she
doubled down on it. Now here's she.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Was getting attention. Yes, And by the way, I have
to say, this is really quick with I forget. They
are using this whole thing with Jimmy Kimmel to try
to distract from the abborring behavior that was exhibited by
many of their partners, absol after Charlie Kirk. That's what
they're doing. They were all like, oh, no, we've made
a huge mistake. Okay, let's let's use the Jimmy Kimmel
in the free speech bullshit again.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yes, when you are an influencer that that word means
something influence. And when you have millions of followers, when
you celebrate or wish harm on somebody, and one of
your followers is inspired to go out and make your
make you happy by making your dreams come true, so
(29:21):
to speak, that is different territory. And a lot of
these people on social media were listing what I don't
like Charlie Kirk because of A, B and C. Excuse me.
And when you do that, you paint a target on
(29:46):
everybody who stands for A, B and C. You are saying,
in essence, the world is better off without people doing
A and B and C. And now you're on very
thin ice in terms of what the free speech provisions
will do for you, okay, because if something should happen.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
And incited them, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
If a prosecutor and investigators you know, would say that
you could really draw a distinct line from your online behavior,
I mean being the perpetrator. From the perpetrator's behavior, it
can draw a direct line to a certain influencer, and
this influencer was advocating for the world to be a
(30:31):
better place without these people, and in cheering on the
people that died that supported those things, and this person
went out and committed a horrible act. Not only would
you be canceled, but there's a good chance you could
find yourself criminally prosecuted. Yeah, free speech.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Frankly, I think we may need to see if you
those cases to get this to people to step back,
because the number of videos that I've seen where people
are talking about Charlie Kirk and they absolutely so clear
that they heard somebody else say it, and that they've
not actually done any investigation. Like, the amount of deceptive
content that is out there has actually been disturbing me,
(31:10):
particularly this last year, because we're in the attention economy
and people will say and do anything, including lying and
knowingly lying, which is one of my issues with a
lot of the media. Yeah, it's not helping our situation
for everyone to be gaslighting each other.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. So as
we summarize this, excuse me again, as we summarize this
with you know, free speech. I'm a free speech absolutist, okay,
and that includes hate speech. I hate you whatever, that's fine,
(31:43):
it's not fine, but you get what I say. In
terms of free speech, I don't think that you should
be silenced by the government for saying that you hate
someone else or any of that type of stuff. It's
one thing to express dislike. It is another thing to
express dislike on the public airwaves. Yeah, okay, And it
(32:05):
is certainly another thing to objectively lie or distort the
facts on the public airwaves. You can get away with
some of that under free speech provisions. The government won't
bother you, but you can get away with that. Standing
on the corner, you can get away with that. You know,
in certain online media where that's not being broadcast, you
(32:26):
can get away with some of that, But the restrictions
are tighter when you're talking about public airways and away
from government. You have to consider where the money comes
from that keeps those shows on the air, because they're
very expensive to produce. That money comes from advertisers. And
if advertisers say, wait a minute, we're not supporting that.
(32:50):
You know, we're giving you millions of dollars to make
people happy and can keep watching TV and feel good
about buying our products. We're not giving you money to
lie and all these other things and incorrectly sway public opinion.
That's not what we want, so we're taking our advertising
dollars away. That is not a free speech violation. The
(33:11):
government had nothing to do with that. That is show business.
And I think that is something that a lot of
entertainers forget.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I honestly, go ahead, Billy.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I would love to give them the benefit of the
doubt that they're just they're just, you know, incorrect with
what they think. I honestly believe they don't care, yeah,
what the truth is. I mean, watching Obama and Clinton
post that garbage crap today about the free speech thing,
I was like, oh, could you too just go away?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
You've done enough damage.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Now you're gaslighting your people with the free speech bs
because you want to like make up for the fact
that they acted like.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Like I mean, it was demonic.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
A lot of the videos that I saw after Charlie
Kirk died, there was a woman who did you see
the video of the woman who went to her kids
and said, guess what, yes, I did. And she went
married to a National guardsman and she's a teacher, which
brings me to one more thing then, and I don't
quote me on this, but I did read this today
(34:12):
that then the job that is the most consistent job
for the people who've been doing this behavior is a
teacher slash professor, which doesn't really surprise me. That wouldn't
surprise me, and that's what she does.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
That's the problem with academia is, especially when you get
into the college level, a lot of these professors and
everything have never really run a business.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And yet they never really worked.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
No, they either they went to school on scholarships or
their mommy and daddy paid the bill to go to school,
and then they worked in academia and in studies and
for other institutions that are funded either by text dollars
or for grants. And by the way, there was a
time when I defended very much the nonprofit sector, and
I'm you know, I championed still a lot of nonprofits.
(34:58):
I think they're great. But it has become a bastion.
It has become a vehicle to promote political ideologies within
the community. It absolutely has. Yeah, sorry, it absolutely has.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Oh yeah, I mean just look at the right. The
radicalization of our young people has has come from mass media,
from Hollywood media, and from the schools which have just
went off the they went off the rails. Some of
the things I was hearing that they were doing like
the gender, like giving them medications and talking to them
(35:33):
about like gender in kindergarten. I mean that that all
of that is all tied together, and it was all
about this agenda, which I don't know, I can't understand.
I've never really been able to understand what that agenda
is about other than weakening this country or humanity.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, so getting into you know where I was going
with this is this these professors and these individuals, and
they're producing people right out of college who went to school,
listened to these people, and now these teachers feel emboldened.
