How To Outwork The 'Other Guys' with Mike Tobin 01:05:04

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$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. Well, welcome back to the Jason in the House podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and I really do appreciate your time. I think you're going to enjoy this because...

If you've watched Fox News at all over through the years, you have seen one of the best out there in the field. His name is Mike Tobin. And, you know, you've seen him all the world. Right now you see him in Chicago, but you've seen him in the Middle East. You've seen him in the war-torn places. When there's a riot, when there's a fire, when there's a, quote, unquote, mostly peaceful protest, you're going to see Mike Tobin out there, you know,

He's a well-built man. I mean, that's just all as a compliment. The guy's fit. He's strong. And you know what? When...

And everything's going wrong. And he's out there with the microphone reporting live. There's I mean, he does an amazing, amazing job. And he's been doing it for a little while. And I was, you know, I've had a chance when I was at Fox to kind of get to know bump into him, see him every once in a while. So I'm in the airport recently.

With his dog and I just thought that he'd be great to talk to because there's I think a lot to learn from people who've had such great success and not everybody can do what he does, but he does it in an amazing way and been highly successful at it.

And so we're going to have a little conversation with Mike Tobin. And I'm really excited about this. I want to talk a little bit about the news because there's a few things happening. And then highlight the stupid because, as we like to say, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And, of course, there are two of them that we're going to highlight today. So first, a comment or two on the news.

Immigration. I've talked a lot about immigration on this podcast, but with the president making new announcements, essentially offering amnesty, the president is doing nothing to solve the problem and is exacerbating the situation and making it worse. Now, to hear the Democrats say it, they will say, oh, we could fix this if only we had legislation.

We could fix this, but Democrats have solutions and Republicans are voting against things. Nothing is further from the truth.

First of all, for the last three years, the Biden-Harris administration has told us that the border is secure, that they have operational control, that there is no crisis at the border. And now that there are literally millions and millions of people that are here illegally, that cities and states are being overrun with children entering schools with services that need to be rendered illegally.

We have a problem with housing overall in this country and rising rates for low-income housing. And then everybody scratches their head and says, hmm, I wonder why that is. Maybe it's the demand for, I don't know, 10 million more people or whatever the number is. Some say 7, some say 10, some say it's 20. It's millions of people putting demands and stress on social services, on

on law enforcement, on rent. All of these things are a factor. And so if you look at what the president's doing, he's did nothing but open up the border and invite people to come here by offering enticements to

That weren't there previously. Now, with Donald Trump, the border was getting tighter. It was becoming closed. They were erecting a fence. It was it was starting to work. The remain in Mexico policy was was pivotal.

And we were starting to have some success in locking down that border. Because you know what? I felt for a long time that the people that were failing are the people who are trying to come here legally and lawfully. They're trying to come in through the front door. They're trying to do it the right way.

And the reality is if you try to enter the United States of America to claim asylum or whatever you might want to do and you don't come through a port of entry, guess what? You're breaking the law. You are an illegal alien under the law. And in that situation, you are to be detained and deported.

That's the law. And so when Joe Biden made nearly more than 90, 90 executive orders in his first 100 days or so in office, and he made these fundamental changes, making it easier, changing the way we expanded the way people can claim asylum, then guess what? People came in droves and they continue to.

And so when now Joe Biden is saying, well, what we should do is we should be more compassionate. You know, people have been here a long time. We should be able to. That's not closing down the border. That's saying, hey, come here and you can get in through the front door. And you're sort of a chump if you go through and you think you're going to actually, you know, go through it legally and lawfully. Come in legally while I'm the president and all things will be good. And one thing that I really do worry about is voting.

Democrats are fighting tooth and nail to get past the idea that you have to show an identification because they say it's voter suppression in order to vote. But.

You know what? In California, Minnesota, and New York, there have been concerted efforts to get people that are non-U.S. citizens to vote in elections. They'll say, oh, it's not a federal election, it's just a local election. Why should they be able to vote in any election? I think that's a

absurd. It is absolutely absurd. I think that is the end game. And I just fundamentally disagree that I want people to be eyes wide open. This is a choice election. And this is one of the major choices before the United States of America. So, all right, I took a long time on the news. So let's get to the stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. All right, we're starting in California. I saw this on foxnews.com.

Protesters took over my L.A. restaurant in anger over vegan menu change. So says the owner. So the owner has a has a restaurant. And I feel for this person because, you know, just trying to it's hard enough to run a restaurant. And this Molly Englehart says,

told Fox News Digital that she called the police after protesters showed up at the Sage Regenerative Kitchen and Brewery and they showed up, but they showed up with megaphones and placards and there's a picture of that. And they basically stormed into the restaurant and started yelling and screaming and that's not the American way. You know what? If you don't like what a restaurant's doing, just don't go there. But really, a menu change?

You know, sometimes these protesters, you know, they think that they're going to change people's minds and hearts, but they're trying to shut down the livelihood of not only the owner, but the people that work at that restaurant.

Now, you have a fundamental right in the United States of America to petition your government to protest what you want to do so peacefully. Not storm into a restaurant. This is just flat out stupid, I feel for this person. And she had to close it down. And I hope she's able to...

buoy it back up. I don't know what they serve. I don't know if their food's any good, but I kind of want to support it because I hate to see some of the ways that those things are done. Also, second one I want to go to, we're going to Florida. Florida man, this comes to courtesy of thesmokinggun.com. I get some highly entertaining material off of there. This is the headline, Ex-Con in Domestic Honey Bun Arrest.

