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- [00:00]
Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast broadcasting live.
- [00:17]
Joe Getty
From the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at.
- [00:19]
Katie
The George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
- [00:24]
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty.
- [00:25]
Jack Armstrong
And now he.
- [00:34]
Joe Getty
Live from Studio C, a dimly lit room deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and Yeti communications compound, which is surrounded by razor wire and barking dogs. Actually, I am happy we got a security guard outside sitting there in his little car with the splashing lights, letting you know there's somebody with somebody carrying heat. Looks like he's carrying heat. I think that's a gun. Welcome. How you doing? Glad you're here. Oh, our. Today we're under the tutelage of our general manager. I'll go with Jimmy Kimmel, just because I think that's a danged interesting conversation. Jimmy Kimmel's show being taken off there indefinitely. Nobody seems to know if that means. Usually in the world of broadcasting, indefinite is forever. Almost always in my experience, but this one could be just temporarily. Hard to say. I found Jimmy Kimmel over the last many years to be an insufferably pompous. Well, I came across a word last night, popped into my head. I thought that was the perfect word for him. I don't remember what it was, but pompous is close enough. Just, just the.
- [01:42]
Katie
The whole.
- [01:43]
Joe Getty
Our side is wonderful and everyone else is stupid. Just that whole. It's just so annoying. But I also don't want the government, you know, policing speech. So we'll get into both sides of that. That comment with as. As the same with Colbert when he got taken off the air. Being left out a lot is these people's ratings are really low compared to what these shows cost. Really low. And they've gone down, down, down over the years, partially because they decided to say f you to half the country. If you say F you to half of the country, it's hard to have very high ratings. With all that said, I still don't want the government policing speech. So we'll handle all that. Yes. Michael, you already want to join in. I like that. Michael, you're jumping at the bet. His contract is up in May, and I just wonder if, you know, the network just said, here's an excuse or it's not going to do us that much. Well, may of next year. Yeah, but a couple months. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, there's a. There's another deal going through and people don't want trouble. Have you heard what he said regarding the Charlie Cook assassination? He said it on Monday night. Took till Thursday for it to land in such a way that he got taken off the air and definitely will play that for you and talk about all the ins and outs of all that sort of stuff. Got a lot of great guests lined up today on a bunch of different topics. Everything from what do the interest rates going down a quarter point mean for you, if anything at all? And doesn't mean a whole lot for you yet. Just directionally it's good. But it does mean a lot for you yet. And talk a little bit about Trump's trip to England. Did you see that meal that they had last night? That table was more than half a football field long. That's hard to even imagine sitting at table, eating dinner at a table more than half a football field long. The people down at the other end, you would hardly be able to see them, let alone have a conversation with them.
- [03:39]
Greg Lukianoff
Wouldn't even know they were there.
- [03:40]
Joe Getty
You wouldn't even know they were there. No, no, no, no. You could meet them years from now and say, oh, we had dinner together. And you'd say we did. Yeah.
- [03:48]
Greg Lukianoff
50 yards away.
- [03:49]
Joe Getty
Yeah. At that 60 yard long table. I was at the other end, you were at the other end. We had. So I tell people we had dinner together. That is a giant table. Only in England where they have castles would you even have room for a table that large.
- [04:02]
Greg Lukianoff
It was a little excessive.