(36:11):
You know that they have never dug a ditch in
their life. They didn't work on the street crew like
I did. Okay, they go straight from the classroom where
they have this worldly professor talk about all this bullshit,
and they go into the classroom and they start doing
that the six year old kids, and I, you know,
I got to say, for the most part, I defend
(36:33):
teachers because, yeah, teachers these days, they have to be
social workers, they have to be counselors, they have to
be all these other things because the parents structure, the
family structure has broken down to such a degree that
you know, these kids come into the classroom very troubled,
and I understand, and quite frankly, it's a thankless job.
(36:56):
And quite frankly, there's way too much politics in teaching,
but a lot of that they brought on themselves. That's
what people forget. Okay, So I empathize a lot of
times with teachers who find themselves in political situations with
the parents and the school boards and everything else. But
when they act online the way they do and the
way they tell kids, some of the stuff that's been
(37:17):
told to kids about this Charlie Kirk thing, I can't
imagine what world an adult would tell a child that
this was a good thing and actually show with videos.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Well that's what I say.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
I keep going back to that there's got to be
something in addition to Trump derangement syndrome. There's no it
cannot be anything other than a mental illness of some kind.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
And I am not making it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I think you're being gracious. I think these people are
sinister individuals.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
It's demonic, which is why I'm like, Okay, either they're
possessed by demons to try to tell a child to
celebrate Charlie Kirk dying, and you're a teacher in a school.
It's insanity. But the number of people who thought this
was okay behavior. I mean, you know, we may not
have been that smart fifty years ago, but I remember,
you know, when Reagan was shot and the country came
(38:05):
together and not that you know, Charlie Kirk's not the
president of the United States, but shocking, shocking, shocking collective moment. Yes,
And the distortion that is required to justify celebrating the
murder of any father or even just a human being
in this country in front of students.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Is insanity.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
And that's why I know some well known psychiatrist or
psychologists has got to write a book.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
And come up with a new diagnosis for the DSM.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yes, it's an interesting time. Well, we always wrap up
the show with talking about what we are doing, So Cynthia,
tell us about what you are doing.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Well, I've got the new issue Soul Tech magazine which
just came out. It's the Healing issue. I've got the
ted X Meisner, which is part of the TEDx Speaking series.
Happened in February, and I'm doing a huge health expo
with a bunch of women for for about Women's Health
early next year.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So a lot of exciting stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
If you want to stay on top of it, go
to shamanisis dot com and sign up for the newsletter
and you'll be You'll get all sorts of free articles
and of course invitations to.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Events that is absolutely fantastic. My name is Billy D's.
The Billy D's podcast is available on all the major
podcast platforms. We have a ten year history, and the
last month or so we're experiencing, for whatever, some of
the highest listen rates that we've had. And you've got
to keep in mind, we like social media, you know,
(39:39):
I like X, I like all those I like. I
like the video casts that we're doing here, but the
vast majority of our listens are on the audio platforms
like you know, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Good Pods, all those.
So if you want to subscribe to the Ability's podcast
(40:00):
on your favorite platform, I want you to know that
there's no pay walls here. Okay, So if you have
an iPhone, you have Apple podcasts, if you know, you know,
you probably have a music thing you Spotify and all
that the Abilities podcast is on there, you can subscribe
to the Ability's podcasts with no paywalls. We do not
charge listeners for anything. There's no additional content, there's no
(40:23):
back rooms with extra content and behind the scenes content
that you got to pay for and all that bs.
We don't do that to our listeners. Okay, so we
we do other things, but listeners don't have to pay.
That isn't what we do. We're producers, of course, we
you know, we produce a number of different podcasts. We
do a lot of audio work, we do a lot
of video editing, We do all that kind of stuff.
(40:44):
That's our wheelhouse actually charging for work. Our listeners do
not have to do anything or pay anything to listen
to the podcast. Now, you can find me on X.
Like I mentioned, that's kind of like my social media home.
It has become very friendly to all types of media,
not just social media, and we are taking advantage of that.
(41:06):
And the video casts have become very popular, especially the
replays as the days go on after the podcast is finished.
It does very well on X. So yes, we're very
happy about that. We'll take as many listeners as we
can get. But don't forget to subscribe to us on
your favorite podcasting platform. All right, Cynthia, thank you so
(41:29):
much for hanging out with me today and talking about
I'll show it one more time. There. Look at that.
Isn't that just cute? Haven't you ever seen anything as
cute as that?
Speaker 5 (41:41):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (41:42):
My gosh?
Speaker 2 (41:44):
And you know that is I was a comedian and
for a number of years, and this was years ago,
This was probably like twenty years ago, and I did
some edgy stuff. And I think you can get away
with a lot being a comedian under the guise of,
you know, it's supposed to be funny or you're parroting
(42:04):
something or something of that nature. In my worst day,
I don't know if what we're talking about here, what
I've been showing was a setup or whether it was
planned or what it is. But the idea that it
would be funny to treat a woman that way, even
before we have the culture that we do today with
(42:27):
wokeness and all this, I would never have done that. Yeah,
that's not something I would have done.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
That's the cheap tricks of somebody who's not actually a comedian.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
You know. None of these late night talk show hosts
would have ever made it to Carson.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
No, and again, I understand the media landscape was different
when Carson was on. You got to keep in mind
that he was like thirty percent of NBC's income, which
in today's dollars would be billions of dollars. He held
up that network when they didn't have any hit shows
in prime time, none of these I don't care how
(43:00):
much you like any of these these late night shows.
That is not even close to happening. It's not even close.
