He’s out, but is George Santos truly gone?

The short answer is no, and I am not referring to the world of politics, the justice system, or the general public’s often short memory and inability to learn lessons from mistakes made due to ignorance.

News, talk, and entertainment are not done squeezing every drop they can from a situation that maybe news didn’t create but certainly enabled. The other two entities, talk and entertainment, will do what they do best, beat the dead horse and then exploit the hell out of it all for fun and profit.

Look at me, for example. This is the third time I’m writing about this guy and I doubt it will be the last.

There will still be lots to cover for the journalists out there; a special election to replace him, the legal processes that will transpire over who knows how long as he faces the 23 federal criminal counts that could put him away for as much as 20 years.

Already, and this should come as no surprise, there is a film already in development about George Santos and his journey into notoriety. Described of course as what will be a dark comedy, I imagine it will not be able to measure up to the reality that is the man.

Santos will no doubt go out on the talk circuit because attention is what he seeks and 11 months as a do-nothing U.S. Congressman from New York is still qualifying enough to get him a seat next to Chris Cuomo, Sean Hannity, and whoever is still on The View.

Bear in mind that for every tabloid appearance this guy makes there will be twice as many mentions from what some of us consider legitimate news outlets. Most of the coverage there will be gratuitous, even irrelevant but since Taylor and Travis are still above the fold and A-block worthy, I suppose we are not in a position to criticize.

The Fourth Estate loves scandal and outrageous behavior for a very simple reason; FOMO. (For anyone older than my kid, that’s “Fear of Missing Out”, folks.) We don’t want the competition scooping us on a story and, generally, we don’t want to wave off an attention-getting story even if the other guys don’t run with it.

In case there’s curiosity over my overuse of 1940’s newspaper terms it’s largely because I’m through the first two seasons of The Crown and I’ve become quite enamored with the British press of that time.

Face it, George Santos is a news media darling, but his value does diminish some now that he’s no longer in a position to do anything that could even remotely resemble substance or impact. Yes, he did virtually nothing as a lawmaker that could be covered as an actual news story but it’s pretty obvious that nobody in the business minded very much.

He has notoriety, not the good kind as far as humanity is concerned but it’s good to pitch in story meetings and it will be. The networks and the New York stations will mistake that notoriety for interest and confuse that interest for impact. That’s where we go wrong so many times, interest vs. impact, the lines are blurred so regularly that the audience no longer knows what they want. The familiar face and the easily recognizable name are usually all they need. Why we are talking about it is secondary.

George Santos will be around for quite a while and the news will cover it all and the people will know and remember his name. Then, perhaps he will go away for a while at the government’s direction and the taxpayers’ expense, only to show up again years from now, sitting across from a hologram of Chris Cuomo, Hannity, and the ghosts of The View, before joining season 67 of Dancing with The Stars.

Much has been made of last week’s interview in which the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, told liberal advertisers he would not be blackmailed by them. If they didn’t appreciate free speech and didn’t want to advertise on his social media platform, X, he effectively told them they could take a hike.

But perhaps the bigger point he made, and the sentiment he shares with the growing majority of America, went largely unreported by the mainstream news media.

Dr. Steve Turley offered his thoughts on an episode of his online program last week. The program for his more than 1 million subscribers featured the title, “What Elon Musk Just Did Changes EVERYTHING!!!”

“Every year The New York Times hosts what they call the DealBook Summit, which features a roster of major speakers sitting for interviews with Andrew Ross Sorkin,” Turley began on Thursday. “This year, the featured speaker was the one and only Elon Musk. And it was an interview that would prove, frankly, earth-shattering for the ruling establishment, so faithfully represented and guarded by The New York Times.”

Turley played some clips of Sorkin and Musk’s discussion, including the headline-grabbing comments that have received all the media coverage over the last few days. Fine, don’t advertise, Elon said. He won’t be blackmailed into changing or hiding his opinions, simply to appease liberal advertisers. If it bankrupts the platform, X, so be it. He will not keep quiet and suppress truth or free speech. That is the recap we’ve all seen and heard in the days since the interview.

“If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go F### yourself!” Musk said. That’s the clip we’ve seen countless times since. Of course, it gets clicks and eyeballs.

“Now that was absolutely amazing,” Turley said. “I mean, make no mistake, no one talks like that in front of our ruling elite. No one!” 

In Turley’s eyes, however, the comments went much deeper than X, and much deeper than any individual advertiser.

“This guy didn’t know what to do, when somebody does the unthinkable. That interviewer, Andrew Ross Sorkin, he was stunned speechless. Musk turned him into a stuttering fool. In front of everyone, he had no idea how to respond to someone who just told the whole of the globalist corporate world to go F themselves,” Turley offered.

But Turley dove deeper. He went further into the interview to what he thinks were the real bombshell comments from Musk.

“This is what’s so game-changing about what Musk just said there. The richest man on the planet just told woke corporations that he and billions of others along with him – the whole world, as he put it – refuse to be beholden to them and their incessant and pernicious wokeness any longer,” the thoughtful Turley said. “We refuse to bend a knee to your manipulative and, frankly, cruel tactics that seek to force compliance with your vile woke sensibilities.”