All right, honey buns are darn good, but that does not give you license to smack somebody while you're in the car and assault them. So the accused man, 47 years old, he has a bear claw tattoo, and evidently outside this motel, 4 o'clock in the morning, they're arguing over a honey bun. Decides to...

smack, for lack of a better word. That's the allegation this person, cops had to be called, had to be detained, arrested outside this Walmart super center in St. Petersburg. Honey buns are good, no doubt about it, but no smacking people just because you can't decide who's going to eat that honey bun.

All right. Time to talk to Mike Tobin. Let's give him a call. Let's give him a shout. And I think this is going to be good. I really look forward to this one. Let's call Mike Tobin. Mike, hey, how are you? Hey, Congressman. How are you doing? Good, good. Hey, thanks for doing this. My pleasure. All right. Hey, I just want to capture this all organically the way it's happening. So let's just jump right in. We'll go and have some fun. And thanks again. I appreciate it. Let it rip.

All right. Mike, hey, it's Jason Chaffetz. How are you, Congressman? Please call me Jason. I appreciate it. I appreciate the formality and maybe some places. Yeah, let's do that. But, you know, I'm honored to work with you. You do amazing work. Well, thank you very much.

No, like if it's tough, if it's volatile, if it's on fire, I see Mike Tobe. That's what I see you. When it's going to, you know, crap, I tend to see you there. Nothing personal. I'm just saying that's what you do. If a job calls for something that no one else will do, then I'm the newsman for the job. Well, something may blow up. Hey, let's send Mike. Mike will do it.

When did that start? You know, I don't know. I think really I'd been working for the network for six months when 9-11 happened. Oh, my goodness. And I was out of the Dallas Bureau at the time, and American Airlines was based out of Dallas. So I had a little bit of work to do following 9-11, but I quickly felt irrelevant. And I called one of the VPs. I don't know if you remember this guy, a guy named John Moody.

And I said, is there anything else I can do? And that resulted in a couple of plane tickets to Pakistan. And I had been... So 9-11 happens. They're going to put you on an airplane and you're going to Pakistan. And I think it's the only time in my career I made a big jump. I started in small market TV and I just worked my way up. And I had already been doing live shots for the network when I got the network gig.

But at that time, jumping from just local news to international coverage of war was a huge jump. And at some point you've got to do that. And at some point you're woefully underqualified for your job. And that was a spooky time in my career. But I think that we dove in. It was it was thrilling.

And it was such a time to be a reporter and such a time in my career. And I wasn't really thinking about career jumps at the time. I was just overwhelmed with the coverage and the responsibility we had at that point. And it was sick as a boy could be the whole time I was in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I lost about 25 pounds on the Afghan diet plan. The Afghan diet plan can work for you, by the way. You just step one, you eat something filthy, and then you're on the plan. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. And how long were you there?

A month or two. A couple of months the first time around. That's a lot of weight to lose in 30 days. Yeah, yeah. I couldn't keep any food down the whole time we were there. And it's not like... I mean, and you look... You're a pretty strong dude. It's not like... I mean, maybe you weren't doing as many push-ups back then, but I don't know. That would be interesting to see the before and the after picture. You know, I think I was a little bit...

before I went to Afghanistan. I needed to lose the weight. Yeah, but there's nothing like probably sitting there ready to do a live shot and the stomach's rumbling. That can't be fun. It's horrible. And we used to, we called Imodium vitamin I. You take your Imodium and they can buy you, they say it's good for eight hours. It's good for six.

Because you know. You learned the hard way, yeah. All right. Let's go way back though. I want to go back to I was born in – and I'm not talking the year. I'm talking the place. Tell us about the earlier – this is a podcast. So we got a little bit of time here. So go back to like growing up. What was life like? Because I'm fascinated by –

Look, good people who do good things. I'm fascinated by people who rise to the top. And, you know, you've been the top of your game at Fox for years. I mean, for a long time. But go back to how I was born in. What was life like? Brothers, sisters, little kid, what were you doing?

Well, thank you. First of all, that's a nice compliment. You don't feel at the top. I suppose that's a lot of perspective because, I mean, I tried so hard to get this job. But then when you get it, you know, you're working every day and sometimes you have good days and bad days. So you don't always feel the top of your game. So I appreciate you saying that, Congressman Jason. Jason. Yes. All right. So where were you born? I was born in a cushy little suburb outside of Chicago, a place called Barrington.

And I'm the youngest of seven kids. Wow. Catholic. Everybody always knew we were Catholic when you say you come from a family of seven. And when you're the youngest of seven, you know, you're not a product of Planned Parenthood.

There's no parents who looked at each other and said, you know, the house is a little quiet with only six. Let's have one more. And my dad, he's a proper crude old Irishman. He served in World War II. And he used to say, you know, loving and gentle things like, I should have named you Johnny Walker. It's the only reason you were born. I love my dad. Oh, my goodness. All right. So, boys, girls, I mean, were you like...

And then your siblings are like taking care of you. They're probably also, you know, beating you up a little bit along the way. That's just the way families and kids go. But more than a little bit. Yeah. And that the beatings were just that was just how it went. You know, when you've got three when you got three older brothers and they're all Irish, you get beat up. So four boys, three girls.

Were you playing sports? What was life like? Yeah, I played about everything. I was a horrible kid. I was always in trouble. I was disruptive in school. I stole everything that wasn't nailed down. And my dad, and I got in fights. I got in a lot of fights. And my dad ultimately sent me off to Culver Military Academy. And Culver, I was so young. I think I was like 11 years old when I went there.

And so they don't really do military things other than you've got to march wherever you're going. And it was in sports.