The late night ratings are very low. They're only high
with the baby boomers who listen to late night. As
we were saying, as a habit, I'll only've all listened
(43:23):
to the monologue, see what he has to say, and
there's whole bunch of bullshit about Trump.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
I think they're sitting there reading or playing with their
iPad and that's just background noise.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I swear, really, when was the last time you went
to work and you discussed something that one of these
guys said, And just.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Be honest, nobody won't come on. I don't think he's
actually watching.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
No, but there was a time when when you know,
when you go to go to work or go to school,
in Carson did some kind of routine or he had
some guests that he always treated respectfully, always treated respectfully,
say something crazy or make news. I mean he was
part of the culture and these guys are just losers.
(44:05):
And with that we'll say goodbye. I thank you very much, Cynthia,
so glad to have you. I'm Billy D's and host
of the self titled podcast, The Billy D's Podcast. We
are primarily an interview and a commentary based podcast featuring
(44:27):
authors and creators talking about their craft, advocates for community issues,
and myself in an array of co host discussing current events.
There's no partisan renting and raving going on here, just
great content. You can find The Billy D's Podcast on
your favorite platform and on Twitter at Billy D's. Thank you,
and I hope you listen in
You are listening to The Billy D's Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hello everyone, and welcome to The Billy D's Podcast. As always,
I am absolutely thrilled that you are here. If you've
never checked us out before, we are primarily an interview
and a commentary based podcast. Today we're live on X
and we're doing commentary and with me is the lovely
(00:33):
and the Esteemed Cynthia Elliott.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
More like fear and I don't know how to steam.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I'm Billy. It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It's awesome to have you on the program. A lot
going on today because well not just I mean today
in the macro sense these times, with the issue of
free speech. We're going to talk about that. We've talked
about it actually quite a bit on this program. It's
(01:02):
a big debate, you know, is it?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Is it really a big debate because it was a
big debate during the election because we'd all sort of
lost our freedom of speech for a few years.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yes, but a lot of people are slicing and dicing
this in regard to Jimmy Kimmel. Yeah, okay, and Jimmy
Kimmel is just the latest one. Stephen Colbert was another
one that touched this debate off. But let me a
lot of this started too in the wake of the
horrible murder of Charlie Kirk, with the online celebrations that
(01:37):
took place. And I get people telling, oh, the I
have you got to see one? Well, then you don't
know how to navigate the internet, because these online celebrations
were everywhere. Yeah, and it wasn't just a few isolated ones.
Now I'm talking. I mean, I couldn't pick a number,
(01:58):
but I'm sure it's in the tens of thou And
from what I understand, they are investigating this, and I'll talk.
I'll talk a little bit as to why. Let's start
with Jimmy Kimmel, who next to Stephen Colbert. Stephen Colbert
is probably one of the people I detest the most. Okay,
not firstly, I wish him no, weal will. And then
(02:20):
you know, there's a big distinction here between how people
like myself talk and the radicals out there. With the
radicals on both sides, I don't wish anybody any you will,
just because I disagree with them, but I detest what
these individuals stand up for and how they present facts.
I absolutely detest them.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
They play journalists without actually being or acting like a
real journalist.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
To set the tone for this, I want to play
this clip for you right here. Let's take a listen
to this. This is just a few seconds long. Take
a listen to this.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Do you get tensitive about the fact that people say
he'll never take a serious controversy. Well, I have an
answer to that.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Tell me the last time that Jack Benny red Skeleton
Benny comedian used his show to do serious issues.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's not what I'm there for.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Can't they see that?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
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, you start to forget that self important
feeling that 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
(03:33):
as an entertainer.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, yes, yes, Johnny Carson from many many years ago,
that is a distinction. And quite frankly, Elvis said the
same thing. When you have the ability to and I'm
not speaking for them, I'm paraphrasing here, when you have
(03:56):
the ability to just sway people's emotions. When you have
the ability, whether it's an entertainment show, whether it's the
music that you do, you wield a power. You will
the power of influence, and that has to be considered
very deeply. When these people get on their high horse
(04:20):
and exert an influence over people that they themselves may
not fully understand, and that's giving them the benefit of
the doubt. Some of them know that they are full
of shit, and they use their power and influence to
manage public opinion. And now this we're not talking about
(04:45):
free speech here. This is something that is ethical, not
necessarily legal. You know, this is a discussion that has
to do with ethics. What's your let's start there, what's
your opinion of that?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So, first of all, if Jimmy Kimmel wanted to deal
in topics like that which are political and they are
sharing his political opinion, then he should have changed his
show to the Jimmy Kimmel Political Commentary Show. But it's
supposedly labeled entertainment, and I think when you are dealing
with the public that your job is well, first of all,
(05:20):
if you're calling yourself a comedian an entertainer, that's really
what you're supposed to do. But lecturing people as though
people are effing idiots and trying to tell people what
choices that they should make for themselves and then emotionally
blackmailing them if you don't agree with their choices is disgusting.
And this kind of behavior has been going on for years,
you know, when you go back to the closures, the lecturing,
(05:43):
the condescending, the asking for people to be fired, to
lose their jobs, not to get healthcare and hospitals. Just
as Jimmy Kimmel telling people all these things, he was
really on this bandwagon with a bunch of other celebrities
who decided that they knew better than human beings knew
about their own body or what they believed themselves. And
they were I mean, I want you to think about that.
They were literally trying to emotionally blackmail people into getting
(06:07):
what were and we now know we're experimental shots which
have now been shown to have to damage people. And
they just didn't stop there. It was like they were
so high on themselves in their own opinion that they
couldn't they couldn't get let go of the power that
they were experiencing by being in that position. And it's
been disturbing to watch as a communications professional. And I'll
(06:30):
have to share in a second. I want to share
a story with you which I think will really drive
home how long this has been going on.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, I'm just I'm showing that some
of the class that Jimmy Kimmel has shown.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yea, and none of these I mean, let's be honest,
that all the talk shows are just trash.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
They've been trash for years.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
They're not funny, they're not entertaining, the hosts are boring,
they're too political. But they're not on a political show.