- [04:04]
Joe Getty
Well, that's what they do. That's what the royal family does is excessive. Because it was all about King Charles and the Windsor Castle, whatever the hell that is. Right. Trump, special guests, you get to bring anybody you want to a state dinner. His special guests were the guy who runs Nvidia. Nvidia. Sam Altman from OpenAI, that's the chat GPT guy. And then one other. Oh, Tim Cook from Apple. So he had really high level tech guys specifically around AI as his special guest. I don't know exactly what the message was there. Which leads me to my headline, I don't understand of the day, at least so far that I saw breaking news from the Wall Street Journal. Nvidia said it would buy $5 billion worth of intel, a sign of how AI is reshaping the tech industry. I have no idea what that means, buying $5 million of your competitor Intel. But it's all about the super high speed AI chips. And this bet is either going to pan out or it's not. But a lot of people with a lot of money who are very, very smart, certainly smarter than me, seem to think it's the wave of the future one way or other. It's funny, I was talking to a person yesterday who said their kid is, was. Was into coding as a senior in high school and has specifically decided to learn to weld because of AI. The idea that AI is going to do all the coding in the future. But I will never be able to weld. I wonder which is true. I think maybe someday robots will be able to. Well, it'll be a while though. It'll be a long time before robots can successfully do a good job of welding. I wonder how many young people are going to be making those decisions in the very near future. Going back to maybe more your traditional work with your hand sorts of jobs. Anyway, that's a separate topic. There is a horrifying attack on police in Pennsylvania. Worst one they've had in the state of Pennsylvania in a hundred years which a bunch of police officers being shot. I think it's just a random one off horrible story that has no greater significance for America, I think. But if any more details come out, we'll hit you with that. There is some new stuff around the Charlie Kirk assassination. Knowing a little more about the, the shooter and the process for getting this guy convicted and hopefully the death penalty and hopefully he gets shot himself. That's the result I'm looking for. Some of my favorite conservative commentators are pretty uncomfortable with the Jimmy Kimmel being driven off the air if that's what happened by the fcc. The FCC commissioner has said some fairly strong things in the last 48 hours about what Kimmel said and about people not getting to keep their network licenses. Fcc, the FCC commissioner about not being able to keep their network licenses, the broadcasting licenses if they, you know, aren't toeing the line politically or whatever. And like I said, some of my favorite conservative commentators are pretty uncomfortable with that for one reason. Like Joe and I are always talking about whatever you do, the next administration's gonna do too. And I don't know that I want an FCC commissioner saying, you know, talk radio's completely outta hand. Yeah. And that would be unfortunate. Yes. And they get to say whatever the hell they want, which we do. And we don't think that's good for the country. So we're gonna start yanking people broadcast license or threaten the yank broadcast license if you don't get people like Armstrong and Giddy off the air. For instance, Randy Weingarten, the lady been running the teachers union for a long time and all through Covid, she's a witch. She is the devil. I believe she's actually, actually works for the devil. I Think she actually hates children now. That's pretty strong thing to say. A Democratic administration, their FCC commissioner might say, you know, Jack Armstrong just said the most important leader of teachers in our country is the devil. We can't have that. That's not good. That's divisive. And I don't want a Democratic administration be able to do that any more than I want a Republican administration to be able to drive Jimmy Kimmel off the air even though he said a really awful, stupid thing.
- [08:17]
Greg Lukianoff
Yeah, I don't know that I have like a great argument for this, but something in me, this, this Charlie Kirk situation is so different.
- [08:25]
Joe Getty
Right. Because it is possible. Well, let, let's start the show officially. We're going to play a little bit of Kimmel.
- [08:31]
Greg Lukianoff
Watch out.
- [08:32]
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Got to start the show officially. The FCC gets on us. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is. How did it get to be Thursday, September 18, year 2025, where Armstrong and Getty and we approve of this program. We'll begin the show at. Hey, I'm doing it on time. Mr. Chairman. Mark. We had some new 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 doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger. Okay, that's good. There was play the rest later. But that, that's the line that got people all bent out of shape. That was a crazy thing to say. That's just a nut job thing to say to go on the air Monday, Jimmy Kimmel and say stating as fact in his mind that the shooter is a MAGA person. Well, I don't even. Where did that come from? Although I saw. I heard David French of the New York Times talking about a YouGov poll that came out over the weekend. 70% of Democrats believe that that killer scumbag is MAGA. So somehow that story got started online or rumors spread. What are you basing that on?
- [09:44]
Greg Lukianoff
Yeah, there was some. I saw an interview watching Megyn Kelly. She played a clip of another woman who was like, well, his dad was in law enforcement. He was into guns, he's a white boy. And so clearly he's on their team. And it's like, what are you talking about?
- [10:01]
Joe Getty
You don't know any conservative families across the country whose young boys or girls went off to college and their politics became completely different than their parents. So because the parents are Republicans, the kid obviously is.
- [10:13]
Greg Lukianoff
Oh, his dad's in Law enforcement. So clearly they're MAGA.
