0:01

Wel come, it is Verdict with Senator Ted

0:03

Cruz Ben Ferguson with you.

0:06

And you guys know if you listen to show

0:08

regularly, that the Sinner and I do this show

0:10

around his Senate schedule,

0:12

especially when it comes to his official duties.

0:15

Well, if you are looking at

0:17

my clock right now, it's about

0:19

two in the morning, and the Senator's

0:22

flight, which was obviously extremely

0:24

late, meant that at this point

0:26

we still couldn't do the show.

0:29

Now here's the good news. We have two conversations

0:32

that Senator Cruz and I had that deal with big

0:34

tech and also silencing

0:36

of conservatives that I'm going

0:38

to play for you. But this

0:41

is the part I love about doing this show. We

0:43

do the show all times, day

0:45

and night, and then sometimes

0:48

the flights just don't cooperate,

0:50

even in the early am hours.

0:53

So now you understand what's going

0:55

on. Don't worry. We'll have your weekend review

0:58

for you tomorrow as

1:00

well. But these are two important topics

1:02

that I want you to hear about. And there are

1:04

a lot going on in DC, specifically

1:07

around the issue of big tech and

1:10

what they're doing to silence conservatives.

1:13

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2:56

center. Big Tech is obviously

2:59

at a massive influence over public

3:01

opinion in this country. We saw

3:03

a recent report that came out just on

3:05

TikTok, for example, where

3:08

they were forty five to one stories

3:10

that were pro Palastinian pro Hamas

3:12

over Israel. That's one

3:15

example of how they've really been able to shape

3:17

public opinion, especially with young people and the

3:19

riots and the chaos we're witnessing

3:21

on college campuses right now. But there's

3:23

also something else that's happened with big tech.

3:26

I've been a victim of it. I spoke out again

3:28

against big tech a few years ago at

3:31

a SEAPAC convention, and before

3:33

I landed home. After I spoke

3:35

out about big tech, specifically Facebook,

3:38

my accounts were shut down they

3:40

have never worked the same

3:42

way as they did before the

3:45

reach has disappeared. I've witnessed

3:47

it, and many other conservative

3:50

leaders out there are going through the same things.

3:52

And it always seems to happen center right

3:55

during a big election cycle,

3:58

where the Democrats get a free flow

4:00

of information out and conservatives

4:02

get hammered and silenced.

4:04

Well, that's exactly right. So I started last

4:07

year as the ranking member on the Senate Committee

4:09

of Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and

4:12

from that position as the ranking member, which

4:14

means the senior Republican on that committee, I launched

4:16

an investigation into the abuse of power

4:18

from big tech, and this past week

4:20

we put out a major report. The report is entitled

4:23

Weaponizing Terms of Service. How

4:25

online service providers use broad

4:27

policies to silence conservatives. Now,

4:30

there are a lot of instances that we know

4:32

about that get a lot of publicity. We know,

4:34

for example, that Twitter, before

4:37

Elon Musk purchased them, suspended

4:39

the account of the Babylon be for

4:42

making a joke about a Biden administration official.

4:45

We know that both Facebook and Twitter suppressed

4:48

stories about Hudter Biden's laptop before

4:50

the twenty twenty election. We

4:52

know that Facebook removed posts

4:55

suggesting that COVID nineteen originated

4:57

in a Wuhan lab we

5:00

talked about at length on this podcast,

5:03

and a theory that has now been confirmed

5:05

both by the Federal Department of Energy and the Federal

5:07

Bureau of Investigation. We

5:09

know that YouTube took

5:12

down a March twenty twenty one video

5:14

of a panel discussion with Florida Governor Ron

5:16

de Santis, during which

5:18

he disputed claims that children needed

5:20

to wear face masks. We know

5:23

that YouTube, also, which is owned by

5:25

Google, blocked access

5:27

to a November twenty twenty three episode

5:29

of this podcast Verdict, because

5:32

we were criticizing the corporate media's

5:34

favorable coverage of hamas, and YouTube

5:37

deemed okay, you must be an adult

5:40

to see what is on the network news.

