All Episodes
Sept. 3, 2025 - Knowledge Fight
03:15:41
#1073: Farewell, Sweet Ding-Dong

In this installment, Dan and Jordan convene an emergency meeting to discuss the breaking news that Owen Shroyer has quit his job at Infowars, where they attempt to figure out how everything went wrong.

Participants
Main voices
d
dan friesen
01:34:49
j
jordan holmes
45:39
o
owen shroyer
43:37
Appearances
a
alex jones
01:24
Clips
b
bob from buby
00:33
k
kevin from chicago
00:12
n
natalie from north dakota
00:31
Callers
jordan in chicago
00:47
marissa in colorado
01:04
tom in chicago
00:44
| Copy link to current segment

Speaker Time Text
alex jones
Owen is busting his ass, doing more than I ever did at his age, and I hope he will be overshadowed soon when I go.
Owen Troyer.
Well, you've already had your mic attacked.
That's in the news.
owen shroyer
You were just attacked at her.
You can't ask me right now.
alex jones
Yeah, let's talk to him.
Let's go talk to him.
Because I know somebody screamed at Roger that he was a traitor.
They're attacking him.
He didn't touch them.
They assaulted him.
They had been trained for this.
You got a lot of cameras on listening.
unidentified
I'm going to go right for three minutes to you.
alex jones
He wants to try to humanize them and talk to them.
He gets baited, and I'm not mad at Owen.
This is real TV and radio.
So you're in front of all the news cameras.
It's like I'm a ghost trying to talk to living things.
unidentified
What's what you like?
alex jones
Like, you know, your child is using pentamine.
I'm a ghost.
unidentified
I saw it.
I saw it.
I'm a ghost.
alex jones
They'll take it away.
It's under their bed.
They don't hear me.
Owen, speak to the news cameras about what happened to Roger.
owen shroyer
He didn't have a server.
alex jones
It's weird.
That way.
But it's okay.
This is how it always works.
So that's that.
No more coverage from Owen Stroyer.
If they say something to him, he's got to respond to him.
And then that's the end of it.
So do your own live feeds, Owen.
a great job.
unidentified
This is what the fake news has done to this country.
This is what the Democrats...
alex jones
Did they just grab our mic?
It's lost audio.
Let Owen know they need to reconnect.
The wire got pulled out.
owen shroyer
You get a statement for Alice Jones?
jordan holmes
Fuck you.
That's what you get.
dan friesen
Welcome back to Knowledge Fight.
unidentified
I'm Dan.
jordan holmes
I'm Jordan.
dan friesen
We are a couple dudes.
We just like to sit around, worship at the altar of sleep and talk a little bit about Alex Jones.
jordan holmes
Oh, indeed we are, Dan.
dan friesen
Having a little giggle attack because we had not listened to that DJ Dan Arkey new remix.
jordan holmes
Absolute gold.
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
Oh, great.
What wonderful stuff.
jordan holmes
This world, all right?
You used to have to wait weeks, nay, months for someone to put together music that would be a modicum of music.
dan friesen
And they'd have to put it in a wax cylinder.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
dan friesen
And send it over by horse.
jordan holmes
Less than 24 hours, this motherfucker has ripped audio from the goddamn world and turned it into something amazing.
dan friesen
Owen Schroyer announced that he would quit at InfoWars less than 24 hours before we're recording right now.
jordan holmes
Wild.
Yesterday was a day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Wow.
So do I. Thank you, Dan Arkey.
That was amazing.
jordan holmes
That was amazing.
dan friesen
How can that not be a bright spot?
jordan holmes
I mean, there can't be a greater bright spot than that.
dan friesen
Yeah.
But arguably, I would say that today is a tough day to have a bright spot.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Because the world is a little dimmer.
A Because Owen Troyer is no longer an info warrior.
jordan holmes
Does that, does that interesting?
What if you're removing a shade?
Does that mean that there's more light?
It's brighter out.
dan friesen
I don't know.
Why didn't you ask Bill Gates what's going to happen when he removes the blocking of the zone?
jordan holmes
The blocking of the zone, that's a good point.
Well, I mean, would it not be brighter?
Because it would just raise the level of normal.
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
Right?
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
So it would have to be Yeah.
dan friesen
Sure.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Okay.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
Here's the situation.
I'm abstaining from a bright spot and reverence for Owen Troyer.
Okay.
You have a bright spot??
jordan holmes
No, we we share, I mean, if one, then the other.
I think that makes most, most sense.
dan friesen
That's fair.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
That's fair.
Yeah.
I went through so many emotions in figuring out what I was going to do.
Yeah.
I thought about The Sound of Silence.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
I thought about Michelle Branch's great song Goodbye to You.
jordan holmes
Fair enough.
dan friesen
There's a lot of farewell type songs.
jordan holmes
There are there are quite a few.
dan friesen
A lot of needle drops I was thinking about making, but I decided none of them.
jordan holmes
How many songs have Owen in them?
An Owen.
Or how many songs refer to an Owen?
Is there Taylor Swift?
Does Taylor Swift talk about an Owen in her life?
dan friesen
I listened to all of her albums and reviewed them.
jordan holmes
That was you should know.
That was a long time ago.
dan friesen
You should know if anyone.
jordan holmes
I listened to the Throw It Away.
dan friesen
I know the hits.
She doesn't mention Owen in blank space.
jordan holmes
No, I can't remember an Owen.
dan friesen
Owen was not trouble when he walked in.
Hmm.
jordan holmes
No.
dan friesen
I look, hey, shit's tough.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's tough.
And we have an episode today to talk about what has happened in the last, I mean, it's not just the last 24 hours, really.
This is a culmination of some things that have been bubbling under the surface.
And, what a mess.
What?
A mess.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
So, we'll get down to business business on some of that.
But first, let's take a little moment to say hello to some of you.
jordan holmes
Oh, it's a great idea.
dan friesen
So first, sorry for dragging you into this bronchle.
Thank you so much, Journal of Politics Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
unidentified
Thank you.
dan friesen
Next, Brian, the 44-year-old former Mormon father of six faithfully and fastidiously making his way through the full knowledge fight catalog.
Thank you so much, Journal of Politics Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
dan friesen
Thank you, and Isamadian E. Alex.
Thank you so much, Journal of Politics Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
dan friesen
I decided not to cheat because there is phonetic spelling after it.
jordan holmes
I gave you the opportunity.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I was off.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And we get a technical grid in the mix.
So thank you so much to too.
Charlie Sheets says trans rights.
Thank you so much.
You're an Iowa technocrat.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
kevin from chicago
Four stars.
alex jones
Go home to your mother and tell her you're brilliant.
Someone, someone, Sodomite sent me a bucket of poop.
Daddy Sharp.
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
Jar Jar Binks has a Caribbean black accent.
unidentified
He's a loser little, little titty baby.
alex jones
I don't want to hate black people.
I renounce Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
Thank you so much.
jordan holmes
Yes, thank you very much.
dan friesen
So Jordan, we've really, we've hit the ground running.
Right.
I think that the intro theme song and just some sort of palpable excitement.
Yeah.
has made it so we can't we've started with a piece of information as if everyone already knows it.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
The news for us is monumental, but it is also possible that someone maybe doesn't just know.
dan friesen
Right, yeah.
This isn't automatically, it wasn't like a U2 album that gets sent to everyone's phone.
jordan holmes
I like this reference.
Wasn't that like twenty years ago?
dan friesen
It's the only time I can think of that an album was forced on everyone.
jordan holmes
That is a good point.
Yeah.
Well, the backlash to it was pretty severe.
dan friesen
Yeah.
There was no, like, push notification, Amber alert situation that Owen Schroyer had left his job at InfoWars.
Right, right, right.
And that was announced September 1st.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
Labor Day.
jordan holmes
Labor Day.
dan friesen
On one level, I feel a little conflicted about the whole thing, especially the timing of it.
It's coming out that it's news on Labor Day and I'm supposed to be celebrating a guy not working.
jordan holmes
I mean, there is that.
The irony of the job.
It's there.
dan friesen
I'm tortured.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Owen sucks a lot and he doesn't have the goods to make it on his own in the hyper competitive world of right-wing propaganda and supplement sales.
So his departure from Infowars really seems like a big shock.
He'd been through so much with Alex and he'd never left.
He was there through Trump losing in 2020.
He was there as COVID happened.
He was there on January 6 and he ended up going to jail.
He gave a deposition in the Sandy Hook case where attorney Bill Ogden.
got him to say that he was a puppet.
He was there as Alex sat idly by and let Gene Hackman die.
He watched his position as Alex's heir apparent get usurped by Chase Geyser and then again by Nick Fuentes.
And through all of that, he didn't leave.
But now he's gone.
Obviously, good riddance and rest and piss and all that shit, but for real, this is a major moment in Infowars trajectory.
Owen came to Infowars in the period around the twenty sixteen election, and he'd got Alex's attention by being the guy who would go out to protest and antagonize people.
He'd get into fights and just post the parts that made him look smart and cool cool on YouTube, which earned him the title of the cuck destroyer.
In some ways, this is kind of the next generation evolution of Alex's whole thing.
He made a name for himself by antagonizing people with a bullhorn and by selectively editing videos in a way that made him look like a crusading hero.
Alex made a big scene on camera at the DMV when he refused to get thumb scanned, but he was sure not to record the part where he came back later and went along with the process because he needed to get his driver's license to go to work.
jordan holmes
I mean everybody needs a driver's license.
dan friesen
Come on, what are you going to do?
jordan holmes
Yeah, what are you crazy?
dan friesen
Owen was playing the same sort of game, but in the new generation it was much crueler, and his version really only worked when he was able to make someone else look like a fool.
So he built a name for himself by giving other people he included in his videos names like Aid Skrillix and all of these side characters.
jordan holmes
Man, there's a there's a resume in there, huh?
dan friesen
And he made it to the big leagues.
Alex brought him in, and over the years since, Owen has got less and less interesting by the day as he became a piece of the furniture at Infowars.
He's gotten older and less brash, which dampened the whole cuck destroyer thing.
He's hosted the war room for years and no one cares.
It's not syndicated on radio stations, he doesn't have other sponsors than Alex's dumb shit, and the show garners so little respect.
that Steve Bannon decided to call his show The War Room and he forced Alex to be okay with it.
He used the same name.
Just respect.
jordan holmes
Just took it.
dan friesen
Owen should have quit a long time ago, but there was nowhere to go.
He's not that talented, but he also just doesn't have a place.
He's a news anchor, or at least he thinks that he is.
Right.
And that's a job that no one needs anymore.
And unfortunately for Owen, the audience that he's cultivated particularly despises news anchors.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Anchors are exactly what their name implies.
They anchor the show.
They hold it in place and keep things where they need to be.
They're boring, and their personality is not a relevant factor in whether or not they're doing a good job and they don't exist in right wing media.
Right wing media can only exist based on constant motion.
I've made the metaphor of a Jesus lizard before or wily coyote running off a cliff.
As long as they keep moving, they don't fall.
The second you acknowledge that the ground isn't solid, you're done, so you have to keep moving.
Every headline you come across is actually about some other story and it all connects and if you just keep talking, people will forget what you were saying and it doesn't matter that none of it makes sense.
This media format is based on chaos and motion, whereas an anchor is the embodiment of stability and steadiness.
Owen has always thought that he was being an anchor, but he doesn't realize that that's a vestigial position in the media field that he works in.
On the one hand, what an anchor does hurts the process of info war style media.
But on a more important level, the audience distrusts anchors and inherently feels like they're liars.
Alex yells about how all the people in the news are like their teleprompter readers being fed globalist scripts, and a big part of that is just attacking them for being professional.
They don't have emotional outbursts on air and rant about sci fi movies they kind of remember because that's not their job.
Their job is to deliver information in an understandable and concise manner.
But that detachment from baser human impulses can look like deception to suspicious minds, and Alex preys on those suspicious minds.
The entire ecosystem that Infors represents is built in opposition to that, the dinosaur media, the MSM, and their audience doesn't want dry news readers and anchors.
They want personalities, they want drama and excitement.
Alex didn't hire Owen because he had did solid work at the sports station that he worked at before.
He hired him because he posted videos where he made fun of leftists and tried to make them cry.
But I don't think Owen has ever fully understood that, that is why he got hired.
And that not understanding is part of what makes him so painfully uninteresting as an info wars host.
Owen thinks he's a news anchor, and it's probably because he was a straight sports guy before he got hired at InfoWars.
But he gave up that whole thing, that whole thing is gone to pursue the path that he decided to take instead.
He bullied people and made fun of people at protests, and that opened the door to InfoWars for him.
And when he stepped through that door, there were no anchors.
There are no straight up reporters.
There are personalities and characters working to push the narrative and sell pills.
So right now, he's either completely fucked or he's perfectly situated.
to exploit the current situation in the world.
Alex is blowing up his own ship and ruining whatever legacy he thought he might be able to hold on to.
He's cheerleading Trump's clear police state actions and clearly signaling that Trump covering up the Epstein stuff isn't important enough for him to care about.
But he's also about to lose his company, and with it, he's going to lose the info war's name and brand.
Alex is weak because of the consequences he's suffering, but also because he's making decisions that cut against the grain of the worldview he's sold.
And he's also promoting Nazi shit.
And that's where Owen's dilemma falls.
As it stands, Alex can't appeal to the Nazi types in his audience by pretending to be one of them.
That's a lost cause.
He has too much baggage.
He could never really convince them he's cool, but Owen could.
Owen could market himself as the guy who left Infowars because Alex wasn't letting him speak freely.
Alex wouldn't let him name names and call out the Jews.
He could craft a new space for himself, but it would mean being a pretty open Nazi and completely burning Alex.
On the flip side, he could notice Alex's clear drift towards anti Semitic shit and towards supporting the police state and everything Infowars is supposed to be against and brand himself as the real Infowars.
Alex lost his way and got it caught up chasing power and Trump's cult of personality seduced him into forgetting his principles, but Owen remembers.
He tried to make it work on the inside until the point where Alex was clearly irredeemable, and he just had to quit.
Owen didn't leave the party, the party left him.
He could do that.
These are the two paths that could work for him, but ultimately neither are really going to get him that far.
He sucks, and no one would have ever heard his name if he hadn't gotten hired at Infowars, so that level of talent is going to even things out eventually.
If he tries to become a Nazi guy, he's not going to be the best Nazi guy in that mediate space.
If he tries to be the real Infowars guy, he's not going to be great at that either.
He has a fairly short window where he's anything other than just another guy.
For a little while, he gets to be the guy who left InfoWars.
And if he capitalizes on that right, he might be able to buy a little bit of time, but it's not going to last.
He's an anchor in a media space that doesn't need anchors, and he's not good enough of an Alex impersonator to stand out on his own as a personality in this space.
So I wish Owen the least safe of travels in his future endeavors, but the question remains, why did he quit?
jordan holmes
I did he quit?
dan friesen
That's what he says.
jordan holmes
He quit.
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
I would argue that based on his telling of the story that we're going to get through later, I think he was fired.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I think he was I okay, so here's what I know., okay?
Somebody sent us an email with the heading Owen leaves Infowars, which is very frustrating because I almost didn't know about it.
I almost made it.
dan friesen
Imagine if you didn't know what you were doing.
jordan holmes
Because I just I just I've left the internet almost entirely, you know, like I could have I could have escaped, and it's frustrating, but I get it.
dan friesen
I wonder if you could have processed that information in the moment?
jordan holmes
In the moment, I don't know.
I mean, because I still kind of can't in a way, unless, here's what I'd say, right?
You maybe have some friends in the old radio.
It's easy to change your name, especially to a Namda radio.
dan friesen
Well, his name is Jonathan.
jordan holmes
There you go.
Go somewhere else, pretend you never went to Infowars, do sports again.
dan friesen
Jonathan, whatever your mom's maiden name.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
Leave it all behind and just be like, man, the Pats, and that's it.
Just do that.
Perfect.
Your life is ten times better.
dan friesen
Yeah, right?
I mean, honestly, we're going to talk a little bit about Owen taking some calls and a few of these people brought up sports things and he lit up like a Christmas tree.
jordan holmes
Of course he did.
So, like, how great is it?
But here's the problem, right?
Wasn't he making almost like 10150, 200 grand.
Like he was making a shit out of money.
dan friesen
I don't remember the precise numbers, but I remember being shocked.
jordan holmes
We were all like, no, you shouldn't.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You shouldn't be paying him anything.
dan friesen
You wouldn't be commanding this salary anywhere else.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely not.
dan friesen
And yeah, and I think that's part of the problem.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But why do you quit?
jordan holmes
I want to know.
I don't know why he quit.
I don't know why he quit.
dan friesen
He's put up with so many humiliations in the past so far.
Like it just doesn't seem like it would have to be something fairly major.
jordan holmes
I mean, I suppose, I suppose, if you wanted attention.
Attention, like if you wanted to do some attention seeking right now before info wars is completely gone with a with hopefully a whimper, uh, make a blow up, you know, make a big fight and then, you know, Owen can get his like the New York Times reporters are slobbering over like, oh, do you why does Alex suck pieces?
Those are gonna be everywhere.
dan friesen
Well, maybe if he goes along with it.
Right.
That's a choice that he can make based on what I've seen from what he's put out.
I don't think that's the direction he wants to go.
So I don't know if those pieces will be, will be written.
jordan holmes
Go back to something.
dan friesen
He might talk to someone on the background or something, but like, I don't know if he wants to do like a Josh Owens style article.
jordan holmes
That's what you do.
That's the move.
dan friesen
It would be a move to do.
But I think that that would hurt him.
Like there is no audience to chase in that direction.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
You would get a little bit of momentary attention out of like Schadenfreud from New York Times readers, like, haha, I knew they were full of shit.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
Or whatever, but it wouldn't last.
Those people wouldn't come over to you.
jordan holmes
No.
Because two weeks later, you get back together.
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
No big deal.
dan friesen
And the only audience you have to chase is further right.
Right.
The only real audience that's relevant that Owen could be tapping into is like, just admit you mean Jews when you say globalists.
I hear that.
That's really the only people he has to look for.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Doing anything else or trying to be closer to, like, mainstream respectability.
jordan holmes
Ridiculous.
dan friesen
It's going to be like the audience that you could have captured is just going to be like, oh, you left to sell out even more.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Or whatever.
jordan holmes
Okay, what about this?
You send him out for a couple of weeks to come back with a new persona, like a wrestler.
Yeah.
Great.
He's gone a couple of weeks and then all of a sudden we've got new Owen.
dan friesen
Who is this?
Jacques character.
jordan holmes
Right?
unidentified
He's got a mustache and he's going deep.
dan friesen
Jacques Schroeder.
jordan holmes
What?
Yeah.
dan friesen
Just keep supposed.
jordan holmes
Hell yeah, it's about time someone took it to the freshman.
unidentified
Le libs.
dan friesen
I do want to say one thing before we even get into anything of this.
I don't exclude the possibility that maybe this is a prank of some sort.
Sure, sure.
And that Owen hasn't given up or whatever.
jordan holmes
Well, it will work.
dan friesen
Sure, who knows?
Whatever.
If that's the case, then good on you.
All my insults insults still stand.
I still think all these things about all of you.
jordan holmes
Either way, I don't actually care about this.
You didn't like pranking me and getting over me.
This is fun or it could not be happening.
I find no difference between the two.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So I wanted to understand the situation and what was going on.
So what I decided to do was, let's go look at the last full day that Owen was at the war room.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
And see if we can find any clues in his coverage.
jordan holmes
We're doing a Rashomon.
dan friesen
Well, I mean, it's the last piece of evidence that's there.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
So we're starting here on the 26th.
That was a Tuesday.
Last Tuesday was his last day fully at the war room desk.
owen shroyer
I mean, I don't know how else to explain it.
The Trump administration is going fascist.
I mean, it's it's fash light is what we're calling it.
I mean, getting a ten percent stake in Intel.
Now they're looking at getting stakes in these defense contractors.
So when it comes to applied politics, I am more of a pragmatist than anything else.
I mean, myself personally, I'm a conservative.
Myself personally, I'm on the right, maybe a little socially liberal, but I don't I don't live in a in a tyranny.
I'm not a dictator.
So you have to be pragmatic.
So I'm not someone that comes on here as a big anti fascist, but.
It certainly is a concerning thing.
Now I don't see the big antifa movements out in the streets now, ironically enough.
jordan holmes
They never were!
owen shroyer
They're not really going fascist.
dan friesen
Well, he's wishy washy on fascism.
jordan holmes
It does feel like you could I feel like it's a safe, safe place to just be like, I'm not antifa, but I am not cool with fascism.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I don't I feel like that's a real safe position to have unless you're worried that a large portion of your audience is kind of into fascism.
jordan holmes
I'm going to say this.
I would argue that perhaps the most American thing you could possibly do is be like, No fascism, thank you.
dan friesen
Yeah.
It's get out shocking to hear him just say that Trump is going fascist.
Because pretty, like, almost objectively, you could see that as a negative.
owen shroyer
Right.
dan friesen
And maybe Owen doesn't mean it as just a full out and out negative thing, but it's not what you would expect to hear from Alex.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Alex is not going to say that Trump is going fascist.
jordan holmes
No, and it's a level of, what would I say?
If you can see this now, what else could you have been seeing?
owen shroyer
Right.
jordan holmes
You know what I mean?
Like, why now is this a thing?
dan friesen
yeah because it's been it this is not a new thing no no no it's it's it's weird it's a little bit uh surprising yeah especially the language but it's not it doesn't work no so he talks a little bit more and uh seems to think that trump is lying about everything right well yeah i just don't get it yeah i really don't when uh trump comes out and says how great the economy is doing and how all the prices are lowered and i'm just like is anybody seeing this i'm
owen shroyer
genuinely asking is anybody seeing this it's definitely not here not here in austin texas uh i mean gas prices are down a little A little bit from the Biden administration, a little bit.
It's not really budget changing.
The grocery bills are certainly not down.