- [10:16]
Joe Getty
Yeah. So that whole. The fact that 70% of Democrats think the shooter was MAGA is weird. That's its own conversation. And then Jimmy Kimmel saying that is just a weird, dumb thing to say. But, okay, this, this was going to be my point. I don't know if you remember after 9 11, Bill Maher had a show on ABC at that time, very popular show called Politically Incorrect. You might be too young for this.
- [10:39]
Greg Lukianoff
No, I remember this.
- [10:40]
Joe Getty
He had a show and he went on like, days later after the buildings came down in New York City, he said, because George Bush or somebody had called the hijackers cowards. And he said one thing you can't say is that they're cowards. They're obviously not cowards. They're obviously brave to fly planes into a building, which is sort of factually correct. But in that moment, days after the buildings came down and the most shocking thing that had happened to America in 70 years, there was an outcry and ABC took his show off the air. That wasn't the FCC coming down or the government stifling free speech. That was just crossing a line for most Americans. Yeah. And I don't know if Jimmy Kimmel reached that level, but he is close. He's close to the. Because a whole bunch of various smaller groups that have ABC stations in the middle of the country that aren't, you know, New York and LA centric. The middle. And, you know, I was about to say middle of nowhere. I'm from the middle of nowhere and proudly so. But middle of the nowhere stations where you got lots of people who would hate to see that sort of thing on their television. It's not crazy that they would decide. All right, that's it. We're not going to air Jimmy Kimmel here in Provo, Utah. That's a bad choice. Shootings were in Utah, here in Omaha, Nebraska, or, or, you know, someplace in Texas or whatever. It's not shocking that they would make that decision. Right. That Jimmy Kimmel crossed the line in the same way that Bill Maher crossed the line. Now, the FCC commissioner has said. Said specific things that I find very, very troubling in the last two days about policing speech that just, I mean, I think, fly directly in the face of the First Amendment. But Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, like I said, made a decision to say, f you, not just, hey, we're going to rib you. I hope you can take the jokes just to. With contempt for half or more of the country.
- [12:40]
Greg Lukianoff
Well, and Those weren't jokes.
- [12:41]
Joe Getty
Well, right. Those aren't jokes. But if you do that, it really narrows your support and makes it a lot more likely that you can get fired like this. So I don't feel sorry for him in that way.
- [12:55]
Greg Lukianoff
It's like the lady at the end of our show.
- [12:56]
Joe Getty
Bye.
- [12:57]
Katie
Bye.
- [12:57]
Joe Getty
All right. But I don't want NFCC commissioner under President Gavin Newsom deciding that talk radio is out of control and something needs to be done. And I don't see a whole lot of difference between that and policing Jimmy Kimmel. If I'm wrong, text me four what? What? I forgot the text line.
- [13:14]
Greg Lukianoff
Do we have 415295 KFTC?
- [13:16]
Joe Getty
I'm glad you know, it's the next line is what she said. 415295 KFTC.
- [13:23]
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty.
- [13:26]
Katie
There's nothing like sinking into luxury. @washablesofas.com you'll find the Annabe sofa which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom. Starting at only $699, the stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy to clean spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, loveseat or a luxuriously large sectional, Annabe has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Right now you can shop up to 60% off store wide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now@washablesofas.com Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
- [14:26]
Joe Getty
Joe and I have been nearly run out of this job a couple of different times in the history of the show, like really close. And so I'm fairly sensitive the idea of losing your job over like going too far with a joke or a comment. But we'll talk more about that later. That regarding the whole Jimmy Kimmel being booted off the air, I really, I.
- [14:53]
Greg Lukianoff
Really want for them to replace Jimmy Kimmel live with old episodes of the man show just so his audience can see where he originated.
- [15:00]
Joe Getty
Right? Right. When it was him and Adam and.
- [15:05]
Greg Lukianoff
Chicks jumping on trampolines.
- [15:07]
Joe Getty
Right?
- [15:08]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
- [15:08]
Joe Getty
Right. While they drank beer. Yeah. Let's find out what all the headlines are with Katie.
- [15:13]
Katie
All right.
- [15:13]
Greg Lukianoff
Starting with Fox News, Sheriff says Charlie Kirk, assassin negotiated a gentle surrender and was afraid of being shot.
- [15:22]
Joe Getty
Yeah, I heard that. And I think that was handled. Well, I'm, I'm kind of surprised that you do that because the guy, the, the shooter had shown himself to be incredibly violent, but they, they allowed him to like, calmly be brought into the, to the sheriff's office.
