Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Shocking new poll by Trudeau-connected lobbying firm shows nearly half of Canadians want to sell the CBC!

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. Incredible news today. Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. He was by far

00:00:04.680 their biggest talent and biggest draw. I wonder what he'll do next. I'll talk about that with

00:00:09.500 Ben Weingarten, but also I'll take you through an incredible new poll by a liberal polling firm

00:00:14.780 showing that nearly half of Canadians want to sell the CBC. This is a five alarm fire for the

00:00:21.020 liberals. We'll take you through the poll. Hey, let me invite you to become a subscriber to

00:00:25.380 Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. It's only eight bucks a month,

00:00:29.220 but we need that dough to pay our bills because as you know, we don't take any money from the

00:00:33.280 government. We're one of the few Canadian media that don't. Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe,

00:00:38.440 eight bucks a month. Bob's your uncle. All right, here's today's podcast. Tonight, a shocking new

00:00:44.480 poll by a Trudeau-connected lobbying firm shows that nearly half of Canadians want to sell the CBC.

00:00:51.200 It's April 24th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:53.760 He's ready for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:08.660 Hey, stick around. We're going to have a hearty conversation with our friend Ben Weingarten

00:01:12.640 about the shocking departure of Tucker Carlson from Fox News. I got a lot to say, and I know Ben does

00:01:18.420 too, but hey, let's talk first about the liberals. They're so crooked. They're always selling 0.99

00:01:23.980 influences just in their blood. I saw the shocking news, speaking of shocking, about the $13 billion

00:01:30.440 payment to Volkswagen, one of the richest, largest companies in the world, to get them to build,

00:01:36.660 what, a factory worth $7 billion in Ontario? Yeah, the math doesn't really add up. Trudeau's never

00:01:41.600 been good with math. How many Liberal Party lobbyists do you think got their payoffs for that?

00:01:46.720 This is a government that bans natural private sector investment in all the oil sands or mines

00:01:53.640 or pipelines, but they tax the productive sector to give a free factory to one of the world's richest

00:01:59.680 multinationals? By the way, do you really think these will be new jobs? They're just going to hire

00:02:05.980 away talented autoworkers from other companies in the industry. This is inflationary. It's wasteful.

00:02:11.420 It's the government picking winners and losers in business. It's extremely unenvironmental,

00:02:17.260 by the way. If you think car batteries are environmental, I encourage you to Google

00:02:21.060 rare earth minerals like lithium and just see how they're mined and by whom and in what conditions.

00:02:26.820 And Google what happens to those batteries when the car is done. Yeah, non-environmental.

00:02:32.140 This is the government that shut down tens of billions in natural investment and pipelines and

00:02:37.020 literally turned away the leaders of Germany and Japan when they came to us begging to buy

00:02:42.560 our clean natural gas. Trudeau said there was just no business case for it.

00:02:46.360 We are in a situation in the short term where we will do what we can to contribute to the global

00:02:54.000 supply of energy by increasing our capacities in the short term and explore ways to see if it makes

00:03:04.020 sense to export LNG and if there's a business case for it to export LNG directly to Europe. And that's

00:03:11.080 something that economic conversations are going on between businesses in Canada and in Germany.

00:03:17.940 Then those countries signed huge deals, including with America and with the dictatorship of Qatar.

00:03:23.360 There literally is no possible business case for spending $13 billion to getting a $7 billion plan.

00:03:30.540 So Trudeau loved it, obviously. I wonder how deep Gerald Butts and the rest of the lobbyists are into

00:03:35.660 this one. So yeah, corruption is normal for these folks. And I mentioned that because I note that a

00:03:42.460 year after Trudeau became prime minister, his communications director, Katie Purchase, her husband,

00:03:49.180 Parade Sergis, opened up a lobbying firm to lobby Trudeau. Let me say that again. I mean,

00:03:57.420 it's not shocking at all, the husband of Katie Telford, Trudeau's chief of staff, is part of a firm

00:04:04.600 that bills $84 million to Trudeau to manage rent assistance. So it's not really rent assistance,

00:04:09.920 it's Liberal Party insider assistance. This is what they're all doing. Anyway, the company set up by

00:04:14.780 the husband of Trudeau's communications director is called Spark Advocacy. And they published a poll the

00:04:21.300 other day. It's a liberal shop, a Trudeau influence machine. So I'd normally take what they say with a

00:04:26.920 huge grain of salt. It's going to be pro-Trudeau propaganda. So when it's critical of Trudeau,

00:04:33.420 or at least embarrassing to him, when they report something dangerous to him, when they warn him of

00:04:37.620 something, I take it seriously because you know they don't say that normally or lightly. So look

00:04:42.600 at this. I spotted this yesterday. CBC support is softer than you might think. It's not quite 100

00:04:50.340 years old and it's not a sure thing it will make it to 100. That's their headline. And there's a story,

00:04:56.260 as you can see, written by Bruce Anderson, another Liberal Party insider who is the dad of that same

00:05:01.400 Kate Purchase, Trudeau's first communications director. So it's all in the family over here.