If anything, they're they might be up, I guess, depending on what you purchase.
Well, And then just generally speaking, energy bills aren't going down here either.
So I so I don't know what he's talking about with that.
I don't know if that's somebody telling him that that's the case or if somebody's feeding him numbers that are that are isolated in some area that's doing better.
I don't know if it's an average.
I don't, nobody's telling me this is going on.
So I'm going to get, I'm going to get Ed Dowd's opinion.
You know, I'm just going to do this on air.
Hey guys, I got some, some weird noise in the studio.
Can someone just come in here and figure out what this is bothering the hell hell out of me.
Don't worry if you're in the background here.
It sounds like it's right behind me.
Sorry to do that.
It sounds like there's a rat running around the screens behind me.
Anyway, that's fun.
Maybe you might catch a rat live on air.
dan friesen
Oh boy.
So it's clear that Owen has a perspective that's kind of unwelcome at Infowars.
He's able to accurately call Trump taking ten percent stake in Intel fascism.
And he's able to see through the dear leader's lies about how well the policies are all going.
This isn't good because if it's allowed to continue, he and Alex are going to drift further and further apart.
And it's going to be too clear that one of them is lying.
Or one of them is lying more and worse.
But I'm curious about the sound issue that Owen's describing.
I'm sure that he's actually hearing some kind of weird interference, but considering this is his last full show, it's interesting that he's talking about them catching a rat live on air.
It's accidental poetry, Jordan.
jordan holmes
Yeah, there's something to be said there.
Yeah.
Or maybe he was just like, man, this place is really shit now.
They have not done anything and we're so covered with rats that's probably more is that worse?
Think about it this way, right?
You can be embarrassed.
You can be cucked by Alex, by so many people.
You can be replaced by Ch by Chase Keiser.
But man, if there's fifteen rats around you, it's time to go.
dan friesen
Yeah, it's a sign.
Um, but I also think that that is a perfect clip that I wouldn't think twice about if I just heard.
Because it's it's the last day.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
His last full shift.
jordan holmes
It's interesting.
dan friesen
It's just fun.
jordan holmes
What, here's what I don't like.
I don't like having to confront the possibility that he did not always know that Trump was lying or that Trump was a liar.
dan friesen
No, I'm sure he knew.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I'm sure he understood.
jordan holmes
That can't be not the case.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
And yet here we are.
I think he's lying.
dan friesen
Yeah..
jordan holmes
What are you doing?
dan friesen
It's, um, I think that he just I have a functioning theory.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
I think that he thought he had more clout than he did.
I think that he thought he could pull some weight around.
I think he thought that Alex valued him a little bit more than he actually did.
jordan holmes
Right.
Right.
He thought maybe he could let the company line be the company line and step out and say what he wants to say.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And do other things.
jordan holmes
Differentiate himself.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I think that being second banana at Infowars made him feel like he might have a value outside of the company.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Not realizing it's an artificial environment.
Right, right, right.
And so I think that's what got him in trouble.
And I think it might be part of what is allowing him to speak like about this freely on the show.
jordan holmes
Not understanding that he's in Cino Man and that the moment he gets outside of the ice, he's fucked.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah, okay.
dan friesen
So he's on the show and he's mostly just doing the same stuff you would always expect.
owen shroyer
By the way, I want to make another point about that young girl in Scotland standing up for herself against the Muslim invaders that, of course, they look at.
Western nations as weak.
They're like, wow, you're just going to let us come into your country and give us stuff for free?
You're weak and pathetic.
Are you going to give us access to your daughters too?
And then nobody stops them.
Tommy Robinson tries.
He goes to jail for years.
So now this girl obviously knew this was going to happen.
That's why she brought a knife and a hatchet.
She knew it was going to happen.
Now I'm going to put that down for a second.
I want to switch to the trucker issue coming up here in five minutes.
But we are going to get back into that in a second here.
And then I kind of teased the situation going on at Fox, which we've talked about before, but there's an interesting new development that might kind of, it could actually shake things up a little bit there.
We'll have that coming up momentarily.
Want to let you know though, ladies and gentlemen.
It is your last chance Gladiator giveaway blowout sale today and tomorrow only.
Get a free ten dollars with any order at the Alex Jones store.
No minimum spend required.
Just a free ten dollars on us.
Plus it's the final week to win both a 2025 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon and a C8 Corvette Stingray.
dan friesen
That's the fastest car.
jordan holmes
That's a very fast car.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So a lot of the first hour of this show is Owen being really critical of Israel.
He's far more able to directly criticize Netanyahu and the Israeli government than Alex, which is a stark difference between the two men's show.
Alex dances around the question of whether or not there's a genocide being carried out against the Palestinian people, and he throws smoke bombs into every conversation about like Mossad doing nine hundred eleven or how Alex just doesn't want Palestinian refugees coming here.
Conversely, Owen's able to speak more directly to the actual news events like hospitals being bombed and things like that.
radically different coverage than Alex, but he's actually doing mostly the same thing.
I would have just left this alone and not even pointed it out, but I felt like I would be lying by omission if I didn't call it out because I think that there's going to be a lot of people in the far right spaces that'll say that Owen got fired because he was too critical of Israel.
If Owen wants to give his future career a better chance at success, he'll play into that too.
That would be very smart of him.
This is categorically not the reason that he and Alex would not be able to work together anymore though.
His coverage of Israel is a little less convoluted and all over the place than Alex's, but nothing he's saying is really that out of sync with what you hear on Infowars pretty regularly.
And that's kind of what that clip embodies.
It's kind of business as usual.
Owen's still doing his job and covering white victimhood narratives the way he's supposed to and whipping the audience into a little bit of an emotional state in order to transition to a sales pitch.
It's classic info war shit, and he clearly has no problem playing the games like he always has.
Let us give you ten dollars.
jordan holmes
Please?
That was the most I listening to that one made me feel like this man was talking to himself in the middle of like I feel like this is what makes the most sense for this type of stuff is for it to be on YouTube somewhere with like three views and maybe at the middle of the night you find it and you stumble upon it and you're like, Does anyone even know about this guy?
This is so weird he's alone why is he even doing this but instead there's people right like that's that's strange but then to to just be like, oh, well, hey give it ten dollars on us you know he does a little on us kind of thing for nothing yeah and you win a truck exactly he does a little he puts a little on there I mean it's what Chase said on one of our recent episodes it's a tough pitch it is a tough pitch going from white genocide over into,
dan friesen
hey, you want a truck and ten free dollars?
jordan holmes
Sometimes I just want to see if people are doing okay and then go to the pitch.
dan friesen
So there's some talk about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
And the Trump administration has apparently failed to send him to El Salvador or they did and then he had to come back right.
And now they want to send him to Uganda.
jordan holmes
Sure.
owen shroyer
Trump administration might deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda.
Abrego Garcia detained by ICE as possible second deportation looms.
So he was due to court in Tennessee and then he turned himself to into ICE where they detained him and are now threatening to send him to Uganda.
Yeah, you know, for the 100 million foreigners that are here, I think it's just time to say, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
It's not personal.
You know, it's not a personal thing, but we have to take care of our country.
dan friesen
So that's a pretty tough argument to defend without being pretty direct about white nationalism.
I think a lot of Owen's ability to say this kind of stuff depends on his use of that idiom you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.
He uses that expression to make what he's saying sound normal, like it's just a common thing for someone to advocate.
You don't have to go home but you can't stay here is an expression that's used by bouncers to kick people out of bars at the end of the night.
This is a scenario where the bar is closing and everyone is going home.
The staff needs to get everyone out because they have to clean up, and then they go home themselves.
No one is staying here, so the expression you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here is meant to be a playful way of saying our part in your night is over.
The law says we can't serve alcohol past a certain hour, and our business only exists to sell you alcohol, so goodbye.
Owen is describing as very different.
He's saying that foreigners can't stay here, whereas other people are going to be able to continue to stay here.
The bar isn't closing, but some people aren't welcome anymore.
Also, the bar isn't kicking people out, it's shipping them off to various other places.
This bar is talking about sending someone to Uganda for no reason.
What Owen is actually saying is that he's abandoned the pretense of caring where immigrants are sent when they're deported and no longer cares if they're treated as humans.
Previously, they tried to pretend that it was important that people go back to the countries where their families are from, but now he doesn't even care to try and make it look like that matters.
Diego Garcia was sent to El Salvador, which was illegal because he had fled from El Salvador as a child, and the US government had stipulated that he couldn't be sent back there without putting him in danger.
They just wouldn't allow it.
So when the Trump administration sent him to a prison in El Salvador, they were forced to bring him back to the United States, which is a bit embarrassing, and now there's talk of sending him to Uganda.
Owen's trying to dress this up with a folksy aphorism, but this isn't anything like a bar telling customers they need to get out because they're closing.
This is a targeted discharge of certain customers while the bar remains open, where the bar isn't just letting them out into the street to go home if they like, but sending them to Africa.
without reason.
It's bullshit.
jordan holmes
I mean, listen, I understand all that, but I'm frustrated because, and I hate to say this, I feel like the appropriate thing to say is, you don't have to go home, but Uganda go.
Yeah.
That's right there.
Well, it's right there.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
It makes me frustrated that I can't focus on anything else until Uganda go is available to me.
It's very frustrating.
dan friesen
What?
Okay.
jordan holmes
But Uganda go.
dan friesen
Okay.
jordan holmes
It just works.
It's just right there.
dan friesen
This is a, this is a tough question I need to ask and you need to be brave in your response.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Let's say you're one hundred percent opposed to Trump's immigration policies right now.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
If he just started winking and saying Uganda go and sending people randomly to Uganda, right.
What percentage would it shift?
jordan holmes
What percentage would it shift?
dan friesen
Would you get to be like ninety eight percent against?
jordan holmes
I mean, listen, playful discounts for a lot more than you might think.
unidentified
Wow.
dan friesen
You just want to wake up in a pond.
jordan holmes
I mean, it would be nice if he said Uganda stay, but if you gotta go, you gotta go.
dan friesen
So it turns out that Owen has a way that we could just not do these deportations.
unidentified
Right.
jordan holmes
How is it wait, how are we doing that?
dan friesen
Quiz show?
jordan holmes
Teleportation?
owen shroyer
They don't know what to do about that deal.
We should protest him.
We should not protest him.
He has a history of beating his wife.
He's got gang tattoos everywhere.
Oh my gosh.
He's just a Maryland father.
unidentified
Oh.
owen shroyer
Uganda.
Uganda.
I'll tell you what, liberal.
That's gonna be fun.
jordan holmes
Okay.
owen shroyer
I'll tell you what, liberal.
You guys love this guy so much.
jordan holmes
Okay.
owen shroyer
Come over here.
unidentified
Come here.
owen shroyer
Fact, I got a world map behind me.
I got a world map over here.
unidentified
Okay.
owen shroyer
Show me, liberal.
Show me Uganda on a map.
And if you can do that, we'll let Kilmar Abrego Garcia stay with you.
That'll be a little gift for you.
unidentified
Okay.
What?
dan friesen
So that clip feels like Owen in a really deep way.
It's so dumb in a very specific style that I can only describe as Schroyer's.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
He's trying to be funny and I guess the ultimate point he's making is that liberals don't know where Uganda is on a map and that's funny.
jordan holmes
I suppose.
dan friesen
That's good and well.
jordan holmes
If that's the point.
dan friesen
But to make this point, Owen has to say that if you can point to Uganda on a map, then Abrego Garcia can stay with you.
unidentified
What?
dan friesen
What kind of immigration policy is that?
If liberals just study basic geography, then all these people you think are so dangerous can stay in the country?
It's stupid.
owen shroyer
Yeah.
dan friesen
But what's going on here is that Owen has married two aspects of right wing entertainment into a really bad combination.
This is one part info wars host blowing hard, and one part confrontational debate guy on a college campus.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
The confrontational debate guy does stuff like force the person they're debating to point to Uganda on a map because if they can't, then they look dumb and weak.
Sure.
It's a tactic that relies on there being someone else there to humiliate, and when it works, you can use that to mask weak arguments that you're putting forth.
The InfoWars host blowing hard is the voice that's trying to come up with a way to say, Hey, liberals, you don't want this dangerous person staying with you.
This is a tactic that's best used solo, because if you make this point to the wrong person and they say, I have no problem with someone like Abrego Garcia staying in my home, now you look weak.
Owen is trying to use this debate guy trick to dress up his InfoWars host point, and it just comes out looking like shit, because neither game is being played correctly.
There's no one there to fail to point out Uganda so you can't dunk on anybody, and the idea that if someone can point to Uganda on a map, then these immigrants can stay, it makes it seem like you really aren't that worried about the danger these people represent.
It trivializes what's supposed to be a very important fear that is behind the info war.
Owen sucks, and I think that this clip is a great representation of why.
He's just not very good at any of this, and his teacher and mentor for the past almost decade has been Alex, a man whose only gifts are things that can't be taught.
You can't, you have to be traumatized into being Alex.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
That Owen has just finally, like Alex was just okay, what about this?
Alex is like, fuck it.
You know, they're going to close the whole thing down anyway.
I won't have to worry about anything of this.
But then he watches this show and he listens to that and he goes, you know what?
He's fired.
I can't deal with this shit anymore.
That sucks.
dan friesen
You know what?
jordan holmes
That sucks.
dan friesen
Yes, I think that's possible.
If Alex cared.
Like, I think that if you were in Alex's position and you're like, I have some standards.
I have to mind the store here.
This is ridiculous.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Then you would probably fire him, but he's the other guy at a one talent business.
So the guy who's the one talent doesn't really care if this person's doing a good job or is funny or whatever.
He just needs to be alive.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Jesus.
Okay.
How do we punch this up?
I can't No.
This is the worst thing I've ever heard in my entire life.
dan friesen
I refuse to take this on as a commission.
jordan holmes
If you can point to Uganda, then he can stay with you.
All right.
Am I am I am being insulted here or is this a bet?
dan friesen
Well.
It's just a bad joke.
jordan holmes
Is it a joke?
dan friesen
Well, I guess it would be a bet if there was someone there to either correctly or incorrectly point to Uganda.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
dan friesen
He's betting that the other person wouldn't be able to and then he can laugh at them.
jordan holmes
Right, so I'm not insulted yet.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Which is a problem for an insult.
dan friesen
It's gambling on an insult.
jordan holmes
Right, but you gotta you gotta follow it up with something that like, you know, spices me, you know, that gets me in the gut.
dan friesen
Yeah.
But also, if, you know, for it to work as a joke, it doesn't really have much punch behind it.
jordan holmes
No.
dan friesen
Because, like, what about me knowing where Uganda is, what does that mean have to do with whether or not it's appropriate for Trump to deport someone to a random country that they're not from and they have no connection to?
jordan holmes
Right.
Or for it to be somehow a massive negative for them to stay with me.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I mean, it's just it's incomprehensible, but it has the it has the sound and cadence of what they're supposed to sound like, which again is why Oden sucks.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Maybe he just got fired for sucking.
dan friesen
I mean, look, if so, it's overdue.
jordan holmes
Owen's razor.
Ah.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Well, he should shave.
He shaved.
He has shaved in the past.
So he is scared.
He's a scared man who thinks that the United United States is a war zone.
owen shroyer
Right.
dan friesen
And therefore, we kind of have to have a police state.
owen shroyer
Well, a Ukrainian refugee was here.
I support this.
I will admit it.
This is very selfish of me, but can you blame me?
I'm only a man.
Irena Zarutska.
If only she was somewhere else, Ukrainian refugee, 23 years old, who fled war for a safer life in the United States, knived to death by a homeless career criminal in North Carolina.
dan friesen
To be clear, I think Owen's saying that he supports an attractive Ukrainian woman being here because she's attractive and he's a man, not her being murdered.
I don't think that he's saying that he's in favor of murdering her.
jordan holmes
Right, right.
dan friesen
She's a refugee.
jordan holmes
But again, he sucks so much there's ambivalence there.
dan friesen
He phrased it so poorly that it almost sounds like he's in favor of her murder.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
owen shroyer
I believe six previous arrests is what I had seen, six previous arrests, and this woman is stabbed to death.
Now, this isn't really ironic.
You say, Oh, she leaves a war zone to get stabbed to death in America.
No, that's not really irony, folks.
You know what that is?
That's we are in a war zone.
jordan holmes
What?
owen shroyer
Oh my gosh, it's crazy to hear.
Yeah, that is a little disturbing.
That is a little controversial even, but hold on a second.
Guys, pull up.
How many homicides are there in the United States every year?
We're talking about just gun violence, knife violence.
I mean, you're talking thousands.
You're in the thousands.
I don't even remember.
I don't even know if I sent the videos to the crew.
I mean, folks, whatever is going on in Chicago right now is...
So no, it's not ironic that this young Ukrainian woman leaves a war zone to die in America.
No, that's that's the reality.
You're not safe in a lot of these Democrat cities.
You're not safe.
So it's like, I don't like seeing the military on the streets, but guess what?
There hasn't been a murder in Washington, DC.
dan friesen
So if the US is a war zone, what does that mean?
Like, who qualifies as a combatant in Owen's mind?
And more importantly, is Owen willing to take responsibility for the kind of thing that he's preaching here?
If the US is a war zone, then certain laws certainly don't apply.
And his audience should be able to kill people.
It's a war.
jordan holmes
All right.
So when I think of war beaches, right, I'm thinking of Normandy.
I'm thinking of issues there's too many people firing guns at you while you're trying to enjoy the beach.
Not enjoy it, but you know, get over it, right?
Now yesterday was Labor Day.
unidentified
Yep.
jordan holmes
I would say that the beaches were as covered with joyful people as maybe I've ever seen them.
dan friesen
You didn't see that Saving Private Ryan scene happening on Michigan?
jordan holmes
No, there were so many people riding bicycles in the bike lanes, waving at each other, wearing those hats with the little thing that goes on.
dan friesen
Oh, oh, I'm going.
jordan holmes
They were going, dude, dude.
dan friesen
Yeah, the problem is you didn't go to the dog beach.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
That was a bloodbath.
jordan holmes
The dog beach was a bloodbath?
Oh, but well, I mean, if someone tried to hurt the dogs, it would be a bloodbath.
dan friesen
No, the dogs started it.
jordan holmes
Oh, well, then they probably had a good reason.
dan friesen
That's why we need federal canalists.
jordan holmes
Sumption dog one hundred percent.
dan friesen
So Owen should take a real hard look in the mirror about that thing he said about how it's hard to see troops on the street, but there's no murders in DC.
The first problem is that's not true.
There have been murders in DC, and incident based crime reporting is never accurate up to the date, so experts caution not to be so sure about whatever numbers you see for at least about six weeks.
Even so, there have still been violent crimes and even murders in DC while Trump's been doing that.
jordan holmes
I mean, obviously.
dan friesen
But leaving that aside, am I to take away from this a belief that the police state is acceptable if crime is lower?
InfoWars ideology has been broken, but it worked to lower the crime rates, so maybe it's good.
Does Owen really expect anyone to believe that this is his sincere position?
He's worked at InfoWars for almost a decade and they almost declared independence from the United States because of DUI checkpoints while Obama was in office.
jordan holmes
Right?
dan friesen
So I'm going to impolitely decline to take this seriously.
jordan holmes
Right.
So some bullshit like okay, so if you actually wanted to lower quote unquote crime, right?
By increasing the military presence there, then maybe you just assign one guy per person.
And if anyone's like, man, maybe I'm going to steal this car, that guy can be like, no.
Is that where we're at?
dan friesen
Yeah, sure.
jordan holmes
I mean, because I see no way that the military being there can stop someone from being in an alley somewhere.
dan friesen
Well, what if that's not in the alley?
jordan holmes
Well, but what if they're not in the alley?
dan friesen
That's why they need drones.
jordan holmes
One to one, everyone gets a drone.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
And there's always a drone watching you.
I can't see anything wrong with this.
dan friesen
Dalek with a gun.
jordan holmes
Dalek with the we're back.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
We're back in business, baby.
dan friesen
Everybody's assigned a drone.
Dalek with a gun.
jordan holmes
Finally, we have a good idea.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So, Owen, I think he kinda likes the police state.
jordan holmes
Weird.
dan friesen
Yeah.
What a dick.
owen shroyer
Option one is to.
continue as normal.
You're in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong city.
You might get stomped out.
You might get beaten out on the streets and robbed.
You'll be lucky if you can escape with your life.
You might get stabbed.
You might get shot.
Again, I can't even this stuff is so insane right now.
I don't even know what I end up sending the crew and what I don't, but I mean crazy videos on the New York City Subway, all this stuff happening in Chicago.
So, okay, one option, just continue as it is.
You're in one of these big blue cities.
You're who knows, be careful out there.
You can't carry, by the way.
jordan holmes
Okay.
owen shroyer
Option two.
This is what we see the Trump administration doing.
Let's send in the military.
Let's militarize the streets and let's show that you can stop crime.
So you can put up a fight about it.
You can say, I don't want to see this military in my streets.
I don't want to see the American military turned in word to the US cities.
Like, okay, reasonable, zero murders in DC.
And most of the DC residents support it.
unidentified
So I say, okay, you know what?
owen shroyer
Not my city.
I don't really like it.
I don't like that it's come to this, but it's worked.
unidentified
The DC people like it, so all right.
owen shroyer
Good job.
dan friesen
Good job.
jordan holmes
Wow.
dan friesen
So to be totally clear, there's a third option that he eventually gets around to that he supports even more than these other two, and that is to make sure that everyone has guns and everyone knows that if you shoot someone, it's cool.
Like if you feel threatened by someone and you shoot them in self defense, you're not going to get prosecuted for that.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
So just make sure that everyone knows that they can shoot people.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Vigilante stuff.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
But doesn't that eliminate the need for the military?
Because everyone has guns.
dan friesen
Yeah, yeah, that would be the third option.
owen shroyer
Right.
dan friesen
That's what I'm saying.
So let people continue to be the victims of crimes.
Right.
