Greg Kelly — who hosts shows on both 77 WABC in New York and nationally on conservative cable news outlet Newsmax — is one of the hardest-working men in the industry.
“I am working approximately 11 hours a day, developing content for, two programs that I host,” Kelly told Barrett News Media over a Zoom call.
His shows have no scripts, and provide incredibly unique, very engaging content for his listeners.
Before joining the media Greg Kelly, like his famous father Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, served in the Marine Corps. The younger Kelly retired from the Marines with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before gracing America’s TV stations.
With over 20 years experience, he has covered some of the most important national events of our time. Even being injured while covering the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Artificial Intelligence
While some on the left find him controversial, many right-leaning voters seek his wisdom — including on Artificial Intelligence being used in the media.
“I have experimented with all of the chatbots, especially, ChatGPT, and honestly for all the hype, I recognize that there are aspects to AI that are not necessarily accessible to the consumer or the user.”
Kelly added, “There are things going on with supercomputers and whatnot. But, I had not been impressed, quite frankly, with the output of, artificial intelligence. You can usually spot it right away. The questions that I’ve asked it, have not yielded usable results. To me, it’s like a crude Wikipedia. It just doesn’t, and it’s not as useful as even Wikipedia or your basic data you can find on the internet.”
When asked about concerns on how Artificial Intelligence is going to affect the election this year, Kelly said, “Well, I’ve seen these things myself, and you can kind of spot them right away. And I think the American voter and the American media consumer has achieved a certain level of sophistication. So, no, I’m not particularly concerned.”
Greg Kelly went on to give an example.
“The other day I saw something — Alvin Bragg announcing his resignation — and I knew in about a second and a half that it was fake. So these things are out there. It’s like a political cartoon. I would almost liken it to the political cartoons of yesteryear.”
He continued to say, “People can have a pretty good ability to figure out what’s true and what’s not in terms of what you’re talking about. The deep, the I guess they follow of deepfakes or whatever. Those things I think are detectable.”
Trust in Media
To be better media consumers Kelly believes viewers and listeners should do their own research before blindly following talking heads.
“Why rely on the media to give you a summary of things that you can access yourself? You know, for instance, these indictments of Donald Trump have been floating around,” he said. “I’ve yet to meet anybody who’s read one. I’ve yet to meet anyone, including folks in the media who actually sat down and read those 92 pages of Justice Engoron, [which were] released last Friday.”
He added, “You can, as a citizen, as a person, access this material there’s no need for, I mean, theoretically, for you to rely on anyone else to tell you about it. Most likely the person telling you about it hasn’t actually read it. They’re relying on yet somebody else’s summary.”
Greg Kelly went on to say, “Why do we need people who we know will distorting and almost I’m not saying that’s necessarily malicious, although often it is. But why go through that step? Why do we need people on the news at night to tell us things that we can access ourselves?”
He also recognized the limitations of working people saying, “Now, I understand, you know, the daily ritual that people are working in, that kind of thing. But, you know, people do consume a lot of content on their phones and elsewhere. I have been urging people to, you know, if you want to be as smart or smarter than somebody from The New York Times, read the primary source documents, which are often accessible to all of us.”
Advice to the Next Generation
His advice for young aspiring media personalities begins with a question.
“I would ask them first ‘Why?’ What is it you want to do?” Kelly later added, “I do think it’s important to experience life before you start kind of evaluating things. I think it’s very important to learn a skill.”
Once one has the answer to that question, Kelly’s advice is both lengthy and wise.
“Number one: Read a lot of nonfiction. Everybody reads tweets. Everybody is surfing the internet. Very few people read books. That’s important. And no matter really what it is, personally, if you are interested in current events, politics, I do recommend nonfiction bestsellers. It is absolutely incredible what people are not reading.”
Greg Kelly continued by saying, “I would suggest, if you’re genuinely curious about what’s happening in the world — and that’s kind of where my impetus to do this kind of stuff is based on curiosity. And that’s kind of a rare thing I’ve come to discover. I thought more people were curious. I thought everybody had a level of curiosity. I’m shocked at how incurious people are. But I would say, yeah, read a lot of nonfiction.”
Second, Kelly advises, “I would say, try thinking about acquiring a skill. A true skill that is marketable, that you can make money from. Whether it’s becoming a pilot, whether it’s becoming an engineer, and then possibly embarking in media. We don’t know what it’s going to look like in a couple of years, right? Seems to be changing rather fast.
“I also tell people, no matter how old they are, if they’re asking me for advice, to do what I did about ten years ago, which was start reading the Bible. I took it for granted and I didn’t think too deeply about faith. In my earlier years, I was an atheist for a while. But about ten years ago, I started reading the Bible a bit more seriously.”
He succinctly wrapped up his advice by stating, “Start reading. Think about getting a skill and faith is important. I encourage them to take the journey if they wish.”
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