5:43

We also know in twenty twenty two, DirectTV

5:45

dropped one America news network, and

5:48

less than a year after Democrat leaders

5:50

in Congress sent a letter to the CEO calling

5:53

on them to stop carrying the network. We also

5:55

know they did the same thing to Newsmax. Now

5:57

I lit Direct TV up and they ended

5:59

up bringing Newsmax back. We

6:02

also know that Into it at

6:04

the direction of its banking partners, refuse

6:07

to provide payment processing and payroll

6:09

services to gun manufacturers

6:12

and sellers. And we know

6:15

that JP Morgan Chase closed

6:17

the account of the National Committee of Religious

6:20

Freedom, which was created by

6:22

former State Department Ambassador at Large

6:24

for International Religious Freedom and former US

6:26

Senator Sam Brownback. We know

6:29

that gofund me block the

6:31

release of ten million dollars

6:33

of donations to the Canadian Trucker's

6:35

Freedom Convoy. We've

6:37

seen that happen over and over

6:39

and over again. Well, what

6:42

this report does is it lays out an entirely

6:45

new area of discrimination,

6:47

and it is using web based

6:50

products and services online service

6:52

providers to ban conservative

6:54

organizations from using their technology,

6:57

and it's going after the infrastructure

7:00

that is needed to communicate. And in

7:03

fact, this investigation reveals

7:05

that online service providers are

7:07

following a playbook for

7:10

silencing conservatives that leftist

7:12

organizations, including the Southern

7:14

Poverty Law Center, which is wildly left

7:17

wing and hates conservatives, and the

7:19

Anti Defamation League the ADL, they

7:22

together put together this strategy, this

7:24

playbook to quote remove infrastructure

7:26

services that conservative organizations

7:29

need to operate. And so I'm going to describe

7:32

that playbook and what they're doing in

7:34

particular.

7:35

When you look at their playbook and this

7:38

amount of influence, I mean, this can change

7:41

and alter certainly an election cycle.

7:43

It can certainly, I would argue, change a presidential

7:47

election as well. And

7:49

that's the reason why they're doing

7:52

this. When you think about, you

7:54

know, you've got millions of people that follow you

7:56

Facebook. I've got you know, over a million.

7:59

But if you turn off and throttle

8:02

either one of us, then the reach

8:04

that we have compared to the left, it

8:07

just disappears. It's the old saying,

8:09

right if a big tree falls in the forest and no

8:11

one's around and it make a sound, And

8:14

that's exactly what they did. But it wasn't just

8:16

to one or two people. They

8:18

were doing this to hundreds of top

8:20

conservative voices that

8:23

people look to for their

8:25

opinions, specifically

8:28

when it comes to election your issues.

8:30

So that's exactly right. And what this report

8:33

focuses on is it uses a couple of key examples.

8:35

It uses number one slacks removal

8:38

of libs of TikTok's workspace.

8:40

It focuses on event rights removal

8:43

of event pages for events related to

8:45

Matt Walsh's What Is a Woman documentary,

8:48

as well as an event where Riley Gaines was

8:50

scheduled to speak, and it focuses

8:52

on Bontera's termination of its relationship

8:55

with Independent Women's Forum, which

8:57

deprived that organization of major

9:00

nonprofit technology service provider

9:02

services and all of this

9:04

follows. There was a report that was put

9:06

out by the Anti Defamation

9:08

League and it is called Bad

9:10

Gateway How deplatforming

9:13

effects extremist websites And

9:16

here's what the ADL recommended. It

9:19

says, quote deplatforming

9:21

websites removing infrastructure services

9:23

they need to operate, such as website

9:25

hosting, can reduce the spread

9:27

and reach of extremism and hate online.

9:30

But when does deplatforming succeed?

9:32

And here's what ADL explained quote.

9:35

This report shows that deplatforming can decrease

9:37

the popularity of extremist websites, especially

9:40

when done without warning

9:43

and they go through We

9:45

learned four important lessons about how

9:47

deplatforming affects extremist websites,

9:50

by which they mean anything right of center. Number

9:52

one, it can cause popularity

9:55

rankings to decrease immediately.

9:58

Number two, it may take

10:01

users a long time to return to the

10:03

website. Sometimes the

10:05

website never regains

10:07

its previous popularity.

10:09

Bingo.

10:10

Number three unexpected

10:12

and unexpected as key. Unexpected deplatforming

10:15

makes it take longer for

10:17

the website to regain its previous

10:19

popularity levels. And number

10:21

four Replicating deplatform services

10:24

such as discussions, discussion forums

10:27

or live streaming video products

10:29

on a standalone website presents

10:31

significant challenges, including

10:34

higher costs and smaller

10:36

audiences. Now I

10:38

want to go into a little bit more. This is what the

10:40

ADL report. It has an entire section

10:42

that says what is deplatforming?

10:45

And by the way, the corporate media insists

10:47

when we talk about deplatforming that we're making

10:49

it up. Well, if you actually

10:51

read the blueprint, they

10:53

are very explicit. The left is explicit.

10:56

They want to silence use. So let me read from

10:58

this ADL report quote.

11:00

There are three main categories of infrastructure

11:04

that keep websites running. Domain

11:07

registrars, web hosting

11:09

companies, and security protection

11:11

companies. Number one, the

11:14

website must be able to register and keep

11:16

a domain name. A domain name such

11:18

as Google dot com or ADL dot org

11:21

is how visitors find a site.

