September 2, 2025 • 8 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Shocker: influencers aren’t “authentic”—they’re getting paid to push talking points. Taylor Lorenz just exposed how top left-wing voices run their posts through progressive channels and cash $8,000 a month to shill. But here’s the truth: the right does it too.
In this episode of Watchdog on Wall Street:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Shocker: influencers aren’t “authentic”—they’re getting paid to push talking points. Taylor Lorenz just exposed how top left-wing voices run their posts through progressive channels and cash $8,000 a month to shill. But here’s the truth: the right does it too.
In this episode of Watchdog on Wall Street:
- How cable news “debates” are scripted like pro wrestling
- His firsthand stories from Fox green rooms that prove it’s all theater
- Why paid punditry on both sides is just narrative-pushing for clicks
- Why real debate means facts, not team sports
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Shocker, influencers on x and social media and TikTok are
getting paid to say stuff yet Taylor Lawrence, I don't
know if you remember her. She is a bit of
a whackadoodle, agains. She used to be there against the
media reporter for the Washington Post. She was a, you know,
a super masker, stay home safer type person out there.
(00:41):
But I gotta editor her. I like this piece that
she did. But again in other news, sky is blue,
Water is wet. She basically did a report and she's
a lefty exposing how all of these top left wing
influencers online and how they are paid to say stuff.
(01:05):
They actually before they post, they run their what they're
going to post through various different channels, very progressive channels
and people out there, and then they post stuff. And
she was saying that they get paid upwards of eight
thousand dollars a month to spew nonsense. Shocker. So surprised
(01:26):
at that. And again she's went after the lefties out there.
If you think it's any different on the right, you're crazy, okay,
And I'm here to tell you people, this is how
it's always been. Now, social media is obviously a completely
new platform. And again it's most certainly if I talked
(01:50):
about this, we did a podcast on television ratings and
the demographics as far as who was listening and who
was watching what, And you're close to seventy years old
for cable TV, close to seventy years old. Obviously, social
media is a much much younger demographic, and it's one
(02:12):
that they want to reach out to. That's the sweet spot.
But as far as paying people to say stuff, I'm
gonna tell you a story. I'm trying to go back.
This is over ten years ago, maybe fifteen years ago,
I can't remember exactly. I get invited on Fox News.
(02:33):
I get invited on Fox News to talk about social security,
something that we've talked about at great length here I've
been warning people about for over thirty years and demidse
of social security everything that goes along with it. And
my debating partner on the program was going to be
(02:53):
Bob Beckle, the late Bob Beckele, you remember him. He
was a bit of a flame thrower, you know, funny
guy left winger Fox News. He was on call. You
think about remember that the days were doctors is to
carry beepers around. They're on call. You've got various different
(03:14):
paid contributors in the news, most certainly in cable news,
and they need somebody, need somebody to debate someone on
their program, and the need to have the opposite side
of the argument. They call up one of their paid
contributors and say, you need to discuss this. So I'm
in a green room at Fox News. In the green
(03:34):
room at Fox News, I met I remember I met
Susanne Summers that day. Anyway, neither here nor there. I'm
sitting down with Bob Beckel and I get introduced to
h I'm going to go on with him, and he basically
admits to me, I don't really know anything about Social Security?
Can you explain it to me? And I'm like, what say,
I really don't understand how it works or anything like that.
(03:57):
And I start trying to explain to him my philosophy,
and he got bored, and he got bored with what
I was telling all he wanted to talk about. I'll
never forget this. He had just gotten Keith Richards's new
book and he was all I want to talk about
was Keith Richard's book that he was reading at that
point in time. And I'm just kind of nod my head.
