Editor's Note:Let Comcast know how you feel about this merger by posting on their Facebook page. And send us your message for Comcast to LettersForComcast@theblaze.com - we will find ways to make your voice on this important issue heard.
After listening to Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) hold Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen’s feet to the fire on Capitol Hill on Thursday and speaking to David and Jason Benham on radio this morning about HGTV cutting ties with them over their Christian views, Glenn delivered an impassioned monologue in which he asked his listeners to “be still and know that He is God.”
Below is a rough transcript of the monologue:
I want to talk to you one-on-one here for a second. I had a really hard time with that last interview. It was really hard time. I went on yesterday, and we were talking about David and Jason Benham. Here are two guys that had a show that was supposed to air beginning next year on HGTV. And the national socialists have come out again it and decided they will silence anyone they disagree with. And yesterday, we read this story in the Washington Post about these guys. nd you know, they made them sound like the Westboro Baptist Church guys. They made it sound like they hate gays and they hate Muslims and everything else. And I said, on the air: If that's what they're saying, I don't want anything to do with them because Jesus doesn't teach anybody to hate. You could have a differing opinion, and I have many friends who have differing opinions. I have Baptists who quite honestly think I'm going to go to hell because of my faith. And that's fine. And I love them. And they are my friends. And I have atheists who think I'm going to end up in a dirt box. And I love them, and I embrace them. And they are my friends. I have members of my own faith that hate me because they think that I'm too loud and boisterous and whatever. And I love them. And I beg all of them to discount the messenger because I am wildly flawed. And I just try my best to do it.
This morning I came in, and I was talking to one of my good friends and a guy I consider a good counselor and I said, ‘I don't know what else I can do. I don't know what else God wants from me.’ I really am to the point to where I think that when I'm finished with my mission on earth, I will just drop dead – when I speak my last word that I was supposed to say because there are so many things in our lives that we're seeing full-fledged miracles on that just shouldn't happen, couldn't happen.
I don't know how Pat makes it in every day because of the extraordinary pain that he is in every day. And I know it's because of his faith and his sheer willpower that is making him stand every day. And everybody said that this network wouldn't work. And we'd never be able to get anybody to subscribe to it. And I am, quite honestly, very frustrated. And we started the show today with what Louie Gohmert and several other congressman and senators said yesterday in testimony on Capitol Hill against Comcast and their merger with Time Warner. And I will tell you that without getting into any details, or anyone in particular, it is companies like Comcast that stand in the way of you hearing the truth. It is companies like Comcast that now want to double in size by gobbling Time Warner, which is already in that sphere. And they are government regulated. They rely on special favors from the government and whoever the president is and all of the senators and everybody else. And so they kowtow. And they will kowtow to not only the government power, but they will kowtow to all of the sponsors' power. And then they will kowtow to all of the big networks like NBC – Comcast is NBC Universal – because that is nothing but a content company. And they've got all of these networks and they need all of that content, and those companies, when they become popular, they, quite honestly, I think some of them extort money out of these cable providers because they think they can. And they're irreplaceable.
The arrogance on all fronts is just astounding. And that's why when you call your cable company, they don't care about you. Honestly, they don't even care about the American market anymore. Truth be told, all they care about is expanding overseas because those are growth markets. They're expecting 20, 30, and 40% growth overseas. This market is collapsing. And so they don't care about you anymore. And that's the truth. And that's the truth that nobody will tell you. But I am seeing the game from the inside and it's despicable.
I really don't know what I'm doing. And that's not a surprise to anybody. But I believe in something. And I believe that good people coming together for a common cause can change the world. And the world is about to change entirely. Whether I like it or not, whether you're for it or against it, it's about to change. And it already is. And those with power are trying to get it to change their way so they will be able to gobble up even more power. And that's why they are so afraid of anybody that disagrees with them. They are terrified of them. That's why they don't want people like these two guys that had a stupid show on HGTV. What difference do they make? ‘Shut them up. Make sure they don't have a place in our society. Send the message very clear. You won't work. You won't eat. You won't be accepted anywhere in society. You'll be a pariah.’ Why? Because have you a different opinion. If you hate, that's one thing. But if you have a different opinion? Who the hell are we, America? Who are we?
I was so frustrated when I was speaking to them because I don't know what else I can do. And when they said, ‘There needs to be a network that will stand.’ I know that we are that network. That's what I was told to do, told to produce. I spend every dime that I make in this company. I don't have a big fat bank account anymore. I spent it all on this. And I'm glad I did. But there are companies like Comcast and others like that that don't care. They're protecting their future business. They're protecting their cronies. Important companies like HGTV who might have courage, but they didn't build a network that didn't care about advertisers who disagreed with them. I've tried to do that from the very beginning. I've tried to do that.
Your $10 a month if you subscribe to TheBlaze, that's what's kept us alive. We have sponsors. We have more sponsors than some. We actually make more money than some networks that have 60 million households. We have six million, and we make more money. But we also spend more money on production because everybody else is running old Three's Company episodes. We're not. And there's so much more that we have to do.
And I was frustrated during this because had they said there has to be a network. I don't know if they were saying that it should be like TheBlaze. But I wish I would have been in the position to say, ‘I'm going to do a little more checking on you guys, and if you guys really are who you appear to be here, we're proud to hold your show.’ If you can also understand that if I had money, I would do a show with Penn Jillette too because he doesn't hate anybody. He used to. He told me he hated people like me. But he doesn't now. He respects people like me, as long as you respect him. That's who we're supposed to be.
There's a story up on TheBlaze today, and it's tending to go everywhere about what Louie Gohmert and these other congressmen and senators said yesterday to the chairman of Comcast. I will tell you, it has been really hard to know what we know, to have the facts that we have, and to see what we have seen. This is the second network and maybe the third – the second network that we have tried to purchase outright and have been stopped because of my political or religious opinion. And that's okay. I was in Denver yesterday working on another deal because that one has fallen through now because of my political opinion. I don't know why this next deal will fall through.
And I get on to a plane every time. After I have given all that I can give, and I am asking the same question every time, ‘What else can I do? What is Your plan because I'm trying to work all the earthly plans and none of them are working. So You tell me. And it is up to You.’ And He's brought me to a point to where I literally cannot stand without Him. Our company can't function without Him. Our country cannot function without Him. And we are seeing men and women of all walks of life – I will stand with anybody who is homosexual that is losing their job because of haters who say, ‘We won't hire any homosexuals.’ I have stood in a theater with that very purpose. Someone was hating on one of the guys who was working on my staff who is homosexual. And he didn't know that I – oh my gosh – had two homosexuals on my staff and the other one wasn't out and flamboyant. And he came into my dressing room in tears and said, ‘I don't know how to work here, Glenn.’ He said, ‘I'm afraid of some of these people.’ And he told me what they said. And I went to the general manager, and I said, ‘We will not do a show here. And we will never, ever, ever do a show here again, if this is the way you treat people.’
I will stand with anyone who's decent and honorable and hard working. I don't know what – I'm not asking you to do anything. I guess the only point of this rant is: Be still and know that He is God.