What's the Time?

Description: Caucasian male. 5 feet, 11 inches tall. 164 pounds. Short brown hair, clean shaven. Green eyes. 27 years of age.

Employment: Founder and Co-host of the web talk show “Speak No Evil Radio,” broadcast out of Marietta, Georgia.

Earl Turner was arrested on October 23rd, 2014, after it was revealed that his influence might have played an important role in the Shaveem Rahaj case. Officer Dean Sheppard spotted his car heading down Highway 120 past Cook Out and stopped him around 10:23 PM. After confirming it was Earl Turner, he was taken into custody and brought in for questioning.

- Hello, Mister Turner, I hope your evening isn’t going too terribly.

- Well I’m in police custody for something I didn’t do so that certainly puts a damper on things.

- I’d imagine so. I’m sorry, but it’s our job. I’m sure you understand.

- Yeah, sure, I get it. Just doesn’t change the fact that it’s an inconvenience. I’m supposed to be finished with my show and getting ready for bed with my family right now.

- And I apologize for that, but there’s nothing we can do. So, before we continue, I need to make sure you understand your rights, Mister Turner. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say here could be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to ask your lawyer for advice before answering any questions. You have the right to have your lawyer present while answering any questions. If you cannot afford a lawyer, then one will be appointed to you before I ask any questions if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now, you may stop at any time. Do you understand these rights?

- Mm-hmm

- Fantastic. Hopefully this won’t take too long. So, you’re a pretty popular person, aren’t you? I’ve certainly heard your name a handful of times and I’ve even seen a couple clips from your show. About how many regular viewers do you have?

- Hm, I don’t have any specific number. I’ve never been the one paying attention to analytics and retention details.

- What would be your best guess?

- I, uh, well, I know our youtube channel has just under half a million subscribers. Our website probably has closer to two or three million followers, if I had to guess.

- That’s some weirdly rapid growth, didn’t you just start your show last April?

- I won’t make any comment on the start of my show, involves too many personal details.

- Alright, that’s fine. On a sort of related note, why don’t you tell me about your show? What is it, what do you do, all that business.

- Well, my show is Speak No Evil Radio, and I co-host it with a couple of my buddies, Mark Rogers and Gene Harvey. We’re basically a live talk show, hosted on our own website, with some clips uploaded to our youtube channel. We just talk about the different things going on that interest us, and discuss important stuff we feel our listeners should know. We all talk about a lot of different things, but each of us have a favorite topic I guess you’d call it. 

- So what are you guys’s favorite topics? 

- Well, Mark likes movies a lot, used to be an amateur filmmaker, so he usually talks about different movies coming out, and reviews movies he’s seen. Gene is a bit theatrical, and he hosts our nighttime air, so he usually reads different stories and poems and books he likes.

- And you?

- I talk about politics, stuff going on around the world. I try to simplify the really complicated stuff to make it all easier to understand.

- So what makes your show stand out?

- Probably the fact that we’re a 24 hour broadcast. We always have at least one host on air, meaning we always have a constant stream of content. Each of us cover a different chunk of the day.

- Anything else? It takes more than 24 hours of content to become an overnight star, what else makes your show stand out?

- No further comment on that.

- Okay, I guess. Now, do you know a man by the name of Shaveem Rahaj?

- Nope, never heard that name in my life.

- Hm, well we have reason to believe he called into your show recently so that he could have an argument of sorts with you, you may remember that he-

- Shut up, I refuse to answer any more questions. I’ve had enough of this. I wanna see my lawyer.

- Alright, would you mind telling me how long it will take for your lawyer to get here?

(No Response)

- Mister Turner, would you like me to show you to a phone?

(No Response)

- Alright, gotcha. I’ll just let you follow me.

- So, Mark, you understand why I’m here, right? 

- Yep, and I don’t see why it’s my problem.

- Well it isn’t really a problem for you. We have no evidence that you are implicated in the crimes of your co-host, we simply want info on him.

- So why ask me? Why not talk to his damn wife?

- Because you work with him, Mark, and this whole situation is about supposed crimes he has committed at work.

- Fine, just ask what you need to ask and leave. I’m down a host and a manager, I’ve been forced into being in charge because of that, and I need to figure out a solution as soon as possible.

- Don’t worry, sir, I’ll keep this as brief as possible. How long have you and Earl known each other?

- We met in college, sat next to each other in a media studies class. I’d say that was about 7 years ago.

- Did you two keep in touch during the time between college and starting your show?

- A little bit, mostly just the occasional text conversations. We were close in college, but after he dropped out and I kept on towards graduation, we started to hang out less and less.

- How did you two start the show?

- Not a very interesting story, Earl was at a graduation party for a mutual friend of ours, and he approached me before he left to ask if I was interested in starting a talk show with him. Said he’d been saving up money for it. I didn’t ask much in terms of details, just how much we would be making. He said we would be rolling in it. I decided to dip my toes in, and I pretty quickly started rolling in cash. I never cared much about the operation side of things, just liked the money I got just for talking about movies I watch. Gene had apparently already signed on, and Earl got his friend Harris to be the manager. He was the numbers guy, he gave me my pay.

- Earl’s big thing on your show is discussing politics. How agreeable do you find his politics?

- Well I don’t agree with him on everything, but I wouldn’t be on a show with him if I didn’t have a mostly positive outlook on his opinions.

- Do you discuss politics on your part of the show?

- Eh, a little. I bring it up when it’s relevant, which sadly seems like it’s becoming more and more often these days, but I don’t go out of my way to make it a whole thing. I just like movies.

- So, in the time that you’ve known Earl, have you noticed anything strange about him? Anything that stands out or might suggest anything about possibly suspicious intentions?

- I mean, not that springs to mind. He’s a bit weirdly obsessed with politics, but I reckon he might say the same about me and movies. He’s just an average kind of guy.

- Okay, and how involved would you say you are in the behind the scenes stuff?

- Not at all, I show up to the studio, do my 8 hours, then go home. As far as I know Gene doesn’t do any backstage stuff either. Of the three of us, Earl is pretty much the only one doing stuff outside of his eight hours. 

- And what specifically is he doing outside of his broadcast time?

- Mostly just managing stuff as far as I’m aware. Making sure the website is working alright, speaking with our producers, other stuff like that.

- Now, you guys are fairly popular, strangely popular for a show that only started just over a year ago. In fact, you guys were already relatively well known by your second month of broadcasting. Could you shed some light on that for me?

- Yeah, from my understanding, Earl pumped a lot of the money he saved up into advertising, banners on websites, social media campaigns, the like. I’d imagine that probably explains a lot of it.

- How did he save up so much money?

- From my understanding he was the sales manager of some business in Atlanta, I’d imagine a position that high would rake in some good money.

- Alright, and one last question, do you know of any interactions Earl may have had on or off air that might have hinted toward any ulterior motives for being a part of this show? 

- Hmm, not that I know of. Could you be more specific? It would probably be easier for me to help if I knew more details about what exactly Earl’s in custody for.

- Unfortunately I can’t go into any details. This is a very high profile case, and with someone as influential as Earl we don’t want any rumors spreading around and possibly causing our investigation to be tainted. That’s why we asked you guys not to talk about Earl or the fact that he was in custody.

- I understand. Just so you know, we haven’t talked about it, just said he had some emergency business he needed to attend to. Sadly I can’t think of anything that would be strange or out of the ordinary, but I’ll let you know if I think of anything.

