In this episode of the Western Standard, Corey talks about the CRTC's attempt to censor podcasts, Howard Stern's fall from grace, and why the government doesn't want you to know what's going on with podcasts and social media.
00:00:30.760Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. This is my weekly, that adds up to 45 minutes,
00:00:37.560but it covers an hour on those cable stations from the Western Standard where I cover the
00:00:42.520top news items I want to discuss, get some ranting out of the way and interview interesting people.
00:00:48.220Today's no exception. A little later on, I'm going to have Elise Mills on. She's a strategist1.00
00:00:53.920and counsel on global public affairs. We're going to talk a bit about the latest efforts
00:00:58.920to basically censor podcasts live streaming basically discourse that the government doesn't
00:01:05.240like uh so yes those of you watching live use that comment scroll guys i see mr stanley was
00:01:10.920there fast saying present and paradoxy get in there send those comments to me questions things
00:01:15.640for the guest again like i say i don't always read them all out on the show but i do see them
00:01:21.480all there and i appreciate it helps keep things flowing and that and i i see some interesting
00:01:25.160concepts going on sometimes. Just make sure to keep it civil. We don't have to be at each other's
00:01:30.660throats. That's my job. So I'm going to get on the throat of some things. And oh yeah, since I was
00:01:36.060brought up by Paradox, he's saying a great interview with James Lindsay yesterday. Thank you
00:01:39.160very much. Yeah, James Lindsay was on. Look on the YouTube archives. He was here. We had a good talk
00:01:44.640for a little while on the Save Our Children thing. He's been touring Alberta and he did a huge event
00:01:49.440in Calgary last night, actually. So check that out after this show, of course. So I'm going to start
00:01:55.060though on, yeah, the latest thing from the CRTC, the registry, I'm going to talk about what used
00:02:01.020to be one of my favorite radio hosts, Howard Stern. Howard Stern's show, it was a radio powerhouse in
00:02:07.360the 1990s. I mean, he gored sacred cows in the United States and his shock jock style of
00:02:12.700performing. I mean, it changed the way radio morning shows were done all the way around the
00:02:16.520world. I mean, while opponents were trying their hardest to cancel them in the U.S., it only brought
00:02:20.540more attention and made his brand even more powerful. He crushed competing DJs across the
00:02:25.580USA and his show syndication seemed unstoppable. He would just absorb fines for profanity from the
00:02:31.680SEC and he'd just keep expanding his reach. Things changed though when he brought his show to Canada.
00:02:38.840Yes, in 1997, some people might not remember it, particularly out west, but two radio stations in
00:02:43.720Canada, one in Montreal and one in Toronto, picked up his show and started broadcasting it.
00:02:47.380And Stern's brand of humor, which included everything from, yeah, fart jokes to having women simulate orgasms over the air, was welcomed by many listeners and reviled by many others.
00:02:57.620But, I mean, it did work. The ratings and market share for both of those Canadian stations expanded quickly.
00:03:02.140People wanted something fresh in radio, and he brought it.
00:03:05.500But then Stern committed Canadian blasphemy.
00:10:45.680They get a lot of people calling them out, you know, questioning their coverage.
00:10:50.420I mean, I have seen some stuff happening at protests, things that I've gone to.
