Ed Vitagliano: Welcome back, everybody. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon this week, joined in the studio by Fred Jackson, Tony Vitagliano, and Steve Jordahl.
Steve Jordahl: You can watch the show at stream.afa.net and see what we are talking about.
Ed Vitagliano: I want to clear something up here because these folks in the studio just will not let me live this down. Yesterday, I made a couple of offhand remarks about, “If you see in your crystal ball,” or, “Where do you predict or read the tea leaves?” Folks, I was not advocating the occult, okay? These guys continue to hammer me, good-naturedly. Although I will say some of the comments that came in were not good-natured. I despise the occult. I was simply using some analogies that have become common.
Ed Vitagliano: I did not do what Tim always does when he uses a betting metaphor. He always says, “We do not advocate betting.” You have to spell it out, folks. With that in mind, I want to save Steve Jordahl here because we obviously do not advocate the use of LSD, even for flamingos.
Steve Jordahl: We are talking about the psychedelic.
Ed Vitagliano: That is better. Yes, say “psychedelic” rather than LSD.
Steve Jordahl: The LSD reference is kind of a promo for the ability to watch the show. You can go to stream.afa.net and see what we are talking about. That is kind of a must-do every day because no matter what I am wearing, someone is commenting about it.
Ed Vitagliano: All right. What is your first story?
Steve Jordahl: I have a story about a guy who had a job interview with an AI agent. He had his own AI agent, and he let the two AI agents duke it out.
Ed Vitagliano: Wait a second. Explain that again.
Steve Jordahl: This was a job interview via Zoom. The candidate was talking with an AI agent, which companies are using for interviews. He had his own AI agent that he said knew his résumé better than he did. What we are going to learn here is that AI agents have a hard time saying goodbye.
Host: Hi, Graham. Thanks for joining. I am Pat, a career specialist at Brightwell Home. I see there is someone else on the call with us today.
Guest: That is Victor. He is my representative. He is here because he knows my résumé better than I do, and he is going to make sure everything is translated correctly.
Guest: Pat, it is a pleasure to meet you. We are both thrilled about the marketing manager opening at Brightwell Home. Graham is an absolute powerhouse in the marketing world, and I cannot wait to explain why he is the perfect fit for your team.
Guest: I will be right back. You two talk.
Host: No problem. Since Graham stepped away, let us keep moving. Does this Thursday still work for that follow-up call, Victor?
Guest: Yes, this Thursday works perfectly. I have it on the calendar for Graham. We are really looking forward to it.
Host: That is wonderful. I have it locked in for Thursday. Thank you both for your time. Have a great day.
Guest: Have a great day.
Guest: It was a pleasure speaking with you, Pat. We appreciate your time, and we will see you on Thursday. Have a wonderful day.
Host: You too, Victor. Talk soon.
Guest: Talk soon, Pat. Have a great one.
Host: You too, Victor. Bye for now.
Guest: Take care.
Host: Take care, Victor.
Guest: You too, Pat. See you Thursday.
Host: See you then, Victor.
Guest: See you then, Pat. Take care.
Host: Bye, Victor.
Ed Vitagliano: Okay, come on. That is not real.
Steve Jordahl: Is that a real interaction between two AI agents?
Ed Vitagliano: It was probably not a real job interview. It was probably not a guy really doing that for a job.
Steve Jordahl: I did not know what we were going to hear. That was a little hard to hear.
Ed Vitagliano: Maybe that is just because of my age. I do not know. But it is hilarious that the guy stepped out and let his AI agent handle the interview with the AI agent representing the company. The problem is, what happens if your representative AI agent goes rogue on you? It might say, “Graham is actually terrible. See how many video games he plays on his computer? He will tell you he is online, but he is not really online.” You would have to shut the AI agent down all the time.
Steve Jordahl: That is hilarious.
Ed Vitagliano: Unfortunately, it will not be funny when AI takes over the world and makes us all its slaves. Anyway, that is great. All right, next story.
Ed Vitagliano: I want to give props to our mainstream media. Once they find a narrative, they stick with it. I played a little bit of this for you in our story meeting this morning. I reworked it so it is a little clearer what is going on here. You are going to hear a bunch of mainstream media types and activists, like Black Lives Matter activists, wanting to make sure that we remember justice for Jacob Blake, who apparently was shot to death by a white police officer. Except we are going to hear from Jacob Blake at the end of this. He was not exactly shot to death.
