The Michael Knowles Show


Ep. 44 - Fake News Is Fake News ft. Andy Millennial


Summary

Trump blasts the fake news media for ignoring Russia s uranium deal with Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, the New York Times alleges fake news ads are popping up even on fact checking websites. And the Democrats and John McCain are pushing legislation to require more transparency on Facebook ads. We ll discuss where the fake news really lies. Then, our cultural correspondent, Andy Millennial, joins to discuss what the youth are keen on and hep to these days, as well as the crisis in the arts.


Transcript

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00:00:37.920 Donald Trump blasts the fake news media for ignoring Russia's uranium deal with Clinton.
00:00:43.740 Meanwhile, the New York Times alleges fake news ads are popping up even on fact-checking websites.
00:00:50.040 And the Democrats and John McCain, but I repeat myself, are pushing legislation to require more transparency on Facebook ads.
00:00:57.100 We'll discuss where the fake news really lies.
00:01:00.140 Then, our cultural correspondent, Andy Millennial, joins to discuss what the youth are keen on and hep to these days, as well as the crisis in the arts.
00:01:09.100 Finally, all of your problems will be solved in the mailbag.
00:01:12.380 I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:01:14.200 Okay, now, away from the real news, now we have to get to fake news.
00:01:24.680 There's fake news everywhere.
00:01:26.360 Trump tweeted this morning,
00:01:27.640 Now, this comes on the heels of, this week, evidence emerged that the FBI knew as early as 2009 that Russian operatives were using bribes and dirty tactics to shore up their atomic energy footprint in the United States.
00:01:50.240 The Obama administration approved the uranium deal benefiting Moscow anyway.
00:01:55.140 Hillary Clinton has been implicated in this.
00:01:57.360 All the while, let's not forget that Mueller, the special counsel who's investigating Donald Trump, he was FBI director at the time.
00:02:05.040 This doesn't look good for Democrats, for the FBI investigation, or for the Russia investigation, rather, and it only looks good for fake news.
00:02:16.500 Democrats are gearing up to battle the allegedly pro-Trump fake news.
00:02:20.920 The New York Times alleges that fake news has been hitting websites like Snopes and PolitiFact, the alleged fact-checking websites.
00:02:30.440 Democrats are sponsoring legislation to require Facebook ads to disclose who is paying for them.
00:02:36.320 All of this misses the point.
00:02:38.540 Fake news is fake news.
00:02:40.640 The term emerged when a left-wing college professor, but I repeat myself again,
00:02:44.780 circulated a Google document that listed lots of right-wing websites, including the Daily Wire, in the days after the 2016 election.
00:02:52.780 Democrats accused all right-wing websites of propagating fake news,
00:02:56.540 the same ridiculous smear that they used to tie to the formerly only right-of-center news outlet, Fox News.
00:03:04.080 Conservatives then, pouncing on the absurdity of this claim,
00:03:07.720 pointed out the countless unsubstantiated and outright false smears against Donald Trump and Republicans
00:03:13.640 that mainstream outlets like the TV network, CNN, The New York Times, Washington Post, breathlessly reported.
00:03:20.360 CNN's now-retracted Russia collusion story, which even forced them to fire a team of reporters, comes to mind.
00:03:26.140 Another example, among countless examples,
00:03:29.060 The New York Times ran a bombshell fake news report headlined,
00:03:32.640 Trump campaign aides had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence.
00:03:37.280 Even James Comey, under oath, was forced to admit that this was not true.
00:03:41.280 Now, Donald Trump then masterfully positioned himself to appropriate the term.
00:03:45.860 It stuck to The New York Times and it stuck to CNN in a way that it didn't stick to us because the charge rings so true.
00:03:52.800 The alleged epidemic of fake news that John McCain and other Democrats want new laws to address is itself fake news.
00:04:00.080 Another term for fake news is propaganda.
00:04:01.960 That's the old term.
00:04:03.000 Propaganda is nothing new.
00:04:04.760 It's been around forever.
00:04:05.800 It will remain a communications tool as long as people speak to one another.
00:04:09.720 President Trump has narrowed in on the real issue, the fake news media.
00:04:14.500 The issue isn't random websites promoting partisan press releases.
00:04:18.360 It's the enormous institutional behemoths, like the mainstream media,
00:04:22.540 which purport to present objective facts without partisan slant, often on public airways,
00:04:27.640 but in reality are simply shills for Democrats and they attack Republicans.
00:04:31.940 They're the fake news media because they aren't news media.
00:04:34.580 They're attack dogs for Democrats.
00:04:35.920 It's a subtle distinction but an important one.
00:04:38.440 Fake news is fake news, but the fake news media are real, adversarial, and conservatives ought to fight them tooth and nail.
00:04:44.800 Don't give them an inch.
00:04:46.200 Okay, that's enough of the news.
00:04:47.720 That's all the news I want to talk about.
00:04:48.920 A little bit of fake news, a lot of real news.
00:04:52.200 Now we have to bring on our one and only cultural correspondent, Andy Millennial.
00:04:56.760 Andy, thanks for being here.
00:04:58.060 What's up?
00:04:58.440 So, Andy, you're a millennial.
00:05:01.900 You're in Hollywood.
00:05:02.900 All you kids, all you're tweeting about these days are the Me Too campaign, the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal.
00:05:08.860 You've been out here.
00:05:09.780 What have you noticed?
00:05:10.860 Well, you know, as a millennial who identifies as a young woman,
00:05:15.140 I came out here with my eyes full of stars and, you know, these innocent hopes and dreams.
00:05:20.620 And, you know, I immediately ran into incredible, incredible sexual, you know, harassment.
00:05:27.180 I was living with a couple of other young girls, and, you know, I suggested that we all start taking showers together.
00:05:34.220 I was going to say to protect us from Harvey Weinstein, but they wouldn't listen to me.
00:05:53.140 That image was one that I just couldn't take anymore.