00:10:54.420And I've got to admit, some people have been pretty nasty and abusive to legacy media representatives
00:11:00.420when they see them there when you know i started seeing later protests cbc cameras would be there
00:11:04.820and they wouldn't put their branding on their cameras and things like that to avoid the abuse
00:11:09.140i i do say with people i understand rest assured i mean look at how often i pound on legacy media
00:11:16.100but it doesn't call for being violent for being threatening just ignore them you know don't give
00:11:22.180them time uh you know when they're looking for interviews at those things just turn away those
00:11:28.260sorts of things but there are some people did get in the face of the reporters some people getting
00:11:32.740uh in the face of the camera people people who've even you know vandalized news trucks i've seen
00:11:38.420before and things like that don't give the the the state broadcaster and other media outlets
00:11:46.100room to play victim you know they they thrive on that if they can show a picture of a bunch
00:11:50.820of protesters screaming and getting in the faces of their reporters it actually inspires more
00:11:57.060control. That gives the excuse to the local authorities to say, you know what, we need more
00:12:00.820police to shut down these protesters. These guys are clearly extreme. They hold, as we've heard
00:12:05.420quite often, unacceptable views. So I don't doubt that there really are some nasty emails. I'm
00:12:12.700going to read one later in the show that came to me. You know, being in this, you get some
00:12:16.260really interesting feedback from people. But there is no excuse, no matter what, the institution to
00:12:23.300get threatening with them, to get violent with them. And some of that does happen. And meanwhile,
00:12:29.000so Tate's up there saying, you know, it's unsafe for our organization. Of course, they're already
00:12:32.880getting one and a half billion of your tax dollars to do what they do. Don't let them try to play
00:12:39.000victim on top of that and get even more money. I'm just, you know, doing a bit of a call out.
00:12:44.360As I've said, I'm certainly no friend or fan to the legacy media outlets right now,
00:12:50.580but let's not make it any easier for them to try and say that they're victims in anything.
00:12:56.980This is one more I'll get into and I see Elise getting ready in the lobby there so we'll get
00:13:00.920to her pretty quickly and talk some more on censorship. This one was kind of interesting
00:13:04.360though out of you know the Chrystia Freeland's office asking over and over people have been
00:13:11.000asking what are the debt interest payments you know going on right now in Ottawa. I mean this
00:13:18.560is something the Department of Finance should be able to answer pretty easily, right? You figure
00:13:22.180out how much debt you have, you figure out how much interest you have, and you figure out how
00:13:25.560much you have to pay every month to service it. But they keep saying that they don't know.
00:13:29.960Well, what do you mean you don't know? You're running our country. This is a very basic
00:13:35.340actuarial question. This is a large chunk of our revenues that can be dedicated to programs that
00:13:41.940we seriously need. This is something to remind people, because this is what brought the crash
00:13:45.780in the 90s when realism finally hit with enough voters and taxpayers. And we kind of corrected
00:13:50.640things because interest rates were really high. And people started realizing that government
00:13:54.040budgets were being overwhelmed with interest payments. I mean, come on, if you're paying
00:13:57.500tax out of pocket, the last thing you want to do is see it flushed on interest. That's money down
00:14:01.380the toilet. It's not buying you any services. It's not making your life any better. And right now,
00:14:06.460at least back earlier with one of the updates, it was estimated to be around 44 billion a year
00:14:11.500in debt service charges. And now, of course, interest rates have only climbed up since,
00:14:15.920so we know the number's bigger. Other people can look from the outside and figure it might be
00:14:20.720getting closer to that $50 billion number now, but we don't know because the finance minister
00:14:25.780won't say. What good are you if you won't even answer that simple sort of question,
00:14:31.840Madam Freeland? Come on, do a little better than that. You guys are in the toilet in the polls.0.97
00:14:36.400You're going to have to learn to change something pretty soon. Just hiding isn't working for you,
00:14:39.700but it does get frustrating. It's our money. Canadians are prone to forgetting that sometimes.
00:14:44.760It's our money. You have a right to know how they're spending it, what they're doing with it,
00:14:49.880and not back off when the government refuses to tell you what they're doing with your money.
00:14:55.600All right. I've been ranting enough. Let's get somebody else on to rant for a little bit.
00:14:59.680I've been looking forward to this. You've probably seen her on social media a lot. You've seen her
00:15:04.600on a lot of legacy media in the past as well, but I won't hold that against her. It's...
00:15:10.460Elise Mills, a strategist and counsel for global public affairs, a consultant, and just kind of
00:15:15.560have your hands in everything. So thanks for joining the show today, Elise.
00:15:18.780Thanks so much for having me, Corey. It's a real pleasure. I was looking forward to it all weekend.
00:15:25.700So, I mean, yeah, we've got quite the subject to chew on. You know, when it first dropped last
00:15:30.900week, it was hard to tell. It sounded almost like they were going to come after every podcaster and
00:15:34.940get them to register or possibly shut them down. But no, they're being a little more nuanced.