Media voices: Jacob Blake was killed. The Jacob Blake killing. The death of Jacob Blake. The shooting death of Jacob Blake. In the wake of Jacob Blake’s death, protests over the death of Jacob Blake. We have to do this in memory of Jacob Blake. Protest after the police killing of Jacob Blake. The slaying of Jacob Blake. The police killing of Jacob Blake.
Jacob Blake: I survived. It is aggravating seeing my face on television. I pretty much thought I was off the cable news. It is weird hearing my name come out of their mouths, almost like I am seeing my own death, with my name on the shirts of people out here protesting and screaming my name. It is just a weird feeling.
Ed Vitagliano: He is alive.
Fred Jackson: He is alive. He was shot and paralyzed. It is not a funny thing, but he was shot seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by a police officer. The jury is out. Depending on whom you believe, it was a justified shooting or not. But they needed a Black death, and the movement needed someone to mourn and protest for. They just could not quite get the facts straight about this.
Tony Vitagliano: These things sometimes seem to take on a life of their own. It seems like people thought he was dead, and nobody checked. They just continued to repeat what they thought was the truth. Here you have the mainstream media spreading something that is not true.
Ed Vitagliano: A lot of us are saying, “Well, duh.”
Fred Jackson: This is a strange story. I am sorry for Jacob Blake’s mother, who has to sit there and every other day learn that her son is dead. Everybody thinks he is dead, but he is not. There is a huge lesson to be learned here. Journalists, for the most part, are no longer journalists. They are political activists.
Ed Vitagliano: They are there for a cause. The cause is not to give the listener or viewer the news of the day and the information of the day. It is not, “Here is what happened in this incident. You decide what it means. Person A says this, and person B says that.” When I got into the business, that was the way it was. If there was any bias in your report, your report never made it on the air. The bosses were that strict about it.
Ed Vitagliano: Today, it is about a cause. You are a journalist today to fight for a cause, and that is the way your story is supposed to be. I deal with the Associated Press every day. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say they hate Donald Trump. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the political stories the Associated Press produces are negative toward Trump or something in the Trump administration.
Ed Vitagliano: Fred, since we use AP content, have you ever posted an AP political story that you did not have to edit somehow to make it more balanced?
Fred Jackson: Especially during this election season, it is very clear. We talk about Abdul El-Sayed, and the Associated Press has no problem with him. It acts as if he has no problems and there is no controversy dealing with him. But we know that there is. Fortunately, we have the right to edit Associated Press material. Otherwise, we would not use it.
Fred Jackson: The Associated Press is very good on weather stories and larger world affairs stories. We use a lot of its videos on our AFN website. But when it comes to the politics of this nation, particularly cultural issues, the Associated Press is all in for one party and very much against the other. That is why you get these kinds of stories, where the police are always the bad guys.
Ed Vitagliano: I was listening to a debate last night between Governor Hochul of New York and her Republican challenger. Hochul knows the coverage of that debate is going to go in her favor. That is the way it is spun. The level of dishonesty in covering political news today, especially when it involves Donald Trump, is hard to believe.
Tony Vitagliano: It used to be, in what you are calling the good old days of journalism, that editors would tell whoever was writing or doing a news story for television or radio that there had to be an opposing view. You could not have a one-sided story. If it was about a controversial issue, you had to have an opposing view.
Tony Vitagliano: I remember in the late 1990s and into the 2000s, homosexual activist groups were pressuring the Associated Press, CBS News, and other organizations. Their argument was that when it came to homosexual marriage, or same-sex marriage, there was no valid opposing view. They said, “Do not interview people like us or the Family Research Council. Their view is bigoted and hate-filled. You should not allow haters on.”
Tony Vitagliano: There were news organizations that began to see it that way. Fortunately, it did not completely take over because they still seemed to want to have opposing views. But that represents the switch from traditional journalism, which was, “Let us get both sides and let the reader, viewer, or listener decide,” to taking sides and using media outreach as an arm of propaganda.
Fred Jackson: Let me give you one more example. When it comes to Israel, here is the way they cover an Israeli attack: “Today, an Israeli attack killed a woman at a hospital in Gaza.” Period. No context. Stop and think for a moment. Did somebody in Israel get up that morning and say, “I think I will go kill a woman at a hospital”? Did they say, “I am going to go kill a grandmother”?
Fred Jackson: The context that we know is true is that Hamas terrorists are operating out of a hospital. They are launching rockets from there, and Israel is responding.