- Alright, well thank you for your time, Mark.

- I know Gene doesn’t like Earl that much. That bias may affect any sort of testimony you get from him, but he would probably be more likely to remember negative things about him than I would.

- Yeah, I’m gonna be talking to him in just a couple hours. I appreciate you letting me know the two of them don’t get along, that can definitely affect how I have to treat an interview with him.

- Well it isn’t that they don’t get along. It’s very much a one sided thing. Earl doesn’t have much of a problem with Gene, but Gene really dislikes Earl. He never voices it to Earl though, he tries to keep his workplace relationships amiable.

- Interesting, do you know why Gene dislikes Earl?

- Not at all.

- I see. Well, thank you for your time, I’ll go ahead and get out of your hair. If we need anything from you we’ll let you know. Otherwise, if you learn anything that might help us out we would greatly appreciate telling us.

- You got it, I hope you can get this all solved without any problem. I would like to have my host back if he hasn’t done anything too wrong.

- Well I can’t make any promises, but hopefully things will go okay.

- Okay, Gene, I’m assuming you know why I’m here.

- I’d imagine it has something to do with the fact that Earl was arrested last week?

- Sure does. I’m just here to ask some questions, learn more about Earl, gather some information that may help a jury make a final decision on his guilt.

- So, just out of curiosity, what was Earl arrested for? You guys never told us.

- I’m afraid I can’t talk about that, too big of a case with too high profile of a suspect. We can’t risk any rumors getting out.

- Makes sense, I’d reckon that would affect the case. I won’t pry then.

- Thank you. So, Gene, can you tell me a bit about your place on the show? What are all the ins and outs of your job?

- Eh, I’ve always liked the arts. Books, plays, music, the likes. I run the night shift, so I just do readings of stories I like, calming stuff to help people get to sleep. That’s pretty much it, I read and try not to be too loud.

- Anything else outside your broadcast time?

- Nope, I’m not very qualified for any managerial stuff. Earl, Harris, and the producers usually take care of all that.

- So who are your producers?

- Not really sure, never really cared. I don’t actually like the show that much, so I try to keep my hands clean of it as much as I can without slacking off from my usual work.

- You don’t like the show?

- Not at all.

- Why don’t you change jobs then?

- Because the media industry is a bitch. I wanna get a job as a professional actor, but that is insanely difficult. I could find some other talk show to work for, one that I care about more, I’m sure Harris would give me good recommendations to other hosts, but I’ve yet to find any web show that pays as well as this one.

- So your show pays better than most other shows?

- Not most other shows, every other show. I did the numbers when I was looking for other places to work. Compared to other shows with a similar amount of viewers as us, none of them pay near as well as this show does, and I’m the lowest paid co-host on the show because I have the lowest viewer retention.

- Why is that?

- Why do we pay so much or why do I have the lowest viewer retention?

- You host at 2 AM, I already know why you have so few viewers. Why do you get paid so much?

- Hell if I know, maybe we have some kinda donation thing set up for viewers, maybe our producers are rolling in it, I don’t know and frankly don’t give a damn. I just know I make bank by staying here, and nobody else offers that.

- Well why do you hate the show, Gene?

- A lot of reasons. I don’t agree with any of the shit that Earl says on his broadcast, Harris is basically a yes man to Earl, I have to stay up from 10 to 6 doing my nighttime broadcast so my sleep schedule is fucked, and Earl is just generally unlikeable.

- So why don’t you like Earl?

- Eh, it’s kinda complicated. I can’t really talk about it.

- Sir, I am an officer of the law. No information you give me will be mishandled or used against you so long as you have not broken any laws.

- Well I haven’t broken any laws, but that’s not my concern. My concern is that most likely this interview will be admitted as evidence in a court of law, correct?

- That is correct, sir.

- Meaning that it will be publicly available information, right?

- Yes, sir.

- Well, to fully explain why I hate Earl, I would have to make public some things that would make me a target for harassment.

- I understand. If you don’t want to say anything, I cannot force you to. Is there anything you can say about the topic though? Even if it’s vague, I would greatly appreciate some kind of clarity on the subject.

- Let’s just say that Earl doesn’t like me, he likes who I pretend to be.

- Okay, not a whole lot to work with, Gene. If he knew who you, uh, really are I guess, how would he react? Would he just be unfriendly?

- I’d be out of a job, and I’d probably be cut off by my loved ones. I’d probably get a lot of harassment from fans, too.

- Huh. I see. Well, moving on I reckon, is there anything you’ve ever noticed about Earl that stands out? Maybe anything that seems suspicious.

- Well as much as I like to avoid talking to him, I inevitably end up having to talk to him when the two of us change shifts. I can definitely say he spends too much time online. He’s constantly talking about some website called “fortune.”(sic) I swear he’s always angry about something. Every time he talks to me, there’s some stupid shit going on that he has to rant about as if he doesn’t already get paid to rant about it on air. It’s always stupid stuff he’s angry about too, it never even makes sense.

- So you would say he spends too much time online, and that he’s irrationally angry?

- Yep, that’s the succinct version.

- Well that’s interesting, but unfortunately it isn’t a whole lot to go off of, is there anything else that stands out?

- Not anything that would be interesting or important to you. Beyond that it’s a bunch of personal grudges, and I doubt you want to hear about all that personal stuff.

- Alright, in that case how about we move on to some other questions I have for you. How did the show start? How did you guys get so popular? 

- Well as far as I know, Mark and Earl were close friends back in college. I signed on first between me and Mark. Earl used to work at the same place as me in another department. I don’t know much about what his job was. Apparently though he heard about how I was constantly auditioning for local plays, trying to get hired onto shows, and he approached me a month or two before he left and asked if I would be interested in starting a show with him. I barely knew him, but I was a dumb, young, desperate little theater kid who wanted a piece of the spotlight, so I said yes without any hesitation. He got Mark to sign on pretty soon after. As for popularity, I was too dumbfounded by how successful we were for me to wonder why we got popular so quick. I guess Earl paid for a really good ad campaign.

- I see, it’s a shame that you and Mark haven’t been able to give me a lot of info on how you guys got your start. We need info on where a lot of your money came from, how you got so popular so fast.

- Yeah, me and Mark can’t help you there. Neither of us have ever been the money men. Harris should be able to help you at least, he was our manager. Even if he was a yes man for Earl, he still has a lot of information you might find valuable.

- Hm, I take it you haven’t heard then?

- Heard what?

- Harris Williamson is missing. He hasn’t been seen since Friday night. We went to his home Saturday to try to speak to him, but his house was completely empty. His neighbor said he last saw Harris leave the house on Friday morning. We spoke to his brother, and it seemed that he visited for a good amount of the day, left that night, but hasn’t been seen since.

- Huh, that’s a bit strange. Harris isn’t a very spontaneous person, he wouldn’t just disappear without any warning.

- We’ve heard the same thing from his brother and his neighbors. We don’t know what happened, but it seems like his phone has been shut down since he left his brother’s house, and he gave no clue about where he may have been going.

- Well I guess that explains why I haven’t heard from him. I just assumed he was too busy figuring out what to do with us missing a host to answer my calls.

- At least now you know, If you learn anything about his disappearance that could help us out it would be greatly appreciated. 

- Yeah, I’ll definitely let you know if I learn anything. I’m sorry I haven’t been as much help as you would like.

