Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ SHOCKER： Government is the number one generator of fake news

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. A show for you today. We're going to talk about government-financed podcasts.

00:00:05.940 It's crazy how many millions of dollars the government is spending on propaganda podcasts.

00:00:09.860 We'll talk to our friend Franco Teresano about that. But first, I'm going to talk to you about

00:00:13.480 fake news and how it's being criminalized. At least fake news that the government thinks is

00:00:18.520 fake, but you and I may think it's the truth. Hey, can I invite you to become a subscriber

00:00:22.700 to Rebel News Plus, though? That's the video version of this podcast. And unlike the story

00:00:27.660 Franco Teresano is going to tell us, we don't get a million bucks a year from the government.

00:00:31.840 We don't get any money from the government. So we could use your help. Subscribe to Rebel

00:00:36.540 News Plus. It's the video version of the show. It's eight bucks a month. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com.

00:00:41.400 And not only will you get the show, you'll have the satisfaction of helping Rebel News stay strong.

00:00:45.700 That's rebelnewsplus.com. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:57.660 Tonight, three stories that show us the number one generator of fake news is the government.

00:01:10.920 It's October 31st, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:13.980 You're fighting for freedom!

00:01:16.920 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:01:19.980 Fake news. I think it was Donald Trump who first used the word, or at least popularized

00:01:33.620 the word. He used it to describe the mainstream media that seemed to always twist his words.

00:01:38.400 But the establishment, of course, uses fake news to describe really anything contrary to

00:01:44.300 their official narrative. Basically, anyone who disagrees, your fake news.

00:01:48.440 What it does is it means you don't have to have a debate because the other side is

00:01:53.180 unjustified, immoral, false, has no value, has no moral value. You don't have to engage with it

00:02:01.500 because it's fake. If it was real, if it was a difference of opinion only, then you would

00:02:07.480 perhaps have to answer questions. By calling something fake, you're saying it's illegitimate

00:02:11.340 to its root. And of course, a lot of the fake news accusations follow up closely by

00:02:16.940 foreign interference. That's a fake news story funded by Russia or whoever they say it is.

00:02:23.680 So not only do you not have to answer to the fake news, but whoever has a different opinion

00:02:29.400 is now their loyalty is suspect. Fact checkers, that whole fake industry, is built on the government

00:02:36.620 definition of fake news, which is if someone disagrees with the official narrative, let's fact check them

00:02:41.820 and denounce them, not debate them or argue with them or concede they may have a point.

00:02:47.940 If you look at the fact checkers at places like YouTube, they're built in. If you criticize the

00:02:54.920 official narrative, you will have your content taken down and be demonetized. That's what happened

00:02:59.860 to Rebel News. Following hard on the fake news accusation and the fact checkers is the online harms

00:03:08.300 criminalization of news that's deemed fake. So first they say that's fake news. Then they fact

00:03:14.840 check it and try and denormalize it. But if that doesn't work, then they bring in the online and

00:03:19.000 harms criminalization. We've seen that very recently in Ireland. We see that in Canada right now in the

00:03:25.160 form of our Bill C-63, that not only will you be fined, but you could even be jailed. In Canada,

00:03:31.940 they're creating a standalone punishable by life imprisonment crime for promoting hatred.

00:03:39.920 You can see this in action, how powerful it is. In the last election, the 2020 federal presidential

00:03:46.520 election in the United States, there was a stunning revelation rooted in Hunter Biden's laptop,

00:03:52.540 Hunter Biden being the son of Joe Biden. It was a laptop full of crazy revelations about Hunter

00:03:59.920 Biden's use of prostitutes and drugs and money and credible allegations that Joe Biden himself

00:04:05.820 is compromised not only by Hunter Biden, but is on the take from foreign sources.

00:04:11.640 That Hunter Biden laptop story was considered so damaging that various intelligence agencies

00:04:18.140 declared it was fake and a hoax. And so even though the New York Post published the story,

00:04:24.700 New York Post being one of the oldest newspapers in America with a very large readership,

00:04:28.480 all the big tech companies at once banned the story and censored it because, of course,

00:04:34.460 it was fake. What could you do? No one debunked the story. They simply said it is fake and paid by

00:04:40.280 Russia. You see that even today. You don't have to look back four years ago. I mentioned that Joe

00:04:46.720 Rogan, I was talking to Joel Pollack about this the other day, Joe Rogan hosted Donald Trump for a

00:04:52.140 three-hour conversation. And it was so powerful. Tens of millions of people have seen it since then.

00:04:59.920 And it really humanized and normalized Donald Trump. And it was funny. And for those who said,

00:05:05.200 oh, he's too old, he was sharp as a tack for three hours. But you can't find it. You can't find it on

00:05:11.280 Google. As you can see, it's had 40 million views nonetheless. But all the censorship has probably

00:05:17.940 knocked that figure down from if it were, it would probably be over a hundred million if it weren't

00:05:22.700 shadow banned. So I want to talk a little bit about fake news because there's three stories

00:05:27.980 that I think if you look at them individually are interesting. But if you read them together,

00:05:33.580 it shows how this fake news engine is taking off. Here's a story from the Globe and Mail yesterday.

00:05:39.980 And I thought this was interesting. You've probably heard of this before.

00:05:42.820 Ottawa must combat residential school denialism by amending criminal code, special interlocutor says.

00:05:54.060 Now, you know the story, the allegation that there are mass graves at some of these residential

00:05:59.620 schools where Aboriginal kids attended really from more than a century ago till about 50 years ago.

00:06:06.800 Mass graves implies that there was some massacre, mass death, that people were buried

00:06:12.320 in like a pit. But in fact, that's not what the facts were at all. Someone used ground penetrating

00:06:19.580 radar to go over a lawn outside one residential school and found some anomalies in the soil below.