00:05:57.380 Really, well, Andy, great to have you back.
00:05:59.880 It's great to be here.
00:06:00.540 You know, for those who haven't been following, which you certainly should, Andrew Klavan and I have a new podcast out together.
00:06:07.140 It's a narrative fiction podcast called Another Kingdom.
00:06:10.160 It's what Drew wrote, so he did all the work, and I read it then.
00:06:13.880 And I will say publicly for the first time, Andrew Klavan cast me in Another Kingdom,
00:06:20.560 and the casting process was, it was a lot like what you're reading in the papers, folks.
00:06:26.420 That's true.
00:06:27.240 It was, yeah.
00:06:28.560 I am known as the Harvey Weinstein of the podcast.
00:06:30.920 That's true.
00:06:31.660 People do call me that.
00:06:32.800 Of the narrative podcast.
00:06:33.820 I thought it was all the Oscars, and I thought, no, it's just because I chase people around the room.
00:06:38.740 The podcast has been a lot of fun, and people are responding to it, shockingly.
00:06:41.980 People really like it.
00:06:42.760 I mean, I think it's now, it's all five-star reviews.
00:06:46.220 And we're not, I'm not doing it.
00:06:47.420 I know.
00:06:48.120 I tried to.
00:06:48.900 They won't let me.
00:06:49.420 It's all five-star reviews.
00:06:52.740 It's got a bunch of, if you have listened, by the way, even if you haven't, I don't really care.
00:06:56.800 Go over there and leave a five-star review.
00:06:58.660 It helps us out.
00:07:00.000 Definitely check out the show.
00:07:01.340 Subscribe on iTunes.
00:07:02.020 That really helps.
00:07:02.560 Be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play.
00:07:04.640 What I really like about this podcast is that we couldn't have had anyone make it for us.
00:07:12.300 No one would have accepted this.
00:07:13.580 They wouldn't have made a movie.
00:07:14.500 They wouldn't have published a book.
00:07:15.660 There's no chance of it.
00:07:17.140 I mean, I've almost stopped pitching in Hollywood because I just know it's going to get to a certain level and die.
00:07:24.280 And, you know, I think, I mean, this is not a political story.
00:07:27.180 This is just a fantasy.
00:07:28.600 A failed Hollywood screenwriter, one day he walks through a door and he finds himself in a bizarre fantasy land.
00:07:35.320 And he's a murder suspect in this bizarre fantasy land.
00:07:37.740 We should say that the second episode drops tomorrow.
00:07:39.920 Yeah, because they're coming out once a week.
00:07:41.420 So we launched it on Friday, October 13th.
00:07:44.020 And they'll be coming out every Friday.
00:07:46.200 So we have the second episode coming out tomorrow.
00:07:50.180 People might be confused just on this one bit.
00:07:53.680 I will never work in Hollywood again.
00:07:55.960 And I barely worked before, but you're a real Hollywood guy.
00:07:59.020 You've had these big movies.
00:08:00.940 I had a very good run of screen.
00:08:03.400 And by the way, I was dragged.
00:08:04.500 I never, all I ever wanted to do is write stories like this, is write novels and fictional stories.
00:08:08.700 And I was dragged into Hollywood and I was selling scripts at a very quick pace.
00:08:13.540 You know, they like, as most screenwriters will tell you, they weren't getting made, but I was getting paid for them.
00:08:18.260 And a couple got made.
00:08:19.840 And, you know, then I started to speak out about politics.
00:08:22.960 And my phone stopped ringing like that.
00:08:26.200 And now it's funny.
00:08:27.420 I do get calls because they know I can do certain things really well.
00:08:31.420 But I just, I'm just always suspicious that I'm never going to get past a certain point once they Google me.
00:08:35.700 They Google.
00:08:36.240 That's the point you're not going to get past.
00:08:37.760 Exactly.
00:08:38.340 So, because it's not a partisan story.
00:08:40.500 It's not about Republicans.
00:08:42.340 But it's a story that just does not care about political correctness.
00:08:45.960 It doesn't care about a lot of the tropes that you find in mainstream Hollywood and entertainment.
00:08:52.420 If you're describing the world, right, you want to, to me, this has always been true.
00:08:56.420 There's no sense in sitting down at a computer to write something if you're not going to try and tell the truth.
00:09:01.580 So, if you're just simply describing the world, you very quickly become politically incorrect.
00:09:05.900 Right.
00:09:06.100 Because girls are girls and men are men and we want certain things and we desire certain, you know.
00:09:10.240 And you just can't describe that world and stay politically correct if you're going to be honest.
00:09:14.560 And so, I would say that they might have gotten past the first chapter on this, maybe.
00:09:20.660 But after that, we're done.
00:09:22.700 The one bit, there is a transgender killer.
00:09:25.240 Oh, yeah, the transgender killer.
00:09:26.040 That would have knocked it right.
00:09:27.220 I mean, you would have been stormed out of the room.
00:09:30.320 No question.
00:09:30.780 And the thing is about becoming a man to some degree.
00:09:34.300 I mean, it is a journey and it's a guy's journey.
00:09:37.280 And I think that all that stuff is just, you just can't write about it anymore, honestly.
00:09:41.500 Right.
00:09:41.680 And get into mainstream show business, which to be honest with you, I don't care.
00:09:46.880 I just want to do what I do.
00:09:48.220 That is the really liberating thing is every time I really wanted to be in this movie or to get this TV part or something, my whole life staked on it.
00:09:56.340 I was miserable.
00:09:57.680 And it was hard to do.
00:09:59.580 And now, I've got a ton of opportunities.
00:10:01.480 I get to make whatever I want.
00:10:02.580 And there is a little bit in this growing up narrative.
00:10:06.360 Hollywood is fantasy land.
00:10:07.660 It's where, like, the craziest people in the world who don't want to grow up move and work here.
