Media bias and another tale that can NOW be told! (01-27-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] All right, so last hour I went through the revelation that two former reporters from Politico say their editors killed or slow-walked three different stories. Killed two, slow-walked a third, all related to Hunter Biden, the laptop deal, the lean against Biden while he was on Burisma.

[00:00:56] All right, so let me just take a quick moment here. Not that I need to explain it, but I feel like talk radio audiences are, yes, interested in politics, obviously. But it's more than that. These are cultural issues. These are philosophical issues. But we are also interested in the role of media as sort of an institution.

[00:01:25] You know, Limbaugh built talk radio. And he did so as a reaction to the lack of this kind of conversation occurring because of the Fairness Doctrine, which was not fair. And so people who, and you can call it like the original red pilling, where, you know, you would hear a story and you'd be like, hmm, oh, okay.

[00:01:55] Well, that's interesting. And you would just accept that story because that's a news story. And, you know, they're telling you the truth and all of this. And then Limbaugh comes on the scene and he's giving voice to questions that a lot of people would have about the way stories get covered. And so what we are watching right now is sort of the this is the the the dying days of the traditional legacy media. I don't even like mainstream media anymore because I don't even think that term applies.

[00:02:23] What is mainstream for younger people? It's freaking tick tock getting all their news from China. Sorry, the Chinese algorithm. You know, that entices them to harm themselves and. Eat Tide Pods and such, but though, I'm sure it's fine. Don't worry. So the the media critique has always been a part of talk radio.

[00:02:49] And as one who was a reporter and I grew up listening to NPR. My dad, a Reagan Democrat. He I mean, he went to Vietnam because JFK asked what he could do for his country. You know, he volunteered and went to Vietnam for two tours. And that's the kind of guy now he's, you know, now he's on the Trump train, has been on the Trump train from the very beginning.

[00:03:15] So like he is sort of in my mind, he's like this prototypical, especially back in 2016, Trump supporter. But I say all of that because when we were growing up, he would listen to NPR. We would be in the car with him and he'd be listening. All things considered. And I've talked about this before. And so I've always had an appreciation for what's called spoken word format, which is podcast, by the way.

[00:03:42] So all you kids that are like podcast to the new thing, it's actually not a new thing. It's just talk radio. Sorry. I mean, like I hate to be the bearer of the news, but, you know, talk radio has been doing this for a very long time. Spoken word format. But NPR, I, yeah, I mean, it has just, it has just gone so far left.

[00:04:06] And I still like, I flip it over and I listen to what they're covering and everything has some sort of intersectionality framing. It's just, I mean, it's exhausting. Every single story is about something that I don't care about. You know, it's like, oh, here's an interesting lead in. I'm like, oh, this is an interesting story. And then all of a sudden it's like, now we're going to tell this story through the eyes of a, you know, of a trans Palestinian living in Ghana. Like what?

[00:04:36] How did you find this person? First of all, second of all. And then of course it always starts with the gnat sound in the village. Whatever. They're like, oh, so and so is this such and such. And it's just the same formula. Every single story. Anyway, I digress. Media criticism has always been a part of talk radio. And I care about this spoken word format. I care about talk radio, but I care about media. I care about journalism.

[00:05:02] And people think that I, I hate these reporters and I hate the legacy media and all this. I don't. I want them to be better. That's the problem. You suck at what you're doing. That's my problem with you. Is that you don't even realize the suckitude that you are achieving. And you, somebody needs to tell you that you can do this better. That you can make corrections.

[00:05:28] You can, you can course correct here, but they don't care. It's not. Yeah. They don't care. They're going to keep, you know, doing what they're doing, making the decisions they, they keep making, hoping for another investor to come along and buy their publication to pay their paychecks and stuff. And, and, and to me, it is a, uh, and I talked about this before the election.

[00:05:55] This is what basically drove me to vote for Donald Trump, which I never thought I would do. Um, it's that I don't trust the media to cover Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or any Democrat for that matter. I just don't trust them to do it. They're so far gone. They're so far in the tank. And so that political piece confirms what I could already see and I could read in their pages.

[00:06:21] And, and I, I would notice that, you know, they're not covering certain stories or the way they treat certain stories is different than they treat stories that were down to the benefit of the Democrats. And when I can see all of this and then, okay, now, now they come out after it doesn't matter after the election. Oh yeah. By the way, we tried to do the story and we were a big footed by our editors. We couldn't publish these stories. Like, don't blame me.

[00:06:46] I tried to do the right thing, but I kept quiet for four years so I could keep drawing a paycheck. This stuff matters because you're supposed to be the quote truth to power. You're supposed to be working for the people. You're supposed to be informing people about what's going on so they can self-govern. This whole thing that, you know, the Washington Post, democracy dies in darkness.