00:06:26.020 But it was never dug up, simply anomalies. There was no images of a mass grave, no images at all other

00:06:31.620 than anomalies in the soil. It could have been anything. In fact, there used to be a septic field there.

00:06:36.400 But the local Indian band knew they had a winner when they saw this. They, by the way, banned any 0.89

00:06:42.760 investigation, banned police from investigating, even banned people from flying drones over it.

00:06:48.480 Our Drea Humphrey was one of the few reporters to actually ask questions at the time. Take a look at 0.98

00:06:54.460 this. In fact, she confronted the chief.

00:06:56.020 Sorry, we just had a question.

00:06:57.280 Yeah, we're doing an update. And I did reach out to your media a few times, but I haven't heard that.

00:07:02.720 Oh, okay.

00:07:03.120 But we were just wondering, because we came to get some people of the crosses that were lined out there.

00:07:08.160 Okay, yeah. They became very, very weather-y. And, like, very weather-y.

00:07:13.480 So, we had some of our individuals go and take care of them.

00:07:20.520 Okay.

00:07:20.980 Yes.

00:07:21.520 Are they going to come back up?

00:07:23.260 I don't know.

00:07:25.900 I guess in Kamloops, it breaks down over time, the little wooden crosses, right?

00:07:30.440 Yes. And if you can see how that highway is, it was very rough shape. It was very sad shape.

00:07:36.780 Do you know why the museum is still closed? Because I wanted to kind of look at some of the archives and get some of the history and everything.

00:07:46.720 So, are you recording?

00:07:47.600 Yeah.

00:07:48.100 Okay, there's no ask for anything.

00:07:50.100 Okay, just put it down. What's the best way to reach you? Because I've tried for over a year, to be honest, to try to connect for an interview or something.

00:07:58.500 Okay. Well, honestly, I've had, like, a million interviews.

00:08:03.500 I bet. I think you were just doing one.

00:08:05.500 And, no, it was just a, but no, I've done a million interviews.

00:08:12.240 Yeah. So, I think that we should be able to ask questions about this mass graves hoax. I think it is a hoax. It hasn't been proven.

00:08:20.680 And the language used around it includes genocide, mass grave. That's completely false, completely beyond what the facts suggest. And imagine trying to criminalize it. Let me read from the story.

00:08:31.820 The federal government needs to address residential school denialism by amending the criminal code to make it an offense to willfully promote hatred against indigenous peoples by playing down or justifying the harms the institutions caused.

00:08:48.200 A special interlocutor's final report says, Kimberly Murray, the independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian residential schools.

00:08:59.860 That's a very big business card to have that title.

00:09:01.920 So, yeah, right there you have it. Her mission depends on whipping up grievances. 1.00

00:09:20.160 That word denialism means that asking questions, being a skeptic is now considered a crime. We're not allowed to be skeptical of her. She's allowed to be skeptical of us.

00:09:33.540 She's not called a denier if she denies our point of view. We're called a denier, almost like a Holocaust denier if we deny her point of view.

00:09:41.100 But look at that wording, even if you play it down. I happen to know two people, both of them are senior citizens, who attended Indian residential schools, and both of them thought it was a very positive experience.

00:09:53.060 One of them, who's a very senior lawyer now, says there is no way he ever would have been put on that path of education and economic success and, frankly, social prestige of being a senior respected lawyer had he not been to this residential school.

00:10:07.280 Were they taught him, to be candid, Western, modern ways? I'm sure there were other people who had negative experiences, but are my two Indian friends who are alumni of these residential schools, are they guilty of denialism?

00:10:21.060 Because they deny it. They deny that they were harmed by it. But you and I are who's really being targeted. You're not allowed to be a skeptic or even ask questions or play it down. Let me keep reading.

00:10:30.420 In response to those who say that outlawing residential school denialism amounts to restrictions on free speech, Ms. Gazan said there is a difference, quote, between hate speech and free speech.

00:10:42.140 Residential school denialism is hate speech, full stop. Just as Holocaust denial is hate speech, full stop.

00:10:48.200 Conservative Crown Indigenous Relations Critic Jamie Schmally said in a statement that his party is reviewing the report by Ms. Murray and will carefully examine the recommendations.

00:10:57.800 By the way, denying the Holocaust is not actually a crime. At least I don't think it is. I've never seen it prosecuted. 0.77

00:11:05.760 And I don't think it should be a crime. I think if someone is skeptical or has questions about the Holocaust, the right answer is to answer the questions.

00:11:14.920 By attacking someone who asks questions, you're only going to suggest to them that the answer is not easily given.

00:11:23.320 But even the Conservative Party is afraid, isn't it? You saw the answer. Well, we're going to study these.

00:11:29.760 You're going to study? You can't say, even in advance, that you're against the criminalization of a political point of view?

00:11:36.340 Huh. So that's case study number one. That's story number one.

00:11:41.360 The Canadian government has a grievance monger paid for by you who is now suggesting it should be a crime to even downplay or be a skeptic of unproven claims such as that mass grave.

00:11:51.600 I say again, I'm sure there were episodes and incidents, some of which were atrocious, just as there are in schools to this day in white or multicultural neighborhoods. 0.99

00:12:03.320 Having certain atrocious acts committed at boarding schools, unfortunately, was that's not the first and that's not the last time that would happen.

00:12:11.520 But imagine criminalizing, asking questions about it.

00:12:15.360 Story number two. It's Tommy Robinson.

00:12:18.100 Just to recap, and I don't know how closely you've been following my journey to the UK recently for Tommy.

00:12:25.280 A few years ago, there was a Syrian refugee teenager in the UK.

00:12:31.140 He claims he was bullied by other students.

00:12:34.280 Others at the school claimed that he was, in fact, a bully, threatening other kids.

00:12:38.760 Tommy said the latter, and he surreptitiously recorded the teachers all saying so.

00:12:46.500 Various teachers at the school said, yeah, that kid was really a bully.