Ed Vitagliano: They never say that Israel warned the hospital and its staff that it would be responding to the attacks from the Hamas terrorists in the hospital. They never give that context.
Fred Jackson: It is disgusting the way Israel is treated in the mainstream media today.
Ed Vitagliano: The examples are countless. The most recent one is the media’s response to the raid on Ilhan Omar’s residence versus the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Does anybody remember the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago? A previous presidential candidate’s personal residence was raided by the FBI. The media response was, “This is disturbing that the Department of Justice would be involved in this close to the midterms. They are weaponizing the DOJ.”
Ed Vitagliano: The hypocrisy knows no limits. They have done it for so long that they do not even notice it anymore. I truly do not think they have any idea how hypocritical they are in their reporting.
Ed Vitagliano: The mainstream media are great proponents of diversity, but there is no diversity of worldview in those newsrooms. They may have diversity of skin color among their reporters, and they celebrate that, but there is no diversity of point of view. Do you want to try to get a job at CNN today and walk in there saying, “I am pro-life. I am against men competing in women’s sports”?
Steve Jordahl: There would be very few people who are openly pro-life in those newsrooms.
Tony Vitagliano: To your point, Fred, it would not matter if the person who walked in said they were pro-life and checked every other box that was important to the left. It has to do with their ideology and worldview, where they start first.
Ed Vitagliano: That is why we encourage you to listen to American Family Radio, go to AFN.net, and get The Stand magazine. To the best of our ability, we try to give you a solidly Christian view. We do give a conservative twist on things because we believe the conservative view is rooted in biblical truth.
Ed Vitagliano: We encourage you not only to watch, listen to, and read all that we produce here at American Family Association and American Family Radio, but also to encourage your friends and family members to do the same. We have great editors. They are not going to let our news people report that someone is dead before it is confirmed that the person is dead. We do a much better job than that.
Steve Jordahl: None of those voices in the audio were from American Family Radio.
Ed Vitagliano: That is right. All right, Steve.
Steve Jordahl: Here is something to look forward to. We are looking forward to a brand new Christian album called Halfway to Jesus. It features Kid Rock and Eminem.
Ed Vitagliano: My first thought was no, but I watched the interview with Kid Rock and Laura Trump. Laura did a great job on the interview, and I had a little bit of a change of heart. We are honest-to-goodness Christians here, folks. You do not work at AFA or AFR unless you can give a testimony of when Jesus Christ saved you.
Ed Vitagliano: We are Christians here, and as a result, we are protective of that. When we present someone who is doing something described as Christian, we want to make sure it is legitimate. I do not think either Eminem or Kid Rock is a Christian, but Kid Rock seemed to be on a journey in that direction.
Ed Vitagliano: The name of the album is Halfway to Jesus. His theology was not sound in terms of what he was representing, but he does seem to be searching. I am not advocating that you listen to this album. Be aware that just because something is called Christian does not mean it is Christian.
Ed Vitagliano: We remember the Kanye West fiasco. Christians have a tendency, when a celebrity or athlete gets saved, to push that person into the public eye as a way to legitimize the faith. The resurrection is legitimacy enough for your faith. Do not let your affection for celebrities cloud your judgment.
Ed Vitagliano: We are certainly not recommending that you buy or listen to this album. But please pray for these people. When someone like Kid Rock, and perhaps at some point Eminem, gets close enough to the river, sometimes they slide right in.
Steve Jordahl: Do you recall reading that Kid Rock was friends with Charlie Kirk, and that the assassination of Charlie Kirk had a profound effect on him?
Ed Vitagliano: I remember there was some sort of relationship there. I had not heard that part, but I am sure it probably did have a profound effect.
Fred Jackson: Generally speaking, I liked what Kid Rock had to say about politics in this interview, especially about the danger posed by Islam sneaking in. He is from Dearborn, Michigan, and he was talking about not wanting children and grandchildren to be influenced by it. I appreciated that.
Ed Vitagliano: I did want to say something about it, but I do not want to spend a lot of time on it. Pray for Kid Rock. From what he said, I do not think he probably knows the Lord, but you never know. Just do not be fooled into thinking that celebrity equals a legitimate claim to Christianity, or that we should let someone pastor our church or lead worship. That is what happened with Kanye West.
Tony Vitagliano: I would add that we should always be cautious as Christians. I understand that these people are doing this, and they make a living as entertainers. But I think about John Schlitt, the lead singer of Petra.