- [15:38]
Greg Lukianoff
And because it's everywhere. From NBC, Disney's ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel live after FCC chair criticizes the host's Charlie Kirk comments.
- [15:46]
Joe Getty
Yeah, we will get into that quite a bit later.
- [15:50]
Greg Lukianoff
And Jack, I know you're a fan of these guys from the Free Beacon. Embarrassment for MSNBC and CNN as upstart News Nation wins out on primetime ratings.
- [16:00]
Joe Getty
I didn't know that. I watch News Nation every single day. They're pretty good. They are pretty good. And they're not. I haven't found a bias with them. So I like that.
- [16:10]
Greg Lukianoff
From abc, the IDF is expanding its Gaza City operation.
- [16:16]
Joe Getty
Yeah, we might talk to one of our military analysts about that later, how that's going to unfold and what that will look like.
- [16:23]
Greg Lukianoff
From the Washington Examiner, Kristi Noem touts 150,000 new ICE applications after recruitment push.
- [16:31]
Joe Getty
Oh wow, cool.
- [16:33]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
- [16:35]
Greg Lukianoff
From the Washington Post, Fed cuts interest rates by a quarter point and signals more could be coming.
- [16:41]
Joe Getty
Yeah, well, like I said, it's headed in the right direction, but it's not going to have much of an effect on your car loan, credit card, or buying a house yet.
- [16:52]
Greg Lukianoff
From the Verge, Business Insider reportedly gives journalists the green light to write stories with AI and doesn't tell its readers.
- [17:02]
Joe Getty
That's inevitable.
- [17:05]
Greg Lukianoff
Well, and one of the things they're using is chat GPT, which we've talked about being incorrect.
- [17:10]
Joe Getty
Yeah.
- [17:11]
Greg Lukianoff
Many a time.
- [17:12]
Joe Getty
Making stuff up. Of course, journalists are incorrect a lot. So.
- [17:14]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, good point.
- [17:15]
Greg Lukianoff
New York Post. Wild chimpanzees consume two cocktails worth of alcohol a day by feasting on boozy fruit.
- [17:25]
Joe Getty
Really?
- [17:25]
Greg Lukianoff
This is in Uganda and these chip chimps are finding fermented fruit and they're just getting wasted.
- [17:31]
Joe Getty
And have they always done that? Is that like. Because that would be interesting to know if there's a beast out there that we share. 99% of the genetic material that just likes getting hammered every day.
- [17:41]
Greg Lukianoff
Yeah, I get it.
- [17:42]
Joe Getty
Wow. Sometimes you just want to check out.
- [17:47]
Greg Lukianoff
From study finds fatty foods can scramble your memory just days later.
- [17:53]
Joe Getty
Oh, that's my problem. One of them.
- [17:57]
Greg Lukianoff
That's why you forgot the text line. Also, just a side note, it's National Cheeseburger Day. Just want to let everybody know and finally from the Babylon Bee, Trump deported Phillies Karen to El Salvador prison.
- [18:12]
Joe Getty
Good. Do you know who Greg Lukianoff is? We quote him all the time. We've had him on the show multiple times over the years and he has been writing a lot about the political climate, where it's headed, what we might be able to do about it. We're going to talk to him coming up next. This will be good conversation, guaranteed.
- [18:28]
Jack Armstrong
Stick around Armstrong and Gettysburg.
- [18:33]
Katie
There's nothing like sinking into luxury. @washablesofas.com you'll find the Annabe sofa which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom. Starting at only $699. The stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy to clean spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, loveseat or a luxuriously large sectional, Annabe has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Right now you can shop up to 60% off store wide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now@washablesofas.com Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
- [19:33]
Joe Getty
Man, did we get lucky with the timing of this. Our next guest we could talk to, I could talk to for the next three hours easily because he's one of the leading thinkers in a couple of the hottest topics going right now. So Greg Lukianoff, New York Times best selling author, the President of Fire, which is a foundation for individual rights and expression. All about free speech. That's with Jimmy Kimmel losing his job. Does that fit into that whole topic is the author of Unlearning Liberty, Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate. Canceling of the American Mind. Cancel Culture. All about Cancel culture, which is hot right now, of course. And then part of this Free Press series on repairing America after the murder of Charlie Kirk and this particular piece that I've got in front of me from Greg Lukianoff. Barry, the whole words are violence, cliche, which I would agree with. Anyway, welcome back to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Greg Lukianoff. Greg, thanks for joining us today.
