Hollywood on the Brink, Network News Implodes, Measles Surge & Epstein Revelations

Foreign. Hollywood is bracing for another labor showdown as studios and unions fight over a shrinking industry pie. Broadcast network news is still drawing millions of viewers, but shockingly few in the age group advertisers actually want getting old people like me. In South Texas, immigration rates are now freezing construction and rippling through the local economy. With the border no longer driving fear, Texas Republicans are turning their focus toward Islam as a new political target. As measles cases surge nationwide. Dr. Oz breaks ranks to urge Americans to get vaccinated. And newly revealed FBI records raise fresh questions about what Donald Trump knew and when, about Jeffrey Epstein. All that and more today on Filtered. Welcome to Filtered with CJ Walker. Hi and welcome. Thanks for joining me on Filtered. This is the show where we look at the top business, news, technology, entertainment and cultural issues of the day filtered through the lens of personal development skills. Thanks so much for joining me. Let's dive in. Hollywood labor talks return. Hollywood may be headed toward another labor fight just two years after the last strikes shut the industry down. Contracts for writers and actors expire this spring, but the business they're negotiating over has changed dramatically. Production is slower, streaming profits are thinner, and many performers say work is dried up. Studios are pushing for longer contracts, arguing they need stability as the industry adapts to streaming and artificial intelligence. Unions say compensation no longer reflects reality, especially when it comes to streaming residuals and protections against AI replacing human work. What makes this round different is that Hollywood's revenue pie is shrinking. That raises a difficult question. Do guaranteed raises protect workers or reduce the number of jobs available? Or both? Some industry voices are quietly suggesting profit sharing models tied to actual performance. Both sides agree on one thing. Another shutdown would be brutal. Let's dive into some more facts on this situation. Again, the writers strike expires May 1, 2026, which is around the corner. The actors contract expires June 30, 2026, and it's only been 26 months since the last strikes. The studios want five year deals. The unions prefer three. Overall employment in Los Angeles, which is the entertainment hub of the United States, arguably the world, fell 17% during strikes. Motion picture revenue fell 12% in 2023. Meanwhile, YouTube paid $70 billion to creators in the last three year. The last three years, the US creator economy ad spend was $29.5 billion in 2024 alone. The US creator economy ad spend, it's not tallied yet for all of 2025, is anticipated to be $37 billion. Let's get some assessments from industry insiders. Sean astin you may remember him from Rudy, he's now the Screen Actors Guild AFTRA president. He says our members lived experience is no longer properly reflected in the contract. That's his job to get the best deal and full disclosure. I think once about 30 years ago, for about 5 minutes I was a member of AFTRA. Never got any gigs from it, but that's beside the point. But I just wanted to disclose that for you. Christopher Nolan says, I don't think a five year extension is in any way a realistic proposal. They want the talent, they want shorter contracts. Duncan Crabtree, the chief negotiator of sag, tells the New York Times, we're doing everything under our power to keep our members working. Okay, here's the real problem. Audiences are shifting away from traditional Hollywood productions. They're going to things like Mythical Morning, which is I believe, based in LA, and they are a YouTube form of entertainment. People are watching TikTok for a gazillion hours a day. They're watching YouTube. Now I'm not holding myself out as movie quality entertainment, but at some level it is competition. Anyone watching me now, 30 years ago might have had to watch whatever's on their local network affiliate or go to the movies if they want to watch something on a screen for entertainment. And hey, I realize I'm not as interesting as the Titanic and I'm not as good looking as the young Leonardo DiCaprio, or for that matter, the old Leonardo DiCaprio. But this is a very difficult, sticky situation. Let me step back and give you some assumptions. Some of you might not like this. I do happen to, and I'm going to offend everyone with what I say because it's a part of the job of being a sane, sensible centrist. The United States as we know it, with a great prospering middle class, at least until recently, was made in part because of unions. Not popular to say in some segments of our society. But unions helped balance the control so that owners of steel mills and oil wells couldn't force their workers to work seven days a week, 14 hours a day for a pittance. And that is what in fact created the great middle class. That works well when you've got certain divisions of labor where it takes a massive amount of capital to enter an industry and once it's there, it can be entrenched and charge almost whatever it wants. That was the case with steel, with railroads, with a lot of sectors that were unionized. So it all worked out the problem. And they didn't really have much competition if you were a railroad and you paid people on your railroad union wages. You didn't have to worry about some group of college kids doing a railroad startup paying people peanuts and undercutting you in the competitive marketplace and losing market. You don't have to worry about that these days. If you're in the entertainment business. You do have to worry about it. Literally. There