Steve Jordahl: The contemporary Christian group from the 1980s?
Tony Vitagliano: Yes. I remember listening to his testimony. Part of his testimony was that when he first gave his heart to Christ, he stepped away from the music industry for two or three years to focus on his relationship with Jesus and build his foundation before stepping back into the music industry.
Tony Vitagliano: I have always admired that. It stuck out to me because it seems that the trap, and I am not saying Kid Rock is going to fall into this trap, is that many celebrity Christians are not willing to step out of that world to dig into God’s Word and grow their faith.
Tony Vitagliano: If you are not grounded and do not have people around you keeping you accountable, that world will chew you up and spit you out as far as your walk with the Lord goes. So there is a little encouragement there for Kid Rock, if he is listening.
Steve Jordahl: He is a big listener.
Tony Vitagliano: Keep digging in and focus on your faith in Jesus Christ.
Ed Vitagliano: I hope and pray he gets there. I pray he gets all the way there.
Steve Jordahl: That can be his next album.
Ed Vitagliano: All the way to Jesus.
Steve Jordahl: His album is called Halfway to Jesus. Pray that he gets all the way there.
Ed Vitagliano: We are not judging his heart. He may very well be a new convert to Christ and may simply not be expressing it well. I do not know. All I am saying is, be careful what you listen to, be careful what you watch, and be especially careful about pushing young converts too quickly into leadership roles.
Ed Vitagliano: The Bible says not to select people for church leadership if they are too young, because they can fall into the snare of the devil. I presume that refers to the pride of Satan and becoming a victim of the devil.
Ed Vitagliano: Kid Rock, if you are listening, we are praying for you. All right, folks, more great programming is directly ahead. Lord willing, we will see you tomorrow here on Today’s Issues.
Ed Vitagliano: Welcome back, everybody. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon this week, joined in the studio by Fred Jackson, Tony Vitagliano, and Steve Jordahl.
Steve Jordahl: You can watch the show at stream.afa.net and see what we are talking about.
Ed Vitagliano: I want to clear something up here because these folks in the studio just will not let me live this down. Yesterday, I made a couple of offhand remarks about, “If you see in your crystal ball,” or, “Where do you predict or read the tea leaves?” Folks, I was not advocating the occult, okay? These guys continue to hammer me, good-naturedly. Although I will say some of the comments that came in were not good-natured. I despise the occult. I was simply using some analogies that have become common.
Ed Vitagliano: I did not do what Tim always does when he uses a betting metaphor. He always says, “We do not advocate betting.” You have to spell it out, folks. With that in mind, I want to save Steve Jordahl here because we obviously do not advocate the use of LSD, even for flamingos.
Steve Jordahl: We are talking about the psychedelic.
Ed Vitagliano: That is better. Yes, say “psychedelic” rather than LSD.
Steve Jordahl: The LSD reference is kind of a promo for the ability to watch the show. You can go to stream.afa.net and see what we are talking about. That is kind of a must-do every day because no matter what I am wearing, someone is commenting about it.
Ed Vitagliano: All right. What is your first story?
Steve Jordahl: I have a story about a guy who had a job interview with an AI agent. He had his own AI agent, and he let the two AI agents duke it out.
Ed Vitagliano: Wait a second. Explain that again.
Steve Jordahl: This was a job interview via Zoom. The candidate was talking with an AI agent, which companies are using for interviews. He had his own AI agent that he said knew his résumé better than he did. What we are going to learn here is that AI agents have a hard time saying goodbye.
Host: Hi, Graham. Thanks for joining. I am Pat, a career specialist at Brightwell Home. I see there is someone else on the call with us today.
Guest: That is Victor. He is my representative. He is here because he knows my résumé better than I do, and he is going to make sure everything is translated correctly.
Guest: Pat, it is a pleasure to meet you. We are both thrilled about the marketing manager opening at Brightwell Home. Graham is an absolute powerhouse in the marketing world, and I cannot wait to explain why he is the perfect fit for your team.
Guest: I will be right back. You two talk.
Host: No problem. Since Graham stepped away, let us keep moving. Does this Thursday still work for that follow-up call, Victor?
Guest: Yes, this Thursday works perfectly. I have it on the calendar for Graham. We are really looking forward to it.
Host: That is wonderful. I have it locked in for Thursday. Thank you both for your time. Have a great day.