They're an entertainment show. But I have to show the
story really quick, because I was thinking about this this morning.
About sixteen or seventeen years ago, I was at the
Sundance Film Festival and I was there for ten days,
and I did it every year for years, and so
I knew a lot of people, and it was a
big thing. It's all Hollywood, it's all stars and James
(07:11):
Woods and I wasn't gonna name him, but it's out
there anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
James Woods came and.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I remember how profoundly disturbed I was by all the
conversations that were going on and the pressure that was
even being applied to me not to help support talk
to because he's a Republican, Like this was the It
was from the time he got there until the time
he left, the dominant conversation and the treatment that he
(07:39):
received was so appalling to me.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I couldn't believe what I was I was like, Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You guys are all running around telling everybody else that
they can't help support her or do anything for this
man because of his political decisions. And it made me
realize how much media. And I knew this from a
journalism standpoint, I knew media was really being utilized in
terrible ways, but I really began to understand the pressure
going on in Hollywood to speak to one very particular
(08:06):
narrative and one particular idea of the way we should
live in this country. And that's not what Hollywood was
built for.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
No, it wasn't. Let's talk about the incident itself of
Jimmy Kimmel. Let's back up a little bit here. It's
one thing to say something in terms of media, I
mean the actual media, whether it be broadcast, Internet, or
what have you. Broadcast is in kind of its own
(08:36):
little category because broadcast uses the airwaves, okay, and the
airwaves belong to the people. Acting as our agent, the
federal government leases this public property, this stage to a
select group of tenants who profit from its use on
(08:58):
the condition they serve the common good. That is in
a nutshell with the FCC when you're talking about terrestrial broadcast,
that is awaves terra meaning earth airwaves that travel through
the air over the surface of the Earth. Okay, And
(09:20):
in this case, when it's in the United States, the
public domain, that public domain is managed by the federal government,
which is of course financed through tax dollars. So you
have an obligation to serve the common good, which means
entertaining information. All this other stuff, no matter what kind
(09:44):
of content it is, has to basically cover the common good. Now,
this doesn't mean that every single person you have to
make happy all the time. That's not what it is.
But this here is an outright lie, and let's listen
to this.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
We hit some new.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Lows over the weekend with the Maga gang desperately trying
to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything
other than one of them, and everything they can to
score political points.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
From Robinson's mother explained that over the last year or so,
Robinson had become more political and had started to lean
more to the left, becoming more pro gay and trance
writes Oriented. She stated that Robinson began to date his roommate,
a biological male who was transitioning genders. This resulted in
(10:38):
several discussions with family members, but especially between Robinson and
his father, who have very different political views.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Ok Now, this is coming from the person who says
we should respect government so much when it comes to vaccinations,
saying that all these governmental officials, whether it be FBI,
whether it be the governor of Utah, all these people
are just making this stuff up that this guy was
a maga radical.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Oh, it's He's clearly a political show for somebody. There's
some the Democratic Party or some of the people running
the show there have got to be telling him what
angle to take.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I would be stunned if that wasn't the case.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Okay. The bottom line here, though, is Jimmy Kimmel misrepresented
nobody here, Nobody at this point. I mean, you know,
and that's the thing. You follow the facts and the
facts right now surrounding this suspect, whether it be his family,
(11:39):
his friends, his associations, his behavior online, the horrible things
he wrote on the bullet casings, the bulge or whatever
that is. That's in reference to women who have a bulge,
and you know what that means. The idea that these
were mega principles is absolutely ridiculous so far. And you
(11:59):
know what, if the facts change, that's fine because people
I'll speak for myself, people like me, follow the facts.
If this was a Christian white male, I would be
up here saying this was a Christian white mother effort, okay,
that the truth should not need to be hidden, sheltered whatever.
(12:23):
So getting back to the common good, what you could say,
what you could say here is that those remarks by
Jimmy Kimmel swayed people, which by the at this point
are are. You can't bring them back. The damage has
been done. No matter how much you discredit what Jimmy
Kimmel just said, he influenced god knows how many people
(12:47):
to think something opposite from what the facts are.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And this because we need liberals with more fear driving
their choices, because that's what that is. When the way
he did that, the lie he told and blaming Maga
He's basically pointing a gun at them and saying, you know,
this is what the mag is doing to you. Now
behave the way we want you to. Like, that's just
my personal opinion. Yeah, sure, he's clearly he knew if
(13:10):
he knew how to do his job. And we used
to actually have this in American media. We actually used
to have journalists and TV hosts whose job it was
was to present the facts and present points on both
sides and let you make up your mind.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But that's not what he's doing here.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
He's literally ignoring what we actually know to be fact
and saying something to stoke fear within his base.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yes, and this is not serving the common good. There's
no wiggle room on this. He's using public airwaves and
for the people who want the truth, for the people
who do support right leaning politicians for whatever reason, their
tax dollars fund the forum that he is on, and
(13:53):
you cannot slap them in the face that many times
when it comes to the FCC. Now, to be clear,
this really and oven by itself, is not a free
speech issue. Jimmy Kimmel is not being silenced. He is
not being put away somewhere where he can never speak again.
All that's happened here is his forum that his current
(14:15):
forum on ABC has been suspended. And there's economics involved
in this as well, because behind the scenes, when a
lot of very powerful companies who are advertising on ABC,
especially on the Jimmy Kimmel shows, saw this, they said,
we don't want our advertising dollars being spent in this manner,
(14:38):
so we're pulling out. So his ratings were almost a
secondary issue, whether they were good or bad, because he
had violated FCC regulations. He had violated that trust that
we haven't given him by letting him use the public airwaves,
and he lost his supporters, the people that financed the program.