- [20:34]
Jack Armstrong
Great to be back man.
- [20:35]
Joe Getty
You obviously are the man of the moment for a whole bunch of these topics. Let's start with what you just Wrote the bury the words or violence cliche around the whole Charlie Kirk thing. What are you talking about?
- [20:47]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, you know, I've been defending free speech at fire for 24 years now. And I'd say when I first started my job, the sort of activist argument that words can be just like bullets was something that people kind of rolled their eyes at because it was obviously a sort of self serving rhetorical flurry. Right. But I'd say like 10 years ago, or maybe even as long as 15 years ago, this really started to become a common argument that I would hear on campus. And then you started having people who should have known better actually saying, well, words can cause stress, so therefore that is a lot like violence. And you know, me and John Haidt, who I wrote Paddling the American Mind with, we wrote a piece in the Atlantic saying, no, this is crazy words. We have a societal agreement essentially, and you're supposed to have it in a democratic society that there's a bright line distinction between physical violence and expression of opinion. And I was, I've been, you know, screaming to high heaven to say like, no, this is an incredibly foolish idea. It's not progressive. It gets you back to the 13th century either AD or BC. It doesn't matter.
- [21:56]
Joe Getty
Yeah, I mean just, just, just as an aside on that, I remember at one point when the New York Times a couple of years ago actually said intent doesn't matter. So not only had words become violence, but sometimes the way they took your words, even if you didn't intend it that way. So man, you're really into pre enlightenment then, but go ahead.
- [22:17]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, no, no, exactly. And the thing is, of course this kind of foolish self serving rhetoric actually turns into a situation that justifies violence for speech. And this is oftentimes coming from people who think that they're anti totalitarian. It's like there's nothing more totalitarian than saying that I get to respond to your words with violence. Or in the horrifying case last week, murder.
- [22:44]
Joe Getty
Right. So you want to do away with that because you think it's leading to violence. The saying words are violence. Because that can justify this particular maniac nut job as feeling like he's meeting violence with violence.
- [22:59]
Jack Armstrong
Yes. But also I think it's bad for people's mental health to have this kind of like catastrophizing way of thinking about. Sure. And here's the most horrifying thing. We just released a massive study for our campus free speech ranking about one third of the students we surveyed in about out of like 70,000 said that at least in rare cases, violence can be acceptable in response to speech. Some schools, that answer was over 50% of them. We have done something terribly wrong. If educated people are being educated and almost half of them think that violence in response to words. And the funny thing is, oftentimes it's not that they think it's just acceptable. They think in some cases it's noble to respond to speakers with usually lighter forms of violence like shout downs or blocking people's access. But here we see it at its most chilling and horrifying.
- [23:50]
Joe Getty
Well, right, since you make this list every year of where, what campuses have the least free speech? There's this contest going on right now. You know, who, who's worse, which side is worse, which side commits more violence, which side does more cancel culture, that sort of thing. But when it comes to college campuses, it's pretty one sided, isn't it? That liberals can say whatever they want and conservatives can't?
- [24:16]
Jack Armstrong
It's a little more complicated than that. But you know, fire has been second to no one in taking on sort of like what might be called woke censorship. But generally the rule is if the censorship comes from on campus, it comes from the left. If the censorship, because there's not that many conservatives on campus in the first place, but if it comes from off campus, it tends to come from the right. And what we're seeing right now is a big surge of cancellations, of censorship, actually being pressured from the right as well.
- [24:48]
Joe Getty
So would the hope be that. Because I think you're right, I think this puts us in a bad headspace if we buy into the idea that words are violence. You've been taught that you should react as if somebody's threatening to punch you or shoot you when you hear something you don't like. And that gets everybody's emotions running really, really high. And then if we could get away with that, maybe we wouldn't have things like Riley Gaines having to fight her way out of Berkeley or Charlie Kirk being shot.