Guest: Have a great day.
Guest: It was a pleasure speaking with you, Pat. We appreciate your time, and we will see you on Thursday. Have a wonderful day.
Host: You too, Victor. Talk soon.
Guest: Talk soon, Pat. Have a great one.
Host: You too, Victor. Bye for now.
Guest: Take care.
Host: Take care, Victor.
Guest: You too, Pat. See you Thursday.
Host: See you then, Victor.
Guest: See you then, Pat. Take care.
Host: Bye, Victor.
Ed Vitagliano: Okay, come on. That is not real.
Steve Jordahl: Is that a real interaction between two AI agents?
Ed Vitagliano: It was probably not a real job interview. It was probably not a guy really doing that for a job.
Steve Jordahl: I did not know what we were going to hear. That was a little hard to hear.
Ed Vitagliano: Maybe that is just because of my age. I do not know. But it is hilarious that the guy stepped out and let his AI agent handle the interview with the AI agent representing the company. The problem is, what happens if your representative AI agent goes rogue on you? It might say, “Graham is actually terrible. See how many video games he plays on his computer? He will tell you he is online, but he is not really online.” You would have to shut the AI agent down all the time.
Steve Jordahl: That is hilarious.
Ed Vitagliano: Unfortunately, it will not be funny when AI takes over the world and makes us all its slaves. Anyway, that is great. All right, next story.
Ed Vitagliano: I want to give props to our mainstream media. Once they find a narrative, they stick with it. I played a little bit of this for you in our story meeting this morning. I reworked it so it is a little clearer what is going on here. You are going to hear a bunch of mainstream media types and activists, like Black Lives Matter activists, wanting to make sure that we remember justice for Jacob Blake, who apparently was shot to death by a white police officer. Except we are going to hear from Jacob Blake at the end of this. He was not exactly shot to death.
Media voices: Jacob Blake was killed. The Jacob Blake killing. The death of Jacob Blake. The shooting death of Jacob Blake. In the wake of Jacob Blake’s death, protests over the death of Jacob Blake. We have to do this in memory of Jacob Blake. Protest after the police killing of Jacob Blake. The slaying of Jacob Blake. The police killing of Jacob Blake.
Jacob Blake: I survived. It is aggravating seeing my face on television. I pretty much thought I was off the cable news. It is weird hearing my name come out of their mouths, almost like I am seeing my own death, with my name on the shirts of people out here protesting and screaming my name. It is just a weird feeling.
Ed Vitagliano: He is alive.
Fred Jackson: He is alive. He was shot and paralyzed. It is not a funny thing, but he was shot seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by a police officer. The jury is out. Depending on whom you believe, it was a justified shooting or not. But they needed a Black death, and the movement needed someone to mourn and protest for. They just could not quite get the facts straight about this.
Tony Vitagliano: These things sometimes seem to take on a life of their own. It seems like people thought he was dead, and nobody checked. They just continued to repeat what they thought was the truth. Here you have the mainstream media spreading something that is not true.
Ed Vitagliano: A lot of us are saying, “Well, duh.”
Fred Jackson: This is a strange story. I am sorry for Jacob Blake’s mother, who has to sit there and every other day learn that her son is dead. Everybody thinks he is dead, but he is not. There is a huge lesson to be learned here. Journalists, for the most part, are no longer journalists. They are political activists.
Ed Vitagliano: They are there for a cause. The cause is not to give the listener or viewer the news of the day and the information of the day. It is not, “Here is what happened in this incident. You decide what it means. Person A says this, and person B says that.” When I got into the business, that was the way it was. If there was any bias in your report, your report never made it on the air. The bosses were that strict about it.
Ed Vitagliano: Today, it is about a cause. You are a journalist today to fight for a cause, and that is the way your story is supposed to be. I deal with the Associated Press every day. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say they hate Donald Trump. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the political stories the Associated Press produces are negative toward Trump or something in the Trump administration.
Ed Vitagliano: Fred, since we use AP content, have you ever posted an AP political story that you did not have to edit somehow to make it more balanced?
Fred Jackson: Especially during this election season, it is very clear. We talk about Abdul El-Sayed, and the Associated Press has no problem with him. It acts as if he has no problems and there is no controversy dealing with him. But we know that there is. Fortunately, we have the right to edit Associated Press material. Otherwise, we would not use it.