00:05:06.220 Let me read. Shut it down? As conservative leader Pierre Poiliev ratchets up his campaign to defund the

00:05:12.900 CBC, many observers are tempted to believe that he is alienating a huge swath of Canadians.

00:05:17.540 Not necessarily. I'm thinking of Chantal Ibert, the Toronto Star. Oh, she's also with the Trudeau

00:05:24.560 Foundation, by the way. But she doesn't mention that most of the time. It's a little secret she

00:05:29.400 doesn't bother telling her readers about. She wrote this the other day. It's an article in the

00:05:34.800 Toronto Star. Pierre Poiliev is in trouble in Quebec and he is himself to blame. And if you click the link,

00:05:40.660 here's a bit of the story. Pierre Poiliev is in trouble in Quebec and he has himself to blame.

00:05:46.760 Francois Legault is already playing nice with Justin Trudeau and attacks on the CBC aren't

00:05:51.180 helping, Chantal Ibert writes. And if you look at the story, I'll read a line from it. Until now,

00:05:57.080 Poiliev's English-only vendetta against the CBC has largely gone unnoticed in the province.

00:06:02.380 That ended with the conservative leader's latest vocal efforts to depict the CBC as a propaganda tool

00:06:06.600 of the liberal government. In Quebec, Poiliev's high-profile crusade raised a host of fresh

00:06:11.660 questions as to how a conservative government would treat Radio Canada. That's the Quebec

00:06:15.540 meaning of the CBC. Funny enough, Chantal Ibert does not disclose that she also works for the CBC.

00:06:21.040 Bit of a pattern here. Defends Trudeau, defends the CBC while she has taken cash from each of them. 0.73

00:06:27.960 Sounds about right for a Quebec liberal, but is it true? Is attacking the CBC really as dangerous

00:06:34.480 to the conservatives, as the Toronto Star and the CBC say. I mean, it's usually crazy to take

00:06:41.120 political advice from your opponent, but is it true? Well, let's ask the consummate Liberal Party

00:06:46.300 family, Kate and Perry and Bruce over there at Spark Advocacy. Our Spark Insights research reveals

00:06:53.500 that across the country, 45% are drawn to the argument, shut the CBC down and save tax dollars,

00:06:58.620 and only a bare majority of 55 choose, I value the CBC and want it maintained, given these two

00:07:05.180 alternatives, sample size 1,200 nationwide. And the polling was done by Abacus Data.

00:07:14.400 That's crazy, 45-55? Even with the CBC and the rest of the media in full war mode,

00:07:21.340 the Toronto Star helping, Trudeau personally helping, almost half the people are ready to flush the CBC.

00:07:26.480 I'll read more. This is a liberal firm, I repeat.

00:07:32.160 To be sure, conservative voters, 66%, lead the way in enthusiasm for shutting down the corporation,

00:07:37.600 but just over one in three, 36% of liberal voters feel this way, and a third of NDP voters do too.

00:07:44.560 A striking number in the mix has to do with younger people. Majority of those under 30,

00:07:48.840 55%, would close the CBC down. And while Albertans, 57%, lead all regions in desire to end the CBC,

00:07:54.440 see, Quebec residents are not that far behind, 47%. Yeah, young people just don't trust the CBC.

00:08:00.280 55% of people under 29 want to defund it. Of course they do. They're watching Netflix or Amazon

00:08:06.840 Prime or Crave or HBO or Disney Plus or a sports network or whatever. No one wants to watch the CBC,

00:08:12.800 let alone be forced to pay for it. I'm surprised that so many seniors like the CBC. Normally seniors are

00:08:18.780 more conservative, but I guess they're just in a rut. They're in a habit of watching in a routine. You watch

00:08:24.060 something for 40 years, you know, before the era of 100 channels and a million websites, you get used to it.

00:08:30.940 It's comfy. Even if you don't like it, it's like an old pair of, you know, slippers. Obviously, conservative

00:08:38.060 party and PPC party members hate it, but even a third of the NDP. And if 36% of liberals disagree

00:08:44.780 with Trudeau and want to sell it, he's in trouble. Obviously, I'll burden the prairies.

00:08:50.620 But almost 50-50 in Ontario and Quebec. But my favorite question is the one reason for this.

00:08:58.140 Defund or not to defund, that's a good question. But look at this. Is CBC news propaganda?

00:09:06.380 While most people don't think CBC news is propaganda, a striking 40% believe the opposite.

00:09:12.700 Once again, young people are far more likely than older people to feel this way.

00:09:17.180 Again, young people are the most skeptical. 55% say the CBC is propaganda. It goes down by age. Again,

00:09:26.300 you'd think older people would be savvier or more skeptical. And look at the provincial stats. The

00:09:30.940 prairies despise the CBC, but they're only returning the favor on issues that matter to the prairies,

00:09:35.580 from the oil sands, to mining, to pipelines, to agriculture, to the carbon tax, to firearms,

00:09:40.140 to provincial rights, to opposition to forced trench bilingualism. The CBC is a propaganda agency.