- So, one last thing, if this gets taken to court, and we feel your testimony would be useful, would you be willing to testify against Earl?

- Oh, definitely. I can’t promise how helpful my testimony will be, but if Earl did some messed up shit then I’m happy to help make sure he gets what’s coming to him.

- Alright, well I’ll keep you updated on if we need anything else from you. In the meantime, if you learn anything that could help us out or if you have a change of heart about that personal info just let us know and we’ll make the time to speak to you.

- I doubt I’ll change my mind about the personal stuff, but otherwise I’ll try my best to let you know if I learn anything.

- Thank you. I believe that’s all I need at the moment. I hope you enjoy your day.

- You too.

Recording Date: August 29, 2014

Timestamp: 16:37:38 - 16:41:13

- Welcome back from the ads, dearest listeners. I hope you’re all having a wonderful afternoon. For those just tuning in, before the ad break I was discussing some of the latest headlines. Fair warning, things get a little dark, so if you’re some kind of pansy then you should consider switching stations, or quitting being such a baby.

Last night, seven people were slaughtered in Times Square around 6:50. The NYPD has yet to release information on the suspects, but some witnesses report the assailants to be a pair of African American males wielding handguns. The victims were all reported to be caucasian, the youngest of which was a small child.

When questioned on the NYPD’s reluctance to give journalists information on the case, the chief, Armali Sombarli- Excuse me, what’s the time? 4:38- Back to the story, Chief Armali Sombarli said only, quote, ‘we do not have enough information to make a public statement.’ I will continue to update you all as information comes in.

In other news, protests are currently being held by teachers in San Francisco after eighteen children died at the hands of a shooter by the name of Gerald Haggins, who lured the unsuspecting kids into the hallways by pulling the fire alarm. As the shooter was continuing to unleash bullets, the school’s resource officer subdued the man, and successfully arrested him.

The teachers are protesting in favor of stricter gun control, and asking that senators consider gun laws to prevent tragedies like this from occurring. The protestors have been criticized for speaking out against the second amendment, as well as, quote, ‘using the dead students as a stepping stool to get their ideology into the press.’

More updates on the Ebola epidemic in Africa, the World Health Organization reports that over 1,500 people have died of the virus so far, and 20,000 more could be infected before the virus is contained. Obviously I hope that the virus is contained sooner rather than later, but if I have to be honest, I’ll only be concerned about this virus if it hits America. As long as it’s in Africa, I don’t see it as a threat. As always, though, I will keep you all updated as details come in.

In lighter news, quite literally I must add, today there is a controversy brewing. We all know President Barack Obama, I mean, I’d be rather surprised if you didn’t! Well, yesterday he gave a press conference while wearing a tan suit, which was quite quickly met with scrutiny. He has been criticized for this choice of wardrobe, and been accused of unpresidential behavior. 

‘Yes we can?’ More like ‘yes we tan!’ Oh, we have fun here. Peter King, Republican representative from the second district of New York, said that the wearing of this suit was unforgivable. Now, I’m no fashionista, but if you ever catch me wearing a tan suit to a press conference, then tell the police I’ve been murdered and replaced. I believe that wraps up the current developing stories for today.

Well listeners, it’s about that time! In just a few moments I will open up the phone line, and the first person to call will be able to ask me any question they like on the current events. Opening the phone lines… now!

Hello there, this is Earl Turner and you’re live on Speak No Evil Radio! How are you doing on this fantastic evening?

- Hi, Turner, my name is Kenneth, and I’m doing alright. How are you?

- I’m doing just dandy, Ken, thank you for asking. If you don’t mind, please tell the audience a little about yourself.

- Well I’m from Kalamazoo, Michigan, I’m gonna be graduating high school in a few months. Once I graduate I want to go to college down at Georgia Tech!

- Oh, well you’re really living it up! How is school going for you?

- Yessiree, for the most part things are going pretty alright!

- I’m really glad to hear that! Best of luck to you in college and the future. So what kind of question do you have for me, Ken?

- Well, Turner, I’m a little confused about this whole tan suit thing going on with President Obama. I mean, I don’t like him that much, but surely this kind of critique is overboard? I mean, sure, it’s an ugly suit, but can’t we find better things to critique him for?

- Honestly, Ken, I thought the same way when I first read about the controversy. To be honest, it really does sound stupid on the surface. However, the problem lies when you analyze things just a little deeper. Obviously, tan suits are a sign of very casual feelings, things that aren’t meant to be taken that seriously. You follow me, right?

- Yeah, I think I understand so far.

- Well, Ken, the press conference he gave was about military support in Syria. This is something that could cause the death of hundreds, maybe thousands of people, which seems to me to be something the President should be taking seriously, perhaps by wearing a more formal black, or even a navy suit. Tan, though? Way too casual for this.

- Yeah, I reckon that makes sense. Thank you, Turner!

- No problem, Ken, thank you for calling! Have a great evening!

And with that, we will be moving on to our next story.

Recording Date: August 31, 2014

Timestamp: 14:58:28 - 15:02:36

- Oh, gosh, sorry to interrupt this segment, but I have just gotten breaking news that Chief of the NYPD, Armali Sombarli, has been reported dead, and leaked police reports state that the cause of death were gunshot wounds in the left lung and the heart. This was, let’s see real quick… about fifty minutes ago.

Hoo, boy, and here we were having a lighthearted segment on the effects of immigration. I hate to down my audience, but I can’t ignore a story like this. The guy hadn’t even finished his investigation of the shooting.

Um… let’s see… are any of the members of the NYPD talking about this? Quick Google search real quick… ah, his brother, another member of the police department there, just started talking to a reporter from the local news a couple moments ago. Harris, can you pull up the audio from that for me? Just one second, dear listeners.

- -itely a sad day for the city, and many are hoping for some information on just what happened. Mister Sombarli, are there any details the NYPD can give us on this tragedy?

- Well, ma’am, I can certainly say it’s been rough breaking this information to the rest of my family. I would be lying if I said that keeping my composure during this has been easy, but I know we have a responsibility to the public to assure you all that things are under control.

- So, how exactly is this under control?

- The suspect, who will remain anonymous until more details are acquired, is already in custody. The murder happened right outside the department, as Armali was coming back to work from lunch. They put up no resistance to their arrest, and confessed immediately to the crime.

- Are there any details on when a full investigation will begin?

- As of now, ma’am, no, but I assure you we will be trying to get details as soon as possible. The suspect has demanded the death penalty, so they are currently on suicide watch while we get ready to gather more information on the situation. The only information we know is that somehow, someone knew this would happen. A couple days ago we got a report that something like this might happen. I tried to talk Armali into staying home until we knew what was happening, but he insisted that he needed to keep at his job.

- Has any motive been confirmed? How could someone have seen this coming?

- We don’t know any motive just yet. We’ve been asking the suspect questions, but gotten very little in the way of answers. They haven’t told us anything but their identity and that they want the death penalty. We also don’t have a clue how the person who gave us the report could have known about it. They didn’t say much when they called in the report, and they’re completely anonymous. Unless they step forward, we may not learn how this happened.

- Well, sir, this seems to be an incredibly strange case. Hopefully that person will come forward. I won’t take any more of your time, I know that talking about this must be rough. I, as well as the rest of New York City, am very sorry for your loss.

- I appreciate it, ma’am. Whenever new information is available, we’ll be sure to let the people know.