00:10:12.400 And you see that evolution with Austin Lively, with the main character, even as he's fighting off ogres and knights.
00:10:19.720 Right.
00:10:20.040 Because you do, you know, people do come here with this idea.
00:10:22.840 They start out with this idea.
00:10:23.780 They want to make art or they want to act.
00:10:25.800 They want to do all these things.
00:10:26.760 And you wind up, like, you know, in toilet paper commercials.
00:10:29.180 And you think, well, at least I'm working, you know, and all this stuff.
00:10:31.400 But that's not really what you set out to do.
00:10:33.480 And the town does churn you into that.
00:10:35.520 I always tease my actor friends that they start out studying Hamlet.
00:10:40.060 And they end up, if they're successful, if they really make it, they end up shouting, let the girl go for the rest of their lives.
00:10:45.100 If you're lucky, I mean, truly the top 1% of a 1%.
00:10:48.440 And there's that old showbiz line about the guy who's shoveling out the elephant cage, you know, and he's mopping it up.
00:10:55.040 And his buddy comes up to him and says, don't you want to get another job?
00:10:57.960 And he says, what, leave showbiz?
00:11:00.160 I know.
00:11:00.960 I mean, I tease my pal Nick Searcy, the guy who was in Justified and all this stuff.
00:11:04.780 And I made that joke to him.
00:11:06.040 And he said that literally, like, his first line in movies was something like, get out of the car.
00:11:10.700 You know, that's what you wind up saying the rest of your life.
00:11:12.820 Nick's real art form is Twitter, by the way.
00:11:14.480 If you're not following Nick Searcy on Twitter.
00:11:16.680 He's the king of Twitter.
00:11:18.380 So Hollywood's falling apart.
00:11:20.360 We get to do whatever we want.
00:11:21.680 And maybe Hollywood will do something with it.
00:11:23.200 Maybe they don't.
00:11:23.860 Maybe it's just a podcast and people like it.
00:11:26.500 You're the prophet of this conservative cultural acceptance.
00:11:29.360 Bizarrely, I am the prophet of this.
00:11:30.600 It's really weird.
00:11:31.440 There's no question about it.
00:11:32.020 You published Crisis in the Arts a few years ago.
00:11:35.440 You predicted a lot of what was happening.
00:11:38.820 Or rather, you called for what's happening.
00:11:40.860 And then, like, I don't know, like Forrest Gump or something, you end up being in all the places that that's happening.
00:11:47.740 It is bizarre.
00:11:49.100 I mean, I said this to my wife, like, a couple of years ago.
00:11:51.600 I said, I keep going and making speeches going, we have to do this, this, and this.
00:11:54.540 And then I noticed that I'm doing it, you know.
00:11:56.660 And it really is weird.
00:11:58.460 Because like I said, I only wanted to do one thing.
00:12:00.700 I had this very focused, I have the opposite of attention deficit disorder.
00:12:04.380 Once I'm focused on something, I'm totally.
00:12:06.360 And I only wanted to write books.
00:12:08.780 I only wanted to write novels.
00:12:10.220 And then I found myself doing podcasts.
00:12:12.340 I mean, I helped invent an app that told a ghost story.
00:12:15.060 Haunting Melissa.
00:12:15.560 Haunting Melissa.
00:12:16.400 He won the Appy Award.
00:12:18.940 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:19.200 He was a bestseller for a couple of weeks there.
00:12:20.940 And, like, you know, I didn't invent the technical part of it.
00:12:24.380 I just wrote the script for my friend Neil Edelstein.
00:12:27.480 But, I mean, it was weird to be, you know, Neil pitched it to me.
00:12:31.440 And I just thought, I've got to do that.
00:12:32.760 No one's ever done that before, you know.
00:12:34.420 And then this stuff I did, started doing at PJTV.
00:12:37.400 And now I do it here.
00:12:38.140 These kind of small but comical political commentaries.
00:12:42.280 And when I started out, nobody was doing it.
00:12:44.120 It was the first of the genre.
00:12:45.160 I know.
00:12:45.960 And now it's everywhere.
00:12:46.780 My whole panel of deplorables are people who are doing that now.
00:12:50.400 They do that thing.
00:12:51.200 There are a new generation of people doing it.
00:12:52.840 And I think, look, the thing about it is, is I looked, I became a conservative.
00:12:58.660 I was a liberal, grew up a liberal.
00:12:59.980 And I became a conservative when I noticed that everything Ronald Reagan said was going to happen, happened.
00:13:05.160 And everything they said about him turned out to be untrue.
00:13:07.720 Now, you know, you laugh about that now.
00:13:09.800 But think about it for a minute.
00:13:11.000 If suddenly you realized, I don't know, some bizarre thing, like there was no Washington, D.C.
00:13:15.880 It was a complete construct of the media.
00:13:17.900 You'd go like, wait, everything is a lie.
00:13:19.760 That was the experience.
00:13:20.760 So the experience was, you know, when I saw the Berlin Wall collapse, I felt like, you've got to be kidding me.
00:13:26.480 You know, like what?
00:13:27.640 Two years after Reagan leaves office, three years.
00:13:29.880 After Reagan said it would happen and everybody said, this idiot, this fool, this cowboy, this actor, you know, brrr.
00:13:36.060 And you're like, oh, I get it now.
00:13:37.660 You know, he was right.
00:13:38.720 They were wrong.
00:13:39.200 And I think that I started to realize that there was an entire, I called it the empire of lies, of this culture that was pushing stuff on us that wasn't good for people, wasn't true.
00:13:52.360 It wasn't true that black people were being helped by it.
00:13:54.460 It wasn't true that women were being helped by it.
00:13:55.860 It was all untrue.
00:13:56.660 And so I started to think, well, why aren't the other people talking about this?
00:14:02.680 Right.
00:14:02.860 And I rapidly found out it was because conservatives as a group have neglected the culture.
00:14:08.220 They don't care about the culture.