(04:19):
But there's another part too as well. Whose show was
I going on at the time. It wasn't Uh he's
no longer at the network. I think he's on Newsmax
or something like that. Anyway, Megan Kelly was recording her program,
she was out of Fox at that time, and she
had two people that were coming on to do a debate,
(04:39):
and in the green room before they were going on,
they were actually working out their debate. It was two
lawyers and I again, it reminded me of that movie
The Wrestler, you know with Mickey Mickey Rourke. There great
movie Mickey Rourke, Richard Tomson movie, And there was a
(05:01):
scene in the movie where that you know, there were
the wrestlers were working out how their fight was going
to go on in the ring, and it's basically what
they were doing before they went on. And I kind of,
you know, shut my head to this nonsense. But anyway,
That's always been the case with media. It's crafted. There's
(05:22):
narratives that they're trying to get ratings. This is one
of the things that we've warned you on. People ask me,
of course, we haven't seen you. I haven't seen you
on Fox in a while. Will Again, they didn't like
the fact they didn't like the fact Fox wasn't thrilled
with the fact that I criticized Trump. In fact, they
(05:47):
don't like the fact that I criticized Trump. And you know,
especially in Fox Business, they've got a couple of new people.
And let me tell you some Maria Barbotie doesn't do
any of the booking. This is all their producers. It's
all crafted for crying out loud. This new guy that's
on there is some fish Bank. I saw him the
other day and he's all over social media. That got
(06:07):
him as as a financial expert. All he does is
is just praise every single thing that Trump does. And
I looked up what he does and how much money
he manages, and I laughed. Basically, I mean talking about
small potatoes for crying out loud. Anyway, you know, whatever
(06:28):
it is, what it is. But he plays ball. I
don't play Ball. I made this perfectly clear here on
the program. We are equal opportunity. Basher's here on the program. Ayeah,
Could I be getting paid to have an opinion so frequently?
Will I ever do anything like that? No? No, again,
(06:51):
I I don't get that. I don't understand how someone
could you know? Again, I guess you got to feed
your family. But what does that make you? What does
it make you as as an individual that you'd will
be willing to in essence? I guess prostitute yourself, go
(07:15):
on a program and just BS because you're getting paid
to BS and you're going to sign your name to
that because you're going to collect the check. Again, I
could never stomach anything like that and would never do
anything like that. But again, great piece by Taylor Lorenz,
kind of exposing the left, but it's both sides. Wouldn't
(07:37):
it be nice? Would be nice if we had a news.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Network out there where you know, you didn't have to
pick a side, it's not a team sport where you
actually had a debate in a socratic fashion.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Wow, how about that? You know, novel concept? Maybe we
should get back to that Watchdog on Wallstreet dot Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Shocker, influencers on x and social media and TikTok are
getting paid to say stuff yet Taylor Lawrence, I don't
know if you remember her. She is a bit of
a whackadoodle, agains. She used to be there against the
media reporter for the Washington Post. She was a, you know,
a super masker, stay home safer type person out there.
(00:41):
But I gotta editor her. I like this piece that
she did. But again in other news, sky is blue,
Water is wet. She basically did a report and she's
a lefty exposing how all of these top left wing
influencers online and how they are paid to say stuff.
(01:05):
They actually before they post, they run their what they're
going to post through various different channels, very progressive channels
and people out there, and then they post stuff. And
she was saying that they get paid upwards of eight
thousand dollars a month to spew nonsense. Shocker. So surprised
(01:26):
at that. And again she's went after the lefties out there.
If you think it's any different on the right, you're crazy, okay,
And I'm here to tell you people, this is how
it's always been. Now, social media is obviously a completely
new platform. And again it's most certainly if I talked
(01:50):
about this, we did a podcast on television ratings and
the demographics as far as who was listening and who
was watching what, And you're close to seventy years old
for cable TV, close to seventy years old. Obviously, social
media is a much much younger demographic, and it's one
(02:12):
that they want to reach out to. That's the sweet spot.
But as far as paying people to say stuff, I'm
gonna tell you a story. I'm trying to go back.
This is over ten years ago, maybe fifteen years ago,
I can't remember exactly. I get invited on Fox News.