00:15:38.980they're going after the hosts. I mean, it'll have the same effect in a way, but it's going to take
00:15:45.300a little longer, but this is a really, really dangerous turn of events going on with our
00:15:49.500government right now. I know people on social media thought I was being completely extreme
00:15:55.020when I was saying this, but it reminds me of the stories that my parents would tell me. I have
00:16:01.900journalists in my family that work in the UK and the United States and had worked in Canada at one
00:16:07.860point for what was then Southern Press, which you might remember, Corey. And one thing that was
00:16:15.320really concerning to me was it has echoes of McCarthyism in it. It's guised as the great
00:16:22.520savior of journalism, but what it really is, is a cultural redefining or a shift. It's meant to
00:16:31.380follow into what they were looking for way back five years ago when they appointed the media czar.
00:16:37.380I think what we need to remember is that this has been a piecemeal approach. So your viewers and listeners and readers will probably not remember that in 2017, 2018, right around the election of Trump came Canada's response, which was guised as we are very concerned about certain voices.
00:17:00.040so we're going to start regulating what you can say and what you cannot say on social media so
00:17:05.420we're going to appoint a czar at that point it's now it was um uh melanie joly who's now minister
00:17:12.640of foreign affairs and she was our czar of social media then you started to hear the rumblings of
00:17:20.980what they were thinking about and how to control the media which was you know it's a three-pronged
00:17:25.220approach, Corey, really the ultimate goal is to keep the CBC as basically right now what it is,
00:17:31.380is an outsourced PR firm for the Trudeau government. And I've never seen the CBC
00:17:38.760quite like this before. As you know, I spent over a decade as a permanent fixture on the CBC
00:17:46.040as a conservative. So it's about protecting, so some of that legislation was about protecting the
00:17:52.540CBC but it was also about quietly or what I would call the creep of government melding our minds
00:18:01.280into what Trudeau saw the country as being and that's we really begin with the social media czar
00:18:07.180we ramp up to C11 we ramp up to some other pieces of legislation that people have forgotten about
00:18:14.140that are really pertain to the CBC pertain to how what the CBC is allowed to do and what
00:18:22.420what it's not allowed to do. The CBC has only lost once in the court at the old CRTC,
00:18:30.740which was really about what they were trying to produce, which was almost like a digital print
00:18:37.320sheet, right? The tour star and National Post and many others won that, you know, thank goodness.
00:18:44.660But this, what we're seeing now is what I call phase three. And what bothers me most about this
00:18:51.800is not, well, several things, Corey, and I ranted at you, called you on a Friday night and said,
00:18:59.640we've got to get on top of this. This is insane. Is that now this is guised to something that's
00:19:06.240supposed to help us to sort of shut out what they don't want us to hear, which are these negative
00:19:13.840voices that have political overturns or undercurrents or overtones to it. The reality
00:19:20.900is I don't I want to be in a country where I disagree with people I do not want to be in a
00:19:25.740country we're all saying yes that that that is absolutely fantastic I absolutely agree with this
00:19:32.280mushy middle sort of woke uh Trudeauism uh that I think is separate to what the traditional liberal
00:19:38.720party is the other part about it is it has a registry and it reminds me of the McCarthy
00:19:45.000the inquest right where journalists were brought forward for different reasons um but it's similar
00:19:51.080it was about you jump on my bandwagon you believe in what i believe and um otherwise you're a
00:19:57.440communist well what trudeau has said many times whether it's vaccines or the way he's come about
00:20:02.740this and it would come towards media and public conversations and public debates and freedom of
00:20:08.420thought in this country, Corey, is are you a conservative? And if you are, you're a misogynist,
00:20:15.400you're an anti-vaxxer, you're, you know, so on and so on and so on. And I mean, he's compared
00:20:20.200people that have questioned his policies to being Nazis, to being homophobic, to being misogynist,
00:20:26.980to being people that are racist. This is all part of the plan. That's what I inherently believe,
00:20:32.840Corey, and no one's going to tell me much different. I am really turned up about this.
