The Daily Signal - A New York Times Columnist Falls to the Cancel Culture

Episode Date: July 16, 2020

New York Times opinion writer and editor Bari Weiss is the latest victim of the cancel culture, resigning after what she calls bullying by more liberal colleagues at the newspaper. Jarrett Stepman, a contributor to The Daily Signal and co-host of "The Right Side of History" podcast, joins today's show to talk about Weiss' resignation, the goal of cancel culture, how you can fight it, and more. We also cover these stories: President Trump says some cities run by Democrats are like war zones.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces new sanctions on Huawei and other Chinese tech companies.  A town in North Carolina greenlights reparations for African Americans.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, July 16th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Rachel Del Judas. My colleague Jared Stetman joins me on the podcast to talk about New York Times op-ed editor Barry Weiss's recent resignation, as well as the cancel culture movement. Don't forget. If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now onto our top news. President Trump said some cities. run by Democrats are like war zones. Here's what he had to say during a Justice Department briefing

via Fox News. Portland was very rough and they called us in and we did a good job to put it mildly. Many people in jail right now. But we have other cities that are out of control.

They're like war zones. And if the city is going to straighten it out of local politicians or in this case, I don't say this for political reasons. They're all Democrats. They're liberal,

left-wing Democrats. And it's almost like they think this is going to be this way forever. We're in Chicago. 68 people were shot and 18 died last week. We're not going to put up with that. We're not going to put up with that. So that's for our next discussion. Thank you all very much.

I appreciate it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced new sanctions against Huawei and other Chinese tech companies on Wednesday. The State Department is placing new visa restrictions on some employees of Huawei, which Pompeo referred to as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party. During a press conference at the State Department, Pompeo explained that the new restrictions are a result of the company's human rights violations. He said, quote, the State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like

Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights, violations, and abuses globally. And Pompeo added that telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice. If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers. A town in North Carolina has greenlighted reparations for African Americans in the area. The Asheville City Council voted 70-0 Tuesday to make reparations for its part in discrimination in slavery. Hundreds of years of black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today, Councilman Keith Young said, via USA Today. Young pushed the initiative and is one of two African-American members of the council.

The measure will not give payments to black residents, but instead invest in places where black people face challenges per USA Today. Young added, it is simply not enough to remove statues. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systematic in nature. The family of George Floyd has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers present at the scene of George Floyd's death. The family's attorney, Ben Crump, announced the suit during a press conference Wednesday per KHOU 11. Today, we have filed a federal wrong for death civil rights lawsuit on behalf of George Floyd's family and all of his children. We are going to have an important conversation that continues based on this lawsuit that documents what we have said all alone. And that is, it was not just the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. But it was the knee of the entire Minneapolis Police Department on the neck of George Floyd that killed him.

Now stay tuned for my interview with my colleagues. colleague Jarrett Stettman on Barry Weiss's resignation from the New York Times and the cancel culture movement. If you're tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger and bigger government, it's time to partner with the most impactful conservative organization in America. We're the Heritage Foundation, and we're committed to solving the issues America faces. Together, we'll fight back against the rising tide of homegrown socialism, and we'll fight for conservative solutions that are making families.

more free and more prosperous, but we can't do it without you. Please join us at heritage.org. I'm joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Jared Stetman. He's a contributor to the Daily Signal and co-host of the Right Side of History podcast. Jared, it's great to have you with us. Thank you very much, Rachel. Well, thanks for making time to talk today. You recently had a piece up on the Daily's Signal talking about Barry Weiss's resignation from her post

as an op-ed editor and writer at the New York Times. And for those who are unfamiliar with Barry and what's happened in the past few days and even months, can you kind of give us this neat peek as to what happened? Yeah, it's really interesting. Barry is an opinion editor and sometimes commentary writer at the New York Times. She was actually brought in following the 2016 election because the New York Times felt somewhat blindsided by the results by the election

and wanted to bring in other voices to the, to the publication to kind of understand the broader trends in the country. And in the last few years, she has brought in, I would say, differing voices to the New York Times. She's highlighted a lot of issues that have often crossed swords, especially with the far left. And she's definitely been somebody who has been under a microscope since her hiring there at the New York Times. But what happened on, interestingly enough, July 14th, which I guess was Bastille Day, she decided to resign from the New York Times, and she wrote a long resignation letter that I think was really had broader implications, not just for the New York Times and their kind of left-wing tilt,

but for the media environment in general, which is kind of welcoming, I think this idea of cancel culture, of having a kind of single, you know, set of ideas only at these publications, of course, those being on the far left and essentially squashing any voices that don't agree with that. And her resignation letter, which I think is absolutely a phenomenal defense, both of the idea of free debate and opinion, but it's also rebuked to this idea of cancel culture, this idea of the mob essentially taking over publications, so to speak. So I think her letter of resignation is well worth reading for anybody who wants to understand where the media environment is going right now.

