Did you think they would stop with Joe Rogan?
Last year, aging rocker Neil Young led a crusade against “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Young hoped to silence the host’s alternative views on COVID-19.
The effort quickly went viral, with Rogan’s detractors piling on with any cultural cudgel within reach.
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Rogan’s pandemic-related interviews were merely an excuse to silence someone who opened his podcast studio up to voices on the Left, Middle and Right.
Rogan survived the extended Cancel Culture assault. Barely.
Now, The New York Times and The Brookings Institution have teamed to expand that censorial effort. Their targets? Conservative broadcasters like Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
The liberal Brookings Institution released a new report alleging the biggest purveyors of so-called “misinformation” in podcast form. As luck would have it, the vast majority of offenders came from the right side of the ideological aisle.
The article based on the report focused on “Steve Bannon’s War Room,” hosted by the former Breitbart News leader and ex-Trump advisor. The article, to its credit, features numerous examples of guests sharing false morsels via the “War Room” pulpit. Bannon failed to question those views, according to Brookings.
Yet the report savages other, more mainstream conservative shows for spreading “misinformation” at an alarming rate. The list includes “The Charlie Kirk Show,” “The Clay & Buck Show” (along with its predecessor, “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” “Louder with Crowder,” “The Mark Levin Show” and Bret Weinstein’s “DarkHorse Podcast.”
The New York Times serves up this telling nugget.
Conservative podcasters were 11 times as likely as liberal podcasters to share a claim that fact checkers could refute.
That’s an immediate red flag, of course. It’s also a tell, the first of many.
RELATED: SCHULZ: THE FUTURE IS OWNERSHIP, NOT CENSORSHIP
“The Clay & Buck Show” reached out to both The New York Times and Brookings to have someone from either group appear on air with them. The purported interview would let the show’s critics share details on how the hosts spread “misinformation.” Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, in turn, could counter the accusations.
That’s called a free and fair debate, and “The Clay & Buck Show” deserves a chance to learn more about the study and, potentially, refute its findings.
Both parties declined. That’s no accident.
So @BrookingsInst labeled @clayandbuck the third biggest spreader of misinformation in radio. That “report” then was featured on the front page of the @nytimes business section with zero explanatory data. We emailed & invited the lead author — or any other rep from Brookings — to… https://t.co/5Rs64uok5v
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 14, 2023
It’s part of the new, dangerous wave of censorship flooding the culture. Big Tech routinely bans or punishes people for sharing the “wrong” opinions yet doesn’t have the courage, or ability, to explain why.
Ask Mike Baron, the author of “The Private American” graphic novel banned by two crowdfunding sites without any specific rationale. Or comedians who find their jokes muffled sans explanation.
This isn’t new, but it is terrifying.
One biased podcast study, spread globally by the most influential paper in America, is bad enough. That’s not where this ends.
The New York Times reached out to Apple and Google, two of the world’s most formidable tech giants, for reaction to the story. The not-so-secret purpose? To shame them into banning or burying the podcasts in question via their search algorithms.
Sound conspiratorial?
Remember how Amazon, Google and Apple teamed in 2021 to ban Parler, an emerging Twitter alternative, following the Jan. 6 riots in the Capitol building? The parties claimed the platform allowed violent Trump fans to coordinate their alleged assault on the D.C. building.
Did it matter that Twitter let violent groups like Antifa spread their hate far and wide on the platform sans punishment?
No. Parler attracts a right-leaning consumer, much like the aforementioned podcasts, and Big Tech wanted to crush it rather than let their arguments infect the culture.
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Apple AAPL and Google GOOG banned Parler from their apple stores, effectively cutting off any future growth. https://t.co/7TaBUc2qMy #businessnews #entrepreneur #BuildtoExit #startup
— Build To Exit (@BuildToExit) January 19, 2021
The same plan is afoot here. Why else would the Times ask those tech giants for comment? It’s a gentle but overt brand of bullying.
Why aren’t you banning this misinformation?
Even more illuminating? Why won’t Brookings or The Times defend their hard work on a syndicated radio program, letting the show’s fans could learn more about the so-called “misinformation?” Why pass up that golden opportunity if you’re confident in your facts?
The push to ban “misinformation” is both transparent and deeply disingenuous. For starters, none of the bodies attempting to battle Fake News have singled out “The View.”
It’s one of the most cartoonishly fraudulent shows in the media landscape, shared on a major TV network. Here’s just one of many examples.
The View claims Mahomes and Hurts conquered racism against black QBs.
We explain how there was no racism in the NFL to conquer.
“The four highest paid quarterbacks in NFL history were all black—one 30 women accused of sexual misconduct. “https://t.co/1aHn8i8JHY
— OutKick (@Outkick) February 14, 2023
The show’s tapestry of errors spans from silly culture war skirmishes to serious subjects like the pandemic. Yet The New York Times isn’t calling out the aggressively liberal show for spreading “misinformation.”
That’s another tell.
Nor has the newspaper reflected on its warped coverage of the Russian collusion hoax. Instead, the august outlet doubled down on the false reportage.
This isn’t about “misinformation.” It’s about protecting the preferred liberal narratives and punishing parties who counter them with facts and logic.
On the pop culture front, “Private American” sheds light on how drug cartels and rapists run rampant along the porous U.S./Mexico border. So it must be silenced.
“The Clay & Buck Show” questioned the government’s decrees regarding the pandemic early on, from the efficacy of vaccines to questionable mask mandates.
The hosts were right on many fronts. They, too, must be silenced.
This is the Left trying to quiet the Right … or anyone willing to question the official narratives. That includes left-leaning figures like Rogan, journalist Matt Taibbi, comedian Russell Brand and more.
Rogan emerged triumphant, in part, because Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wouldn’t bow to the Cancel Culture mob. The podcaster got lucky. Not every CEO has the spine, and stomach, to fight the Left’s censorious mob.
Sooner or later, the Left’s quest to silence dissenting voices will bear fruit.
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