Why These Stars’ Political Protest of SiriusXM Is Foolish

The key to the ability for artists and other creative individuals to thrive is America’s unprecedented right to free speech.

Musicians, writers, filmmakers, and others are able to express themselves openly and, in turn, expose others to new viewpoints or insights they would otherwise never have contemplated.

You would think that having a career entirely based on expression and the right to free speech would make more celebrities proponents of that right — and defenders against those who threaten it.

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Unfortunately, many modern celebrities appear to be lacking in depth on this subject. How many prominent artists have come forward to protest and denounce anti-free speech movements on college campuses — or the bullying and violent protests against conservative speakers such as Ben Shapiro?

Singer Melissa Etheridge and filmmaker Seth Rogen are the two latest examples of celebrities who seem to shrug off free speech.

Rogen, one of the stars and producers of the new film “The Disaster Artist,” announced last week he was protesting SiriusXM radio in light of the fact that former White House chief strategist and current Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon was hosting a program, “Breitbart News Daily,” for the subscription-based service. Rogen said he would do no press promotion for his latest film as long as the company did business with the conservative and Trump-supporting Bannon.

“I was supposed to do a press tour on @SIRIUSXM on Tuesday but I’m no longer doing it because I can’t bring myself to appear on the same service that has decided to support Steve Bannon,” tweeted Rogen. “Apologies to the shows I had to cancel. And f*** Steve Bannon.”

It was a strange decision, to say the least — especially considering SiriusXM is not a politically conservative company. Sure, Bannon has a show, but so do a variety of other people with a wide array of political opinions. Many shows or their guests typically express no political opinions at all.

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One of those shows is from musician Melissa Etheridge. The interview program, called “Melissa’s Basement,” may be ending, since Etheridge joined in Rogen’s protest and said she would refuse to continue hosting her show as long as Bannon had a voice with the company.

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After she was questioned by someone on Twitter about her support of free speech, she responded, “I will fight for anyone’s right to free speech. I will not be a part of amplifying or normalizing hate speech.” She gave no specific examples of what she qualified as “hate speech” from Bannon.

SiriusXM has not caved to the pressure. The company released a statement in response to Rogen — and also in response to former Democrat Gov. Howard Dean, who said he was protesting Sirius because of Bannon as well  — that made clear they would continue to stand for free speech in their choices of programming.

“SiriusXM takes no political position of our own across our more than 175 channels, but we are here to provide an open forum no matter where listeners stand on the political spectrum,” a statement from company spokesperson Patrick Reilly to The Hollywood Reporter read. “Free speech is vitally important … We ardently believe that by allowing a virtually unlimited platform of viewpoints, we are doing our best to uphold that core value.”

Many left-leaning SiriusXM hosts rallied around the company — and questioned the logic of protests from people like Rogen and others.

“Really? I disagree profoundly with Steve Bannon and I make that perfectly clear on my SXM show. However, I don’t believe in silencing people with whom I disagree,” read a tweet from the account of “Steele & Ungar,” a SiriusXM program headed by former chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele and Rick Ungar, a senior political contributor at Forbes.com.

Other left-leaning hosts such as Mike Signorile and Dean Obeidallah also showed support for SiriusXM in tweets.

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It’s a strange world in which artists seem so sternly against free speech. What kind of political stance should be based on the notion that those who disagree with you should be silenced?

Regardless of one’s opinions about Bannon, to think a company like SiriusXM should not provide him with a platform because he is conservative is ludicrous. Should Bannon and others also take the same stance and demand liberals be removed from companies with which they associate? What kind of world would that give us? One sad answer would be this: one in which no one talks to each other or listens — and we all live inside dangerous echo chambers.

Artists should know better than anyone else how important free speech is.

Artists should know better than anyone how important free speech is — and how vital it is to communicate with and be open to people with different views, no matter how wrong they may think those people are.

These artists, like many others, have let hysteria cloud their judgment so much that they’re arguing against the very right that makes their careers and success possible in the first place.

PopZette editor Zachary Leeman can be reached at [email protected]. 

(photo credit, article image: Steve Bannon, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)