11:23

If a website is removed from domain

11:25

name services, it becomes

11:28

much more difficult, if not impossible, to find

11:31

Number two Web hosting

11:33

companies and content distribution networks

11:36

provide digital storage space for

11:38

all the files, pictures, videos,

11:40

and software that make up the content

11:42

of a website. When a website

11:45

loses its hosting provider, the site's

11:47

content disappears. Losing

11:50

a CDN a content distribution network

11:53

can cause slow service for high traffic

11:56

sites. And number three, a

11:58

third category of infrastructure includes

12:00

companies that protect websites from

12:03

external security risks such

12:05

as distributed denial of service d DOS

12:08

attacks. DDoS attacks

12:10

flood a website with fake

12:12

traffic to overwhelm it, rendering

12:15

it unable to answer normal

12:17

user requests. If an infrastructure company,

12:20

such as a network security firm cloud

12:22

fare, refuses to provide

12:25

DDoS protection to a vulnerable website,

12:28

it is vulnerable to being flooded with

12:30

traffic, rendering it inaccessible.

12:34

So you look at this what

12:37

we found out and what you just went through.

12:39

The question is how

12:42

is it that these companies, and

12:44

I'm specifically referring to big tech are

12:46

allowed to get away with this and

12:49

do this to many people that

12:52

they're in business with. I use myself

12:55

as the example again because I've

12:57

experienced this. When you went into

12:59

business and I felt like I was in business with Facebook.

13:01

They said, advertise with us, right, share,

13:04

advertise your show, advertise

13:06

your content, boost your content, spend

13:08

money with us, and we're going to help you grow an

13:11

audience and it'll be good for everyone.

13:13

And then all of a sudden they just shut you down and

13:16

they were able to walk away and just say, oh, well,

13:18

you violated our terms of service,

13:20

or you did this, or you posted too

13:22

many things that liberals posted as

13:25

saying they were factually incorrect. The fact checkers

13:28

came out right the liberals on the left. They

13:30

were fact checking and putting things against

13:32

conservatives. So they lose their reach, lose their ability

13:34

to boose posts, lose their ability to advertise.

13:37

And it was all being done to clearly

13:40

influence public opinion, and

13:42

yet they've gotten away with it. So what's next.

13:45

Well, with this report focuses

13:47

on many of the deep platforming steps

13:50

by Facebook or Twitter or YouTube,

13:53

they're very public. What this report

13:55

focuses on as the ones that are not public,

13:57

which is the back office infrastructure.

14:00

Let's take for example, Slack, which

14:02

is used for communication for many

14:04

online organizations

14:06

and companies. Slack canceled

14:09

libs of TikTok's workspace for

14:11

violating its terms of service and the

14:13

terms of service for prohibit users from quote

14:16

engaging activity that incites or encourages

14:19

violence or hatred towards

14:21

it against individuals or groups. Slack

14:24

determined that Libs of

14:26

TikTok violated this policy based

14:28

on three social media posts concerning

14:30

quote gender affirming, hysterectomies,

14:33

and all age drag shows. Now

14:36

here's the interesting thing. Slack shut down

14:38

Libs of TikTok's worksplace without any

14:40

warning, without any explanation

14:43

as to how it is violated slacks policy,

14:45

and Slack's action caused Libs of

14:48

TikTok to effectively lose its

14:50

use of Slax communications and forced

14:53

it to rely entirely on cell phones

14:55

to run its business. Now, listen

14:57

to this quote, which is fascinating, Slack

15:00

told the Commerce Committee told my investigation

15:03

quote. What makes

15:05

Libs of TikTok's posts problematic

15:08

is that Libs of TikTok has a specific

15:10

audience, and they are taking

15:12

this information and posting it to that specific

15:15

audience so that everyone in that

15:17

audience sees it at the same time. In other words,

15:20

they didn't even find objections with what Libs

15:22

of TikTok was posting. What they were mad

15:24

at is conservatives were

15:26

reading it and that was enough reason

15:29

to deplatform libs TikTok.

15:31

So when you shut down a business in

15:33

essence the way they did, is there any

15:35

real an instant relief

15:39

for libs of TikTok or others

15:41

or is this one of those they're too big to fail?

15:43

Right? These companies are too big, they're protected

15:46

and you're the menion and just

15:49

deal with it. And if you're in, who cares

15:51

if your life work is destroyed in thirty seconds

15:53

because they shut it off.

15:55

So right now there is not immediate

15:57

relief. You could presumably file a breach of contract

16:00

case. The biggest relief and the reason

16:02

I did this report is just sunshine. They're doing

16:04

this in the dark, They're doing this without scrutiny.