can be, forget college kids, there can be high school kids doing funny dances and lip syncing and skits on YouTube and TikTok. And they are competing directly with Hollywood major motion pictures. That's a huge, huge problem. So what's the answer here? I do think at some point the unions are going to have to be more entrepreneurial and focus on, okay, how do we get a fair share of the pie when the pie was so big it almost didn't matter? There was a time when the major networks were such cash cows because they had a monopoly. And you can charge what, you can charge advertisers whatever you want. Well, these days, advertisers can easily go to Facebook and Google. In fact, they're probably going there first and going to network entertainment to back the movie of the week or whatever sitcoms popular on Thursday nights, I don't even know anymore. That's a second or third or fourth choice for ad buyers. So there's a lot more competition. At some point, I think that unions are going to have to say, look, we want to see all the numbers on revenues, not the phony baloney accounting that shows that every movie ever made, no matter how profitable, actually lost money. We need to see gross revenues for every revenue stream, whether it's in theaters, whether it's on tv, whether it's sold to Netflix, whether it's streaming on Amazon Prime. We need to see all the revenue streams. And then we got to figure out, okay, what are the owners, what are the producers going to take, what's the creative team going to take? And then there's the difficult challenge of figuring out, okay, the star gets 10%, the director gets 5%, the makeup person gets, I don't know, I'm making this up 0.3%. There's going to have to be some division like that. Otherwise, I think what we're going to see, and we're already seeing this, is producers of movies, TV shows, entertainment, commercials, are simply going to stay far, far away from Los Angeles and anything that's unionized. And it breaks my heart to see that because I do think again, unions played an extraordinarily important role in creating the success of this capitalistic country we call the United States. And to simply say all unions are bad, no, that's too doctrinaire. And it is giving increasing power to capital. And in case you hadn't noticed, top 1%, certainly top 5%, and the top 0.01% have never done better in America than right now. But this vast, vast middle class, the directors, assistant directors of TV shows, the set designers, the people who, even though Los Angeles is an expensive town, were able to cobble together low six figure incomes, which is not a lot of money for Los Angeles, they were able to create a thriving middle class in that town and a thriving middle class creative economy that's very much in danger of being completely lost. And I don't see any way around it other than doing some kind of revenue share. Because capitalists are simply not going to keep funding and bankrolling movies, TV shows, other entertainment properties if they know day one, the economics make it nearly impossible to make money. Broadway is a little different. Broadway is unionized. And most Broadway producers know going into it, I'm probably going to lose all my money. But when it comes to those who bankroll major movies, TV shows, entertainment vehicles, they're not in this just so they can brag to their friends about attending an opening night on Broadway. They want to make real money. And the economics of Hollywood production are in dire, dire straits. So I'm hoping that unions take a fresh look at this. I'm hoping the producers and the management takes a fresh look at this too, because it would be a shame to see so many creative people shut out of the process. Now, let me put on my personal development hat. What's my advice to you? If you are a young person today, and I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but let's say you're a teenager, let's say you're 17, 18, let's say you're a film student at NYU. You're 19, you're 20. You aspire to make movies. My advice to you is stay as far away from Hollywood as possible. Simply make your movies now and distribute them online. And build an audience, build a fan base. You can be the producer, you can be the director, you can be the star of the show, you can be the screenwriter, you can be the sound. I mean, I have to do all that here. Granted, this is not a Hollywood production, but that to me is the future. And the real future, frankly, is someone like a Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast now has everyone in Hollywood bowing down to him, begging to work with him. How did he do it. Did he do it by going to LA and waiting tables and going to audition after audition after? No. As far as I know, he's never been an audition a day in his life. Except for every single day of his life since the age of 12 when he auditioned in front of you a video camera for his YouTube audience. And every day he built a little bit of an audience and didn't have much his first five years. To me, that's the real role model for anyone young who wants to be in the entertainment business. Now you might not love Mr. Beast's style of entertainment, okay? But there's no doubt he is an entertainer, wildly successful and at least generating tons of revenues. How much of it is profit? No one really knows. But by many, many metrics, he's wildly successful. I do think that should be the first and second and third role model for any young person that matter. Anyone of any age. If you want to entertain the world with story, you've got to get into your head. The gatekeepers don't matter anymore. The fact that you want to be on the big screen, nobody cares about you. If you've got a compelling, interesting story, it can be told. For a small screen, Martin Scorsese is willing to make movies for Netflix, which is streaming online. If it's good enough for Martin Scorsese, it should be good enough for you. Maybe you don't get on Netflix in your first or second or third short form, video or movie, but if you get on YouTube and you get hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of people watching, guess what? You're in the entertainment business. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Sorry. And that's one of the downsides of of this newfangled non unionized entertainment business. I just hit the wrong button. That was the intro to my show. I meant to hit a brief commercial, which we'll do right now. Back in a moment. We'll be right back after this break. Want more? Grab my Five Book Success Library for $9.95 at tjwalker.com books. It's the fastest way to level up your communication. Imagine being the most confident person in the room, whether you're on Zoom or on stage. That's what thousands of professionals are learning to do right now. Through my online communication courses at Media Training Worldwide. You can access my complete training library on demand. Affordable and actually effective. Whether you're preparing for media interviews, client presentations or TED style talks, I've got you covered. Check it out mediatrainingworldwide.com. you'll never wing it. Again, network news ratings, reality check. CBS Evening News is losing viewers under new anchor Tony Dokapil. But the real issue is much bigger than CBS. Last week, CBS drew about 4.5 million total viewers, which sounds pretty impressive. That's more than I have. But, and this is a big but, only around 623,000 adults ages 25 to 54. That's the prime demo that all the advertisers care about. Even ABC, the ratings leader, reached just over 1 million people in that all three nightly newscasts combined now draw fewer than 3 million viewers. In the demo advertisers care about the most. Now, 30 years ago, network evening news regularly reached more than 30 million viewers a night. Today that audience is far smaller and far older when median age is now in the mid to late 50s. And for the cable news people, it's way up in the late late 60s. That's why the real competition isn't ABC versus NBC versus CBS. It's broadcast television versus digital creators, some of whom reach larger, younger audiences with a single upload and a staff not of thousands like CBS or many, many hundreds, but a staff of sometimes one. This isn't an anchor problem, it's a structural one. Okay, let's dive into some more of the facts here because again, I have nothing for or against Tony Dokapil. We have talked extensively on this show about what CBS is doing. Essentially installing a right wing apparatchik that is insistent on looking under every single rock and finding an example of a left wing wokeism, even if it doesn't exist. But that's a separate problem for them. They're trying to become essentially FOX News light and remove anything that could be mildly offensive to the dear leader in Washington. But that's not working. We also live in an age where people can pick the number one thing they want from anywhere in the world. If you want conservative news that says your guy's always great and the guy you don't like is always bad, there's already a news source for you. You don't need to go to CBS. Let's look at some more facts. Again, only 623 adults age 25 to 54. Okay, so some of them are kids. Although I can't imagine a lot of college kids sitting around watching CBS evening news at 6:30 Eastern Time. What they are getting is millions of people who look at me and say, look at that nice young man, I. E. Old people. Really old people. That's who's watching CBS News week to week. They've gone down 7% total 8% of their demo since the new anchor was brought in. CBS year over year is down 9% in the demo. ABC News is the big Leader. They have 9.24 million people watching their newscast in a typical evening, but only 1.1 million in the demo advertisers care about. So why does that matter? Why do people talk about the demo? Because that's what you're selling. That's where you make the money. So if you have 20 million people watching, but they're all 90 years old, you can still sell some ads. But it would be infinitely more valuable to have 2 million in the demo because then you have mass appeal to all advertisers trying to sell things to people who actually are in a stage of life when they buy. If you appeal to 10 year olds. Not many 10 year olds buy stuff. Maybe they get their parents to buy stuff, but most 10 year olds aren't. Same thing with 90 year olds. Most 90 year olds are not buying new washers and dryers, new refrigerators, looking to develop new brand affection for toothpaste. They've already decided those things they're not as movable. So that's why this is so important in the news business in particular in the media business in general. Now there have been some upturns. ABC week to week has gone up 3% total, but 9% in the demo, which presumably they picked up some of the people dissatisfied with CBS. CBS does have the oldest median age, 58, the youngest. ABC is still 55. That's still older than what advertisers want to see. And again, it's far back, not that far back, but in 1998, 30 million people watch the evening news now it is shrunk dramatically. So it's not a good time to be in the traditional network news again. What does this mean for you? I still think that you, if you want to be a serious person, a successful person, a well rounded person, you need to find reputable news sources for you where you're not just relying on friends of friends and rumors and rumors and anyone can be susceptible to rumors. I was commenting just