00:20:39.160I think this is not only overreach, this is an abuse of what's supposed to be an independent
00:20:44.860institution in this country, which is the CRTC, which is to help us navigate the ever-changing
00:20:51.800media landscape. And that includes the digital space, and that includes podcasts. And quite
00:20:57.860Frankly, all you're doing is pushing people out. You're not embracing more diverse opinions. So
00:21:03.780it's government creep. It is a hidden agenda. Absolutely. I've heard many conservatives talk
00:21:10.140about hidden agendas before. This is really one of the first that I'll say, yep, this is it. This
00:21:15.640is a hidden agenda. Absolutely. And he's going to leave a legacy and he's going to bare knuckle this
00:21:21.120white knuckle this all the way to him getting kicked out of office. And it's going to take
00:21:26.000the Conservatives' years to untie or untangle us from the precedence that this legislation or the
00:21:33.940legislations that we've seen pass forward and the regulatory changes that have been made. It's going
00:21:39.640to take us years because as you know, Corey, once you take that giant leap forward, it's really hard
00:21:44.540to put the genie back in the bottle. Well, that's it. And Canadians have voted with their eyes and
00:21:49.560their ears on media. The world is changing. The CBC is a dinosaur sitting there taking over a
00:21:55.080billion a year plus dipping into the advertising market yet their ratings are terrible there's not
00:21:59.700many people actually consuming their content but rather than change their content what the
00:22:05.500government wants to do is take away the alternatives and that's competition gets odious yes and i mean
00:22:11.640i i get frustrated i've seen you on x you know twitter talking about the people saying oh it's
00:22:16.280just the ones that make 10 million a year or more no no no no that's where they start and then those
00:22:20.920the hosts that those are the platforms that host all these different voices it's not about joe rogan
00:22:29.240okay i mean and and for example that's a great example of what i can and cannot get behind
00:22:34.920or why i'm doing this joe rogan speaks and most of the time i'm sort of cringing because you know me
00:22:41.720cory i live at the intersection of the law legislation precedent of parliament all that
00:22:46.840sort of good stuff. And then, you know, I mix it all in with what I think we need as not only
00:22:52.800Western Canadians, but what we need is a change for this country. So when I listened to Joe Rogan,0.69
00:22:57.620especially his advice on what you should be taking during COVID, I just wanted to pull my hair out.
00:23:02.900But would I ever get behind anything that makes it difficult for him to have his voice heard in
00:23:10.180this country no the same can be said about many of the far left groups that i have to listen to
00:23:17.060or even the or even the hosts that i listen to on the mainstream media that have significantly
00:23:23.120changed in the last few weeks especially out here in western canada i can't even believe what i'm
00:23:28.260listening to sometimes but it's important to scream at your radio it's important to have
00:23:34.260you know to fight to get up and feel that feeling that you want to hear you have your voice heard
00:23:39.940you want to be able to match it you want to be able to duel with people on it and you want to
00:23:44.420be able to debate the issues that are at hand here's what the trudeau liberals will tell you
00:23:49.520this is a bunch of conservatives that want to prop up the right-wing agenda no what this is
00:23:56.540is this conservative and i'm sure you as well cory i know you as well many of the people we know
00:24:03.480many of the people we've worked with everybody's going to stand arm in arm with nd peers liberals
00:24:08.840it doesn't matter the point is you will not on my watch have your rights reduced you will not
00:24:17.080lose your right to freedom of expression i will not say freedom of speech because that's not a
00:24:22.060canadian term but freedom of expression is you will not lose constitutional rights government
00:24:27.480creep under trudeau has become a significant crisis of democracy against a democracy in this
00:24:34.380country. And I'm not afraid to say it anymore. Yeah, well, and this is a solution looking for
00:24:40.100a problem. Like, it's people pointing, oh, we've got to stop misinformation or hate. Well, hang on.