00:14:09.400 They think the culture is Shakespeare and the opera and they don't think it's Stranger Things.
00:14:13.480 They don't think it's Netflix and all that stuff.
00:14:15.520 Fidget spinners.
00:14:16.520 Fidget spinners.
00:14:17.260 And of course, that's what it is.
00:14:18.300 You know, which is why you and I kind of get Trump in a way, because when he goes out against the NFL, that's where the culture is.
00:14:24.240 That's when the reality TV star, a major reality TV star.
00:14:28.380 Exactly.
00:14:28.800 Absolutely.
00:14:29.360 That is the culture.
00:14:30.980 So where is it headed?
00:14:32.140 Well, I think what we, I say it like this.
00:14:35.040 You know, when we had the Revolutionary War, the British came over the hill in ranks.
00:14:40.480 Biggest empire on earth, most powerful soldiers, best trained soldiers.
00:14:43.700 They had the guns.
00:14:44.360 They had the thing.
00:14:44.760 And our guys were popping up from behind rocks with like the flintlock pistols and popping them off.
00:14:49.580 You know, that's where we are right now.
00:14:51.280 We're doing YouTube.
00:14:52.400 We're doing podcasts.
00:14:53.340 We're doing, you know, we can, I can write my next novel if I want and just publish it right online.
00:14:57.760 You make more money.
00:14:58.460 You'll make more money if you self-publish.
00:14:59.380 That's right.
00:14:59.920 As you would know from your major publication.
00:15:03.440 And like, I feel that we, they are an empire of lies.
00:15:07.240 And we are this little band of gorillas popping up from behind the rocks and from behind the trees and picking them off.
00:15:14.060 I think we're going to win.
00:15:15.720 I mean, I think it's going to be like, you know, it's going to be tough.
00:15:17.740 We're going to have our Valley Forge.
00:15:18.820 We're going to have some tough times.
00:15:20.060 They're going to come after us.
00:15:20.860 They always come after us.
00:15:21.720 They have come after us.
00:15:22.720 I mean, they came after me.
00:15:23.640 They've done whatever they can do to me, you know.
00:15:26.340 But I think it's great.
00:15:27.840 I think we're going to beat them.
00:15:29.120 And I think we are already beating them.
00:15:31.000 And I think that Donald Trump is a sign that we're beating them.
00:15:33.840 For all, you know, I have problems with him.
00:15:35.420 For all the things he does that I don't like.
00:15:37.340 He is a sign that we can be heard even as they're trying to drown us out.
00:15:41.380 That we can, that this one strong, steady, orange man can stand up against the British army.
00:15:49.560 Absolutely.
00:15:50.320 Yeah.
00:15:50.620 I share your hope entirely.
00:15:53.120 And it's great.
00:15:53.960 I'm not sick and tired of winning.
00:15:55.260 I am not sick and tired of winning.
00:15:56.780 There's not too much winning.
00:15:57.840 Bring on more kevfefe.
00:15:58.840 No question.
00:15:59.780 Bring the kevfefe all the way.
00:16:01.240 Andy Millennial, thanks for being here.
00:16:03.080 Great.
00:16:03.380 Go spread the message to the kids.
00:16:06.360 You know, we look forward to hearing more on that Teeny Bopper Culture next time.
00:16:09.660 And Another Kingdom tomorrow, episode two.
00:16:11.680 Make sure you tune in, Another Kingdom.
00:16:13.600 It's on iTunes.
00:16:14.440 It's everywhere.
00:16:15.360 Just search Andrew Klavan's Another Kingdom.
00:16:17.420 Be sure to subscribe.
00:16:18.580 Be sure to leave a review and a five-star review.
00:16:21.920 And let us know what you think about it, too.
00:16:24.040 Because we are just little gorillas who are posting this up.
00:16:27.900 So please send in your thoughts.
00:16:29.320 All right.
00:16:29.740 Andy, thanks for being here.
00:16:30.660 It's a pleasure.
00:16:31.020 Now, I really want to enlighten all of you.
00:16:35.600 I want to change your lives.
00:16:37.100 I can answer every one of your questions in the mailbag.
00:16:40.400 But I've got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube.
00:16:42.440 To all of our current subscribers, thank you very much.
00:16:44.600 You help keep the lights on.
00:16:45.780 Kevfefe in my mug.
00:16:47.140 But if you haven't subscribed, go over to TheDailyWire.com.
00:16:50.540 It's $10 a month or $100 for an annual membership.
00:16:54.060 You get me.
00:16:54.880 You get The Andrew Klavan Show.
00:16:56.040 You get The Ben Shapiro Show.
00:16:57.360 Yeah, yeah.
00:16:57.880 I know.
00:16:58.080 What else, Michael?
00:16:58.660 What else?
00:16:58.980 Here it is, the Leftist Tears Tumbler.
00:17:02.720 It is the finest vessel for Leftist Tears in the entire country.
00:17:07.540 We have several vintages, obviously, that it can hold.
00:17:10.200 It's, you know, wine glasses.
00:17:11.260 You need this for the strong red.
00:17:13.040 You need this for the white wine.
00:17:14.320 You need this.
00:17:14.660 No, this holds them all.
00:17:16.700 New York Times Tears.
00:17:18.220 Hillary Clinton Tears.
00:17:19.480 Barack Obama Tears.
00:17:20.720 Be sure to go to TheDailyWire.com right now.
00:17:23.360 You'll be able to put them in there, hot or cold, always salty and delicious.
00:17:26.040 We'll be right back.
00:17:28.980 Now we have the mailbag.
00:17:39.960 We have a lot of really in-depth questions this week, so let's get right to it.
00:17:45.560 The first question from Alex.
00:17:47.600 Michael, if you could bare-knuckle box an historical figure, who would you box and why?
00:17:53.620 Good question, Alex.
00:17:54.480 I, you know, I'm a lover, not a fighter, obviously.
00:17:57.480 That's why I always have these all-women panels of deplorables.
