Ben Shapiro's Surprise Podcast Movement Appearance

The “who’s who” of the Podcast Industry gathered last week in Dallas for the 8th annual  Podcast Movement. On next week’s Media Roundtable podcast, Oxford “Roadies” who attended will share their take on this year’s event, but this week we’re talking about the “Ben Shapiro incident” that is making news with a post by Oxford Founder and CEO, Dan Granger.

Ben Shapiro Canceled at Podcast Movement – Here’s What We Need to Do 

By Dan Granger

As some of you may have read, last week I was compelled to author a rant in the form of a series of LinkedIn posts about Podcast Movement’s Twitter Apology for allowing The Daily Wire Founder & Editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro’s presence at the conference, and the harm that it caused.

As noted in my post, while many of my own personal views contrast with Ben’s, his attendance was as legitimate as mine as a speaker and in line with the diverse community environment I’d come to believe Podcast Movement was all about. In fact, The Daily Wire, his media property, was a paid sponsor!

After posting to LinkedIn, I was surprised by how many others from across the industry felt the way I do, even those that despise Ben. In short, Podcast Movement’s hasty negative response went against everything many of us in this industry have been fighting for including tolerance, credibility, and evenhandedness in media. Instead of first consulting the community, data or event tools, they bluntly canceled without clear explanation, or reconciling their decision with their stated mission.

I was grateful to see The Blaze write a story to amplify my message. I only wish that more journalists who do not align with the views of Ben or The Daily Wire would speak out as well. I’ve always been captivated by the quote (often misattributed to Voltaire), “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Sometimes I fear that this spirit has been lost in modern media, where contradictory ideas and views are seen as harmful threats instead of invitations to a conversation in a good faith search for truth.

I hope the public shaming and disavowing of sponsorship of Ben Shapiro will serve as a teachable moment and cause us all to look in the mirror. If we truly believe in the free exchange of ideas as a foundational pillar of our democracy, then more of us will need to stand up, particularly for people with whom we have the most clear disagreements.

What now? If Podcast Movement really is a diverse community, I propose we all come together for a town hall event to discuss what happened and find ways to do better in the future, or at least address their new organizational values, which would make decisions like these less of a surprise. Why?

1) It would allow the Podcast Movement community to hear from one another. Of course, Podcast Movement reacted to the concerns of attendees. But, in their approach, they ignored others and their own decision to allow The Daily Wire to be a sponsor in the first place. The move came across as tone-deaf, disingenuous and intolerant.

2) It would allow us to dive into helpful discussions about community tolerance and tools as best practices for “hard calls” versus seemingly partisan moves by, I’m sure, the very well-intending humans in the loop.

What do you say, Podcast Movement, your place or mine? You’ve got a standing invitation to The Media Roundtable for a good faith discussion.