And athletics really kind of, I guess, gave me a place for all that aggression to go. And you'd get a lot of status and you'd get patches that you could wear in your uniforms if you did well in athletics. And so I think that that channeled me in a direction. And I gravitated to all the short guy sports, gymnastics, wrestling and boxing. And I played football. But they the coach would always make you if you're not that tall, they put you as a defensive back.

And those wide receivers, they would just bury me on the deep ins and the deep outs and stuff like that. I couldn't keep up with them. And so I was riding a pine sophomore year and my gymnastics coach said, you know, you're

Your varsity here as a freshman, as a gymnast, maybe you ought to reprioritize. So gymnastics kind of became my thing. I was a gymnast at the University of Illinois, and I got cut from the team sophomore year, and I was kind of a lost soul. What part of gymnastics? Like, what were you doing? That was an all-around, so I did all the events. Wow. All right. That's tough. Yeah.

Yeah, it was tough. And of all the different sports and people ask you what what was the toughest? It's kind of a hard question to answer, obviously.

When I was wrestling, one, you were sick all the time. One guy on the team caught a cold. Everybody on the team caught a cold. Right, right, right. And you were dieting. Six foot distance right there, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So you were sick all the time and in a state of malnutrition because you're always cutting weight for wrestling. And then boxing, I always had a headache. I was walking around with a headache all the time. But as a gymnast...

I tore up everything. I wonder why. As a gymnast, I've broken all of my fingers. I've broken my left hand twice. I broke my left arm. I broke my right leg. I blew an ACL. I tore both rotator cuffs. I broke three ribs and I dislocated a rib once. That sounds like fun. Yeah, I was injured all the time. I broke my back too. Oh my gosh.

okay but you kept going so but you're obviously obviously i mean university illinois that's not a small university that that's you must have been pretty darn good i

You know, I think to be good in high school sports is one thing. But then when you get to the big leagues, I was buried. I think I think you can in high school sports, you can work hard and overcome a lack of talent. And then when you get to college, there are guys there who are so good.

That was once I got once I got to college in a division one school, I just that was outmatched. As I like to say, I would have gone to the Olympics, only I wasn't that good. There you go. All right. So you're doing you're doing sports. You're being a little bit of a hooligan along the way.

When did that change? At some point, you've got to make a life decision, right? I mean, maybe sports. Was sports driving your decision to go to the University of Illinois? Yeah. I went to college to be an athlete. And then when I got to school, then I realized in high school, I didn't take it very seriously. And once I got to college, then I realized I needed to study or I was going to lose the athletics, which I lost anyway. But I kind of got in the groove of studying at that point.

Go ahead. You were asking a question. Well, I was just saying, look, you're so – I mean, you're usually – when I see you on the network, it's like breaking news. Stuff's happening, blowing up around you. There's a riot going on. Something crazy is happening. Yeah.

And, but not everybody can be as poised as you are in that moment, gather their thoughts and then articulate it. That's the thing. You know, oftentimes, you know, breaking news, they'll let you go to, hey, report everything you've got. A lot of other times they'll say, all right, you got 90 seconds and you pretty darn well hit 90 seconds. So when was that time growing up where you thought, yeah, you know, maybe I could do television?

You know, that came very late. I listen in Chicago. There were there were some radio greats out here. There was Jonathan Brandmeier, Steve Dahl, who was really the he's the guy who paved the way for Howard Stern. If you remember the disco demolition stuff, he did all. Yeah. Those are the guys I listened to when I was when I was young.

And so I always admired radio. I always admired broadcast news. I remember my dad took me. We were going to one of his plants and we were driving on the Kennedy, an I-90, when Flight 191 crashed outside O'Hare.

And we could see the smoke and we turned on the radio and we were listening to a reporter just just brilliantly articulate what was happening on the ground. He wasn't too he wasn't too emotional, but he was conveying what was happening and therefore giving us the emotion. You know, he wasn't one of those using a bunch of dramatic adjectives and whatnot. He was just effectively conveying a very serious situation.

So that certainly had a lot of impact on me. But when I transferred, I went to Arizona State. I had a teacher, a guy named Dave Marquis, who was a local reporter. A lot of my a lot of my teachers, I didn't respect them. I would look at him and I'm like, well, you're you're teaching school because you failed in the industry. So why do I listen to you? But this guy was still a reporter.

And and he was a great storyteller. So he was telling all these stories of adventure in the field. And that got me very interested. So to tell you one thing, my first motivation to get in this job was the adventure. I wanted the thrill. I've never been one of these crusading reporters that wants to change people's opinion or make them think like me.

So I still wanted to get into radio. Well, you've got a great voice. I mean, it is a distinguishable, deep voice, you know? A lot of us are jealous of that kind of deep, resonating voice. So that makes sense. And I've got a face for radio, so... Yeah, right.

But so I got internships in both television and radio that accepted for two of them on the same day. I got the letters and I'm not I'd be lying if I told you I was a pious religious person. But I said a prayer. I said, God, I need a little help making this decision. And the next day I walked into the bathroom at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication.

And some guy in Tempe, yeah, in Arizona State. And some old guy walks up next to me to use the porcelain, and it was Walter Cronkite. No. Seriously. Yeah. So I said, subtle, God. And he invited me to a speech he was giving.

And in that speech, I hope this was after he left the restroom. Right. You didn't chat him up while he was, you know.

I waited till we were washing our hands. That's OK. Fair enough. All right. Fair enough. Yes. Gentlemen's code. So I couldn't resist. Once we started washing our hands, I couldn't resist striking up a conversation with Walter Cronkite. I mean, come on, you let that pass up. And and he invited me to a speech. And in that speech, he talked about when the peace process with Egypt and Israel fell together, it largely happened on his broadcast.