- Alright, Harris, I reckon we can cut the audio there. Wow, that is a heartbreaking story. I’m honestly perplexed by this. Some person kills the chief of police, gives no information why, turns themself in, then demands the death penalty. 

You know what, I think I might know what this might be. I believe those Michael Brown protests are still going on, and through it all people have talked about their hatred of police and how they’re all bastards. Obviously I can’t prove this until more details are released, but I have a hunch that this may be linked to those protests.

I mean, it just makes sense, at least to me. I don’t wanna politicize this tragedy, though, so I’ll simply say that I hope the bastard who did this gets what he deserves. Hopefully, the person who knew it would happen steps forward. The people responsible for this deserve to be put behind bars to the end of their days, which hopefully is sooner rather than later. 

Well, moving away from that topic, let’s try to calm things down just a tad. We’ve been recording for a while, let me check and see what time it is. Alright, let’s move on. On a much calmer note, Gene, Mark, and I compiled our favorite Robin Williams movies, and we will be livestreaming those films tomorrow in memory of him, and we will be raising money for his family the entire day.

Recording Date: September 5, 2014

Timestamp: 18:36:21 - 18:40:28

- Today it was reported that a bunch of hackers implanted lots of malicious data into HealthCare.gov, which is what the government uses as a marketplace for health insurance. Supposedly the data went undetected for almost six weeks. It seems that no data was stolen, but I find that hard to believe. The fact that people hacked into this government site after years of Obamacare being criticized, and they immediately just go around shouting “oh no, nothing was stolen, they were just some pranksters,” it makes me think they’re covering for something. 

I think that data was stolen, but Obama doesn’t want the ACA to look worse than it already does, so they’re just spreading these lies to make themselves look better. I mean, six weeks without detection? That’s insane!

Fast food employees are protesting today, demanding higher pay. They want their wages to go up to $15 an hour. I don’t know about you guys, but that is just insane. They want their wages doubled, for what? So they can continue to flip burgers and do the exact same amount of work? If they want higher wages, they should work harder. That’s how jobs work.

The nationwide debate over same-sex marriage is continuing. Just yesterday, Louisiana’s gay marriage ban was upheld. Seven gay couples are planning to appeal the decision. On the flip side, gay marriage bans in Indiana and Wisconsin were struck down. The fight between whether or not gay marriage should be legal is getting a lot more rowdy day by day.

You know, I read an article just the other day that said that republican politicians who want to ban gay marriage are just closeted gays and, uh, I believe one part said word for word, “want to touch little boys.” Well, Alison Haygood, girl who wrote that article, maybe you should find a more substantive way to argue against your political opponents than just lying and insulting them, and calling them pedophiles. Maybe there’s a bit of projection there, you know? Me, on the other hand, I prefer to actually discuss my beliefs rather than just insult people I disagree with.

Now, you already know my opinion on gay marriage, but for any new listeners, I’ll review real quick. I obviously don’t like government overreach, but sometimes the government has to step in to ensure the right thing is done. I think this is definitely one of those times.

Children have to grow up with the right kind of parenting, the right kind of moral fiber. Otherwise, they grow messed up. 

Oh, real quick, Harris could you hand me my coffee? The time would be great too, if you mind telling me that. Okay, thanks. Coffee is fantastic, dear listeners. If you don’t drink coffee, you should. Wow, we’re already halfway through my broadcast. My how time flies when you’re having fun!

Okay, back to what I was saying. Um, oh yeah, a kid needs to have a mom and a dad. That’s why kids of divorced parents end up being a little off, because they grew up with just one or the other. You need the strong, respectful hand of the father, and the calm, caring hand of the mother. If you just have one, then the kid grows up either too mean, or too weak. You need to have a balance of both. If kids grow up with two dads, then that throws off the balance. Even if one of the dads acts like a mom, they can never truly replace a mother’s loving grasp. 

Plus, gay people can’t have children. Marriage is a very sacred thing, focused on the joining of two souls for the purpose of raising new souls with aspects of both, and it’s very important to our culture. If we twist and distort something so integral to our culture, then we risk destroying it. Not only through the twisting of important cultural aspects though, but by ruining the young, blossoming minds of our children and making them believe in things that only serve to harm our civilization.

Because of this, I don’t think it’s right to let gay people marry and have children. It sucks, and it makes me really sad. I get very uncomfortable with the idea of the state saying who can and can’t marry and have kids, but unfortunately this is just one of those things that the state has to step in and put up barriers to keep our society at large safe and preserved, like requiring seat belts and driver’s licenses.

I have absolutely no problem with gay people. I believe they have just as much a right to live and walk this beautiful Earth as the rest of us do, but sadly the facts are the facts, and we have to defend our society. Even if it ends up hurting us morally, the protection of our civilization is always paramount.

But hey, that is just my opinion. If you guys feel differently, that’s totally fine. I hope everyone is enjoying the show, we’ll be right back after these messages from our sponsors!

Recording Date: September 13, 2014

Timestamp: 14:27:46 - 14:42:44

- Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I have a very special gift for you all. Today I will be taking calls from you all day long. Most of the time I keep it limited to one, maybe two calls, but for once I’d like to take a break from the whole reporting and commentating so I can speak to my lovely fans. I will also be offering everyone I speak to the chance to enter a raffle of Speak No Evil Radio merchandise, including a coffee mug, rubber bracelets, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap!

Alrighty we will be opening the phone for our first caller in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… now!

Hello dear listener, you are live on Speak No Evil Radio, how are you doing today?

- Heya Turner, I’m having a pretty alright day. I’m currently taking a break from paperwork to listen to your show, and I feel so honored to be your first caller today!

- Oh the honor is mine, my friend! So tell me about yourself.

- Well I’m not too interesting of a guy. My name is Jackson, and I’m a secretary at a trade office in my town. I graduated from high school just a few months ago, and I plan to someday soon have a better job here.

- That sounds pretty nice, I hope your journey to get a better job goes swimmingly! So what do you wanna ask me about?

- Well I mostly wanna ask your opinion on the whole abortion thing. Yesterday Missouri approved a 72 hour wait period to get an abortion, and I know a lot of people are angry about that. I’ve always been on the fence with abortion, I don’t like the idea of killing a baby, but I also get how a woman might need to get one. I mean, should we really require raped women to carry the baby of their rapist? Or what about if they can’t afford a baby, then both of them will be suffering in poverty for 18 years or maybe longer. What do you think, Turner?

- Well, abortion is a very tricky subject, you know? I definitely kinda understand where liberals are coming from, but the problem is that they are trying to make consequences irrelevant. I’m a firm believer that if someone makes a mistake, they should face the consequences for it. If someone has sex without any contraception knowing that pregnancy is a risk, then it’s their fault for doing that, and they have no right to snuff out a soul because they made a mistake. If they don’t want that baby, that’s what adoption is for. As for rapes, as awful as they are, the baby that results from it is still a baby, regardless of where it came from, so it deserves life just as much as any other baby. The only situation, in my opinion, where abortion should be legal is when the mother’s life is at stake. Eggtropic(sic) pregnancies I believe they’re called.

- I guess that makes sense. I don’t know… it just seems really cruel. I agree that those babies deserve to live, but I just don’t like how cruel it feels to force a child onto someone. It just feels like such an insane lack of empathy.