00:09:46.060 It's not even really a question or a matter of opinion. It's just true. Here's what liberal Bruce

00:09:51.020 Anderson had to say. What to make of it? Times have changed in the media landscape and there's far

00:09:58.460 less attachment to the CBC than once was the case. Presumably, this has to do a lot with the explosion

00:10:03.660 of options for news and entertainment in the digital age, which is reflective in the massive age

00:10:08.140 differences. But there is also possibly a lack of anticipation or consideration of what would be

00:10:13.100 lost if the CBC was no more. If people think it's not that necessary, then cutting government spending

00:10:18.380 in this area seems like an easy choice. Yeah, guys, you don't know what you're missing. You don't know what

00:10:24.060 you'll lose. Sure. Yeah. There's tons of 18 and 20 year olds who just can't get enough of this hour

00:10:29.340 is 22 minutes and the politically correct comedy. Yeah, they don't know what they're missing.

00:10:35.020 Here's more. These numbers don't exactly say that conservative leader Polyev has a winning strategy,

00:10:41.260 but they should put to rest the notion that he's speaking to a tiny sentiment of the

00:10:45.420 most rabid parts of the right wing. Hey, by the way, have you ever heard someone in the

00:10:49.580 establishment say the words rabid left wing, by the way? But Bruce and the liberal lobbyists are

00:10:55.260 obviously worried. So the liberal lobbyists say the CBC should do some lobbying. I presume they

00:11:01.020 should hire their firm. Let me read. The CBC, regardless of how the near term of this debate

00:11:06.700 plays out, clearly has a fight on its hands to reconstruct a strong attachment with Canadians and

00:11:11.420 to bolster credibility, something that will be made more difficult, the more politically contentious

00:11:16.220 the topic becomes in national politics. Hey, speaking of which, you know, the president of

00:11:21.500 the CBC, Catherine Tate, you know, she's an American who's based in New York, right? And she commuted

00:11:27.420 to Toronto back and forth to New York every week in America. And she refused to move up to take the job 0.97

00:11:32.940 permanently. She's the one who had to fly every week during COVID because she was so essential. You

00:11:37.900 couldn't leave your house, but she had to fly. You did that, Catherine Tate? Did you know,

00:11:41.740 this is a great story I saw the other day, that not only is she an American, but she literally

00:11:47.180 donated money to Hillary Clinton's campaign. An American living in America, donating to Hillary

00:11:53.020 Clinton. That's who's running Trudeau's CBC state broadcaster. Gee, I wonder why she's just not

00:12:00.060 clicking with 45% of Canadians or any young people. Stay with us for more. A big conversation about

00:12:07.740 Tucker Carlson next.

00:12:20.620 Well, I enjoy working with Rebel News and every once in a while, we do a video that goes super

00:12:24.780 viral. I think back a couple of months ago when we were in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic

00:12:29.420 Forum. And the video that Avi Amini and I took when we encountered the president of Pfizer just on the

00:12:36.700 street, Albert Boerlin. We scrummed him. We had a walking scrum for three minutes. That was seen

00:12:42.300 on Twitter alone. The video was watched 20 million times. And there's a thrilling feeling

00:12:47.820 because anywhere you go in the world for a few days, and actually for months thereafter,

00:12:52.300 people refer to that. It's very exciting. And the only place where you could dial that up and be sure

00:12:57.660 for it to happen was, at least in my life, whenever I was invited to appear on Tucker Carlson's

00:13:03.580 show on Fox News. It was live, which was very exciting. It made you on your adrenalized,

00:13:09.020 best foot forward. Typically, his guest segments were very brief. They were five minutes or less.

00:13:15.660 But as soon as I stepped out of the satellite TV booth in Toronto, my phone would blow up.

00:13:22.780 People all over America and indeed the world were watching. People sometimes who I hadn't spoken to in

00:13:28.220 years said, I saw you on Tucker. The reach of that show was staggering. What we could only hope to

00:13:35.740 achieve once a year with the odd viral video like in Davos, you could dial up every single night. An

00:13:41.420 enormously powerful show. And I would have to imagine that despite the attempts to blacklist it and

00:13:48.060 blackball it for advertising, I can only imagine it was an enormously profitable show too. When you have

00:13:53.820 up to five million people tuning in, by far the largest show on cable news in America, you're

00:13:59.420 making money. Of course, he was a major driver behind Fox News' subscription program called

00:14:06.540 Fox Nation. But shocking news today, Tucker Carlson is out. His last show was on Friday and there's a

00:14:16.300 there's a little rebel news angle to it as well. As you may have seen in his two-minute trailer the other

00:14:21.820 week, Tucker was working on a documentary about Canada that heavily featured rebel news. Just for

00:14:29.020 your enjoyment and to sense what I don't think you will ever actually see, what we will ever actually

00:14:34.300 see, here is that trailer that Tucker Carlson was going to release in full one week from today. Take a look and lament.

00:14:43.020 Welcome back from the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles. We're happy to be here for more than a hundred

00:14:52.220 years. The United States has as a matter of official policy opposed dictatorships around the world.

