Rebel News Podcast - Reporting, commentary, activism？ Letters to the Editor

00:00:00.520 Hello, my Rebels. Today, well, I spend a monologue answering a question I got from a viewer.

00:00:07.520 Why are we spending so much time fighting legal battles?

00:00:11.900 Well, it's a good question. I'll do my best to answer it.

00:00:14.960 Hey, by the way, before I do, can I invite you to become a premium subscriber of Rebel News?

00:00:19.280 Just go to rebelnews.com. It's $8 a month or $80 for the whole year if you buy it in advance,

00:00:26.320 less than the cost of Netflix, and you get the video version of this podcast as well as Sheila Gunn-Reed's show

00:00:32.420 and David Menzies' show once a week. They're great.

00:00:35.480 So go to rebelnews.com and sign up for Rebel News Plus.

00:00:39.040 All right, here's the podcast.

00:00:44.740 You're listening to a Rebel News podcast.

00:00:47.060 Tonight, why are we involved in so many lawsuits at Rebel News?

00:00:59.740 It's July 29th, and this is the Ezra LeVance Show.

00:01:04.780 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:08.260 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:12.600 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:23.580 Yesterday was such a busy day, I was hunkered down with two different law firms, one of them in Alberta.

00:01:30.280 We were fighting to get access to the Alberta Legislative Press Gallery.

00:01:36.360 That is, the right to go into the legislature building, ask questions of the premier and of the opposition parties there.

00:01:43.520 The premier in Alberta, Jason Kenney, has taken questions from Rebel News reporters before,

00:01:48.060 and he's quite open to it, unlike Rachel Notley when she was the NDP premier, banning Sheila Gunn-Reed, sending the sheriff.

00:01:54.580 So the problem was not that Jason Kenney or the UCP, United Conservative Party government, was banning us.

00:02:01.460 The problem was that rival journalists who run the Parliamentary Press Gallery, well, they banned us.

00:02:08.880 So we had a two-pronged approach.

00:02:11.260 Our Alberta lawyers was dealing with the government, with the Speaker of the House, with the Minister of Infrastructure, trying to get in.

00:02:18.780 And our Toronto lawyers filed what I thought was a very creative legal threat, I suppose you could say,

00:02:25.360 against the news media company that was involved in censoring us.

00:02:29.580 Tyler Dawson, the post-media journalist who runs the Alberta Legislative Press Gallery.

00:02:35.940 Well, we reminded him in a sharp letter to him and his law firm that they're violating the Competition Act,

00:02:42.520 which is of concern to any cartel.

00:02:44.580 But it should be doubly concerning to post-media, which made explicit promises to the Competition Bureau

00:02:50.920 when they bought out their competitors five years ago, that they would not engage in anti-competitive practices.

00:02:58.100 So that's what took up so much of my day yesterday, and it was the subject for our show last night.

00:03:05.680 And we did a video today, and emails.

00:03:08.680 It really consumed, I mean, dealing with two different law firms, checking the letters, da-da-da.

00:03:13.220 Well, the day went by in a flash.

00:03:15.540 I think we got a good show out of it, but I want to read you a letter I received.

00:03:20.220 And it made me think.

00:03:21.300 Here's a letter.

00:03:22.660 It was from Steve.

00:03:24.600 And Steve said,

00:03:25.560 Ezra, what's up with your content lately?

00:03:28.760 Your network appears more interested in legal battles and fighting fines than reporting on the news.

00:03:35.080 The biggest story in the country is we, and there is barely a peep from your network.

00:03:39.640 Yet last week you devoted two shows to your activism and bragging about legal battles.

00:03:45.640 Stick to what you're good at.

00:03:47.120 Reporting news and calling out the liberals' corruption and hypocrisy.

00:03:51.060 Thanks.

00:03:51.960 Steve, a loyal subscriber from the beginning.

00:03:54.760 Well, I know that Steve is a loyal subscriber.

00:03:58.660 Anyone who is a subscriber and pays eight bucks a month is a friend of mine.

00:04:02.860 Because you keep us going, and you don't have to because there's so much free stuff out there.

00:04:07.120 For you to pay eight dollars a month, I know you're a supporter.

00:04:09.120 I know that.

00:04:10.160 And those are real questions, too.

00:04:12.620 Here's the letter that I wrote back directly to Steve, and then I'd like to amplify that a little bit.

00:04:17.800 And the reason I'm doing this today is we're going to have a slightly shorter show today because the Independent Press Gallery, created by Candace Malcolm, is hosting a debate tonight for the Conservative Party Leadership Campaign.

00:04:32.560 So we're going to send our team down there, and I'm going to be here.

00:04:35.100 We're going to have a show starting at 6.30 p.m. Eastern, so it's before this actually goes to air.

00:04:40.600 And we'll be on from 7 till 9 Eastern.

00:04:42.920 You'll be able to watch it on YouTube.

00:04:44.100 So we've got a lot of cooking today, and we'll put that all up on the website, too.

00:04:47.980 But anyways, here's what I wrote back to Steve last night.