- Oh my dear Jacky, you’re falling into the liberal mindset. Empathy is a key piece of liberal policy, but it’s important to understand that law is more important than empathy. Let’s say that some guy has serious mental issues, real messed up in the head, and during a total meltdown he kills his wife, kids, and parents. When the police arrest him, he’s finally come to and is absolutely heartbroken. He’s in tears, beyond depressed. He cannot believe himself, and wishes he hadn’t done it. Sure, the empathetic part of your brain tells you that he didn’t mean to do that, and that he shouldn’t be punished so hard because of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that he murdered his entire family, and he deserves to face justice.

- I think I get what you’re saying. I’ll definitely need to think about it some, but I’m glad I got to hear your opinion on it. I appreciate you talking to me!

- It was great talking to you Jacky! I’m currently adding your phone number to our raffle list, which we will draw from tomorrow live on air. Make sure to keep your phone at the ready tomorrow evening around 7 PM, or else you might not be able to accept your prize! I hope you have a fantastic day!

Alright in just a moment I’ll be opening up the phone for our second caller, but first I’d like to give a quick shoutout to David Perdue, who is running for Georgia senate. Make sure that you go out to the polls and vote for the best voice for Georgia!

And now I am opening the phone again. Hello caller, you are live on our show, how are you doing today?

- I’m not interested in the formalities, Mister Turner. I would prefer to not say my name, but I’m an independent journalist who’s doing a piece on conservative media. The star of my paper is your show, which has recently had a surprisingly sudden surge of success despite being so new, and I feel has been used to radicalize conservative and center-leaning listeners into far-right politics. I’ve been listening to your show for many months to gather information on it, and I have noticed many strange things about your show, as well as you personally. I want to ask you for comments on them.

- Ah, I see, you’re one of them. Well you’ve kinda put me on the spot. I’d prefer a little more preparation but I reckon we can talk. What’s up?

- Respectfully sir, the unpreparedness is the point. I know the games you play. As much as you like to try and hide it, I know about the people who fund you, and I know that if you were given enough time to prepare you would have a whole slew of prepared answers to make every word you speak heavily censored so as to not accidentally reveal any secrets. When I do interviews I appreciate candor, and with people like you I can only get that with sneak attacks like this. My first question for you, starting off with the kiddie stuff, would you mind telling me how you got your start. What, in your opinion, got you where you are today?

- Starting off real touchy, ain’t we? Well I will do my best to remain civil. I went to college at Strayer University, my major was media studies, but I never enjoyed college life that much, so I dropped out after about two years and started looking into journalism or media work. After a long few years working odd jobs, I finally got enough money to afford a recording studio, and over the course of many months I started hiring writers, producers, and advertisers to help me hit the ground running. On top of that, I’m out here doing what a lot of people are too scared to do: speaking the truth. All I do is voice my opinion on current events and discuss them in a way that the common man can understand without any of the B.S. that mainstream news feeds us all. I’d say that’s why I’m so popular.

- I see, well funny enough it seems that you neglected to mention who funded you through it all. You see, any listeners at home, what Earl Joseph Turner hasn’t mentioned is that he’s the stepson of Carson Lee Ryder, who some of you may know is an oil magnate, who for many decades has been infamous for having many under the table dealings with Republican candidates, often giving them huge amounts of funding and support in their election campaigns. Do you have anything to say about this?

- Well that’s quite the implication you have there. Obviously I haven’t talked about my stepfather much, but that’s because I’ve never had a very positive relationship with him. Once I turned 18 and graduated high school I stopped talking to him. He hasn’t lent me any money, nor has he assisted me financially in any way since I graduated. I’m a very independent person.

- So, Mister Turner, are you in any financial debt?

- Thankfully, no. I haven’t been in any debt in a while. I’ve always been very good about not paying for anything I can’t afford.

- So how, might I ask, were you able to go to a university for two years, purchase a home, vehicle, and recording studio, as well as hire an entire recording crew, without having any debts?

- Well, um, you know, I’ve always been a very hard worker. I always worked rather high end jobs that paid high wages.

- So, according to you, you were able to get an incredibly high paying job, a job that allowed you to purchase your home and recording studio and whatnot, all as a college dropout with little to no employment history. Forgive me for making assumptions, but either you are lying about your father supporting you financially, or you are telling the truth, but you have used your stepfather’s leverage as an oil magnate to get into very high paying jobs. Unless I’ve missed something, it seems that either way you’ve used your stepfather’s wealth to benefit you financially, and without him, you would not be where you are.

- Well, sir, I can’t exactly prove what I’m saying, but I assure you that I have never once in my adult life used my stepfather’s wealth to benefit me. I’m a strong supporter of individuality and playing to your own strengths.

- I see. Well, my second point of discussion I would like to have with you is the rhetoric you dispense on this show. From the hundreds of hours I’ve spent listening to your show it seems that you’re a huge fan of inflammatory rhetoric. You spend a lot of time talking about how immigration drains the economy, that minorities are violent thugs, and that the gay community is trying to corrupt society. Not to show my political bias, but all of these talking points are false. Would you like to comment on that?

- My rhetoric is not meant to be inflammatory, it’s just saying what’s what. If you think these talking points are false, it might benefit you to look at some statistics.

- I have looked at statistics, Mister Turner, and they all show that you and your political allies are wrong.

- Let me ask you, man, have you ever seen crime statistics? Blacks commit almost 47% of crime, but are only like 13% of the total population. And tell me, why would we allow lazy immigrants into this country when all it does is bring down wages of hard working americans?

- Mister Turner, either you show an incredible lack of sociological knowledge, or care more about spreading propaganda than showing accurate statistics. While it’s true that crime statistics show that black people commit more crimes relative to their population, that is a very simplistic way to view things, because studies have also shown that poor people are more likely to commit crimes than middle or upper class people. Black Americans are more likely to be poor than white Americans due to the fact that they spent hundreds of years enslaved, and another hundred years after being freed being treated as subhumans. Tell me, do you think if white people were enslaved until the 1860’s, then weren’t even given equal rights until the 1960’s, which was literally only fifty years ago, would they be just as wealthy as the people who enslaved them? As for immigration, you are once again lying. The National Bureau of Economic Research has done studies that show wages rise due to immigration, both in the short term and the long term. Once again, you are just wrong. Every statistic that comes from trustworthy sources and organizations only supports your argument if you deliberately misinterpret them.

- Ah, so you really are a liberal. You just blindly follow whatever the suits up top tell you?

- Ignoring that blatant anti-semetic dog whistle, yes, mister Turner, I do, because while I do have a degree in investigative journalism, I do not have one in sociology, and while I am knowledgeable enough to comment on the information given to the world, I am frankly not qualified to say that a study I don’t like is bad and wrong because I just don’t like it. The same goes for you, as much as you might dislike to admit.

- I don’t need a fancy degree or a big name job to see what’s going on in the world. It’s clear for everyone to see. If you deny what’s going on right in front of your eyes then you’re just a blind, dump sheep. 

- I see. Now, mister Turner, I just want you to know now that I fully understand the risks of me coming onto this show. Like I said, I know you, and I know all the secrets that you have tried to hide in your year of broadcasting. 

- Oh?

- While you may think I’m just some dumb reporter who wants to annoy someone I don’t like, I do pride myself in my work. I have a thorough understanding of what you do. Before I ask you this question, I just want you to fully understand that there’s no way for you to pull the wool over my eyes. Now, mister Turner, do you have any ulterior motives for your show? Do you run a show for any reasons other than just the satisfaction of being famous?