(02:33):
I get invited on Fox News to talk about social security,
something that we've talked about at great length here I've
been warning people about for over thirty years and demidse
of social security everything that goes along with it. And
my debating partner on the program was going to be
(02:53):
Bob Beckle, the late Bob Beckele, you remember him. He
was a bit of a flame thrower, you know, funny
guy left winger Fox News. He was on call. You
think about remember that the days were doctors is to
carry beepers around. They're on call. You've got various different
(03:14):
paid contributors in the news, most certainly in cable news,
and they need somebody, need somebody to debate someone on
their program, and the need to have the opposite side
of the argument. They call up one of their paid
contributors and say, you need to discuss this. So I'm
in a green room at Fox News. In the green
(03:34):
room at Fox News, I met I remember I met
Susanne Summers that day. Anyway, neither here nor there. I'm
sitting down with Bob Beckel and I get introduced to
h I'm going to go on with him, and he basically
admits to me, I don't really know anything about Social Security?
Can you explain it to me? And I'm like, what say,
I really don't understand how it works or anything like that.
(03:57):
And I start trying to explain to him my philosophy,
and he got bored, and he got bored with what
I was telling all he wanted to talk about. I'll
never forget this. He had just gotten Keith Richards's new
book and he was all I want to talk about
was Keith Richard's book that he was reading at that
point in time. And I'm just kind of nod my head.
(04:19):
But there's another part too as well. Whose show was
I going on at the time. It wasn't Uh he's
no longer at the network. I think he's on Newsmax
or something like that. Anyway, Megan Kelly was recording her program,
she was out of Fox at that time, and she
had two people that were coming on to do a debate,
(04:39):
and in the green room before they were going on,
they were actually working out their debate. It was two
lawyers and I again, it reminded me of that movie
The Wrestler, you know with Mickey Mickey Rourke. There great
movie Mickey Rourke, Richard Tomson movie, And there was a
(05:01):
scene in the movie where that you know, there were
the wrestlers were working out how their fight was going
to go on in the ring, and it's basically what
they were doing before they went on. And I kind of,
you know, shut my head to this nonsense. But anyway,
That's always been the case with media. It's crafted. There's
(05:22):
narratives that they're trying to get ratings. This is one
of the things that we've warned you on. People ask me,
of course, we haven't seen you. I haven't seen you
on Fox in a while. Will Again, they didn't like
the fact they didn't like the fact Fox wasn't thrilled
with the fact that I criticized Trump. In fact, they
(05:47):
don't like the fact that I criticized Trump. And you know,
especially in Fox Business, they've got a couple of new people.
And let me tell you some Maria Barbotie doesn't do
any of the booking. This is all their producers. It's
all crafted for crying out loud. This new guy that's
on there is some fish Bank. I saw him the
other day and he's all over social media. That got
(06:07):
him as as a financial expert. All he does is
is just praise every single thing that Trump does. And
I looked up what he does and how much money
he manages, and I laughed. Basically, I mean talking about
small potatoes for crying out loud. Anyway, you know, whatever
(06:28):
it is, what it is. But he plays ball. I
don't play Ball. I made this perfectly clear here on
the program. We are equal opportunity. Basher's here on the program. Ayeah,
Could I be getting paid to have an opinion so frequently?
Will I ever do anything like that? No? No, again,
(06:51):
I I don't get that. I don't understand how someone
could you know? Again, I guess you got to feed
your family. But what does that make you? What does
it make you as as an individual that you'd will
be willing to in essence? I guess prostitute yourself, go
(07:15):
on a program and just BS because you're getting paid
to BS and you're going to sign your name to
that because you're going to collect the check. Again, I
could never stomach anything like that and would never do
anything like that. But again, great piece by Taylor Lorenz,
kind of exposing the left, but it's both sides. Wouldn't
(07:37):
it be nice? Would be nice if we had a news.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Network out there where you know, you didn't have to
pick a side, it's not a team sport where you
actually had a debate in a socratic fashion.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Wow, how about that? You know, novel concept? Maybe we
should get back to that Watchdog on Wallstreet dot Com
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