[00:07:14] You mean the darkness that you guys are shrouding the public in when it comes to stories you won't cover? See, that's why I'm so hard on these reporters and these outlets. Because you have a great responsibility. And that means sometimes you have to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, the Democrat that's challenging the guy that you hate might actually be corrupt.

[00:07:43] And there's actual evidence of the corruption. And you have to put aside your bias and you have to tell people so they have the information so they can make that decision on their own. And you have to do so knowing that some of them may turn around and not vote for the guy that you would prefer win. Because the orange man is so bad. That's part of the job. Otherwise, you're a propagandist. That's what that is.

[00:08:13] It's not, this is why I call them journalismers. Because it's not journalism. You know, it's definitely not reporting.

[00:08:48] Here's a great idea.

[00:09:17] Cabins of Asheville has the ideal space. For you for any occasion. And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I don't know what's happening with the phones. Apparently, it's dropping calls. John had called in during the last segment. He was on hold. And then his call dropped off. Is he back? For real? He's there?

[00:09:47] John, welcome to the show. Just for the record, we did not hang up on you. Something is wrong with our phone system. So I apologize for that. Oh, no problem. I thought it was me. I'm driving in from the mountains. Oh, okay. Well, maybe so. Yeah. Maybe just bad cell reception or something. Yeah. Well, hey, first of all, I'm a liberal, and I do exactly what you suggest your listeners do, which is to listen to other news sources.

[00:10:10] So I find that you're definitely worth listening to because you have an objectivity that goes beyond just partisanship, which I can't say about your other posts. So I enjoy your show. You're not afraid to criticize the right or the left. You talk about your own libertarian values, and you have a good take on things.

[00:10:35] So since you have such a good take on things, without risking getting fired, it would be interesting to hear your analysis of your own radio station in terms of bias. So obviously, everybody that hosts a show, and I can't speak for anybody else's process that they go through to develop their material, but every host is an opinion host. Sure. Right?

[00:11:04] Like the morning show, they do a different kind of show. Vince does a lot of different content with religion, if you will. He has a lot of that kind of content. You know, Brett is more of a national guy and international. He focuses a lot on that stuff. And my lane has been for years, state, local, and national stuff, but also media critique.

[00:11:33] And I know Brett does that, too, and Vince does that, as well. Like I said, that's such a part of talk radio, because it's in our DNA. It's in talk radio's DNA. Right. But you've been at Rush Limbaugh for many years. I mean, there is a common thread among your hosts. I mean, this is a conservative radio station. Yeah. Well, I mean, I would say... Conservative bias. Sure. I mean, but we're all just like...

[00:12:00] That's all I'm asking you to say, so that your listeners don't get deluded into thinking they're listening to the truth. They're listening to a conservative bias, which is fine. Everyone has their own biases, as you said. So that's the only point I want to make. Right. So hang on, John. Do you think that people who listen to this station don't realize that they are conservatives or that they are sharing the opinions of the hosts who are conservative?

[00:12:29] Oh, I think they're aware that they're sharing the opinions of the hosts. I think that they sometimes are maybe deluded into thinking that because their hosts share their opinions, that that's the truth, and that there may be some truths out there that they're not aware of because they don't bother to listen to other media sources, as you suggest they should. Well, and that's why I bring...

[00:12:53] But, John, that's why I bring those media sources to the show, as does Brett Winterbult, as does Vince Coakley. Brett Winterbult... They all... No, John, hang on. Nothing of a sort, my friend. John, I have heard... John, I have heard... I have heard Brett quote CNN, CBS, the Associated Press, NBC, MSNBC. He quotes all of these news organizations. He brings you those stories.

[00:13:23] He just doesn't... He doesn't... He doesn't take what they say as automatic truth. He challenges, just like I do, he'll challenge certain parts of the stories as they are reported by those outlets. So, hang on, John, do you... Let me ask this. Hang on, John, when we're talking about... Right-wing... John, John, hang on a second. Hang on. When we're talking about opinion, okay, because that's what all the hosts are at this station,

[00:13:47] the people who are giving these opinions, do you think that the people who share the opinions of the hosts as they're listening, do you think that they would adopt opinions that they know are not true? Or do they believe their opinions are true? Do I think they would adopt opinions that are not true? No, that they know are not true. That they know are not true. Right. No, I don't think so. Okay.

[00:14:16] And just like I don't believe that people on the left, such as yourself, I don't believe that you would adopt an opinion that you don't believe is true. The question is, are you open to hearing the other side of that argument? And that's... And I will say that for all of the trash talking about any other host is that every single host welcomes phone calls from people who have different opinions and they have these... Yeah. And they have these discussions and debates.