Militarize the streets.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Or give, like, make sure everyone has guns and just let them go.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Vigilante shit.
jordan holmes
I mean, you do understand, right, that if you make the argument that everyone should have guns, you are also making the argument equally that everyone should not have guns.
Because the argument is the everybody part.
If everyone is equal, then we don't need guns.
dan friesen
Yeah, it's, you know, it's the dumb thing where they.
Where they I don't know, Alex has expressed this in the past and I'm sure Owen feels it in some ways that like, if everybody's armed then chivalry is guaranteed because everyone will be like, if I fight you I might get shot.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like, so everyone will treat each other nicely because of the fear of people killed.
jordan holmes
Right.
So everyone could also treat each other nicely if you removed that fear.
dan friesen
That's true.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Because it's the fear that is Yeah, but tyranny.
jordan holmes
But see, now we're in tyranny because of them.
dan friesen
Yeah, I know he looks bad.
jordan holmes
They're friendly enough.
But if DC is happy and there's no murders, then I guess all the people things I've ever believed or said are a lie.
dan friesen
This is so goddamn pathetic that I can't imagine being someone who works at InfoWars saying something like that and not committing seppaku.
You're doing the thing that you've always said your enemies are going to do.
Make excuses for why expansion of police state powers are justified by scary circumstances.
You're doing the devil's work by your own definition.
Add on top of this the fact that the feds in DC have not been successful in dramatically reducing crime, but Trump has lied to say that it has worked.
On top of that, DC residents are not in favor of the feds being there, but Trump has lied and said that they are.
Owen is justifying Trump's expansion of his powers by repeating two lies Trump has told, so he's once again being a fucking puppet.
According to a CNN poll, seventy nine percent of respondents in DC opposed Trump's actions in terms of federalizing the police and using the National Guard.
sixty one percent said that they felt less safe as a result of Trump's actions, so Owen trying to wash his hands of supporting this by claiming the locals like it, it's a special kind of disgusting.
But really think about this.
If what Owen is saying were true, why should he have any problem with the idea of like Wisconsin banning guns?
If it lowered the crime rate and the public supported it, it seems like his take should be that it's hard to see., but good for them, right?
jordan holmes
Exactly.
He showed well, I mean, the other thing is essentially that the military being called and placed inside there is a de facto gun grab because Yeah, guns are being confiscated.
dan friesen
Right.
And they will be even more so if they want to.
jordan holmes
They're the military.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
It is the rule that they get to shoot you and you can't shoot back.
That's the rule, right?
Yeah.
dan friesen
The thing that these dick shits can't get into their heads is that supporting this makes it so they really can't defend anything anymore.
If acceptance of the federal government operating as a police state is conditional, then none of their positions mean anything and no one has an obligation to take anything seriously.
It's me, it's really put me in even into a little bit of a tailspin because like, why care about why take any of these words seriously?
jordan holmes
Like, and it frustrates me to no end still further that when you say like 81% of residents are against it, the other 19% aren't against, you know, they're not for it.
They're just responding to you like an asshole because this is the, this is the way they respond.
If you like, remove the politics from it and just go, there's going to be a bunch of guys with the AKs right outside your fucking door all day, every day.
They're like, ah, maybe I should notn't have that.
dan friesen
I think some number of people would still be for it, but like it wouldn't be a hundred minus the people who are against it.
Right.
It wouldn't be a clean either or the other, but I bet there is some number.
jordan holmes
Well, hey, what are you going to do?
dan friesen
Right.
jordan holmes
Yeah, but you know, those numbers are always skewed by the fact that those people don't think they're the ones who are going to get military.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You know?
dan friesen
And some of them might be joking.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
Hey, why not?
I want a little military.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So this is the last day that Owen hosted the entire of his show, The War Room.
So I was kind of surprised to find that it's kind nothing in here that really seemed like it would be a good reason for these two guys to have split up.
Owen ends the show by saying that he was hosting Alex's show the next day, and he does end up doing that.
That ends up happening.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Most of the show is about the Minneapolis shooting and Alex desperately trying to identify the shooter and blame it on them being trans.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Alex calls in from his car and takes over a bit of the show along with his new big time FBI whistleblower, Kyle Seraphin.
And they're just chomping at the bit to ID the shooter.
You can see Owen is uncomfortable.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I don't have any clips of this because it's kind of hard to convey through audio, but when I was watching Owen's face, it became clear to me that he was was realizing in the moment that they were doing Sandy Hook shit all over again.
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
They were doing Mauricio Garcia all over again.
Owen was hosting Alex's show and Alex was butting in to cover details that were possibly sketchy and if this goes wrong, Owen might end up getting sued again.
He's already given two depositions where he had to admit that he passed along defamatory information because he didn't vet the stuff he was allowing on his show.
So this has to feel like a potential third strike of the exact same thing.
jordan holmes
It'd be hard to imagine yourself not experiencing a solid amount of deja vu.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Owen looks flustered and maybe even a little bit pissed off, but it's hard to tell exactly what's going exactly what's going on in his head.
If I were him after the second lawsuit, I would have told Alex that I'll keep working here because no one else is going to hire me, but I need you to stop creating situations where I'm totally going to get sued.
Rushing identification of shooters has been a real problem for Infowars in the past, and Alex can't resist taking this chance again, and it's for nothing.
Nobody is going to remember who went to print first with the shooter was trans story.
alex jones
No.
dan friesen
Nobody's fighting over a Pulitzer here.
This is pointless.
alex jones
No.
dan friesen
Honestly, I wouldn't blame Owen if that was his reason for quitting.
It's disrespectful, and it drives home how he's just another talent at a one talent business, which is to say that he means nothing.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So that was on Wednesday, August 27, and Owen hosted half of the War Room on Thursday.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
But from all appearances, it was just another plain ass episode of the show.
unidentified
Hmm.
dan friesen
He was there, then Alex popped in and said Owen had to leave for a family emergency, and then the Cuck Destroyer was gone.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Reappearing on Labor Day.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
To do a live stream discussing how he'd quit at Infowars.
jordan holmes
A live okay, so it wasn't on Infowars.
dan friesen
No.
jordan holmes
Oh, God, that would have been so much better.
dan friesen
Well, he discusses how much he wanted to do that.
jordan holmes
Well, then you suck even more!
dan friesen
And it means you got fired.
jordan holmes
If you were cool, you would have done it.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Oh my God.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah, he definitely got fired.
dan friesen
So what I will say that I think that the stream was way too long.
jordan holmes
Who could have imagined?
dan friesen
It was just over five hours long.
jordan holmes
Fuck off.
dan friesen
Which is too much Owen, and it's fucking repetitive, and, you know, there's a couple of things that are clearly like things he wants to brand himself as.
Oh, good.
And little like catchphrases and stuff.
unidentified
God.
dan friesen
That are getting repeated, but like, I don't know.
I there was no he had no business going five hours.
jordan holmes
Five hours of Owen Schroyer.
dan friesen
I paid most.
I was mostly attention for about the first four hours.
And then Jesus Christ.
Shit fell apart a little.
unidentified
How?
jordan holmes
How do you do it that long?
dan friesen
I don't know.
jordan holmes
I mean, it's just a miracle.
dan friesen
I think morbid curiosity.
jordan holmes
Do you remember when we were on that, the, remember the last time I listened to Russell Brand, right?
And I made it through about fifteen seconds of it before I started shouting.
Yeah.
I can't imagine making it through four hours of Owen Troyer.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Unleashed.
God.
unidentified
God.
dan friesen
They took my muzzle off.
jordan holmes
I can't even handle zero seconds of Owen Tro Stroyer's live stream right now.
dan friesen
Yeah, well, unfortunately, you're gonna get a bit.
Shit.
So I was looking for pieces of like, what are the indications?
Before I listened to Owen's explanation for why he got fired or quit.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Before I listened to this live stream, you know, watching his show, the content seems largely like, okay, he's saying that Trump is going fascist, but he also isn't super anti fascist.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So like, that's not that bad.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Trump's lying, but yeah, so what?
jordan holmes
I guess.
dan friesen
That's not a deal breaker for them.
jordan holmes
We kind of know that he's lying all the time anyway.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
He's doing the ads, pitches.
just like everyone else and like he always has.
He's talking about how you get ten dollars free.
It's embarrassing.
Yeah.
I couldn't tell what the fuck was going on.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And the only thing that stayed out in my head was this, like, maybe he looked uncomfortable during the shooter identification phase.
I mean, maybe that was the only thing I had to work on.
jordan holmes
That would be a moment where I would feel like the appropriate response, even if you're a actual news anchor type person, is to say, Fuck this.
dan friesen
From a self preservation perspective.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
Just from a literal, like, this is what needs to happen..
I am willing to embarrass myself on television to say, Fuck this.
This can't happen.
You know?
That's the appropriate thing to do.
dan friesen
If this keeps happening and my, like, ability to control the content that I'm associated with is abused like this, yeah.
I could ruin the rest of my life.
jordan holmes
One billion dollars is enough to shut you up about shooting?
dan friesen
Well, Owen is not on the hook for that and Alex just created fake businesses.
jordan holmes
Yeah, well, there's it.
Nobody's on the hook for that.
dan friesen
So I was really interested to see what Owen had to say and how this all went.
Because as much as I felt like that was a possible thing that he was feeling, it was also entirely possible that I was just projecting all that.
So, like, who knows?
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, they're all psychos.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So Owen starts off his stream And he goes, he throws it to a song.
jordan holmes
Oh, God.
owen shroyer
I'm going to break it all down.
I feel I owe you an explanation of what's been happening.
I'm going to let people get caught up before I really get into the juice here.
So what?
It's official.
I am now done at Infowars.
And I'm going to let you know why coming up in just a minute.
First, fuel hemorrhage, because why not?
unidentified
Memories are just where you lay down.
jordan holmes
Leave like bleeding in my mind.
Sounds like someone who quit.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Sounds like someone who broke up with the relationship on their own.
dan friesen
He ends the show playing another fuel song, Bitter Sweet.
That is also a little bit, uh, oh boy.
So Owen's going to learn a tough lesson if he continues with this show, and that is that he can't play full songs without permission.
He's going to get DMCA strikes against his content, which can lead to these shows being taken off whatever hosting the episodes.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
He doesn't have the shield of whatever radio licensing contracts Infowars had to use songs as bumper music, but even still, he plays the whole song..
Like, I hope he doesn't plan to try to sell ads, because if you have a copyright strike on an episode that ends up going down, you're not getting the ad revenue from whatever that episode is.
You might get sued for failure to fulfill your advertising obligation.
jordan holmes
I appreciate not understanding ASCAP licensing from a fucking radio host.
unidentified
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Well, he's worked at InfoWars for ten years.
jordan holmes
Yeah, no, that's fair.
Maybe he genuinely thinks that they steal it.
dan friesen
Like, he does, does he not realize that there's a reason that like on the InfoWars official streams that are on the radio, like, or on the internet, they don't have.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Most of the theme music?
jordan holmes
Of course.
dan friesen
He can't afford it.
jordan holmes
Of course.
dan friesen
He doesn't have those rights.
jordan holmes
It's ridiculous.
dan friesen
Anyway, Owen comes back from fuel.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And he explains.
jordan holmes
He's got fire.
He's got desire.
Is that true?
dan friesen
He has a desire to explain why he's here tonight.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
And it's because he had a bad phone call with Alex.
owen shroyer
Why I am done at Infowars.
Now, there's a reason why I'm doing this tonight.
There's a reason why I have to do this tonight.
And I'm going to explain it all.
Because that's what you deserve.
as my audience, as people who have financially supported me over the years.
You have, you have prayed for me as people that sent me letters when I was in prison, just, just all of it.
You know, I'm grateful for my audience.
I consider myself extremely blessed.
And quite frankly, I consider myself extremely blessed for my time at InfoWars.
And I'm sorry that it had to end so abruptly, if you want to say that.
But about an hour ago, I got off the phone with Alex and that was it.
That was it.
dan friesen
It was a bad call.
It was a bad call.
jordan holmes
Hey, listen, I've been fired in very similar very similar ways.
dan friesen
Yeah.
This phone call was terse, it sounds like.
Yeah.
And ends with Alex saying, Don't come back, we don't need you.
jordan holmes
That's fair.
dan friesen
So.
jordan holmes
That's fair.
You know, I suppose, I suppose that's maybe better than an email, but maybe not.
It's close.
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
So, well, actually, I think I don't, I don't know what you could expect in an email from Alex.
jordan holmes
I would appreciate an email from Alex that was just like, Hey, don't come in to work tomorrow.
dan friesen
Just made up words, misspelling.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
It would be chaos.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So you might accidentally think you're getting a racece.
jordan holmes
That's also possible.
So the wingdings function.
dan friesen
Yeah, Owen didn't want it to go this way.
This isn't, this isn't what he planned.
And it's very unfortunate because he really tried.
owen shroyer
Just to be perfectly clear, this is not how I wanted it to be.
I want to be perfectly clear about something and I'll explain this in a little more detail.
I didn't want it to go this way.
Okay, I tried everything.
I tried everything so that it wouldn't go this way.
But I am left with no choice but to come on here tonight and make the announcuncement.
dan friesen
He didn't, he didn't want to do this, but he's here.
He's doing it against, like, it's not what he wanted.
jordan holmes
He's using, he's using a lot of words that suggest he was not in charge of the decisions.
dan friesen
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I think that sometimes people present things that way because they're, they want to kind of excuse what they're doing.
Like maybe they're about to go real low and say some dirty shit.
Absolutely.
And they're like, hey, I didn't want to go this way.
jordan holmes
It wasn't my fault.
I didn't choose to get here.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Some people might go that way.
Use this language that way.
Right.
But another reason you would use it is if you're entirely powerless.
Yeah.
And you were backed into a corner.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
dan friesen
And that's kind of what this feels like.
jordan holmes
It was either this or he was going to paint a target on my back and throw strawberries at it.
So I finally decided to leave.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So a new piece of information that we get is that there's a reason that he only did half of his show on Thursday.
And that is because he left.
jordan holmes
Oh.
owen shroyer
You may have noticed I've been taking a lot more time off.
Specifically, you may have noticed how on Thursday I walked off the show mid show.
About an hour into the show.
And just so you understand what happened and if you watch the info wars war room you you've seen this before so it's not like it's anything new but um you know alex was disrupting the show and he wanted me to cover something and he wanted me to get a guest on i'm in the middle of the show while it's going on as as you see so many times um and it just didn't go well i i kind of just reached my point of no return and so i just walked off the studio Now,
I will say it was a little, it's a little upsetting to me that he went on and said that I'd a family emergency.
I did not have a family emergency.
There was no family emergency.
There was no family emergency.
I didn't appreciate people reaching out to me thinking that something bad had happened, including my own parents.
There was no family emergency.
I walked off the show.
dan friesen
That's fucked up.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that's funny.
dan friesen
So Owen hosted his show on Tuesday, which we listened to a bit of, but then took Wednesday off probably because he was hosting Alex's show.
Then on Thursday, he was doing his own show and he stormed out about halfway through.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I watched the incident and it's not interesting at all.
When Alex leaves the show, he leaves the show.
He makes an impression.
In this case, Owen went to break, some videos played, and then Alex appeared at the des desk lying about Owen having a family emergency.
jordan holmes
It's so funny.
dan friesen
It's notable that Owen is saying that Alex was trying to pop in and control the topic he was covering and telling him he had to feature a specific guest.
As soon as Alex gets into the studio, he's covering that same shooter with his super credible FBI whistleblower friend Kyle Seraphim.
The day prior, you could see and feel a discomfort in Owen as Alex was forcing his way onto the Alex Jones show to identify a mass shooter with Kyle.
And now Alex is doing that to Owen on Owen's own show.
I'm certain that this is a piece of the puzzle because Alex being annoying and disruptive is something that Owen obviously dealt with every day, but it's not every day that Alex is demanding he engage in the same behaviors that have led to humiliations in multiple depositions.
An added layer to this is that Alex is preempting Owen's show and demanding that they interview Kyle Seraphin, and that means that whatever Owen was planning to do has to go on the back burner.
That segment of the show that day was supposed to be an interview about january sixth defendants not getting enough support from Trump, and the guest was former Proud Boy leader Enrique Tario.
You can see how this is possibly an important type of interview for Owen.
A guy who tried to throw a country about how he and his friends are not being treated nicely enough by the president who they tried to do a coup for.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's a it's a moment.
jordan holmes
You know, it is a question of what have you done for me lately?
dan friesen
Mmhmm.
jordan holmes
Right?
Because you pardon someone, you figure like Roger Stone, you got him in your back pocket till both of you die.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These people.
No loyalty.
dan friesen
No.
None.
They are ungrateful.
jordan holmes
They are ungrateful.
And petty.
And the fact that fucking Owen Schroyer is going to look you in the eye and say, Alex Jones said something on his show that wasn't true.
makes me very unhappy.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
About Me!
dan friesen
If Owen is being sincere about what happened and all this shit, then I wholly understand quitting over that.
Alex is being disrespectful as hell, but I don't get the feeling that this is an uncommon thing at Infowars.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I still think some pieces missing to this story that can explain the why now of it all.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like, it doesn't make sense.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Also, I just think that lying about a family emergency, like, it really reveals how easily Alex lies.
unidentified
Oh yeah.
dan friesen
And that should worry everyone.
jordan holmes
Oh boy.
dan friesen
So Owen left.
jordan holmes
That's fun.
That's fun.
But also, yeah, I mean But is that quitting?
If you're going to do it, do it.
You know what I mean?
Like, if you're going to walk off, walk the fuck off.
Don't like slink away.
dan friesen
Do it Alex style.
jordan holmes
Yeah, if you're going to Irish goodbye, that's to keep the people there from having to do a whole thing and you just kinda get out of there.
If you're going to walk off a show, that's part of your show, you know?
dan friesen
But is it quitting?
jordan holmes
I think it's quitting.
I'd say it's quitting.
I think if I walked off a job, Yeah.
I'm not coming back.
dan friesen
I think it's damn close to send the message that if someone got the message, hey, I have quit from that.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
You wouldn't blame them for that.
jordan holmes
No, I'd be like, yeah, absolutely.
dan friesen
But Owen wanted to come back to work this week.
jordan holmes
What?
owen shroyer
My intention was to go back this week.
And I made that intention perfectly clear to Alex an hour ago.
Now I wanted to meet with Alex in the office tomorrow.
And I told him that.
I told him that last week after I left the studio.
He texted me and I said, Alex.
Let's talk next week.
I said, I don't want to talk about it now.
I'm done for the week.
Let's talk next week.
We communicated a little over the weekend and then today I said, let's meet.
Let's have a meeting tomorrow before your show.
Whenever you want, let's meet tomorrow before your show and maybe we can talk this out, work it out.
And he said, no, let's just let's just talk now.
And so he called me.
dan friesen
That's cold blooded.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I remember one of the times that I was fired from the theater I worked at and the manager called me into the office.
I was going to sit down and he said, you're not going to need that chair.
And this has the same energy.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Straight up.
Yeah.
We don't need to meet up.
Let's just talk on the phone.
This is not going to take long.
Yeah.
As Owen keeps talking, I find it a little harder to defend how he handled this.
If he quit on Thursday when he walked out, that's fine.
But he walked out in the middle of his show and then decided he wasn't coming in on Friday, telling his boss that they'd talk about it next week.
I think that Owen probably felt like he had the sway to pull off a power move like that and score himself a long Labor Day weekend, but he learned the hard way that he isn't important at InfoWars.
If he doesn't like his job, there are plenty of racist dipshits on Twitter who would love to play dress up and pretend to be on the news.
Now, I think this is actually kind of funny, especially because he's doing the stream on Labor Day.
He thought that the value of his labor was enough that his boss would let him take a mental health day and he found out that his labor is very replacementceable.
Too bad there's not a liars union.
Otherwise, maybe he could have been protected from that.
jordan holmes
It is unfortunate.
It is unfortunate.
I mean, on the other hand, you know, I was thinking about it and when I got fired at the coupon place, the guy waited until I got into work and then was like, hey, you're fired, right?
And it was like, man, I wish you had called me before I took the train down here.
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
That was a that was a easy thing to skip, right?
So in a way, I appreciate Alex for letting him know, don't come into work tomorrow.
I'm saving you a trip.
dan friesen
I think sometimes in some of those corporate environments where there may be like passivecodes and keys and stuff like that.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
Then they might really want to get you there so they can take Surreptitiously under false pretences.
Make sure that you don't have a way to get back in.
jordan holmes
That's fair.
That's fair.
dan friesen
I know that was definitely the case at some places I've worked.
jordan holmes
I mean, you know, but I feel like Infowars, they've got guns, you probably can't get back in if they don't want you to.
dan friesen
Owen's clearly not going back.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I wouldn't go back.
dan friesen
But he wanted to finish the week.
He wanted to work this week.
jordan holmes
What a stupid idiot.
dan friesen
He wanted to come back after Labor Day on Tuesday, talk to Alex, cut it up and finish this thing.
owen shroyer
I'm a child.
And I wanted to finish this week and I wanted to finish positive.
Positively at Infowars.
And I even said if if he wanted me to send a messed up satellite to go down with the ship that that I'd be willing to play some sort of a satellite role to go down with the ship and be a part of that and and continue, you know, having wearing the the name on the front of the jersey for at least some semblance while it's still ongoing, and he didn't express any interest in that.
What?
And so he told me that he didn't need me and good luck.
And that was it.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that's all of those things are probably pretty accurate.
dan friesen
It's got a sting.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Owen was offering to do free publicity for Alex while InfoWars is sinking and Alex wasn't interested.
jordan holmes
I would describe that as begging.
Isn't that what you would describe that as begging?
dan friesen
I No, no, yes.
jordan holmes
Okay.
owen shroyer
Okay.
unidentified
It is.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But it's the way he's describing it.