00:12:50.140 He was threatening people, but we can't say it on the record because we've signed a nondisclosure agreement.

00:12:55.540 We were paid thousands of pounds to do it.

00:12:57.380 Well, Tommy secretly recorded the teachers admitting all this.

00:13:01.120 Now, if I understand correctly, this information was not admissible at the trial.

00:13:05.940 And Tommy didn't actually have a lawyer in the trial who could have perhaps subpoenaed those witnesses and compelled them to testify.

00:13:13.320 So the judge ruled against Tommy Robinson.

00:13:16.640 And perhaps that was all the judge could do if that evidence wasn't admissible.

00:13:21.280 So Tommy made a movie out of his interviews with those teachers and others.

00:13:26.620 And the judge told him not to publish it, issued an injunction.

00:13:29.580 And when Tommy published it nonetheless, well, as you may know, on Monday, Tommy was sentenced to 18 months in the most notorious prison in the UK.

00:13:38.200 He'll serve nine of those months, but that's an atrocious sentence.

00:13:41.740 Now, there was no crime here.

00:13:43.140 It's a battle over, when you think about it, what is the truth?

00:13:47.500 The judge would say, and I'm paraphrasing here, the judge would say, any admissible evidence, the evidence you have is not admissible, and I can't put weight on it, so I'm going to side with the Syrian kid. 0.91

00:14:02.700 And Tommy says, well, maybe it doesn't meet a legal test of admissibility, but it sure meets the test of, yeah, they actually said this, people can see for themselves.

00:14:13.520 I say the Syrian kid did what he was accused of doing, and the judge says there's no provable evidence of that.

00:14:20.480 So you have two different versions of the truth, really, don't you, according to two different standards.

00:14:26.460 The judge would say, what's admissible in court?

00:14:28.520 Tommy would say, use your eyes and ears and listen to what these teachers say.

00:14:33.200 Well, at the end of the day, the battle over what is the truth is resolved by the government.

00:14:38.940 The government is the arbiter.

00:14:41.240 By the way, the Syrian teenager had no role in Tommy's jailing, didn't call for it, didn't ask for it. 0.64

00:14:46.340 It's just the courts that are embarrassed about the fact that they were called out on this.

00:14:51.640 So really, Tommy was sent to jail because the court said he was engaging in fake news.

00:14:57.900 But Tommy himself said the court's engaged in fake news.

00:15:00.680 Hey, what else will soon be an unspeakable truth, as in a truth you can't speak?

00:15:06.440 What else will be a thought you can't think?

00:15:09.220 And who gets to decide?

00:15:10.580 A court?

00:15:11.120 By court standards?

00:15:12.500 It used to be we all got to decide, wasn't it?

00:15:16.260 Well, look at this, story number three.

00:15:18.980 I don't know if you recall, but in July there was a horrific crime in the United Kingdom.

00:15:22.700 It was the largest news story in that country, and I think I saw some coverage in this country.

00:15:28.400 In the London suburb of Southgate, three beautiful young girls were murdered, stabbed to death by a man.

00:15:37.380 Ten other people were wounded, including eight other children.

00:15:40.700 It was a Taylor Swift-themed kids event.

00:15:46.960 They were hacked to death with a knife.

00:15:51.420 It was truly a dark day.

00:15:54.020 Immediately, the reports were somewhat confusing.

00:15:56.540 A Welsh man, a man from Wales, did it.

00:15:59.500 A Christian man did it.

00:16:01.760 Sure, he was the son of refugees from Rwanda, but he was born in Britain, a Christian man from Wales.

00:16:07.280 Soon there was a picture of him in the news, a picture of him, though, as a young schoolboy, then as a very young man,

00:16:14.660 but not the picture of him as he appeared later in court.

00:16:18.020 I wonder why that is to this day.

00:16:20.000 A picture of this young man is being used rather than a picture of the man of the age when he did the stabbing.

00:16:26.520 Now, this accused mass murderer was supposed to have a court date on October 25th.

00:16:33.620 That was a Friday, the day before Tommy Robinson's big rally in London on Saturday, the 26th, and the hearing was canceled with no explanation.

00:16:44.540 Hold that thought for a second.

00:16:46.640 Anyone who said that this killer was Muslim or was a foreigner was accused of Islamophobia,

00:16:53.300 and, in fact, there was mass arrests of people who said that thing.

00:16:59.160 The country boasted about it.

00:17:00.680 You might recall that the country swore in a new prime minister.

00:17:03.520 They had elections on July 4th.

00:17:05.380 This massacre was on July 29th.

00:17:07.280 Keir Starmer, the former top prosecutor in the U.K., is now the prime minister.

00:17:11.340 And he made this a huge issue.

00:17:13.900 He set up 24-hour-a-day courts.

00:17:16.420 They arrested hundreds of people.

00:17:17.940 Here's a tweet from the federal government there, the U.K. home office, that said these criminals will face the full force of the law.

00:17:29.600 Now, if you're a lawyer or someone who knows a little bit about the law, you'll say, hang on, hang on, hang on.

00:17:34.760 These people were arrested.

00:17:36.120 It's true.

00:17:37.240 But being arrested doesn't make you a criminal.

00:17:39.080 You need to be given your day in court.

00:17:41.320 You need to have the case put, and you can put your defense, and you can cross-examine the witness and look them in the eye.

00:17:47.680 You can't just call someone a criminal if you're the home office of the U.K.

00:17:51.780 But, of course, it was a fait accompli.

00:17:57.180 Immediately, there was the punishment track, and then there was the misinformation track that this government had.

00:18:03.400 Anyone who was critical of Islam, anyone who was critical of mass immigration, seemed to be thrown in prison, including Peter Lynch, a 61-year-old, who you can see holding a sign.

00:18:17.360 I'll talk a little more about his sign.

00:18:19.920 They described him.

00:18:20.660 Here's how the BBC describes him.

