Sue Ann Levy and Andrew Lawton discuss the growing problem of anti-Semitism on social media and in politics, and how to deal with it. Plus, the RBC Avion Visa, a gift that keeps on giving for Fake News Friday.
00:01:23.000Actually, you're just making me jealous.
00:01:25.000I would take a fake beach over where I am in Canada right now with the weather that's been coming down.
00:01:30.000In any case, speaking of Elon Musk, this has been, I think, the gift that keeps on giving for Fake News Friday.
00:01:37.000So Elon Musk, a few weeks back, takes over Twitter.
00:01:40.000There's been this perpetual frenzy by a lot of people in media and in politics.
00:01:45.000And yesterday, they spoke about on Daily Brief and this I spoke about on the Andrew Lawton Show.
00:01:50.000Elon Musk responded to a tweet of mine and said that he didn't like how it sounded like some of these policies the government is putting forward here are muzzling the voice of Canadians,
00:02:03.000which I think was a very astute and accurate analysis on this.
00:02:07.000But it's been interesting just to see some of the backlash.
00:02:10.000Like here was one was one tweet from Brad Redikop and he posted this video of Charlie Angus blaming Elon Musk for anti-Semitism.
00:02:23.000Elon Musk's recent purchase of Twitter has shaken up Silicon Valley and the status quo in big tech quite a bit and perhaps breathed some fresh air into what was becoming a stale industry.
00:02:33.000His commitment to free speech and his willingness to stand up to the powers that be show how big tech can directly influence elections or stay neutral as they should.
00:02:42.000Of course, in Canada, this legislation has the potential to tip the scales towards the NDP Liberals during elections.
00:02:49.000Big tech recognizes that and they don't want to be the tools of censorship in Canada or anywhere else.
00:02:54.000How about Elon Musk? What a great breath of fresh air.
00:02:58.000I mean, the guy's almost crashed one of the biggest platforms in the world in the space of two weeks.
00:05:40.000He can debate that as much as he wants.
00:05:42.000But then to just say we have to just shove an anti-Semitism narrative into this is I find very disingenuous.
00:05:48.000Well, the word anti-Semitism, the word racist, the word Islamophobic, bigot, bigotry.
00:05:56.000I mean, those words are so overused these days.
00:05:59.000And I don't know how many times you've been called a racist or a bigot.
00:06:03.000But I find it hard to believe that a Jewish lesbian, although the, you know, the far left people who are going absolutely berserk, I think, on Twitter, would call me racist or call me a bigot.
00:07:23.000A little bit more pointed than the trust and safety one, but still nothing I would say is comedy here.
00:07:29.000And I'm wondering if everyone is just going to tire themselves out on this or if Elon Musk is just the new Donald Trump in the sense that he lives rent-free in all of his critics' brains.
00:08:21.000And from what I've read and heard and seen of the people who ran Twitter beforehand, I mean, it was, as we say in Yiddish Shonda, it was disgraceful how they behaved and how they canceled people that they didn't agree with.
00:08:37.000And it's sort of indicative of society today, isn't it?
00:08:41.000But, you know, I find it very refreshing that he's back.
00:08:45.000And let the people's leftist heads explode.
00:08:59.000Kurt Petrovich, who I had never heard of, but apparently he works for CBC, has said he bought an electric nearly three years ago and had test-driven a Tesla.
00:09:09.000But Musk then was already known as a COVID-denying, union-busting, narcissistic, ego-driven, fabulist.
00:09:15.000So he bought a Hyundai Kona electric vehicle instead, saved money, great service, and nearly 500-kilometer range.
00:09:22.000Brad Wheeler, who is with the Globe and Mail, he tweeted out that Elon Musk is effectively like Dr. Evil.
00:09:30.000So Elon Musk, just because he was tweeting about how the Branch Covidians were getting under his nerves, he's now the sinister cat-petting villain in the Austin Powers movies.
00:09:44.000So, you know, maybe they'll tire themselves out and, you know, we can have a reset in New Year on this, but I'm not optimistic of that happening.
00:09:52.000Well, and all I would say to these people who are tweeting, leave Twitter if you don't like it.
00:09:57.000Number one, nobody's forcing you, you know, pulling your arm to be part of it, pulling your laptop fingers.
00:10:04.000And the guy is, you got to respect him.
00:10:07.000He's a really successful entrepreneur.