He had an interview with Anwar Sadat and Sadat said in that interview, I'm I will go to Jerusalem, which was unthinkable at the time because they were at war. The newspapers ran with the headline and what Walter Cronkite said he understood was that there will be a day when he can go to Jerusalem. And he hooked up a second interview for clarification and Sadat said, well, I'm just waiting for an invitation.

So then they had Menachem Begin ready and Menachem Begin gets on the air and extended the invitation. And the peace process was one of the only lasting pieces out there fell together on his broadcast. So at that point, I thought TV news is the way I wanted to go. I didn't. That was really an inspiring moment. And I dumped the internship at radio and took the internship at a local station out there in Phoenix.

And tell me about that first job, because those are always pretty comical in what they have you do. It's not as if you've got a big crew, you know, paving the way and making it easy for the intern, right?

No, no. And usually the intern is off on the fringes and you have to make your own way as an intern. In fact, at Fox interns, when they come through and I tell them, if you're not diligent and aggressive enough to make your own demo while you're an intern, you're probably not aggressive enough for this job. And so I made my demo. It was a big part of my project while I was there. And I also started writing copy.

I was just talking about with the young guys in the newsroom the other day that I was so excited when I would write a story that the anchors would read and I'd race home and get people to watch it and watch somebody else read the copy that I wrote. But I was so excited about that and I got my first gig in Salisbury, Maryland then Charleston, West Virginia and

And I almost quit the business at that point. It was hard getting out of small market TV. And my brothers all do commercial real estate. Well, the day was so good. I'm sure that's what held you there, right? I lived on an air mattress at the time. And the air mattress developed a slow leak.

And so I'd fill it up before I went to bed at night. And I knew it was time to go back to work as I was back on the hardwood. And I had all my journalism awards hanging on the wall. And my brothers who were in real estate, one of them looked at all the journalism awards and said, you know, if one of these awards said best commercial real estate salesman, you wouldn't be living like this. And so I got out. Small market TV was was romantic, but I don't want to do it again.

All right. So, but how did you make the leap? I mean, where did you go from small market to not so small market? I got the gig in Dallas and from Dallas, I got the gig in Miami at WSVN. And at WSVN, I started doing a lot of live shots for the Fox News channel when hurricanes were going on. Elian Gonzalez, I did a lot of stuff with Elian Gonzalez. Oh, yeah. I remember that story.

Yeah, we earned overtime at that point. We earned hourly instead of contract employees. And Elion earned me enough money that I bought a boat. Really? Did you buy the boat? No, no, I didn't. It was just a little catamaran. But I had a cheap apartment at the time. But yeah, I did enough with Elion, kept us busy, and Elion got me a lot of live shots with the network. So, yeah.

So what was the what was the Fox wasn't that old at that point, right? You came in like way early. Yeah, I wasn't one of the originals. But about two or three years, I think Fox had been on the air when I when I got the gig. I replaced Mike Emanuel was the Dallas based correspondent and he moved to D.C. and then I got his old job. All right. So what?

I understand you like the adventure. You had some rough and tumble being the youngest of seven and all that. But you gravitate to these stories. How do you do that? Because to have the poise, protect yourself...

And tell the story while it's breaking news. I mean, it was just a couple years ago. There were some sort of riots going on, fires. Man, you are moving all over that neighborhood. Like, hey, let's come over here. Come over here. I mean, it was like we were glued to our televisions watching what you were doing. But explain to people more about what's going on there and that's going to happen.

Well, first of all, that's when it's fun. That's when I really like the job. Well, you can tell that. It radiates. Yeah, you can tell you're enjoying it. And they say men don't multitask. It's the ultimate in multitasking. Because you're listening, you've got a producer in your ear, you're watching what's going on around you, you're ingesting the information and relaying it. And the key is, the way you can avoid...

Falling apart on the air or just babbling a bunch of stream of consciousness sentences. Every story has a backbone. There's a center point of a story and the story radiates out from that point.

George Floyd. Right. You know, he was it's never really been much debate once you saw the George. What happened to George Floyd? Clearly, at best, that police officer was officer was indifferent to his life. So you start there. That's that's where the center of the story is. And everything radiates out from that backbone. And every fact that you see, everything you observe, every new piece of information you get relates to that.

And how the story is advancing. A good case. Here's a better example, a really simple example. Do you remember the case of Andrea Yates?

The Houston mother who she drowned her children. Yeah, a horrific story. Yeah, it was a horrific story. And I covered that trial. And when I'm talking to young people, I'll use that as an example, because, you know, the backbone of that story was not did she kill her children? The backbone of that story was, was she killed?

legally insane and unable to determine right from wrong when she killed her children. So that was the backbone of the story and everything comes out of that. So the sooner you can get to what is this story really about?

then the ad-libbing and the chaos, I'm not going to say it gets easy, but it makes sense. And you kind of know what you're working with as you filter the chaos and try to turn it into coherent television. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, it does. But in that clarity and being able to get to the nub of the issue, to get to that heart or the backbone, as you call it, that's a talent that not everybody has because they don't,

The viewer needs that, right? They need to know because there's rapid fire stuff coming at them at the television. But people need to know that. Okay, so it's one thing to know that, but where did this skill set of talking come from? I mean, did that happen when you were a young kid and said, hey, I can talk my way out of this? Not everybody has that skill set.