16:07

There is right now no federal

16:09

law that this is prohibited. I'll give you another example. Event

16:12

Bright, which we focus is on. Event

16:14

Bright canceled pages for events

16:16

hosted by college Republican clubs concerning

16:19

Matt Walsh's What Is a Woman? Film?

16:22

And it also canceled pages for

16:24

an event featuring swimmer

16:26

Riley Gaines for violating

16:28

its terms of service. Now critically,

16:32

no one involved in the decision. This

16:34

is what they told. The committee watched

16:37

the movie What Is a Woman, so they never

16:39

saw it, and they

16:41

couldn't identify anything objectionable

16:43

in the trailer, So they just didn't like the topic,

16:46

so they decided to take it down. They

16:49

relied instead on Matt Walsh's statements

16:51

about quote gender affirming surgeries,

16:53

pronouns, and is Johnny

16:55

the Walris Children's book to reach the conclusion.

16:57

Likewise, event Bright de

17:00

that Riley gains His event violated its policy

17:03

based on her social media post about

17:05

biological men competing women's sports.

17:08

They shut down the event page without

17:10

any warning, without any explanation

17:13

as to how they violated this policy, without

17:15

any way to fix it, and their

17:18

actions ruined advertisements

17:20

that included QR coach for the event

17:22

pages. So you know, a lot had been done to put

17:24

out the codes to say hey, come to this event, and

17:27

they forced the event organizers to quickly

17:29

pivot to a new method of providing tickets.

17:32

And the committee asked event

17:34

Bright whether Gaines's

17:37

statements. On October tenth, twenty twenty

17:39

three, she posted on Twitter quote

17:42

real women lack a

17:45

y chromosome, and

17:47

we asked whether that violates event

17:49

Bright's policy. Event

17:51

Bright responded that quote the post

17:54

speaks for itself, so they needn't

17:57

answer that. How dare you say

18:00

that someone with a Y chromosome is not a woman.

18:02

We don't even need to dispute it. We

18:05

have the power to shut it down.

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So now moving forward, you

20:14

shine light on this and you

20:16

talk about this is really being

20:18

done in darkness and we need to we

20:21

need to shine light on it. Was

20:23

there any nervousness

20:25

from those that you're questioning? I

20:29

want to use the word remorse, but I can't imagine

20:31

they're remorseful. But is it going

20:33

to at least make them pause before

20:36

they do it again?

20:37

Or I'll ask you, Ben, have you seen this on CNN?

20:39

No?

20:40

Have you seen it on an ABC, NBCCBSMSNBC

20:43

nowhere? Have you read it? You

20:46

read it in the New York Times?

20:47

No?

20:47

No, the corporate media will not cover. I'll

20:49

give another example. So Bonterra,

20:52

which provides nonprofit management

20:54

services, so it's back office, but it's incredibly

20:56

important and there are very few

20:59

providers of this. They

21:01

denied those services to Independent Women's

21:03

Forum, which is a conservative organization that

21:06

is focused on advancing women's rights, and

21:09

Bontera concluded that it violated

21:11

its policies, which require customers

21:14

to agree to refrain from advocacy denying

21:17

quote LGBTQ rights or

21:20

denying a woman's right to reproductive

21:22

choice. Or denying racial justice

21:24

or denying climate change, and

21:27

their policies also prohibit customers from

21:29

quote promoting, encouraging, or facilitating

21:32

hate speech, violence, discrimination based

21:34

on race, color, sexual orientation, marital

21:36

status, gender, or identity expression.

21:39

Bonterra notified Independent Women's Form

21:41

of its decision not to renew their contract without

21:44

any explanation of how the organization

21:46

violated this policy. As a

21:48

result, Independent Women's Forum had to quickly

21:51

move off Bonterra's platform and obtain a replacement

21:53

services provider. Bontera

21:56

told the committee that Independent

21:58

Women's Forum violated its true terms of service

22:00

because the organization quote works

22:03

to restrict the rights of the LGBTQ

22:05

community. Bontera could

22:07

not explain exactly how the

22:10

group was working to restrict LGBTQ

22:12

rights, but generally

22:14

pointed to Independent women forums

22:17

advocacy on issues like protecting

22:19

women's sports and women's

22:22

spaces. So, if you actually think that girls

22:24

should compete in girls sports, that

22:27

is of view that is not acceptable,

22:29

and you will be denied online

22:32

basic infrastructure from monopoly

22:34

and near monopoly providers.

22:37

The amount of arrogance that we see

22:39

now from these companies, you've witnessed

22:41

it now firsthand. Tells you

22:43

they feel like they are protected by the current

22:45

regime. Am I wrong?