Owen is very invested in not making it appear right, right, right.
jordan holmes
But if I heard someone say that and I sent it through my What did somebody actually mean machine, it sounds like I begged him to stay.
dan friesen
I had some reasons that I wanted things to go one particular way.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And he wasn't interested in that.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
So I begged him to continue paying me while I didn't really work here.
dan friesen
And he said he didn't need me.
jordan holmes
Eh, well.
dan friesen
Because he doesn't.
jordan holmes
Turns out.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So I think that Owen's like, ah man, I hope Alex is real classy about this.
Fuck it, bet he will be.
owen shroyer
I don't know.
I don't know how Alex wants to handle it.
Honestly, I hope that he just doesn't talk about it at all.
And people might view that as like a bad thing or a negative thing.
I don't think so.
It's if he wants to just sever ties and just move on like that, I have no problem with it.
So I don't, I don't, you know, I hope he doesn't make a thing of it.
I hope he's fine.
He can bring in whoever he wants to host it or shut it down.
I don't really care.
You know, I don't have anything negative to say about Alex.
This is not about.
I have nothing but respect and appreciation.
jordan holmes
How?
owen shroyer
For Alex and everything that we've done at Infowars.
I'm not sure that was mutual.
Doesn't really matter.
jordan holmes
It wasn't.
dan friesen
I think the only thing you can safely bet on here is that Alex isn't going to say nothing.
And the fact that Owen is saying that he hopes Alex will just move on seems insane.
It feels like he would only be doing that either to claim the high ground in the likely event of a fight or to signal to Alex that he's not going to spill the beans on anything.
So Alex shouldn't feel the need to reveal anything too damaging he might know about him.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
We don't need to take each other out.
dan friesen
Right.
jordan holmes
Right.
Because at the end of us taking each other out, I am taken out and you're pretty much exactly the same.
Yeah.
So please don't let us take each other out.
You know what I mean?
dan friesen
Yeah.
You're an embarrassing monster who screams about demons all the time and thinks sci-fi movies are real.
Yeah.
I don't think that I have anything that's going to stick.
jordan holmes
No.
No.
Hey, you know what?
He was a bad boss.
No shit.
unidentified
What?
jordan holmes
What about that?
dan friesen
So Owen starts talking about like what preceded this Thursday blow up.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
And it turns out that for a little while Alex had been a bit of a dick with him.
jordan holmes
A bit of a dick.
For about ten, ten, twelve years?
dan friesen
Yeah, about the time he'd worked Yeah, yeah.
But especially lately he's been too negative.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And too anti Trump.
jordan holmes
Owen has been too negative and too anti Trump.
Gotcha.
So we're at an ideological crossroads.
dan friesen
Yeah, and so Alex managed to gaslight him into thinking that that was his fault.
owen shroyer
But you know, kind of to give you the longer form situation, you probably noticed that I had not been hosting the war room a lot this month.
And, you know, Alex had been coming into my show and talking about how I'm negative and calling me a pessimist and all this other stuff, which is, which is fine.
You work for Alex, you're going to get hit with it a lot.
Alex is not easy to work for and that's fine.
You know, um, that's okay.
But okay, he says I'm too negative.
He says I'm a pessimist, whatever.
I'm too anti-Trump.
So I just said, all right, you know what?
I'll just take some time off.
I'll just disappear.
And if Alex thinks I'm too negative, then maybe he's right.
Maybe he's right.
Maybe I'm too negative now.
Maybe I'm too much of a pessimist now.
Maybe I'm too anti-Trump now.
Whatever, whatever his, Whatever his issue was when he kept coming in the show telling me I'm too negative, saying I'm a pessimist on his show.
I said, okay, maybe he's right.
I'll take some time off.
I'll blow off some steam.
I'll just get out of the ring for a week.
And, you know, maybe I'll come back a little more positive.
And, and, you know, maybe there was a level of reality to that.
And I think I did come back more positive.
But wait.
The same issues that I had started up immediately as soon as I came back.
dan friesen
No shit.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Owen's describing two different problems here.
The first is Alex being super annoying and hard to work for.
That's no big deal and has been the case the whole time that Owen's worked there.
It seems to me like Owen could probably handle that or else he wouldn't have lasted almost a decade, so I don't believe annoyance is a good reason for this breakdown.
The second issue is about Alex trying to sway Owen's coverage of certain topics, saying he's too negative and anti Trump.
Owen was able to gaslight himself into thinking that maybe Alex is right and it's a problem that he's having that he's too pessimistic, so he took a week off to clear his head.
He comes back and the same problem is waiting.
there for him.
The problem is that Trump sucks, and Owen gets called negative and pessimistic when he calls out the elephant in the room because Alex can't handle it.
owen shroyer
Yeah.
dan friesen
But it feels like this has to have been happening the whole time Owen was there too.
jordan holmes
Right?
dan friesen
So I don't get this as an explanation for ending the employment now.
There's a part of me that hears these explanations, and I can't help but think this has to be financial.
Alex couldn't convince Big Lee to pay Owen enough for him to put up with this shit anymore, and he thinks he can find a better salary elsewhere.
Like that's the explanation that makes the most sense.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
I don't I don't have any documents to back that up or anything.
jordan holmes
Possible.
dan friesen
What Owen's offering me isn't making a lot of sense.
jordan holmes
If Owen believes his prospects for money are greater, then Owen has a difficult relationship with reality.
dan friesen
I will say without tipping my hand on where things go, I think Owen thinks his capacity for earnings is unlimited.
jordan holmes
That's no good.
No.
He should think that it is very limited.
Perhaps some of the more limited capacity that's ever been.
dan friesen
I think he imagines that he will be one of the most successful people on the planet.
jordan holmes
You know, there are venues that can only hold like th 38 people, you know, capacity crowd, 38 people.
That is the number of dollars he can expect to earn as a radio host going forward.
dan friesen
Black box theater propagandist.
Late night shows.
So, you know, the question obviously comes up when a creative, when a journalist leaves an outlet.
The question comes around about like, how much creative control did you have?
Did you have impositions that were coming from management?
jordan holmes
Right.
It does feel like he very much pointed out that the owner of the media company was f forcing him to have certain lines upon certain things.
dan friesen
And have certain guests on at certain times.
jordan holmes
Which feels like you would be against it.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Owen says, yeah, I had creative control, but also kind of didn't.
unidentified
No.
owen shroyer
And it's not to, it's not to say that I didn't have creative control over the Infowars war room, but I mean, imagine it's like someone staring over your back 24/7.
And so every single day that I came back, it was either a guest that I was told I had on at the last minute, or it was, you know, him coming into the studio.
He wants me to cover this, he wants me to cover that, or I have to host his show for him because he's not in., so there was just, there's nothing consistent for me.
dan friesen
Nothing consistent.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that's, that's, yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
That's a hostile work environment.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know what to say to this.
dan friesen
And that's the reason that I find this really interesting.
And that is, yeah, Alex was creating a horrible place and you should have quit, but I also think you were fired.
Yeah, I also don't think you chose to leave.
jordan holmes
No, no, no, no, no.
Oh, remember when I was telling you about that Facebook lady's memoirs and how she was like, oh, this was when I knew I had to leave, but then she stayed because of course she fucking did.
dan friesen
Yeah, I did.
I thought about that, your story about that when I was worried about that when I was listening to you.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then it was like, ah, I finally got out of there when they fired me.
dan friesen
Great.
jordan holmes
All right, you did it.
dan friesen
Congratulations.
jordan holmes
Yeah, you've got you won.
dan friesen
Hold on to that thought because I think Owen might say literally the same thing.
So there obviously was difficulty after he came back from his sabbatical, his little hiatus to clear his head from the things that Alex had convinced him were wrong with him.
And then Wednesday.
Wednesday was the breaking point for him.
That was on Alex's show when he just felt out of control.
owen shroyer
So whatever.
So I'm going through it again last week.
And then Wednesday last week happens.
And this is really where I think, I think for me, it was like, okay, if this is how it's going to go, really what happened Wednesday and Thursday.
So Wednesday was the school shooting.
And we get the exclusive with Kyle Sarafin from his Fed source at about 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning.
Now we get this information.
We have the images.
We have the name.
The crew has already archived all of the online content, the manifestos, the videos.
So I mean, we got it.
Now I was supposed to host the show, but obviously we get this exclusive.
So Alex wanted to host the show.
So I'm like, okay, well, great.
All right.
So let's do this.
So it's like, here we go.
I'm riding with Alex again, folks.
We're firing up the Millennium Falcon again.
We're going into the info war.
We're taking out a Death Star again.
And I know that this is hard for people to understand from the outside looking in.
And I don't say that from an arrogant standpoint.
I'm just trying to explain to you what it's like here.
dan friesen
It's a little arrogant.
So that was fascinating to hear because I was so right and so wrong on my read of how Owen was experiencing that Wednesday show.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Something was wrong with the energy and it had to do with Kyle Serafan and Infowars identifying a mass shooter, but Owen wasn't mad that Alex was pushing him to act the same way that led to lawsuits in the past, he was mad that Owen or Alex was inserting himself in this and it's really just about micromanagement and Alex not letting Owen do the thing by himself.
You know, I can cover this exclusive.
You don't have to come in and call from your car.
jordan holmes
It, hmm.
Right.
So you think, you think that at a certain point learning would happen.
But then you think, wait, is this just ego?
And it is, it is always just ego.
dan friesen
It's an interesting variation on ego.
It is mostly just my little baby feelings have been hurt by this.
jordan holmes
Amazing.
And then Alex Jones went on air and lied about my family problems.
Can you believe it?
dan friesen
Yeah.
And then I couldn't even come and do my last week.
jordan holmes
What was that going to be?
I kind of want to see.
dan friesen
We'll see.
jordan holmes
Okay.
He has a plan.
dan friesen
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
So that day.
That day when Kyle Serafin and Alex took over Alex's show that Owen was hosting because Alex was out in his car.
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
They they broke this story, this big story about this mass shooter.
And Owen took the heat for it in terms of getting negative headlines written about him.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And he thought, man, that's going to get Alex off my back for a day.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
dan friesen
And it didn't.
owen shroyer
We broke the big exclusive.
It's very likely that if it wasn't for us that day, you never heard about the trans shooter, you never saw the videos, the manifesto or anything of it.
It's very likely that that's the case.
But we knew we knew we would get burned.
We've been down this road before, especially on that issue.
Just you're guaranteed you're getting burned.
You're either getting seriously or you're getting censored in the negative headlines.
So before the show is even over, there's multiple headlines printed up.
Owen Schroyer celebrates mass shooting.
Owen Schroyer celebrates dead kids.
I might get to that later on.
Whatever, it's par for the course.
So there you go.
So I got burned.
So I rode into the fire on Wednesday.
We broke the big exclusive.
I fired up and I got in the copilot seat of the Millennium Falcon with Alex Jones for one more ride, knowing I was going to get shot out of the sky, knowing I was going to get burned but hey all right it's the info war I said all right Alex You want me?
Let's go.
Let's do it.
And we did it.
And we fucking did it.
And then I get the negative headlines.
Okay, fine.
I anticipated that.
And then the next day, I have to deal with the same stuff of him breaking into the show.
He's now he's on a speaker phone and they ask, he's asked the crew to bring him in.
It's just a cluster.
It's just a cluster bomb.
So I had prepared a three-hour show.
I thought since we just did what we did the day before that I could do a three-hour show and babysitter wouldn't be looking over over my shoulder.
I was wrong.
It happened.
And I just said, I'm out.
I'm just done.
So if you don't want me to do the show, you can do it.
And I think he ended up hosting the rest of his show.
I don't even know if I wanted to get any more details with that.
dan friesen
Yeah, I wouldn't.
InfoWars didn't break this story and had essentially zero relevance in the anti-trans hysteria that this story kicked up.
They're just a part of Twitter now, and this shit would have been flying around with or without their involvement.
There's no importance.
jordan holmes
Yeah, you guys are empty.
dan friesen
But Owen is right.
He probably shouldn't give more details about this because it looks bad for everyone.
Owen could probably make some perfectly acceptable arguments for quitting, but the way he's telling this story, he sounds like a baby.
He had a problem with his boss's management style, and that boss gave him a week off to clear his head and get back in the game.
He took that time off, came back to work, and the problem was still there.
Instead of sucking it up and accepting that this wasn't working, he had an outburst and stormed out of work and demanded Friday off, expecting that he was important enough that he could get away with it.
I'm a big proponent of workers' rights, and I will side with labor over management pretty much every time.
Unless there are major pieces missing from Owen's story, it kind of sounds like he deserved to be fired.
And I don't know how anyone could expect that.
Like, I know that Alex acts that way and it might give you the feeling that I get to also.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But you don't.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Alex can storm off his show whenever he fucking wants because he owns the place.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's his.
jordan holmes
I mean, listen, I don't know.
Here's what I say to these, to this kind of situation, right?
You're a professional liar.
Ask someone what would be a good reason to quit and then give that reason.
Don't give whatever reason you think is a good idea because you have bad ideas.
dan friesen
And then don't do a five hour stream about that bad explanation because it's going to end up you're going to end up accidentally giv give more details, of course.
You're going to reveal that you kind of sound like a rightfully fired employee.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
who abused his bosses on professionalism.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah, you're bad at this.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Let someone else do it.
Which also is part of why you're fired.
dan friesen
Look, I've had a number of jobs in my life.
Yeah.
And I've been fired from a number of them.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And if I were to explain the circumstances of a lot of them, I would be telling you a story and you would say, well, you deserve to get fired.
And I would say, you're correct.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
In hindsight.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Maybe I was a little mad wrong to be fired according to the law and that meant nothing.
dan friesen
But there are also instances where you got fired and it's like, oh, it was on me.
jordan holmes
Oh yeah, no, I absolutely.
Well, one time I got fired but I resigned before like the hour before they called me in.
dan friesen
What are you trying to do?
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, the hour before they called me in, I had written up my resignation letter and I was like, I have to get out of here.
And they were like, we were going to fire you.
And I was like, ha ha ha.
I won this round and I was gone like the hamburger.
dan friesen
This all worked out.
We've all saved face.
Yeah.
I just sad.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's really, it's a bummer too when I have to like look at this situation and be like, I think Alex did.
I think he's wrong to create this awful work environment that people have to put up with.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And I think he shouldn't be allowed to do that.
Right.
But since we're not just stripping away his business and all that, and it's allowed to exist, Owen, like, he should have quit a long time ago, and it's not his fault that he had an abusive boss.
Right.
But he acted in ways that would get anyone fired.
jordan holmes
Here's what I love about this.
Here's what I love about this.
Alex could, if he asked someone else for a legitimate reason why Owen should be fired, many of them..
And he could just say that.
Don't need to say anything else.
Here's a good reason.
And everyone would be like, Yeah, that is a good reason.
And we move on.
dan friesen
He stormed off the show on Thursday.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
He's fired.
So many good reasons to quit.
You fucking have been trapped in this abusive relationship.
That guy is going to get you sued again.
Like, you just described a really sad scenario where you're the sidekick in the Millennium Falcon of your life.
Like, fucking, there's so many good reasons to quit.
Neither of them are choosing any of the good reasons.
And it's just winy little babies with terrible egos.
dan friesen
Well, to be fair, up to this point, we haven't heard Alex's response.
Oh, that's fair.
So we don't know.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
We're recording this on Tuesday.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Alex hasn't even done his show yet.
unidentified
Oh, okay.
dan friesen
Well, it's all breaking stuff.
jordan holmes
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
dan friesen
So Alex may have a great explanation.
alex jones
I bet.
dan friesen
Or maybe he'll never talk about it.
jordan holmes
That's possible.
dan friesen
So Owen wanted to do this positive style.
jordan holmes
Of course.
No hard feelings.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Handshakes, all that shit.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
owen shroyer
That's that, that's it as far as I'm concerned.
So I'm not going to go back in.
I'm not going to be hosting the war room.
He could have easily had me in to announce it on his show.
I would have been happy.
I would have been more than happy to do it.
Again, that's what I wanted.
It meant a lot to me, folks.
I don't want to be.
I didn't want to be doing it this way.
Anybody who's followed my career in media knows.
I don't do the drama stuff.
I don't do the drama stuff.
I don't do the hey, look over here at this personal beef.
I don't do that stuff.
I get along with everyone.
dan friesen
I'm sorry, but this just rings false coming from the Cuck Destroyer.
jordan holmes
Well, self-described.
dan friesen
Are you telling me that the Cuck Destroyer doesn't do drama?
The guy who did the tank caravan?
jordan holmes
Well, it's hard to see a situation where there is a drama free destruction of a cuck.
dan friesen
This is just bullshit.
Yeah.
I find it to be, it's, it's, it makes him seem weaker.
jordan holmes
I'm the controlled demolition cuck man.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
dan friesen
He wanted just to shake hands though and go out good.
He wanted to have this last week.
So everyone could, you know, make peace.
jordan holmes
Victory lap.
dan friesen
Yeah.
owen shroyer
But you have to understand, it, you know, Alex has been a big inspiration for me and he gave me my first big break in political media.
I'll always be respectful and appreciative of that.
And so that's why it meant a lot to me to do this on Infowars and to do this in a positive way and to shake his hand on the air and for him to say, Thank you, great work and for me to say, Thank you, I appreciate everything and to shake his hand and do it in front of the Infowars audience and crew and leave on a positive note but he didn't he didn't want to do that he said he didn't want to do that so so now i have to do this here tonight now i have to say too um just so people might get a better understanding you
know i feel like wednesday was kind of our last dance i feel like wednesday was kind of our last dance and if you've seen The documentary called The Last Dance about Michael Jordan and the 96 Bulls or the Bulls franchise, the dynasty, you might get a better idea of what it's like working for Alex Jones.
And you can watch and you listen to people talk about how Michael Jordan is an asshole and Michael Jordan is hard to play for and nobody wants to play with him and he's a jerk and he's got the highest expectations and all this stuff.
And it's just like, well, I like that.
I mean, that's how Alex Jones is, folks.
Alex Jones is hard to work for, he demands championships.
He demands the best.
Now, some people can deal with that, some people can't.
dan friesen
It's funny to be saying that in the episode where you're talking about how you no longer work for Michael Jordan.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Some people can handle that, some people can't.
I guess I can't.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
owen shroyer
Because I'm here.
jordan holmes
That would be the conclusion.
dan friesen
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Silly.
Silly shit.
jordan holmes
I do appreciate the full misunderstanding of Alex saying I don't want to do that.
That means Alex wants to do something else that doesn't involve you, and that should make you very unhappy.
dan friesen
Yeah.
No.
And what it most importantly means is I am not invested in you at all.
jordan holmes
Not even a little.
Do you know what happens tomorrow?
Your show will be gone.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
And no one will know.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Maybe I'll have someone else hosting The War Room.
jordan holmes
I could have Danny.
I could have dead air.
InfoWar room.
Maybe.
Nobody will know.
dan friesen
It doesn't really matter.
No, you weren't moving supplements.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
dan friesen
Don't give a shit.
jordan holmes
If I wanted to sell stuff on your show, I went on your show.
dan friesen
I was doing you a favor.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Ultimately.
jordan holmes
This entire time.
I have been paying you for nothing.
dan friesen
There was a symbiotic relationship that existed where Owen's existence in Infowars allowed Alex to look like he had a deeper bench.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And like it was a real news network and there's other personalities here.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And, and, you know, I'm not saying that no one was watching.
There's a smallish audience there that likes Owen.
Yeah.
But then, yeah, symbiotically, Owen got to look like he was on the news.
And he got to be, he got to be reasonably powerful.
And he fucked it up.
jordan holmes
I would give anything for Owen to be like, Listen, I felt like we were close.
And then they hired Chase.
unidentified
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
It hurt.
jordan holmes
It hurt.
It really, you know what?
I'm willing to admit this to you on this livestream, that hurt my feelings.
And I think I hate Chase.
dan friesen
Well, to talk about the Last Dance.
He took that personally.
jordan holmes
You know, like, Well done.
dan friesen
Thanks.
Well done.
So, Owen is a company man.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
And so that's why he wanted to go out on InfoWars.
Right.
He wanted to do this right.
unidentified
Right.
owen shroyer
So I don't know.
InfoWars could be off air this week.
InfoWars could be off air next year.
I have no idea.
But I can no longer.
I'm at a point now in my life where I can no longer play that game of committing to go down with the ship because I got other issues.
And I've been extremely loyal to Alex, overly loyal to Alex in InfoWars.
jordan holmes
Yeah, man.
owen shroyer
And I'm okay with that.
You know, I was I was a corporate man.
I was a network man.
And I was proud to to play for as I view it, the Yankees, the best ever InfoWars.
I was proud of that.
And I still am.
I have no regrets.
But I couldn't hold out any longer.
I wanted this to be my last week on air, but Alex didn't want it.
So that's why I'm here tonight, and I'll tell you what is coming up for the future as far as I'm concerned.
dan friesen
So there's two things in this clip that are important to hold on to for later.
The first is the idea that Owen thought of himself as a corporate man playing for the team.
This has to do with the fact that Owen still thinks of himself as a professional broadcaster who's employable by some other network that isn't batshit insane where the content is secondary to pill sales.
The second is the fact that Owen keeps talking about what's next and keeps saying that he wanted to do his last stream on Infowars and because Alex said that he couldn't come back, Owen had to do this stream.
He didn't want to do it this way, but he had to.
When someone says I didn't want to do it this way, it usually means that they're about to do some disgusting shit, throw some dirty laundry around, whatever.
They wanted to stay classy, but their hand was forced.
I had to do it.
That's not what Owen is saying here.
He's literally saying that this isn't what he planned to do, and Alex not letting him do a couple more days on air is a problem.
for plans that he had set in motion.
And he needs to do this tonight because Alex will be back on air tomorrow.
And there's a decent chance that that will disrupt whatever plans he has.
alex jones
You bet.
dan friesen
So that's fun.
jordan holmes
I was hoping to use the last week as a springboard on to bigger and better things where I was allowed to talk to my full audience who could also give me, but instead I'm doing this live stream for how many?