the other night in watching the Grammys, saying to family members, wow, bad bunny. Did he put on a lot of weight? Is he on steroids? He looked so beefed up. My daughter told me the next day, oh, he was wearing a bulletproof vest. And I think I even mentioned that to my wife or someone. What turns out that was wrong, that was a rumor. I unwittingly. So it can affect all of us. It can unwittingly affect all of us. Someone saw it on social media. They told my daughter, my daughter told me, and it certainly sounded real, but it wasn't. So that's why it's essential for you to be, I think, a successful person, a legitimate person, a serious person. You need to find reputable news sources. I'm not telling you that that's cbs, ABC or NBC. I am telling you you need to find some sources that are grounded in serious reporters who rely first and foremost on facts. Now, every media organization has some bias. There's a bias in favor of negative news. There's a buyer bias in favor of extreme news. There's a bias in favor of visual news. A plane crash gets a lot more attention than 30 people dying from measles, typically. So there's all sorts of biases. But we live in a world where so many so called news sources are really just people grinding an axe, spewing nonsense, spewing conspiracy theories, can spewing, yet spewing yet another example of why they hate somebody of a different political belief, a religious belief. That's what I think you need to safeguard against. And no offense to your friends. No offense to my friends. If you're getting your news from Facebook and you're not checking the sources, chances are you are walking around with a head full of nonsense. So get a range of serious reporting I look at every single day. The Wall Street Journal has a conservative bias. The New York Times, some say, although I don't agree with it, it has a liberal bias. Look for a variety of news sources. I look for the Associated Press. I go to their news site every day. You don't have to follow mine, but I do want you to actively seek out sources of serious news so you're not simply being like I did earlier this week. Recycling myth and rumor and disinformation that does no one good Filtered is brought to you by the following Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto. No junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertisement. Immigration rates hit South Texas economy In South Texas, immigration enforcement is now visibly damaging the local economy. According to the Wall Street Journal, repeated immigration rates on construction sites have left housing developments unfinished and months behind schedule. Workers, including many with legal status, are staying home out of fear. Residential construction activity in parts of the region has dropped by roughly 30%. Concrete suppliers and tile companies report massive, massive declines in sales, layoffs and even bankruptcy. Banks say lending has slowed as projects stall. Builders say enforcement is no longer targeted Entire crews are being detained, sometimes mid job lending, leaving half poured foundations and wasted materials. Many local business leaders say they support immigration enforcement in principle, but warn that job site raids are draining the labor force overnight and driving up housing costs. Policy aimed at deterrence is colliding directly with economic reality. Okay, let's look at some more facts and I'm going to say some unpleasant truths here, and I'm going to offend some of you, but I'm not running for political office and I'm not trying to pander to you. I'm going to call it like I see it. I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist and I'm here to tell you that it's all well and good and fun to bash illegal immigrants and bash migrants and bash foreigners and all this, and pull the lever supporting that until you're trying to move into the new house you paid for a year ago. And it can't be finished because no American actually wants to do the dirty work. No American wants to get up on the roof and install shingles when it's 150 degrees up there. And people from other countries historically have been willing to do that because they're fleeing worse situations. They're fleeing severe political oppression or economic oppression or starvation. So they're willing to come here and do what it takes. In full disclosure, I'm too lazy to do it. Yeah, I did some hard, a few hard manual jobs, manual labor jobs as a teenager, and I washed windows and one summer I pulled slime out of ponds on construction sites. But I don't want to kid you. I'm not some hardscrabble person who worked his way up through sheer grip. I had a safety cushion. It's called being born a white male middle class person in America in the early 60s to parents with college degrees. So I knew, okay, this is something I'll never have to do for more than two months in a summer. And yeah, I worked in a restaurant. I worked at a Mexican restaurant and it was sweaty work and my fingers never even calloused. I had to wear plastic gloves, taking the dishes out of the dishwasher with everyone else in the kitchen laughing at me, calling me names or being overly sensitive. So I'm not willing to do it. Do I want my daughter to do manual labor, construction job, building houses in Texas or Florida? No, I don't. You can call that snobbery if you want. I want her doing things that use her brain and her full creative powers and her intellect. And again, apologies if that sounds classist. Or racist or anything else ist, but it is a reality. Most Americans do not want to do the hard work, the picking of fruits and vegetables, the working in hotels, the cleaning of beds. If you don't believe me, go to Mar a Lago and look at the people doing the housework. See