Conservative caller defends Newsmax against being"canceled" from Direct TV
Conservative caller defends Newsmax against being"canceled" from Direct TV
Andrea from California says that the "overwhelming amount" of "suppression" by Twitter and Facebook is of conservatives.
Appears in this episode
The Signorile Report is reader-supported. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!
In a discussion on my SiriusXM program about Direct TV and AT&T deciding they no longer wanted to broadcast Newsmax on their cable and satellite platforms — largely because it’s not profitable, but also, it’s a disseminator of misinformation, hate and lies — Andrea from California called in.
It was unclear what her point was on Newsmax. She managed to veer the conversation to Twitter and Facebook — and the bogus “Twitter Files.” Yes, in which we learned that Twitter decided to listen to the Biden campaign’s urgings not to allow revenge porn — dick pics — from Hunter Biden’s laptop.
It always comes back to Hunter Biden’s laptop, of course. Not only did it completely escape Andrea that this is not government censorship — Twitter is a private company and can listen to the urgings of anyone, and the Biden campaign wasn’t the “government” but rather a campaign — she seemed to think the FBI was involved. But in fact, the FBI had no involvement whatsoever in telling Twitter what to do — just another right-wing conspiracy. And the Trump campaign — and administration — also urged Twitter not to allow certain topics on its platform.
(By the way, if you listen carefully , when I asked Andrea, “Did you want to see Hunter Biden’s dick pics?” she actually answered, “Maybe.” )
It’s hard to argue with people when they have a different set of facts. More so, I rarely let people change the subject to their own topic — and it was bad enough that she did that — but then she was trying to direct the show with questions to me about Facebook.
As she engaged in this claim that people were “canceled,” I explained that many people on the left have been booted from Twitter and Facebook for doing nothing but criticizing Trump — and, as wrong as that might be, the companies are private entities that can do what they want.
Andrea claimed that it is conservatives who are “overwhelmingly” suppressed, which is not only ridiculous when we look at all of the stories of people on the left booted off the platforms; it doesn’t acknowledge that many “right-wing” users are white supremacist, and neo-Nazi trolls, and thus of course they should be banned and shouldn’t be seen as people on the right innocently booted.
Anyway, I probably got way too snappy and angry with her, and maybe this was one of those cases where I should have pulled back. One could argue she was trying to calmly engage, even if veering off, and I was shutting her down. I was frustrated at her changing the subject and having a false set of facts — and just won’t let conservatives commander the discussion to their liking.
But I’ll let you be the judge. Listen in and let me know your thoughts!
( There’s about 40 seconds of me setting up the topic first before going to the call).
Conservative caller defends Newsmax against being"canceled" from Direct TV
Its easy for someone who doesn't deal with Trumplings daily to criticize the way you handled the lady. Hell, EVERY SINGLE TIME I've myself attempted to have a conversation with Trumplings I had to shut it down. I've NEVER met folk as obtuse, obstinate, mulish, recalcitrant, resistant, immune to ideas other than theirs, inflexible, mendacious, pettyfogging, disagreeable, temperamental, adversarial, irritable, irritating, quick to anger, uncivil, ungracious and unable to change their minds as Trumplings. Even the religiou$ fanatics I've had the misfortune to talk with were easier to deal with than the average Trumpling I've talked with.
That said, this lady was the "best behaved" & most "polite" (amazing) Trumpling I've ever heard. Someone who miraculously hasn't ever spoken to a Trumpling may say perhaps Michelangelo was a bit too short patienced dealing with her. I myself won't venture a 2nd guess. Michelangelo talks to Trumplings daily. The man is amazing. I wouldn't last 1hr doing his job & I bet 99.99% of normal people couldn't handle talking to Trumplings daily. Dealing constantly with Trumplings is a thankless task that would lead most doing the task to jump off a cliff or wish Trumplings to jump off a cliff.
Michelangelo, let me start out by saying I am an avid listener of your show, and my very Catholic almost 90 year old mother always asks me to tune into it whenever we are in the car. Did you get animated? Probably so. Should we all try to listen to each other even if we disagree? Absolutely. But what I see as the problem with this listener's approach is that she seemed to be trying to obfuscate. This is what the extreme right has learned to do so well. They use word salad, to lull us into accepting their hate speech. They also love to use straw man arguments to surreptitiously push their lies and hate and they need to be called on it.
I think Twitter has done much more harm than good to our public debate. But the bottom line, it is a private company and they can choose to run it any way they want to (within legal boundaries). And I and your listener have the right not to follow it. What she cannot ask us to do is condone abhorrent right wing behavior. No, I do not think revenge porn should be in the public sphere, and if she 'maybe' wants to see dick pix, she should just rent a porn and not expect that Twitter cater to her every fetish.