- Huh. Oh, oh. I see, yeah.

- You see what, Mister Turner?

- I see that you take me for some kind of supervillain! Who do you think I am? I’m just a radio host. I like talking about politics, and I like having fun with my fans. Nothing else. What’s up with you people and thinking everything is some big conspiracy.

- Uh huh

- Now, I’m assuming you do not want to be put on the raffle list. It has been interesting talking to you. Oh, um, before you go, the clock in my studio needs new batteries. Would you mind telling me what the time is?

- Go to hell.

- Oh my, a little bit ruder language than I like to air on this show. He just hung up, for anyone confused. I’m not exactly sure why, I just asked him what time it was. Harris, could you tell me real quick? Thanks, bud. Anyway, I’m ready for the next caller. Hopefully you’re more civil!

At 9:08 PM, on September 16th, 2014, the Atlanta PD received a phone call from a man who claimed to be a barista at a local coffee shop. The man reported that a customer he served, Shaveem Rahaj, who lived down the street from the shop, told a few people he was sitting with that he was building an explosive device. The man said he overheard this comment as he was passing them to serve a coffee to someone at a different table, and while originally he thought it was a joke, or possibly a misunderstanding, he didn’t feel safe keeping it a secret. 

Through most of the night we worked to get a search warrant of the home of Shaveem Rahaj, 37 Green Avenue, apartment 4. A SWAT team was dispatched to investigate. They arrived at 1:39 A.M., and knocked three times, none of which received a response. The team then broke through the door and began searching through the home. Officers on the scene split up, and said that about thirty seconds after breach, a gunshot was heard. The officers going upstairs had fired on the suspect, who was reportedly wielding a shotgun. Our investigation confirmed that the victim was Shaveem Rahaj, who had seemingly just gotten out of bed, and the gun he wielded was a 12 gauge shotgun that had no shells loaded, but four rounds were scattered around the ground.

Shaveem Rahaj was an American born Indian, who worked as an investigative journalist of no renown.

After a very thorough search of the house, no explosive devices were found, nor any parts that might be constructed into one. There was also nothing in the house that indicated that the victim had planned to commit any acts of terrorism, nor was there any evidence he held any radical beliefs associated with terror attacks.

The PD tracked the phone number that called them to give them the threat, but it was a payphone that was over two miles from any coffee shop, and was also in a completely different district from the victim’s home. Further investigation also showed that Shaveem Rahaj did not actually live down the road from a coffee shop. The nearest one to his home was a half hour walk away, and required crossing multiple different streets.

Everyone in the SWAT team all believe that the bomb report was entirely falsified, and that whoever called the PD either had a vendetta against Shaveem Rahaj, or was a prankster who did not understand the situation that his call would cause. Further investigations are currently underway to find who called this false report, and why they did it.

• Tried to call into the show today, wasn’t fast enough. Honestly might be for the best. As good as it would be optically for me to be able to ambush him live on air and uh, destroy him with facts and logic haha, I honestly don’t have enough to work with in a conversation. Yeah, thinking about it after, it’s a good thing I wasn’t the first caller, cause oh boy I would have seriously embarrassed myself if I called in to try and sneak attack him, and didn’t even have any interesting dirt to confront him on. Questions aren’t enough, if I want to smack his ass around in front of his audience, I need more than good questions, I need some serious dirt.

• Marcus noticed something interesting while he was listening to today’s episode. Those phone calls that Turner does, he always has them right between 4 and 5pm. I never really noticed it, since this is my 9-5, but Marcus noted how strange it is that he does call-ins at a time before most people are off of work. Most live shows or radio stations do those calls after around 6 so that the adult audience, which is usually the target, can participate. Marcus noted that them doing calls around 4 implies something about who he is targeting. First, it implies he is targeting possibly high school kids, who get out of school usually around 3. Not just high school kids though, specifically ones that don’t have anything interesting to do after school outside of calling him. Most likely, if he’s targeting high schoolers, he’s targeting lonely ones. Kids who have very few friends, and probably no extra-curriculars to work on. The other people he could be targeting with a phone call time of 4 are adults who don’t have a consistent job, people abandoned by the system who either don’t have a job at all, or who just flip burgers for shit pay, and don’t have any consistent 9-5 schedule. I’m glad Marcus noticed that, because it’s very concerning. Obviously I can’t make any set in stone assumption that this is a deliberate thing, but there’s no other reason I can think of for why he makes these phone calls so early. This has got to be some deliberate attempt to groom people who are desperate for meaning or generally feel like the world has failed them into his ideology. He gets them to call him, and listen to his show, so he can tell them that the system failed them not because the system is built to feed more power to those up top, but because (((they))) are bullying white people.  

• Right around 2:27 on the July 17th episode. He asked about the time again. I swear he does this every episode. You’d think it’s some kinda weird tic he has, how damn often he does it. Sometimes he does it multiple times in one episode. Last week, he asked for the time just fifteen minutes after he last asked for it. I feel like there’s something I’m missing here. As dumb as the things Turner says are, he doesn’t strike me as an idiot. No, he simply knows how to manipulate people into believing stupid talking points so that he can get paid. Don’t get why he is so consistent about demanding to know what time it is. Sign of anxiety? Possible mental illness?

• I may have found a goldmine today. I was going through Turner’s twitter, looking for any interactions he may have had with powerful people who have cemented themselves in alt-right interests, and I found a bit of a motherload. Carson Ryder, that oil billionaire twat, retweeted an announcement from Turner that he was gonna do a fundraiser for Perdue’s campaign. Immediately I went into Ryder’s wikipedia page. I knew he had been known for donating to people like Perdue and McConnel, but I needed to know if he had dipped his toe into the propaganda game. What I found was even more amazing. In 1995, Ryder got married to a woman named Lara Fain Turner, and Lara Fain Turner had her first child 8 years prior to this marriage, in 1987. Lara has never been a public figure, but Ryder has consistently never identified his children’s names, and when asked he has directly refused to answer. This is understandable for a parent, but I believe that considering his stepson is now 27 years old, the odds he is doing this just to protect his privacy are low, in my eyes. No, I think that now he is doing it for more nefarious reasons. Earl Turner is 27, born on March 8th, 1987. Ryder said in an April 1999 interview that he had ‘recently celebrated his son’s birthday.’ On top of that, Turner has never said anything about his parents on his show, but he never hesitates to talk about other aspects of his personal life, wife, kid, such and such. Pretty interesting if you ask me.

• 13/50. He 13/50’d today, the timestamp was around 3:26, July 23rd episode. Good to know that standards are really low for Turner. Whenever I speak to him, I gotta be ready to point out how inaccurate that stat is. The fact that he mindlessly repeats it is evidence enough to his true ideology. This is 4chan bullshit, it doesn’t deserve to be on a political talkshow, yet here it is. Turner was the perfect choice for this piece, Shaveem you genius. Every day I find some new dirt on him. 

• Turner went to Strayer University, just found some old pictures of him and some buddies at a dorm party. Guy used to be a party animal it seems. Some friend of his from the time posted a bunch of pictures from when he went to Strayer University on Reddit. Damn, the places I go for a good story. I reached out to the guy and asked if I could call him tomorrow for an interview. Based on those pictures, he doesn’t seem like a sweaty neckbeard, but he was the class of ‘09, and a lot can change in 5 years. He seemed confused about why I would wanna interview him, and when I told him it was because Turner was the host of a conservative news show, his only response was ‘cringe.’At least I won’t have any political tension in this conversation, just terminally online tension.