Well, I guess communication is... You see all the stuff in the master classes now, how they say that storytelling is a key skill. And I don't know, maybe it's the old man. My dad was a... He was a remarkable guy. He...

unfortunately, he caught a bad case at 92 years old and he had to go. But he was a World War II veteran. He, like most of the greatest generation, he got done with the war and decided he was going to make his way. And he is the guy who pioneered the two liter plastic bottle. And of all the things that my dad did, he would tell me that he was a salesman. At the end of the day, he was a salesman because he had an idea and he would just he'd have to sell it.

And he was very direct. He wasn't subtle. He was funny, but crude. And so maybe some of the communication skills come from there. But then think it back. I don't know that he was always the best communicator. You knew what he was saying, right? Yeah, I knew what he was saying. But yeah, I couldn't repeat a lot of it on the air. Yeah, I get that. But like, seriously, when did you like start communicating?

I mean, public speaking doesn't come naturally to a lot of people, right? It's one of the biggest fears people have. And you're out there in front of a couple million people with breaking news going on. So I'm just trying to figure out, like, each person kind of has their own story or their own moment where they feel comfortable doing that kind of stuff. You know, I don't know that I ever do feel comfortable. I'm terrified with every live shot that I do ever. You know, what, 30 years into this business, I...

Every report, even if I'm covering holiday travel at the airport, every report is a big deal.

Every report I understand that I'm doing a national address. I do think if I'm doing something like holiday travel, I don't necessarily think it's as important as one of these hot button issues like the Mike Brown case. It's got the it's got the nation fired up. I do understand the difference. And at some point, this is kind of intangible, but I think you get a feel for the audience.

And when you're giving a speech in front of people, you get feedback from the audience. But in broadcasting, we're separated from them. But I still think over time, and particularly a couple of decades here at Fox News, I get a feel for what our audience cares about. And so you know if there's a big story. And

I can't prove that. How do I know it? It's intangible, but I just kind of think you develop a sense every time. People come up to you, right? They'll chat with you. They'll give you some feedback. I would think, yeah, hey, airport travel here at O'Hare, that's

To me, that would be harder than, all right, stuff's blowing up around me. Here's what's going on because there's so many other elements and it's moving so fast. The fact that United is 44 flights delayed would be, I think, a tougher story for me to do just because I wouldn't be as enthusiastic about it. And usually if there's time to get your story together and you have order –

There's time to get nervous where these big stories when it's just coming at you from every angle. You're just...

It's one of the reasons I like it. It's so intense and you're so intensely focused. And when you can, I know some journalists say don't pay attention to the competition. It's all about your story. But I like the competition. I want to see where they are, where they're taking the story. Am I beating them? Yeah, I'm a competitive guy. I mean, my barometer is athletics. So I want to know if I'm beating CNN. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's tough a lot of times when you're out there. But so I guess I want to know, you know, hey, look, we got that. We got that story right. And they missed it. And yeah, I. Right. And and I think now, too, with so much politicking in stories, I think that, you know, we've got our opinion section, right?

But our daytime reporters, they're all shooting for the middle. And I think they're painfully honest. And whereas it whereas I think the the reporters who aren't necessarily part of the opinion shows and the other networks, they get swayed. And that's where you get things like, you know, mostly peaceful protest or fiery, but peaceful protest. One of the greatest lines ever. I covered both of those. One of the greatest lines ever. Mostly peaceful.

I mean, that's just so funny. Yeah. John Gotti was mostly peaceful. Especially the visual with, it's just like two stories of flames going up behind him. It's just hilarious. I can't stop giggling about it. It's why it's such a great line. Um, okay. Doing, uh, stuff overseas is a little bit different. Um,

than, you know, I mean, look, you cover volatile stuff everywhere, right? But what's the difference between the international stuff and how do you gather that story? I mean, granted, there are producers and you're getting help and support, but you want to get it yourself and you're relaying what you're seeing and feeling. And oftentimes, if not all the time, your life's in danger. So explain the dynamic difference between that and maybe what you're doing domestically.

Well, each situation is going to have its own dynamics. And Israel, I lived in Israel for six years. So granted, I've been back since since 2010. So a lot of my contracts contacts have have atrophied people move along, move on. They get other jobs. Some are dead.

So you get there and you start reestablishing contacts, you know, the channels where you can get your information. We do have a staff on the ground in Israel that the great producers, you're not thrilling. And, you know, El Curiel, who are super helpful over there in Israel, you know,

It's tough to get information out of Gaza now because it's so bad. And my my primary Gaza contact has since gotten out. And it's unfortunate because I lose a guy to talk to who could help me out with information. But I'm glad because anyone in Gaza is is under threat. It's it's it's a horrible situation. So but it's it's intense when you're over there.

No one talks to a reporter out of the goodness of their heart. You know that you're being played all the time that someone's talking to you because the when you think about it, particularly the Middle East wars, the PR aspect, the propaganda aspect is inherently linked to it. If you think about it on October the 7th.

Hamas never thought they were going to win militarily. Maybe some of the guys on the ground who were executing the attack on October 7th thought, you know, divine intervention, Allah is going to protect us. But they were never going to hold that corridor they talked about around the Gaza Strip. They were going to hold it for as long as it took Israel to organize their army and respond.

And they were quickly driven back inside the Gaza Strip. And they sparked this terrible, bloody war that you're seeing in Gaza now. So the PR was always part of it.

And as you saw when the when the hospital was hit by Islamic Jihad rockets, you saw the protests spring up immediately around Middle Eastern universities in Beirut and all over the world. And those people are playing their part.

So and I make that point because you talk about the intensity. You know that everyone is trying to sway you in one direction and you have to verify everything. You have to doubt everyone you talk to. And the Israeli military, you know, they're playing the PR game, too. They have a whole spokesman's bureau to deal with it. And they understand that the information war is very much a part of the warfare out there. Yeah.

