Brendan Carr, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, joins Glenn Beck on the Glenn Beck Podcast to talk about the dangers of 5G and why it s time to get to the bottom of the latest conspiracy theories about it.
00:00:00.000Population control. Audibly transmitted viruses. Mind-altering radio frequencies. Wavelinks that microwave your brain. Invisible propaganda from blinking towers in the distance. Hundreds of birds that will die all at once. Cancer. Electromagnetic radiation. Bio-warfare. These are some of the craziest ideas. The science fiction nightmares, right?
00:00:28.080They are also just some of the events that defined the 5G apocalypse, according to the conspiracy theories about 5G. I want you to know, I am skeptical of almost everything, especially a technology like 5G. And I don't want to make light of anyone's fears. I get it. The pace of our new world is daunting.
00:00:54.060Many of those things were said about a field that I have been in my whole life, radio or television. Here's the thing. We now live in the era of velocity. Speed will determine absolutely everything.
00:01:10.060And if we have learned anything in the last 30 years, it is that technology is a lot more complex than we are. But it is important to know the facts about technology so you're not bamboozled either in or out of something that will change life forever.
00:01:28.180And what will change people's lives is 5G. The reality of 5G maybe is worse than all of that. I mean, we could find ourselves quickly under the thumb of a real dystopian autocracy.
00:01:45.240Wars don't take place in fields anymore. Wars may not even involve people soon because of things like 5G. The clandestine combat of the Cold War is a relic. We still use humans, but that will change.
00:02:05.700Because war takes place now through digital technology and the technologies in your life and mine. The nation that develops and dominates the latest technologies and the biggest pipeline of information, data and communications, that is the one that will win the war.
00:02:26.420And at the moment, China is far more advanced than any of us realize. And right now, we are intentionally shooting ourselves in the foot.
00:02:38.820As commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, today's guest is one of the few people that can actually help us clear away the fiction to get to the truth.
00:02:50.240Something is very wrong with what's being said about 5G.
00:02:56.420Today, on the Glenn Beck Podcast, welcome, Commissioner Brendan Carr.
00:03:02.720Since Roe vs. Wade, over 63 million babies have been aborted in the U.S. That's nearly one in four pregnancies.
00:03:10.660They end in death. Choice to choose to kill the child.
00:03:16.080In the midst of this awful tragedy, we can do something about it.
00:03:20.480It's called pre-born. This is where technology comes in.
00:03:23.700It is the direct competition to Planned Parenthood.
00:03:27.620It's the largest provider of free ultrasounds in the U.S.
00:21:28.260Um, it changes fundamentally everything.
00:21:32.380Do you spend much time or do you and your colleagues spend much time, even if you don't have to decide, thinking, gosh, which part of this is good and which part of this could destroy us?
00:21:46.580Yeah, look, I flip back and forth through a couple of lenses when I do this job.
00:21:52.820One, I say very grounded in where we are and where are we falling short today.
00:21:57.320There's still too many parts of this country that have zero megabits per second when it comes to high speed service.
00:22:02.980Yet there's parts of this country where we're making tremendous progress.
00:22:49.160Because John Oaks, the then editor, said, diversity of opinion is the lifeblood of democracy.
00:22:53.560The moment we insist that everyone think the same way we do, our democratic way of life is in danger.
00:22:58.460That was a very progressive, left-wing view at the time.
00:23:01.480And unfortunately, I think progressives have turned heel on that view.
00:23:04.640So as we go into this future, sort of where we started from, there's a concentration of power in corporate hands.
00:23:11.240And as a culture, we have to return to the embrace of diversity of views.
00:23:15.360If Twitter gets into the financial services space and starts taking their block list and denying people financial services, that's not good.
00:23:22.260If we see the metaverse developing the same way some of the Facebook censorship has, that's not good.
00:23:26.980So I do think it is incumbent as a cultural matter that we stand back up for free speech and that for those in government like me to continue to work to try to get enough votes to say, look, we need some core political anti-discrimination rules out there.
00:23:41.100So that's one thing that does worry about me about the increased connectedness is the consolidation of that power in big tech.
00:23:48.320You know, we're going to see the creep of censorship from Twitter, which is bad enough to have censorship.
00:23:52.900But imagine getting financial services denied and everything else that's going to be connected in the future.
00:23:57.440Right. And that is that is part of the Great Reset.
00:24:00.700I don't know how much you're up on the Great Reset, but we're already seeing states take action against banks who are saying we're going to have a certain score ESG.
00:24:09.800If you're not on the environmental bandwagon, you're going to be a risk to the bank.
00:24:58.900I'm very concerned about the the it's not just the tech companies.
00:25:05.820It is they're in bed with many of the regulators or the or the government.
00:25:12.740And that is extraordinarily dangerous.
00:25:16.260And I don't see anyone, especially on the left, really taking this seriously.
00:25:23.340Look, I think this was a blind spot for so many Republicans for so long.