(14:59):
So did this here? Again, This isn't some governmental thing,
you know, like like some dark vision of the future
where you say something against the government and you disappear.
That isn't what happened here. And if he's truly and
we could debate his ratings, if you go by the
eighteen to forty nine demographic, all the late night talk
(15:19):
shows are in the basement.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Oh yeah, I mean, I know social media people that
they get better ratings for yes and a clip than
Jimmy Kimmels is getting.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
The number. The number I heard, and I don't know
if this is true or not. Now this is eighteen
to forty nine. Eighteen to forty nine, he got about
one hundred and twenty five thousand viewers, which is dog shit.
If that numbers show, that's the number that keeps coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And I've got videos with that many views.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Now, if you go into older demographics, now that's where
they get really high. And if you get over the
age of six, these guys still have respectable ratings. But
this is where and there's not that there's anything wrong
with older people. I'm heading in that direction. I'm you know,
(16:11):
I'm a lot closer to the edge. Yeah, I'm gen x,
I'm getting a lot. I'm just at the point in
my life I'm a lot closer to the end than
I am in the beginning. And it's probably influencing me
in a bad way, because I got to tell you,
you know, every once in all, somebody makes me really mad.
And what's in the back of my mind is, yeah,
sentence to life in prison is not that much of
(16:32):
a threat at this point.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
So you're so funny.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, But anyway, getting back to this situation, there's nothing
wrong with the Jaritol crowd. I think they're a great
group of people.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Okay, I actually honestly think it's habitual for them. I
think they're turning it on and I frankly, I'm not
sure if they're actually really listening.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's more like background noise.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, when you're talking about baby boomers, they've been conditioned,
you know. They put on their slippers and then you
get into bed, and they watch the local news and
they listen to the weather and all that explanation of stuff,
and all they have to do is say, hey, tomorrow
it's probably going to rain and it's going to be
sixty seven degrees, so it's all you really need to hear.
(17:14):
But you go through all this satellite imagery and then
all the things about the pollen and all the little
weeds that are in your lawn and all this sudden
and they listen to all that bullshit and then they
turn and as part of their going to sleep procedure,
they're winding down for the day, they listen to these
three people, by the way, that are indistinguishable. I was
(17:37):
listening to Jimmy Fallon and he actually said something that
was objectively funny. He said, yes, we're you know, it's
a sad day. I got about one hundred texts today
talking about Jimmy Kimmel, and everybody was so sad, including
(17:57):
my own parents, that I lost my sh show. The said,
he goes, no, it's not me. But the fact of
the matter is is not only do these guys look similar,
they do exactly the same show.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, and they're they're literally and they're like an arm
of the Democratic Party. They've been they've all been pushing
the Democratic narrative for years. You know, I have to say, Billy,
this the whole thing with Charlie Kirk and then Jimmy
kimmelake the Democratic Party, Like I am not sure just
how far down the toilet they have to go before
they actually sit back and go you know what, what
(18:32):
we're doing is not working because the number of people
that I saw putting out videos saying I'm absolutely humiliated.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
To be a Democrat.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I mean the countless videos of people saying I can't
do it anymore, like I can't, I cannot identify as Democrat.
I'm too embarrassed by the behavior, the disgusting videos.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
It is.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
It is a has to be some special form of
mental illness because they keep making the same mist They
keep pushing the people that have supported them, that are
moderate or leaning towards conservetive, they just keep pushing them away,
and every decision they make, like what they've been doing
for the last week.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yes, it is so stupid.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
They're literally just gonna get what are they going to
not exist in a couple of years if they keep
up with this rating? I mean they they could have
they could have stepped up after Charlie Cook happened. Charlie
Cook happened and you know, been graceful and elegant, extended
the hand, come together as a nation, and it could
have helped restabilize their their their party. But they are
(19:32):
so constantly being negative that they can't stop. It's like
there's like they have rabies, yes something.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Oh, that's a great way to put it. They absolutely do.
They absolutely do have rabies. And I'm not going to
accept the what's the word I'm looking for the outrage?
That's the outrage. That's they're the outrage group from the
left talking about free speech. Who who are they kidding?
(20:02):
After a decade of absolute woke insanity, they're.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
DISI from telling people how they could speak, what words
they could use? I mean, are they for real? They've
literally been lecturing Americans and making laws and rules that
tell you that you can't say what you think, and
trying to convince the entire country that a man can
get pregnant and have a miscarriage.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, and if you say otherwise, you lose your job.
That is canceling somebody that is hurting them. Okay, what
happened to Jimmy Kimmel. If he's really as popular as
everybody says he is and there's all this, okay, but
let's say he is, There's nothing stopping him from doing
what Glenn Beck did. There's nothing stopping him from doing
what Tucker Carlson is doing. That all of these individuals
(20:51):
had their problems with broadcast media, and they landed better
than what they were before. So if Jimmy Kimmel is
really that popular and really such an urgent voice that
we need, he can join me right here. He can
join me right here. There's absolutely nothing stopping him from
(21:12):
doing it, and he will have a lot more rain
when he has not beholden to a group of advertisers
or beholden to FCC regulations. He can say, whatever brilliance
that he can possibly come up with, and we can
be treated to more of this. You know, this is
this is the idea of entertainment that the left will
(21:37):
condone when it's supposedly one of their own. Okay, imagine
if there was a video like that coming out of
let's say, what Trump Trump doing that. Imagine the outrage
that there would be. So yeah, spare me this moral
(21:58):
high ground about free speech from the left. The witch hunts,
the microaggressions, and here's where I'm going to get into
a little bit about the celebrations of what happened to
Charlie Kirk, which we're signing. The left will take a
tweet that somebody did in grade school, ten, fifteen years ago,
(22:25):
and now they're, you know, in their twenties or approaching
thirty or whatever the mass comes out to be, and
they're running for Congress, or they're running for some seat
in government, or they're doing something, and somebody finds this
tweet from fifteen years ago and wants to cancel this individual.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And they did it to plenty of people.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Okay, this is the left. These are the people that
are now cry babying about free speech because of Jimmy
effing Kimmel, you can kiss my ass. And here here's
here's the thing with getting back to the celebrations. I'm
a free speech absolutist, I absolutely am, and I'm going
(23:12):
to say that free speech, by most people's, most legal
scholars will tell you does cover hate speech. So if
somebody wants to come on you know, the airwaves or
the whatever is to stand in the public form and
say I hate Billy Dees, I hate him, I hate
his guts, I'm sure a lot of people do you
(23:36):
know that? No, no, no, that was Keith Oberman famously blocked.
