Cable News is Business Not Debate

September 4, 2012

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Folks, this is the business. This is the industry. This is what these people do. They’re all in on it. This is what just drives you nuts. All of them are in on it. Of course the networks want big government. [mocking] “Mike, why would they want big government?” Well, there are so many reasons. There are about 3.7 trillion reasons I could give you. Let me give you one: it’s good for business. People have to tune into the news network of their choice for their political slant to find out what the other side is doing to “steal our liberties away from us, rip our Constitution to shreds” or “make fun of the poor and minorities,” whatever the case may be. They present it in about as serious a manner as ESPN covers the “Honey Badger” re-enrolling at LSU today. Check out the rest of today’s transcript for more…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike: I wanted to go over this real quick because Andrew and I just talked about this during the break. I want you people — somebody told me, “You’ve got to stop saying ‘you people,’ you’re offending people.” I don’t know why that’s offensive, but I’ll take it under advisement. I’ve been thinking of a different way to say it. The listeners, the audience, I’d like for you to engage in an experiment and report back to me tomorrow. Here’s your homework assignment: I’d like for you to watch the Democrat National Convention coverage on CNN, MSNBC or Fox News today. Then I would like for you, when you’re flipping between the channels, I would like for you to flip over to ESPN when there is not a game or event on. I’d like for you to explain to me what the difference is between the entertainment that is served up as alleged political beefcake and what is served up on ESPN. They’re indistinguishable. There’s no way, other than the uniforms and logos, that you could tell the difference. Andrew and I were talking about this during the break. You laughed about it. Did you chuckle about it because you hadn’t thought of it like that before —

AG: Yeah, I hadn’t thought of it like that.

Mike: — or because you were watching and went, “Yeah, does kind of look like ESPN”?

AG: Hadn’t thought of it, no.

Mike: Folks, this is the business. This is the industry. This is what these people do. They’re all in on it. This is what just drives you nuts. All of them are in on it. Of course the networks want big government. [mocking] “Mike, why would they want big government?” Well, there are so many reasons. There are about 3.7 trillion reasons I could give you. Let me give you one: it’s good for business. People have to tune into the news network of their choice for their political slant to find out what the other side is doing to “steal our liberties away from us, rip our Constitution to shreds” or “make fun of the poor and minorities,” whatever the case may be. They present it in about as serious a manner as ESPN covers the “Honey Badger” re-enrolling at LSU today. Did you know that? Did you catch that?

AG: I did catch that, yeah.

Mike: I called that one wrong. I mis-projected that. I thought for sure he would fly to Division II. Is it II-A or I-A that he’s eligible for?

AG: I-AA maybe?

Mike: I-AA, that’s what it is. Ron is in Florida next. Hello, Ron.

Caller Ron: Good morning, Mike. How are you doing today?

Mike: I’m well, sir, thank you.

Caller Ron: Mike, I just wanted to make two quick comments. One, you talked about character. It’s funny that neither party is touching the gold standard and getting rid of the Fed. It’s almost like Social Security. Both parties are staying away from it. It just seems to me that the forefathers, from my reading of the Constitution, they wrote it that way with the enumerated powers because it’s just too hard to do the right thing.

Mike: Well, the Republicans actually do have a plank calling for a commission to study a return to the gold standard. So you can’t say that both parties are completely ignoring it.

Caller Ron: Unlike Ron Paul who lays it out that we need to quit printing money, go back to the gold standard — we can study this thing till the cows come home, but it is inevitable that we should not keep spending money the way we have. I guess, just like I said, the way I read the Constitution and the enumerated powers, the forefathers knew that as far as war and spending money and things like that, it’s just too hard to be character-driven. That’s why the document was written that way, at least that’s the way I see it.

Mike: You’re right. We don’t have time to discuss that. We are far too busy lining up our red chess pieces across the board from the blue chess pieces, Ron. That’s real politicking there. That’s really discussion and debate. That’s what real intellectual heavyweights do, discuss the differences on either side of the aisle.

Caller Ron: I hope with this election that the country, at least the way I see it — we’ve got two —

Mike: No, they’re not going to. You hope the country what? Whatever you’re hoping for, it’s probably not going to happen, but go ahead. What are you hoping for?

Caller Ron: I’m just saying, we’ve got two nutjobs up there that we have to choose for president. We have one guy, his religious beliefs are coming into play, the other guy, where he went to church at and was a socialist. One is a businessman so he’s supposed to get the country back together. The document is right there. If you follow these things right here, we’ll be fine. Nobody seems to talk about that except the lone voice, which I’m sure everybody will miss when he passes, Ron Paul.

Mike: We kind of try to keep that alive here on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, I saw that Janine Turner, that used to star as Maggie O’Connell on the TV show Northern Exposure, she’s a bit of a constitutional revivalist. Her daughter, Juliette, who is but a babe — I don’t mean that in the way you think I meant. I meant a small, a teenager. She’s only 14 years old. She’s just written a book about the Constitution, Our Constitution Rocks, written by a 14-year-old. I wouldn’t say that devotion or fidelity or interest in the Constitution has faded. If anything, the interest in it is probably more piqued today than at any point since maybe the revolutions of the 1960’s. The major problem as I see it is, now for 50 years, the people have been lied to about what the charter says and what the compact’s purpose is. If you proceed from a false assumption, then the result of that is got to be false result. That’s what you’re going to come to expect.

There’s a lot of work to be done. Again, as you point out, the monetary system is in serious need of attention. You’re not going to get it, though. We’re not going to see attention paid to the Fed, except for a silly audit that’s probably going to go nowhere and be a joke, and a return to the gold standard unless there is a threat. You know what that threat could come in the form of? I’m telling you, when this election campaign is over, we’ve got to seriously get back to raising the specter of an Article V Amendment Convention. There is nothing that strikes fear in the hearts of liberals and decepticons alike more than an Article V Amendment Convention. I know many of you are afraid of it, too, but that’s unjustified.

End Mike Church Show Transcript