And these college protests, I wish I could talk to these protesters and let them know that they're a component of the battlefield out there. They and they've chosen a side. And that's OK. You have the right to choose a side with a conflict like this. But understand that they are choosing the side. And these facts aren't disputed that that that raped and murdered civilians.

So you could say the other side, the Israelis, they go in with big weaponry and densely populated civilian areas and cause collateral damage. That's a legitimate argument. But you're picking you're picking the side of the rapists.

If you say you're going to protest on the side of Hamas and the Palestinians and do the Palestinians have it rough? Absolutely. They do. Yeah. I've lived in Gaza for months at a time and it's horrible. Wow. There are people who've lived in Gaza, you know, their whole lives and they never leave Gaza and they never,

You can't put people in a prison and then be surprised that they act like prisoners. It's tough living out there. And can you blame them because they chose Hamas? They did. 2006 Hamas won election. So it's all very complicated. And I think choosing one side or the other, it's gets very difficult. But it.

One thing is very clear that Hamas deliberately targets civilians. And for Israel, civilian casualties actually work against them. So they would try not to target civilians, but they go in with big weapons and they have to fight in densely populated areas and collateral damage happens. And that's, look, this is the difficult part of the reporting. But...

I love what you do and the way you do it because it's so real and authentic. And I do think authenticity wins the day. And like you said, you know, trying to shoot for the middle, just call balls and strikes the way you see them. You know, there's an emotional component to it, especially when it's happening in real time and there's no...

that you're safe and protected. But Mike, you are one of the best I've ever seen out there. And when you're on, I'm like, okay, this is going to be good. This is going to be like,

No, I'm a big fan that way, and you do great stuff. And I just, you know, when you're on, I thought, uh-oh, there's a problem. Not that it's you, but that, oh, there's something really happening here because they sent Mike in there. But take that as a huge compliment because it's intended to be. Well, you flatter me. I appreciate that very much.

And that's what and frankly, that's what I'm shooting for. I remember the movie The Fugitive. Yeah. With when Harrison Ford looks at Tommy Lee Jones and says, I didn't kill my wife. Tommy Lee Jones says, I don't care. I'm Tommy Lee Jones. I really am. I'm in it to cover the story.

Because I am guilty of being the thrill-seeker journalist. I love going out there to the big thing that's happening. I love the intensity of the job. And I'm really not out to sway anyone one direction or another. That's the way it should be. And I feel like the journalism schools of today...

Like, where are they? And getting people to understand, that's the way journalism should be. It's not, it just feels like it's so much activism these days that everything has this little twist to it. And it's just like, no, folks, just report it the way it is. But I don't see the journalism schools, like, pushing that. And, you know, maybe Arizona State is, maybe, but I, you know, I just don't see it in mass journalism.

Yeah, I don't see it either. I think that and I think ASU has has gone pretty lefty from from casual observation. I didn't really dig in and look at the curriculum. So that's probably a little irresponsible. No, but that has to do with not only the students and why they're doing it, what they're doing. You know, you're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be right back.

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All right, so I always have these rapid questions, Mike, to get to you a little bit better. And I don't care how many bombs have gone off near you. You're not properly prepared for these. You ready? Okay, go. First concert you ever attended? The Outlaws. The Outlaws. Interesting. Every time I ask that question, I get a different answer. What was your high school mascot?

Barrington Broncos. Bronco's a tough name. That's good. I like it. What's your favorite vegetable? Brussels sprouts. And I hated Brussels sprouts when I was a kid. You know, I love Brussels sprouts. They're good. I love them. They're prepared properly. Yeah, they're good. I could eat those. No problem. I say when you're making your Brussels sprouts, if the smoke alarm doesn't go off, you're not doing it right.

I burn them in the skillet. That's good. You really do like them. That's good. What was your first job? I mean, not, hey, your dad telling you to go take out the garbage. First time you got a check. It could be a simple thing. How old were you? What were you doing? Well, it actually was garbage removal. Seven years old, I wanted to get a fishing pole.

And my dad said, well, you got an opportunity to earn some money. And we lived in kind of a densely packed neighborhood at the time. And Thursday was garbage day. So I would go around to everybody's house and I would haul their trash to the curb. And it was a more innocent time, too, because a lot of times people would say, oh,

They would say yeah come out in the house and get the garbage out of the kitchen where now I think you wouldn't let a seven-year-old Go do that kind of thing But yeah, go in people's house and grab garbage out of the kitchen and put it in the in the you know We had those plastic trash dumpsters on a wheel We called them the Green Hornet at the time because they were green right and then so I'd haul everybody's trash to the curb and the fishing pole I was trying to buy was 30 bucks and

And with all the work responsibility of a seven-year-old, once I got the $30, I stopped showing up. You stopped showing up. I don't know what month it was, but Chicago in the winter doing that, I don't know what you were charging, but I would pay that. That was a quarter. It was a quarter, but then a lot of times people would just go here and have a buck. So I earned that $30 pretty – I think in a couple of weeks I had it. Yeah, yeah. That's –

That's funny that you stopped. No taxes. Yeah, exactly. I'm going fishing. All right. So if you met Bigfoot, what would you ask him? Wow.

See, I've thought about this too much. You've probably never thought of this before. I've never thought about it. I would think, how many are you? What's home like? Do you have Wi-Fi? Do you have Wi-Fi? How's the cell reception where you live up in the Cascades? I have not thought about Bigfoot in a very long time. You know, it's funny. That's all you're going to think about.

Yeah, no, you ruined my day. But Bigfoot, why so reluctant to come forward? And how do you know English to therefore understand my questions?