00:24:44.080We've already got legislation. If I was spreading hate or inciting violence or hatred or slandering
00:24:51.080somebody, there's all sorts of legal recourse that I'll be subjected to that I'm going to pay
00:24:56.320some consequences for acting like that. Lauren Kinsella, the pundit, is a prime example of the
00:25:04.260watchdogs on, you know, be careful what you say. Nobody has lost their ability to sue somebody or
00:25:11.800to contact the police. You even look at Twitter now. The reality is this is simply Trudeau-isms.
00:25:18.780This is a Trudeau policy. He's trying to change the culture of the country. And I think at a time
00:25:26.480where Canadians are stopping dead in their tracks saying, wait a second, there's lots of things
00:25:31.660going on where this country is trying is being pulled in several directions parents have their
00:25:37.700own concerns uh you know you know the the rights of a few have outnumbered the rights of the whole
00:25:45.600and i don't understand what the end game is into attacking media the way that he has i mean
00:25:52.320i i the way that things have gone from bill c11 they have been absolutely a gigantic enormous
00:26:00.800failure we've had failures on the foreign policy stage Canada tripped fell on its face and the
00:26:06.380whole country tried not or the whole world tried not to laugh the other part to this is he talks
00:26:12.740about freedom of expression and everybody having a right to an opinion everybody having a right
00:26:18.600having the right to say what they want to say but in fact Trudeau has worked very hard at limiting
00:26:25.120the avenues for you, for people like yourself, Corey, or anyone else to be able to express that
00:26:31.380opinion. And, you know, the legislation, C-11 and its sister and companion legislation have
00:26:38.460but crippled and killed the Canadian media industry. The only group that's surviving is the
00:26:44.800CBC. I recommend your viewers and those who follow you on Twitter and your readers go and
00:26:53.140check out the release of the CBC's O'Budsman's annual report about the CBC and their rebuttal,
00:26:59.140you'll see the losses in there. You'll see the complaints in there. If that's our media of
00:27:06.960record in this country, we are up the creek without a paddle, Corey.
00:27:11.380Yeah, and the CBC has just gotten terrible. I mean, they've always had a leftward lean. That's
00:27:16.360nothing new. That was around since the 80s when I grew up, but it's tilted in this last 10 years
00:27:22.620to a point that it truly has become a government organ.
00:27:25.720And I know the reporters chafe every time I call them
00:27:27.800people working for the state broadcaster,
00:27:29.860but until they can start demonstrating otherwise,
00:27:42.740this is a great way to jump in and raise your voice again.
00:27:46.040But what I'm really here to say is that
00:27:48.400forget about the little schoolyard scraps
00:27:51.420that you've had maybe with, you know, you don't like Trudeau, the trucker, you know, the trucker's
00:27:57.360convoy wasn't a schoolyard scrap. It's sort of part hand in glove with some of this stuff. But
00:28:03.080this is the real, this is the big kahuna. This is the one piece of regulation, which should have
00:28:11.600come through legislation, because there's a piece of the constitution that requires if he's going
00:28:17.220to search for more money through taxation, whatever, that requires him to go through
00:28:20.880parliament and then have it passed obviously through the senate he hasn't done that what he's
00:28:25.940done is he's manipulated and interfered with what is supposed to be an independent regulatory body
00:28:31.140in canada i'm not surprised nothing stops him but this is an absolute overreach and creep into your
00:28:40.240fundamental rights for freedom of expression and your and and your basic civil liberties
00:28:45.540you can do this country you don't look at what the crtc released look at what they've said in
00:28:53.680the last six months and there's been many good writers uh that have come out and written on this
00:28:59.540today there's a gentleman by the name of peter menzies who i know you know cory he's a former
00:29:04.600vice here at the crtc he had a brilliant uh step-by-step on it today uh i i call it sort of
00:29:12.720the cheat sheet of why this is problematic. This is, as it sits today, this isn't going to be the
00:29:20.300end of it. This is just one piece to it. And the hearings start in November, which is a really
00:29:25.100short shift for most regulatory hearings. I mean, you know, Corey, it's normally 12 to anywhere to
00:29:31.680a year, you know, scheduling of that. This time, it's only four weeks before the hearings start.