00:18:00.080 I don't want to fight too much.
00:18:01.660 If I were forced to, if I were compelled to, I would obviously want to choose the weakest
00:18:06.940 political opponent that I, or boxing opponent that I possibly could.
00:18:10.900 That historical figure would be King Charles II of Spain.
00:18:13.860 He was a Habsburg king that was so deeply inbred that he could barely function in any way.
00:18:18.760 Um, the physician who performed his autopsy said that his body, quote, did not contain
00:18:24.400 a single drop of blood.
00:18:25.880 His heart was the size of a peppercorn.
00:18:27.820 His lungs corroded.
00:18:29.040 His intestines rotten and gangrenous.
00:18:31.200 He had a single testicle black as coal, and his head was full of water.
00:18:34.900 That is my boxing opponent.
00:18:36.540 It's going to be like Mayflower McGregor.
00:18:39.320 From Honey.
00:18:39.980 Hey, Michael, I recently started caring about the world rather than defaulting to the left
00:18:45.480 like many of my high school peers, and I found recently that I need to educate myself about
00:18:49.600 economics.
00:18:50.260 Do you have any recommendations for books that, to read, that could give me an understanding
00:18:54.120 of the conservative view of economics?
00:18:56.340 P.S.
00:18:56.900 My name is pronounced like Connie with an H.
00:18:58.760 That's what I, that's what I said.
00:19:00.240 Um, yes, I do have a recommendation, especially if you're in high school.
00:19:03.500 Uh, you should read Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson.
00:19:06.080 There are a lot of great intro econ books, but Hazlitt's is great.
00:19:09.920 It should be required reading in every high school in this country.
00:19:13.160 Read it, and you will be able to debunk any nonsense that your high school pals are trying
00:19:17.880 to throw at you.
00:19:18.680 From Jeffrey.
00:19:19.660 How much of success do you attribute to having attractive females on your panel so often?
00:19:25.560 Listen, I'm a taken guy, okay?
00:19:27.160 I'm engaged to sweet little Elisa.
00:19:28.860 But regardless, I can assure you, I have had no success with the beautiful women on my panel.
00:19:33.320 That date that I had with Roaming Millennial, that ended the minute that Ben Shapiro stopped
00:19:37.460 playing violin.
00:19:38.380 No success at all, unfortunately.
00:19:39.840 What can you say?
00:19:40.560 That's probably good.
00:19:41.260 It's good for my soul, good for my marriage.
00:19:43.320 That, that, uh, might save my, uh, save my spot in heaven someday.
00:19:47.840 From Ashton.
00:19:49.320 Hey, young brethren of philosophical lucidity.
00:19:51.960 Is the mere fact of newspapers, such as the New York Times, endorsing presidential candidates
00:19:56.280 per se evidence that they're biased cesspools of distortion?
00:19:59.980 Or should we as conservatives offer more evidence to support our claims?
00:20:03.320 Thanks, Ashton.
00:20:04.580 Uh, I don't know that it's the evidence that I would point to.
00:20:08.340 I have no problem with newspaper editorial boards endorsing political candidates.
00:20:12.860 The trouble is what, that those editors make terrible decisions about their reporting.
00:20:18.080 So the, I, I don't really have a problem with New York Times reporters.
00:20:21.320 I have a problem with New York Times editors because the editors decide which stories go
00:20:25.760 on the front page, which go on page 3050, where the retractions go, uh, which stories
00:20:31.200 get covered, which get buried.
00:20:32.660 Cheryl Atkinson from CBS talks about stories being buried because they were critical of Obama.
00:20:37.140 Uh, so, uh, what I have a problem with, as we talked about earlier in the show, is news
00:20:41.840 media pretending to be objective arbiters of whatever.
00:20:45.260 They're not.
00:20:45.900 They have a point of view, an editorial point of view.
00:20:48.240 They can try to report the facts honestly.
00:20:50.460 Um, but they should, they should be honest or they're going to be fake news.
00:20:54.300 From Andrew.
00:20:55.720 Why does the Bible say, quote, I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a
00:21:01.120 man.
00:21:01.560 She must remain silent.
00:21:03.140 That is from 1 Timothy 2.12.
00:21:07.040 I don't know, man.
00:21:07.740 Have you ever talked to them?
00:21:08.800 Have you ever tried talking?
00:21:09.720 No, I'm kidding.
00:21:10.280 That's not true.
00:21:10.820 The reason it's in the Bible is because someone put it in the Bible, but it is worth noting
00:21:14.500 that, uh, 1 Timothy and I think 2 Timothy are considered to be, uh, uh, not actually written
00:21:21.440 by St. Paul.
00:21:22.620 So certain letters we know are written by St. Paul, or we have a very good idea that they
00:21:26.680 were.
00:21:26.900 There, there's a consensus right now that 1 Timothy was not written by him.
00:21:31.480 Um, the, uh, there were 306 words that Paul uses in his, uh, that Paul does not use in
00:21:38.660 his unquestioned letters that he does use there.
00:21:41.360 The style of writing is different from that of the unquestioned letters.
00:21:44.320 They reflect conditions and a church organization that apparently was not, uh, present in Paul's
00:21:50.120 day, and they don't appear in early lists of his canonical works.
00:21:54.140 So I don't, I don't really worry too much about that.
00:21:56.960 Now, of course, 1 Corinthians 14.34 says something similar.
00:22:00.920 It says, quote, the women should keep silence in the churches for they are not permitted to
00:22:05.280 speak, but should be subordinate as even the law says.
00:22:08.720 One thing that's important to point out here is that Paul is talking to the Corinthians.
00:22:12.740 Unlike other major religions, Christianity is documenting things that really happen.
00:22:17.840 It's not only talking about the metaphysical, it's talking about the physical too.