how many of them have the same skin color as the. Well, not many people in the world have the same skin color as the president. But how many of them have the same skin color as, let's say, any of the George Bush's answer? Pretty much. So this country is in fact great because we constantly bring in new inflows of talent, of hard working people, of entrepreneurial bent. Someone who comes in to the country and yes, perhaps they did it illegally at age 20 and picked up a hammer and did the hard dirty work. Building someone else's house by 30 is often the contractor who owns his company and is employing dozens of people who pay taxes in places like Texas and Florida. That's why the United States economy has grown faster than almost any other economies, any other large economy in the world. Look at the United States versus Europe. In about 2007, 2008, our economies were almost the same size. Now the United States is 40% bigger. Why? One reason. We had constant inflows of new people, new ideas, new hard work, new consumers buying stuff, new workers building stuff. So you reap what you sow. My friends, those of you who are so quick to say, you know, the number one problem was, you know, the border out of control. Well, it's in control now. You know what's out of control? Housing prices. Because no one's actually willing to build it. And if you think today's college graduates who aspires to be a millionaire because they spend all day long looking at Instagram, looking at Bitcoin Bros and they're placing bets on Bitcoin and Kalshi and fanduel. You think that guy is going to build your house? That, my friends, is utterly delusional. We'll be right back after this break. Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertise Most people can't afford a full time coach and even if you could, good luck finding one who's available when you need them. That's why I created the TJ Walker AI clone. It's built on my 40 plus years of real world coaching and training. You get my exact advice, style and frameworks instantly. Ask it how to handle a Tough question. Get feedback on your elevator pitch. Rehearse your next big talk. This is the next generation of communication coaching. It's smarter than an app, more personal than a course, and always ready. Start using it today at tjwalker AI. You'll wonder how you ever did without it. Texas GOP shifts from border Fear to Islam with border crossings down, Texas Republicans appear to be shifting their political focus to a familiar target, Islam. According to the Times, anti Muslim rhetoric has intensified across Texas politics with warnings about Sharia law, mosque link developments, and claims that Islam threatens American values. Now, Muslims make up a grand grand total of about 2% of Texas's population. But growth in Dallas Fort Worth suburbs has made the community more visible and politically useful as a source of fear. Historically, this pattern is well worn. When one threat loses its political power. Demagogues rarely abandon fear. They replace the target. Sometimes Catholics, Jews, Immigrants, Muslims. The mechanism stays the same. Fear simplifies politics. It bypasses policy debates and appeals directly to identity. Once normalized, it rarely stops with just one group. Okay, let's dive into some more facts here. Muslims, as I mentioned, are 2% of Texas population. But in the Dallas Fort Worth area, mosques did grow from 24 to 60. So there is some growth there. Sharia ban was added to a Texas GOP primary ballot. Believe it or not, whatever that is. Again, the United States is supposed to be. And constitutionally, in theory, we are a country that establishes no religion as a bedrock principle. And yet they're always those who say, yeah, yeah, yeah, Second Amendment counts. Not the first Amendment or any other amendment, but only the second Amendment counts. We want our guns. But when our founding fathers said we want a democracy that does not establish any one religion that is neutral to religion, a lot of people who claim to be patriotic, constitutional loving Americans simply turn their head and pretend that doesn't exist. And they want to say erroneously that oh, this was a Christian founded nation. Well, you look at the founders, they really weren't most of them, not by any stretch of what is commonly defined as Christian. Now, if you want to be a Christian, fine, be my guest. But the idea that in a place like Texas, that is the vast, vast majority of people are Christians, that you're under assault because of what 2% want to do differently, you're being played, my friends. You're being played like a fiddle by demagogues. Okay, Abbott promised a future of a total ban on Sharia law. And Senator Cornine has ads warning people against radical Islam, whatever that is in the state of Texas. Now, folks, it is certainly true that historically, many great religions have extreme periods of violence and intolerance. Look at the Christian Crusades, look at the witch burnings. So people worried about extremism and religion should maybe look in their own tent first because they can find historical examples. I will grant you, when you look in other countries, there are in fact examples of Islamic extremism. There's no doubt about it. So far in Texas, I haven't seen a lot of people being stoned to death for not adhering to the principles of Islam. When that happens, you can make a good case. But right now, the simple fact that people want to worship differently from you, go to something that they don't call a church, wear clothes a little different than yours, maybe have celebrations at different times, that's not an excuse to say there's some horrible menace threatening our society. An organization called CARE was labeled a terror organization