Many have opined that Musk is merely reading the tea leaves of where the country is headed over the next decade. As some data and polling show, the nation is preparing to boomerang back toward common sense, traditional values, and economic prosperity. He knows which way the wind is blowing, toward 2024 and beyond.

But the real punchline, for Turley, was what Musk said as he continued.  

“But I’ve got to say, that my favorite here is when Andrew Ross Sorkin inadvertently stepped in it, when he asked Musk how he felt about his contributions to A.I. research and green energy. Check this out,” Turley said.

“The approach to some of the stuff you are doing with A.I. has been very specific,” Sorkin noted. “There’s not a let-the-chips fall where they may approach to those businesses, I don’t think.”

“No, we focus on making the best products,” Musk responded. “And Tesla’s gotten to where it’s gotten with no advertising at all. Tesla currently sells two, twice as much in terms of electric vehicles as the rest of electric car makers in the United States combined. Tesla has done more to help the environment than all other companies combined. It would be fair to say that, therefore, as the leader of the company, I’ve done more for the environment than any single human on earth.”

Elon Musk continued, making the point that resonated the most with Turley.

“What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it,” Musk said. “And what I see all over the place is people that care about looking good while doing evil. F### them.”

“What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it,” Turley re-articulated. “And what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil. F them. Now what Musk just said there is a paraphrase of what he’s said in the past to define wokeness. Wokeness gives people a shield to be mean and cruel, armored in false virtue. That’s a perfect description of the clowns that make up our lamesteam media and the corporate woke world.”

Turley summed up the episode, putting a Christmas bow on his thoughts.

“Wokeness is divisive. It is hateful. And it invites others to join in on that hate with the supposedly protected armor of false virtue. When all is said and done, wokeness is nothing more than the permission – indeed the obligation – to hate. It gives people a shield to be mean and cruel. To shame. To cancel. To excommunicate. And Elon Musk, there in front of the gathered praetorian guard of our corrupt, ruling elite called them out on it. Elon told the entire globalist establishment and liberal elites to literally go F themselves. He and the world are no longer beholden to playing by their rules. Make no mistake, this summit was a game-changer.”

One of my non-radio pursuits since moving to Bowling Green has been to take advantage of a Kentucky law — KRS 164.284 — which grants free tuition to any state-supported institution of higher education for state residents who are 65 or older. That’s a lot of words, but put simply, those of us who are older can take university classes for free!  Bowling Green, besides being the home of the Corvette, is also home to Western Kentucky University. The name of the school is a little odd because this is south central Kentucky and you can drive two hours west of here and still be in the state. However, the team name, Hilltoppers, is deadly accurate as the school is on top of a hill in Bowling Green, and walking uphill to class burns quite a few calories.

I’m wrapping up my first class and for me, it’s my first university-level class as a student since the ‘80s. If you’re like me and haven’t taken a class this century, it’s different because, like most everything else, education has moved online. WKU uses Blackboard, an online tool, and I’ve adapted to sending in assignments and papers online as well as taking exams online in the comfort of my home office.

My reason for all this background is that in the last session of History 349, American History from 1945 to the Present, our instructor, Dr. Tony Harkins, asked us to form small groups and determine the three biggest events of the last 30 years. When each group presented their choices, one was unanimous: the Internet. Sure, there was 9/11, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the COVID pandemic, but no other choices were unanimous. Even 9/11 was problematic for most of the students as they weren’t alive when it took place 22 years ago.

That led to a class discussion and listening in, you really appreciate the difference in outlook when the rest of the group is a half-century younger than you! They referred to their parents adapting to being online and considering that I’m old enough to be a grandparent to any of them, it made me think back to my first PC, a Compaq dual floppy that I purchased in 1984.  The Hayes 1200 baud modem was almost $500 extra, but it was worth it to be that far ahead of the technology curve! They have never known a time without the smartphone, high-speed internet, and the ability to find out almost anything they want to know instantly.

Admittedly, a group of WKU history students is not a random sample and is not projectable to the population, but I also heard some misgivings about AI and the perils of the internet. They know the power of the internet to ruin people’s lives if used for nefarious purposes.

What does all this mean for radio? I wish I had been able to ask about their use of broadcast radio, if they use any at all, but to no great surprise, this group is in another world. That’s not a negative statement, but for all formats, we’ve done things the same way for so long that we likely don’t know another way to accomplish our tasks. Yes, radio is multi-platform like just about any other medium today, but as this cohort ages, what happens to our medium? 

I’m not the first to bring this up, but we really need to step up if we’re going to have another generation of radio listeners, regardless of the distribution system. What will it take to make radio relevant to their needs and desires? Being in close quarters with them for a class lets me see some of the similarities of what I can remember from my undergraduate days and their different attitudes and experiences, which are very different from what I went through in the ‘70s. 

Time to study for this week’s final (I’m auditing, but for the purpose of keeping my brain busy, I do all the required work)! If you’re in the golden years like me, you might want to consider going back to school, too. Most states have some kind of tuition waiver (for more info about your state’s options) and try it out!  Not only will you learn something and interact with much younger people, you can even get student discounts as well!  Thanks to Dr. Tony Harkins for putting up with me for the semester and “Go Tops!”.

Let’s meet again next week.