Joining me now is the man that the show is named after, a guy. That's such a coincidence that they found a guy named Guy Benson to host the Guy Benson Show.
That's almost like a miracle. Really.
Yea, it was the one requirement actually for the job, which is how I got it.
There you go, how long have you been doing your radio show?
Now?
Where did you come from?
Guy?
Give me your backstory? Give me your elevator's speech of success?
Wow? Well, I where do you want me to start? Birth?
I mean, I studied broadcast journalism in political science in college at Northwestern in Chicago. Started my career in Chicago doing a weekend radio show and doing some writing for National Review and write Bart back when Andrew was alive, and then got hired by Townhall dot Com to move to DC in twenty ten, So fifteen years ago, moved to the DC area working at town Hall.
I've been there ever since. I'm still there.
Started appearing probably around two thousand and nine on Fox and some other networks as well. They hired me on air here at Fox on the TV side as a contributor in twenty thirteen, so I've been here about twelve years now. As a as an on air contributor, and the radio show started with a co host, sort of a right left type thing for a year back in twenty eighteen. My co host then left the network for a while, so it became the Guy Benson Show in
twenty nineteen. And here we are chugging along and growing, and we're grateful to have the platform and always grateful to chat with folks like you.
A great station in Denver, so.
You have Denver roots as well, so you're no stranger to Colorado. Even though you're coming out this weekend, you already know what to expect. I can't even sell you on how fabulous it is.
Oh yeah, I mean so, my in laws are in Denver, and so I've spent a lot of time in Colorado through the years. Even before I got into that relationship years ago, I'd been to Colorado multiple times, but now have, of course as a very special place in my heart. And as you alluded to, I'll be going back out there later this week to a truly beautiful part of the state where I've actually never been. I've been to so many of these incredible resort towns right years, but
I've not been to Beaver Creek. So I'm over the moon for that, and I know, setting aside some of the issues that I certainly have with Colorado's politics, it's hard to argue with its topography and so many of its people. And to be invited by a great group like the Steamboat Institute to a beautiful, gorgeous, jaw dropping place like Beaver Creek, that's an easy yes.
Well, you made a good choice because not only is Beaver Creek gorgeous where this event is held, the Steamboat Institute's Freedom Conference. I usually go. I had a little surgery and I wasn't sure if I was going to be as recovered as I am right now, so I am not going this year. It is the best nerd event west of the missis, hands down, no better event
for nerds ever. But they just do a spectacular job bringing people like you in and bringing people Michelle Tavoy is going to be there, Chris Wright's going to be there, the Energy Secretary. They just line up this this all star lineup, and people sit around and talk about nerdy stuff like freedom and free markets and things of that nature. What is your nerdy topic? Which panel are you on?
Yeah?
And by the way, I think one of the keynotes is being delivered this year by one of my colleagues, Rtt Bayer here at Fast News, who has Zelensky on the show today on a special report. I'll be on a special report tonight reacting on the panel, So looking forward to seeing Brett out there in the Rocky Mountains. My particular topic is I'll be on a panel with a really great media panel talking about the crisis I think of American media and gotten to this point, and a question of like.
Can it be improved, can it be fixed? Is it dead?
Where do we go from here about the so called news media. So there will be a lot to unpack, as you might imagine, we'll have an hour to do, so that won't be nearly enough time, but we're going to take a good bite at that topic in that conversation, and as you pointed out, such a great room. I've actually been to this conference with Steamboat before, but it's
been I think about a decade. Yeah, they had us out I wrote a book ten years ago with Mary Catherine Ham, my best friend, and they had us out there very generously at the time, and we did an event or two with them.
But since then it's just been either you know.
Cross wires or schedules didn't work out, and they always are inviting so many great people. I was just so delighted to be back on the radar this year and heading back out there this week.
It's a Friday panel. I know that you are going.
I got to tell you, I talked to my listeners about this. If it's you know, for the whole weekend. The tickets are four hundred and ninety five bucks. You got to also get your lodging stuff like that, but for that money, for four hundred and ninety five bucks, to get access to the people that you have access to for guys, panel, I want to touch on that
for just a second. Guy, because I talk about this all the time, you would think that in a competing media format like talk radio or in your case, like radio, or like television, we would want to see the demise of newspapers and you know, news organizations that have just been really destructive over the last few years. But I am in the exact opposite camp. I think we've got
to fix this. I don't think you can just let it go down to citizen journalists who who you know, may do a great job about some stuff, but they now to have the same kind of access. What are your thoughts on the state of media overall and do you think it needs to be fixed?
Well, I mean, it certainly needs fixing, because it's deeply, possibly irreparably broken. But part of the question is do they want to be fixed? Do they want fixing? And I'm not sure if they do. I think a healthy country and an informed public relies on good, credible, truth seeking journalism without fear or favor. The problem is there's a lot of fear and a lot of favor from the people who purport to.
Have neither of those things going on. Right. They purport to be these middle of the road, we're just.