00:04:51.240 I said, hi, Steve.

00:04:52.600 I did my guest segment on WE today on the show.

00:04:57.280 So we didn't.

00:04:58.440 I mean, Keem was on.

00:04:59.240 We talked about it.

00:05:00.280 We played some videos from the parliamentary testimony.

00:05:03.760 And we aren't just covering WE.

00:05:05.440 We're filing legal complaints against them at auditWE.com.

00:05:10.580 If you look through our site, we've probably done 10 WE stories.

00:05:13.200 Our people like activism, too.

00:05:14.700 Tonight's main show, I wrote, isn't a bragging thing.

00:05:18.680 It's a defensive thing.

00:05:20.240 We were banned from the press gallery.

00:05:22.360 We didn't choose that.

00:05:23.760 It was done to us.

00:05:25.420 Fighting back is what we do when attacked.

00:05:28.420 I appreciate your support, but you know we have a mix.

00:05:31.140 One-third reporting, one-third commentary, and one-third activism, more or less.

00:05:35.680 Ezra.

00:05:36.020 P.S., we just hired a new reporter in Vancouver, and we have a prospective new reporter from Ontario

00:05:42.780 trying out with us this week, too.

00:05:45.080 We'll have so much news, you won't have time to do anything else.

00:05:47.760 Cheers.

00:05:48.500 And I think that's true.

00:05:49.720 I've got to be candid.

00:05:51.220 You know, I'm a busy guy.

00:05:53.580 Don't tell anyone, but sometimes I don't have a chance to watch every single video we put up.

00:05:57.320 Because we've got so much stuff.

00:05:59.060 Sometimes we do 10 videos in one day.

00:06:01.920 Who's got the time?

00:06:03.000 But I take Steve's point.

00:06:06.420 What are we here?

00:06:07.720 Are we just about legal fights?

00:06:09.980 Well, I actually had our civil liberties lawyer put together a list of all the legal stuff we have on the go.

00:06:17.440 And I'm not even including internal contracts or what we call pre-publication defamation review.

00:06:24.680 That's what we're about to do, a spicy story.

00:06:26.540 So we have lawyers go through it to fact check to make work. 0.72

00:06:28.920 I'm not even talking about that.

00:06:29.980 These are civil liberties type cases we're doing.

00:06:32.880 I want to go through this list fairly quickly.

00:06:34.620 It's a big list.

00:06:36.260 And then I want to explain why we do this.

00:06:38.720 Because I get it.

00:06:39.720 It's probably tiring hearing about all the lawyering.

00:06:42.200 And it's certainly tiring hearing me say, please help, please help, please help.

00:06:46.380 That's the only way we're going to pay for these lawyers.

00:06:49.720 But let me go through it and explain one at a time why we're doing what we're doing.

00:06:53.320 I think I can whip through this in 10 minutes.

00:06:55.080 So I have 13 items on here.

00:06:59.980 The first is the Leaders' Debate Commission.

00:07:03.100 Remember when Justin Trudeau banned Kian Bexte and David Menzies from covering the Leaders' Debate last year, last October?

00:07:08.560 We ran to court for an emergency injunction and we got it.

00:07:12.380 But that wasn't the only thing we went to court for.

00:07:14.520 That was just a quick band-aid.

00:07:16.420 We asked for a full judicial review of them banning us.

00:07:19.580 Not only do we want a permanent fix, we want to know what went on.

00:07:22.600 We didn't have the time to do that in a very short emergency hearing.

00:07:26.920 That battle is still raging.

00:07:29.120 We're still in court with the Trudeau Commission.

00:07:32.620 By the way, Craig Kielberger's on it.

00:07:35.240 And we're still spending money on it because we want to smoke out what really happened and change that Debates Commission forever.

00:07:41.740 They're still in effect and they're still going to send to the next election debate.

00:07:45.200 Number two, an investigation by Canada's election commissioner of the Libranos.

00:07:52.500 Remember that?

00:07:53.300 Remember I had so much fun when those two former RCMP officers grilled me for an hour about my book and then I recorded them.

00:08:02.120 I knew no one else.

00:08:03.260 That's still going on.

00:08:04.680 I don't know if you know that.

00:08:06.000 Their investigation of my book, the Libranos.

00:08:07.920 I mean, I had fun bantering with them and we sent them that silly top secret business plan to make a mockery of them. 0.96

00:08:14.800 Yeah, I'm laughing, but they're not laughing.

00:08:17.220 That legal investigation is continuing.

00:08:19.860 We still have that.

00:08:20.980 So, so far you'll notice a theme here.

00:08:23.340 Trudeau's trying to censor us.

00:08:24.680 We're fighting back.

00:08:25.700 I did not choose either of those fights.

00:08:28.680 Number three, you're not even going to believe this.

00:08:31.320 Judicial Review and Constitutional Challenge of Alberta's Election Advertising Laws.

00:08:38.160 I don't know if you remember, but we had billboards in Alberta.

00:08:42.000 Kian Bexley put up a billboard to fire Dave Egan, the horrible education minister.

00:08:46.540 It just said fire Egan.