00:14:58.540 But what if tyranny arrived right next door? What would that look like? And what would our government

00:15:04.220 do in response? Would we liberate the people living under authoritarian rule as we have around the

00:15:09.340 world? That is the topic of our upcoming Tucker Carlson originals documentary, O Canada. Here's a

00:15:16.220 first look at what we found. The cost of freedom is always high,

00:15:21.900 but Americans have always paid it. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in

00:15:28.140 other countries. The United States of America is different. Fortunately for the oppressed, 0.99

00:15:33.820 America's influence is considerable.

00:15:36.140 O mankind. We like to say people kind. Exactly. All right.

00:15:53.020 The police then then moved in and arrested me. Bye daddy.

00:15:57.260 In the entire time that I was in prison.

00:16:01.180 They shot me point blank.

00:16:03.900 My mouth, my nose, my eyes.

00:16:07.580 I received bruise. My hands were bleeding.

00:16:09.740 No place in arrest right now. I was arrested and cuffed and put in jail.

00:16:17.020 The greatest danger of all would be to do nothing. We care about saving innocent lives.

00:16:22.140 The tyrant will soon be gone. The day of your liberation is near.

00:16:28.700 Well, Tucker Carlson is out. A report in the LA Times suggests that Rupert Murdoch, the big boss

00:16:34.700 himself, was the one who made the call. I don't doubt that for a second. You don't fire your most

00:16:39.660 successful TV asset without the boss making the decision. People say it may have been related to

00:16:45.340 his coverage of the deep state, including the role of Ray Epps, the accused FBI informant in

00:16:51.420 getting Republicans to storm the Capitol buildings and what my friend Gavin McInnes calls the great

00:16:56.780 meandering. Others say it may have something to do with the settlement paid by Fox News to Dominion

00:17:02.620 voting systems. I don't think Tucker Carlson was particularly deeply involved in that. But whatever

00:17:07.100 it is, it is a seismic event when the most compelling figure on the right of center in the highest profile

00:17:14.780 TV show in America is suddenly defenestrated, thrown out the window. Joining us now via Skype to

00:17:22.300 talk about it is one of our friends who is not quite the biggest, but one of the brightest voices in

00:17:27.180 American broadcasting, our friend Ben Weingarten, who joins us now via Skype. He's a columnist with

00:17:32.700 Newsweek and Epoch Times. And like me, I'm sure he was in awe of the power and the reach of Tucker

00:17:40.780 Carlson. Ben, am I right? Was Tucker, perhaps other than Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, perhaps the most

00:17:48.060 consequential figure in American conservative movement? I think you're absolutely right. And as a

00:17:55.340 testament to it, the long knives were out for Tucker for years on the left with attempts to blacklist

00:18:02.700 him, Chuck Schumer calling for him to be taken off of TV, a whole litany of people who wanted Tucker

00:18:11.020 gone precisely because he actually put forth compelling counter narratives that resonated with

00:18:19.100 millions and millions of Americans and gave voice to their hopes, fears, ambitions, and also covered

00:18:28.140 the contrarian stories or saw the angles to stories that others would not and interrogated them

00:18:35.340 forthrightly and with passion and conviction. And I think that's why he garnered such a massive

00:18:42.300 audience. And it's a huge loss, I think, for Fox. It's a huge loss for the country and arguably the

00:18:49.180 world. Although by the same token, I expect that whatever Tucker does next will be exceptional and

00:18:56.380 impactful. And I should add on a personal note, you know, you noted Tucker's how powerful he was when

00:19:03.180 you would go on his show and expose to Americans what was going on in Canada and the increasingly

00:19:09.900 draconian and illiberal policies being imposed there, which presaged a lot of what we've seen

00:19:16.300 happen in America. But on a personal level, you know, I've corresponded with Tucker numerous times,

00:19:22.060 very humble, very down to earth, always willing to be supportive and helpful. And so on a personal

00:19:28.380 level, I feel a loss for him and again, for the country. And what you saw on television was who he was

00:19:35.980 and is. And I only expect great things to come. Yeah, I think you're right. I've never met him in

00:19:41.980 person. But the Democracy Fund, which is the civil liberties charity in Canada founded to fight the

00:19:47.180 lockdowns, he attended via zoom on a giant screen, a one hour civil liberties town hall in Toronto.

00:19:55.900 It was broadcast around Canada, of course, for an hour to talk about civil liberties in Canada.

00:20:03.260 And I think he truly cares. I mean, most Americans forget about Canada because it's that boring,

00:20:08.860 cold place where nothing much ever happens. But Tucker keeps an eye on Canada. And he really often

00:20:14.700 he would cover stories that the Canadian regime media themselves wouldn't cover. And I that's why

00:20:21.420 I'm very sad that his Canada documentary may never air. You know, I checked the stock market.