[00:14:46] Well, I don't get that. And it's good, but I will say that I've called in to different hosts and you're much more amenable to having a conversation with someone with a differing viewpoint, whereas Brett Winterbold mutes them and then mocks them. Well, look, I've been known to... Rather than having an intelligent conversation. Yeah, I've been known to mute people and I definitely have been known to mock people when they are worthy of mocking. It's as I... Sure, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

[00:15:14] So the mockable ones, I feel like, are the ones that always call in. That's not my fault. Yeah. So why don't you guys be a liberal host to have a show if you're really interested in, you know, a good discussion? Well, but WBT has done that. Remember how... That sort of effeminate guy that Hannity used to beat up on, the token liberal? Yeah, Alan Combs. Yeah. So... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, so... You need an Alan Combs. BT has done that.

[00:15:42] WBT has done that model many times over the years. And you know what happens? You need to bring it back. No, you know what happens? No, you know what happens? No, what happens? Nobody listens. It's true. The ratings are terrible. And that's... Really? When there's arguing going on? No, no, no. I thought the ratings were the best. No, when you turn the airwaves over to a liberal host or a leftist host, the ratings plummet.

[00:16:09] And that can be seen not just here at WBT, but across virtually all media. And I would submit that that is a problem with the content, not necessarily the hosts or the platform. When you see that same scenario replicated over and over and over again, there's something going on there with that kind of content. Like, for example, you don't hear on the NPR affiliate, they don't do live call-ins like this. They won't take a conservative going back and forth with one of their liberal hosts.

[00:16:38] They'll take a voicemail and they'll play the voicemail from another liberal who asks a question. They play that and then they get their guests to respond. But they don't do this, what we're doing right now. And so why is that? Oh, yeah, they're not talk radio. They're news radio. Yeah, no, they're spoken word for me. They're talk radio. You don't have much news on your station. I'm sorry. What have we been talking about this entire time? I spent the whole first hour. Well, we've been talking about opinions, not news. I've been talking.

[00:17:04] No, I mean, I'm reading a story here about two reporters that say that they had to kill the stories during the election cycle in 2020. That's news. Yeah. Okay, fair enough. Let me ask you this. Do you have a meeting in the morning with the other hosts and which talking points to consider throughout the day? No. Because it seems pretty consistent. No. No emails, no meetings, no discussions about this is the stories we want to cover? Nope. Okay.

[00:17:34] Interesting. Nobody directs my topic selection and nobody directs anybody else's topic selection. Every host is free to determine what they want to talk about. And generally, we all have probably a similar process where we look at the headlines of the day. And so the stories that are generating the most discussion are the ones that are the most newsworthy because they are generating a lot of discussion.

[00:18:03] And so those are the stories that are selected. All right, John, I appreciate the call and the discussion. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season, but tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing. And then somebody says, hey, dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet. All eyes are on dad who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to, but I just haven't

[00:18:33] gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless memories sit in a box for another year. All right. Create a video has been helping families in the Charlotte area preserve their history since 1997. Simply bring in your old camcorder tapes and create a video will transfer them to a USB flash drive for just $14.95 per tape. You have a big collection. They've got a discount for you. And next year, instead of talking about those memories, imagine gathering the family to watch them together.

[00:19:02] Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at create a video conveniently located in Mint Hill right off I-485 and online at createavideo.com. Just for the record, I don't believe I know of anybody that holds opinions that they know are false. Most people have their opinion because they think it's true. And a lot of people, both left and right, do not want to have that challenged, which is

[00:19:29] why I say unchallenged ideas are very easy to hold. All right. 704-570-1110. Let me go and talk with Tim. Hello, Tim. Welcome to the show. Hey, Pete. How you doing? Hey, I'm good. What's up? You know what just happened with that last caller, don't you? I might have a bit of an inclination, yeah. He was setting you up. First, he started out telling you how fair and unattenuated you are.

[00:19:57] And then the next step was, okay, now I've got to get him to admit that WBT radio is a conservative biased radio station. Which, that may be the first time I have ever heard WBT referred to as a conservative station. I don't think I ever knew that before. Well, I don't think I've ever heard that either, Pete, but I will say that I believe

[00:20:25] that you have mostly conservative listeners across all your hosts. No. Really? If you didn't, if you ran a leftist liberal station, nobody would listen. No, and that's what I was getting to when I said like WBT, and I've been around BT for now, oh gosh, more than two decades. And like, I remember experiments that were done on this station with people of varying

[00:20:54] political philosophies. And this is not just BT. This occurs in other markets. It occurs in, remember the big one was, we were talking about it during the break, Air America. And that thing crashed and burned. And why? Like they, and I've said this before and I say it as a joke, but it is true. In my, in my opinion, it is true that if I had to defend leftist ideology, I would not be able to do so either.