22:47

You are exactly right. And

22:51

if you look at at event Bright

22:54

for example, let's go back to Riley Gains. So

22:57

Riley Gains, they shut her down because they

22:59

disagree read about

23:02

not her event, but about some posts

23:04

that she had put out.

23:07

What they did not object

23:09

to was an event that we

23:12

identified entitled Gaza

23:14

and the Struggle for Palestine.

23:17

Now, that event was flagged

23:19

by event writes algorithm, and

23:21

it was reviewed by its trust and safety team,

23:24

but it determined that that event did

23:26

not violate its hateful Events

23:28

policy in

23:30

an October ninth, twenty twenty

23:32

three statements. So two days off after October

23:35

seventh, here's what the event sponsored

23:37

the Palestinian American organization Networks

23:40

said. It called the October seventh attack

23:42

quote self defense

23:44

measures and said that quote

23:46

Israel bears the full responsibility

23:48

for those attacks, and declared

23:51

that quote the Palestinian people have the right to

23:53

defend themselves and to fight the occupation with

23:55

all means available. We salute

23:58

the steadfastness of the Palaceian

24:00

people in its resistance. So understand

24:04

saluting the mass murder of twelve

24:06

hundred people. The raping of women and girls,

24:09

that does not violate their hateful

24:12

speech policy, But saying

24:15

that girls exist that

24:18

does. Saying that men

24:21

should not compete against women and women's

24:23

sports that does. That

24:25

is the utter hypocrisy

24:27

and double standards that allows.

24:30

By the way, event Bright

24:32

has also allowed numerous quote

24:35

stop Cop City events

24:37

which support violent protesters

24:40

who oppose the building of a police

24:43

and firefighter training facility.

24:46

Likewise, event Bright created

24:49

a map of Black

24:51

Lives Matter protests, many of which

24:53

turn violent, to help users

24:55

find them. So, in other words, actual

24:58

events that produce violence, that end up killing

25:00

people, that burn shops,

25:02

that firebomb cars, those

25:05

are not deemed hateful and violent. But if

25:08

you say that women exists, you

25:10

must be deplatformed.

25:13

We talked about the media giving them cover.

25:15

I expect some in the media to be liberal

25:18

hacks, right, but this brings

25:20

up a big issue that we need to talk about

25:22

with NPR. The new CEO

25:25

of NPR is someone that

25:28

is paid by US taxpayers

25:30

and someone who has described the First Amendment

25:33

as the number one challenge

25:37

she faces. Our tax

25:39

dollars are going to a CEO who's running

25:41

INPR National Public Radio saying

25:44

the First Amendment really seems to get in her

25:47

way. Really, that's where money

25:49

is going. Well.

25:50

Unfortunately, NPR has been profoundly

25:53

corrupted, and it's been made worse by

25:55

hiring a CEO who is a brazen,

25:58

blatant, unapology jic,

26:00

radical leftist, and she doesn't pretend

26:03

to be unbiased at all. Now, we

26:05

discussed in a previous podcast couple of weeks

26:08

ago the Bombshell

26:10

Report from Uri Berliner. Uri

26:12

Berliner was a twenty five year NPR

26:15

employee and was the former business

26:18

editor of NPR, and he wrote

26:20

an April ninth essay in The Free Press, which

26:23

resulted in NPR suspending

26:25

him for publishing how's that for free speech? If

26:27

you criticize us, you're out of here

26:30

and you're all fine, and ultimately led

26:32

to his resignation. So he's gone. This essay

26:35

cost him his job, but he

26:37

laid out the incredible bias

26:40

at NPR and the shift at NPR. So,

26:42

for example, he laid out in twenty

26:44

eleven, which was not that long ago, NPR's

26:47

audience was twenty six percent

26:49

conservative, twenty three percent

26:52

middle of the road, and thirty seven percent liberal,

26:54

so it leaned left. But not dramatically, so

26:57

by twenty twenty three those numbers that shifteddically.

27:01

It was now, instead of thirty seven percent

27:03

liberal, it was sixty seven

27:05

percent liberal, and instead of twenty

27:08

six percent conservative, it was only eleven

27:11

percent conservative. And mister

27:13

Berliner laid out details of how

27:16

they would stifle stories

27:18

that were inconvenient to liberals. They would amplify

27:20

stories like the Russia collusion story,

27:23

even if they were not supported by

27:25

the facts. He outlined

27:27

at great length how NPR

27:31

had no interest in

27:33

being impartial, being unbiased.

27:36

And then you take in the

27:38

wake of this and the wake of what should

27:40

be real concern of Hey, we're

27:42

national public radio. We're supposed to be

27:46

nonpartisan. We're supposed to be down the middle.