- [25:18]
Jack Armstrong
Exactly. It's a foolish idea. I think people, you know, people who are actually thinking people know that it's just kind of a rhetorical flourish. But I believe some of these younger people really do feel like they're in a simplistic battle of good versus evil and evil must be stopped. And by the way, that's an anti intellectual way of thinking about an intellectual way of thinking about the world, man.
- [25:40]
Joe Getty
No doubt. Before I move on to the Jimmy Kimmel thing and how it fits into everything, how optimistic are you for us like really learning a lesson from this horrible assassination and turning some sort of corner.
- [25:59]
Jack Armstrong
I would like to say I'm optimistic, but I think that we're probably in the beginning of a intensifying sort of free speech crisis. And it's happening not just in the us it's happening globally.
- [26:12]
Joe Getty
Right.
- [26:12]
Jack Armstrong
So unfortunately, business is booming in free speech land. So I'm not going to get a lot of sleep, nor will the good people at fire.
- [26:20]
Joe Getty
Yeah, what's going on in England is just horrifying.
- [26:23]
Jack Armstrong
Horrifying. And my mom is British, so it's very personal to me. And they will continue to. I did a piece on my sub sack, the eternally radical idea where just pointing out the sheer number of people that they're arresting, it has no parallel. I don't think it has any parallel in British history. It certainly doesn't have a parallel in American history in terms of the scale.
- [26:44]
Joe Getty
So you've written a lot about cancel culture over the years, and we've got an example in the last 24 hours and since Charlie Kirk's death. So you've got people being canceled from their jobs for saying sometimes really awful, awful things. But should they lose their jobs over it? Should the government be getting involved in putting pressure on broadcast licenses to get rid of someone like Jimmy Kimmel because they don't like what they say? Where are you on this whole thing?
- [27:13]
Jack Armstrong
Oh, yeah. So, you know, it really is a case by case thing and canceling of the American mind. You know, we give a definition of cancel culture, which is the uptick of campaigns to get people fired or otherwise punished, starting around 2014, for speech that would be protected for, say, a public employee. So we introduce a lot of, like, nuance and common sense to it. But to be clear, some of the people who are getting punished, you know, we're saying things relatively tame things that we're seeing, at least some of the stuff we're seeing on campus. It's not all. That guy had it coming. It's a little bit like, I really disagree with that guy on a lot of things, which was, of course, you know, completely within bounds. But the Jimmy Kimmel stuff, I mean, like, yeah, he, like, Jimmy Kimmel was kind of a typical kind of Hollywood guy. Like, he. He just. He was desperate that this guy be right wing. And I saw this, like, in the media as well. I was kind of embarrassed for a lot of mainstream media to be kind of like, well, look, his parents are Republicans. He must be. I'm like, in what univers, right? Is it the case that your parents.
- [28:12]
Joe Getty
Are public because no conservative family sends their kids off to college and they come back, you know, with completely different politics.
- [28:19]
Jack Armstrong
Well, I was just thinking about family ties, like sitcom we watched as a kid, like.
- [28:22]
Joe Getty
Oh, right, yeah, exactly.
- [28:24]
Jack Armstrong
Conservative kids. That's what. That's more the way it goes. It's. The technical term is schismo Genesis. But the. So. So, you know, it's kind of typical that he was kind of implying that this guy's got to be MAGA in some of his. In his comedy routine on. But then, you know, the campaign, and it was really clearly a campaign to get Jimmy fired. Taking this opportunity really got going, you know, with Brendan Carr being really clear about it. And another thing that's really important to point out is that, you know, months ago they were saying, Jimmy Kimmel's next, you know.
- [29:01]
Joe Getty
Yeah.
- [29:02]
Jack Armstrong
So this was, I think, a target of opportunity to get this guy fired. And I've never been, to be clear, I've never seen something quite like this. And people will always do what about ism, like, what about. What about, like, Roseanne Barr or some of these other cases? It's like, I just haven't seen this level of pressure on. On mainstream networks to silent, to silence a comedian.
- [29:27]
Joe Getty
Right. Well, because of my politics, I'm highly annoyed by the treating anybody to the right side of the aisle as a moron the way Colbert and Kimmel did. But the problem with the government putting pressure on networks to get rid of them or broadcast licenses or whatever is there's gonna be a Democratic president someday. And I don't want President Gavin Newsom telling his fcc, hey, right wing talk radio is out of control and we need to do something about this.