Forty?
Forty of you?
dan friesen
No.
jordan holmes
Oh boy.
dan friesen
So on Rumble, I think there were about a thousand people watching live for or something like that.
jordan holmes
For what is supposed to be occurring, that might as well be forty.
dan friesen
Well, but there were also., I think, people who called in said that there were 100,000 watching on Twitter, and I just don't think those numbers are real.
jordan holmes
Whatever.
Yeah.
I strongly doubt that.
dan friesen
I really think that's artificial.
Yeah.
And I don't even know if that was the number that appeared on, I didn't watch it live on Twitter.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So, like, I think it's not 40, but it ain't Yeah, a lot.
jordan holmes
It's whatever it is, it's not enough.
dan friesen
It's not what Owen was hoping for with doing another week at Infowars.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So it turns out, here's his plan.
owen shroyer
Okay, but let me tell you what's going to happen.
I got this.
decent studio that I'm in right now.
And, you know, call it core.
it could work just fine.
And it does for the most part.
But I'd like to build something bigger.
You know, I think that this is a nice studio for kind of a, you know, a secondary broadcast option.
I kind of like this camera angle right here.
And, you know, there's some other things I can do with this studio, but this is not the studio I want for my main studio.
It's nice for a secondary studio.
It's nice for guest interviews.
It's nice when I need to pop on and do a live.
But I'd really like to build something a lot bigger, a lot more professional.
I'd like to build something that is way more radio-centric than TV-centric.
If you're not in the industry, then that might not mean much to you.
But basically, I don't want all the TV lights.
I hate all the TV lights.
They burn my corneas every day.
I hate all the cameras.
I hate the big TV studio space.
I just, I don't like the big TV.
I don't like it.
I don't like TV.
I don't like network TV.
I don't like the presentation.
I'm more of a radio guy.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to build a professional radio-style studio.
Probably with maybe two or three, four cameras, but it won't be like a TV show presentation at all.
It'll be more of a radio show presentation.
dan friesen
So this is why Owen wanted to do this on Infowars.
He wanted to announce his plan to start a new radio network to Alex's audience, and Alex wanted no part in promoting Owen's new shit.
Alex gave him a week off from his show, and then he didn't fire him on the spot when he stormed off his show, and now Owen wants to do another week so he can try to pied piper these idiots off to another platform.
Fuck that.
I think Owen's wise though to not want to do TV stuff because the overhead on that will be way too high.
I also think that he sounds kinda dumb, like he thinks he just invented podcasting with a camera pointing at you.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So what's he announcing?
Like is it his intention to do the exact same thing that Tim Poole and countless other shitheads already do?
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
He thinks that his level of popularity and clout require a professional studio and a backup studio, right?
This sounds grandiose.
Owen was stressing that after his call with Alex he needed to do this stream tonight.
He didn't want to do it this way, but he had to.
I think he knows that the status of second hand banana at Infowars, that's not going to last long after he's gone, and he's quickly going to become just another guy.
Alex has known that InfoWars was going to collapse for at least a couple of years now, and he's been able to position himself where he has, like, a backup store and a second website, and all that is his parachute.
Owen thought that he was going to be able to launch his own parachute on the war room this week, but Alex said no, and this ding dong is scrambling.
jordan holmes
Amazing.
dan friesen
This is all panic.
jordan holmes
The idea that you would Buddy, fucking downsize.
You are Do you know where we record?
unidentified
You should be in a smaller version of that.
jordan holmes
Downsize, buddy.
Three or four cameras.?
Crazy.
Look into a webcam that's on, that's from a real disreputable part of China.
dan friesen
Later, Owen's gonna talk about how he wants the show to just be like straight news, no guests.
jordan holmes
What show?
dan friesen
Right.
Why would you need four cameras for that?
It's just you delivering the news.
jordan holmes
Insane.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That is insane.
dan friesen
Wow.
I think that he's gonna have a cold bucket of water splashed in his face real soon, metaphorically.
jordan holmes
I hope nobody invests.
dan friesen
So he's gonna make this radio studio.
And this is part of a larger project.
jordan holmes
What?
dan friesen
Which is creating his own network.
jordan holmes
What?
owen shroyer
And, you know, I'm still kind of in the early phases since this all just happened today.
But I'm going to launch a news network.
I already have it ready to go.
It's going to be called the Wynn Network.
It's the World Independent News Network.
And this is kind of just a mock-up logo that I had as a mic flag.
But I anticipate the Owen Report will be live on the Wynn Network in October.
I think that it'll probably take a month for me to get everything done.
dan friesen
So this is so sloppy and the signs that this is rushed are disconcerting.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
For one thing, the WIN network is a trash name and the abbreviation isn't even worth it.
No.
World Independent News Network is generic as hell and it sounds like a fake TV station in a movie.
Second, WIN Network is a name that's already been taken.
There's an organization called the Wellbeing in the Nation Network that does work around issues Owen really isn't into, like racial justice and intergenerational trauma.
They've already got this name, and it's well established.
jordan holmes
But it's not a radio station.
dan friesen
True.
Third, Owen doesn't own the URL for winnetwork dot com.
I looked it up on GoDaddy, and I almost bought it for the joke of saying I own it.
But it was like $5,500 and that's out of my price range.
jordan holmes
$5,500?
Yeah, it's damn.
dan friesen
It turns out that websites that are not claimed have the word network in them.
jordan holmes
Very expensive.
dan friesen
Yeah, apparently that's that makes sense.
jordan holmes
Because if you've got a network, you probably have enough money to shell out.
dan friesen
You might want to.
Yeah.
But I don't think Owen's going to be able to pay.
I don't think he wants to pay $5,500 for that.
jordan holmes
Well, he'd have to get rid of three or four of those cameras, if you like.
dan friesen
I think that they have, like Alex with his band.video and all these weird URLs.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I think that because there's that, like, lineage.
in Infowars that if ever what if even if I did buy winnetwork dot com.
Yeah, you would just get winnetwork dot truth.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
Or something like, absolutely, you know, so yeah, squatting on it and getting it just to make it.
I think it would be really funny, but I also, it's not worth it, especially because if you did own it and the actual winn network was like, can you have that?
unidentified
You would probably give them a huge discount.
dan friesen
The well being and the nation.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I don't know.
I didn't look into them deep enough to know.
I mean, a lot of the surface stuff sounded like I'm, I'm all right.
jordan holmes
You never know what surface stuff.
dan friesen
Yeah, who knows.
So I feel like announcing this world independent news network before you have a studio built and before you have even seemed to check out the intellectual property is really dumb.
It looks hastily thrown together and desperate, not like the exciting next step in a bright young star's career.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So I'm worried for him.
jordan holmes
I I boy, you know, I like believers.
I like dreamers, but I don't want to put my money in this dream or this man's belief in himself.
dan friesen
So on Shark Tank, I'm going to have to it's going to be a no for me.
jordan holmes
It's going to be a no for me.
dan friesen
You know what, Mark Cuban saying no to.
jordan holmes
I don't think I don't think any for whom is this network, first off.
dan friesen
I think that if Owen is smart, it will be a I'm more open about my anti Semitism and how that underpins all this like right wing conspiracy ideology and worldview.
Cater to that audience, buddy up with like Fuentes and all of them.
Just take off the shackles of Infowars and all that shit.
Yeah.
Or the alternative is just create some dumb, bland shit and hopefully get some foreign money or something.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Get some dark money.
money shit going through like with Tim Poole and Dave Rubin, you know?
You know, tenant media.
Like if you could hunt down some of that money, you probably get paid more than you got at Infowars, and all they would ask you to do is probably about the same shit you would be doing?
jordan holmes
Probably.
Well, I mean, at the very least they wouldn't ask you to do all the promotion, all the IT work, all of the because you don't have the Infowars staff behind you.
It's just Owen.
dan friesen
They wouldn't micromanage him and sit over his shoulder all the time like Alex either.
jordan holmes
That's true.
dan friesen
Less annoying.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So look, this is a bad idea.
jordan holmes
Yes, it is a bad idea.
dan friesen
But what if I told you that the structural ideas for the format of the show were also terrible?
jordan holmes
I would believe every word of it.
dan friesen
They're awful.
jordan holmes
Let's hear it.
owen shroyer
I think that it'll probably take a month for me to get everything done.
jordan holmes
Optimistic.
owen shroyer
So that includes just all the technical stuff, the mechanical stuff.
And then, you know, getting an operation that can fund itself.
Because I don't really want to do like, you know, I don't want to do the permanent going out of business sale.
I don't want to do the permanent like, you know, you need this to sell save the world, sale strategies.
I don't want to constantly be doing fundraisers either.
I want to do more of a traditional style, which is we have sponsors that fund our operation.
jordan holmes
Oh my God.
owen shroyer
And having said that, I want to cover news.
That's what I want to do.
I want to cover news.
And so like, here's an example, Thursday.
jordan holmes
Oh, God.
Try it out.
Try covering the news.
Do it.
owen shroyer
I wanted to cover all of this news Thursday.
This is the news that I didn't get to Thursday because I was disrupted.
Okay.
This.
By all means, I want to cover news.
jordan holmes
With his own stacks.
owen shroyer
And here's what I've learned.
As a consumer of news, almost nobody covers news anymore.
dan friesen
I don't know if he realizes how insulting this is to Alex, but if Owen is intending to keep it classy, he's failing.
The permanent going out of business sale, the you need this or you're going to die sale.
These models that he doesn't want to replicate are just descriptions of Infowars.
Yes.
He's directly telling everyone listening that Alex uses these tactics for marketing because he can't get advertisers the traditional route.
owen shroyer
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I have bad news for Owen on two points.
unidentified
Mm.
dan friesen
The first is that if Alex isn't getting sponsors, his backwash isn't either.
Any business willing to advertise with the guy who just left InfoWars after a decade also wouldn't have a problem with advertising with InfoWars itself.
So the only people you can really hope to attract are people who would have advertised with Alex, but he was too expensive.
And I can't imagine who that is.
Because I think he's cheap.
jordan holmes
This is ridiculous.
dan friesen
The second piece of bad news for this newshound is that he's part of an information war that was waged against news.
He wants to cover stories and be like the anchors of olden times, but no one in his audience wants that.
It's fucking dull and that's why they watch stu stuff like Alex, because it's exciting and it makes them feel things.
The thing that made Infowars and by extension Owen relevant in any way is the same thing that's going to guarantee that he will fail if he tries to do a serious news show.
Yeah.
Nobody wants that.
jordan holmes
I can't imagine I can't imagine the person who's like, Oh man, all these serious news shows are just trash.
They're just so boring.
I've stumbled upon this lone streamer in the middle of nowhere who's giving me real straight news.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I'm going to go from CSPAN PBS over to the c cuck destroyer.
jordan holmes
Wild.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Wild.
dan friesen
So stupid.
jordan holmes
Amazing.
To believe in this requires a lot of delusion.
dan friesen
Yes.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And it's going to get worse.
jordan holmes
Oh, I bet.
dan friesen
But what he wants to do is a three hour news show.
Sure.
No conspiracies.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
Well, maybe a little crazy.
Come on.
jordan holmes
Come on.
owen shroyer
There are.
Nobody covers news.
It's all sensationalism.
It's all hyperpartisanism.
It's all cheerleading or fanboying.
Nobody just covers news.
from 3 to 6 p.m., I'm going to cover news.
I'm not going to do sincere.
I'm not going to do conspiracy theory.
I'm not going to do the world is ending.
I'm not going to do hyperpartisanship.
I'm not going to do pom pom waving.
I'm not going to do flag waving.
I'm going to do a three-hour news show for everyone who wants news.
And yeah, we'll do, you know, we'll do some conspiracy theory and we'll have some fun.
jordan holmes
Yeah, come on.
I mean, what are you crazy?
dan friesen
I'm just going to do straight news for three hours, no conspiracies.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Now, it's entirely possible that by doing this small amount.
I'm saying that if I take this small amount, I will render the large amount utterly worthless.
unidentified
But hey!
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I haven't thought that far out.
dan friesen
And honestly, everything that he's describing as what he's not going to do is just a direct insult towards Alex.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
dan friesen
So I feel like the part that he was saying earlier about having nothing negative to say about Alex is ringing very false.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
It seems like every part of your job was the part you hated.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And are now talking about it as if it were all fraud.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, almost as if someone else was in charge of all this fraud and not that you had done it yourself for the past decade.
dan friesen
Until you were told you can't come back.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
And then you decided, you know What?
No more.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So now that Owen is free, right, he hasn't felt like this in years.
owen shroyer
Bro, I spoke to a friend before the show.
They asked me how I felt and I said, well, you know, I don't even know how to explain that except I feel like I haven't felt in a decade.
I feel like I haven't felt in ten years.
And I don't know if that's a feeling of control, a feeling of the unknown, a feeling of freedom, a feeling of fear.
I don't know, but it's something I haven't felt in a long time.
And, you know, I'm I'm 36 years old.
jordan holmes
Congratulations.
owen shroyer
And I think I've had quite a bit of experience for a 36 year old in media.
And, you know, I think that I think that a lot of the things I've learned along the way, I'm going to finally be able to implement and to use in my own way and in my own creative delivery, if you will.
unidentified
Wow.
owen shroyer
But I hope to be doing this for fifty more years.
You know?
dan friesen
Yeah, I know.
Owen being thirty six bums me out.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that really bums me out too.
dan friesen
It's not like he's old or anything like that.
Thirty six isn't old, but it's older than he feels he should be.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Infowars is a Peter Pan ass place, but like the Neverland from Hook, where Peter is super old and the Lost Boys are still young.
Alex seems old as shit, and all the other people there feel like they should be getting junior college credit for interning.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I do think that he's had a lot of living experience.
Like he's seen some shit.
Owen was at 6 January, he went to jail, he worked for a lunatic for a decade.
He's been around, but the problem is that I don't think that that amounted to much experience in the work sense.
He's worked at Infowars for a decade.
He's also a lunatic.
jordan holmes
Like, we've been doing this for about ten years.
Yeah.
Close enough, right?
I wouldn't say that this decade has given me any experience in, quote, media.
dan friesen
Life experience, but that doesn't, I don't think it would make me more employable somewhere.
jordan holmes
I wouldn't be able to go to, like, CNBC and be like, I've been doing media for ten years.
And they'd be like, Yeah, you have.
No, I don't think so.
dan friesen
No.
jordan holmes
Not the same thing.
dan friesen
No, and I think that that's going to be another tough wake up call that he's going to get at some point.
jordan holmes
This is wildly like how much awareness is zero self awareness?
dan friesen
Hmm.
It's zero seems higher than this.
jordan holmes
Right?
dan friesen
Yeah, this seems lower than we're going we're going into the depths.
Yeah, negative numbers.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
So, um, I told you that I think that it's dumb as a format for him to just be like, I'm going to do three hours of news at three to six.
Yeah, yeah.
But you know what?
If someone's just going to stick to their guns and it's just news, I'll give them a chance.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
But what if they don't?
jordan holmes
Okay.
owen shroyer
We'll see about the time, but as a soft date, I think on Monday, October 6th, I'll officially launch the Owen Report, which will be live from 3 to 6 pm weekdays and be nothing but news.
Nothing but news.
And it's going to be way more radio style.
There won't be really network breaks, but you know, we'll have, like, I want to do planned segments, like I want to do a segment called the rant where I just rant a segment.
I want to do a segment called the roast where I roast somebody or some situation.
So it's like, I'll get a sponsor for those segments and then we'll do the r rant and it'll be brought to you by them.
And then we'll do the roast and it'll be brought to you by them.
At the top of the hour, I want to do a news break.
So I'll have somebody can five minute just headlines at the top of every hour.
So it's just a news break at the top of every hour.
So you'll get that.
dan friesen
So this show is going to be nothing but news.
And then immediately, Owen starts rattling off hacky Zoo Crew morning show segments that he wants to do on his show.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
None of that is news.
jordan holmes
None of it.
dan friesen
It's all personality driven commentary shit, exactly like what he was free to do at Infowars.
Yep.
And I have nothing but news to tell you., bad news that this shit is not going to happen?
Nobody's going to sponsor Owens rant segment.
unidentified
No.
dan friesen
Adam Carolla might fuck around and send him a season to assist.
Like he's just Dennis Miller is going to beat him up in an hour.
jordan holmes
Wild.
Also, boy, the rant, that that has a lot of I'm capable of being entertaining for a series of words behind it, which I It's no good.
I can't believe this.
I can't believe he's saying this with a straight face.
dan friesen
No, I will.
This is why I said at the top of the show, it's entirely possible this is a prank.
Because this is so stupid.
jordan holmes
This is shocking.
dan friesen
Yeah., these are the levels of bad ideas that I would come up with if I was trying to prank someone.
jordan holmes
I thought early on that we were in like I want a pony territory.
Where it's like, oh, well, I'm glad that kids should reach for the stars.
You know, that's what you should do.
Now we're in like, oh, we're about two days into this hypermanic episode and this person is about to spend thirty thousand dollars that they don't have.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
We're in trouble here.
dan friesen
The episode started with, ha ha, isn't it funny that Owen got fired or maybe quit?
Who knows?
What's going on here?
And now it's upsettinging.
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
Now his vision of what's possible in the future is very scary.
unidentified
Oof.
dan friesen
Now I will say this.
jordan holmes
What?
dan friesen
I will put money together and sponsor his roast segment for one week if he roasts you.
jordan holmes
I, I, that would make me sad.
I would give anything for a good roast from Owen Schroyer.
But man, it would just be so sad.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
We wouldn't even enjoy it.
dan friesen
I would insist he work clean.
Don't let that blue shit.
jordan holmes
It's too easy.
dan friesen
Oh, it just comes out and does the aristocrats.
jordan holmes
Every weekend.
Here's what he would do.
Here's what he would do.
He would what you do is you do the reverse roast and you just talk about man.
I can't believe that guy's dick is so big.
You know, you go out, you go that way.
Make it ironic.
unidentified
Yeah, hockey pack.
jordan holmes
That's the way to do it.
dan friesen
So there's some great news.
jordan holmes
This is not going to happen.
dan friesen
Well, no, it's going to happen.
It's probably not going to happen.
He still thinks it's going to happen.
Right.
And it will never be behind a paywall, which I respect.
I respect that.
jordan holmes
Sure.
owen shroyer
Let me, let me just make this.
Let me make this promise to you.
The Owen report will never be behind a paywall.
Depending on how fundraising goes in the next week or two, I may decide to do something else on a subscriber base to like a paywall.
The Owen report, my three hours a day news that will never be behind a paywall.
I promise you that you will never have to subscribe to anything to get the Owen report for three hours a day.
But depending on how fundraising looks like in the next couple of weeks and how easy we're able to get sponsors in.
Wow.
jordan holmes
Who's we?
owen shroyer
That'll determine what we do with a subscriber base program because that's where most people are going.
towards a subscriber-based program.
So, you know, there is that, but I want to go more of a traditional radio type thing where you have sponsors on board, you have live reads, you have segments that get a sponsorship.
You know, I'll someone sponsor the phone line, someone will sponsor the studio, we have a microphone sponsor.
So that's how I want to do it.
dan friesen
I'll sponsor an air horn that I can hit the button to hit like, ooh, yeah, yeah.
whenever I want.
jordan holmes
We should have a remote air horn that he has to, like while he's on his stream, we're allowed to just click it whenever we want and he'll never know.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
And what if we go like a week without clicking it?
He'll always have the fear of when the next one is going to be.
dan friesen
And then one week I'll replace it with the Scatman.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
We should essentially, here's what we're saying.
We need to subsidize this show so we can slowly drive Owen Shawier crazy.
dan friesen
We need so much more money to sponsor him in horrifying ways.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
I say we're just creating like I'll pay you to eat that worm.
That's where we're at.
owen shroyer
No, I don't want to do that.
dan friesen
That's degrading.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And not.
jordan holmes
I'm not okay with that.
dan friesen
That's not interesting.
jordan holmes
No, no, no.
I'm with you there.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
We would have.
We are more creative than that, but that's what I'm saying.
dan friesen
I'm I. Mm.
I don't want to say that I want to do a Squid Game.
jordan holmes
Again, we're back at it.
It should be called the Owen Hour.
How are we not there?
The Owen Report is terrible.
dan friesen
We need to talk about that.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Much like the name, The Wind Network.
jordan holmes
The Owen Report is taken?
dan friesen
Yeah, he should have looked into this.
jordan holmes
Of course it is.
dan friesen
So the Owen Report, that's the name of the British parliamentary report from 2016 that revealed that polonium 210 was found in the body of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian secret agent who was murdered in London.
Irony.
The Owen Report makes clear that Putin carried out a nuclear radiation assassination on foreign soil.
So this name is a little iffy for someone like Owen., who's worked at a painfully pro-Putin media outlet for the last decade.
I don't know if this I would have chosen a different name if I'd googled it.
And it just makes this look really sloppy.
Like he's put no effort into this at all.
Terrible.
And that kind of makes sense.
Like it would be hard to see Alex pull off not doing any preparation for a decade and getting away with it all the time.
And not think, I can do that too.
jordan holmes
I mean, you have to.
dan friesen
It's going to be so harsh when the rug comes out.
jordan holmes
It is, it's got to be, it's got to be maddening to watch like the luckiest man in the world get through scrape after scrape after scrape without effort.
Like, that's got to be insane.
So you just figure, like when you go to an open mic or something like that and you go, like, I can do that except for this is brain surgery.
You can't do that.
You can't.
dan friesen
No, it.
Who can he even look to from Infowars that has left and anyone cares about them?
Like, Leanne McAdoo didn't go on to do anything and she left on decent terms.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Millie Weaver done done.
Caitlin Bennett, Cat Bennett, whatever the go game is.
jordan holmes
Whatever their name.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Whatever their names are.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
dan friesen
David Knight.
jordan holmes
Whoa, I think he's still crushing it.
Or he's dead.
Nobody knows.
dan friesen
I think he's alive and probably still doing his show.