00:08:47.680 That's all it said.

00:08:48.980 The Alberta government started to investigate Kian.

00:08:52.700 That is still ongoing, even though Jason Kenney is the new premier and the NDP has been thrown out.

00:08:59.940 Did you know that?

00:09:01.160 I mean, I haven't talked to you about it, so maybe you don't know it.

00:09:03.720 Again, did I choose that?

00:09:04.800 Well, maybe I was getting a little rough with the billboards, but I didn't choose that legal fight.

00:09:10.040 Number four, Trudeau's daily pandemic briefings.

00:09:13.260 Remember they kicked us out and they actually grabbed Kian by the arm and forced him out of there?

00:09:18.260 We're suing over that.

00:09:19.820 That's still ongoing.

00:09:20.740 I know I haven't talked to you about that in a couple months, but this doesn't mean it's not going on.

00:09:25.380 Okay, fight the fines.

00:09:26.780 We just had our 11th case, Tamara Ugolini, who was arrested and actually put in a jail cell for 90 minutes for daring to walk on an empty beach. 0.99

00:09:37.800 Yet we've got 11 cases under fight the fines.

00:09:40.360 Look, I felt that was important.

00:09:42.420 Now, that's something we chose to do.

00:09:44.000 It wasn't something done to us that we were being defensive.

00:09:46.720 And we've had 11 of those cases.

00:09:48.640 And frankly, it's one of the things I'm very proud of this year.

00:09:52.320 We filled the void left by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

00:09:55.740 I don't even see anyone else fighting back.

00:09:57.880 So we are absolutely doing that.

00:10:00.520 And I accept that that is a voluntary choice.

00:10:03.020 But don't you think it's...

00:10:03.920 We had our first victory.

00:10:05.520 That pastor in Calgary, Arthur Pavlovsky, who was fined over a thousand bucks for feeding the homeless.

00:10:10.560 The crown dropped the charges because we lawyered up.

00:10:13.180 So I'm not going to be defensive about that one.

00:10:16.660 Number six, freeing the two Michaels, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

00:10:20.880 Okay, again, that's something we chose to do.

00:10:23.360 I confess it.

00:10:24.420 But it was just staring at me.

00:10:26.200 Why isn't anyone doing anything?

00:10:28.220 And what levers do we have as private citizens?

00:10:31.200 Well, Professor David Matus, one of the best respected human rights lawyers in Canada,

00:10:36.080 he said, well, let's file this complaint.

00:10:37.980 I'm proud of doing that.

00:10:39.180 And it cost us low five figures.

00:10:41.740 We still have to go to Geneva.

00:10:44.040 When the flight restrictions are done, we'll go on the cheap.

00:10:47.400 But I think that's important to do.

00:10:49.240 I don't know.

00:10:49.760 I mean, so far, I've read to you six different things.

00:10:53.640 Four of them were defensive and two were our choice.

00:10:56.660 I don't know.

00:10:57.760 Number seven.

00:10:58.800 Well, this really flared up yesterday.

00:11:01.300 Fight for media accreditation with the federal and Alberta press galleries.

00:11:07.100 We lost a round yesterday when Alberta vetoed us.

00:11:09.900 But we're not taking that loss in stride.

00:11:12.500 We're fighting back hard.

00:11:13.640 Number eight.

00:11:16.300 Dispute with Amazon over their banning my book.

00:11:19.820 Again, like the press gallery stuff.

00:11:21.400 I'm not looking to be censored.

00:11:22.680 I'm not looking to be banned.

00:11:24.240 It's the censorious attitude out there.

00:11:26.360 And still, we're quarreling with Amazon. 0.99

00:11:28.360 We're back on Amazon for now.

00:11:30.480 But how long will that last?

00:11:31.520 I don't know.

00:11:33.200 Defense of rebel journalists.

00:11:34.640 We still have a David Menzies lawsuit against the York Regional Police who assaulted him

00:11:41.220 to protect Ron McClain, the Judas who knifed Coach Don Cherry in the back.

00:11:49.380 Ron McClain was out at an event.

00:11:50.920 He had a bunch of cops around him.

00:11:52.320 David asked a question.

00:11:53.200 The cops threw David down.

00:11:54.420 We're suing them.

00:11:55.100 We stand up for our reporters.

00:11:57.100 Police complaints regarding assaults by protesters.

00:11:59.900 You might recall that David Menzies went to Kingston, was assaulted by Antifa.

00:12:04.280 We're working with police to make sure charges are pressed.

00:12:06.880 And we've had some success there.

00:12:08.240 Lawsuits against Jonathan Yaniv for attacking both David and Keehan.

00:12:14.000 That's ongoing.

00:12:15.820 We finished up our legal defense for Anna Slats, who was thrown in jail in property by

00:12:20.120 New York City police.

00:12:23.460 And so all of those I'm calling number...

00:12:26.000 So there's four of those items under point nine, defense of rebel journalists.

00:12:29.760 That's one, two, three, four.

00:12:31.400 I can see he's leaving one out, of course.