I don't know if I might have the image here,
let me see if I have the image. I'm oh,
here you go, Here you go, Keith Oberman. So yes
(24:02):
I did, And actually we were talking about this very topic.
I did a podcast about a year or so ago
where I did a commentary about why the Democrats were
on their way to lose the election and had nothing
to do with partisanship. Okay, from a marketing standpoint, they
weren't cultivating a candidate and they weren't cultivating a message.
That was the essence. And during the the commentary that
(24:26):
I did I got into some talk about free speech
and Keith that that that episode hit big. I mean,
hundreds of thousands of yous go you know, I don't
remember what it was, half a million impressions something like that.
It was an extraordinary number. And I caught the attention
of a lot of national figures, and Keith Olberman was
one of them. And he did not like the fact
(24:47):
that I said that he hate speech was covered by
free speech.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
He said, no, it's not, and I said, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I said, yes it is, because what is hate speech
speech that you don't like? Hate speech is what some
people they did that they they hate, They hate the speech,
so therefore it's hate speech. And that was a reasonable
reply in my opinion, I read it.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
It was a reasonable reply. He was just super sensitive.
But isn't that the hallmark.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And and and and and he he he know again,
this wasn't a whole very active threat because of this
big episode. I didn't really follow the whole thing. But
because of that he blocked me.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So yes, yeah, yeah, I just had what I say,
something that I think is really important, the behavior of
the liberals. Uh. And I know this is not all Democrats,
and you know, I was a Democrat at one point
and and still believe in a lot of the things
that they that they used to believe in. They have
got to stop gas lighting their their people, their followers.
(25:52):
Is it is not only is it turning off a
lot of a lot more of their followers, but it's
it's causing a lot of the alarming behavior, the assassinations
that we've seen this last year. It's the constant gaslighting
and fear mongering that is causing these violent incidents to happen.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And say that again, and it is what's happening.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
But it's not just them, the gas lighting across mass
media as well as some of the you know, I'm
I actually like Candace. I'm going to go Candace Owns Candace,
I like Candace Owens, and I like Tucker Carlson. But
they're all doing the gas lighting. They're all doing the
thing where you know, it's like, oh, this is popular,
right now, let me just beat it to death. And
(26:35):
and you know, some of the claims like and I
really do I like Candace and goble that's good for
her that she's managed to be able to be successful
on her own. But but I feel like a lot
of it is just it's just gaslighting the public. And
you know, we need we need harmony, we need peace,
and we're just not going to get there if if
that we're bombarded constantly.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
What I was getting to with the celebratory things about
the assassination, what shocked me was, you know, I remember
Reagan getting shot, and I'm sure there were people who said, yeah,
I'm glad it happened. I'm sure, I'm sure it happened.
I'm sure there were people who celebrated when MLK got shot.
I'm sure there were people who celebrated when JFK got shot.
(27:15):
But it was it was It wasn't in the public square.
It was maybe in the local bar, you know, a
bunch of rednecks or whatever, and you do without him.
The public display of what happened with Charlie Kirk, the
absolute by thousands upon thousands, and we're not talking about
(27:36):
a few fringe cooks. We're talking about thousands. It was sickning.
But as a free speech absolutist, I got to say
most of it's got. I don't like it, but it's
something that's probably going to have to fly. But there's
some exceptions, and this is another. This is another area
(27:56):
that people quite don't quite understand about free speech. You've
got to be very careful about wishing harm on somebody,
even though you're not even though you're not saying you're
doing it yourself. Or let's say you're a very you're
an influencer, you have a two million followers. Okay, And
(28:17):
I was actually very disappointed in somebody actually had on
the program who's got millions of followers. She was on
the program about something else a couple of years ago.
You know, she went viral for wishing something bad to
happen to the president, and you know she was she
doubled down on it. Now here's she.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Was getting attention. Yes, And by the way, I have
to say, this is really quick with I forget. They
are using this whole thing with Jimmy Kimmel to try
to distract from the abborring behavior that was exhibited by
many of their partners, absol after Charlie Kirk. That's what
they're doing. They were all like, oh, no, we've made
a huge mistake. Okay, let's let's use the Jimmy Kimmel
in the free speech bullshit again.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yes, when you are an influencer that that word means
something influence. And when you have millions of followers, when
you celebrate or wish harm on somebody, and one of
your followers is inspired to go out and make your
make you happy by making your dreams come true, so
(29:21):
to speak, that is different territory. And a lot of
these people on social media were listing what I don't
like Charlie Kirk because of A, B and C. Excuse me.