• Conversation with the redditor went really well. He was a nice enough guy, he just gave off the vibe of someone who peaked in high school. I’ll go over the raw audio again closer to the publish date, but for now, the most important things I learned are that supposedly, Turner dropped out after his sophomore year, and that he never took out any student loans. Curious, indeed.

• Putting together quite a few dots. I already have suspicions and an odd amount of coincidences that point to Turner being the stepson of a billionaire. On top of that, said billionaire is known for donating to right wing political figures. Even further, Turner dropped out of college because he simply ‘didn’t enjoy it’ and never took out any student loans. The redditor, Ian, even said that Turner never had any financial troubles, always buying fantastic food and all the dorm decorations, beer, snacks, and fancy liquor a college student could ask for, even though he never had a job. This kid is old money, just turned onto a new business. Propaganda is the new deal, apparently. I also put together the dots of a very interesting coincidence about old Earl. Apparently, Earl isn’t the name he was born with. When Ian met him while they were in the dorms together, he had the name Benny, but he changed it to Earl a few months after he moved in. Being named Earl Turner was always a bit of a funny coincidence to me, but knowing that he actually changed his name to that tells me a lot about him. This is either an insane coincidence, or Mr. Turner is very subtly trying to imply that he wants a true day of the rope.

• Jesus fucking Christ I am gonna lose my shit, he just asked what time it is for the fifth time this episode, I feel like I’m losing it. There has got to be some kinda fucking reason he’s doing that. It’s one thing to ask for the time once or twice in some random episode, but he does it every damn episode, sometimes multiple times. At some point you would just hang up a goddamn clock. What’s more, his co-hosts Mark and Gene never ask about the time. It’s specific to only Turner. There must be something I’m missing, some kind of hidden meaning. 

• Hey hey hey, fun new thing I learned about Turner. He hates Israel. The question is, does he hate it for the good reasons or the bad reasons? August 2nd episode, about 2:48, he talked about the ceasefire breaking between the IDF and Hamas. He didn’t say much about it except that he hated Hamas, but didn’t like Israel either. This tells me one big thing about him: he isn’t a Christian nationalist. Most of them I’ve spoken to insist on Israel remaining as it is because that’s the only way God can return. The fact that Turner doesn’t care about that means he is probably not the same kind of conservative as people like his friend David Perdue. It also tells me one of two things: Either Turner is a bit more egalitarian than I originally believed, or he is just anti-semetic. Obviously the latter is much more likely. The amount of times I’ve heard him use the nefarious (((them))) in segments or seen him tweet it, or heard him refer to “the suits” tells me that he probably just hates jews.

• Dear god I am sick and tired of hearing him ask for the time without knowing what he’s referring to. I’m gonna ask Marcus to look into it for me. I need to focus on the new episodes getting released, and don’t have time to review every other episode I’ve already watched up to this point. Marcus has always been better at identifying dog whistles than me anyway.

• Feel like I haven’t been writing here much lately, been busy and forgotten about this whole journal thing. Turner hasn’t been talking about much lately. It’s not like there’s a lack of things to talk about, he just isn’t talking about them. I guess him and his writers don’t know how to spin some of these headlines for a right wing audience. The IDF bombed a damn school a couple days ago, killed 10 people. It also came out that Israel listened in on phone calls with John Kerry. He hasn’t said a peep about that though. Funnily enough, it seems like since that first time he spoke about Israel, his producers told him to shut the hell up about it, cause since then he hasn’t said a word. He hasn’t said anything about the Toledo water crisis, which I reckon is because it’s a Republican state. He didn’t talk about that death row inmate that got injected 15 times, cause that would probably shed a bad light on the death penalty. Hell, it seems like the only big thing he’s been talking about recently is Ebola, and even then he can only talk so much about a disease. I just haven’t had a lot to write about recently.

• Goddammit, I finally got something new to write about, but not in a fun way. Another black teenager, Michael Brown, got shot today, and Turner is covering it exactly how you would expect. Blaming the kid, saying he was probably a thug, how the cop was in the right, all of that bullshit. He said all of this literally as he was learning about it. It’s insane to me how he could just assume by default that it’s a fact that Michael Brown “deserved” to get shot. It really says something about how he views situations like this. The cop is de facto justified, and the victim is de facto a thug, a criminal, and deserved it.

• Marcus made a huge find today, one that I really don’t like. This is big. This is awful. I don’t have enough words to describe how fucked this is. Suddenly I feel like I’m in way over my head. I was right in assuming that Turner asking for the time is a dog whistle, but it’s a hell of a lot worse of a dog whistle than I could have ever expected. Marcus found an example of him asking for the time, the example he found was while Turner was covering some stuff about the ACA back in July, and he was reading an article about it. While he was reading the article, Turner asked for the time. Marcus found that article, and looked into it. The author was a woman named Marie Weathers, and she was a progressive independent journalist. Based on her twitter, she had, well, the stereotypical progressive woman appearance. Dyed pink hair, gauges in her ears, the works. About a week later, she went missing. A month after her disappearance, a hiker found her in the woods because his dog started freaking out. She had been choked to death by a chain, then left in the woods. The police investigation is still going on, but seems to have gone completely cold. Another, Paul Greene, was a trans man written about in an article about transphobic hate crimes. Turner asked for the time about a minute after he said his name. Two days passed, and he had been killed by a drunk driver, who said in court that “faggots like her deserve worse than being crushed by a ton of steel.” Marcus kept on digging. Once is strange, twice is a coincidence, but after seeing the same story play out over fifty times, you start to catch on to the pattern. Turner is killing people, and there’s not a single doubt in my mind that he knows it. I bet he’s proud of it. This guy is so much more horrible than I could have ever imagined. This guy is like an actual villain, unambiguously. 

• Holy fuck. Marcus just pointed something out to me. If I go on that show and confront him, he is almost certain to ask what the time is, and sic his goddamn lunatic fanbase on me. I really wanted to speak to him. How can I release this and say that I gathered all the info I could if I can’t even speak to the man? I guess I may have to do without that extra info.

• I keep on listening to Turner’s show, but I just don’t take notes on anything. I mean, fuck, how do I even top what Marcus found? That’s some serious shit. People are dying because of this! And who stumbles onto this groundbreaking story? My poor ass, with no producer to ask for advice, nowhere to stay except this shitty apartment, no way to protect myself, and no friends in any high or low places to help me out. If I fuck anything up, this could be the death of me.

• Marcus tried to go to the police, to tell them what was happening. Those dipshits at the station just wrote him off, said that he was acting like he was insane, that he was making baseless claims. They told him that if he didn’t calm down and leave the station, then they would arrest him for mishandling public resources and disturbing the peace. I don’t know what it was, if it was his appearance, or how insane the claim sounds, but those braindead idiots refused to listen. Marcus said that we’re on our own, that we just need to publish the story and hope people listen. I would agree.

• If I wasn’t already sure enough about what Earl Turner is doing, I found more solid evidence of it today. Me and Marcus looked on 4chan to see if we could find anything interesting there, since 4chan tends to be a breeding ground for incel losers who attach themselves to right wing pundits. Strangely, all we found was people talking about how cringey the show was, and how it was boring to watch. Then, Marcus had the genius idea to look on 8chan, an even more insane board that was more likely to have total lunatics on it. We discovered an 8chan board dedicated to Speak No Evil Radio, and boy are they ‘being cryptic.’ They seem to document every time Earl asks about the time, and make real vague comments about how he is ‘lining up the wall.’ If they are trying to be subtle, they aren’t doing a good job.