I'd love that they call him Daryl. I just think that is the funniest thing in the world. Wasn't that from a sitcom? I don't know where it came from, but it still just cracks me up that Daryl is just hilarious to me. I want to sit down and show him some video and say, is that you? Is that really you? Is that a fakey or is that one of you guys?

I'm enamored with Bigfoot and Bigfoot stories. That's funny. What's your superpower? What I mean by that is, what is it that you know that you can do well? Everybody has one. I'm not just talking about successful people on television. What's your superpower? What can you do that, yeah, I'm pretty good at that? You know what my superpower is? Jiffy Pop.

I can, I'm the only person I know who can pop every kernel in a Jiffy Pop. No burnt ones, no spares. Really? How do you not burn them? You know, you got to understand the mechanics of the Jiffy Pop when you buy it. It is mostly just filled with popcorn, but there's a big pad of fat at the bottom. Yeah. And that's the tool with which you're operating inside of a Jiffy Pop.

So you have to just intrinsically know, like, if you've got the right heat, and once you've got the oil burning, the fat burning in the bottom of the Jiffy Pop bag and it's going, you just got to feel when it's time to take the Jiffy Pop off the heat. Yeah, because I always feel like, yeah, I should do more of a slow, gradual heat. But Jiffy Pop is, not everybody in this podcast knows what a Jiffy Pop is, but man, they're good. Yeah.

Yeah, they are good. That wasn't really the question I was going for, but I'm going to take it. The judges are going to accept that answer. Yeah, that's okay. I feel it's a sixth sense. I know when it's time to take the Jiffy Pop off. That's a metaphor for life in there somewhere. Do you have a pet growing up?

I did. We had well, my sisters had horses and and we had a big Irish wolfhound. Have you ever seen an Irish wolfhound? Their largest dog. Yeah. And her name was Body. It was an acronym for Beware of Dog.

And yeah, sweet dog, big giant dog. And when we were little kids, I don't know how my dad did it. He fashioned a saddle and we would ride it. But then the vet said that that was bad for the dog's back. So we had to stop. I would think so. Yeah. That's funny that you got a saddle on that thing. Those dogs are rather large. It's like next time you chat or bump into Trey Gowdy.

He's huge about dogs, and his dogs are huge. So you guys have been talking. Oh, I mean, they're massive. You met my dog. I did. You know, I saw you in the Salt Lake Airport, right? Was it German Shepherd? No, he's a German short-haired pointer. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, just kind of brief and kind of like, hey, what do you – yeah, there you are. Yeah. All right, so if you could meet one person, dead or alive –

and invite them over, break bread with them, have dinner with them. Leave aside any religious figures. But anybody throughout history, if you wanted to sit down, break bread, and get to know a little bit better and have dinner with, who would that be? Sinatra. Really? Why? That's an easy one. Well, because he, you know, Frank Sinatra was cool before there was James Bond.

He set the standard that all us guys are trying to live up to ever since then. The second would probably be a guy who's alive, Sylvester Stallone. Really? Yeah. Maybe just because I've been watching a lot of his social media traffic and whatnot lately. But he's so cool.

And, you know, that movie that he made, the impact he had on the Tobin house. I mean, we never hung up mom's pot roast because it was frozen and that would hurt. But we went crazy training. He kind of you think about it. He glamorized training with those montages he made for the Rocky movies. And so then my brothers and I train like crazy.

for everything and athletics got me into a good school so maybe you can blame Sylvester Stallone for me being here today were you doing like a dozen raw eggs like Rocky was doing each morning I couldn't I would put them in milk and put them in the blender but yeah we kind of did that no

No, he couldn't. I couldn't do that. I couldn't do the raw eggs straight up. Oh, the way he did it in the movies. Forget about it. No, it's horrible. Generationally impactful and certainly was in the Chaffetz household, too. I mean, that music, that sure, that that drive, that working hard, getting up early. That was all good stuff. Yeah, it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I guess that was a lightweight answer, huh? You wanted to think about a world leader. No, no, because I'm fascinated by it. Again, it's one of those things. Everybody comes up with a different answer. It's really interesting to kind of see immediately where people go to. And, yeah. All right. I'm an Irish guy who gave you two Italian names, too. Maybe I have Italian envy. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no?

No. I knew it. I knew it. We all knew that we liked Mike Tobin here. The idea that we put pineapple, wet fruit on pizza and somebody said, yeah, well, you know, you put tomatoes on there and like, yeah, but it's different. No, it's horrible. I like pineapples. Just don't put them on the pizza. Yeah, don't do it. Best advice you ever got? Diligence beats brilliance most of the time.

Yeah, I think that's right. Good. I got that from a college professor. That's good. And you can overcome just about everything if you're ready to...

to put your nose to the grindstone for long enough. Outwork the other guys and you'll probably beat them. Except in athletics. There's a point when you get to the NCAAs, talent is a factor. You know, I played college football. I was actually a place kicker. I was pretty good at college. High school, I could tell I was way better than everybody else. College, yeah, I was above average. Really? Yeah, I was a place kicker and I

I learned how to do it and deal with the crowd and the pressure and all that. And they say, and then people say, well, did you ever think about going to the pros? I said, yeah, I thought about it a lot. And I knew that I would never make it because I would kick with these guys and they could kick that much further, that much higher, uh,

And it was just like, yeah, I'll just I can't as hard as I work, as much as I want to do it. I can't get from here to there. I can't get that extra 10 years at Brigham Young University, BYU. Oh, of course. Pretty good football team. So, yeah. But you buried that lead. You talked to me about handling pressure and being out in front of a crowd and you were the kicker. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't. Did you ever have anyone when the game was on the line?