00:25:29.080Look, we we had this great moment where we sort of solidified a lot of the theoretical approaches of the conservative movement in the 70s and the 80s.
00:25:36.340And the idea then was the greatest threat to individual liberty is government power.
00:25:41.620And what has happened since then is the unprecedented rise of corporate power, in part, as we're talking about, because that power happens in the digital space.
00:25:50.000When you have, you know, railroads and other sort of historic instances of monopoly gatekeeping power, it was a slow moving monopoly.
00:25:59.000Well, now Facebook, Twitter, they go from nothing to having a network effect that impacts millions, if not billions of people.
00:26:05.940And so Republican Party conservatives were very slow to see that.
00:26:10.500The rise of corporate power and the threat that it poses to individual liberty, thankfully, that has changed and it's changing very fast.
00:26:18.220If you look at where, you know, for instance, you know, the Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, is with some of the ideas that he's putting out there and how we hold large corporations accountable.
00:26:27.240I think that's a sign that Republicans have woken up and they say, yeah, the government, don't get us wrong, is still a threat to individual liberty.
00:26:33.500But the consolidation of corporate power is equally a threat.
00:26:36.780And to your point, when you blend the two together, when you've got the Biden White House saying, yeah, we've talked to large technology companies and told them the types of misinformation that we don't like to see on your website, that blending now of corporate power and government power together is incredibly dangerous.
00:26:53.000And I do think we now have a set of Republican leaders and some Democrats push back on this as well.
00:26:59.720Glenn Greenwald, not a conservative, has been very focused on the well.
00:27:03.880This is a danger that Republicans were slow on.
00:27:06.940But I think we're finally coming around to realizing we have to use government power to push back on the intrusion of the individual liberty that come from the abuse of corporate power.
00:27:16.480So one of the things that I think is a is a huge win for the American people, and I don't know if it ever get traction, you know, we're entering a new space jobs.
00:27:35.780But that's why a lot of people are talking about UBI, et cetera, et cetera.
00:27:38.980Because there's going to be a few that have great power that is harnessed by AI and especially quantum computing that the world won't have to do the things that we do.
00:27:52.560Our life will be a lot easier, more complex in some ways.
00:27:55.660Right now, when you look at the the power of these companies, they get their power from information.
00:28:09.040We've given them all of our information and they use it in a myriad of ways.
00:28:17.200But is is it possible to create a situation to where the the individual, their rights continue to how they live their life, what they think, what they do?
00:29:12.420I mean, so, for instance, if you take Google, other smartphone manufacturers, you can have your phone off entirely, not connected to anything in that phone records and knows based on barometric pressure sensors in the phone, what floor you are in a house.
00:29:25.420When did you open the door to a car and close the door to a car because of the change in barometric pressure?
00:29:30.720It knows where you go and it sends all that data back.
00:29:33.560So at some level, you could say people don't care.
00:29:36.300At another level, you could say, well, people know and they don't care.
00:29:40.700I think people would be blown away if they could look and see at all of their data that is getting collected on their phone, even when it's not even on.
00:29:48.400Now, look, I don't think that means we smash our phones and become Luddites.
00:29:51.120You know, I'm not someone that says, you know, this technology is all bad.
00:29:55.920But to your point, let's empower people to make more informed choices.
00:30:00.200And again, the data has a lot of value, not necessarily individual value.
00:30:12.280You know, they always say we can't read metadata.
00:30:15.780Well, that's not entirely true, and especially in the future, they know they already have more information on me and you and everybody else than we even know about ourselves.
00:30:27.180They can predict exactly what we're going to do in many cases.
00:30:33.600That's not only dangerous, but it is also extraordinarily valuable.
00:30:38.460And it blurs the line of, well, was that my idea to go on that vacation or to go there or to eat this?
00:30:46.460Or was I manipulated subtly in ways that I can't even know?
00:30:52.540That's not only important to discuss and know, but it is also important to be able to control and say, no, you know what?
00:31:02.380I don't want you in this part of my life and data.
00:31:19.120And this is why, you know, we need not just Section 230 reform, not just what I would view as sort of political anti-discrimination requirements, but we need transparency.
00:31:28.020And to your point, not transparency where they show you the ones and zeros of your algorithm.
00:31:31.580There's a way they can just bury you with information that doesn't mean anything.
00:31:34.760But we need transparency in a way that is understandable to people so that they can decide, to your point, yeah, this part of my life, I want cordoned off.
00:31:40.820You know, I'm fine with data being, you know, taken and put to use over here.
00:31:44.680But the lack of transparency about what is going on with your data is a real problem.
00:31:50.820Is this something the FCC should be roping off and leading?
00:31:57.200Yeah, I think there is a role for the FCC.
00:31:59.800You know, when I was in the majority at the FCC in the last administration, I pushed pretty hard to try to get 230 reform.
00:33:27.460Nothing is really changing in the radio industry.