00:22:21.200 It begins, Christianity begins not in poetry, but in journalism, tracking down what a guy did
00:22:26.080 with a bunch of other guys and how he, the divine logos of the universe became flesh, dwelt
00:22:32.560 among us, was killed, and then resurrected to redeem mankind.
00:22:35.960 Uh, so Paul's talking to the Corinthians.
00:22:39.120 There seems to have been an issue in the Corinthian church about disorder and worship during this
00:22:43.260 time.
00:22:44.220 Let's not forget, St. Paul also said there is neither male nor female for ye are all one
00:22:48.880 in Christ Jesus.
00:22:50.400 Uh, St. Thomas Aquinas said in the Summa Theologica, quote, it was right for the woman to be made
00:22:55.300 from a rib of man, first to signify the social union of man and woman, for the woman should
00:23:00.800 neither use authority over man.
00:23:02.700 And so she was not made from his head, nor was it right for her to be subject to man's
00:23:07.920 contempt as his slave.
00:23:09.660 And so she was not made from his feet.
00:23:11.980 Secondly, for sacramental signification, for from the side of Christ sleeping on the cross,
00:23:18.320 the sacraments flowed, namely blood and water on which the church was established.
00:23:22.840 So I, I wouldn't, uh, use either first Timothy or first Corinthians as evidence that we ought
00:23:29.560 to treat women poorly or not let them do anything.
00:23:32.320 Uh, St. Paul himself actually alludes to women praying and prophesying in the church.
00:23:37.140 Um, but we should base our views of the sexes and of ourselves and our relation to God on
00:23:43.520 the text as a whole from Genesis all the way, all the way to the end.
00:23:47.200 From Clay, greetings, Michael.
00:23:50.000 If you weren't hosting the Michael Knowles show, what would you be doing from Clay?
00:23:54.800 That's a great question.
00:23:55.820 I would probably be a vagabond.
00:23:57.300 I would probably be begging for money underneath the Queensborough bridge.
00:24:00.980 Uh, what I did before the Michael Knowles show and before I published blank books is,
00:24:05.880 uh, I I'm an actor.
00:24:07.660 So I was an actor in Hollywood in New York, and I also ran political campaigns.
00:24:11.860 So I started running, uh, campaigns and working on campaigns in high school.
00:24:15.820 We had some success in New York.
00:24:18.140 So I, along with some older political veterans, founded a little political consulting shop
00:24:23.660 in New York.
00:24:24.520 Uh, there aren't a lot of Republicans out there.
00:24:26.460 So, you know, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
00:24:29.420 Uh, we ran a bunch of campaigns over there.
00:24:31.420 I'd probably be doing that because politics is show business for ugly people.
00:24:34.780 They both have a lot in common.
00:24:36.320 They are concerned with truth and with, uh, with people.
00:24:40.020 You have to like people to do well at politics or in acting, certainly in, in, in a lot of
00:24:45.640 artistic vocations.
00:24:47.400 So I'd probably be doing that, but this is a lot of fun too.
00:24:50.340 I guess this is the combination of both of those politics and show business.
00:24:54.240 Uh, right.
00:24:55.020 Next question from Andrew.
00:24:57.240 Hey, Michael, big fan of the show.
00:24:58.560 I was wondering what is the best version of the Bible?
00:25:01.060 I personally read the NIV, but I know there's also the K, the King James, English standard,
00:25:06.800 American standard translations.
00:25:08.300 Should I read these two or should I stick with mine?
00:25:10.880 Also, which do you read?
00:25:12.080 Thanks a million.
00:25:12.840 I do tend to favor the King James version.
00:25:15.400 I read the KJV a lot.
00:25:17.300 Not very Catholic of me, I guess.
00:25:18.760 I really like it.
00:25:19.700 It's really beautiful.
00:25:21.240 I also read the ESV.
00:25:23.100 I don't know, uh, Koine Greek, but I have been told that the NIV is not, uh, the best
00:25:30.220 translation by people who do read the Greek.
00:25:32.480 So I stick to those two.
00:25:33.900 I think they're really good.
00:25:35.780 Um, my favorite translation probably of any of them is the Jamaican New Testament, the JNT.
00:25:42.040 I, uh, really suggest you look it up.
00:25:44.600 You read it, you Google it.
00:25:45.900 It begins, I think, uh, the gospel of John begins when time did start, the word was with
00:25:52.400 God and on and on and on.
00:25:54.140 So, uh, check it out.
00:25:55.360 A great translation as well.
00:25:57.340 Next question from Benjamin.
00:25:59.360 Hey, Michael.
00:26:00.040 Who is your favorite Senator and why?
00:26:02.260 My favorite Senator in recent memory is Tom Coburn, who I had the privilege of meeting
00:26:06.500 him once or twice.
00:26:07.620 Um, he is, uh, it's probably a sign of the times that I can't name a sitting Senator that
00:26:13.160 I would call my favorite.
00:26:14.440 Coburn was great though.
00:26:15.560 He served three terms in the house.
00:26:17.140 He served two terms in the Senate.
00:26:19.000 He ended up having to retire for health reasons, but he said he would not seek a third term anyway.
00:26:23.680 He took a little break in between the house and the Senate, had a great career as a medical
00:26:26.960 doctor and in, in the private sector.
00:26:28.700 Um, he was excellent fiscal conservative and a social conservative, really just a model
00:26:34.860 Senator.
00:26:35.340 Now he's at the Manhattan Institute, which is a great think tank as well.
00:26:38.760 Uh, the Senator should be more like Tom Coburn, be more like Tom Coburn and, uh, have some
00:26:44.940 humility.
00:26:46.060 Narcissism is a, an occupational hazard of politics, but I thought he was a really good
00:26:49.860 one.
00:26:50.080 And our current senators who are not being very productive should follow his example.
00:26:56.320 Next question from Emily, Emily, I'd appreciate your opinion about whether or not to address
00:27:01.380 minor harassment from a person of authority at work.
00:27:04.360 I'm the only woman on a team of five.