And that probably.
The fact that I said probably means something.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that's that's why isn't Owen like reaching out to them?
Maybe Owen and David Knight should get together.
They've already got an Owen and Knight thing.
dan friesen
Yeah, why not?
I don't know why he would think like he's not up against a very serious disadvantage.
jordan holmes
Crazy.
dan friesen
So, you know, we were talking about a little bit about how this is upsetting in a way that the expectations do not feel like they match.
Yeah.
What could happen?
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Get ready for that to get worse.
owen shroyer
Oh, no.
I think I'll probably just do straight three hours by myself, no guests, and just do news every day, just do breaking news.
And for my more controversial takes, let's say, or my more conspiratorial takes, or, you know, things that might turn sponsors off, I'll do a separate show.
I'll do Owen Schroyer Live, where either we have no sponsors at all, or that's where.
kind of a subscriber-based thing will come in and you can pay for that content.
But what I'm looking to do is a three hour talk show for everyone.
A three hour talk show that you feel confident sharing with your friends and family.
A three hour talk show that you feel confident playing in your car when you're driving Uber or driving your friends around or playing in your business when you're doing business throughout the day.
jordan holmes
Business.
owen shroyer
That's what I want to do.
I want this to be for everyone.
I want to be America's anchor man.
That's what I want to be.
dan friesen
That's so sad.
If you break it down, what Owen is saying is that he wants to host a show that people aren't embarrassed to listen to, which is what Infowars was.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
He's lived for ten years as a guy hosting a show that people have to make excuses or apologize for liking, and now he wants to be free of all that.
owen shroyer
Yeah.
dan friesen
This is some ungrateful shit.
The only reason Owen got to host his own show like a big boy is because he went to the pretend channel where his boss would get drunk on air and throw hatchets around while lying about murder victims in service of selling fake pills.
If it weren't for the fact that Infowars was an embarrassing cesspool, he never would have been able to compete with other applicants for the position that he ended up in.
He was only serviceable because nothing was expected.
of him.
He was another talent at a one talent business.
He could have slept through large parts of his show and it wouldn't have mattered.
And now he thinks he should be America's Anchor Man.
jordan holmes
I the only okay.
So everyone is thinking, oh, we're here for some Schadenfreud.
The only response I had to that was to just go, oh, honey.
Like, that's how I feel.
dan friesen
The only response I had to that was like, saying America's Anchor Man feels like a Ron Burgundy reference.
Maybe this is trying to signal that this is a prank.
He can't seriously He can't seriously have this idea about himself.
jordan holmes
He can't seriously.
dan friesen
But I think he does.
owen shroyer
Wild.
dan friesen
He also says America's Anchor Man a bunch of times.
Quite clearly.
Clearly, it's branding.
jordan holmes
He's trying to.
I'm going to be America's Anchorman, and then people will say, Oh, it's America's Anchorman, Owen Schroeder.
dan friesen
Oh, my God.
jordan holmes
Of the Owen Report and also Owen Live.
dan friesen
Where he does his spicy or controversial takes.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
He wants to do his respectable news show for three days, three hours a day, and then do the interesting shows.
jordan holmes
What's great is even the idea of openly telling people the lies you're about to tell them.
Like, Oh, what I'm going to do is tell the sponsors that I'm this person.
But in reality, I'll tell you I'm this person.
Yeah.
dan friesen
I'm a paywall, the crazy stuff, in order to try and trick somebody into paying for my rant segment.
jordan holmes
So the sponsors will never figure out this whole idea, as long as I don't say it out loud on the live stream announcing what I'm doing.
dan friesen
It's almost as if I've figured out a way for me to live two lives and never the twain shall meet between them.
jordan holmes
It's cool.
dan friesen
It's good.
It's smart.
jordan holmes
It is like.
It is another aspect of the self-awareness to be like, I'm going to do a show that people don't come up to me and say I have to hide underneath the blankets while listening to it with headphones.
I'm wearing headphones, otherwise people will think I'm crazy.
dan friesen
Children don't periodically insult me in public for doing the show that I do.
jordan holmes
And not realize that what he's saying is actually about Infowars and not himself.
dan friesen
I mean, it's both really.
jordan holmes
Well, I suppose.
Yeah.
dan friesen
I mean, it's insulting Infowars.
Right, but it's also a damning sort of admission about yourself that you could only thrive in an embarrassing environment.
jordan holmes
Yeah, you didn't go there and start getting embarrassed.
You were embarrassing and that's why they wanted you.
dan friesen
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
You like, I said earlier, his great sports re reporting didn't get him the job, right?
He got the job for yelling at people at protests.
And that's why he's there.
And that's why they're embarrassing.
jordan holmes
You can only get hired at a place that wants the Cuck Destroyer.
And there are very, very few places that say, That guy calls himself the Cuck Destroyer.
Yes, please.
dan friesen
Yeah, the people who you're only going to get hired at a place that interviews Rufio Panman.
jordan holmes
Right?
dan friesen
And Count Dankula.
unidentified
I mean, you can't, I Oh my God, this guy taught his dog how to do a Nazi salute as a joke.
dan friesen
I got to get him on the show.
jordan holmes
I got to get him on the show.
I want to do straight news, but for the subscribers, this guy taught his dog how to do it.
It's not easy.
dan friesen
We got to get it.
jordan holmes
Now we're doing it.
Now we got to get it.
Oh, God.
Just amazing.
But here's what's great about this.
It's not even going to get started because there's no way he can get any of the stuff necessary together, first of all, within a month.
Get the fuck out of here.
dan friesen
It's a tight time line.
jordan holmes
You idiot.
Second, nobody's going to come work for or with you because you can't pay anyone.
dan friesen
I wouldn't be so sure about that.
Well, I bet there might be some enterprising young gripers who would be willing to do it on spec.
jordan holmes
Labor exploited?
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Happy Labor Day.
dan friesen
No, I bet.
I bet they would.
unidentified
For the cause.
jordan holmes
Maybe.
dan friesen
He might be able to solve a couple of those problems, but all of them, I don't think so.
jordan holmes
I'll tell you what, I don't even think so.
dan friesen
Especially in a month.
jordan holmes
Three to four cameras?
Get the fuck out of here.
A second studio?
unidentified
Mm.
jordan holmes
Well, I wouldn't be I wouldn't be confident in launching it with just the one he's using right there.
dan friesen
I would be more confident in that.
It sounds fine.
jordan holmes
I would be slightly No, I would be slightly more confident, but I still don't think it would happen.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So I think we have some problems with his plan.
Right.
I think there's some problems with foresight and self awareness.
jordan holmes
Scaffolding.
dan friesen
Yeah.
There's one problem that isn't here.
What's that?
He is very brave And he walked out at Infowars because God told him to.
Did he?
Yeah, God guided him.
jordan holmes
Oh, God.
owen shroyer
You know, whenever I've gone through things personally or professionally in, in, in, let's say that everything that led to this decision today, I always just gave it to God.
I always just said, you know what?
God will let me know.
It's not even going to be up to me.
It was never up to me and it's not ever going to be up to me.
It'll always be up to God.
That's why Gene Hackman said, so, you know, we went through some stuff in the last couple of weeks and I always just said, okay, I'm just going to give it to God.
It's just God will let me know.
And then there were just more signs like, now's the time, just more more signs from God, like, now's the time, what are you doing?
Now's the time.
And in my stubbornness, I said, well, let me just be sure.
And so when I called Alex and I said, hey, I want to come in this week, but after that, it's done.
Let's do it on your show.
Let's make it positive and I want to shake your hand and I wanted all to be good.
And when he said, no, don't come in this week.
We don't need you.
To me, that was the final sign from God.
It's like, okay, that's it.
That's it.
It's like when they fired you.
It's literally not another stone I could turn over to say it's time to stay.
That was it.
dan friesen
That was it.
jordan holmes
It has to be it.
dan friesen
Yeah.
These guys have such an idiotic view of the divine.
Owen is trying to say that he listens to God, but then he's describing making his own decisions repeatedly until the ability to make a decision has been taken away from him.
And now that he's not welcome to continue at InfoWars, he's trying to act like he made a choice to leave because God guided him to.
What Owen is discussing isn't stubbornness, it's non belief, it's an absence of faith.
Based on Owen's own version of the story, he didn't make a decision, Alex did.
Owen wanted to come in so he could promote his new show on the way out, and Alex said get lost.
God was telling him that it was time to make a move before this, and Owen did nothing.
until the decision was made for him, and this is being called submitting to God.
These guys are all religious frauds, and it comes out when they start trying to describe how their religious inclinations impact their lives.
They're able to recite Bible verses and yelling about hellfire is fun, but when it comes to living your beliefs, all these people reveal themselves to be charlatans when they start talking about it.
And they better fucking pray there's no hell.
Because they're going there if there is.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I mean, it is one of those nice things about that is that I win the bet either way.
You know, if there's no hell, no big deal.
If there is a hell, everyone that I don't like is going to be there.
No big deal.
I mean, hey, I'll be there there too, but whatever.
dan friesen
A high percentage of the people you don't like.
jordan holmes
I mean, the just the concept of faith to them is like the one thing that they really just don't understand.
Right?
If you are given a position wherein God says, you should do this thing, but you say, but I know it's smarter to do this thing.
unidentified
It's the faith that gets you to do the other thing.
jordan holmes
That's the whole thing.
dan friesen
That's what it is.
Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be.
jordan holmes
That's the faith.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That's it.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Right?
And to to be like, ah, no, I'm pretty sure I'm right.
That's not the.
dan friesen
No, it's right.
Until you are unable to make a decision.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Being like convinced of your own ability to know better than God.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Until you don't have a choice is not faith.
jordan holmes
No.
That's, I guess, the reason that God fucks people over a lot in the Bible.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And these types of stories you just hear from people like Alex, I just don't think that there's a depth to their spirituality.
unidentified
No.
dan friesen
I think that they may think that there is.
Of course.
But faith and religion and walking with God and a personal relationship with Jesus, these are pieces of narrative convenience for them.
It doesn't mean anything.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
The concept of sacrifice, just simply the concept of like, even if this isn't what I want to happen or I want to occur or the results I want because of this, I do this.
It's amazing.
It's amazing.
dan friesen
So we were talking a little bit about his unwise expectations.
jordan holmes
They're not good.
They're maybe too high.
dan friesen
They're about to get worse.
owen shroyer
I mean, I'll just put it like this since it got brought up earlier.
I want to build the biggest political family and political movement since Rush Limbaugh.
That's what I want to do.
And I mean, you could say that Infowars might have been the biggest.
after Rush's passing.
You could probably say Infowars was the biggest, maybe it still is.
I don't know.
The landscape is changing so fast now.
And I guess after tonight even more so.
But that's what I want to do.
I want to be as inviting for everyone, even the people that disagree.
dan friesen
That's, I mean, that's crazy.
jordan holmes
That is absolutely crazy.
dan friesen
You want to be as big as Rush?
jordan holmes
I want to have everything without sacrificing any of the things necessary to have anything.
dan friesen
Does he think that Rush was a straight news show?
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
I remember listening to nothing but the straight news.
dan friesen
And like, that's a show for everyone that's super inclusive was Rush?
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
That's stupid.
But also, like, I don't think that he's taking into account how artificial and astroturfed Rush was and the popularity that he enjoyed.
A large part of it was the consolidation of media companies that were happening at the time, the way that radio stations syndicated package deals around markets and the monopoly that came out that developed in radio.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
He couldn't Rush wouldn't have been Rush without it.
jordan holmes
No.
Hannity wouldn't have been Hannity without it.
dan friesen
And these environments don't exist now because of social media, because of Owen's ability to do a five hour stream complaining about not being at InfoWars anymore.
Like the ascendance of those things, the fact that it's easier to do a show means that you can never be Rush.
Yep.
And that's the deal that we've all made, I guess.
And it's very sad to hear him fantasizing.
jordan holmes
Yeah, it is really sad.
It is really sad.
It's really sad because When you see someone who's fully trapped inside an illusion, there's a part of you, not all of you, but there's a part of you that says, maybe they maybe they're happier, maybe they should stay in them, right?
Because to watch them, because we've all seen it, we've all seen people go from the full illusion to realizing the world, and it's not pleasant.
It's not pleasant to watch.
It's not pleasant to have happened to you.
And it's only pleasant in this situation because Owen Schroer sucks.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
benefit of like a little bit of cushion.
Like, I don't think it's going to be really bad for a while.
Sure.
Because he does have enough resources and connections in a lot of places in right wing media that he can go and do a press tour.
Sure.
Of a bunch of podcasts and shit.
jordan holmes
Probably.
dan friesen
Yeah, and maybe it'll work out for a little bit.
Maybe.
But it's not going to pan out.
No.
jordan holmes
I mean, it's just, it's just not.
dan friesen
He's no rush.
jordan holmes
There's no skills.
dan friesen
No.
So he's taking some calls.
And like, he has a system that's able to take calls.
jordan holmes
Why get a new studio?
tom in chicago
I don't know.
jordan holmes
Crazy.
dan friesen
Vanity.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
So he has a guy who brings up an old quote of his.
unidentified
Okay.
tom in chicago
I just wanted to say, I think you're going to crush your next endeavor and I will be following along closely.
And the reason is because I think you're one of the only real honest people covering the news, especially when it comes to Trump.
You're not a blind, you know, proponent.
You actually break things down credibly.
And I always come back to, if it can't be applied universally, it's not logic, it's propaganda.
owen shroyer
That's one of my, that's one of my quote, that's one of my quotables right there.
If it can't be applied universally, it's not logic, it's propaganda.
We're going to, we're going to etch that one in.
We're going to develop a couple more.
Because we, I think, in the coming years, but that's definitely one that stuck.
tom in chicago
Exactly.
I got it from you and it was just like engraved in my mind.
So you should frame that for your new studio and get it etched.
owen shroyer
I'll get it etched into stone or something.
dan friesen
That's an awesome, smart sounding, dumb person quote.
The positions Owen puts forth on his show don't all spring forth from some universally applicable logic that he's applying to the world.
But if he says something pithy like this, dipshits kind of think that that's what he's doing.
Just earlier in our episode, we've heard Owen advocate for deporting immigrants to random countries that they have no connection to, and saying that tyrannical acts are fine if they can said to be lower crime rates.
Neither of these things could possibly be universally applicable, because if they were, then he can't care about gun rights, and Guantanamo Bay shouldn't have been that big of a deal.
And look, sure, the war in Iraq was costly and it killed a lot of people, but it was pretty damn effective at reducing the number of nine hundred eleven we've had since then.
Not even one in twenty four years.
jordan holmes
I mean, I suppose.
dan friesen
Well, I mean, a specific one.
jordan holmes
Yeah, right?
You can't really have another one.
dan friesen
My metrics work.
jordan holmes
That's fair.
dan friesen
I would also hate if Owen applied some of this universally applicable logic to his religious beliefs.
If he accidentally did that, he might end up figuring out that his God's a propagandist and send himself right into a crisis.
unidentified
What?
owen shroyer
Oh no.
dan friesen
Universally applicable logic.
jordan holmes
I do love the ability to say words and never think about them.
And then when you hear them back, you smile because they sound good, not because they have any meaning.
It's wild.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Like I would hear someone say that to me and I'd be like, whoa.
Whoa, I'm whoa boy, yo, maybe click and I just would turn it off.
What are we doing here?
dan friesen
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
I would hear him say like, I think I can be the next Rush.
And I would be like, whoa.
Turning my chair around and waiting to the fuck out of here.
jordan holmes
Kid, you gotta learn how to crawl before you can walk and my dude, you don't even have legs.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So he he does get a number of calls from people who are like, I love you man, you're the only reason I listen to InfoWars, blah, blah, blah.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
But he also gets a call clearly from one of our listeners.
unidentified
Uh oh.
dan friesen
This is on his own stream.
jordan holmes
Oh, God.
dan friesen
And, uh, yeah, this person is definitely one of our.
Oh yeah fans.
owen shroyer
Let's take the next caller.
What's your name?
Where are you from?
bob from buby
Hi, I'm Bob from Buby, Maryland.
owen shroyer
Okay, Bob, go ahead.
bob from buby
So listen, you said God was telling you it's time to leave and Alex's God tells him the time too.
My question is, what time's right?
Which one is it?
owen shroyer
I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't talk for Alex.
I'm talking for myself.
So this is this is the right time.
bob from buby
Does God also tell you the time?
Is this is this is this a his or two for unknown power?
owen shroyer
Oh, I'll tell you what.
If you want to ask Alex Jones a question, you can go ahead and call his show, okay?
I can't answer what power.
bob from buby
I'm asking you.
unidentified
I'm asking you.
owen shroyer
How would I know?
How would I?
jordan holmes
What are you?
owen shroyer
What are you asking me?
bob from buby
I'm asking you, does God tell you the time?
Is this a no?
Can you both share or is this something new?
owen shroyer
No.
No, I don't, I don't get a God doesn't tell me the exact time of day.
I have a natural clock like everyone else does in their head.
I don't know about that.
bob from buby
So he'll wake you up and tell you it's 2:45 exactly.
owen shroyer
No, I've never had that.
bob from buby
Interesting.
Interesting.
unidentified
All right.
owen shroyer
All right, Bob.
dan friesen
That's pretty funny.
jordan holmes
That's pretty great.
Good stuff.
Good stuff.
dan friesen
Because Owen knows exactly what this person's asking.
jordan holmes
Oh yeah.
dan friesen
He's poking fun at the idea that Alex believes this and Owen went along with this.
unidentified
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
And Owen will refuse to be like, Yeah, I don't believe that or Yeah, I believe that.
You won't do it.
jordan holmes
Oh, and Owen, Owen.
You gotta, you gotta eat it, you know?
That's the thing now.
Now you're on the other side.
But that's the trick for a guy like Owen.
The trick is to eat it.
unidentified
Mm hmm.
jordan holmes
Nobody thinks you're gonna be able to eat it.
Everyone thinks you're gonna run away.
Everyone thinks you're gonna try and do all that stuff.
If you eat it, if you really just go, Yeah, here's this shit.
Here's the real shit, fuck Alex Jones for all this stuff.
This is what's true.
dan friesen
And it's such an interesting sort of parallel because someone calls in and is like, hey, do you not like methylene blue?
And Owen's like, yeah, I tried it once and I didn't really like it.
I'm not anti, but I don't like it.
I'm not, I don't want to promote it.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
So he's able to kind of cut through the bullshit on that, but like, does Alex have magic?
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like, he can't, he can't be like, no, that's full of shit.
Right.
He's a crazy person.
jordan holmes
Like, that's like, but that's where you have to go.
You have to go with that.
And that will be interesting.
That will be forever.
Ironically, the thing that you want to be for everyone is the one thing that you can't do.
dan friesen
Yeah, probably.
jordan holmes
Wild.
dan friesen
Duncan on that.
jordan holmes
What a he's the only person besides us in a better position to shit all over Alex Jones.
And that is the thing that he's not doing.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
God damn it.
dan friesen
So he gets another call, right.
This person is not one of our listeners.
And I think they are very unhealthy.
This sounds so scary.
marissa in colorado
I've been watching you forever when Trump first came on the scene, basically.
And me and my mom first started watching you.
And then my kids love you and they're six and seven years old.
owen shroyer
Oh, wow, that's awesome.
jordan holmes
That's awesome.
marissa in colorado
They have a little he's right here now, actually.
My little girls, they have a little Owen.
His name is Owen.
It's like a beanie baby, which you know because we're the same age.
unidentified
A beanie baby named Owen?
marissa in colorado
Yeah, he is a rainbow owl, beanie baby Owen.
And Owen watches Owen every day at the TV.
unidentified
Wow.
marissa in colorado
And they love you.
Yeah.
dan friesen
This is deeply upsetting.
jordan holmes
Stop!
dan friesen
They're too young.
jordan holmes
Be responsible, Owen, be responsible.
You're not on Infowars anymore.
You can just say, Lady, no!
dan friesen
This type of content is not, it's for adults.
It's not for six and seven year olds to be watching every day.
jordan holmes
What are you doing?
dan friesen
They're naming their Beanie Baby after fucking Owen.
jordan holmes
Man, that's going to be a fun, that's going to be a fun two truths and a lie icebreaker that those kids are going to have in college.
dan friesen
Hopefully they don't remember.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that would be nice.
dan friesen
So here, here's my hope.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Owen ends up getting to talk to these kids.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I actually kind of Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
jordan holmes
The kids go on the.
Right.
dan friesen
Because they might not actually exist.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
I'm rewriting this whole call.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
As a person who is imagining having kids.
jordan holmes
I like this.
marissa in colorado
Owen wants to talk to you.
Okay, they're ready.
owen shroyer
Did you guys have a good Did you guys have a good Labor Day?
marissa in colorado
Say, Mom made us do school because we homeschool.
unidentified
Oh.
marissa in colorado
That's why we watch Owen every day.
That's why we watch you every day.
owen shroyer
Wow.
Did you guys learn?
Did you guys learn today?
marissa in colorado
Yeah.
See, we teach cursive.
You're our news.
owen shroyer
It seems like they're a little shy.
Are they a little shy right now?
marissa in colorado
They're they're shy.
They're making Owen talk to you.
owen shroyer
Here's an easy one.
Here's one for you.
Do they have a do they have a favorite food?
marissa in colorado
Yeah.
What's your favorite food?
owen shroyer
What's your favorite food?
marissa in colorado
Are you going to tell Owen?
They're very, very, very shy.
If they met you in person, different story.
dan friesen
Smash cut to her talking to a mop.
jordan holmes
I was, I, here's what I had.
I had in my mind a very pristine couch with all the beanie babies on it that she's talking to.
And she's like, this one's Owen.
This one's my child.
