The censorious impulses of Big Tech sadly are no longer shocking — but they are disappointing nonetheless.
NewsTalkSTL is a conservative radio station that launched in St. Louis in July 2021. There are many prominent St. Louis area politicians and talk show host, such as Chris Arps (my RedState colleague). (Full disclosure — yours truly is also a regular guest and frequent fill-in co-host at that station.)
Not two months into its existence, the station had its first brush with Big Tech censorship, when Facebook saw fit to take down two brief promos regarding the station, neither of which contained anything more controversial than stating the obvious — that it’s a conservative talk station.
Chris was the first to write about it:
Facebook seems to be up to its old tricks of banning speech they don’t like, especially if that speech is conservative speech. Back in July, a brand new conservative radio station started broadcasting in my hometown of St. Louis. Locally owned and operated, NewstalkSTL offers political opinions from local hosts (the station also broadcasts the Dan Bogino and Joe Pags programs) that listeners in the St. Louis metro area have grown to trust. For full disclosure, I co-host the afternoon show with former Missouri Speaker Tim Jones and our exceptional executive producer Katie Fitzpatrick.
We’ve been on the air a little over two months now, and the reception from the listening audience has been tremendous. The station’s success inspired the station to launch a 4-week Facebook ad campaign to increase awareness of our station. One of the station’s taglines is “We offer news, analysis, and opinion.” Evidently, the Facebook censors could not approve our advertisement that simply told you who we were and how to listen. “influence public opinion.”
This was followed by an effort by JP Morgan Chase, via its subsidiary, WePay, in November of 2021, to cancel an event sponsored by NewsTalkSTL and co-hosted by Paul Curtman (one of the station’s hosts). Chase severed its payment processing relationship with the Defense of Liberty PAC, claiming that the organization was engaged in “hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism.”
Here’s what I wrote back then:
WePay stated that an organization that had a recent guest speaker who was African-American (Owens) was the one whose event was to be featured Cecilia S. JohnsonThe National Director for Black Engagement at the RNC and one of its hosts. fighting terror was engaged in “hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism.” (Having attended several of these events, I can assure you this assertion is utter bunk.)
In late Fall, the station began streamlining its programs on YouTube and Facebook. It wasn’t long before the Censor Scolds at YouTube threw a flag and suspended the station, ostensibly for “medical misinformation” (following discussions regarding Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and references to potential therapeutics, such as Ivermectin).
Make sure you’re listening to The @dbonginoToday at 12:00pm CT/1.05 PM ET to listen @SpeakerTimJonesDiscuss media censorship and the YouTube ban. @rumblevideoYou can also open an account🎊
— NewsTalkSTL (@NewstalkSTL) January 6, 2022
In February, YouTube was again suspended. The YouTube suspension was for approximately a month, even though it was meant to be two weeks.
NewsTalkSTL didn’t stop streaming (via Facebook, Twitter and Rumble) And rather than kowtowing to YouTube’s cluck-clucking regarding “misinformation,” made a running joke of the situation, with host Vic Porcelli and producer Ken Williams adopting as nicknames the “controversial” therapeutics of “Hydroxychloroquine” and “Monoclonal Antibodies,” (“Mo,” for short).
After being back on YouTube for several weeks, the station disappeared again. Then, lo and behold! An attempt to see it this morning failed. The channel was just…gone.
This morning, the station was informed by an email that they had been removed from the platform.
NewsTalk STL has been permanently removed from YouTube ‼️
It was certain that this day would eventually come. This morning we have lost access to the channel. It has been removed from YouTube.🚫🚫
Read the email they sent us below:https://t.co/dQ5eli1npq— NewsTalkSTL (@NewstalkSTL) March 21, 2022
The e-mail announces the removal of the station’s channel for “severe or repeated violations” of the platform’s Community Guidelines. It continues the email with sincere concerns.
We know this is probably very upsetting news, but it’s our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe place for all.
No specifics were provided as to the hazards posed by NewsTalkSTL’s content, but I’m sure the wrongthink and wrongspeak were very, very unsafe.
Jeff Allen, owner of the station, replied to questions about the ban:
“It was just a matter of time. “We have been stuck in YouTube jail for quite some time. They don’t seem to like conservative discussions. Hello Rumble!”
Currently, NewsTalkSTL has over 8,700 subscribers on Rumble (just two months after starting up that account), so something tells me, they’ll be just fine.
NewsTalkSTL can be found at 94.1 and 101.9 on the FM dial in St. Louis — and streaming on Facebook and Twitter (for now) and Rumble. (I’ll be sitting in as a guest co-host with Chris Arps this Wednesday and Friday at 3:30 pm Central, for those interested in keeping tabs on the dastardly goings-on at this dangerously subversive outlet.)
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