00:20:27.980 And Fox News is a publicly traded company. And I'm not sure where it is right now. But at the exact

00:20:32.620 moment I checked, the stock was down 4% in the one hour after that announcement, which is about $650

00:20:41.420 million US or about a billion Canadian dollars. Imagine a billion dollar value. That's an incredible

00:20:51.260 amount. And as you say, whatever Tucker Carlson does next, I understand his executive producer

00:20:56.060 was sacked at the same time. That duo, they could go anywhere. They could join an existing rival network

00:21:06.140 like Glenn Beck today said, please come join us. Daily Wire would do the same. He could start his own

00:21:12.540 thing. He could go to Rumble. And and wherever he goes, I think he'll meet. It's it's sort of on a much

00:21:19.820 larger scale when Project Veritas lost James O'Keefe. He was so integral to that brand that when he popped

00:21:27.100 up with his O'Keefe media group, a lot of people just follow. They said, I'm here for James O'Keefe.

00:21:31.660 And I think that Fox News has has a lot of quality people in it. Besides Tucker, it wasn't just a

00:21:37.020 one man show. But where Tucker goes, millions will follow. And who knows? Maybe he'll start his own thing.

00:21:44.460 I'm actually sort of excited to see where he goes next, even though I'm very sad he's left boss.

00:21:50.460 Yeah, to some extent, you know, stepping back and looking at the trajectory of media and a world

00:21:56.220 where Substack has empowered so many truly legitimately independent journalists, where,

00:22:02.140 as you noted, platforms like Rumble have sprouted up and the regime hasn't been able to crush them yet.

00:22:07.740 But maybe the more intriguing question than why and how did this go down as it did is what happens

00:22:15.580 next for Tucker? What's his next act? And what is that presage in terms of the state of

00:22:22.860 non legacy corporate progressive globalist media? So I think it's very intriguing and I'm sure he'll view

00:22:30.620 this as a huge opportunity and to some extent liberating as it is for anyone who leaves a major

00:22:37.820 corporation to either strike out on their own or pursue other opportunities as well. So it'll be

00:22:43.660 fascinating to see what this means for the marketplace of media itself, what it means for Tucker and then

00:22:49.420 what it means for, you know, the dissident voices in the West who he's helped elevate to to such great

00:22:56.140 heights. You know, I was just watching a clip of his yesterday on the Ukraine war. And that war

00:23:05.500 is so establishment, both Republicans and Democrats. I mean, talk about your deep deep state. There's a

00:23:11.820 lot of shenanigans there. And it is very difficult to question that war, let alone oppose it. And the

00:23:19.100 things he would say and the bluntness with which he said it, I just yesterday is watching him talk about

00:23:24.140 it. And I marveled at that. Wow. Fox lets him have his say. And, you know, he has other contrarian

00:23:33.100 dissident voices that you wouldn't even say are on the right, like Tulsi Gabbard or Glenn Greenwald.

00:23:37.980 Or, you know, there are some people he has on his show who I think you would even call leftists,

00:23:43.820 but they're principled leftists and they're they're often contrarian. They're non-compliant.

00:23:49.100 And he spoke so bluntly. I just wonder what it was in the end that did him in. I don't believe

00:23:58.220 it was the Dominion voting system thing. I think it was the fact that every single thing he said was

00:24:05.020 contrary to the dominant narrative. And I don't care how big you are at Fox and I don't care how big

00:24:11.020 Fox is in the world. The deep state is bigger. And I'm frankly, in retrospect, surprised he lasted so

00:24:18.700 long. He lasted so long. Yeah. And, you know, I think there's an interview or I think I saw some

00:24:25.980 reporting talking about how one day he will follow as well. He was talking to someone whose head had

00:24:31.100 rolled over wrong thing. And he essentially said that it'll happen to me, too. And as you know,

00:24:37.020 there's so many different issues where he took a contrarian line, which just flew in the face of

00:24:42.380 what elite kind of conformist conventional wisdom was. You ticked off some names. I'd add RFK Jr. to

00:24:49.980 that list who we had on recently after he announced his presidential run. These are people you're not

00:24:55.660 allowed to have on in good company. And he was willing to slay sacred cows, whether it was the

00:25:03.260 Russo-Ukrainian war, whether it was January 6th and the myriad narratives around January 6th,

00:25:09.100 whether it was the Chinese coronavirus and the vaccines, we can go on and on. He'd talked about

00:25:13.660 the things you're not allowed to or not supposed to talk about. And I think that's why he garnered

00:25:17.580 such a massive audience and it resonated with those who had no voice in so many other media.

00:25:23.900 So that was why he was so successful, because he struck a chord because he said things that people

00:25:28.220 felt in their heart, but couldn't articulate or didn't have voice for and to. And that was why

00:25:33.980 he was such a powerful force and I think will remain a powerful force. It's also worth noting,

00:25:39.180 you know, Dan Bongino recently also said that it was an amicable thing, couldn't agree to terms with

00:25:45.020 Fox. But it's interesting to see what's shaking out in the marketplace. And the poetic aspect of this,

00:25:50.540 if there isn't anything to laugh about, is that Don Lemon also fell today at CNN, obviously a favorite,

00:25:58.780 you know, personality that Tucker focused on as well. It's sad today, but that is, I guess,

00:26:06.060 you know, kind of an interesting toad. It seems like there's a big shakeup that's going on across

00:26:10.700 the corporate media world today. Yeah. Don Lemon, just for our viewers who've never heard of him,

00:26:16.140 and in fact, many Americans have never heard of him. He just, you know, both were TV personalities.