Here to tell you the truth, and they say all these wonderful things, and they've got all the slogans and they're very self congratulatory, and then they very often are just a bunch of biased hacks.
And that's almost putting it kindly.
And when they do it over and over again and it gets to a point of like institutional corruption and raw and the public doesn't trust them.
It's not just conservatives.
I mean, you look at media credibilities absolutely deservedly in the toilet. But at some point, of course, there's going to be a whole ecosystem of other options that crop up as a replacement or at least another alternative, because people don't trust the legacy media. And yeah, I think it's actually important to have these vibrant newsrooms and news organizations with resources and training and ethics.
To go and do the job.
It just seems like a lot of the people doing the job, especially at a national level, on the political side of things, they are much more interested, it seems, in narratives and agenda fulfillment than doing.
The actual job. So they've kind of forfeited trust.
Yeah, and they don't seem to want to fix things, you know, even as there's you know, the collapse in trusts and a collapse in business models and a lot of people getting laid off and all that stuff, they don't or they can't course correct because they're so invested in their partisanship, in their ideology, and because I think in a lot of cases, you know, if they as rush limbo us to say commit of journalism that go against what their audience wants to hear, you know, they
risk running a foul of their audience or their bosses, and so it's just kind of a bunch of competing narratives. Look, I'm all for opinion journalism and a whole multiplicity of options. I think that is good, but you need some referees to try to keep, you know, keep the truth front and center. And I think the refs mostly play for one team, and they can deny it, but it's obvious, and so they have a real problem on their heads.
I got to tell you when they started writing books about Joe Biden's decline, and in my mind when I'm watching, I refuse to buy the books. I'm not gonna line in the pockets of people that I feel we're complicit with the entire cover up. There has been no apology like I would love to see major media figures saying, you know what, not only did we do this badly, we realize now why we did it badly and it
was our own bias. Can you that kind of announcement, apology whatever, in terms of restoring some sense of some semblance of trust, at least in the baby steps, because they would show some seriousness about the issue. That lack of seriousness where Jake Tapper sitting around going my god, they fooled us all And I'm like, no, they didn't fool any of us over here. They just fooled you guys, because you wanted to be fooled, all.
Right, And they probably weren't even fooled.
No, they were just going with because the goal was to win the election, and they failed at that. And now the truth can suddenly be told. Now it can be told. Some of them have apologized to some extent. There's been some soul searching, at least sort of a facsimile of soul searching, and some degree of apology. That's fine, I think, you know, some admission of this is fine
to me. It's pretty meaningless and empty if they do the same thing again, correct, And of course it won't be about Joe Biden's sanility because Joe Biden is no longer relevant and so you know, he doesn't really matter to them and he's disposable, right, so once he was gone, then they could tell the truth. It's more of high
stakes political fights. Are they willing next time to tell truths that are very unpleasant and detrimental to their own side, whether it's the Democratic Party or the left or whatever it is, And are they willing to do that consistently, or are they going to go right back to their battle stations and all their bad impulses and just do the version of the thing all over again, in which case sort of being like, golly gee, we got it wrong and we're so sorry. That will amount to nothing.
Well, guy, I mean, I don't know.
If you watched Marco Ruby on the Sunday Shows yesterday, that's exactly what they did, right. They came in knives of blazing, ready to do anything to make this process seem like something it clearly wasn't. And I thought to myself, well, they really haven't learned anything. I would love that kind of dogged determined this if it was on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately it's just on one side of the aisle. Guy, I'm excited for you to be able to go to the Freedom Conference this weekend. It is
going to be another just incredible, incredible event. I'm jealous always when I can't make it, and this year, as I said, I just was unable to make. I'm trying to pull up the list of speakers very very quickly. To your point, Brett, there, your colleague is going to be there, Michelle Tafoya is going to be there. Look, Guy Benson right there at the top. You got top billing there and so many other people that are just going to be super smart and you will leave there
if you guys go to this. And I think they still have tickets available. I know that the Hyatt is sold out, so you're gonna have to find other accommodations. But this makes me smarter. Every single time I go, except for the panel, they always give me the goofy panel, like they're like, hey, do you want to work with the guy with the puppet this?
Of course I do.
Of course I don't want any heavy lifting at this thing. But now you're gonna have a blast. And I want everybody to go check it out at some point, And why not this year when Guy Benson is going to be there.
Well, that's very kind of you to say, and I agree. I mean, if there's if there are any tickets left, there's not many. Yeah, I know they're expecting a really good crowd. I know it's a significant investment, but it's worthwhile. A great lineup. I'm honored to be a part of it. Always a great group of people, smart, thoughtful, fun, beautiful, place, What's.
Not to love exactly, and then it ends with a Coyote gold margarita party. So really, there's nothing, nothing wrong with the entire weekend. Guy, I really appreciate you making time for me today.
Oh you bet, thanks many thanks for having me on.
All right, that is Guy Benson.
You can hear his radio show.
You can see his townhall work at townhall dot com.