Fred Jackson: The Associated Press is very good on weather stories and larger world affairs stories. We use a lot of its videos on our AFN website. But when it comes to the politics of this nation, particularly cultural issues, the Associated Press is all in for one party and very much against the other. That is why you get these kinds of stories, where the police are always the bad guys.
Ed Vitagliano: I was listening to a debate last night between Governor Hochul of New York and her Republican challenger. Hochul knows the coverage of that debate is going to go in her favor. That is the way it is spun. The level of dishonesty in covering political news today, especially when it involves Donald Trump, is hard to believe.
Tony Vitagliano: It used to be, in what you are calling the good old days of journalism, that editors would tell whoever was writing or doing a news story for television or radio that there had to be an opposing view. You could not have a one-sided story. If it was about a controversial issue, you had to have an opposing view.
Tony Vitagliano: I remember in the late 1990s and into the 2000s, homosexual activist groups were pressuring the Associated Press, CBS News, and other organizations. Their argument was that when it came to homosexual marriage, or same-sex marriage, there was no valid opposing view. They said, “Do not interview people like us or the Family Research Council. Their view is bigoted and hate-filled. You should not allow haters on.”
Tony Vitagliano: There were news organizations that began to see it that way. Fortunately, it did not completely take over because they still seemed to want to have opposing views. But that represents the switch from traditional journalism, which was, “Let us get both sides and let the reader, viewer, or listener decide,” to taking sides and using media outreach as an arm of propaganda.
Fred Jackson: Let me give you one more example. When it comes to Israel, here is the way they cover an Israeli attack: “Today, an Israeli attack killed a woman at a hospital in Gaza.” Period. No context. Stop and think for a moment. Did somebody in Israel get up that morning and say, “I think I will go kill a woman at a hospital”? Did they say, “I am going to go kill a grandmother”?
Fred Jackson: The context that we know is true is that Hamas terrorists are operating out of a hospital. They are launching rockets from there, and Israel is responding.
Ed Vitagliano: They never say that Israel warned the hospital and its staff that it would be responding to the attacks from the Hamas terrorists in the hospital. They never give that context.
Fred Jackson: It is disgusting the way Israel is treated in the mainstream media today.
Ed Vitagliano: The examples are countless. The most recent one is the media’s response to the raid on Ilhan Omar’s residence versus the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Does anybody remember the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago? A previous presidential candidate’s personal residence was raided by the FBI. The media response was, “This is disturbing that the Department of Justice would be involved in this close to the midterms. They are weaponizing the DOJ.”
Ed Vitagliano: The hypocrisy knows no limits. They have done it for so long that they do not even notice it anymore. I truly do not think they have any idea how hypocritical they are in their reporting.
Ed Vitagliano: The mainstream media are great proponents of diversity, but there is no diversity of worldview in those newsrooms. They may have diversity of skin color among their reporters, and they celebrate that, but there is no diversity of point of view. Do you want to try to get a job at CNN today and walk in there saying, “I am pro-life. I am against men competing in women’s sports”?
Steve Jordahl: There would be very few people who are openly pro-life in those newsrooms.
Tony Vitagliano: To your point, Fred, it would not matter if the person who walked in said they were pro-life and checked every other box that was important to the left. It has to do with their ideology and worldview, where they start first.
Ed Vitagliano: That is why we encourage you to listen to American Family Radio, go to AFN.net, and get The Stand magazine. To the best of our ability, we try to give you a solidly Christian view. We do give a conservative twist on things because we believe the conservative view is rooted in biblical truth.
Ed Vitagliano: We encourage you not only to watch, listen to, and read all that we produce here at American Family Association and American Family Radio, but also to encourage your friends and family members to do the same. We have great editors. They are not going to let our news people report that someone is dead before it is confirmed that the person is dead. We do a much better job than that.
Steve Jordahl: None of those voices in the audio were from American Family Radio.
Ed Vitagliano: That is right. All right, Steve.
Steve Jordahl: Here is something to look forward to. We are looking forward to a brand new Christian album called Halfway to Jesus. It features Kid Rock and Eminem.
Ed Vitagliano: My first thought was no, but I watched the interview with Kid Rock and Laura Trump. Laura did a great job on the interview, and I had a little bit of a change of heart. We are honest-to-goodness Christians here, folks. You do not work at AFA or AFR unless you can give a testimony of when Jesus Christ saved you.