00:10:09.000And I just laugh at some of these people.
00:10:13.000I mean, they obviously have, well, I don't want to say no life, but my goodness, to get yourself all bent out of shit.
00:10:32.000It's like this time of year, the last thing I want to do is start getting into Twitter fights about billionaires whose lives are very different than my own, but to each their own, I guess.
00:10:42.000And, you know, if that's what gives them joy in the holiday season, who am I to rob them of that?
00:10:47.000Let's talk about a little bit of a news development this week.
00:10:50.000If the House of Commons passed Bill C-18, which is the bill that if it goes through the Senate and gets royal assent and all that, will force social media companies to subsidize news companies in Canada.
00:11:03.000So it'll force social media companies to pay news companies for the privilege of letting news companies post their content to promote it on social media.
00:11:17.000I talked about it on my show yesterday.
00:11:18.000It's basically trying to get the government to offload subsidizing journalists to tech companies instead of using taxpayer money.
00:11:26.000But what was interesting is a Liberal MP tweeted a thread about how proud she was of this bill passing.
00:11:34.000And she completely, it seemed like, doesn't understand what her bill is.
00:11:39.000So this is from Lisa Hefner, who's an Ontario Liberal Member of Parliament.
00:11:43.000She says, as a former journalist, I've always understood and appreciated the importance of local community news.
00:11:49.000I've consistently been a champion of journalism, which is why I'm so pleased to have worked on a piece of legislation that will ensure more revenue for news outlets, more transparency and the protection of independent of journalistic independence.
00:12:02.000She goes on and says, our government will always support quality fact-based Canadian journalism in a fair digital marketplace.
00:12:12.000This bill makes it harder for big digital platforms like Facebook and Google to steal local journalist articles and repost them without credit on one of their networks.
00:12:24.000Nowhere has the government even talked about this being a bill to prevent the theft of content, which is already covered by copyright laws.
00:12:34.000This is about content that news outlets are voluntarily posting on Facebook and Twitter because they want people to see it.
00:12:42.000So they're using social media to promote it.
00:13:13.000Journalism, I mean, once the mainstream media started being bailed out and started getting grants and bailouts and monies, they lost all their independence.
00:13:24.000I mean, that's the value of independent journalism like True North.
00:13:28.000I mean, we're not getting government bailouts.
00:14:24.000Journalists have this inflated sense of self-importance, as you and I both know.
00:14:28.000And the media industry thinks it's a lot more relevant than it is to a lot of Canadians.
00:14:34.000And anytime these fights have come up between the media companies and the tech companies, the tech companies have said, listen, like, sharing news is 5-10% of the content on our platform.
00:14:46.000It's all cat gifs and memes and all of that that people care more about than they care about journalism.
00:14:51.000Which is why Facebook played hardball when Australia was trying to do something like this and said, fine, we're just going to ban links to Australia news stories.
00:14:59.000And they did this in a bit of brinksmanship.
00:15:02.000And I actually, not that I'm a big fan of Facebook and Google and all these companies, but I hope they continue to push back against this.
00:15:09.000Because if news outlets want to use social media platforms to promote their work, that is a service that they are voluntarily engaging in and getting a benefit from.
00:15:20.000It's not something they can then turn around and extort these social media companies over.
00:15:25.000And I can give you an unscientific experiment.
00:15:29.000When I post my stories, as brilliant as they are or your stories or whatever, I get far less clicks on Facebook than when I post a picture of Frida playing my new little puppy or playing with Mr. Mom, Monty.
00:15:45.000People, this is what people follow Facebook for.
00:15:48.000Twitter's a little different, but my goodness, you're right about journalists having this inflated view.
00:15:54.000And I am, you know, very, very self-deprecating it.
00:15:59.000I realize that my story is not nearly as important as my little puppy on Facebook at least.
00:18:30.000I like his different color turbans, but he's been useless.
00:18:34.000Yeah. And it was an odd sort of like you and I, I think, have talked about this in the past.
00:18:38.000I certainly have on my show as well that he's given away everything for nothing when it comes to this non coalition coalition agreement,
00:18:46.000the supply and confidence agreement he has with the liberals, where he jumps up and down all the time and talks about how terrible the liberals are.
00:18:52.000And but he doesn't say the quiet part out loud, which is that he's the one keeping the liberals in power right now.
00:18:58.000And he could actually cause the government to topple at any moment if he wanted to.