MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider and the creators of a newly released documentary on free speech got to the heart of the decision that dealt a major blow to Big Tech censorship.
For the Dec. 4 edition of MRC UnCensored, Schneider spoke to the creators of the documentary The Bird and the Bee—filmmaker Matt Pirrall and Thomas Pack, Palladium Pictures’s program director and associate producer. The documentary covered satire website The Babylon Bee’s commendable refusal to bend to Twitter censorship—explaining how this choice led tech mogul Elon Musk to purchase and overhaul the social media platform now known as X.
Pirrall emphasized that comedy writers, not activists, took the stand that brought down the Twitter censorship regime. “These are just guys that like to joke around and poke fun at the media, poke fun at the establishment,” he said, referring to The Bee’s writers. “They do see their comedy as a way of speaking truth to power. But they're not activists. But I think that, like most people, they can see when the overreach has happened. Right? Like when viewpoints that should be up for legitimate public debate are being suppressed.”
Pirrall then posed an important question: “And how are we going to speak truth to power if we can't even joke about it?”
He also explained what his biggest takeaway from covering this censorship battle has been: “You don't have to be an activist or somebody who's, you know, taking huge political stances. You can just be joking with your friends, putting it out there. And as long as you can stand behind that humor, stand behind your ideas, stand behind your principles, you can make a huge difference in the world.”
The Bee certainly does stand behind its principles and its humor. As covered in The Bird and the Bee, the satire website humorously recognized Admiral Richard “Rachel” Levine with their 2022 Man of the Year award. Levine, Biden’s assistant secretary for health and a biological-born male, claims to be a woman.
In response to this joke, Twitter locked their account, ordering The Bee to take down the post. Pack emphasized the serious consequences of Twitter’s action, noting that The Bee depended on social media revenue. The Bee CEO Seth Dillon and Editor-in-Chief Kyle Mann refused to back down, drawing the attention of Musk, who directly reached out to ask about the censorship. Unlocking The Bee’s account was one of Musk’s first moves once he purchased Twitter.
And their 2022 stand is not the only example of The Bee’s toughness. At the height of 2020 wokeness, the satire website responded to accusations of racism against one of their stories by apologizing…for a wildly different story before mocking critics with a follow-up post.
Recently, we posted an article that many people found offensive. After much deliberation we would like to retract it.
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 19, 2020
During the MRC UnCensored episode, Schneider praised the documentary and the crucial actions of Musk and the decision-makers at The Bee, “It's got an important message and, and it obviously–reflects a really vital point in our nation's history where free speech and the First Amendment were saved both by the courage of the guys at The Babylon Bee and by Elon Musk, who put his fortune behind saving this platform for the purpose of saving America and our representational democracy.”
The Bird and the Bee is available to watch on RealClearPolitics and YouTube.
Editor’s Note: The Babylon Bee is a member of the MRC Free Speech Alliance.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