00:18:22.240 Asylum hotel rioter, 61, dies in prison.

00:18:27.260 Was he a rioter?

00:18:28.260 A grandfather convicted of violent disorder after taking part in rioting outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers, has died in prison.

00:18:38.560 Peter Lynch, 61, was serving two years and eight months after he pleaded guilty to being part of the unrest at the Holley Inn Express in Rotherham on the 4th of August.

00:18:46.940 He shouted, quote, racist and provocative remarks towards officers and called asylum seekers in the hotel, quote, child killers.

00:18:56.980 As Sheffield Crown Court heard at his sentencing.

00:19:01.440 And here's the picture I referred to a moment ago.

00:19:04.280 Actually, you could see the things he was concerned about.

00:19:05.880 World Economic Forum, Davos, members of parliament, reporters, BlackRock.

00:19:09.780 He's actually wearing a Tommy Robinson shirt.

00:19:12.060 But it turns out the murderer was Muslim. 1.00

00:19:18.120 When he was arrested, they searched his home and they found he was making ricin, a deadly substance.

00:19:24.640 And he was reading an Al-Qaeda terrorist manual.

00:19:30.000 So all of the things that these people were being arrested for, for falsely accusing migrants or falsely accusing Muslims of this crime, they were quickly proved true within hours. 1.00

00:19:44.160 I mean, they arrested the accused murderer.

00:19:46.460 They searched his home.

00:19:47.840 And they would have immediately found those materials in that Al-Qaeda manual.

00:19:52.080 And that would have immediately been briefed to the prime minister's office.

00:19:55.000 But everyone kept that a secret until just a few days ago.

00:20:00.760 They jailed hundreds of people for fake news misinformation, for saying this had an Islamic nature, when in fact it did.

00:20:10.680 And wouldn't you know it, yesterday, the UK Speaker of the House of Commons simply said, no one is allowed to ask questions about this at all, because it's before the courts.

00:20:23.620 Take a quick look.

00:20:24.360 I wish to remind the House that the following horrendous, terrible incident in Southport on the 29th of July, a suspect is awaiting trial, have been charged with multiple offences.

00:20:39.940 That means the House of Judiciary Resolution is engaged and references should not be made to the case.

00:20:47.280 I know that all Honourable Members wish to see justice done in this case.

00:20:54.680 It is therefore of paramount importance that nothing is said in this House which could potentially prejudice a proper trial or lead to it being abandoned.

00:21:06.820 I know it can be frustrating when we can see reports in the media of the matters that we are not free to discuss here.

00:21:14.020 But that arises from Parliament's constitutional relationship with the courts.

00:21:20.860 More importantly, at the heart of this case are three young girls.

00:21:26.760 We all want to see justice done for them and for their families and for others injured in and affected by this appalling incident.

00:21:36.160 Speculation about the cases, including comments made in this House, could seriously risk prejudicing proceedings.

00:21:44.160 I know that none of us would ever wish to do that.

00:21:47.240 Therefore, it would be wrong of me to exercise a waiver in this case and Members should not refer to it or risk prejudicing this case.

00:21:55.440 Of course, I understand that Members have legitimate questions about the circumstances surrounding this case.

00:22:03.220 There will be no doubt wanting Ministers to commit that they will come to the House and answer those questions once the legal proceedings are concluded.

00:22:11.740 I give my assurance that I will ensure there are ample opportunities to do so.

00:22:17.240 My understanding is that this trial is expected to start in January and if Members have questions about the operation and the decision on Sub-Judas's resolution,

00:22:33.360 they can speak to the Clerks and the Speaker's Council.

00:22:36.280 In the meantime, our thoughts are with the family and friends of Bebe, Elsie and Alice and all of those who were injured and affected on this horrendous day.

00:22:48.140 Really, what was the last time you saw a Speaker of the House of Commons saying no one is allowed to talk about a crime?

00:22:55.120 Now, I can understand you wouldn't want to say something very specifically that could be seen to, I don't know, put pressure on the court,

00:23:02.140 but asking questions like, so when did the Prime Minister know that the accused man was a Muslim convert who was reading terrorist materials?

00:23:11.440 Because for months, they accused people who said that of Islamophobia and fake news.

00:23:17.900 Peter Lynch is dead now.

00:23:19.540 He was sentenced to just under three years, but really he was sentenced to death, wasn't he?

00:23:23.160 So if these hundreds of men and some women were jailed for misinformation, which has now turned out to be true,

00:23:33.040 do they get to be set free now?

00:23:35.240 I mean, obviously not Peter Lynch, he's dead.

00:23:37.800 Should others be jailed?

00:23:39.600 Should Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, or the others who lied to pretend it wasn't an Islamic attack, 0.78

00:23:46.000 should they be jailed now?

00:23:48.140 See, this is the risk of the government determining the truth, isn't it?

00:23:55.560 Who gets to determine the truth?

00:23:57.980 Is it the special interlocutor on mass graves?

00:24:01.440 Is it a judge who only looks at certain court-proof evidence but throws out other evidence?

00:24:08.080 Is it a Prime Minister who sure doesn't want his immigration policy question?

00:24:12.740 Who gets to decide what's true or not?

00:24:14.640 And if we let the government decide what's true, as is happening in all three of these stories today,

00:24:19.740 do they get to throw you in prison if you disagree with their truth?

00:24:24.900 Stay with us for more.

00:24:25.960 You know what NGO stands for, right?

00:24:41.040 Non-governmental organization.

00:24:43.540 Another way of saying it is civil society.

00:24:45.240 Those are the little platoons of people who are out there making the world better.

00:24:48.820 Local food bank people who train seeing eye dogs.

00:24:51.480 But, of course, in 2024, most NGOs are actually GO NGOs, government-organized non-government organizations.

00:25:00.960 They're sort of a trick because they are arms and fingers of government.

00:25:05.840 That's why I like our next guest.