27:48

Now, look, I for one have serious

27:51

doubts why the taxpayer should fund

27:53

any radio station. I think there are plenty of for

27:55

profit radio stations. I don't know why

27:57

the government should coursively tax you

28:00

to pay for yet another radio station. But I'll

28:02

tell you what. Even if there's an argument

28:04

they should do so for generic news

28:07

that somehow there's not a market demand for,

28:10

there is no argument I know of that they should

28:12

do so only for left wing propaganda

28:15

and the newly appointed CEO Catherine

28:17

Marr has been

28:19

a hard partisan her whole life. So, for example,

28:23

in twenty twenty, Mar

28:25

referred to President Donald

28:27

Trump as a quote deranged

28:31

racist sociopath.

28:33

Well, then I'm confident her coverage

28:36

of Donald Trump will be fair as

28:38

long as she introduces him as a deranged, racist

28:40

sociopath every time he's covered.

28:42

How do you even get that job? And I'm being serious,

28:45

if you're National Public radio, how

28:48

does that automatically disqualify

28:50

you from that position as soon as

28:52

they see that quote?

28:54

Yeah, and by the way, that's not an outlier.

28:56

In twenty twenty one, she celebrated

28:59

trump banishment from social media,

29:01

referring to him as a fascist. So she loves

29:04

censorship, Okay, the former

29:06

president of the United States elected by the American

29:09

people. I'm thrilled that he's

29:11

being silenced because I dislike his politics

29:13

and I think he's a fascist. In May

29:15

of twenty twenty, right in the middle

29:17

of the George Floyd riots, Mar

29:20

suggested that looting

29:23

represented a form of reparative

29:26

justice for historic

29:28

wrongs, and she remarked how

29:31

white silence is

29:33

tantamount to complicity and violence.

29:36

She's also posted repeatedly in

29:39

support of Democrat politicians

29:41

including Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth

29:44

Warren, Kamala Harris,

29:47

and Joe Biden. Now

29:49

listen, as a private citizen, she

29:51

has a right to be an angry left wing radical

29:54

and a hard Democrat partisan.

29:57

But explain to me why on

29:59

earth the American taxpayers should

30:02

fund her partisan propaganda.

30:04

Yeah, and yet that's exactly why she probably

30:06

got the job, because they're like, oh, perfect, You're going

30:08

to keep pushing this propaganda out there

30:10

full speed ahead. I want to ask all

30:12

of you listening right now to do me a favor real quick.

30:15

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31:55

verdict. Senator, if you are at

31:57

NPR, can you imagine if you are

31:59

left the lefty how much freedom

32:02

I think it would make you feel like you had

32:04

to then go out there and continue to push propaganda

32:07

on the American people. If this is your CEO,

32:09

I mean it's a license to basically

32:12

go all in on liberal

32:14

propaganda at the taxpayer's

32:17

expense.

32:19

Now, that is exactly right. And

32:22

I've got to say listen. As you know,

32:24

I'm the ranking member on the Senate Committee

32:26

of Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and

32:29

part of my responsibility in that role,

32:31

we've got jurisdiction over about forty percent

32:33

of the US economy, and part

32:36

of my responsibility is oversighted.

32:38

I can tell you that I am actively

32:40

engaging in oversight right now, calling

32:43

on NPR to explain, to explain why

32:46

they're willing to put in place a hard

32:48

left wing activist, not a

32:50

neutral journalist, but someone who is

32:54

biased, who is who

32:57

is an active supporter of sensorship,

33:00

to violence, to silence

33:02

the views she disagrees with. Why

33:05

NPR believes that that is

33:08

an appropriate leader for their institution.

33:11

Yeah, that's a really great point.

33:13

And listen, don't necessarily take our words

33:15

for it. I want you to listen to Catherine

33:18

Maher in her own words, because it's going to show

33:20

just how radical she is. And I want to play a couple

33:22

of clips. Let's start with her explaining

33:24

that, in her view, the number one challenge that

33:27

she faces is the First Amendment of the Constitution.

33:30

Let's play that clip.

33:31

The number one challenge here that we see

33:34

is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States

33:37

is a fairly robust protection

33:41

of rights, and that is a protection

33:43

of rights both for platforms, which I actually think is very important

33:45

that platforms have those rights to be able to regulate

33:48

what kind of content they want on their sites,

33:50

but it also means that it is a little bit tricky

33:53

to really address some of the real

33:56

challenges of where does bad

33:58

information come from and sort of the influence

34:00

peddlers who have made a real market economy around

34:02

it.

34:03

I mean, it's amazing center. This is the woman

34:05

running MPR, and I guess this is almost like

34:07

the best thing you can put on your resume, right, You're like, hey,

34:09

I think the First Amendment's a real problem. It's like perfect,

34:12

We'd love to hire you at MPR.

