This is the FCB Podcast Network. This is pillow Talk with Ali Michelle on the FCV podcast Network. Welcome back to another episode of pillow Talk with Ali Michelle. I am your host, Ali Michelle. Please bear with me as I navigate this virtual setup alone. My studio will be done in the summer, but this is I wanted to try this, and you're gonna see a couple of pop ups on my of my green light, and there's gonna be some hiccups, but we are gonna try it. So I wanted to get on here and announce my departure. I normally don't, but I felt this was a very necessary step to take the Candace Owens and Erica Kirk situation that Candace Owens is continuing to press and I just am not comfortable associating myself with her. So we are just going to dive right into it. And honestly, this made me completely stop. This made me stop at my tracks because sometimes commentary crosses a line, and when it does, somebody has to say something out loud. There's a difference between navigating and investigating a story and turning a grieving family into public entertainment. And right now, that's what's happening surrounding Erica Kirk and the rhetoric being pushed by Candace Owens Owens since platform feels deeply wrong to me. So today, I'm not coming at this from politics. I'm not coming at this at like, from fandom or loyalty to any personality online. I'm coming at it as a wife, as a mother, and as someone who understands what it means when a family loses the person holding their entire world together. Uh So, let me be clear from the beginning. Candace Owens is known for investigating stories. Obviously, that is part of her brand. Asking questions is not the problem. Journalism, commentary, and investigation all have a place in society, but investigation comes with responsibility because when someone has a massive audience, speculation doesn't stay speculation. It becomes influenced. And what I'm seeing right now isn't just analysis of facts. It's the amplification of random messages, random tips, and random people claim they know something. We're literally watching text messages from strangers, people texting Candace saying they think they have information about someone or something being treated like meaningful in front of millions of viewers. And let's pause there. Random people texting you is not evidence, it's not verification, it's not journalism. It's noise. And when that noise gets broadcast publicly during an active tragedy involving a murdered husband and a grieving family, the consequences become very real. Here's what bothers me the most. Somewhere along the way, people forgot that Erica Kirk is not a character in a documentary. She is a woman whose husband was just murdered. Imagine, not for a second, your phone is ringing NonStop, your children are scared, your entire world just collapsed overnight, and before you even have time to process trauma, the Internet begins to dissect your behavior, your texts, your tone, your reactions. People are asking, why is she acting like this? Why isn't she grieving this way that I expect her to be. That is one of the most disturbing parts of the Internet culture right now. We expect grief to perform for us. But grief doesn't look pretty. Grief doesn't follow scripts, and grief certainly doesn't ask permission from strangers online and, more importantly, close friends of your husband. I want to speak personally for a minute, as the wife of a business owner who is actively building his legacy. I know exactly what survival mode looks like. If something ever happened to my husband, and God forbid, my first instinct would not to sit quietly and meet the internet's expectations of mourning. My instinct would be protection. Protect the business, protect the future, protect what he worked his entire life to build. Because that's because because it's not business. It's not just business, and it's not just money. It's legacy, it's years of sacrifice, it's family security. So when people criticize Erica for appearing focused, strategic, or strong, I actually see something different. I see loyalty and I see love. I see a wife trying to keep her husband's life work alive while her entire world is falling apart. And honestly, I would hope nobody wouldever dissect you as a wife for how you respond to the death of your husband. None of us know how we would react until we're forced into that nightmare. And here's where this becomes more than just commentary. When a massive platform broadcasts unverified messages from strangers claiming insider knowledge, it creates mob mentality. People start connecting the dots that do not exist, Harassment begins, threats happen, Families become targets. And now we're talking about children, Children whose lives could be put in danger because of online speculation turned into public accusations without proof. That's not accountability, that is reckless. Influence carries responsibility, And when you have millions listening, every suggestion matters because audience don't hear. Maybe they hear, probably, and let me say something important. Seeking truth is not wrong. If facts emerge, if evidence exists, if authorities uncover something real, then yes, conversations should happen. But timing matters and humanity matters. There is a difference between waiting for verified facts and crowd sourcing theories from random text messages. One is investigation, the other is exploitation disguises curiosity. And I think we need to ask ourselves a bigger question. When did we become so comfortable analyzing widows like crime characters instead of human beings. I also want to be fair. If I'm wrong, I will admit it. I have no issue correcting myself. If real evidence comes forward, truth should always win. But right now I'm not seeing what. But right now I'm seeing what feels premature and harmful, and accountability should apply to commentators too, because platforms don't just inform, they shape public perception, and once someone's reputation is destroyed online, you don't get to rewind the damage later, even if the story turns out differently. This situation reflects something bigger happening in media culture. We've blurred the lines between journalism, commentary, and entertainment. Tragedy becomes contentation becomes engagement, and grief becomes a storyline. Think about that, sick, But behind every headline is a real family trying to survive the worst moment of their lives. And maybe, just maybe the most radical thing we could do right now is choose restraint, choose empathy, choose to let investigators investigate instead of the Internet acting like a courtroom and creating some series of The Bride of Charlie. Shame on you, Shame on you. That's where I had to leave, That's where I had to make my exit, making a whole entire series dedicated on the quote Bride of Charlie. So end with this. I hope none of us ever experienced what Eric Kirk is going through, And I hope true hope nobody ever sits behind a microphone dissecting your behavior as a wife after your husband has been taken from you, because grief is not evidence, strength is not guilt, and protecting your family's future should never be treated like suspicion. We can ask questions without losing compassion. We can seek truth without abandoning humanity, and right now, I think humanity needs to come first. Thanks for listening, and sometimes the strongest thing we can do is remember there are real people on the other side of the screen, and with that I will leave you to it. Thank you for joining in on my episode, and please send this to your friends, your followers, your haters, your best friends, your mothers, your fathers. Heck, even send this to Candace Owns. I'll see you guys on the next one. And don't forget to say subscribed to the podcast and follow me on all my social media platforms at Ali underscore Michelle, on TikTok that is a l I I underscore Michelle and on Instagram a l I I Underscore Michelle twelve. See you guys later,