00:12:33.560 We have a lawsuit against the holiday in Toronto East for attacking David Menzies.

00:12:39.200 I've got a lot of law here.

00:12:40.740 So far, I think only two of these are elective.

00:12:43.760 Dispute with Facebook over false labeling.

00:12:46.440 Facebook is labeling some of our stories false, putting warnings on them, giving us advertising

00:12:51.060 strikes.

00:12:51.800 We're legally fighting with them over that, too.

00:12:54.900 Number...

00:12:55.180 I'm almost done.

00:12:55.900 But that's a lot of law, isn't it?

00:12:57.340 Number 11, stop deplatforming.

00:12:59.260 Remember when I had my Libranos book launch scheduled for Alberta?

00:13:02.560 I was going to have one in Calgary at the Plaza Theatre and one in Edmonton at the Princess

00:13:08.480 Theatre, both owned by the same guy, a good guy named Mike Brar, who I've done business

00:13:12.520 with before.

00:13:13.400 We've done movie launches there before, sold out houses, everything great.

00:13:17.180 Well, this time he was bullied by leftist protesters into ripping up the contract.

00:13:22.280 So we're fighting back by suing the deplatformers under a tort called inducement of breach of 0.94

00:13:28.420 contract.

00:13:28.920 That fight is still ongoing.

00:13:30.340 Number 12, providing information for Canadians about what exemptions there are to the mask

00:13:36.580 laws.

00:13:36.960 And we'll have an update on that later this week at maskexemption.ca.

00:13:40.260 And finally, as I mentioned earlier in the show, we have filed formal legal complaints

00:13:49.600 to the Canada Revenue Agency's audit department over WE Charity.

00:13:53.920 No one else has done that.

00:13:55.240 We have a few more to go in that vein.

00:13:57.460 But look, as I say, it's one thing to report the news.

00:14:00.040 We do that.

00:14:01.100 It's another to comment on the news.

00:14:02.680 We do that.

00:14:03.240 But sometimes, don't you want to change the news?

00:14:06.660 I get it, Steve.

00:14:08.360 We talk about lawsuits all the time.

00:14:10.860 And most of the time, it's defensive.

00:14:13.200 Out of all of these cases, and I think all together with the sub cases and the different

00:14:18.480 examples, there's almost 20 here.

00:14:20.760 That's not even including the 11 different fight to fight.

00:14:23.400 There's 25 cases here.

00:14:24.960 Almost all of them are us defending our rights to be journalists.

00:14:31.700 I have to say that if we were in a time 10 years ago or 20 years ago, most of these cases

00:14:39.320 wouldn't exist.

00:14:41.040 The idea of keeping out journalists from a press gallery, keeping out journalists from

00:14:45.460 a press scrum for Trudeau or the leadership debates, or fighting with Amazon for book banning,

00:14:50.720 this would have been unthinkable before the current age of radical deplatforming.

00:14:55.860 So I know I talk to you a lot about lawsuits, and I'm sorry I do.

00:14:59.460 I like to fight, so I guess I'm not that sorry.

00:15:02.080 I just don't want to be pushed around.

00:15:04.280 And I know this, that every single one of these fights, yeah, either my name's on it or

00:15:10.240 one of our reporter's name's on it or it was us being victimized.

00:15:13.500 But I know this, that every win we have is a precedent that will benefit everyone else.

00:15:21.620 As I said last night, when we are suing Post Media to knock down their decision to block

00:15:28.400 us from the Alberta Press Gallery, in our own way, we're doing that for Post Media's

00:15:33.860 benefit too.

00:15:35.100 Because when we fight for freedom of the press for ourselves, we're fighting for everyone.

00:15:39.860 And when we're fighting the fines for those 11 cases in the pandemic, we're fighting for

00:15:45.380 everyone's civil liberties.

00:15:47.280 I think this is part of the rebel.

00:15:48.840 It's sort of who we are.

00:15:50.440 It was even what we did when I was back at Sun News Network.

00:15:53.560 We got our start in, I don't know if you remember, in Nanaimo, where a local town council banned

00:15:59.400 a Christian group from having a little conference in a public meeting room.

00:16:03.260 We hired a lawyer, we went to bat.

00:16:05.220 It's sort of what we do here at the rebel.

00:16:06.780 So maybe what I'm hearing from Steve is that our balance is off a little bit.

00:16:10.420 We got to do a bit more reporting and a bit more commentary and a bit less activism.

00:16:15.620 Well, these things come in waves.

00:16:17.260 And like I say, we're hiring more reporters.

00:16:19.100 So you'll get so much, you won't know what to do with it.

00:16:22.340 But that's my attempt at a defense, or at least an explanation for why we fight.

00:16:27.560 We fight because we have to.

00:16:31.080 We fight because freedom of speech is under attack and we're in the speech business.

00:16:35.060 And at the end of the day, I think we're fighting for you.

00:16:41.080 Stay with us.

00:16:41.940 Speaking of censorship, you won't believe this next story.

00:16:44.560 So we're here because we feel as though the American people have not heard from all the

00:17:04.060 expertise that's out there all across our country.