You know, that's, yeah.
dan friesen
It's crazy that that is preferable to imagine to six and seven year olds.
jordan holmes
I would give anything.
dan friesen
watching Owen every day.
jordan holmes
I want her brain to be smelting and I want those kids to be fine.
dan friesen
I want them all to be fake.
jordan holmes
Yeah, exactly.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So, um, she has another thing that she likes and that is music.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
And so she and Owen talk about how music is going to be an important part of his new all news show.
jordan holmes
Can't afford music.
owen shroyer
I'll give you a little teaser.
Can't afford anything.
I intend to make music a big part of the show.
going forward.
It's not going to be like it's not going to be like nothing is really going to change, but it's like the musical element is going to be a very important element.
You're going to get a little bit you're going to get a little bit of an itch scratched if you like music.
And we're probably we're going to do a little more of a cultural thing with like pop culture.
Like I'm going to do movie reviews like some news.
jordan holmes
Friday.
owen shroyer
Oh, you want to watch a movie with your family.
jordan holmes
You're going to do news.
owen shroyer
Watch this like what's good, what's bad.
So we'll do a little bit of that.
No.
If you're listening, if you're listening and you haven't heard a song in twenty years, you're gonna hear it and you're gonna be like, Oh my gosh, if you're listening and you're a reader and you hear a song that you've never heard and you're like, What is this amazing sound?
I'm gonna introduce you to new music.
So I do intend to make that a very big part of the show because I think you're talking about NPR or MTV in the 90s.
jordan holmes
Yeah, man.
dan friesen
I'm Matt Pinfield.
jordan holmes
It's ridiculous.
dan friesen
So he's going to quickly learn that you can't put ads on shows that use copyrighted material without permission.
Hipping people on alternative rock bands from late 90s is great, but if you don't have the rights to these songs, that's going to be a huge problem.
unidentified
Also, this show's supposed to be three hours of news.
dan friesen
I thought everyone was too into commentary and not serious enough, but now we got family movie reviews and music record recommendations, like Owen just wants to be a morning DJ from the time he was a kid.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
That's all he apparently wants to do.
What if that's the show that he's describing doing.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But I guess he didn't want to do a morning show.
He wanted to be in the afternoon, but he wanted to be an afternoon zoo.
jordan holmes
I mean, I I I get it.
I know I've you know, we've known morning news people or morning radio people in the past, and they tell stories about waking up at three o'clock in the morning and going in to just do a meeting and then it sucks.
Yeah, it's awful.
I get why you're not doing that, but also that's the only time to do that.
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I think that something about the insanity of being up that early., it gives you permission.
Yeah.
To maybe talk to a pub.
jordan holmes
And everybody's just everybody's just in their car.
They're not they're not any happier or to be there.
So they're just they're just looking for anything to get them out of that this car isn't moving right now.
dan friesen
Yeah.
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
But I just think that's maybe his dream and it's sad.
I think that just doesn't exist anymore.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I mean, that's a fine dream.
It's just not available to you.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And the ultimate irony is the only place it probably was available to him was InfoWars.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
He could have just been like Alex, let someone else tell take over the war room.
I'll do a more like I'll do a morning show where I'll turn the war room into like a cool radio channel.
News, recommendations, music stuff.
jordan holmes
Every time Alex was thinking, we have to go 24 hours.
Here's the type of show we're doing.
He's not saying I want to add straight news.
He's saying I want to add a painting show.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Owen, that's a morning zoo shit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
He walked away from or was fired from the only place he conceivably could do the thing he wants to do.
jordan holmes
Every single thing that he has done is in avoidance of the only thing that he should be doing.
And that's hilarious.
to me.
In every way, every decision we see him making is like, it's exactly like the decisions from God.
It's like, oh, God told me to quit.
God told me to quit.
God is telling you to do so many things right now and you're doing none of them.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So this next, this next call, I'm going to apologize in advance for this because this is a little self indulgent.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
This is another one of our listeners.
jordan holmes
Because nobody else is watching.
dan friesen
No, that's not true.
He does get a fair amount of calls from his actual fans.
I don't want to make it look like the only people calling in are fucking dumb.
jordan holmes
But it's, hey, what are we doing here?
dan friesen
And look, this clip is long., but it needs to be for a full context.
Okay.
And because there's a payoff a little bit later in the episode, and man, it's worth it.
Okay.
So anyway, here is the very suspiciously named Jordan Friesen.
jordan in chicago
Hey, Jordan Friesen, I'm from Chicago.
owen shroyer
Okay, Jordan, go ahead.
jordan in chicago
Hey, Owen, longtime fan.
I just got to ask you, who's going to destroy the Cucks now over at InfoWars?
owen shroyer
I don't know.
It's not my, it's not my problem anymore.
I, I, I can't, not my problem.
jordan in chicago
Hey, so I had a question actually about something that that old drunk boss of ears did too.
unidentified
Okay.
jordan in chicago
When you were doing the Sandy Hook bit there, was it him who told you you had to bring it up and tried to make you the fall guy there?
owen shroyer
Well, this, this all came out in court, so it's not like I'm breaking any news here, but I guess you would have to have read all the documents.
jordan in chicago
Yeah, the definitions with Bill Ogden.
owen shroyer
And actually, I kind of was revisiting this a couple of days ago because I think someone else had some legal thing that they were asking me about.
The two instances where I covered that., both times those stories were brought to me.
So no, I did not decide to cover those things.
They were brought to me to cover.
jordan in chicago
Sounds like he made you do it.
owen shroyer
No, well, that's not accurate.
no, no, no, no.
That's not accurate either.
Now, I don't, I don't recall the exact transaction because you have to understand, I was still new, you know, I was still the new guy on the block at the time.
And so when, when I'm told to cover a story, you know, I do it.
I'm the new guy.
And so, yeah, I did it.
I don't remember the transaction or how, you know, who brought it to me or why or who said it.
But no, I do know that, yeah, those were not stories I chose to cover.
Those were stories that were brought to me to cover.
jordan in chicago
I know it just sounded fishy that that's when the statute of limitations, you know, it already expired, then he kind of has the new guy do it.
It always felt like he was kind of throwing you under the bus there.
owen shroyer
Yeah, I mean, it never felt that way.
I think though, you have to understand.
And I, and I, you know, I tried to explain this earlier and I can now too, but maybe a little more detailed.
Like, you have to understand folks that the info war as info wars as a concept as a, as a, let's say, intellectual theory.
It it's not an empty word.
It's serious.
Alex seriously means that.
And the reason why, I mean, look, I always compare it to the Last Dance documentary because it's just true.
You know, Alex is like Michael Jordan.
And so unless you are a true believer, and unless you have the true vision, and unless you're willing to do whatever he wants you to do, you know, you're going to hate it.
You don't want to play for the Bulls.
You don't want to work for Alex Jones.
So unless you're willing to accept that mission and know, you know, at Infowars, it's okay, you're going into battle.
Now, I'm not comparing myself to anybody that's done tours, let's just be clear.
But like Wednesday, and you may have missed this, but I said this earlier.
So I'll kind of use this as an example.
On Wednesday, I don't know if you were paying attention, but we basically broke the story of the trans shooter.
We did that.
I would say with 98% confidence that if we don't do that, you probably today don't know it was a trans individual, don't know the identity, don't see the manifestos, the videos, none of it.
You probably don't have any of that without, without InfoWars.
I would say 98% true.
That's the case.
Now, we knew when we got that exclusive at about 10 o'clock orlock or nine o'clock before the show, Alex wasn't in the studio, I was, but I talked to Alex, he said we got the exclusive, and you know, I've already been through this.
There's nothing good that comes out of us covering these things.
Never, never has been, not one time.
I get burned every single time and I've been censored because of it, I've been sued because of it, there's a good chance they're going to hit me like Jones in another case just like that that I was never allowed to talk about.
I was never, I was always told never to talk about, so I'll talk about it now.
Yeah, they're trying to Jones me right now.
They could they could hit me for ten billion dollars that I don't have.
So I'm in legal defense for that.
Totally, totally illegitimate case against me.
Totally BS.
We're trying to get it dismissed.
It's not a cheap legal battle.
I'm funding it all.
And I'm funding it all by myself, by the way.
I'd have to fund the whole thing myself.
It's not fun for a story that I didn't want to cover.
Wasn't even on my show.
And I get sued for it.
But whatever.
So Wednesday comes along, it's like, all right, everyone knows we're going to get burned.
If we break this story, we're going to get burned.
And I said, fine, I'm getting in the copilot seat in the Millennium Falcon with Alex Jones again, and we're going to take down another Death Star.
And we're going to do it.
And I know I'm going to ride into the fire with Alex, and I'm going to get burned.
But all right, let's go.
one more time.
So we friggin' did it.
And what happens?
Before I'm even off air, multiple headlines Owen Schroyer celebrates mass shooting, Owen Schroyer celebrates dead kids.
Total lie, totally illegitimate.
And yes, for the people that reported that, I will be suing you too.
I'll go ahead and announce that, yeah, you're going to be sued.
Okay, so that's how it works.
dan friesen
That's how it works.
owen shroyer
I knew that.
dan friesen
Yeah.
owen shroyer
All right, fine.
So it's like, that was my last dance.
dan friesen
Okay, last dance.
Generally speaking, I ignore most instances of callers who bring up our show and are very clearly trolling Infowars folks in some way that might be inspired by our show, but I've made a decision to forget that policy for today.
One reason is this is Owen's own stream, So I don't know if I care about people bothering him.
The reason I asked people not to call into Alex's show initially was about two major points.
One, I wanted to understand what Alex's worldview was.
And if I had tons of people trolling him and baiting him into having meltdowns, it was going to be so much more difficult for me to figure out where he was coming from and what these beliefs were.
jordan holmes
It's a bad experiment if you've got all that.
dan friesen
Yeah, it taints everything.
Exactly.
And then two, people like Alex and Owen don't operate from sincere places, so arguing with them is counterproductive.
Asking them questions and taking their answers seriously is a fool's game.
So I caution people away from thinking that they could get an actual debate going.
Both of these concerns are honestly mostly gone now.
I understand what Alex's ideology is.
I've spent years listening to him and reading the primary documents that he cites and I get it.
Calling into his show and fucking with him can't really get in the way of me learning anything anymore, so if anyone was holding back on that count, I don't think they should worry about it.
jordan holmes
Yeah, go for it.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Not on my behalf.
jordan holmes
I won't be bothered.
dan friesen
I still think that it's unproductive to engage with these folks directly, and I think that malicious trolling is just inherently unhealthy for you to engage in for your own sake.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
But people are going to do what they're going to do.
I was spared from a ton of harsh feedback and trolls because people were being courteous to me.
And I thank them for that, but I also don't care anymore.
I also think that another element of this is that it's also like, you know, there was one person who was trolling Alex at an abortion protest.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It was like, I want to eat my babies.
I love killing children.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And that's turned into an argument in favor of, like, people who are interested in reproductive rights or murderers.
Sure.
You know, like, it's easy for something you're fucking with him about to be turned into, like, something that works for him.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And it's good to be careful about that.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So the reason I played this cli clip in its entirety is because it was the only way I could convey the actual reason that it's interesting.
Even if this wasn't someone calling themselves Jordan Freeson, the way Owen responded to this question is revealing of something that I don't know if he realized what he said.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I know, right?
dan friesen
Owen is talking about the coverage of this shooter as his last dance with Alex, and he's relating it to other times he's got sued for defaming people around mass shootings.
He knows that nothing good ever comes out of covering these things, and rushing out unverified information, that's got them sued in the past.
But Michael Jordan is telling him to put on his jersey, so he goes through that.
fire one more time.
In order for this to make any sense, one of two things has to be the case.
Either Owen has to think that the trans stuff about this recent shooter is possibly fake and that they were rushing out this story in order to push a narrative, or he has to think his past coverage of these kinds of cases was good, and the consequences he received from it was just the system punishing him for being too cool of an anchor.
In the past, when he's engaged in this same behavior, where he's covered stories someone has just handed him about breaking news and mass shootings, Owen has accused Neil Heslan about lying about holding his son's body misidentified multiple mass shooters.
When he's gotten heat for his coverage on these stories, it's not because no one can talk about these things, it's because he fucked up and his coverage caused damage to people.
So when he's presenting this recent shooting coverage he did as one last dance with Alex, it's hard for me to believe that he thinks he's covering news seriously now, unless he thinks that he did a good job all those times in the past.
And he can choose which one he wants, but I don't think that he can take the good side of both.
jordan holmes
There's so okay.
So if you get inside the Millennium Falcon, right?
Sometimes, yes, you do destroy the Death Star.
But sometimes, you are also eaten by a caveworm on an unmarked asteroid.
Right?
So in both cases, one is admitting something about what's happened.
dan friesen
So let's role play.
You and me.
I'm Alex Euro, and we're getting in the Death Star.
jordan holmes
I want to be Han Solo.
Yeah, of course you can be Han Solo.
I'll be Chewbacca.
dan friesen
I want to be Chewbacca.
jordan holmes
Okay, then I'll be the chessboard guy who goes, I get to be Han Solo at Chewbacca.
I'll be I can't be C three, you don't make me I want to be C three, yo.
Fine, shit, I mean, R two D two doesn't even talk, man.
Bee boop, boop, boop, boop.
Are you him too?
unidentified
Bee boop.
jordan holmes
Oh, God, wait, are you making me Leia?
dan friesen
So, Owen, I think, like, I really got the feeling that he is responding poorly to this caller.
jordan holmes
He's not doing good.
dan friesen
This caller is putting him on his back foot.
There are things like bringing up Bill Ogden's name.
Clearly, this person knows stuff.
jordan holmes
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
dan friesen
So Owen's not too much stuff, right?
To the point where Owen's like, yelling over him.
This is not the vibe that the rest of this show has been.
It's very much like he's reverting into Alex.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I'm hearing him use those.
owen shroyer
So it's like, that was my last dance.
And then the next day, I'm hosting the show.
I got a great show.
I got three hours of content.
And then it's just some crazy thing with Alex interrupting again.
And it's just a whole just, and I just was done.
I was like, so even after that, even after I go into battle again, even after I get burned again.
And I still can't even do my show the next day without dealing with it.
So it's just like, all right, whatever.
But I didn't want any of this to be public.
I wasn't going to talk about any of this.
You know, I've been silent.
I haven't said anything.
I was going to, I was going to stay silent until I talked to Alex.
in person tomorrow and get it settled and go out positively and he said he didn't want to do that.
So that's why I'm doing this tonight.
But see, but that's what I'm saying, folks.
Some of you might be able to comprehend it, but like info wars is a real thing.
We cross the Rubicon before everyone else.
We climb over the barbed wire and we bleed out and then we let everyone else climb over our dead carcasses.
And so it just happened again on Wednesday.
Is anybody giving us credit?
No.
Does anybody care that we got burned for everybody else to wield the Promethean fire?
No.
That's part of the job, that's part of the info war.
Awesome, I signed up for it, I'm all for it.
But then it's like the next day I can't even breathe.
The next day I can't even get the training wheels off my bike.
The next day I can't even go on air without a babysitter.
It's just like, all right, so I just assume whatever.
Either he's not happy or he thinks he has to babysit me or I just don't want to do this.
But again, I didn't want to go public with any of this.
I was silent on all of this.
dan friesen
But then Alex didn't want me to come on air and promote my business, so I had to.
All I'm hearing here is a dude who feels undervalued.
Owen understands that he was taking a huge risk by being on air with Alex while he identified a mass shooter and he's pissed off that Alex wouldn't see him agreeing to do this do this as a sign that he can stand on his own two feet.
Alex still needed to micromanage him the next day and poke around in his show, and that doesn't make Owen feel like a big boy.
I feel like he could have saved a lot of time and energy if he just said, I'm hurt.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
I was hurt.
This hurts me.
I feel like hurt my feelings.
There's no confidence.
jordan holmes
I don't feel valued, and that's a big part of people's job is they like to feel like what they're doing is valuable.
Yeah.
dan friesen
And that requires me to say, I'm sorry I cut you off with the clip.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
By starting the clip.
jordan holmes
No, I was, I was, yeah, no, that's totally fine.
Okay, this is maybe the worst example of daddy issues I've seen through right wing media in a long time.
This is because because otherwise why the fuck are you responding to this with I knew we were going to get burned and I chose to keep doing it and I think that's good.
dan friesen
And then right, the example of getting burned is like there was a negative headline about you.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Who cares?
jordan holmes
But I mean the other example of getting burned is there's a billion dollar lawsuit against you.
dan friesen
Right.
jordan holmes
Which is a more important getting burned I feel like to learn from.
But, you know, the headlines hurt too.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I get it.
dan friesen
You know, pride is what it is.
jordan holmes
But, like, this is just the time you go this motherfucker's crazy.
Even if, even if you still believe in all the stuff, right?
Even if you still believe in all the stuff, you don't, you don't have to say that Alex Jones isn't fucking crazy.
dan friesen
Well, I think that none of the stuff that none of these behaviors that he's manifesting or that that are being described, even in the, like, least generous interpretation of them, like, they're not new.
jordan holmes
No.
dan friesen
These are all things that Owen would have been seeing and experiencing for a while.
Yeah.
Like Alex has done the same behavior that's got him sued.
Mm.
Repeatedly.
He doesn't give a fuck.
He doesn't learn from his lessons.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So like there's nothing about this story other than I couldn't put up with being underappreciated anymore.
So I tried to lash out and Alex said beat it.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
50 bucks says if Alex called tomorrow he'd take his job back.
I don't know.
dan friesen
I mean, it's an interesting bet.
jordan holmes
You don't have to be right or wrong.
I'm just I'm just throwing that out there.
50 bucks.
The money line is by the end of two weeks.
Is he going to be back at Infowars?
dan friesen
I think Alex would need to recoup, like give him some money for whatever he wasted on the World of Warcraft.
World Independent News graphics and stuff like that.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
He's sunk a little money into printing already, so like, I think whatever that is.
jordan holmes
He went straight to printing?
dan friesen
He made like a microphone flag.
unidentified
Oh my god.
dan friesen
Which he obviously didn't do in the time between his call with Alex and the start of this stream.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that's true.
dan friesen
So this is clearly something he's been planning for a while.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Anyway, he's a he's a dick.
jordan holmes
I hope he's got business cards.
Those are going to be very important.
dan friesen
Maybe one that says like Owen Schroyer, big shot.
jordan holmes
Ooh, I like that.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So he just doesn't want people to think that he's attacking Alex.
Right.
That's really important, even though he's been directly attacking Alex repeatedly throughout this stream.
owen shroyer
Again, I don't know.
I don't want this to come off as like a negative thing, folks.
I'm not trying to be a thorn and Alex aside.
I don't want to be.
I don't want to even.
I don't want Alex to ever think of me again.
I don't want to.
I have nothing but respect and admiration and appreciation for Alex.
I'm not doing this as a negative thing.
I'm doing this because I have to.
I don't have a.
I don't have a platform anymore.
I was told not to come in this week.
So this is the only platform I have.
I can't announce my...
Where else am I supposed to?
This is it.
This is all I have.
I would have loved to do it on InfoWars.
I was told not to.
So I don't even want to be a thorn and Alex aside.
I don't want people to say that this is, oh, I'm attackinging him or turn it's not what this is.
dan friesen
This makes total sense, but I think that Owen isn't willing to just be blunt about what he's saying.
He wanted to promote his new project to Alex's audience on Infowars, and he was willing to play nice with him if Alex would let him do the next few days of the war room to land this plane gently.
Alex said no, which left Owen with nowhere to promote his shit, and if he waited until tomorrow, Alex might have a chance to attack him on Infowars and control the narrative, so he needed to get this out immediately.
He had to do this, which might come off as a bit assholish, because Alex wouldn't let him do it the nice way, because he got fired.
jordan holmes
Of all the things you've learned from Alex, the one lesson that would help you right now is knowing that loyalty is the wrongest move in the history of ever in this world.
In this world, you attack the shit out of Alex and then he might just give you what you want.
That's how crazy all these people are.
dan friesen
Yeah, especially if in some way you become really valuable to him later.
jordan holmes
If you become more important by attacking Alex, you're more likely to get back in Alex's good graces.
dan friesen
He's still gonna fucking hate you, but he'll pretend not to and put that to the side.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
dan friesen
If it's profitable, I'll make money.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
He doesn't give a shit.
You can't hurt him emotionally.
You can't get anything from him for being loyal.
The only thing he likes is obtaining people's admiration.
If he already has it, then you're shit to him.
dan friesen
Yeah.
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
So our last caller was old Jordan Friesem.
jordan holmes
Great guy.
dan friesen
And I don't know if there's any way to top that.
owen shroyer
Okay, next caller, what's your name where you're from?
Do we have the next caller?
jordan in chicago
Dan Holmes.
owen shroyer
I'm sorry, we were breaking up.
Do we have you?
jordan in chicago
Dan Holmes.
owen shroyer
Okay, Dan, go ahead.
jordan in chicago
Hey, I just actually had a question.
unidentified
Is this going to make a good episode of Knowledge Fight?
jordan holmes
Oh, I'm sure.
owen shroyer
Yeah, you guys do.
You guys watch everything I do.
jordan in chicago
I mean, you are the one who said you were a puppet on your deposition.
unidentified
So that was really cool.
owen shroyer
Go ahead, man.
Have it out.
Have your fun.
unidentified
Go ahead.
jordan in chicago
I'm also the last caller.
You morons forgot to hang on me.
bob from buby
You're a professional.
I wouldn't really look at you.
owen shroyer
Okay.
Well, I appreciate that.
I'm sure you mean it too.
Next caller.
What's your name where you're from?
dan friesen
Smooth.
That's good.
jordan holmes
Oh, okay.
Whoever that is, Victory Lap.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I'll give a tip of the hat to that.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
dan friesen
Because that wasn't too mean, but it also wasn't like taking Owen's responses seriously.
There's a lot of danger in that as a prank call.
jordan holmes
It was a proper way to poke.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And I think, obviously, his response to the question, this is going to make a good episode of Knowledge Fight, you know what that means.
jordan holmes
Yeah, bro.
Yeah, you know what that means.