Well, since you mentioned her letter, in the letter she talks about specifically the pursuit of truth and how at the New York Times truth, she writes, isn't a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else. Jared, what would you say is happening right here? I mean, that's right. I mean, this really comes down to there being only one accepted opinion, and that's it. I mean, I think listeners have to keep in mind that Barry was not even a conservative voice. She was a moderate liberal voice who occasionally had some differences of opinion with some of the more far left members of her publication, those who are on the left in this country.

And that's ultimately what got her, I think, fairly savagely attacked. I think even in her resignation letter, she explained how her coworkers had bullied her, who had acted aggressively and inappropriately, both privately and publicly toward her. It's this idea that you can't have any opinions that are outside of what we say, the powers that be say. I think this kind of mirrors what's going on in broader society, where I think that the culture of free speech and free debate and inquiry is being replaced by simply shutting down and silencing your opponents. I think we've seen a lot of this on college campuses in the last 20, 30 years.

But I think what we're seeing now is that moving toward the mainstream is a lot of students that college campuses move to newsrooms, they move into corporate America. I think these ideas now are percolating in mainstream civil society. And I think this is the result. I think it's people like Barry and many, many others who are simply getting canceled because, you know, they are not politically correct on every single issue that the far left really agrees with. And that's a worrying thing for not just conservatives, but for people across the political spectrum who believe in that pursuit of truth. Well, Jared, what would you say looking at this from, you know, just like taking a step back and looking at what cancel culture has done already, what is their goal? Their goal is power. I mean, they really do, I think, ultimately want to silence opposition. I think this is part of a broader agenda for people to essentially accept narratives rather than the pursuit of the truth. You know, the New York Times, you know, which has already run with the 1619 project, which, you know, I and many others have, many historians have criticized as a kind of warping of American history. I mean, even some of the projects, architects, you know, conceded that the, the, There were some factual flaws there, but this was given that the Pulitzer Prize and is now being pushed in classrooms around the country.

You know, it's something that is just factually, you know, has many inaccuracies. But the thing is, is that the narrative mattered more. The narrative mattered more than simply what was the truth, what was accurate, what was what was right. And I think that that is, I think that's where we're heading unless people put a foot down to this so-called cancel culture is that, you know, if, you know, they're going to try. to essentially silence anybody who has even slight disagreement. I think that's a really worrying thing in a free society, which is really built on this idea that we have all these protections, we have all these things that allow us to pursue this truth. Well, what would you say, Jurek, conservatives can learn from Barry Weiss and what happened

to her and also how she responded? Yeah, I think a big takeaway here is, you know, again, this is somebody who is on the moderate left. I mean, this is not just something that's coming after conservatives who are, especially at places like the New York Times, are already mostly canceled already. This is the revolution eating itself up. It's attacking other liberals for not being aggressive enough and not, you know, joining essentially with the rest of the mob. And that's, that's a worrying thing for the entire country. And I think that's why this idea of cancel culture needs to be at the forefront of what conservatives stand against.

I mean, we, you know, hopefully you would say that conservatives stand for free speech. They stand for the constitutional system that we have, this culture of the freedom of speech and debate that should exist in any free society, but now I think is aggressively under assault. And I think it's important right now to stand for those, you know, even those who have differing opinions who are being canceled, who are being attacked, I think, rather viciously. This is definitely an important moment, I think, in these kind of cultural wars that we're currently having showing this is how radical this revolution is this cultural revolution is really going. Well, another recent victim of the cancel culture movement is Goya Foods, their Hispanic-owned food company, and they've been seeing calls for a boycott after its CEO praised President Trump at a recent event at the White House. And Jared, what's going on here?