00:25:08.340 He is, you could say, an NGO.

00:25:11.360 But he's not a lapdog.

00:25:13.040 He's a watchdog.

00:25:14.200 He doesn't take a dime from the government.

00:25:16.240 I wish other NGOs were independent like him.

00:25:19.820 That way, they could help hold our government to account.

00:25:22.500 You know who I'm talking about.

00:25:23.760 He's one of my favorite guys, Franco Teresano.

00:25:26.240 He's the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:25:28.840 And I trust him because he's an NGO, not a gongo, not a government-organized NGO. 0.94

00:25:35.960 And he joins us now via Skype.

00:25:37.120 Franco, good to see you again.

00:25:39.080 Hey, Ezra.

00:25:39.680 Great to be on with you today.

00:25:41.300 And just want to reiterate, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has never taken a cent from the government.

00:25:47.580 Never have, never will.

00:25:49.360 That's why I trust you because I know, like us, you are loyal to thousands of individual people who chip in.

00:25:56.720 What's the membership?

00:25:57.500 75 bucks, something like that?

00:25:59.720 Oh, no.

00:26:00.280 You can, if you have the means to send us a voluntary donation, you can give any amount that you'd like.

00:26:06.980 Right on.

00:26:07.460 Well, I just wanted to toot your horn because you know what?

00:26:09.480 I could count on one hand's fingers the number of NGOs in this country that don't take dough from the government.

00:26:14.980 And boy, we need voices like yours because, first of all, I'm not going to learn about the things I need to know.

00:26:20.480 And if there's a problem, they'll be spinning for the government instead of shining a light of scrutiny.

00:26:24.380 Let me, I want to read from your latest press release, and then maybe you can take us through it.

00:26:28.840 Trudeau government spends millions producing podcasts.

00:26:34.100 Now, podcasts, I never really understood the word.

00:26:36.400 I think it comes from iPod or something, but you could say this is a podcast.

00:26:41.060 I guess it is.

00:26:41.800 I think of it as a TV show because I used to be on, quote, real TV.

00:26:45.900 But a podcast is just people giving their opinions, covering the news.

00:26:50.060 It's like a mini internet age TV or radio show, right?

00:26:54.100 That's what it means.

00:26:54.720 So why is the government getting into the podcast business?

00:26:56.720 Yeah, I mean, look, there's dozens of federal departments and agencies that are spending millions of dollars, tax dollars in recent years on podcasts.

00:27:07.500 And not only just on podcasts, that podcast that almost nobody is listening to.

00:27:14.500 You know, I can't believe I need to say this out loud with my face.

00:27:17.640 But taxpayers expect the government to, I don't know, fix the potholes, process passports, not produce podcasts that only a bunch of bureaucrats and their families are listening to.

00:27:30.280 Like, this is such a complete waste of money, Ezra.

00:27:33.740 And we can get into the details about the absurdity of some of these podcasts.

00:27:37.680 But you know what this really is?

00:27:39.900 This really is a make-work project for a bunch of government bureaucrats in Ottawa that we don't need.

00:27:48.280 Make no mistake about it.

00:27:49.560 It's a taxpayer-funded make-work project for a bunch of bureaucrats we don't need.

00:27:54.300 You know, some of my favorite podcasts, the people are smoking cigarettes, they're having a drink.

00:27:59.360 Joe Rogan famously sometimes lights up a marijuana joint.

00:28:02.720 Like, they're just a place for guys and gals to chat and gossip. 0.99

00:28:07.680 And the idea that we're paying people in government to lounge around and have, like, locker talk is crazy.

00:28:16.780 But I want to read from your press release today on this subject.

00:28:20.020 I mean, Statistics Canada, even they are losing their nonpartisan nature.

00:28:26.240 I rely on them.

00:28:27.200 We have to because they sometimes are the only source for certain stats.

00:28:30.260 But I didn't know that they had a government-funded bureaucrat staff podcast.

00:28:35.880 Let me just read two lines from your press release.

00:28:37.680 Take A Sayers podcast from Statistics Canada.

00:28:43.220 I don't even know what that title means.

00:28:46.060 Which has 21 episodes.

00:28:48.860 Topics have ranged from gender identity to climate change and misinformation to systemic racism.

00:28:56.720 By the way, none of that's got anything to do with their mission, which is collecting statistics on Canada.

00:29:01.100 But let me just read the closing part, and then I want you to tee off on this.

00:29:05.320 The podcast has racked up 229 estimated subscribers, according to records.

00:29:14.160 So they've been around for three years.

00:29:16.380 They've had 21 episodes and a grand total of 229 people have watched them.

00:29:21.340 Now, in a way, this is good, because that's just pure propaganda being pumped up by the government.

00:29:26.040 So it's good.

00:29:26.920 But it's also such a laugh.

00:29:28.980 The millions of dollars spent by government on podcasts and literally no one other than maybe their friends and family are listening.

00:29:35.460 Well, Ezra, I mean, you really set the ball in the tee for me to swing away, right?

00:29:39.080 But look, like, also, too, the cost for this Stats Canada podcast that, I mean, you mentioned some of the topics.

00:29:46.140 Those topics clearly have nothing to do with gathering statistics.

00:29:50.740 But look, like, this is costing taxpayers, for this podcast alone, just under a million bucks.

00:29:58.400 $970,000.

00:30:00.160 Ezra, I don't even know how you spend $970,000 on a podcast, but leave it to the government.

00:30:06.100 And you mentioned for almost a million bucks, they've got 229 subscribers.

00:30:12.440 So that's a taxpayer cost of, like, more than $4,000,000 for each subscriber.

00:30:18.260 And you mentioned some of the topics that they're talking about, gender identity, climate change, arts and crafts, misinformation, systemic racism.

00:30:28.560 There was one podcast episode where they have a drag king on the show.

00:30:35.380 They start with drag story time.