[00:21:20] And the problem with leftist ideology is that once presented, once challenged with alternative arguments, contrary arguments, it doesn't hold up. And that's why hosts... It crumbles. Right. And that's why I think liberal left-wing hosts do not do well in an opinion format. Because it's fine if you get them to throw out a couple of slogans and bromides in between commercials.

[00:21:46] But if you actually have to test your arguments with callers, like I just did with John, it crumbles. And I think, I mean, did, did I not hear him say that basically because, uh, basically because the radio station may lean conservative? I mean, that's my opinion. I like y'all station. I'm conservative. But because of that, there's no way that y'all can, uh, put anything on the air that's true. Like the news isn't true.

[00:22:14] You know, I think they were having fire, uh, these major forest fires, like in Los Angeles. I feel sorry for the people. It's a tragedy, but I don't think those just started in the last 30 or 40 years. You know, I think we had, uh, pretty bad cold spells, you know, during the caveman days. So I just don't buy into some of the things that they, they reason. I mean, you know, I don't know, but it's new, right.

[00:22:42] This is news talk, right? News talk. So we're, we talk about what's in the news and, um, and yes, we have opinions. We are like the editorial page of a newspaper. That's, you know, for, that's a shorthand analogy to it. It's not exactly, uh, comparable in all ways, but the, but the idea is that you have a news item and we're reading the news. And sometimes the news is just the news.

[00:23:10] And sometimes that's all we're doing is like, like you mentioned with the fires or with the Western North Carolina, uh, hurricane, or with the recent, you know, ice storms and stuff. Then we shifted to just a, basically a straight news operation. Cause the data is just the data, right? The information is the most important thing to put out there, but there's always some analysis and there's always bias. I acknowledge my biases. So like the idea that someone's going to feel like it's an insult to tell me that I'm biased. It's not an insult. I'm a human being.

[00:23:40] Every single person has some kind of bias. Absolutely. Exactly. Exactly. And you know, when, when I call into y'all's radio station, they never asked me, am I conservative, am I liberal, am I Democrat, or am I opposed? They just say, what's your name? And what's your comment? And you know, it's like Vince, he, he touches on religious things and I enjoy that. But I also heard Vince kind of give Trump, uh, you know, the what for, but he reports

[00:24:07] what he sees and it may be his opinion, but it's not hard to see. I mean, I can't disagree with him. I like Trump. I voted for Trump. I believe Trump is going to be great for the country, but Vince shoots straight as most of y'all hosts do or all of you do really. Yeah. The opinions that I appreciate it. Yeah. Tim, I appreciate the call, man. Thanks for listening. Thanks for calling. Thank you. All right, buddy. Okay. Um, yeah, I'm like this idea that, that the opinions that we have are somehow driven by something. Oh, hang on a second.

[00:24:36] I just got my talking points email from Brett. Uh, no, I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. Like, in fact, it's actually the opposite. I'll be listening to sometimes, you know, uh, to Vince in the morning or on my way into the studio and I'll hear him cover a topic that I have in my stack of stuff and I don't like it. I'm like, dang it. I wanted to do that. You know, not that it stops me from doing it, but like I would, you know, there are things

[00:25:03] that we all, that we all kind of drift towards because we're, we all have biases, things that we think are newsworthy or important or interesting to discuss. And, um, and I don't, I don't deny that. Now, the reason why we don't ask you what your politics are, uh, is we have AI as a call screener and it detects as soon as you call in, it knows immediately if you're a conservative. I'm just kidding. We don't have that. We do have racial caller ID though.

[00:25:33] No, I'm kidding. We don't have that either. That's an old Spires and Kranz joke. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know, I try to keep up with all sorts of current events and I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground news. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place. So you can compare coverage and verify information.

[00:26:00] You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground news a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:26:27] Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground news as they make the media landscape more transparent. Steve told me that John called back in and was complaining about the story that was covered in our newscast saying that that wasn't news. And see, first off, I would beg to differ.

[00:26:54] The story about a South Carolina state lawmakers child killing themselves because they were being extorted by an online hoax that other kids could be exploited by. That then prompted the law, the lawmaker to get a new law put in place. And then the new part. So like 75% of the word news is new. And so the new part of the news was that the person who had extorted the child has now been

[00:27:22] arrested and brought back to America to face charges or brought to America to face charges. So that's news. So that's the first thing. I disagree. I believe that is news. Secondly, that is the kind of debate that occurs in the news organizations. Somebody would come forward and say, hey, I got this story. Here's this lawmaker's son who killed himself and they passed a law and now they caught the guy that prompted all of this. And should I go cover it?