00:33:31.020And it kind of has this idea that it's dying.
00:33:33.700The mom and pop local broadcaster, the local radio station that is controlled locally is vital to anything that this country might face in in case of trouble.
00:33:51.580That it is locally operated and and run and that it has viable technology.
00:33:58.280Is there anything on the horizon that is trying to shut down voices on radio to to lack the diversity that has a has an actual, you know, cash cow into it that can do it?
00:34:13.080And is there any place that the FCC should look at and say, you know, broadcasters feel free to go here, invent, think about, open up, deregulate on any place?
00:34:43.620There is a lot of local radio broadcasters that are struggling right now.
00:34:47.240I was in a small town in Wyoming, was in relatively big town.
00:34:51.420There is a radio station that was thriving. They had local news, local reports, drove an hour away, another small town.
00:34:57.340And there was a radio station that was effectively playing, you know, music off of a HP laptop that was, you know, pumped in from someplace like Chicago.
00:35:06.840And the FCC had rules in place that said, you know, owner that owns that thriving radio station that wants to purchase that smaller radio station that's just pumping in canned music and actually bring in talent, live people to run that program.
00:35:20.060And the FCC said, no, because we want a diversity of ownership.
00:35:23.400And so, therefore, that HP laptop keeps spinning those tunes from Chicago.
00:35:27.860You owner that lives in Wyoming that wants to open a second station and actually put real people there.
00:35:32.620You can't do that because we want diversity of ownership.
00:35:35.980And so there's some very backwards looking regulations there that I've advocated that we should get rid of.
00:35:40.640It's controversial. It ends up not happening.
00:35:43.740You know, we have rules on how much stations anybody can own.
00:35:47.280Again, well-intentioned. We want diversity of views, but it ends up preventing investment.
00:35:52.400The other point there is when you look at these wireless carriers, why do we have 5G?
00:35:56.420It's because the government doesn't regulate that in the sense that we give you spectrum, put 4G on it, put 5G on it, whatever you need, and upgrade from 4G to 5G.
00:36:05.220In broadcasting, we have a whole different approach that says if you want to go from one broadcast technology, you know, ATSC 2.0 to ATSC 3.0, whatever it is,
00:36:13.700you've got to come to the FCC, you've got to ask permission, you've got to go through a rulemaking.
00:36:17.300So people say, why aren't broadcasters innovating more?
00:36:19.780Well, they've got to get a lot more government approvals than the sectors that aren't as heavily regulated and therefore that they are innovating.
00:36:28.220And with respect to diversity, I am worried.
00:36:30.280Look, there's been some pretty strong push at a Democrat, particularly in South Florida, that look at some successful Hispanic radio stations.
00:36:39.140They filed petitions at the FCC asking us to, you know, deny license transfers, to open investigations.
00:36:45.160And they've been pretty upfront about it and said, look, we don't like, you know, our electoral chances if the Spanish language speaking community gets to hear conservative radios.
00:36:57.400I said, look, the FCC is not an arm of the DNC.
00:37:00.460It's not our business to police and shut down speech in that form.
00:37:04.560And so, yeah, to your point, there's a lot we could do.
00:37:06.680We could allow more investment in these struggling stations.
00:37:09.760We could give more permissionless opportunities to upgrade and innovate technologies.
00:37:14.700And we could make clear that, you know, we're not shutting down diversity of views.
00:37:18.960So let's let's end there on on that question.
00:37:21.540It's been a year since Rush Limbaugh died.
00:37:24.420Many of us who are in talk radio owe our careers to him.
00:37:29.000He is the he was the pioneer, but he was also the meat shield for a lot of us.
00:37:34.320He took the hits and all the guns were aimed at him and he took the hits.
00:37:41.400There is a movement now to go over to go after podcasting and also to go after talk radio.
00:37:49.940Are you concerned about as I get ready to possibly sign another contract with radio is are you concerned about the security of radio and our voices?
00:38:06.220I do think there's there's reason to be concerned.
00:38:10.980I'm not in panic mode at this point just yet.
00:38:14.920You know, we we we need to continue to allow these diverse voices to flourish and we need to continue to stay strong for, you know, this idea of promoting a diversity of view.
00:38:27.460I'm certainly going to use my platform at the FCC to do that.
00:38:30.560And I think that while we've got to stay vigilant, I'm pretty confident we're going to be continuing to see, you know, a flourishing of views here.
00:38:43.560Well, it's being launched right now and it's being launched outside of the C-band, which was just a small portion of the spectrum here.
00:38:49.140So there's non C-band 5G that it's up and live as to when this portion of the 5G spectrum, the C-band will get back up and running.
00:38:56.220You know, I just hope that we can get some adults back in the room at the White House and they can say, look, we're going to side with the science.
00:39:01.720We're not going to side with the hysteria.
00:39:03.540When that happens, then this C-band will get fully lit up again.