Who represents the left and the right on free speech & news?

I am a news addict, both mainstream and online outlets. I try to balance my views by reading news from all outlets and mostly from outlets I disagree. However, after years of letting my mind get corroded, I realised a moment of realisation on the present state of craziness in the media. I have got down to three key points. I feel it is important as I have to use these filters to understand if I have to separate facts from opinions.

1. Free speech is a big issue for everyone. However, each person/outlet has defined groups based on a set of individuals who will fit their message.
2. Honesty is no more a common trait in individuals. It has a become a percentage game. There are some outlets/people who are almost always dishonest. There are outlets who are only honest when it favours them. Then, there are some outlets who try to be honest only when it doesn’t affect their message.
3. Social Media is an experiment for which civilisation wasn’t prepared well. We went from professional reporters giving us news to every person with a twitter/facebook account becoming a reporter in less than 5 years. People do not have time to manage their digital self effectively. They don’t have time to fit in all their digital emotions in a day and that effect has spread back to the mainstream outlets. Now, the mainstream reporting is based on social media craziness.

I want to expand on the first two points alone as the third point is quite self-explanatory.

Free Speech – Left vs Right

Calling oneself a Free Speech Crusader has become a fashion statement. However, everyone seems to be attacking other in this area. There is definitely an element on ingenuity on all parts. I have listed all the key people in media who talk about this. Everyone in this list is for free speech. However, they do not equally condemn the social justice warriors, who play victim cards, who indulge in identity politics and treat any non-white straight male as a delicate individual needing protection. The key media personalities I can identify in this discussion are given below.

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• Bill Maher
• Brendan O’Neill
• Cenk Uygur
• Dave Rubin
• Douglas Murray
• Glenn Greenwald
• Jordon Peterson
• Maajid Nawaz
• Sam Harris

There is a lot of personal animosity between people but all these people are for free speech. I want to break each of the group down into individual segments.

Left/Progressive Media (Cenk Uygur, Glenn Greenwald etc)
I want to list some examples of the left media and left leaders defending free speech. These get safely ignored by the voices who want to accuse the left or the progressives.

TYT on Charlie Hebdo Video 1
TYT on Charlie Hebdo Video 2
TYT defending Ben Shapiro
CNN defending Ann Coulter on free speech
Bernie Sanders for Ann Coulter
Bernie Sanders against UC Berkeley
Bernie Sanders for free speech on campus
Bernie Sanders on suppressing free speech

However, there are a few points where they miss out on some specifics.

1. They err on the side of the minority and sometimes to the extent of falling prey to the gimmicks like victim mentality and identity politics.
2. They are quick to brand someone as a neo-con if they do not agree with their agenda. Cenk once called Ayaan Hirsi Ali as a neo-con in foreign policy. It is laughable to call her one. People are complex and branding someone like this is extremely dangerous. Also, one has to put Ayaan view in context. She escaped child marriage, underwent female genital mutilation before taking refuge in Denmark. Her friend Theo van Gogh was murdered for making a film and the murderers wrote Ayaan’s name as the next using his blood. She is constantly under threat. Her words have to be heard in this context. They also do not support the progressive/liberal voices in the minority communities. For example, Maajid Nawaz in spite of all his political views is a liberal. I have hardly seen the progressive media support him. He is always portrayed as a sellout.
3. They tend to focus on geopolitics more than the influence of religion on the global violence and terrorism.

New Atheists (Bill Maher, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris)

There is definitely no question about these people being on the side of free speech. They are also pro-democracy and in most instances look for the welfare of most instead of the few. They are for minority rights across the board. However, they have a fall for friends syndrome. For Bill Maher, Isreal is right irrespective of what they do. I haven’t seen him complain about anything they have done. I would appreciate if he takes a cue from Christopher Hitchens on this front. Ayaan has to understand the impact of the US foreign policy on places which are not Islamic. You cannot defend the blunders of the CIA in South America. Sam Harris has to see that he cannot be liked by all or respected the same way by everyone. All three of them generalise Islam and can learn a bit from the way Maajid Nawaz talks about this topic.

Rest (Douglas Murray, Dave Rubin, Maajid Nawaz, Brendan O’Neill, Jordon Peterson)

The rest team wants to look at individuals from just their vantage point. Donald Trump is a good man if he is good to me is a non-sequitur. I find all of them fall into that trap. Dave Rubin changed his stance of Bernie Sanders without disagreeing on any policy just after he partnered with Learn Liberty. Brendon O’Neill doesn’t like people talking ill of religion or chauvinism by taking the example of his family. Maajid Nawaz has an issue with the  Southern Poverty Law Center, so he coined the word Regressive Left. Douglas Murray doesn’t appreciate the word white privilege, hence goes on a reverse rampage against communities which didn’t have anyone who said that. Jordon Peterson has an issue with the university he taught but fails to understand that people come to his show from different universities.

Honesty

As I mentioned at the start of this blog, I do not find honest a uniform trait in journalism or media anymore. Depending on the situation, I even find Fox News more honest than some of the progressive channels. Someone like Alex Jones is full of outright lies and dishonesty. There is no way Alex Jones can be classified as a reporter or InfoWars a news channel. I have a suspicion Alex Jones doesn’t consider himself a reporter. Hilariously,  Alex Jones’s company is Free Speech Systems LLC. The rest of the media seems to be a smear show of people they dislike. For example, Sam Harris who doesn’t like when he is quoted out of context and wants to call out the dishonesty of left doesn’t understand that Ben Shapiro who worked in Breitbart did the same with Chuck Hagel. Same is the case with Dave Rubin. Dave Rubin, who says he is for universal health care, prison reforms then wants to reduce government role in it. In the US, both prisons and health care are in the hands of the private players. Cenk, who doesn’t like when he is called regressive left, ends up calling most people who don’t fall into his bucket as neocons. Fox News is the only outlet which spoke about the grooming gangs in the UK, totally ignores any police brutality in the US.

• I have almost always stopped listening to the Rubin Report as it ceases to be about the big ideas. I look at people who come, what they stand for from their speeches. Dave Rubin says the right things about tolerance & free speech, till it reaches crossroads with his Learn Liberty buddies
• I listen to Sam Harris’s views on individual topics until he starts accusing or defending anyone.
• Jordon Peterson is good on psychology. His views on truth, politics and lot of social behaviours feel deluded.
• Bernie Sanders is good till he starts to defend Isreal in a very weird way.
• Bill Maher is still good, except when he defends his buddies in the democratic party.
• Cenk Uygur is good till he has to put everything in the bucket of foreign policy.
• Maajid Nawaz is good till he starts smearing Jeremy Corbyn based on partisan principles.
• Brendan O’Neill is good for views he concurs and is abject when he has to disagree or gets a personal example.

In conclusion, the media irrespective of the channel is biased and partisan. Even the best of them have, agreement with people I like, bickering about things I don’t and smearing on people I hate. It is increasingly important to look at facts and who is partnering the reporter. My strategy professor in my B-School once said it is important to know who is sleeping with whom in your organisation. I think it is just as important to know it in the news outlets.