by Abbott. That is an institution that tries to recognize rights for or people who worship Islam and are often of Arab descent. Now, no investigations have found wrongdoing at Epic City. That's where a number of these, these Islamic organizations are found. But right now, according to polling data, Islam is a top three GOP primary issue. Dave Carney, top Republican strategist, says, it's like the border used to be. You can just hear these Republican strategists getting excited about it, salivated. We're going to fool the rubes this way. We're going to get them angry so they vote for us. And it does seem to be working, according to state. Texas State Representative Salman Bojani says, I'm shocked and offended by my own elected law leaders. Mohammed Ebidi in Plano, Texas tells the New York Times, you want a society where every group alienates each other. Again, as I pointed out in the newsread, this is as old as time itself and certainly a part of US History. First of it was the Catholics. You know, many people certainly were not alive. I was not alive at the time of John F. Kennedy's election to the presidency. But the fact that he was a Catholic was considered a big, big deal because so many Protestants thought that Catholics were bad and evil and would only take orders from the Pope. Now you have J.D. vance, who is a Catholic, a converted Catholic, and as far as I know, nobody even mentioned it in the last campaign. It became very, very mainstream. So here's what I want you to think about. There are demagogues everywhere trying to manipulate you, trying to shut your brain down to get you so angry and fearful of something you Stop thinking and you simply vote emotionally. And it's just easier to manipulate people emotionally when you don't have the facts on your side. The facts are Texas has all sorts of public policy problems. Education, housing, environment, water issues. But it's boring talking about serious issues where sometimes the answer is taxation change, policy change, regulatory change. That's boring. Far easier to get people excited about, hey, those people are coming and hurting our people, and they're a danger and they're a menace, and I'll protect you and the other party. They want to coddle those alien people. That's a message as old as time itself. It continues to resonate, and apparently it's resonating with great effectiveness in Texas today. It's just the names have changed. It was Catholics, used to be Jews. Then it was migrants coming in illegally. But now it's not politically correct to say we have any illegal invasions of migrants in Texas, because that would be criticism of Dear Leader. So now the shift is to people who are our US Citizens, but they're considered so dangerous, so awful because they choose to exercise their constitutional rights to worship in a way they want to or to hold religious beliefs different from the majority. This is a big, big problem, friends. But it's a fake problem. It's a phony problem, and it's about dehumanizing the other. So if you want to be a serious person, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. Obviously, those on the left, the progressive side of things, are not advocating this. But if you are, in fact right of center, if you are a libertarian, if you are a traditional conservative who actually believes in the Constitution, this should be just as offensive to you as targeting people because of religious beliefs. Now, if you want to show me an example of somebody who says, okay, because of my religious belief, I'm stoning this child to death because they were disobedient, then I would say, okay, let's arrest that person. Let's try that person by a jury of their peers, convict them if that's what happens, and then sentence them to prison because of their actions, the fact that their actions flowed from a religion. In this case, I'm citing biblical rationale. The Bible does in fact say you can stone to death children who are disobedient. Thankfully, that's an area where most people are hypocritical and they just ignore it. But when any religion wants to impose its values and start taking away the freedoms of other people and harming people physically by all means go after that. But it's a little too cute, a little too clever, a little too convenient to simply say, oh, we don't have to wait till someone does something bad. We're just going to attack them the second they claim they like a religion different from ours. Want to communicate like a Pro? Go to mediatrainingworldwide.com Millions have already transformed their speaking skills. Why not you? This show doesn't run on a lot of corporate sponsorships or big media backing. It runs on caffeine and your support. If you like what you're hearing and want to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee. Really, just go to buymeacoffee.com tjwalker it's quick, it's easy, and yes, it helps cover editing, hosting and staying relatively ad free for as long as possible. Buymeacoffee.com tjwalker your 395 makes a real difference. Dr. Oz urges vaccination Amid Measles Surgeon as measles cases surge nationwide, Dr. Mehmet Oz is delivering an unusual direct public health message. Oz told CNN yesterday, take the vaccine, please, adding that people should for sure fear measles. The outbreak has now sickened more than 900 people nationwide, hospitalized dozens and cause multiple deaths, including children. The MMR vaccine has long been proven safe and effective, and measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. Health experts say falling vaccination rates are the primary reason the disease has returned. Oz's comments stand out because other health leaders, that is Robert F. Kennedy, have continued his boss have continued promoting unproven