34:13

Yeah, And she actually says, well, the

34:16

First Amendment is really important for platforms,

34:18

but then what she describes as their First Amendment right

34:21

is for their ability to censor and silence

34:23

things they disagree with. So to her mind,

34:26

what she cares about is the ability if

34:28

there's a view that is right a center.

34:31

As far as she's concerned, the First Amendment is all

34:33

about silencing those views. There can be

34:35

no dissent, all right. I want you to listen

34:37

to another clip. This is a Ted talk where

34:40

she's discussing truth when she was at Wikipedia,

34:43

and somehow she has a different view

34:45

of truth than I think you and I might have. Give a

34:47

listen.

34:48

But the hard things, the places where

34:50

we are prone to disagreement, say politics

34:53

and religion, Well, as it

34:55

turns out, not only does Wikipedia's

34:57

model work there, it actually works

35:00

really well because in our normal

35:02

lives, these contentious conversations

35:05

tend to rrupt or disagreement

35:07

about what the truth actually

35:09

is. But the people who write these

35:11

articles, they're not focused

35:14

on the truth. They're focused on something

35:16

else, which is the best of what

35:18

we can know right now.

35:21

And after seven years of working

35:24

with these brilliant folks, I've

35:26

come to believe that they are onto something

35:29

that perhaps, for our most

35:31

tricky disagreements, seeking

35:33

the truth and seeking

35:35

to convince others of the truth might

35:38

not be the right place to start.

35:41

In fact, our reverence

35:43

for the truth might be a

35:45

distraction that's getting in

35:48

the way of finding common

35:50

ground and getting things done.

35:53

Now, that is

35:55

not to say that the truth doesn't

35:57

exist nor is it to say

35:59

that the truth is and important. Clearly,

36:02

the search for the truth has led us

36:04

to do great things,

36:06

to learn great things. But

36:11

I think if I were to really ask you to

36:13

think about this, one

36:15

of the things that we could all acknowledge is

36:17

that part of the reason we have such glorious

36:20

chronicles to the human experience

36:22

in all forms of culture is

36:24

because we acknowledge there are many different

36:27

truths. And so in

36:29

the spirit of that, I'm certain

36:31

that the truth exists for you and

36:34

probably for the person sitting next to you, But

36:37

this may not be the same truth. This

36:40

is because the truth of the matter

36:42

is very often for many people.

36:45

What happens when we merge facts about

36:47

the world with our beliefs about the

36:50

world. So we all have different

36:52

truths. They're based on things like where

36:54

we come from, how we were raised,

36:57

and how other people perceive us.

37:00

What utter garbage?

37:02

Like every word of that. You want an indictment

37:05

of the modern left. You want an indictment of the idiocy

37:07

of media. You want an indictment of the academic

37:10

world. You want an indictment of big tech. Good

37:12

God, what utter garbage? Truth doesn't

37:14

exist? George or Well is

37:17

spinning in his grave and laughing at the same

37:19

time. Two plus two doesn't equal four, it equals

37:21

five because we say it is there is no

37:23

truth. Listen to that quote. Our reverence

37:25

for the truth might be a distraction that's

37:28

getting in the way of finding common ground and

37:30

getting things done. But don't worry. This is

37:32

only for things that don't matter, the contentious

37:34

issues. What does she identify politics

37:36

and religion? When it comes to politics and religion,

37:39

look, Jesus Christ said, I am the way the truth

37:41

in the life. But no, no, no, no, no, no no, don't

37:43

have reverence for truth. We're not interested in that.

37:46

We are interested in set aside

37:48

of truth. That can be your truth, my truth. Everyone

37:51

has a truth. Maybe for you, two plus

37:53

two is five? What

37:55

utter garbage?

37:57

You know what?

37:57

A journalist is supposed to be interested in the truth.

38:00

Do you have perfect truth?

38:01

No?

38:01

Do you have perfect knowledge? No? But you should

38:03

get damn close to it. You should be trying

38:06

to get to the truth. Remember what journalists

38:08

used to learn? Who? What, when?

38:09

Where? How?

38:09

Why?

38:10

Like?

38:10

What happened? What are the facts? Well? No, no, no,

38:12

not according to her. According to

38:14

to her, there are no facts. There is no truth.

38:16

It's your truth, it's my truth, and my truth

38:19

from Catherine Marr's perspective is

38:21

as a left wing partisan, whatever

38:23

the orthodoxy is, and we will silence

38:26

views that disagree. And

38:28

the First Amendment is a pesky, pesky

38:31

barrier. All right, I want to play one more clip. Yeah,

38:34

one more clip where she's

38:36

describing what she did at Wikipedia.

38:39

Listen to this third clip.

38:40

I started by talking about the idea of free

38:43

and open as some of our founding

38:45

principles sort of free and open source coming

38:47

from me to the open source community.