00:26:23.260 One had 10 times the viewership of the other and was likely fired for ideological reasons.

00:26:27.660 Here's a clip of Don Lemon making a strange statement about women in their prime. I think

00:26:33.500 this was the beginning of the end for Don Lemon. I don't really understand this comment and I think

00:26:40.060 he'll be replaying it over and over in his mind for the rest of his life. Take a look at Don Lemon

00:26:44.940 talking about when women are in their prime. Nikki Haley is in her prime. Sorry. When a woman is 1.00

00:26:50.460 considered to be in her prime in her twenties and thirties and maybe forties. That's not, wait,

00:26:54.860 that's not according to me. Prime for what? It depends. I mean, it's just like prime. If you look

00:26:59.420 it up, it'll say, if you look, if you Google, when is a woman in her prime, it'll say twenties, 0.99

00:27:03.660 thirties and forties. I don't necessarily agree with that. So I think she has to be careful

00:27:09.580 about saying that we, you know, politicians aren't in their prime. I think they need to qualify. Are

00:27:13.100 you talking about prime for like child appearing or are you talking about prime for being president?

00:27:18.300 The facts are Google at everybody at home. When is a woman in her prime? It says twenties, 1.00

00:27:22.620 thirties and forties. And I'm just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians 1.00

00:27:26.860 are not in their prime and they need to be in their prime when they serve because she wouldn't be in 0.85

00:27:30.780 her prime according to Google or whatever it is. Yeah. That's a, that was an unusual way to end it,

00:27:37.180 but I don't think that, I think that was just the last straw. And I think that Don Lemon just

00:27:43.020 didn't have the army. That's the thing about Tucker Carlson is like flavorful media, like rebel news.

00:27:50.220 People love Tucker. I mean, there's no one would say, I love Don Lemon. I'd follow that man to hell

00:27:56.220 and back. I would do anything for Don. I must watch Don Lemon. No one talks like that. No one says that in 1.00

00:28:02.140 Canada about CTV or global news, no one believes in Don Lemon as a leader, a thought leader and

00:28:09.740 anything leader, but people felt that way about Tucker and even people around the world. I'm a

00:28:13.500 Canadian and many of the issues are only collateral to my Canadian-ness, but I found him, like you say,

00:28:19.740 very articulate. And what always I found remarkable, like I said, his show is done live and obviously he

00:28:26.220 has a team and there's preparation and there's a script, but it always blew me away how quickly

00:28:30.940 he could move, how quickly he could digest complicated issues and express them every night

00:28:36.620 of the week live. I, that is a very difficult thing to do. My show is live to tape. So if there's a big

00:28:43.580 screw up, we can fix it. If something goes wrong, he just went nothing but net. Now you just, it was

00:28:49.420 incredible. There's a real talent there. The guy's been in broadcasting for decades. You might remember

00:28:53.980 in the early days in Crossfire, which was the two by two debate show on CNN, which I really thought

00:28:58.620 was good. They wouldn't do Crossfire anymore, by the way, because that, that suggests that you can

00:29:03.340 have a contrarian viewpoints, but on everything from global warming to Ukraine more, you're not

00:29:09.260 allowed to. So the whole concept of Crossfire is impossible today. You know what? I, I'm going to take

00:29:16.220 your approach, Ben, and I'm going to be hopeful about what comes next. I'm wobbled and rocked a little

00:29:22.460 bit because I always thought Fox news was the big, strong castle, the fortress that would never fall

00:29:28.860 to the bad guys. But I feel like, um, the night of the castle was just ejected from there and it,

00:29:34.780 and I'm, I'm a little nervous. Well, I hope it's not the case. I think it's a huge loss. However,

00:29:40.700 you look at it clearly Fox believes that the benefits outweighed the costs of Tucker. There are

00:29:48.140 people there with a lot more experience who get paid a lot more to think through those questions.

00:29:52.700 But all I can say is it's sad for Americans and for the world that he will not continue to have

00:29:59.100 that platform. But I have no question that he will continue to speak boldly and courageously.

00:30:05.100 And he spoke pretty darn freely on Fox. I suspect he'll be even more liberated without a corporate

00:30:10.780 structure over him, potentially, depending upon where he goes next. And I think it's,

00:30:14.780 it's important to stick the silver lining in a fairly dark taste for the West generally.