- [29:59]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, it is interesting the way the Trump administration has been running things. It seems like they don't care about the fact that someone else could abuse this power in the future with kind of like an idea that they're always gonna be the one who are making these calls, which I think is foolish. But it's also, by the way, rightfully banned in a lot of these cases by the First Amendment. And fire's job in a situation like this is to call balls and strikes. And I will get people sometimes saying, oh, the political situation is so intense right now, you have to pick a side that your quaint little First Amendment thing, you know, doesn't really apply in this kind of battle. And I'm always like, no, right now, the rules of the road matter more than ever, and it's our job to defend them.
- [30:46]
Joe Getty
Specifically Charlie Kirk, while he was out there doing his thing, going to college campuses. Did you think that was a productive thing for free speech in America?
- [30:56]
Jack Armstrong
I did, actually. You know, my disagreement with Charlie Kirk is mostly due to their scholar, their SCHOLAR database, the SCHOLAR watch list, which I was not a big fan of because it resulted in a lot of people. A lot of attempts to get people fired, a lot of, you know, a lot of cancel culture. We made a big distinction between just calling out professors, which you totally can do. But you know, when you put like, this is their supervisor and like, all this kind of stuff to try to get them fired, I got an issue with that. However, you know, Charlie's murder has led me to, you know, go back and look at some of his discussions with students. And I think this is having this effect all over the country, by the way.
- [31:33]
Joe Getty
Yeah, definitely.
- [31:34]
Jack Armstrong
Political violence tends to backfire. And I'm like, wow. Like, he think he dealt with some frustrating questions. And he dealt with them usually, like, at least the ones that I saw with pretty civilly. So I've left with a impression that. That it was a productive dialogue.
- [31:54]
Joe Getty
Right. I don't know if you've seen the. It's on YouTube. Charlie Kirk with Bill Maher. They had like a two hour conversation in Bill Maher's basement a couple months ago fairly recently. And it was as. It was as civil between two guys that agree on nothing as you could possibly imagine. And if we can't do that, we're doomed.
- [32:12]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. And I'm actually speaking at Sun Valley, not Sun Valley, at Utah Valley on October 30th. And what's crazy, I'm just gonna admit it, you know, am I a little spooked? You know, of course I am. But you can't ever let the, you know, assassin veto win. You have to actually show up. You have to, you know, pick up the mant. Have to actually have that discussion. And I'm hoping to go there with a message of essentially, free speech belongs to us all or belongs to nobody. Because I think younger people are being taught that freedom of speech is the weapon of the bully, the bigot and the robber baron. And as I say all the time, that is just bad history. You are being miseducated on this topic. So hopefully I'm going to try and Fire is always trying to contribute to a deeper, more philosophical understanding of the, frankly beautiful role of free speech in human history.
- [33:09]
Joe Getty
Well, we talk about your books all the time. The coddling of the American mind is my partner Joe's one of his Favorite books of all time. We mentioned stuff that you write all the time. What particularly would you like us to point people to right now before I let you go?
- [33:23]
Jack Armstrong
Sure. I mean the most important thing is that Fire is currently overwhelmed. So we could really use support from people and we need the people who care about free speech who for their own side but also for everyone else. We need those principled people out there to come and help. Because right now, to use a pun, it's a free speech is kind of a house on fire.
- [33:44]
Joe Getty
Yeah. Greg Lukiana, thanks for your time.
- [33:47]
Jack Armstrong
Take care.
- [33:48]
Joe Getty
Yeah, he is, he is really good and he is absolutely right. Like I can't stand Jimmy Kimmel. I mean he makes my skin crawl. He's so smug. That's the word I was looking for. He is so freaking smug. But if the FCC can pressure him off the air, he can pressure Joe and I off. They can pressure Joe and I off the air in a different administration. Absolutely. So that bothers me. I want to tell you about Trust and Will real quick. This is just a really, really good idea. If you don't have a trust and will or trust or will, you could end up in a situation if you were to pass on where there's expensive legal battles for your family to figure out who gets what, the state could jump in and make all kinds of decisions that would horrify you. Avoid all that. It starts at $199 to start setting up a trust. Trust based plan. Start at 499 and you could manage this trust and will online, easy to use website. They're all state specific based on the laws wherever you live. Bank level encryption, live customer support through chat, phone or email. So it's easy. Secure your assets, protect your loved ones with trust and will get 20% off on your estate plan documents by visiting trust and Willcom slash Armstrong. That's trustandwill.com Armstrong. I know a lot of you are going to be angry and feel like I'm standing up for Jimmy Kimmel because I'm not just really rolling around in glee that he got fired. But once once you allow that weapon of canceling people from the FCC to be wield it against your enemies, it's going to come back. I just know it is. We got a lot more time to talk about this and other stuff. I hope you can stick around.