00:30:38.380 I don't know what that has to do with collecting data.

00:30:41.680 Another podcast episode was about misinformation, where they talk about the problem with giving both sides of the issue consideration.

00:30:51.600 How about this one?

00:30:52.660 They have a podcast episode about the necessity of the arts and crafts community in Canada.

00:31:00.280 That's what people should do for fun.

00:31:03.500 When I was a child, in kindergarten, grade one, we did arts and crafts.

00:31:07.140 That was called playtime.

00:31:08.540 You know, and I'm not diminishing it when adults like to have hobbies.

00:31:11.820 I think adults should have hobbies.

00:31:13.620 It's better than making politics your hobby.

00:31:15.680 But, you know, the idea that the government—I can't get over that $970,000.

00:31:19.800 Franco, I don't know if you've been in our studio in person.

00:31:21.860 We sort of spruced it up.

00:31:22.900 We got a nice desk and some lighting.

00:31:24.860 We have a different area there and over here.

00:31:26.680 The grand total cost for our entire studio, including all the cameras, all the computers, I think it was $40,000.

00:31:36.020 Now, I'm—and I think it looks fine.

00:31:38.840 How do you even spend $970,000?

00:31:42.640 What is—I don't get it.

00:31:44.860 At Sun News Network, we had a huge studio, three robot cameras, a five-person control room.

00:31:51.580 And I remember that cost about $1 million for a huge real TV studio.

00:31:57.820 I don't get how Statistics Canada can spend $970,000 on a podcast that 229 people have subscribed to.

00:32:05.380 I don't get it.

00:32:06.020 Like, who—is this like the Arrive Can app, where it's actually a few thousand bucks to make and everyone else just pockets the rest?

00:32:13.560 How do you spend $970,000 on a podcast, Franco?

00:32:16.440 I don't know how.

00:32:17.760 No, honestly, Ezra, I don't know either, right?

00:32:20.020 But there's a couple other points I just want to bring up.

00:32:22.560 Number one is, like, I mentioned some of the topics that they're talking about on the podcast.

00:32:26.840 Well, you essentially have taxpayers funding progressive political talking points.

00:32:31.840 Now, Ezra, look, if these bureaucrats want to, you know, make their own podcast using their own dime and their own time on climate change or misinformation,

00:32:43.560 fill your boots, right?

00:32:45.220 Like, if you want to go on your Saturdays and Sundays on your own dime, not on the taxpayer dime,

00:32:49.780 and talk about this and build up your own podcast, all the power to you, right?

00:32:54.400 The problem is, is that taxpayers are funding this, and not even just that we're funding these political talking points,

00:33:00.880 but that taxpayers are funding government podcasts that no one is barely even listening to in the first place.

00:33:08.680 But, Ezra, maybe we should get into some of the other examples, because this is happening department after department after department.

00:33:15.940 Yeah, tell me about the Canadian heritage.

00:33:17.820 I see you mentioned that.

00:33:19.140 Canadian heritage, I don't believe there should be a Canadian heritage department.

00:33:22.540 I believe that we have a heritage, we have culture, without government.

00:33:26.900 If anything, government distorts it.

00:33:28.920 Everyone has a culture.

00:33:30.320 Everyone has a language, has an art, has a comedy, has a cuisine, has a history.

00:33:34.080 We don't need the government to mandate that as part of being human.

00:33:37.280 But tell me about Canadian heritage's attempt to weigh into the podcast business.

00:33:43.380 Well, Ezra, they have a podcast that they call In Our Words, okay?

00:33:47.800 And I wrote it down.

00:33:48.660 I want to get this right.

00:33:49.540 And the whole podcast is about preserving the history of the department through interviews with current and former staff.

00:33:58.980 So they're celebrating themselves.

00:34:00.900 So nothing is with Canada.

00:34:02.600 It's like a vanity project.

00:34:04.640 It is.

00:34:05.180 It's a vanity project, right?

00:34:06.600 They're not preserving the history of Canadian heritage.

00:34:10.080 They're preserving the history of the Canadian heritage department.

00:34:15.120 Oh, I didn't get that.

00:34:16.360 I skimmed your press release too quickly.

00:34:17.880 I didn't catch that.

00:34:18.540 So it's just talking about how awesome they are as bureaucrats.

00:34:21.840 I did notice what I drew a circle around in red ink here was that it cost them more than $22,000 per episode.

00:34:30.600 Now, my friend Olivia works the control room, and sometimes my friend Efron, and we have the desk.

00:34:39.100 I'm just trying to think how you could possibly spend $22,000 on an episode, even if you paid guests.

00:34:45.780 You know, in real TV stations, like you go on the premier TV station news panel in Canada, maybe you're going to get $250 for an appearance fee.

00:34:56.940 Maybe.

00:34:57.480 By the way, most people go on for free.

00:34:59.460 They're just excited to have the audience.

00:35:01.520 I do not know how you spend $22,000 an episode.

00:35:04.600 Even if you superpay your staff, it's like an hour.

00:35:09.680 How did you spend $22,000?

00:35:11.740 I think someone's putting money in their pocket here.

00:35:14.780 I don't have any proof of that.

00:35:15.860 I just – otherwise my mind cannot calculate how you spend $22,000 an episode.

00:35:21.380 And I say that as a guy who's – you could say I'm in the podcasting business.

00:35:24.660 Well, Ezra, so I was curious, so I went on Apple Podcasts, and I looked up, they have seven episodes, they had 17 reviews.

00:35:34.580 So they spent $155,000 on this podcast for seven episodes for a cost to taxpayers of $22,000 an episode.

00:35:44.100 Ezra, you're asking me how, like, some of this funding just balloons through the roof.

00:35:48.740 Well, they spent $9,000 for podcast training and consultants.

00:35:55.440 And consulting?

00:35:56.040 $9,000.

00:35:56.460 Podcasting, you're just talking.