00:29:37.880and so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out and whether or not that's broadcasted
00:29:43.300for all of us to see but to make no mistake this is just the beginning and or maybe it's the middle
00:29:50.840cory i'm not so sure but it's definitely not the end and this is not about a fight with the cbc you
00:29:57.120can have that i'm right there with you this is not about disliking trudeau this is about
00:30:03.200your rights being infringed upon. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, it's a good note to leave off on,
00:30:09.080and I'm sure we'll have to discuss this further. And again, as it develops, as we see the hearings
00:30:12.640and things like that, it's definitely the beginning of a new phase of control. And it's a very
00:30:17.500dangerous one. I mean, at this point, we can oppose and speak up and push back however we can,
00:30:22.620but we kind of got to wait now to see how it's going to unfold. So I appreciate you coming on
00:30:27.320to talk to us today, just because I don't think enough people understand just how serious this
00:30:31.720really is and uh how bad this could really get so if i could just if i could just make a quick
00:30:38.200note cory i am i have joined an organization that we will go public shortly uh where we will be
00:30:45.840fighting um and exposing uh the the concerns and the issues and the legal issues around this type
00:30:53.200of regulation and i'm very proud i i'm jumping the gun a bit here but i want your viewers to know
00:30:58.780that that this is something that I believe in so wholeheartedly as a Canadian that we I I'm now
00:31:08.520going to devote my time to this group it's a it's a very early stages but it will be people that you
00:31:13.940know who are going to join forces no matter who they vote for what partisan world they live in
00:31:20.380what they do for a living the people that I've spoken to and the people that will be that have
00:31:25.900joined the group are very concerned about this encroachment of our rights and it's and and this
00:31:31.320particular piece that has come out with the crtc was not the beginning it was the final straw for
00:31:37.060so many so hopefully cory we can keep you updated uh i know we're here to we're here to support you
00:31:44.020too you're one of the hardest working guys in media and i just really appreciate you giving
00:31:48.900me the opportunity today to express how how problematic this is and how serious this is
00:31:54.560Well, I appreciate that. And I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys put together because we need that opposition. So quickly, before I let you go, where can people find you on, I guess, X or, you know, formerly Twitter and other areas to keep track when things do start unfolding from you?
00:32:08.260They might remember me as formerly Gracie Style. Unfortunately, as I left Twitter, I lost that. Somebody else has that, so don't follow it. I'm Millsy Elise. Not the greatest name. You can also find me on LinkedIn. All of my socials are open for anyone to follow and to join or to request.
00:32:27.460and i will uh be be putting forward on twitter uh the website of of our of what this group will be
00:32:37.140we're still trying to give it a name it's a little bit of a ragtag group right now but we're hoping
00:32:42.280that we'll be able to uh really get in there and influence public opinion in the sense of
00:32:48.460why you need to pay attention to this so yeah come and follow me on twitter and uh enjoy the
00:32:54.780ride. It's getting feisty in there. And as Corey knows, I'm watching Corey's account and always
00:33:00.420ready to back you and jump in at a moment's notice, but you rarely need it. That's my
00:33:07.380favorite playground. All right. Well, again, I appreciate the work you're doing and you're
00:33:11.540coming on today, Elise. I'm sure we'll talk again about this soon and I look forward to what's
00:33:15.420coming up. Thank you so much, Corey. You take care. Great. Thank you. So that was Elise Mills.
00:33:20.920And yes, you can look her up on social media. Again, Google's great. We're still allowed to
00:33:24.460use it in Canada for now anyways. And you can find the Twitter account, the newer one and other
00:33:29.160such things as that. As she said, this is just warming up. It really is. And I wanted to talk
00:33:34.200about it because I don't, I think most of the viewers on here understand, you know, we are
00:33:39.000plugged in people. You guys are already alternative media watchers, but unfortunately, a whole lot of
00:33:45.200our Canadians, these will see independent media disappearing and they won't notice.
00:33:49.920They won't realize that all the alternatives disappeared somewhere.