And when you do that, you paint a target on
(29:46):
everybody who stands for A, B and C. You are saying,
in essence, the world is better off without people doing
A and B and C. And now you're on very
thin ice in terms of what the free speech provisions
will do for you, okay, because if something should happen.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
And incited them, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
If a prosecutor and investigators you know, would say that
you could really draw a distinct line from your online behavior,
I mean being the perpetrator. From the perpetrator's behavior, it
can draw a direct line to a certain influencer, and
this influencer was advocating for the world to be a
(30:31):
better place without these people, and in cheering on the
people that died that supported those things, and this person
went out and committed a horrible act. Not only would
you be canceled, but there's a good chance you could
find yourself criminally prosecuted. Yeah, free speech.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Frankly, I think we may need to see if you
those cases to get this to people to step back,
because the number of videos that I've seen where people
are talking about Charlie Kirk and they absolutely so clear
that they heard somebody else say it, and that they've
not actually done any investigation. Like, the amount of deceptive
content that is out there has actually been disturbing me,
(31:10):
particularly this last year, because we're in the attention economy
and people will say and do anything, including lying and
knowingly lying, which is one of my issues with a
lot of the media. Yeah, it's not helping our situation
for everyone to be gaslighting each other.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. So as
we summarize this, excuse me again, as we summarize this
with you know, free speech. I'm a free speech absolutist, okay,
and that includes hate speech. I hate you whatever, that's fine,
(31:43):
it's not fine, but you get what I say. In
terms of free speech, I don't think that you should
be silenced by the government for saying that you hate
someone else or any of that type of stuff. It's
one thing to express dislike. It is another thing to
express dislike on the public airwaves. Yeah, okay, And it
(32:05):
is certainly another thing to objectively lie or distort the
facts on the public airwaves. You can get away with
some of that under free speech provisions. The government won't
bother you, but you can get away with that. Standing
on the corner, you can get away with that. You know,
in certain online media where that's not being broadcast, you
(32:26):
can get away with some of that, But the restrictions
are tighter when you're talking about public airways and away
from government. You have to consider where the money comes
from that keeps those shows on the air, because they're
very expensive to produce. That money comes from advertisers. And
if advertisers say, wait a minute, we're not supporting that.
(32:50):
You know, we're giving you millions of dollars to make
people happy and can keep watching TV and feel good
about buying our products. We're not giving you money to
lie and all these other things and incorrectly sway public opinion.
That's not what we want, so we're taking our advertising
dollars away. That is not a free speech violation. The
(33:11):
government had nothing to do with that. That is show business.
And I think that is something that a lot of
entertainers forget.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I honestly, go ahead, Billy.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I would love to give them the benefit of the
doubt that they're just they're just, you know, incorrect with
what they think. I honestly believe they don't care, yeah,
what the truth is. I mean, watching Obama and Clinton
post that garbage crap today about the free speech thing,
I was like, oh, could you too just go away?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
You've done enough damage.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Now you're gaslighting your people with the free speech bs
because you want to like make up for the fact
that they acted like.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Like I mean, it was demonic.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
A lot of the videos that I saw after Charlie
Kirk died, there was a woman who did you see
the video of the woman who went to her kids
and said, guess what, yes, I did. And she went
married to a National guardsman and she's a teacher, which
brings me to one more thing then, and I don't
quote me on this, but I did read this today
(34:12):
that then the job that is the most consistent job
for the people who've been doing this behavior is a
teacher slash professor, which doesn't really surprise me. That wouldn't
surprise me, and that's what she does.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
That's the problem with academia is, especially when you get
into the college level, a lot of these professors and
everything have never really run a business.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And yet they never really worked.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
No, they either they went to school on scholarships or
their mommy and daddy paid the bill to go to school,
and then they worked in academia and in studies and
for other institutions that are funded either by text dollars
or for grants. And by the way, there was a
time when I defended very much the nonprofit sector, and
I'm you know, I championed still a lot of nonprofits.
(34:58):
I think they're great. But it has become a bastion.
It has become a vehicle to promote political ideologies within
the community. It absolutely has. Yeah, sorry, it absolutely has.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Oh yeah, I mean just look at the right. The
radicalization of our young people has has come from mass media,
from Hollywood media, and from the schools which have just
went off the they went off the rails. Some of
the things I was hearing that they were doing like
the gender, like giving them medications and talking to them
(35:33):
about like gender in kindergarten. I mean that that all
of that is all tied together, and it was all
about this agenda, which I don't know, I can't understand.
I've never really been able to understand what that agenda
is about other than weakening this country or humanity.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, so getting into you know where I was going
with this is this these professors and these individuals, and
they're producing people right out of college who went to school,
listened to these people, and now these teachers feel emboldened.
(36:11):
You know that they have never dug a ditch in
their life. They didn't work on the street crew like
I did. Okay, they go straight from the classroom where
they have this worldly professor talk about all this bullshit,
and they go into the classroom and they start doing
that the six year old kids, and I, you know,
I got to say, for the most part, I defend
(36:33):
teachers because, yeah, teachers these days, they have to be
social workers, they have to be counselors, they have to
be all these other things because the parents structure, the
family structure has broken down to such a degree that
you know, these kids come into the classroom very troubled,
and I understand, and quite frankly, it's a thankless job.
(36:56):
And quite frankly, there's way too much politics in teaching,
but a lot of that they brought on themselves. That's
what people forget. Okay, So I empathize a lot of
times with teachers who find themselves in political situations with
the parents and the school boards and everything else. But
when they act online the way they do and the
way they tell kids, some of the stuff that's been
(37:17):
told to kids about this Charlie Kirk thing, I can't
imagine what world an adult would tell a child that
this was a good thing and actually show with videos.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Well that's what I say.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
I keep going back to that there's got to be
something in addition to Trump derangement syndrome. There's no it
cannot be anything other than a mental illness of some kind.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
And I am not making it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I think you're being gracious. I think these people are
sinister individuals.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
It's demonic, which is why I'm like, Okay, either they're
possessed by demons to try to tell a child to
celebrate Charlie Kirk dying, and you're a teacher in a school.