00:35:58.720 You're just talking.

00:35:59.400 That's all it is.

00:36:01.160 Ezra, there's another podcast I want to focus on, too.

00:36:04.140 I should get into the podcast consulting business.

00:36:06.220 It's more lucrative than the podcasting business.

00:36:08.400 No, Ezra, we need you right where you are not taking taxpayers' money.

00:36:12.520 So another – this is crazy.

00:36:14.140 Healthy Canadians podcast.

00:36:15.480 They had four full-time employees on this podcast.

00:36:20.800 Ezra, they spent $34,000, the Public Health Agency of Canada, on podcast strategy, editorial planning, and employee training.

00:36:30.760 $34,000.

00:36:32.840 You know what?

00:36:33.440 I'm just getting mad now.

00:36:34.660 I mean, we've had some laughs here today, but I'm getting mad.

00:36:38.560 And how many – like, is it a daily show?

00:36:41.540 Because I want to tell you just a little bit of behind the scenes.

00:36:43.940 My colleague, Olivia, works on this show, but she does a whole bunch of other stuff, too.

00:36:50.640 Same with my colleague, Efron.

00:36:51.980 This is like one-tenth of what he does, and then this is maybe a third of what I do.

00:36:56.920 How do you have four full-time staff – I'm sure they're not putting out as much content as we are – and tens of thousands of dollars in strategists and consultants?

00:37:06.920 I'm sorry.

00:37:08.500 I'm sorry.

00:37:09.020 That's just not how podcasting is.

00:37:11.380 That's someone using podcasting as an excuse to liberate money from the government.

00:37:16.380 I'm mad at what I'm hearing about that.

00:37:18.080 Make work projects.

00:37:19.220 Ezra, one other example I need to give you in your audience.

00:37:21.980 Business Unusual, a podcast from the Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Department.

00:37:26.820 They had 13 employees working on it, including two deputy ministers and two executives.

00:37:37.340 So we're talking about people whose salary is well into the six figures working on this podcast.

00:37:44.860 I'm so mad to hear that.

00:37:47.640 What is an executive of a podcast?

00:37:49.700 I know what a podcast is.

00:37:50.800 You either say something, like I do a monologue every day, or you interview someone.

00:37:56.680 You have a chat.

00:37:57.340 You had a conversation.

00:37:58.400 How does that even need an executive?

00:38:00.920 How does that need 13 employees?

00:38:04.640 We – there are not 13 – how?

00:38:08.080 How?

00:38:08.960 I think that – I think there's a lot of BS here.

00:38:12.840 And, of course, this is peanuts compared to the grand scale of things.

00:38:17.560 I don't know.

00:38:18.500 I'm very frustrated by this.

00:38:20.100 I'm really glad you guys wrote the story.

00:38:21.820 You can find the whole story on the taxpayer's website.

00:38:24.520 What's your best URL?

00:38:26.980 Is that taxpayer.com?

00:38:29.340 Taxpayer.com.

00:38:30.440 Check out the newsroom.

00:38:32.220 Trudeau government spends millions producing podcasts.

00:38:35.420 You got to read it.

00:38:36.660 Maybe it won't make you mad, as mad as it makes me.

00:38:39.420 It makes me super mad because I know the podcasting business.

00:38:42.920 I know how lean it is.

00:38:44.520 I know there's a lot of podcasters who their only staff is me, myself, and I.

00:38:49.080 Like you just – you know, really anyone with a cell phone can have a podcast.

00:38:54.160 You just put a mic on, record it.

00:38:56.040 The idea that you spend – that you have a dozen staff or that you have strategists or executives, it's such BS.

00:39:02.200 I'm so mad because I'm in the industry and I know that this is BS.

00:39:05.540 Last word to you, Franco.

00:39:07.540 Well, just well said.

00:39:08.760 It is BS, right?

00:39:09.780 And it's taxpayers who are footing the bill here.

00:39:12.320 Like, get no mistake about this, folks.

00:39:15.160 This is make-work projects for government bureaucrats that we don't need, and it's proof that we need to start slashing back the bureaucracy in Ottawa.

00:39:23.440 Yeah.

00:39:24.440 Well, Franco, I'm glad you guys are out there fighting like crazy every day.

00:39:28.500 And by the way, your job doesn't become any easier if and when the next election comes and a conservative party is elected because then your job moves into accountability mode where you've got to work on those guys to keep whatever spending promises they made.

00:39:42.620 So, in fact, in some ways, your job becomes even more important in the future.

00:39:47.060 So, I wish you guys well.

00:39:48.340 Folks, if you haven't been to their website yet, go to taxpayer.com.

00:39:52.440 What a great domain name.

00:39:53.660 Franco, we'll talk to you soon.

00:39:55.500 Hey, thanks so much.

00:39:56.480 Appreciate it.

00:39:56.920 All right.

00:39:57.300 Cheers.

00:39:57.660 There he is.

00:39:58.120 Franco Terzano, the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:40:02.040 Stay with us more ahead.

00:40:12.620 Hey, welcome back.

00:40:15.800 Your Letters to Me.

00:40:16.520 The first is about our chit-chat with Premier Danielle Smith from Alberta.

00:40:21.020 Multi Superman 2 says, simply, best premier in Canada.

00:40:26.440 Well, I sure like her. 0.99

00:40:27.460 I mean, part of that's because I've known her since we were in college.

00:40:30.040 But look, what can I say?

00:40:32.380 She's taking strong stands on everything from holding the line on taxes, especially fighting the carbon tax, fighting with Ottawa in general, being common sense oriented on transgenderism.

00:40:42.700 Especially in sports.

00:40:44.480 What's not to like?

00:40:45.960 Next letter is about my chit-chat with Joe Pollack.

00:40:48.640 I'm calling these podcasts chit-chats now.