00:30:19.420 Yeah. You know, um, there's a saying that graveyards are full of, uh, of indispensable

00:30:25.100 men. It's a way of saying that no one is irreplaceable. I mean, there are some people

00:30:29.740 that are one in a million or one in a billion. I think of Elon Musk and I'm scared by the risks

00:30:33.980 he takes. I mean, he, uh, has said contrary things to the narratives, even more blunter and more in

00:30:40.620 the form of a troll than Tucker Carlson in, in quick tweets. Elon Musk has said shocking things

00:30:46.860 about everything from transgenderism to frankly, the war in Ukraine. And I worry for him, even though

00:30:52.220 he's the richest man in the world and one of the smartest men, everyone is vulnerable in their own

00:30:57.020 way. And, um, it's, who knows? I mean, in one theoretical future, Tucker Carlson could work

00:31:04.300 on Twitter. I mean, uh, Elon Musk has talked about long form video on Twitter, making Twitter the

00:31:10.220 everything app like, uh, like WeChat is in, in China. Um, I mean, I don't think that would happen.

00:31:16.700 I don't think Tucker Carlson would want to do that, but that is an incredible possibility.

00:31:22.940 You know, a couple of months ago, there was a bit of a foo for all between, um, Stephen Crowder,

00:31:27.660 who's a commentator and comedian on the right, who, who was with blaze media and YouTube. And then,

00:31:32.700 uh, and he had a contract negotiation with daily wire and it fell apart and it was a little bit

00:31:37.260 acrimonious, but the, the startling thing from that whole engagement, Ben, I don't know if you

00:31:41.100 were following it, is that the daily wire offer to Stephen Crowder, it had lots of asterisks and,

00:31:47.260 and, you know, uh, caveats in it, but it was a $50 million offer, five, zero million.

00:31:55.420 And there's no doubt. I mean, Stephen Crowder would be the first today that Tucker is even much bigger

00:32:00.540 than that. I think that if Tucker does this right, he could be even bigger than he was on Fox and he

00:32:09.660 could do all sorts of things where he owns the content, owns the data, owns the list and builds

00:32:16.300 up a machine. He is such a tent pole, as they say, that he could create a whole new vehicle, let alone

00:32:24.540 if he joined something incredible that it was already existing like daily wire or blaze media.

00:32:29.100 I'm trying to be positive because I think he's the sky's the limit for him. I really do think that.

00:32:34.380 And he's probably safe enough. He's probably saved enough money that he's not, he's not in any rush.

00:32:39.980 He probably got a big severance under the terms of his contract. I'm sure they paid him out.

00:32:45.420 You know, he, he may have had a eight figure payout for all we know. So I think he's a, he's a man.

00:32:52.220 He's, I think he's only in his mid fifties. I think he can do whatever he wants. Maybe this is,

00:32:58.620 you know, one door closes, another door opens kind of moment. I'm just brainstorming in real

00:33:03.420 time here, Ben, because this is, this only came out a few hours ago and I'm still sort of

00:33:07.180 shocked by it.

00:33:09.340 Yeah. Look, I think he was at the height of his powers. There have been plenty of prominent

00:33:14.780 personalities to leave major networks in the past and few have been able to then actually go build

00:33:21.260 a small or large empire on their own. Several have tried. Tucker will have the benefit of other

00:33:27.900 entrepreneurs who have taken that risk before. There's also more technology that allows one to

00:33:34.620 be able to potentially go out on their own. Like you said, he has an impassioned fan base,

00:33:40.140 people who would go to that monologue every single night. He's an exceptional writer speaker. He's

00:33:46.140 obviously incredibly hardworking. And I think if anyone was going to be able to achieve that

00:33:51.180 potentially on their own, it's Tucker and have a direct relationship with their viewers and interview

00:33:57.260 interesting people and do what he was doing at Fox nation and elsewhere as well.

00:34:01.260 So, you know, I think if there was ever a time and a person to put it all together and be able to

00:34:05.580 succeed, he might be the one and it's going to be fascinating to watch. And wouldn't it be the

00:34:10.540 quintessential kind of American story of, you know, the rises and falls in the careers of exceptional

00:34:18.460 folks in the public discourse space in the media and beyond, as you noted, one door closes, but

00:34:24.140 perhaps that leads to an even greater triumph after the fact. And again, either way, what I think is most

00:34:29.900 imperative is that Tucker's voice needs to be out there. It needs to be amplified. And he puts

00:34:35.580 forth the perspective that that's interesting. It's unique. It's compelling. It's provocative.

00:34:39.740 It's funny as well. And that's why he was as successful as he was and as successful as he will

00:34:44.780 be going forward. I believe. Well, you remind me that he's fallen and risen before. He did great on

00:34:51.580 crossfire until they sacked him as a result of an attack on him. At least that's what it looked to

00:34:58.220 be by Jon Stewart, the liberal comedian. Well, he came back and he helped found the Daily Caller,

00:35:03.900 which is a fairly serious and significant website. And then, of course, his show on Fox. So here's a

00:35:09.420 guy. In a way, he's a serial startup guy. I mean, I think he's more talent than business. But there's a guy

00:35:17.820 who's been knocked down and gets back up, knocked down and gets back up. And this is a kind of a knockdown,

00:35:23.980 obviously. But I think there's exciting things afoot for him. And I can only imagine the offers being sent to

00:35:32.220 not just by Glenn Beck and Daily Wire, but it wouldn't surprise me of OAN and and other groups