00:17:07.000 We do have some experts speaking, but there's lots and lots of experts across the country.

00:17:12.760 So some of us decided to get together.

00:17:14.880 We're America's frontline doctors.

00:17:16.880 We're here only to help American patients and the American nation heal.

00:17:22.620 We have a lot of information to share.

00:17:25.280 Americans are riveted and captured by fear at the moment.

00:17:28.280 We are not held down by the virus as much as we're being held down by the spider web of fear.

00:17:35.660 That spider web is all around us and it's constricting us and it's draining the lifeblood

00:17:40.560 of the American people, American society and American economy.

00:17:43.940 This is not this does not make sense.

00:17:47.040 Well, that is a short excerpt from a fascinating press conference held by real doctors.

00:17:53.460 Often when you see someone wearing a white lab coat like that, it's just for show.

00:17:58.000 These are real doctors talking about a problem.

00:18:01.360 You can hear that is obviously a problem here in Canada, too, in the United Kingdom and many

00:18:06.040 countries in the West.

00:18:08.000 And one of the things they talked about was hydroxychloroquine, which has been a safe drug

00:18:15.320 for use for more than 50 years, generally to combat malaria.

00:18:19.760 And it has been prescribed around the world.

00:18:22.260 In fact, we've shown you before, surveys show that doctors throughout the world prescribe

00:18:27.060 hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, often in combination to combat COVID-19.

00:18:33.960 And it is the number one recommended therapy by frontline doctors, not just in America, but

00:18:40.060 in Europe, and even in China, if you can trust surveys of Chinese doctors. 0.81

00:18:46.400 Well, this video was so interesting.

00:18:48.380 It was so contrary to the official narrative that at one moment yesterday, it was the most

00:18:55.120 watched video on the entire Facebook platform.

00:19:00.400 Two billion people in the world have Facebook.

00:19:03.360 And this, in just a short number of hours, racked up 17 million views.

00:19:09.280 It was extremely popular.

00:19:11.100 Donald Trump Jr. retweeted the video and said, hey, take a look at this.

00:19:16.600 But very soon, strange things started to happen.

00:19:18.880 The video was deleted from almost everywhere.

00:19:22.320 Donald Trump's tweet was not only deleted, his entire account was suspended.

00:19:26.860 And Facebook not only deleted the video, but put up contrary information.

00:19:33.000 Here's a tweet.

00:19:34.840 Andy Stone of Facebook said he's not only taking it down, but Facebook was, quote,

00:19:40.800 showing messages in news feed to people who have reacted to, commented on, or shared

00:19:45.920 harmful COVID-19 related misinformation that we have removed.

00:19:51.100 So Facebook was engaging in some remedial therapy of their own, political therapy,

00:19:57.760 for anyone who had dared to watch this video.

00:20:00.680 It's a shocking case of censorship.

00:20:04.140 And it's no surprise that our friend Alam Bokhari was the lead reporter covering the censorship.

00:20:10.360 He joins us now via Skype from Breitbart's Washington studios.

00:20:13.100 First of all, great to see you, Alam.

00:20:15.100 And I should note that this number one world record viewed video was actually posted by you

00:20:21.700 guys at Breitbart.com.

00:20:22.760 Absolutely.

00:20:24.760 It got more than 17 million views on the platform before it was taken down.

00:20:29.800 At one point, we had, I think, over 185,000 concurrent viewers.

00:20:34.360 That was, you know, a record number for us.

00:20:37.900 It's a huge, huge number of people who were clearly interested.

00:20:42.260 You know, one thing I'll point out, you know, we weren't offering any commentary on the event.

00:20:45.660 We were just covering it as a news organization, but Facebook seems to decide what news stories

00:20:52.240 are allowed and what ones aren't these days.

00:20:55.660 Yeah, that's very crazy.

00:20:57.300 I'm curious about all points of view.

00:21:00.160 I watch points of view that I don't agree with.

00:21:02.480 I'd even do it on purpose.

00:21:04.060 I want to know what the other side thinks.

00:21:06.100 One of our mottos here at Rebel News is telling the other side of the story.

00:21:09.620 So I'm interested in both sides of the story.

00:21:11.900 When I see a bunch of doctors standing on Capitol Hill saying, hey, can we give you a

00:21:16.440 second opinion?

00:21:17.080 Well, I sort of like that about doctors having a second opinion.

00:21:20.060 That is a doctor thing to do.

00:21:21.980 These weren't quacks. 0.99

00:21:23.460 These weren't people, you know, pawning off potions or salves.

00:21:28.420 These were board-certified physicians with a different point of view.

00:21:31.640 That's all.

00:21:32.140 Am I right?

00:21:34.300 Absolutely.

00:21:34.920 And, you know, I'm not a medical expert.

00:21:36.960 To be honest, I haven't followed the debate over this drug very closely.

00:21:41.520 But if I wanted to get interested in the topic and do my research, I'd want to hear from

00:21:46.400 as many perspectives and viewpoints as possible.

00:21:49.660 You know, scientists don't agree.