[00:27:52] And then maybe somebody like John is in the newsroom and says, no, we should cover transgender rights or something. And then the newsroom would say, transgender rights, transgender rights. And so that's what everybody goes and covers. Right. So it's just it's a different approach. Right. To story selection. That's all. And that's what I said at the very beginning was you have to determine what is news and people have different opinions about what is news.

[00:28:17] And just because your opinion is that that story isn't news doesn't mean that it's not news. It may not be of interest to you, but it is most assuredly news. As I mentioned, three quarters of the word news is new. And that was, in fact, new. Also new, but not really. The CIA has said for years that it did not have enough information to conclude whether

[00:28:44] the covid pandemic emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan, which is not racist to say that all those Chinese people are eating all of these bats. Not racist, but rather the accidental or the other theory was the accidental leak from a research lab, which was racist. I was told at the time that's a racist idea that like a high tech lab, super smart people and the thing broke containment and leaked out. That's the racist theory eating the bats at the wet market.

[00:29:13] Not racist. OK, so the agency now has issued a new assessment this week with analysts saying, yeah, they now favor the lab leak theory. Oh, really? Now it can be told yet again. After four years, we now have the CIA weighing in, they say. And by the way, New York Times reporting no new intel. There's no new intelligence behind this shift. It's just based on the same evidence that they have been chewing over for months or years,

[00:29:43] as it were. The analysis is based in part on a closer look at the conditions in the high security labs in Wuhan province before the pandemic outbreak, according to people familiar with the agency's work. A spokeswoman for the agency said that the other theory remains plausible, but kind of racist. And the agency will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting. Right. Made more difficult, obviously, by the fact that China hasn't exactly been forthcoming,

[00:30:13] which is totally what a government would do if it was not involved in a lab leak. Right. If it's just a bunch of the the bat soup that got a bunch of people sick and killed millions around the globe, causing this pandemic and trillions of dollars in economic carnage. Right. They surely, surely they would not want to participate in figuring that out because then they could pin it on some guy at a market.

[00:30:42] But rather than go that route, they just shut everything down, which has always been a weird thing to me. Like if China wanted to pin it on the wet market, I feel like they could have done better. You know, I feel like there was something there that they could have done. They could have made that happen. It's just one of those things where it's like I have this expectation that China can do something and then they turn out not to be able to do it. Sort of like the fortune cookie. Like, what's up with that? It's like the same cracker thing that's like not very good.

[00:31:10] Like you guys have not perfected this thing and you didn't. And they stole that, too. Apparently it was from Japan. So classic Chinese commies. Let me read a couple of emails. Kevin says, this is why I listen to NPR and WBT. I watch Fox and NBC, ABC and CNN. So many only listen.

[00:31:36] Or what news outlets that back up the narrative they want to hear. And that is that is a problem. It is people only gathering their news or only getting their news from, you know, one place and thinking that now they are fully informed about stuff. And this is this is the Dunning-Kruger effect where, you know, people who are least informed

[00:32:03] of the material have the most confidence that they are correct, essentially. You know, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. That's that's part of life. That's that's everything. And as you get older, I think people become more wise to that. That when you're younger, you learn one thing and you think this is the thing. This is the truth. You know it all. And then you go out and you get exposed to more and more stuff. You learn more and more stuff.

[00:32:30] And then you start realizing, wow, there really is a lot that I don't know. There are other things about this that I don't know. Now, that's why, like, if new information presents itself, I I am open to be persuaded with new information. But generally, the opinions I have arrived at, particularly on the big issues and the core philosophies, those are things that I have examined.

[00:32:59] Those are things that I have been open to hearing other sides on. And when I get to the point where I'm at, like, hey, this is a fundamental principle of mine. Like, there has been examination. I'm only speaking for myself. I can speak for no other human being. All I can say is that that's just for myself. And sometimes that means that I don't know what the truth is. And I can say that. I don't know what the truth is with the lab leak. I don't know.

[00:33:28] It could have been a lab leak. It could have been a wet market. Right? Could have been aliens. Right? But right now, it seems like the preponderance of the evidence and the most compelling evidence to me points in the direction of the lab leak. Do I know that's exactly what happened? No, because I wasn't there. And if I was there, I probably would have been arrested because I hate commies. And they would have sniffed me out pretty quickly because I'm not a very good liar. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:33:58] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.