or overstated medical claims, muddying public trust. The problem isn't lack of solutions, it's mixed messaging. When science competes with speculation, preventable diseases come back fast. This is serious business. I mean, it's an utter shame and disgrace for the United States to have essentially eliminated measles. And now it's back because of imbecilic demagogues, some of whom now occupy the highest positions of power in this government, and they are constantly casting doubt about vaccinations. Now, the vaccination against measles is known as especially good, with especially few side effects, and as especially effective at creating massive death and illness and to simply stop taking it because, oh, you want to do your own research and you don't trust science. You know, if you don't trust science, then why not just walk off a cliff? Because, you know, gravity's just a theory. How will you know, yeah, maybe gravity works in your own home, but you don't know if jumping off the tallest building in your town will necessarily relate result in death. Right? I mean, you've never done it before, so do your own reason. No, that's not how sane, sensible people act. That's how people with a death wish act. And this is sad. Let's look at some more facts. Current outbreak is the worst we've had since 2000. We're moving backwards as a society. Are we really going to take this skepticism of all things government related to the point where we have black plague coming back and maybe a third or 50% of the population is wiped out? I hope not. 19 people were hospitalized in South Carolina. A recent outbreak there alone. Just in one state. Texas had several children killed. New Mexico reported a measles death. Now, the MMR vaccine requires two doses for protection. The CDC schedule reduced by six recommendations. Meanwhile, you got Robert F. Kennedy always seeming to want to put a spotlight or embrace some kooky theory making the anti vax people happy. Mehmet Oz, he's got his own issues. I still remember him from the Dr. Oz show talking about his magic green coffee beans to magically make you lose weight. But at least on this issue, he's arguing from a position of science. He says on cnn, you should for sure fear measles. In this case, I think Mehmet Oz is speaking in a highly credible way. Meanwhile, the same people casting doubt on vaccinations are embracing kooky theories about how ketogenic diets cure schizophrenia. They're quoting A study from Dr. Mark Olson of Columbia University, and he said, whoa, time out. That's not really what I said. He said, there's currently no credible evidence that ketogenic diets cure schizophrenia. Now let me make something very clear. I'm here to be fair, honest and unbiased and not give you knee jerk partisan responses. You can find that on Fox News, occasionally, MSNBC and other places. I think it's great that Robert F. Kennedy is encouraging people to eat more fruit and vegetables, more unprocessed food or food that is lightly processed and doesn't have all the fatty fried food, the batter, the fried, the sugary sauces on it. He's encouraging people to eat healthier food and for that I think, wonderful, I congratulate him. But all of that good work is offset when you encourage people to essentially ignore science and to adopt a mentality that people had in the 19th century. Now you could say, well, T.J. you know, 19th century things were simpler. There weren't obese people. Yeah. And you know what the average life expectancy around the world was around 33 years old because before vaccines, before antibiotics, before people really understood germ theory, people died at age 33. The reason we're living to 79, 80, some of us 90s or more, it's because of vaccines, because of antibiotics, because of modern medicine. Does modern medicine get everything right instantly? No. Were there some mistakes made during COVID Yes. But you don't say, oh, you were off several months by your estimation here. Let's go back to the 19th century. Let's go back to most people dying by age 33. That is extraordinarily irrational. And I urge you, you've got to find reputable sources of information on your health. And unfortunately, there was a time when I could say top level government officials who've been selected by presidents and vetted by the United States Senate, you could trust those people. Sadly, you can no longer do that. So I'm urging you find some reputable source of a mainstream media outlet that reports facts. Doesn't have to be a hundred year old media organization, but it does have to be an organization that, that actually cares about facts. I'm TJ Walker. This is filtered. I'm glad you're with me today. There's more to come. Stay tuned. Hey, if you're enjoying this kind of take and want to hear more stories filtered through the lens of communication, make sure you're following the show whether you're watching or listening. New episodes drop every single day. And if there's a little notification option where you are now, go ahead and, and turn it on. It helps you stay in the loop. New questions in the Epstein case. Newly revealed FBI records are raising fresh questions about what Donald Trump knew about Jeffrey Epstein years earlier than previously acknowledged. According to the Miami Herald, a 2019 FBI interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Ritter recounts a phone call Trump allegedly made in July 2006. Ritter said Trump told him, quote, everyone knew what Epstein was doing and urged investigators to focus on Ghislaine Maxwell, with Trump calling her, quote, evil. Now, that account contrasts sharply with Trump's later public denials of any knowledge of Epstein's crimes. The revelations come as Maxwell continues seeking relief from her conviction