00:21:51.920 You know, as Tucker Carlson said yesterday, that's why it's science.

00:21:54.820 It involves the consensus evolves over time.

00:21:57.120 Scientists disagree with each other.

00:21:58.620 They acquire new evidence.

00:22:01.060 And the consensus changes.

00:22:02.940 You know, at the start of this crisis, I believe the consensus was that masks don't work.

00:22:06.520 Now they're mandatory in most places.

00:22:09.500 Opinions change.

00:22:11.520 So the idea that Facebook has decided it's going to be the arbiter of truth on this very

00:22:17.540 rapidly evolving pandemic, a very new pandemic.

00:22:21.840 It's only been around for less than half a year.

00:22:25.460 But Facebook has decided it knows the absolute truth and it's going to shut down actual front

00:22:30.540 line doctors and shut down just the press conference, not even an endorsement of their views, just

00:22:37.260 coverage of their views.

00:22:38.900 Yeah, that's crazy.

00:22:39.940 I should note, because I think it's relevant, that this press conference featured an elected

00:22:45.820 congressman, Representative Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina.

00:22:49.880 Now, again, he could be a Democrat, he could be a Republican, he could be a mayor.

00:22:54.160 I don't care.

00:22:55.080 But he's an elected official who was having a political moment.

00:22:59.100 The fact that Facebook would think nothing of deleting, like, don't promote it, fine.

00:23:04.200 But to literally delete something that is an official statement from an elected congressman

00:23:10.820 because they don't think it's right, this is very dangerous.

00:23:16.020 This is, and I'm not going to call it a precedent because it's not new.

00:23:19.340 It's just the most dramatic example I've ever heard of it.

00:23:25.020 It's certainly hard to be shocked by these things at this point because Facebook and these

00:23:29.300 other tech platforms have decided for a long time now that they have the ability to censor

00:23:34.800 politicians and decide whose politicians' messages get out and whose don't.

00:23:40.820 Essentially making them the arbiters of democracy.

00:23:43.380 They have entire departments all coincidentally set up after the 2016 election, entire departments

00:23:49.220 dedicated to so-called election integrity.

00:23:51.940 They see themselves as the overseers of democracy, the guarantees of free and fair elections.

00:23:59.100 Obviously, it's the very progressive far-left view of free and fair elections in which only

00:24:02.680 one side gets to speak.

00:24:05.120 And this is the new reality we're living in.

00:24:06.760 These big tech companies have become, I think, the biggest threat to free and fair elections

00:24:14.760 in America and indeed around the world.

00:24:17.140 And it needs to be a number one issue for American citizens who want to keep their political rights

00:24:24.380 and keep their democracy free and fair.

00:24:26.740 You know, the creepiest part of this, I mean, it's outrageous that this video was deleted.

00:24:31.620 I think the creepiest part is that Facebook is coming right out and saying that that's a Facebook

00:24:35.920 executive, Andy Stone, am I right, who said not only are they removing it, but they are force

00:24:43.060 feeding anyone who interacted with it their own political point of view.

00:24:48.540 So that's the tracking that's terrifying.

00:24:51.460 They know what you're watching.

00:24:53.580 If you're watching something they don't agree with, they will correct you.

00:24:59.340 It's like Clockwork Orange, where that character had his eyes held open and he was forced to

00:25:05.480 watch reels of movies he didn't want to see.

00:25:08.780 They are not even hiding it anymore, are they, Alan?

00:25:11.600 Not at all.

00:25:14.400 And, you know, I often think that the definition of being center-right or right-wing today is

00:25:19.860 simply noticing things you're not supposed to, noticing things they don't want you to

00:25:23.920 notice.

00:25:24.960 And this seems to be the entire mission of the left at the moment to control what we're

00:25:28.620 allowed to see, what information we can access.

00:25:32.200 And these tech giants that have accumulated, I think, unprecedented power, unprecedented control

00:25:40.880 over global information flows, more control than, I think, any other entity in history.

00:25:47.020 That's why they're so important for the left, why the left constantly pressures them to

00:25:51.120 censor more and more information, because it's their way of stopping us from noticing things

00:25:56.640 that we're not supposed to.

00:25:57.860 Yeah, it's terrifying.

00:25:59.480 I mean, there's so many.

00:26:00.320 The idea that they would simply suspend the Twitter account of Donald Trump Jr. and get away

00:26:05.900 with it, well, why don't they suspend the account of Donald Trump himself?

00:26:09.060 I mean, really, why not?

00:26:11.080 And they're already deleting the president's tweets that this is just a new normal for

00:26:15.140 them.

00:26:15.700 Yeah.

00:26:16.000 And I know I was shocked.

00:26:17.880 I was shocked when it first happened.

00:26:19.400 But then it happens again and again and again.

00:26:21.660 It becomes almost a daily occurrence.

00:26:23.320 It's how they grant, they do it once and then you're accustomed to it and they do it again

00:26:28.620 and again and again.

00:26:29.920 Yeah.

00:26:30.500 And of course, never to Democratic politicians.

00:26:33.000 That's a great point.