• Well, Marcus is somehow taking this whole thing worse than I am. As soon as he came into the workshop today he told me I had to drop the story, to forget about it and move on. I told him that we had to do it, that he said himself that if the police won’t listen to us, then we need to finish the story and hope that people will listen. He started shouting at me, saying that if we kept on going we would get killed by one of his fans. I know he’s right, but I don’t wanna believe it, so I kept firm. I told him that if I had to die for the truth to be known, then that’s how it is. I know I came off as a lot more brave than I actually am. I’m not some kinda martyr, I’m just a journalist. Even if I am just a journalist though, if I’m the only one who can get this bastard brought down, then I have to try, at least. We argued for almost an hour before he finally backed down. I convinced him to stay on the project, and keep helping me, but damn did he seem a lot less enthusiastic than he used to be. I can’t be mad at him though, he’s completely right. Before he left this evening, he told me to buy a gun, just in case. Said to buy a gun, go to the gun range every day, make sure I know how to protect myself. Marcus is being a bit paranoid, but I guess I can’t blame him. I told him I can’t afford to buy a gun, let alone to go to a gun range every day.

• Ferguson got put into a state of emergency today because of violent protests. Of course, Turner said it was because of ‘violent thugs’ who are ‘the real racists.’

• Jesus, I just don’t even know what to talk about anymore. Nothing surprises me. When Turner says that the protesters in Ferguson deserved to be shot at and arrested, I don’t even flinch. He has killed people, even if indirectly. How can anything he says surprise me? It would be like if I found out that Stalin kicked a baby, he did so much worse shit that I can’t really be surprised. 

• Got given a shotgun by Marcus. He said he got it from his dad, who didn’t need it anymore. I told him to fuck off, that I don’t want a gun and have never shot one before. He wouldn’t back down until I took it and promised him I would use it if I needed to. He said he got the shotgun for a reason, because I could just pump it, and the noise is so identifiable that it would scare off any intruder without even needing to shoot a bullet. He said I should always keep it loaded regardless, though. I didn’t say this to him, but I probably won’t ever load it. I’ll keep it because he wants me too, and because it can give me the illusion of being a threat, but I don’t trust myself with a loaded gun, I’m too clumsy.

• Marcus asked that I keep his name out of the official published report. He also asked that I keep his name out of this journal. I told him that I really wanted him to be a part of it, he had helped me way too much to not have his name put to it. He didn’t care about that though, he said he needed to keep himself safe. He doesn’t even want his pseudonym attached to it. I’ve gone through all my writings, drafts, everything, and either removed his name entirely, or replaced it with ‘Marcus.’

• Earl got ballsy. Today he asked what time it was after saying the name of the chief of the damn NYPD. This is completely unprecedented. Up til this point, he only ever said it after mentioning small journalists, or people who said or did something he didn’t like on twitter or facebook. He’s never had the balls to do it against an actual public figure. He either thinks he’s invincible, or that he’s invisible. Either way, he’s stopped giving a damn about subtlety. I went out to a payphone to call them, to warn them that I thought someone might try to kill Chief Sombarli. I can only hope that he doesn’t get hurt.

• It didn’t work. Chief Sombarli of the NYPD was shot and killed today outside of the station. The guy who killed him was immediately arrested, but all he’s done is demand the death penalty. The NYPD wants me to step forward and speak to them about how I knew, but after what happened with Marcus’s encounter with the police, I don’t know if I can. Hell, I’m terrified that if I come forward then one of Earl’s fans may get me. The most insulting thing was listening to Earl report on it. That fucking bastard knew what was happening. He had the gall to sit there and act dumb, as if he hadn’t made the call. He dared to blame it on the Ferguson protestors. On top of that, as if I didn’t have enough reason not to come forward, he asked for the time pretty shortly after he said he hopes whoever knew about it comes forward with the information. I’m sick of this. I can’t let this keep happening. I don’t know what to do. Marcus tried going to the police, but they wouldn’t listen. I have nobody to help me, no producer, no ghost writer, no manager, no press associate, nothing. I have to try and figure this out myself.

• Made a final decision today. I’m gonna call that damn show. I’m gonna speak to Earl Turner regardless of the threat. Marcus demanded that I never speak to him, but I have to. He said he would leave the project if I did. I know he doesn’t wanna be a part of this anymore, and I completely understand. I told him to go home, to keep himself safe, and not to talk to me or mention me until the storm has calmed down. As much as I appreciate his help, as much as I need it, I can’t let him risk his life for my story that he doesn’t even wanna be a part of anymore. I need to have at least some kind of admission from Earl, even if it’s a silent one. I need people to see me put pressure on him. And so what if I get killed? If I die, that just brings more attention to it. An investigative journalist goes on a show, dies days later, and has notes written that contain evidence of people Turner disliking being killed. The thing is, I don’t think I’ll be killed anyway. I go on the show with a skype number on a burner account, never say my name, use a program to pitch down my voice, never give any details about where I am. How could anyone possibly track me down from nothing except the sound of my fake voice and the fact that I’m a journalist? 

• I stopped listening to the show past 5pm. All I want is to get onto the show, and he never does these calls after 5, so I may as well not listen at all. I’m gonna listen from 2-5 to be ready for a call, but past that there’s no point listening.

• Day five of trying to call him, still no success. I’m just not quick enough on the draw. I’ll get him eventually though. He’s said some bullshit over the past five days, but I don’t see the point in writing it down. I have my story, nothing else can possibly top this.

• Day nine, I finally got him. What luck that he decided to do a full day of calls. I’ll call it a curse in blessing’s clothing. The conversation went about as well as I expected. I got to pressure him on some things, I got him to stutter a bit, which was nice. I exposed the fact that he doesn’t have many good arguments. I even got to hint at the fact that I know what he’s doing, and he didn’t even bother asking me what I meant. That tells me he is silently admitting guilt. Just like I expected, right as I was about to end the call, he asked me what time it was. The bastard. This is more than enough proof to me that this is no coincidence. The way he asked me, too, the fact that he asked me for the time instead of his manager, the fact that I could hear him grinning. I know for a fact it’s the truth now. I can at least find some validation in the fact that me and Marcus knew it.

• Well, I believe I’m officially finished with this journal. I’m taking a couple of security precautions until I completely finish my report and get it published. Until publication, I am going completely radio silent. No phone calls, in or out. My cell phone is on airplane mode, my Wi-Fi router has been unplugged, and in the event I need to use the internet, I’m gonna use my neighbor’s network, and only through a VPN. I stocked up completely on groceries today, enough cans of Chef Boyardee to last me for three months, all paid for using only cash. I shouldn’t have to leave my apartment except to drop off my rent checks. I’m gonna sleep in the workshop, not the bedroom, and I’m always gonna have the shotgun next to my desk. I’m also locking a flash drive with this journal in a safe that looks like a dictionary, then putting it in my desk. I also have a dummy safe with $200 in it. I wanna go ahead and write here, just in case I die, that I have never in my life dealt with any issues of mental health, and have never had a suicidal thought. I care too much about my job and my friends to ever hurt myself. If I die, it is not of my choice.