It's insanity. But the number of people who thought this
was okay behavior. I mean, you know, we may not
have been that smart fifty years ago, but I remember,
you know, when Reagan was shot and the country came
(38:05):
together and not that you know, Charlie Kirk's not the
president of the United States, but shocking, shocking, shocking collective moment. Yes,
And the distortion that is required to justify celebrating the
murder of any father or even just a human being
in this country in front of students.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Is insanity.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
And that's why I know some well known psychiatrist or
psychologists has got to write a book.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
And come up with a new diagnosis for the DSM.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yes, it's an interesting time. Well, we always wrap up
the show with talking about what we are doing, So Cynthia,
tell us about what you are doing.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Well, I've got the new issue Soul Tech magazine which
just came out. It's the Healing issue. I've got the
ted X Meisner, which is part of the TEDx Speaking series.
Happened in February, and I'm doing a huge health expo
with a bunch of women for for about Women's Health
early next year.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So a lot of exciting stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
If you want to stay on top of it, go
to shamanisis dot com and sign up for the newsletter
and you'll be You'll get all sorts of free articles
and of course invitations to.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Events that is absolutely fantastic. My name is Billy D's.
The Billy D's podcast is available on all the major
podcast platforms. We have a ten year history, and the
last month or so we're experiencing, for whatever, some of
the highest listen rates that we've had. And you've got
to keep in mind, we like social media, you know,
(39:39):
I like X, I like all those I like. I
like the video casts that we're doing here, but the
vast majority of our listens are on the audio platforms
like you know, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Good Pods, all those.
So if you want to subscribe to the Ability's podcast
(40:00):
on your favorite platform, I want you to know that
there's no pay walls here. Okay, So if you have
an iPhone, you have Apple podcasts, if you know, you know,
you probably have a music thing you Spotify and all
that the Abilities podcast is on there, you can subscribe
to the Ability's podcasts with no paywalls. We do not
charge listeners for anything. There's no additional content, there's no
(40:23):
back rooms with extra content and behind the scenes content
that you got to pay for and all that bs.
We don't do that to our listeners. Okay, so we
we do other things, but listeners don't have to pay.
That isn't what we do. We're producers, of course, we
you know, we produce a number of different podcasts. We
do a lot of audio work, we do a lot
of video editing, We do all that kind of stuff.
(40:44):
That's our wheelhouse actually charging for work. Our listeners do
not have to do anything or pay anything to listen
to the podcast. Now, you can find me on X.
Like I mentioned, that's kind of like my social media home.
It has become very friendly to all types of media,
not just social media, and we are taking advantage of that.
(41:06):
And the video casts have become very popular, especially the
replays as the days go on after the podcast is finished.
It does very well on X. So yes, we're very
happy about that. We'll take as many listeners as we
can get. But don't forget to subscribe to us on
your favorite podcasting platform. All right, Cynthia, thank you so
(41:29):
much for hanging out with me today and talking about
I'll show it one more time. There. Look at that.
Isn't that just cute? Haven't you ever seen anything as
cute as that?
Speaker 5 (41:41):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (41:42):
My gosh?
Speaker 2 (41:44):
And you know that is I was a comedian and
for a number of years, and this was years ago,
This was probably like twenty years ago, and I did
some edgy stuff. And I think you can get away
with a lot being a comedian under the guise of,
you know, it's supposed to be funny or you're parroting
(42:04):
something or something of that nature. In my worst day,
I don't know if what we're talking about here, what
I've been showing was a setup or whether it was
planned or what it is. But the idea that it
would be funny to treat a woman that way, even
before we have the culture that we do today with
(42:27):
wokeness and all this, I would never have done that. Yeah,
that's not something I would have done.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
That's the cheap tricks of somebody who's not actually a comedian.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
You know. None of these late night talk show hosts
would have ever made it to Carson.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
No, and again, I understand the media landscape was different
when Carson was on. You got to keep in mind
that he was like thirty percent of NBC's income, which
in today's dollars would be billions of dollars. He held
up that network when they didn't have any hit shows
in prime time, none of these I don't care how
(43:00):
much you like any of these these late night shows.
That is not even close to happening. It's not even close.
The late night ratings are very low. They're only high
with the baby boomers who listen to late night. As
we were saying, as a habit, I'll only've all listened
(43:23):
to the monologue, see what he has to say, and
there's whole bunch of bullshit about Trump.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
I think they're sitting there reading or playing with their
iPad and that's just background noise.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I swear, really, when was the last time you went
to work and you discussed something that one of these
guys said, And just.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Be honest, nobody won't come on. I don't think he's
actually watching.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
No, but there was a time when when you know,
when you go to go to work or go to school,
in Carson did some kind of routine or he had
some guests that he always treated respectfully, always treated respectfully,
say something crazy or make news. I mean he was
part of the culture and these guys are just losers.
(44:05):
And with that we'll say goodbye. I thank you very much, Cynthia,
so glad to have you. I'm Billy D's and host
of the self titled podcast, The Billy D's Podcast. We
are primarily an interview and a commentary based podcast featuring
(44:27):
authors and creators talking about their craft, advocates for community issues,
and myself in an array of co host discussing current events.
There's no partisan renting and raving going on here, just
great content. You can find The Billy D's Podcast on
your favorite platform and on Twitter at Billy D's. Thank you,
and I hope you listen in
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