00:35:39.420 like that. It wouldn't surprise me if Spotify is making a hell of a deal, a hell of an offer right

00:35:43.740 now. And it wouldn't surprise me if he's thinking, well, maybe I'll start my own thing. Very, very

00:35:49.820 interesting. And I appreciate you talking to us about it. I care about Tucker Carlson because I felt like

00:35:56.140 he actually cared about Canada. And that's a weird thing for Americans to care about. Most Americans just

00:36:00.860 simply. They don't hate Canada. Of course not. They just they're not moved by Canada. They find

00:36:05.500 Canada boring. And for the longest time, we liked that, I think. I close as I ended, which is,

00:36:12.700 I'm a little bit sad that we will likely never see that documentary on Canada that really starred

00:36:20.540 Rebel News personalities. I was interviewed. David Menzies was interviewed. Alexa Lavoie was interviewed.

00:36:25.580 I think it was going to be really the story of Rebel News. And I and I don't know if we'll ever see

00:36:30.220 that. It certainly won't air on Fox Nation. They sort of they're sort of erasing the past,

00:36:35.500 I think, with him. Ben, it's great to catch up with you. I meant to talk to you about your latest

00:36:41.100 essay in the Epoch Times. We'll just put it on the screen for a minute. With dissent now criminalized,

00:36:47.100 free speech faces a big chill. And of course, that's a comment about some extremely partisan prosecutions

00:36:54.300 by the Biden presidency. By the way, Tucker Carlson was heavy on this story. We don't have time to

00:36:59.740 talk about it today, Ben. But I feel like we talked about the important news in the conservative

00:37:04.220 movement. And and for us as conservative media in Canada, who had a connection with Tucker,

00:37:08.620 I think it was the right thing to do. Really glad to see you. And like me, I'm sure you'll be waiting

00:37:14.780 to see what Tucker does next. Won't that be amazing? Thanks again for your time.

00:37:19.420 Thanks for having me. I wish things were still boring, but we have the blessing and curse of living in

00:37:23.260 interesting times. That's what that's exactly what they say. There you have it, Ben Weingarten.

00:37:27.820 You can see his work at newsweek.com and at the Epoch Times, some of our

00:37:33.020 favorite people over there. Stay with us more ahead.

00:37:46.780 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. Chris says,

00:37:50.300 Hi, Ezra. If I were a big tech CEO, I would make sure no links to Canadian content would be allowed.

00:37:54.860 After all, I'm in the business of making money and not in handing it out. C11 can only work if

00:37:59.980 there is financial gain for big tech. C11 and C18 are opposing forces from a financial perspective.

00:38:06.140 As a CEO, I'm first beholden to my investors. Canada will go dark on the internet. I don't think

00:38:13.420 I quite understand everything you're saying there. But the whole idea of the internet is that you click

00:38:18.860 from link to link to link to link, and that's the fun of it, and that's why it works. That's the

00:38:22.620 network effect, as they say. And people share, and it's the most democratic grassroots idea that's

00:38:30.780 ever been promulgated. That's what's so amazing about it. The idea that you have to pay for the

00:38:37.020 pleasure of linking to someone is anathema to the entire concept. I don't think it's gonna work.

00:38:42.460 That's what C18 would require big tech to do for the mere pleasure of having someone show up in a

00:38:51.100 Google search. Showing up in a Google search is a good thing. That's why Google makes their money by

00:38:57.020 selling those searches. It's crazy that Google would have to pay someone to link to them. It feels

00:39:03.020 like the law was written by someone who's never used the internet before. Jack says,

00:39:08.780 now that Tucker Carlson is no longer with Fox, where do we go from here to get our rebel message

00:39:13.980 out to Americans and Canadians besides the web? You know what? I had a good discussion about this

00:39:18.620 a moment ago, as you know, with Ben Weingarten. I don't know the answer. Tucker really loved Canada.

00:39:23.500 I love talking about Canada, and I'm just so frustrated that our documentary with him

00:39:28.940 is not coming out. At least I don't think it's coming out. I'd be surprised if it does.

00:39:33.020 He cares more about Canada than most American media and certainly most of any size.

00:39:40.860 I like the fact that he cared about Canada because there's something quirky about the

00:39:43.900 Canadian establishment. They often don't care if there's a problem raised domestically. But when

00:39:51.340 foreigners take notice of it, oh, they noticed us. That's certainly how it was with the truckers.

00:39:55.580 And you remember during the Trucker Commission inquiry, evidence was brought forward that Trudeau was

00:39:59.740 embarrassed overseas, and that's what made him want to crack down on the truckers. He was embarrassed

00:40:05.100 in the face of other world leaders. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of

00:40:11.020 us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:40:29.740 Good night.

00:40:31.020 Good night.

00:40:31.420 Good night.

00:40:40.860 Good night.

00:40:46.140 Good night.

00:40:47.340 Good night.

00:40:55.180 Got it?

Rebel News Podcast - April 25, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Shocking new poll by Trudeau-connected lobbying firm shows nearly half of Canadians want to sell the CBC!

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