Yeah. What I'd like to tell the people of Utah and remind them is...

we never lost a game by the margin of my missed kicks because otherwise you can't run for Congress if you lost the game for the home team here. So guys will, guys will, will, you know, miss a field goal in some game here. And I'm thinking, yeah, there, I look at it differently because I look at it and say, yeah, there's somebody who'll never run for Congress. There's no way you can't do it. Yeah.

I suppose. No, in the Freedom Bowl, I kicked two field goals in the last four minutes, and we won by three. And, of course, the quarterback, Ty Demmer, who went on to get the Heisman Trophy, of course, Ty Demmer got player of the game. Threw no touchdowns, ran for no touchdowns, and I reminded him, the only reason I went in twice is on third down, he threw an incomplete pass.

And so you can go ahead and keep that trophy tie, but I've got to tell you, I'm kind of feeling like it maybe should be mine. And he said, yeah, it looks really good right over here by my Heisman. So I'll go ahead and keep it. That's brilliant. As I like to point out when we go to see a Bears game or something, see that guy over there riding the pine whose name you'll never learn? He was the best player his high school ever saw.

That's right. That's right. That's right. He's won every record, beat every person, scored the most touchdowns, most interceptions. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. But I could never get from here to there. So two more questions. Sure. Sure.

What would you be doing if you didn't go down the TV path? Did you think about that? What do you think you'd be doing? Well, there was a chance when I was in the West Virginia years and my brothers were kind of trying to pull me over to commercial real estate like they did. And before I turned 30, I was still stuck in a small market TV business.

And so I just before I turned 30, I got the gig in Dallas, but I was ready to quit. Then that was my deadline. If I turned 30 and I was still living in poverty, then I look for something else to do. And so then commercial real estate. But if I wanted to do anything, I'd be a lounge singer.

You'd be a what? Lounge singer, like Sinatra. Really? That would be so cool, yeah. If I could just do whatever. Or a superhero, of course, if it doesn't have to be a realistic goal. You know, like to go save people with my Jiffy Pop skills. Well, and your Bigfoot communication skills. You know Bigfoot at this point in my world, so yeah. There you go.

Friends of Bigfoot, yes. But I suppose if you're a superhero, you're still on call all the time. You've got to leave in short notice. Yeah, you know, you usually get right back to where you were. Yeah, that's a happy thing. All right, last question. Favorite menu item at Taco Bell?

You know, there are only like four ingredients at Taco Bell. And they just change form and crispness. So whatever you're getting, you're ultimately getting the same thing. So it would just be a chicken burrito or a beef burrito and everything else is just derived from that. You know that I have totally thought about this exactly the same way because –

If I was in the product development at Taco Bell, going into work for the, you know, year seven. All right, fellas, how are we going to mix that cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and whatever beef we got? What are we going to call it? It's a great business model. How about a chalupa? Yeah, exactly. We'll just change it. We'll make it a little more crispy. We'll put it in a different package and market it. But think of all the chains that have done really well.

Taco Bell, Starbucks. They've only got a few items in there. You get your milk, you get your coffee, and you're off to the races. And then you add in the other, you know, the spinach wraps and stuff like that. So which one is your favorite?

Taco Bell? Yeah, I guess I'd just go with a chicken burrito if I were to stop and do that and stop and eat at Taco Bell. Lots of hot sauce. Lots of hot sauce. Look, one of the best in the business. Enjoy getting to know you, and thanks for spending time with us. What you do and how you do it, absolutely amazing. Love seeing you on the TV and really enjoy it.

The short little spurts where we get to see each other in person. But Mike, Tobin, thanks so much for joining us on this Fox podcast. Jason in the house. You'd think I'd get the name of my own show right. But, you know, thank you so much for your time. Well, thank you. Very flattering. And I didn't know that you were a kicker at BYU.

Yeah, those were the days. And it's a skill that keeps on giving, Mike. How often do I call the wife and kids and say, come on, let's go kick a few? Well, that also happens with gymnastics. The guys don't get together for a pickup game of pommel horse real quick.

You don't go back and just do a bunch of back handsprings. You don't just do that. I can't do it anymore. But I wish I had my nieces. My little nieces are learning gymnastics. So I was coaching them the other day. But also wrestling. You can't go to a park.

How much you weigh? Let's go. All right. That would be pretty creepy. Yeah. Yeah. You shut up with those ear whatever things you call them and a little onesie. Yeah. I think I'm ready. All right. Mike Tobin, everybody. Thank you for joining us on Jason in the House. Thank you.

All right. See, I told you, Mike is just such a good, solid guy. I mean, literally, he is a solid guy. He's grown up, as you heard, in a rough way, knows how to take care of himself.

But you know what? His reporting is first class. It's right at the top of the heap. He does an amazing job. And when there's bad stuff happening to have him in a war zone or to have him on the streets of the United States reporting live, he does an amazing job. And he's just a good guy. And I'm glad he could join us on the Jason in the House podcast.

Thanks so much for joining us. I hope you can rate the podcast. I'd appreciate that. Subscribe to it. I would encourage people to go over to foxnewspodcast.com. There's other great podcasts out there. There really are some good ones. And I want to remind people you can listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.

Thanks again for joining us. Come join us again next week. We'll have another good guest. I promise it'll be good. We'll have a good discussion. Thanks for joining us on Jason in the House. I'm Jason Chaffetz. The Fox News Rundown, a contrast of perspectives you won't hear anywhere else. Your daily dose of news twice a day. Featuring insight from top newsmakers, reporters and Fox News contributors. Listen and subscribe now by going to FoxNewsPodcast.com.