and signals she would cooperate only if granted clemency. At the center of the story is a broader failure, a case delayed, narrowed and resolved through a plea deal that spared Epstein serious punishment despite dozens of victims. Now, in normal times, and you know, we've not been in so called normal times since 2016 in America, in normal times for a politician to have it come out that they knew about a pedophile and claimed that everyone knew about it and did nothing about it. That alone would be enough to discredit that person permanently from political life. If they were in office, there would be extensive demands for that person to resign or be removed. We don't live in normal times. And with the daily barrage of more and more horrific information about Epstein and all the people he touched, specifically the most powerful person in the world, it all gets lost, it all gets sort of pushed away and just becomes noise. Unfortunately, this is one of them. But again, I don't know how a serious person could not take this seriously. The FBI interviewed, this is the police chief of Palm beach where everyone is very cozy. And for the record, I live in Palm Beach County. I don't live in Palm Beach Island. That's another cozy little environment, small, literally insular environments. A small island where Trump had a long time presence and cozy relations with the police chief and everyone else. And now we have on record official FBI records where the police chief said he received a call from Trump saying everybody knew about Epstein's criminal behavior and Trump is, is on record again and again and again. So I knew nothing about it, didn't know anything about it. I got rid of him a long time ago. This is yet another example of the facts showing, making a compelling case that Trump is lying about, if not everything, most things related to Epstein. Again, the phone call was described as occurring in July 2006. Raider had led a Palm beach investigation starting in 2003. Key complaint reported in March 2005 involved a 14 year old stepdaughter. So the police observed prepubescent braces and backpacks leaving Epstein's house. State attorney declined to prosecute in 2006. Case moved to federal prosecutors in 2007. Epstein got a federal immunity deal in 2007. He eventually did serve 13 months, most of it on work release, where he got to work from his cushy home. This what writer said according to the 2006 call. This is according to the FBI as reported by the Miami Herald. Thank goodness you're stopping him. Everybody has known he's been doing this. So this is Trump admitting he knew and that everybody knew about Epstein. And writer also says what Trump allegedly said about Ghislaine Maxwell, she's evil. And focus on her. And then again we hear later Trump saying, oh, I had no idea, I had no idea. So folks, this, this is hypocrisy. It's not just hypocrisy, it is lying about something that was central to his very rationale for obtaining power. He ran saying, we need to release the Epstein files. His followers were saying, the problem with the Democrats is they are part of this worldwide cabal, this evil cabal of pedophiles. And it turns out that Trump knew about it and was certainly complicit in keeping it hidden. And he's asking for support from the very people who claim they were so upset about this. So again, to be clear, there's no evidence or conclusive evidence that's withstood scrutiny in a courtroom that Trump did in fact commit illegal acts against underage girls, although there's now a lot of allegations of that in various reports coming out from the Epstein files. But this is very, very clear cut. And he knew about it and lied about his knowledge. And yet the people who claim to care the most about pedophilia simply, well, you know, Trump cut my taxes, so nothing matters. Democrats are too woke. I mean, they're essentially saying that the Democrats are so woke, it doesn't matter if Trump was in the room when these actions were committed, when Epstein did his deeds. They don't care. It does appear now, unfortunately, to be at the situation where 40% of Americans are saying, we don't care about pedophilia. We're much more concerned about the so called woke Democrats who might want to make someone use a pronoun we don't like than actual acts of pedophilia. And that, that, my friends, is a shame. It's a sad, sad day in America is this latest revelation that Trump is on record in FBI files saying he knew all about Epstein and that he believed everyone knew about it 20 years ago. Is it going to hurt him? I don't think so. I think the people who say I'm with Trump, they are tribal and they don't care about facts. They are impervious to new information. Satan himself could come down to the United States and say, donald is my son, he's been doing my bidding and people just wouldn't care. They'd say, well, whatever, I still would vote for. I'm TJ Walker. Sorry if that's not a positive upbeat note to end on. I frankly would love to just talk about business stories, personal development stories, the latest health that can help you. Health information. Unfortunately, when you live in a regime that is increasingly totalitarian, it affects every aspect of business, culture, health, physical health and mental health. So I do feel compelled to talk about it. I want to thank you for spending time with me today. If you got anything of value out of this, please leave comments. Please leave reviews. If you're listening on any podcasting platform, please give a thumbs up if you're listening on Spotify. If you're on Apple, they ask you to leave actual reviews. Please do that. If you're watching on YouTube anyplace sells, please subscribe. Hit that notifications button and leave your comments. Thanks.