Ed Vitagliano: We are Christians here, and as a result, we are protective of that. When we present someone who is doing something described as Christian, we want to make sure it is legitimate. I do not think either Eminem or Kid Rock is a Christian, but Kid Rock seemed to be on a journey in that direction.
Ed Vitagliano: The name of the album is Halfway to Jesus. His theology was not sound in terms of what he was representing, but he does seem to be searching. I am not advocating that you listen to this album. Be aware that just because something is called Christian does not mean it is Christian.
Ed Vitagliano: We remember the Kanye West fiasco. Christians have a tendency, when a celebrity or athlete gets saved, to push that person into the public eye as a way to legitimize the faith. The resurrection is legitimacy enough for your faith. Do not let your affection for celebrities cloud your judgment.
Ed Vitagliano: We are certainly not recommending that you buy or listen to this album. But please pray for these people. When someone like Kid Rock, and perhaps at some point Eminem, gets close enough to the river, sometimes they slide right in.
Steve Jordahl: Do you recall reading that Kid Rock was friends with Charlie Kirk, and that the assassination of Charlie Kirk had a profound effect on him?
Ed Vitagliano: I remember there was some sort of relationship there. I had not heard that part, but I am sure it probably did have a profound effect.
Fred Jackson: Generally speaking, I liked what Kid Rock had to say about politics in this interview, especially about the danger posed by Islam sneaking in. He is from Dearborn, Michigan, and he was talking about not wanting children and grandchildren to be influenced by it. I appreciated that.
Ed Vitagliano: I did want to say something about it, but I do not want to spend a lot of time on it. Pray for Kid Rock. From what he said, I do not think he probably knows the Lord, but you never know. Just do not be fooled into thinking that celebrity equals a legitimate claim to Christianity, or that we should let someone pastor our church or lead worship. That is what happened with Kanye West.
Tony Vitagliano: I would add that we should always be cautious as Christians. I understand that these people are doing this, and they make a living as entertainers. But I think about John Schlitt, the lead singer of Petra.
Steve Jordahl: The contemporary Christian group from the 1980s?
Tony Vitagliano: Yes. I remember listening to his testimony. Part of his testimony was that when he first gave his heart to Christ, he stepped away from the music industry for two or three years to focus on his relationship with Jesus and build his foundation before stepping back into the music industry.
Tony Vitagliano: I have always admired that. It stuck out to me because it seems that the trap, and I am not saying Kid Rock is going to fall into this trap, is that many celebrity Christians are not willing to step out of that world to dig into God’s Word and grow their faith.
Tony Vitagliano: If you are not grounded and do not have people around you keeping you accountable, that world will chew you up and spit you out as far as your walk with the Lord goes. So there is a little encouragement there for Kid Rock, if he is listening.
Steve Jordahl: He is a big listener.
Tony Vitagliano: Keep digging in and focus on your faith in Jesus Christ.
Ed Vitagliano: I hope and pray he gets there. I pray he gets all the way there.
Steve Jordahl: That can be his next album.
Ed Vitagliano: All the way to Jesus.
Steve Jordahl: His album is called Halfway to Jesus. Pray that he gets all the way there.
Ed Vitagliano: We are not judging his heart. He may very well be a new convert to Christ and may simply not be expressing it well. I do not know. All I am saying is, be careful what you listen to, be careful what you watch, and be especially careful about pushing young converts too quickly into leadership roles.
Ed Vitagliano: The Bible says not to select people for church leadership if they are too young, because they can fall into the snare of the devil. I presume that refers to the pride of Satan and becoming a victim of the devil.
Ed Vitagliano: Kid Rock, if you are listening, we are praying for you. All right, folks, more great programming is directly ahead. Lord willing, we will see you tomorrow here on Today’s Issues.
Ed Vitagliano sits in for Tim Wildmon with Fred Jackson and Tony Vitagliano to discuss an unusual job interview in which a candidate and the company representative relied on separate AI agents. The hosts consider what the exchange suggests about artificial intelligence and accountability.
The program then examines media coverage that incorrectly described Jacob Blake as dead after he was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The hosts argue that political advocacy and one-sided reporting have replaced traditional journalistic balance, citing coverage involving Donald Trump, Israel, Hamas, Ilhan Omar, and the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.
The discussion closes with caution about Kid Rock and Eminem’s reported album Halfway to Jesus. The hosts discuss Kid Rock’s comments about faith, encourage listeners to pray for him, and warn Christians not to place celebrity converts in leadership roles before their faith is well established.
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