00:27:06.240 This gender breakdown is common in my field of investment banking.
00:27:09.340 Oh yeah.
00:27:09.760 You're, that's a very masculine field, uh, making it genuinely hard for me to tell if the
00:27:13.880 older man in question simply does not know any better because of the work environment he's
00:27:17.780 experienced most of his career, there have been a few incidents to standouts or the time
00:27:21.700 he kissed my cheek as a greeting.
00:27:23.860 It's not good.
00:27:24.720 And the time he threatened to spank me when he was exasperated about how much I was challenging
00:27:29.840 his work methodology.
00:27:31.500 That's probably over the line.
00:27:32.780 Now the spanking probably crosses the line.
00:27:35.080 I'm reluctant to involve HR because he's a genuinely good character, valuable asset to
00:27:39.160 the firm.
00:27:39.780 It's difficult for me to discuss this issue with him because he views me as a protege and
00:27:44.240 has immense potential to boost my career.
00:27:46.440 Do you have any advice about what I should do next and what I should do the next time
00:27:51.320 he harasses me in an inappropriate manner?
00:27:53.340 You're in a really tough spot, Emily.
00:27:55.080 This is not an easy question.
00:27:57.700 I think you've honed in on it.
00:27:59.360 What do you do the next time this happens?
00:28:01.640 It seems to me you have three options.
00:28:03.160 You can either ignore it and hope that you get an easier career path as a result of it,
00:28:08.640 but then the harassment might get worse.
00:28:10.340 You can report it to HR.
00:28:13.880 That's probably the most extreme thing you can do, and then it's on the record.
00:28:19.660 So if you suffer any repercussions for it, it's on the record and it's public and everything.
00:28:24.480 Or you can approach him personally.
00:28:26.520 If you think he's a good guy, you have a good relationship with him, you can deal with
00:28:30.640 him personally, and the worry here, of course, is that if he responds badly to it and you're
00:28:36.040 either canned or you're not allowed to be promoted at the right pace, then there's nothing
00:28:41.600 on the record.
00:28:42.260 Then it's just he said, she said.
00:28:45.420 So I don't know.
00:28:46.340 I mean, there are consequences to all of them.
00:28:48.200 I think one thing here, people are looking for an easy solution to these.
00:28:51.840 I'm not saying you are, but in general, people want these difficult problems to have a simple
00:28:55.600 solution where there are no consequences.
00:28:57.060 There are consequences.
00:28:59.540 A lot of times people write in, they say, I'm a conservative on a college campus.
00:29:03.520 Should I voice my views?
00:29:05.280 I voiced my views, and it's worked out just fine for me, I suppose, but there were consequences.
00:29:10.900 There were social consequences, even some academic consequences to it that I had to deal with
00:29:16.040 as a result.
00:29:16.800 Those actresses in Hollywood who said no to Harvey Weinstein, we've never heard of them
00:29:20.240 for a reason.
00:29:21.000 He killed their careers, and they had to deal with that.
00:29:24.140 Maybe they were braver for doing it.
00:29:26.180 Now, everyone's jumping on the bandwagon and pretending it's courageous.
00:29:29.420 It's not courageous.
00:29:30.340 It was courageous to do it at the time.
00:29:32.220 So I don't know.
00:29:33.420 If I were you, the safe answer is to go through HR.
00:29:36.500 I've run this by a number of my friends, this question, because it's pretty tough.
00:29:41.720 But either the next time he does it, you can be very frank, very forward.
00:29:46.840 That might be what I would do in that case.
00:29:48.800 But what's really bad about what he's doing is he's left you no good option.
00:29:55.400 And if you want to play it safe, you should get it on the record.
00:29:58.140 But again, none of those sound pleasant, and he's put you in a bad position.
00:30:04.000 So anything you do is going to feel kind of gross, unfortunately.
00:30:07.800 From Teresa.
00:30:08.360 Teresa, hey, Michael, how would you respond to someone who claims that the Catholic Church ordered the execution of Jews during the Holocaust?
00:30:16.560 Teresa.
00:30:19.040 Befuddlement, I think, is how I would respond.
00:30:22.560 That's absurd.
00:30:23.960 The Catholic Church saved hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
00:30:33.060 They did it through lobbying the government.
00:30:35.680 They did it through spying.
00:30:36.620 They did it through providing false documents.
00:30:38.380 They did it through hiding people in monasteries, convents, schools, with Catholic families, and even at the Vatican.
00:30:43.940 Institutions that the Vatican owned in the Apostolic Palace in the Castle Gandolfo.
00:30:50.500 So I've actually never heard this, that the Catholic Church ordered the killing of Jews.
00:30:53.960 If that's fake news out there, then let's try to dispel some confusion.
00:30:59.560 The Israeli diplomat and historian, Pinchas Lapide, I'm probably butchering that name,
00:31:04.720 estimated the figure of Jews who were saved by the Catholic Church during the Holocaust is between 700,000 and 860,000.
00:31:13.340 In the run-up to the war, both Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII explicitly preached against racism and war in papal encyclicals.
00:31:20.960 Pope Pius XII worked secretly with his close confidant, Father Robert Lieber, and Dr. Joseph Mueller, a Catholic German lawyer who the Nazis tried to assassinate.
00:31:31.920 He worked closely with them to spy on the Nazis and to subvert their efforts.
00:31:38.280 So he bugged rooms at the Apostolic Palace when Nazis came around.
00:31:43.280 Hitler actually threatened to kidnap the Pope and to take him to Liechtenstein.
00:31:47.460 He said, quote,
00:31:47.940 According to the SS commander in Germany, Karl Wolf, the plan was only thwarted by the Allied liberation of Italy.
00:32:03.040 This doesn't sound like a guy who was collaborating with Hitler.
00:32:05.220 I think where this stupid idea comes from is there is a lot of revisionist history.
00:32:12.880 One book in particular was called Hitler's Pope by the revisionist John Cornwell.