38:49

Well, I have come to the opinion

38:52

and the perspective that free and open was

38:54

a way of looking at the world that was

38:57

inherently limited relative to what we were

38:59

trying to achieve. Free and open has the best

39:01

of intentionality, but in the end,

39:03

what free and open often ended up doing, and particularly

39:06

in the case of Wikipedia, was really recapitulating

39:09

many of the same power structures and dynamics

39:11

that exist offline prior to the

39:13

advent of the Internet. And so what we ended

39:16

up seeing was Wikipedia really rebuilt

39:18

this idea of knowledge as a whole around

39:21

what the Western canon. You see the

39:23

exclusion of communities of

39:26

languages because of the ways in which

39:28

Wikipedia is based on reliable

39:30

sources. The idea of a written tradition is

39:33

something that is particular to many

39:36

I mean not sorry, the idea of a written tradition

39:38

which is particular to some cultures and not to others.

39:41

The ways in which we I ascribe

39:43

notability often really comes

39:45

from sort of this white male, westernized

39:49

construct around who matters in societies

39:51

and who is elevated in whose voices, and

39:54

so some of these ideas of sort

39:56

of this radical openness really did

39:58

not end up with the intention I really

40:00

did not end up living into the intentionality

40:02

of what openness can be.

40:05

I mean, that just is brilliant right

40:07

there, God bless so.

40:10

Look she's explaining at Wikipedia,

40:13

they deliberately abandon a quote

40:15

free and open approach. By the way she's telling you

40:17

what she's gonna do at NPR. NPR

40:19

is not going to be free and open, according to

40:21

her, because she doesn't believe in free and open.

40:23

Why because free and open

40:26

number one, she says, Well,

40:28

that advantages cultures

40:30

that believe in the written word. Because

40:33

you know what good has book learning

40:35

ever done anyone? Well, heck, you're

40:38

forgetting those cultures that don't believe in

40:40

that fancy learning stuff like what

40:42

utter garbage. I'm sorry, I thought

40:45

actually a journalistic

40:47

outfit should actually reflect

40:50

celebrate the best of

40:53

education, of learning, of what we know.

40:55

But she says, no, no, no, no. If

40:58

it's actually free and open, will recapitulate

41:03

a white male, westernized, westernized

41:05

construct. Let me ask you something, Ben, what the hell

41:07

does that mean? Seriously? Those

41:09

are the words Marxist use, and typically

41:13

the more syllables they use when

41:15

they get polysyllabic, the

41:17

less they're making any sense. So explain

41:20

to me the phrase recapitulate

41:23

a white male, westernized construct

41:26

that does not end up living into the

41:28

intentionality of what openness can

41:30

mean. Those words have

41:33

no content other than

41:35

I want the power to silence things I don't

41:37

like. Am I wrong?

41:38

No, you're right. And my question goes back

41:40

to this for you. It used

41:42

to be at MPR and others they would

41:45

at least fake it like their bias. Now

41:47

it's just flat out open and they're

41:49

doing it with our tax tours. Is there ever

41:52

going to be a day of reckoning where MPR

41:54

finds out, hey, good luck,

41:57

do your own thing, because we're not going to

41:59

pay for this proper again anymore.

42:01

Look, if NPR cares at all about journalistic

42:03

integrity, if they care at all about

42:05

continuing to receive taxpayer funds, they should

42:08

terminate Catherine Marr immediately. Her

42:10

job should be done. They should not have a rabid

42:12

left wing partisan who hates the First

42:14

Amendment, who've used it as an inconvenience, who wants

42:17

to censor conservatives, who is actively

42:19

explicitly and unabashedly opposed

42:22

to free and open communication, who doesn't believe

42:24

in truth, who believes truth is an impediment

42:26

to what she's doing. That is not a journalist

42:28

in any way. She ought to go and join Emily's

42:31

list, she ought to go and join the DNC. She gotta

42:33

go run for Congress and become a henchman

42:35

to Nancy Pelosi. She should

42:37

not actually be running a news organization,

42:40

especially not a news organization funded

42:42

by the taxpayers. And if we have to

42:45

be honest, if you had a

42:47

Democrat who had a shred of integrity,

42:50

they would say, of course, this is not appropriate

42:52

for her to run NPR. The chances of

42:54

that happening are zero, But I can tell

42:56

you I'm going to be pushing for accountability and I'm

42:58

going to be pushing for oversight of it because

43:01

it is brazenly shameless

43:03

for them to put someone so wildly

43:06

unqualified in that position.

43:08

Don't forget. We do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday,

43:11

and a week in review on Saturdays.

43:13

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43:15

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43:28

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43:30

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43:33

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