Cumulus Media, a major broadcasting company with the motto, “Every Voice Matters,” has cut ties with Podcast Movement for apologizing that Ben Shapiro, the outspoken conservative writer, radio talk show host and podcaster, made a brief appearance at a trade show it organized.
The Atlanta-based company that owns over 400 radio stations said it was “dismayed and disappointed” by the reaction of the trade association to Shapiro’s appearance at the Dallas event in August.
.@JeremyDBoreing calls out @PodcastMovement for condemning @benshapiro for “his presence”: “This is an outright act of bigotry.” pic.twitter.com/M0ZPyIixND
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 1, 2022
Podcast Movement, “the world’s largest community of podcasters,” as it likes to be known, held its annual conference in Dallas for five days at the end of last month.
They were quick to issue a profuse apology in a thread on Twitter when complaints arose about the brief sighting of Shapiro at The Daily Wire booth. Shapiro is a co-founder of The Daily Wire.
“Hi folks, we owe you an apology before sessions kick off for the day. Yesterday afternoon, Ben Shapiro briefly visited the PM22 expo area near The Daily Wire booth. Though he was not registered or expected, we take full responsibility for the harm done by his presence,” they tweeted on August 25.
In other tweets that were also since deleted, they wrote:
“There’s no way around it: We agreed to sell The Daily Wire a first-time booth based on the company’s large presence in podcasting. The weight of that decision is now painfully clear. Shapiro is a co-founder. A drop-in, however unlikely, should have been considered a possibility,”
“Those of you who called this “unacceptable” are right. In 9 wonderful years growing and celebrating this medium, PM has made mistakes. The pain caused by this one will always stick with us. We promise that sponsors will be more carefully considered moving forward.”
No specific information was given as to the “harm” caused by Shapiro’s appearance at his own booth at the podcast conference.
“Literally shaking [right now]. Podcast Movement is threatening my right to exist. This is erasure,” the Harvard Law-educated Shapiro tweeted at the time.
Cumulus Media, which has syndicated Shapiro’s podcast since 2019, issued a statement announcing that they were “disassociating” from Podcast Movement:
“At Cumulus Media, our tenet is that Every Voice Matters and we support conferences and trade events where differing political viewpoints can be expressed and received with respect. As such, we were dismayed and disappointed by Podcast Movement’s handling of the reaction to our partner, top podcaster, and conservative talk leader Ben Shapiro’s mere presence at Podcast Movement. After giving the leaders of Podcast Movement sufficient time to appropriately address their misstep, we are disassociating from Podcast Movement, including canceling our 2023 sponsorship plans.”
“I’m glad to see our longtime partner Cumulus/Westwood One taking such a strong and public stand against Podcast Movement’s outright and abject bigotry,” Jeremy Boreing, co-founder with Shapiro of Daily Wire, said Tuesday.
“Though Podcast Movement quietly removed their bigoted tweet thread over the weekend, they still have yet to retract and publicly apologize for their hateful comments about Ben Shapiro and The Daily Wire,” he added.
“In an illiberal moment such as the one we’re currently living in, if we don’t stand up to this kind of bigoted behavior it’s only going to get worse,” he continued. “I certainly hope Cumulus’s strong response to Podcast Movement is the first of many others like it.”
The Daily Wire co-founder had slammed the “unadulterated bigotry” in comments last week.
.@JeremyDBoreing calls out @PodcastMovement for condemning @benshapiro for “his presence”: “This is an outright act of bigotry.” pic.twitter.com/M0ZPyIixND
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 1, 2022
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