People are angry about the Epstein Files not being released yet. But what does that have to do with news/talk radio hosts?
Pretty much everything, truthfully.
For nearly a decade now, news/talk radio hosts have echoed sentiments from President Donald Trump to wide swaths of conservative radio listeners. Many have marched in lockstep with the President in whatever stance he took, capitalizing on the popularity of the politics in the process.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game, as they say. I can’t necessarily knock news/talk radio hosts for aligning themselves so closely with a popular political candidate. Could I personally do it? No. But there’s a reason those hosts are making six figures, and I’m typing this from a spare bedroom in my house.
Since his death by apparent suicide in 2019, Jeffrey Epstein has been a hot-button topic in political circles. And the complete lack of transparency in the release of the Epstein Files has been a gigantic frustration to millions of Americans who want answers. Some want the files as a way to denigrate their political opposition, while others believe that a cabal of coastal elites has been operating as sex fiends patiently waiting for Epstein to provide them with their next underage escapade.
For whatever reason, people want the files released, the point remains the same: the overwhelming majority of Americans want to see the files. They want to see the list. The idea that Ghislaine Maxwell is rotting in a prison cell for helping Jeffrey Epstein sex traffic minors to absolutely no one isn’t lost on folks.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Fox News selectively edited an interview with Trump to make it seem as if he definitively stated he would release the Epstein Files. Now, though, Trump is backtracking.
“I don’t understand it, why they would be so interested,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “He’s dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is. I really don’t.”
In a post to his Truth Social account, Trump said that anyone who believes “the Jeffrey Epstein hoax” isn’t a supporter of his, adding that they “have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.”
That comes after Trump took great issue with being asked about the Epstein Files last week, getting snippy with a reporter who dared ask why the files haven’t been released.
Now, I don’t really want to get into why the President of the United States, who was very clearly friends with the disgraced financier for decades, wants to disassociate himself from the scandal and why he’d advocate against the release of the files. I’ll let you connect those dots, which aren’t all that difficult to put together.
But it does put news/talk radio hosts in a hell of a spot, doesn’t it?
On one hand, many have built their brands on being the most ardent supporters of Donald Trump. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen smiling pictures with fawning radio hosts standing beside Trump, smiling at being in the mere proximity of power, while he gives a thumbs up beside the host.
You’ve seen some of those hosts mimic Trump’s statements in recent days. Clay Travis, co-host of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, said that “This story is not a story. The number one thing to do is just to move on.”
Salem Radio Network host Charlie Kirk responded similarly, saying he was “done talking about Epstein for the time being. I’m gonna trust my friends in the administration. I’m gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done.”
Now, Kirk insists that he wasn’t done talking about the Epstein Files, despite clearly saying he was done talking about it. His argument was that he hosted a Turning Point USA event over the weekend where others like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson spoke at length about the topic. And that he was only saying that it was off his radar for that specific show. He’d like everyone to disregard the notion that he said he’d stop talking about the Epstein Files moments after Trump essentially called on his followers to move on from the story.
And that’s where the fork in the road comes. It feels as if, from my perspective, you can either do what the audience wants you to do — which is talk about the Epstein Files, continue to ask why more and more details aren’t being released and why major figures in American society aren’t being held accountable — or you can do what the President wants you to do, and stop talking about it and move on to other items. It can’t be both. That feels like a Catch-22.
Some radio hosts operate with a fundamental misunderstanding of the medium. Topics discussed on your show shouldn’t be what you want to talk about. They should be what the audience wants to hear about. Granted, some hosts have the ability to make what they want to discuss “Topic A” for everyone else, and kudos to them for possessing that skill. But the majority of hosts are simply reacting to the news on their shows. And when the audience decides what is and isn’t news, you’re at their mercy.
So what are news/talk radio hosts going to do? If you’ve blindly followed whatever Trump has said and parroted his stance on whatever the topic du jour is, you’ve built your bed and now it’s time to lie in it, no? But that also makes you a hypocrite, doesn’t it? Because while your brand and style might have been built on being anti-establishment, anti-swamp, or anti-deep state, doesn’t taking your marching orders from those in Washington, D.C., torpedo that argument? Doesn’t acting as a sycophant and doing the bidding of what the most powerful people in the world want you to do make you part of the establishment?
This is one of the first times that the MAGA movement hasn’t been in lockstep with President Trump. And while news/talk radio hosts have gladly courted those listeners, this feels like a do-or-die moment from my perspective. You can’t serve two masters. Are you going to serve your audience, or are you going to serve President Trump, who is very clearly desperate for the Epstein Files story to go away?
That choice is yours and yours alone. But I can’t say I’m envious of those who have to make it.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