00:26:33.780 I mean, I myself have had my own book called China Virus censored not once but twice by

00:26:42.340 Amazon.

00:26:42.880 And I don't even purport to offer any medical remedies.

00:26:46.080 I don't I'm not giving medical advice in the book.

00:26:48.640 What's crazy is they've never actually responded to my lawyer's letters, Alan, when I say, what

00:26:55.320 did we do wrong?

00:26:56.420 Because obviously it wasn't a mistake if they did it twice and gave the same excuse twice

00:27:00.340 that we contradicted, quote, official sources.

00:27:02.840 They never told me what official.

00:27:04.320 Was it a World Health Organization official?

00:27:06.920 Was it a Chinese government official?

00:27:09.500 A Trudeau government official?

00:27:10.960 They would never say because really, who's ever going to hold them accountable?

00:27:14.900 I've never seen any group at all hold them accountable.

00:27:19.300 I've never seen the ACLU in the States or a Canadian version.

00:27:22.800 I've never seen any legislator hold them accountable other than maybe just by writing an essay

00:27:28.620 about it.

00:27:29.120 Like I have actually never seen anyone ever hold big tech to account.

00:27:33.160 The possible exception would be in a small scale.

00:27:37.420 The lawyer Harmeet Dillon from San Francisco has actually helped us out from time to time.

00:27:42.540 She has occasional lawsuits against tech companies, but that's such a small scale.

00:27:46.960 There's no systemic reaction to the tightening control of Silicon Valley.

00:27:54.160 Is there like is there any civil liberties movement or any legislature fighting back that

00:27:57.740 you know of, Alan?

00:27:58.540 Well, as you say, Harmeet Dillon has done groundbreaking legal work against these tech companies, and

00:28:05.320 she now has a nonprofit called the Liberty Center that's doing more First Amendment and 1.00

00:28:10.620 civil rights cases, the ones that get ignored by, as you say, the mainstream organizations

00:28:14.860 like the ACLU.

00:28:16.640 So that's positive.

00:28:18.280 The real problem, I think, is Republicans, Republican politicians and Republican donors.

00:28:22.020 They don't seem very interested in this issue.

00:28:24.380 And in fact, many Republican politicians still take money from Google and from these tech

00:28:28.080 giants.

00:28:29.600 I think Republican voters need to make their voice heard.

00:28:32.980 Taking money from big tech companies.

00:28:35.520 For a Republican politician, that needs to be seen as unacceptable as taking money from

00:28:40.560 Planned Parenthood.

00:28:42.240 Or on the left, you know, the left doesn't tolerate it when their employees take money from oil companies. 0.64

00:28:47.980 That's how it has to be with tech companies on the right, I think.

00:28:52.020 That's a great point.

00:28:52.740 There's just so much cash.

00:28:54.160 I mean, Google, Facebook, these giants are by far the biggest spenders on lobbying in

00:28:58.300 Washington, D.C., and it pays off.

00:29:00.360 I want to mention that you've got a book.

00:29:02.020 We've talked about this last time we had it on the show.

00:29:04.140 You've got a book coming up, and it's just perfectly titled Deleted Big Tech's Battle

00:29:11.480 to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election.

00:29:15.220 Now, that book's coming out in just a few weeks in September, and thank God, because

00:29:19.520 oh my God, that's exactly what's happening here.

00:29:21.820 I want to read that title because it's just so perfect.

00:29:23.920 Deleted Big Tech's Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election.

00:29:29.180 Surely Trump knows this.

00:29:30.860 I mean, his son was just suspended.

00:29:33.300 His allies are being erased one at a time.

00:29:36.540 And yet, other than some tough talk, I see nothing from the president.

00:29:41.340 Am I wrong on that?

00:29:42.240 Is something happening behind the scenes?

00:29:43.940 I don't see anything.

00:29:47.940 Well, the problem Trump has had is that he's had the right instincts on this issue, but

00:29:53.000 as in many other areas, the wall included, he's been hamstrung by this federal bureaucracy,

00:29:59.460 this deep state that doesn't implement his agenda and is, in fact, bitterly opposed to

00:30:06.380 his agenda.

00:30:07.260 Now, he can't avoid responsibility altogether.

00:30:09.740 He should have made more appointments earlier in his administration to clear out the deep

00:30:14.760 state and to bring more pressure to these tech companies.

00:30:18.660 But I think there was so much going on and so much chaos.

00:30:20.800 It was probably very difficult.

00:30:22.280 Now, the executive order is a step in the right direction.

00:30:24.800 There are more good people being appointed to federal positions and positions in the administration.

00:30:30.820 Adam Kandaeb, who's been very good on Section 230 issues, recently appointed the administration

00:30:37.660 to look at some of these tech issues.

00:30:39.380 There are signs of progress in the administration, but I don't think anything will be done by

00:30:44.800 the time of the next election.

00:30:46.500 And that's partly why I wrote this book, Ezra, because over the past four years, it's just

00:30:52.060 been it's been increasingly obvious what the tech companies want to do.

00:30:56.860 They don't want a repeat of 2016.