00:32:18.080 It's nonsense.
00:32:19.120 I mean, it has been debunked so thoroughly, not only by historical evidence we had at the time,
00:32:23.860 but by new evidence that has emerged since the Second World War.
00:32:27.480 However, one criticism that they make, these revisionists, is that Pope Pius XII didn't directly call out the Nazis or address them.
00:32:35.320 This is sort of true, though not really.
00:32:36.760 He actually did give a Christmas speech about the Nazis.
00:32:39.760 But it's in part also because of keeping innocents safe.
00:32:45.120 So at other times in history when the church has spoken out against rulers, they've taken it out on the persecuted.
00:32:51.480 So in part it was to protect against innocents.
00:32:53.280 There is, I suppose, a Thomistic concern from the teaching of Thomas Aquinas and from church teaching over regicide when the tyrant is not a usurper.
00:33:02.740 Hitler was a tyrant, but he was elected democratically.
00:33:05.460 But more practically, and this has been uncovered in documents, Pope Pius XII was a pragmatist.
00:33:12.040 So he just wanted his spies to be able to work more clearly.
00:33:15.100 And it's a good thing he did because they saved a lot of Jews who were being persecuted in the process.
00:33:19.540 As Father George Rutler describes in his excellent book, Principalities and Powers, a lot of the heroes of that war, a lot of the great heroes, the great saints, were Catholic clergy.
00:33:31.000 So the stories are endless.
00:33:33.320 I urge you to look that up.
00:33:34.720 But that is just, that's really awful nonsense.
00:33:37.180 And I'm not surprised that forces, that great forces on the move in the world, that the principalities and powers of this world would try to spread such a horrific lie.
00:33:46.920 From Andy Schwab, Michael, you seem to really care for cigars.
00:33:51.580 What made you think that?
00:33:53.260 I enjoyed seeing the nice church warden on your return from England.
00:33:56.500 Do you also enjoy pipes?
00:33:58.060 If so, what is your favorite pipe shape in pipe tobacco?
00:34:00.940 And do you prefer cigars over pipes?
00:34:02.740 If so, why?
00:34:03.660 I do prefer cigars over pipes.
00:34:05.200 I much prefer cigars over pipes, mostly because I have trouble smoking pipes.
00:34:09.420 It's hard to keep them lit.
00:34:10.520 You've got to tamp it and pack it.
00:34:11.840 It's tough.
00:34:12.800 I do have a little collection of pipes.
00:34:14.320 My favorite is a 1960s Shellbrier by Dunhill, and I also smoke a Dunhill Mearsham, I think also from the 60s or 70s.
00:34:22.840 But I do it rarely.
00:34:23.900 It's a lot cheaper, so if you're looking to smoke and think and sit by yourself, it's a lot easier to maintain your habit of pipes rather than cigars.
00:34:34.120 But cigars are more artistic.
00:34:35.720 It requires someone to roll it, to blend the tobacco.
00:34:38.540 There's a lot more that can go wrong and a lot more that can go right about cigars.
00:34:41.900 There was also a good essay written in First Things about how tobacco corresponds to the tripartite soul.
00:34:47.760 So cigarettes are like the appetite.
00:34:49.520 They're the pathos.
00:34:50.640 Cigars are the spirited part.
00:34:52.300 They're the ethos, which I certainly see.
00:34:54.380 You think of Churchill.
00:34:55.440 You think of the smoke being pushed out of your mouth rather than inhaled.
00:34:59.960 And the pipes are the logos.
00:35:02.020 It's feminine.
00:35:03.060 It's masculine.
00:35:03.780 It's the philosopher smoking.
00:35:05.420 Look, man, I'm no philosopher.
00:35:06.500 So the health questions, it's unclear.
00:35:10.960 Obviously, smoking cigars is like eating a bunch of vitamins and working out.
00:35:15.320 They're obviously excellent for your health.
00:35:17.400 I don't think any real scientist would question that.
00:35:19.900 But I do prefer cigars.
00:35:21.080 Good question.
00:35:22.060 Austin.
00:35:22.640 Hey, Michael.
00:35:23.180 Big fan of the show.
00:35:24.680 I've got two questions for you.
00:35:25.820 First, who is your favorite movie director?
00:35:27.960 Second, if this director made a movie about your life, what actors would play you?
00:35:32.040 Andrew Klavan and Ben Shapiro.
00:35:34.100 Thanks.
00:35:35.300 A lot of great directors.
00:35:36.540 I don't know that I can really pick one.
00:35:38.120 I love John Ford.
00:35:39.180 I love Francis Ford Coppola.
00:35:42.280 The Godfather is my favorite movie.
00:35:44.200 I really like the Coen brothers.
00:35:46.120 You know, I don't know.
00:35:47.460 I couldn't pick one director or producer team that I would totally privilege over the others,
00:35:53.780 other than maybe John Ford because he's so, so important.
00:35:57.440 For the movie, this is what we can end on today.
00:36:00.240 For the movie version of The Daily Wire or of my life, who would play the characters?
00:36:05.540 I think this is pretty clear.
00:36:08.280 Daniel Radcliffe would play Ben Shapiro.
00:36:10.420 No question.
00:36:11.360 Dwayne The Rock Johnson would be Andrew Klavan.
00:36:13.400 And for me, it almost goes without saying, Denzel.
00:36:17.600 The similarities are endless.
00:36:19.520 And Denzel and I actually have the same acting teacher 30 years apart in New York.
00:36:24.040 Okay, that's our show.
00:36:25.480 I can't wait for the movie to get made.
00:36:27.020 I'm sure in the rubble of Hollywood, someone will be able to pitch it and get it through.
00:36:30.960 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:36:31.620 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:36:32.800 Survive the weekend.
00:36:33.900 Check out Another Kingdom on iTunes, wherever great narrative podcasts are hosted and downloaded.
00:36:40.300 And we'll see you Monday.
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