You're supposed to not know what that means.
dan friesen
So that's fun.
jordan holmes
It would help you a lot more if you didn't know what that means.
dan friesen
But then also, he says that we watch all the things he does.
Ooh.
And I think he is the InfoWars personality that I'm interested in the least.
jordan holmes
I think we've.
dan friesen
I've almost never watched, like I very rarely watch the war room.
I can't really bear his boring ass.
jordan holmes
I remember, I remember for the first like three hundred episodes, you would have listened to hours upon hours upon hours of this, but all the time you would be like, and then Owen Schroer showed up, so I turned it off.
dan friesen
Yeah, if he was hosting, it's like, well, I time to go.
jordan holmes
Skip gone.
dan friesen
Yeah, he just stinks.
Like for a long time he was just doing an Alex impression and trying to be like him.
And then he kind of found his own footing, but it was in service of being like a little blander and it just he had nothing like Harrison was able to find his place as bookish dweeb nazi.
Yeah.
Really fine.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Chase found Brendan energy real fast.
jordan holmes
Instantaneous.
The best guy there.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Yeah.
These people were able to find their niche and I think that, you know, in the same way that maybe someone is a decently funny comic but they're just doing like a tell or they're doing Hedberg.
unidentified
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Can't find their voice.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It makes them less interesting to watch.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And that has been my battle with Owen.
I've been fighting my battle with Owen Troyer until the day he quit.
jordan holmes
Today, buddy.
dan friesen
Now do a fucking long ass episode on a Wednesday in the future.
jordan holmes
Welcome to the future.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Oh boy.
dan friesen
So I mentioned Chase there.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Do you think he's CIA?
jordan holmes
Oh God, I wish that would make if he was an undercover anything, that would make Chase the most interesting person we've ever talked about.
dan friesen
What if he was an extra, an undercover brother?
jordan holmes
Mm, that would still make him pretty interesting, but not the most interesting person we've ever talked about.
dan friesen
I'd listen to the story.
For sure.
So this caller wants to know if Chase is CIA.
owen shroyer
Next caller, what's your name?
Where are you from?
unidentified
Hey, Alan, just learning now about everything that's kind of going on.
I was always wondering, what's your sentiment towards maybe Chase Geyser and all of this?
tom in chicago
Everyone says he's a CIA asset and he's destroying information.
unidentified
Okay.
owen shroyer
I'm not going to say anything negative about Chase.
I have had nothing but a positive experience with Chase.
I think we've probably, we've had like two or three times where maybe we had a, let's say, just a professional issue and we addressed it and cleared it in a day.
So no, I don't think Chase is anything of that stuff.
I think Chase is a good person.
He's a great father.
He's a great husband.
I don't know his status right now, to be honest.
I don't even want to get into that.
I don't know what his status is, but no, Chase Chase actually did nothing.
dan friesen
So I would love to, like, I would love for him to have been asked if Owen had any feelings about Alex caring more about Chase than him.
Like, that's such a more interesting question.
jordan holmes
Totally.
dan friesen
Like, did you feel like you were cast aside?
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
When this boy showed up?
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
dan friesen
Did you see a spark in Alex's eye that you remembered seeing in 2016?
jordan holmes
I mean, it's and it's a perfect.
thing to bring up right now when he's raw and he's so obsessed with not looking like exactly what he's going to look like if he has to respond to that question.
dan friesen
So at the end there, Owen says that he doesn't know Chase's status because there's been more shakeups at InfoWars.
After it came out that Owen quit, Chase tweeted, quote, I will not be hosting the war room.
I made a decision to work for Big Lee a month ago because I felt I could help Alex and InfoWars more effectively by making the store as awesome as possible.
I moved to Arkansas a week ago.
jordan holmes
What?
dan friesen
And just like that, Alex is left alone in a dark room with just his thoughts and Harrison Smith.
There wasn't a lot of talent in the building to start with, but this shit is falling apart pretty fast.
jordan holmes
That's not what I expected.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I did not expect to hear that Chase was in Arkansas.
But good for him.
dan friesen
Well, it makes sense.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I mean, he has more of a marketing background and that kind of shit.
And like, if I were in his position and Alex had put my name on the documents for the Alex Jones network, oh yeah.
I would also start working for the real company, as opposed to being an on air doofus for Alex.
Like, this is a way better job.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
Position.
No, I mean, it's, it's like, it's, and it's perfect because it would be something to go do where you could sell it to Alex as being like, I'm on the inside now.
But then if Alex actually needs anything, you're like, I don't work for you.
dan friesen
And guess what?
Joke on you.
I'm your boss now.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
You idiot.
Why did you put it in my name?
I talked to a lawyer.
dan friesen
Working at Bigley is ironically exactly what a CIA agent would do.
jordan holmes
That is true.
Somebody who is trying to say, follow the money?
dan friesen
Or someone who's trying to position himself in a place where he could really influence Alex.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
dan friesen
I don't think Jay's a CIA, but I think it's funny.
jordan holmes
It's doubtful, but it would be funny.
What if he was IRS?
What if he's a undercover IRS agent?
Now we're talking.
dan friesen
What if he's liquor patrol?
jordan holmes
Oh, there's no way there's no way that he'd survive Arkansas.
dan friesen
No.
So Owen describes his new show.
And again, this is all just direct three hours of news attacks on Alex.
owen shroyer
But the three hours of news coverage, if you like my news coverage, Owen report, October 6, three hours, three to six PM in my style, in my delivery, the way I want to do news.
And that's, that's how we're going to do it be doing the going out of business sales.
I'm not going to be doing the buy this product or everyone's going to die.
You know, I'm going to do a classic traditional style of a broadcast and we're going to have sponsors.
We'll do some other kind of new age stuff with subscriptions and other ways to fundraise, but I really just want to do classical stuff.
So like I want to do a segment called the rant where I just do a five-minute rant and that'll have a sponsor.
I want to do a segment called the roast where I just roast somebody or a topic that'll have a sponsor.
I'll have a microphone sponsor, a studio sponsor, a phone line sponsor, some other segments and stuff.
And so that's how we're going to do it.
So that way you don't have to be in inundated with ads all day long.
You don't have to be inundated with different live reads and sales pitches and sales techniques.
You're not going to deal with any of that.
It's going to be very straightforward.
It's going to be me delivering the news.
dan friesen
You don't have to deal with some guy trying to sell you a raffle for a truck.
You don't have to deal with someone saying, Hey, you get ten dollars on us.
jordan holmes
Oh my God.
dan friesen
What an asshole.
jordan holmes
I love, I love these types of conversations because I've had this type of conversation with people in the past who want to start like their own franchise or the, you know, stuff like this.
And it's like you're saying all this stuff because you're really confident that people blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But I will tell you this, the reason that you're seeing all this stuff is not because it doesn't work.
It is precisely the opposite.
It is because what you want to do doesn't work.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That's it.
dan friesen
Alex does this shit because it's really lucrative.
jordan holmes
It's how it works.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And trying to operate in this media space other ways is suboptimal.
It's absurd.
But also there's like the issue, there's so much wrong here.
But like there's a guy who's way too confident telling you this idea.
And I'm sitting here thinking like, well, logistically, this is not going to work.
jordan holmes
No.
dan friesen
Like, you're not going to be able to magically make this studio and then create your own vibrant radio with four cameras, Rush, this is the new Rush, it's not going to work.
But then even like what he's describing, if executed perfectly, is not interesting.
Yep.
Like, if every piece falls into place exactly right, and he creates a show where he talks about how there's cool music from the nineties, and he does a rant that's sponsored by somebody, he does a roast, like, even if he does all these segments, it's a boring show.
Yep.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's not cutting edge.
It's not doing anything new.
It's not exploring the format.
And I think that's like a compound of how sad this is.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like it's sad in a delusional way, but it's also sad in a like, even if you pull this off, you fail.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like it still sucks.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, what you might as well be saying is like, I want to go back in time.
I wish I wish things had gone differently.
That's another way of putting what it is.
dan friesen
You're staying at that sports station.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
I wish I'd just gotten really into baseball.
dan friesen
Maybe it was a dumb idea to go film yourself antagonizing people at protests and thinking it's a career.
jordan holmes
Yeah, but to learn that would be very devastating.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So there's a theme that goes through a number of calls, and that is the question of whether or not Owen got fired because he was talking too much shit about Israel.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And Alex doesn't like that.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
This is something that people really want to know about.
jordan holmes
Okay.
owen shroyer
Well, first of all, are you under the impression that I've had to censor my Israel coverage because I was at Infowars?
unidentified
It felt like Alex had, we wanted to keep a positive spin with Trump.
owen shroyer
Well, okay.
I would say I didn't really censor anything.
I would say that I took, you know, I took into account that Alex didn't like all the Israel stuff, but I still covered it, you know, as I saw it, but probably I probably like I probably didn't spend as much time on it.
Maybe I don't know.
You know, as far as the negativity about Trump thing, I always called it as it was about Trump, and that's why he was always coming into the studio and saying I was negative or a pessimist or all this other stuff.
dan friesen
In that very short clip, Owen said that he never censored his coverage of Israel, but also that he didn't cover it as much as he would have on his show because Alex didn't like it.
These are contradictory statements.
Further, he's saying that he never censored himself about Trump, but that because he said the things he did, Alex created a hostile work environment that was so uncomfortable that he stormed off his show and quit his job of almost ten years.
That's very obviously an attempt on Alex's part to exert censorship pressure, and I'm certain this isn't an isolated incident.
Owen probably just really didn't care that much about going along with it all the other times because InfoWars wasn't about to go out of business back then.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
People get a lot of backbone when the checks are clearly about to start bouncing.
And you know, it's not worth it to play along anymore.
jordan holmes
It can't be.
And maybe, arguably, it could, maybe it never was, depending on how you view time.
dan friesen
I would certainly say it never was.
Right.
jordan holmes
But I mean, you know, you probably had some really good dinners though.
owen shroyer
Yeah.
jordan holmes
So in the moment, at those times, it was probably worth it.
dan friesen
You got to smoke a cigar with Eddie Bravo.
Oh, yeah.
Talk about how the earth is flat.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I'm sure there were a bunch of experiences that you're, you're going to be happy with.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And it makes a great scrapbook.
Yeah.
jordan holmes
But you're not going to be in the media.
dan friesen
No.
jordan holmes
No.
No, no, no.
dan friesen
So he gets another call from someone else who wants to know.
About, are you sure that Alex didn't fire you over Israel, right?
kevin from chicago
Final question.
Now, it had nothing to do with you coming out against Israel, coming out, speaking out against that whole power struggle.
That had nothing to do with it, right?
owen shroyer
You mean where there are ideological differences?
Yeah, no, no, no, I mean, look, I do think that I do think, well, how can I put it?
I guess I would say it like this.
There's things that Alex Jones is allowed to do on air that I guess I'm not, right?
jordan holmes
Yeah, no shit.
owen shroyer
So when Alex, when Alex talks about, you know, oh, we're all going to die in World War 3, that's okay.
But if I come out and say something negative about Trump, I'm too pessimistic.
So yeah, okay, you know, whatever.
There were definitely, I do think, I think Alex looks at it like this.
Because at the end of the day, I am a bit of a representative of him, right?
I mean, he still signs my checks, I still work for him.
So I mean, we have a huge audience.
He knows people in DC and the White House and people are tuning in.
And so I think he gets a little afraid that I might say something that might look bad on him from people in DC that he's trying to win favor with, perhaps.
So, you know, I guess I get that and I don't want to be that guy.
If that's how I am for him, then I don't want to be that guy.
But no, that's not.
That's not what led to this.
Did he get upset that I was too negative or pessimistic?
Yes.
Did we have it out on air a couple of times in private a couple of times?
Yes.
That's not what this is about.
I mean, Alex didn't fire me guys.
This was like, you might call it a mutual parting.
jordan holmes
You might.
owen shroyer
I wanted this to happen in a positive way at Infowars and he didn't.
So that's really the only, that's really the only thing here.
dan friesen
It's a big thing though.
jordan holmes
Let me ask you a question.
So what you're saying is that I wanted to go to work, but the person who allows or disables me to go to work said, you're no longer invited to work here.
dan friesen
Right, but the reason that I wanted to go to work wasn't really to do the work, it was to promote my new business.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
I was kind of freelancing a little bit.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
So that still sounds like you've been fired.
Only this time it's because you were going to waste company time.
dan friesen
I wanted to go to work after I had stormed out.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And then just not showed up on Friday.
Right.
I wanted to come back to steal the copier.
Right, but then my boss said, Don't come in.
And so I think it was mutual.
jordan holmes
I think it was pretty mutual.
I want to say it was pretty mutual.
dan friesen
What a fucking asshole.
jordan holmes
You know, I, I, I, I, I, I've always found that even if something is in inconvenient or disgusting, it's just not admitting the truth or not speaking the truth makes you anxious.
Listen to the way he's like, I mean, I wasn't censored.
I wasn't just like, you know, we all make compromises at work, buddy.
Sometimes I was censored.
I bet you are too.
Anyway, next.
dan friesen
Yeah, I think that's difficult when you've spent ten years working at a place that has URLs like censored.tv and banned.video.
I think your brand is a little tarnished by that.
jordan holmes
You know?
dan friesen
So these callers are really pushing this whole idea about, are you sure it wasn't about Israel?
Because they want the answer to be that Alex fired Owen for his coverage on Israel stuff.
That would validate the whole Alex works for the Jews narrative, and it would help solidify Owen as a true believer that they could count on.
That's why this answered question keeps getting asked, because it's not a question, it's an offer.
These people are offering Owen a chance to be like, would you like to open the door, step on in through the door, we're all here waiting.
Yeah, yeah.
You have exited the controlled opposition mothership or whatever.
You can come over here now if you want.
jordan holmes
It's a surprise part.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Also, what Owen is describing in that clip is Alex exerting a shocking level of editorial control over his staff.
in order to make sure that what they say is pleasing to the people at power.
The idea that Alex would micromanage Owen's show because he was worried about what his powerful friends in Washington would say is really dark.
And I think that Owen should see that as a huge problem.
The fact that he can kind of be like, yeah, what are you going to do?
It's not that bad while describing this is insane.
jordan holmes
See, this is what I'm saying.
Whenever you just accept the truth for what it is, you just remove so much anxiety about it.
Like, oh, Alex is doing this all for his powerful people in Washington.
How about that?
There you go.
dan friesen
Well, then stop putting on some pretense about how you're the truth news.
jordan holmes
But I'm going to be America's anchor man.
Yeah, I bet.
When I do The Rant.
When you're.
sponsored by Target.
dan friesen
That's going to get you Rush numbers doing The Rant.
jordan holmes
The Rant.
A five minute rant sponsored by a fucking dishwasher company.
dan friesen
Fuck you and your naysaying.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And here's why.
unidentified
You're wrong.
jordan holmes
Why?
dan friesen
Because he's going to do a roast segment.
And I don't know if you know this, but Owen has met Tony Hinchcliff.
And he's a roast guy.
unidentified
Ooh.
dan friesen
So we have one last clip here and it's Owen impressing the caller and talking about how he met Tony Helell.
jordan holmes
Oh my God.
natalie from north dakota
Were you actually on the Kill Tony show or were you just a guest in the audience?
owen shroyer
No, no.
I was just a VIP guest.
natalie from north dakota
Oh, that's awesome.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
natalie from north dakota
And I would like to say, if you were, if you were on the guest panel on the show, oh my gosh.
owen shroyer
That would be fun.
I'd do that.
natalie from north dakota
Yeah, especially with your new, sorry, my heart is beating out of my chest.
Let me take a deep breath.
owen shroyer
Yeah, just calm down.
I'll say this while you're, while you're catching your wind here.
I, I, Tony was a really nice guy, really an awesome guy.
And I've been around enough celebrities to know and I get it.
But like most celebrities, most people with that level of, you know, following or fame, like they don't want to deal with people.
They don't.
And I get it.
You know, you never know who you're talking to, taking a picture with.
You just, you never know, whatever.
And so he had an after party and he was there the whole time.
He was there the whole time talking to people, meeting people, having drinks, having smokes.
I mean, just totally down to earth, great guy.
So I have nothing but positive things to say about Tony Hinchcliff.
He was a real class act, really enjoyed his show.
And then afterwards, he's just a real great guy.
natalie from north dakota
That is so awesome, man, especially with you announcing your new roast segment.
If you were to make a special appearance on Kill Tony and do one of his shows one time in the future.
Oh my gosh.
That would be totally epic.
owen shroyer
I'd love to do that.
Maybe we can get there.
Yeah, the roast.
You know, an ideal sponsor would be a coffee company, right?
unidentified
The roast, you know, by a coffee company.
owen shroyer
But we'll see.
We'll see where it goes.
But yeah, I mean, I just look, yeah, that's going to be one of the segments.
That's going to be one of the bits that I do.
I'll just do a five minute.
I'll just roast somebody.
I mean, just going to roast them or an idea or something.
But yeah, that's what we're going to do.
That's going to be one of the fun things that we do.
dan friesen
This is almost too perfect.
Alex has always been so desperate to be best friends with Joe Rogan.
And now Owen is bragging about hanging out with Tony Hinchcliff.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's the circle of life, Jordan.
jordan holmes
It is it needs to the wheel of time must be broken, Dan.
It's accidental poetry.
We must destroy them.
dan friesen
This is catching a rat live on air.
It's just everything.
It's ah.
jordan holmes
Oh my God, Tony fucking Hinchcliff.
Why not?
dan friesen
That roast segment is going to rule.
I'm going to start a fucking coffee company so I can sponsor that to get Owen to roast you.
jordan holmes
I love, listen, I love it, right?
We spent a decade doing stand-up comedy.
It is actually very, very hard to write good roast jokes.
dan friesen
Because people are going to laugh at you saying a coffee company just because of my roast jokes.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
I think that's you're essentially saying, I have no ability to do this.
It'll be funny to watch this trash.
dan friesen
Or the room is so easy.
jordan holmes
The level.
dan friesen
The expectation of what you all think is funny is so low.
jordan holmes
I bet he's not even going to write it.
I bet he's going to think that he can just improvise five minutes of roasting.
dan friesen
I bet Tony Hitchcliff is going to write it.
jordan holmes
Oh, God.
Is Tony Hitchcliff that famous now?
dan friesen
I mean, he did the Trump Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden.
jordan holmes
Is that really fame?
dan friesen
No, I mean, Kill Tony is huge.
in certain circles.
jordan holmes
Brutal.
Brutal.
What are we doing?
dan friesen
I don't know.
I don't know.
But I hope, I don't hope that Owen's Zoo Crew fantasy comes true.
But yeah, I kind of lost interest in things got, you know, quite repetitive.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like I said, I made it to about hour four of the five hour stream and I was just kind of like, I don't think you're saying anything new anymore.
This is just going in circles.
jordan holmes
That's a good way to describe his next show.
I don't think you're saying anything new.
dan friesen
And it's going in circles.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a monumental oc occasion.
jordan holmes
You know.
dan friesen
He's gone.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
In theory.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Unless it's all a prank.
jordan holmes
We'll see in two weeks.
We got fifty bucks on it.
dan friesen
But yeah.
I just words fail me in this, in this, like, this moment of such real gravity.
jordan holmes
You know, we saw David Knight go.
dan friesen
We did.
jordan holmes
We were there to witness that.
But it felt, it felt right.
Just because David Knight was just a weird old man who was just there sometimes.
So you kind of figure him staying or leaving, because he wasn't even in Austin, right?
dan friesen
No, he was.
unidentified
Oh, he was.
Oh, he was?
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Well, either way, he was at nothing.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You know?
dan friesen
He he seemed like a strange quantity at Infowars because he's an old man, he doesn't yell all that much.
But you know, there's a certain irony in that, like, David Knight is kind of doing or has done what Owen thinks he's going to do.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like, he did more boring, dry news anchor kind of thing.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
dan friesen
Like, David Knight was a more restrained personality that you could describe as an anchor on, on, on, on, uh, Infowars.
And he failed.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And once he left, there is only irrelevance to be found.
I think it's a teachable thing for Owen.
If he wants any relevance, he needs to be himself.
And if he wants to stay in this space, he needs to be cuck destroyer, cuck slaying, going out, rallies, fighting with people, maybe wearing a silly hat.
Dry newsman for three hours isn't going to work.
Roasts suck, rants suck.
These aren't interesting segments.
jordan holmes
I've got advice straight from the Bible.
The hot and cold, right?
Go hot or go cold.
Go as hard as you've ever gone against Alex.
Or go so cold that you just try and change your name and go to a radio station to do sports.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Anything in between is a failure and you're going to fail.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That's why God hates the lukewarm because they suck.
dan friesen
They're there but again, there will be like a period where it probably isn't going to feel like it's a disaster.
jordan holmes
That's what faith is for.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
This is misguided.
Anyway, happy travels.
Happy Labor Day.
jordan holmes
See you in hell, asshole.
dan friesen
Yep.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
Fuck off.
Maybe the last time we ever talk about this guy again.
Or maybe I'll watch every episode of his dumb roast.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
But yeah, we'll be back with another episode about the What InfoWars is like AD.
jordan holmes
Oh boy.
Post Troy.
dan friesen
After departure.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Of the ding dong.
The secondary ding dong.
Viacom Dios.
We'll be back.
But until then, we have weapons.
jordan holmes
Indeed, we do.
dan friesen
knowledgefight dot com dot And it's unfortunately not what we want.
Maybe not winnetwork.com or theowenreport.com which was also available but it was $500 and that was also too expensive for a joke.
Crazy.
He might be able to get that.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Anyway, we'll be back.
But until then, I'm Neo.
I'm Leo.
I'm DZX Clark.
I am the mysterious professor.
unidentified
Woo, yeah, woo, yeah, woo.
jordan holmes
And now here comes the sex robots.
alex jones
Andy in Kansas, you're on the air.
Thanks for holding.
jordan holmes
Well, Alex, I'm a first time caller.
unidentified
I'm a huge fan.
jordan holmes
I love your work.
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