- [35:25]
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty.
- [35:28]
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- [36:27]
Greg Lukianoff
Former mma fighter Conor McGregor announced this week that he has withdrawn from the.
- [36:32]
Joe Getty
Irish presidential race after, quote, careful reflection.
- [36:35]
Greg Lukianoff
Or as it's known in Ireland, sobering up and out.
- [36:42]
Joe Getty
Okay, we're getting a number of texts from people saying the FCC had nothing to do with Jimmy Kimmel being fired. These various groups of stations decided they want to drop him. Okay, we'll play some quotes from the FCC commissioner. I'll read you some things that he said in recent days. He was absolutely pressuring people on their broadcast license. And I can tell you, trust me, I'm in business. We have the radio stations have the same deal with broadcast license as TV do. As TV does. Owners get really nervous really fast if there's even a whiff of trouble with their license. They just do. It's been that way my whole career. Just the most subtle hint of you're on the wrong side of things makes people a pucker, if you'll pardon the expression. So we'll get into that next hour. The FCC did have something to do with this. I didn't mention this letter the other day, so I've been talking about prunes a lot. I will not explain exactly why. You could probably guess.
- [37:41]
Greg Lukianoff
I wonder why.
- [37:43]
Joe Getty
It's just a. It's just a treat I enjoy.
- [37:45]
Greg Lukianoff
Yeah, just a nice little snack.
- [37:47]
Joe Getty
The humble prune. Some of you like oranges, some of you like a candy bar. I enjoy a prune now and then, or at least I have for the last week or so. I'd never had a prune in my life until my doctor recommended it for a particular situation. We don't need to get into hydration anyway. So the, the orders from the doctor was start with one prone to one prune a day and then if that doesn't work, go to two prunes. And I Found the sweet spot seems to be between four and five prunes. Maybe more than you wanted to know.
- [38:18]
Greg Lukianoff
Whatever works for you, Jack.
- [38:19]
Joe Getty
Anyway, because we talked about prune so much, the California Prune association or network or company or whatever they are had heard this and they sent us a gift of box the other day with all kinds of different kind of prune related treats and a prune hat and that my son is going to wear to school. And it's good. But anyway, I didn't read from the letter. Dear Jack, I'm an avid listener and caught your recent segments about prunes and couldn't be happier to share our passion for this dried fruit. Now that you know what prunes are, we thought we'd level up your prune game. Yeah, I didn't know what a prune was. I'd heard about it my whole life. When I was a kid, they would always joke about them on sitcoms. Old people would joke about prunes. Yeah, I knew it had something to do with your, you know, regulating your system, but I didn't really know what they were.
- [39:03]
Greg Lukianoff
I can't believe you didn't know what a prune was.
- [39:06]
Jack Armstrong
Good grief.
- [39:06]
Joe Getty
I'm that kind of person.
- [39:07]
Greg Lukianoff
I know.
- [39:08]
Joe Getty
I know what they are now. They're a part of my life. You're best friends. Me and prunes are best friends. That's funny that the prune people sent me so much swag. I have more prune swag than the. Who knew the prune people even had hats?
- [39:22]
Greg Lukianoff
I wouldn't be mad at a prune hat.
- [39:24]
Joe Getty
No, no, it's pretty awesome. Okay, we got a lot more news to get to. Things that are going on in the world. Trump's in Great Britain, Jimmy Kimmel got fired, this and that. If you miss a segment or an hour, get the podcast, Armstrong and Getty on demand and we'll get to all this other stuff. Coming up. Some great guests too, on a whole bunch of different topics. So please stay here.
- [39:45]
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty. This is an iHeart podcast.