00:30:58.820 All of my sources inside these companies, inside Facebook and Google and all the rest,

00:31:04.280 they all say the same thing, that there was a total panic inside these companies after

00:31:09.240 the 2016 election.

00:31:11.120 They all thought that they hadn't done enough to stop Donald Trump.

00:31:14.960 And all of these departments they set up to tackle fake news and misinformation and all

00:31:19.480 these other terms that conveniently emerged right after the 2016 election, they all became

00:31:25.820 staffed by the most anti-Trump people at these companies.

00:31:29.720 The mission is to suppress Donald Trump's online support.

00:31:34.420 They ban countless prominent Trump supporters, as you know, and ultimately steal the election.

00:31:41.820 Yeah, it's happening in Canada, too.

00:31:43.920 A senior staffer from the Liberal Party's leader's office, Kevin Chan, now runs Facebook in Canada.

00:31:50.220 A senior staffer from Trudeau's personal entourage just went to Amazon.

00:31:53.780 Frankly, a week before we were banned, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

00:31:58.440 I hope your book is not banned.

00:32:01.240 I live in great fear of this issue because it's less than 100 days to the presidential election.

00:32:06.980 And frankly, I don't know what Trump could even do that would be sticky enough to actually

00:32:13.780 work in the next 100 days.

00:32:15.440 You are going to see a propaganda campaign that Goebbels could only dream of.

00:32:20.100 Last word to you, Alan.

00:32:21.160 I think this has to be an issue that the base takes up.

00:32:26.760 And I really think the first step is taking back the Republican Party, completing the work

00:32:31.480 that Donald Trump started.

00:32:33.460 We've got to expose all the Republican politicians, all the conservative think tanks and institutions

00:32:38.360 that are on the take from these big tech companies.

00:32:41.440 And we've got to stop giving them money.

00:32:43.160 We've got to stop supporting them.

00:32:44.180 And, you know, if necessary, primary them.

00:32:47.620 Yeah.

00:32:48.460 Well, that's that's step one.

00:32:51.860 I wish we were at like step seven, eight or nine already.

00:32:54.960 I am deathly afraid of this issue.

00:32:56.920 It was such a close call in 2016 before the Internet was censored.

00:33:01.220 I mean, we had such an amazing year in 2016 because we were not censored.

00:33:05.600 Like so many websites, we were throttled shortly after his election.

00:33:11.400 If Trump, if it was such a close fought thing in 2016, you throw in five or 10 percent to

00:33:17.480 the Democrats because of this meddling.

00:33:19.020 I am afraid that Trump will lose.

00:33:21.320 Hopefully my pessimism is not well put.

00:33:23.680 Alan, great to see you again.

00:33:24.600 Good luck on the book.

00:33:25.340 Please come back when it's officially out there because we'd love to interview you for that.

00:33:29.700 Thank you, Ezra.

00:33:32.060 Great to be on, as always.

00:33:33.020 All right.

00:33:33.300 There you have it.

00:33:33.700 Alan Bocari, senior tech editor for Breitbart.com.

00:33:37.320 Stay with us.

00:33:37.820 More ahead.

00:33:49.540 I already read Steve's letter as my monologue tonight, but on my monologue last night on

00:33:54.660 the National Post banning our reporters from the Alberta legislature, Mark writes, I stopped

00:33:58.520 reading the National Post because of their blatant censorship and obvious bias towards

00:34:02.720 all things LPC, Liberal Party of Canada.

00:34:05.240 Money bought the media, which means they're no longer unbiased, fair and balanced.

00:34:09.260 Well, listen, the National Post is the least worst.

00:34:13.180 Them and the Toronto Sun I like.

00:34:14.740 Doesn't change the fact that they're on Trudeau's payroll.

00:34:17.680 David writes, I regret that I don't have a National Post subscription to cancel.

00:34:22.320 Yet, what are they doing?

00:34:23.440 What are they even doing?

00:34:25.340 No journalist should be censoring other journalists.

00:34:27.580 Why are they doing that?

00:34:30.260 On my interview with Kian Bextie on the Wee scandal, Elizabeth writes, Craig and Mark

00:34:34.260 Kilberger make the back of my neck prickle every time I see them. 1.00

00:34:36.920 Always trust your initial reaction to people.

00:34:38.540 It's usually right.

00:34:40.100 You know, they really remind me of Trudeau in the manner that he speaks in their evasion.

00:34:46.660 And I think that works most of the time.

00:34:49.380 But yesterday was maybe that one in a hundred times when people see right through the Teflon.

00:34:54.000 And I think people see they're scammers.

00:34:56.560 I wonder who's the bigger crime family, the Trudeau's or the Kielberg's? 0.95

00:35:00.540 Or frankly, I think they're sort of merged.

00:35:02.760 I wonder if they'll get away with it again.

00:35:05.520 Well, that's our show for today.

00:35:07.200 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:35:11.120 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:35:13.280 We'll see you next time.

Rebel News Podcast - July 30, 2020

Reporting, commentary, activism？ Letters to the Editor

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