Is this another cancel culture victim? Absolutely it is. It's incredible that, I mean, the CEO basically just said that he was happy that President Donald Trump was present, that he was essentially just doing a good job. I mean, I think in normal times, this would just be seen. It's a normal statement from a businessman praising the president of the United States, the rightfully elected president of the United States. 20, 30 years ago, this may have been seen as utterly normal. I mean, we don't, you know, it's not even clear from his statements that he's necessarily a Republican. or a Trump supporter simply expressed his approval of the president, that got him canceled. That created a mass boycott campaign, basically saying if in any way whatsoever you praise or support President Donald Trump, you are not acceptable in polite society. We're going to come after you. You shouldn't be able to have a business. You should be shut down. And that's really scary about this moment. That's why these cultural issues are at such a forefront because, yes, maybe a man who who is a CEO of a major corporation, Goya, can survive that kind of attack. But what about people

who aren't so prominent? What about people who don't have a powerful platform? What happens when normal people who don't have that kind of power get canceled in this culture and are excluded from civil society? And I think that is what's worrying, not just, again, for the rich and powerful, but for people of all backgrounds in this country who will at some point fall victims to the mob for not having the politically correct views. Well, Ivanka Trump had tweeted her support after the media and others called for the boycott of Goya Foods. And then she was met with allegations saying she broke ethics rules by posting a photo

with the Goya product. Would we be seeing this similar outrage if this was from a liberal political figure? No, absolutely not. because, you know, there's clearly a double standard here. And again, it goes to this idea that if you cross swords with what the kind of cultural left wants, you're subject to cancel. You're subject to, you know, being aggressively attacked. And there's absolutely a double standard in how the media and these institutions treat

figures like this. I mean, it's, you know, it's something that, again, it's been building for a long time in this country. We've seen the bias at a lot of different publications. It's silly to think that the New York Times or CNN or any of these other publications haven't had a left-wing skew. But I think you've kind of seen the merger between that left-wing view and radical activists who now use those institutions to destroy the lives of people who they see as their enemies. And I think that's what's really concerning and worrying and what's so different about even politics of 10, 20 years ago. We've really hit a a new phase of politics where, you know, you can really only have one set of acceptable opinions and all else, well, I mean, that's too bad. You're going to be crushed. Jared, looking into the future, how do you think cancel culture will have an impact on American society as a whole? Well, I think it certainly will have a negative one. I think that the important part is where Americans in general, I mean, just average Americans where they start to draw the line,

because really cancel culture has its power by letting aggressive bullies essentially get their way. I mean, to a certain extent, that goes to Barry's letter. She was bullied by an aggressive minority, powerful people in leadership, including editors at the New York Times, instead of defending the person who is getting bullied, back down to the mob. And I think that's a lesson for everybody right now, really any American, and especially those who are in positions of leadership, to not back down to the demands of these bullies. I mean, to simply draw that line and say, no, we're not going to go after this person, you know, even if I disagree with them, because I'm not going to bow down to the mob.

And I think that's an incredible, I think that's why this is such an incredibly important moment. And maybe, hopefully, eye-opening for a lot of people, even those who are not necessarily traditionally conservatives to say, do I really want to live in a society in which, you know, any little thing I say in any disagreement I have, you know, means that I'm basically strict from polite society. I don't think a lot of people want to live in that world. And we'll see certainly what happens in coming years and the kind of pushback we see to this idea. And hopefully there's a reinvigoration of the culture of free speech in this country, because I think we really need it. So there are a lot of Americans who obviously do love this country and are upset by the havoc that

cancel culture is creating in some aspects. How can Americans fight cancel culture? Again, I think it's really is a matter of standing up to bullies. And I think it's a matter of people who are in positions of leadership to continually draw that line, to not back down. I mean, I think that's incredibly important to signal to the mob that they can't simply get their way and support those leaders who are willing to be honest about this and willing to draw that line. I think that's what's so needed in this moment. I don't think that the cancellers represent a majority of the American population, certainly not yet. They will if they're allowed to continue to do what they do. I mean, I think that is the real danger here that a angry, militant minority of people who are very illiberal in their views are allowed to simply get their way at every turn.

I think that's why it's important for America. If we want to be free, we have to be brave. And at this moment, it's incredibly important to not back down to the bullies. Well, Jared, thank you so much for joining us today on the Daily Signal Podcast. It's been great to have you. Thank you very much. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast.

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