00:40:51.160 Miss Sparkles and Glitter says, it is truly revealing how the mainstream media in our country spun the comment made by the comedian at the Madison Square Gardens over and over,

00:41:01.120 but have said very little on Joe Biden's comment about Trump voters.

00:41:06.040 That's how it is.

00:41:07.320 I mean, one stray word and the whole regime media can go to work.

00:41:11.100 I don't know if you remember.

00:41:11.900 In a debate, I guess this is when Barack Obama was running for re-election, so that would have been, what, 2012.

00:41:20.720 He was up against Mitt Romney and they were saying about how many women they were appointing.

00:41:24.820 And Mitt Romney was saying, oh, I appoint women. 1.00

00:41:26.460 I have binders full of women. 1.00

00:41:28.100 By which he meant binders full of, you know, resumes of women.

00:41:32.740 That's just completely obvious what he meant.

00:41:34.580 And for the next week, the entire regime media were saying, Mitt Romney is such a sexist, he thinks women belong in binders.

00:41:42.820 They all knew what he meant.

00:41:46.280 They all knew they were lying together.

00:41:48.200 And they just chose that one word.

00:41:49.680 There's no way to defend against this preemptively.

00:41:52.560 They'll find what they want to find.

00:41:53.660 In the case you mentioned, it was a stand-up comedian doing an opening act.

00:41:58.740 Gee whiz, a stand-up comedian saying something that was a little off color.

00:42:01.920 But here's a liberal Democrat comedian with his take on it, which is, yeah, he's a funny comedian.

00:42:08.280 Take a quick look.

00:42:09.080 Here's the alarms.

00:42:10.220 The opening act, grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons.

00:42:14.020 A comedian who offered unfunny, racist, cringeworthy jokes.

00:42:18.480 Basically calling Puerto Ricans trash.

00:42:21.660 The most repulsive racial jokes about Latinos.

00:42:24.560 Disgusting and hateful.

00:42:26.260 So incredibly crude.

00:42:28.560 Frankly, just too X-rated to play here.

00:42:30.560 Extremely vile, so-called jokes.

00:42:35.040 Extremely vile, so-called jokes.

00:42:36.660 She name-checked my comedy album from the 90s.

00:42:43.440 Did I really?

00:42:53.460 I don't know who's AI, me or that guy.

00:42:55.800 Now, obviously, in retrospect, having a roast comedian come to a political rally a week before Election Day and roasting a key voting demographic, probably not the best decision by the campaign politically.

00:43:10.900 But to be fair, the guy's really just doing what he does.

00:43:15.120 I mean, here he is at the Tom Brady roast a few months ago.

00:43:18.440 The great Jeff Ross, ladies and gentlemen.

00:43:22.140 Jeff is so Jewish, he only watches football for the coin toss. 0.99

00:43:26.580 Gronk, you look like the Nazi that kept burning himself on the ovens. 0.89

00:43:31.400 Kevin is so small that when his ancestors picked cotton, they called it deadlifting.

00:43:35.820 Yes, yes, of course.

00:43:39.060 Terrible boo, yes. 0.91

00:43:46.480 There's something wrong with me.

00:43:47.860 I find that guy very funny.

00:43:49.680 So, I'm sorry.

00:43:51.300 I don't know what to tell you.

00:43:53.680 I mean, bringing him to a rally and have him not do roast jokes?

00:43:56.540 That'd be like bringing Beyonce to a rally and not have...

00:43:59.260 Yeah, and compare that to this stunning comment by Joe Biden.

00:44:12.080 Again, when Joe Biden makes stunning comments, my first instinct is he doesn't know where he is.

00:44:17.140 He doesn't know who he is.

00:44:18.760 He's not in command of himself.

00:44:20.880 So, I'm always going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he's just absent.

00:44:24.600 But, I think he meant it in this case.

00:44:27.300 Here he is calling half of Americans garbage people.

00:44:30.440 Or Puerto Rico, where I'm in my home state of Delaware.

00:44:33.740 They're good, decent, honorable people.

00:44:35.980 The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.

00:44:39.580 His demonization is seen as unconscionable.

00:44:43.060 And it's un-American.

00:44:44.360 Yeah, that's sort of like Hillary Clinton's deplorables. 1.00

00:44:46.780 But I think it's even worse.

00:44:47.720 Because what do you do with garbage?

00:44:49.380 Well, you throw garbage out.

00:44:50.360 You burn garbage.

00:44:51.180 You chuck it away.

00:44:52.180 You don't redeem garbage.

00:44:53.240 At least if someone's deplorable, they have hope.

00:44:56.660 I don't know if you saw this, but Donald Trump really leaned into the garbage thing.

00:45:00.660 And he pulled up to a campaign start in his jet.

00:45:03.700 And he walked off with a yellow high-vis vest.

00:45:08.040 And he went straight into a garbage truck.

00:45:10.260 Did you see that?

00:45:10.860 Take a look.

00:45:11.600 250 million Americans are not garbage.

00:45:15.520 This week, Kamala has been comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history. 0.97

00:45:25.900 And now, speaking on a call for her campaign last night, crooked Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters.

00:45:35.160 He called them garbage.

00:45:36.520 No way.

00:45:37.640 No way.

00:45:39.040 My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple.

00:45:42.520 You can't lead America if you don't love Americans.

00:45:46.520 It's true.

00:45:47.100 Well, I'm very excited about how this election is going.

00:45:51.980 A lot of people on the right are optimistic.

00:45:53.720 I am scared because I think in a fair system, Trump would win.

00:45:58.100 But I know the Democrats are doing everything they can to bend the rules and pull some trickery.

00:46:02.860 We know that.

00:46:04.240 Good luck to all of us.

00:46:05.560 That's our show for today.

00:46:06.640 Until tomorrow, on behalf of our team here at Rebel News Headquarters, to you at home, good night.

00:46:11.520 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:46:12.420 Keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - October 31, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ SHOCKER： Government is the number one generator of fake news

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