Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager Discuss Cancel Culture
|
Time
Text
Richard Nixon's era.
He's with the Nixon Library, which you should all visit, whatever you think of Richard Nixon.
It is a wonderful presidential library.
I've been there many times.
And what is your role at the Nixon Library?
I am the president and CEO and a member of the board and the general council, and I clean up after people who come.
I have new Cheeto wrappers around.
Yeah, Dennis, before I run out of...
I've got to tell you, I'm so astonished by the number of people who have visited PragerU to watch the Nixon video.
In one day, a million people.
Because during the break, I was reading about Amazon's purchase of MGM announced this morning for $8.5 billion.
And they're doing that to get eyeballs.
And everybody competes for viewers.
And I think to myself, if they got a show to be watching, you know, a million people at PragerU yesterday has more than watched all of CNN yesterday.
And so it's just astonishing what you've done.
And someday, I know you're not for profit, I want to thank all the people who donate to keep PragerU going, because it matters to the future of the country, and people should and ought to include Prager University in their giving, and they ought to plan for them in their estates.
They ought to do all that stuff, because if it's worth doing now, it's worth doing for the next 50 years.
But I am amazed that Netflix or Amazon or Apple TV hasn't approached you to run a Prager channel.
Or a Prager program.
Has that happened yet?
It's hard to imagine it happening.
Netflix would not even stream No Safe Spaces because I was in it with Adam Carolla.
You're not serious.
I'm totally serious.
Netflix is as corrupt as the rest of them.
That's nuts.
I mean, just from a value perspective.
True believers don't care about money.
Leftism is a religion.
Would a Catholic change his view on abortion for a sum of money?
No.
Would a leftist change for a sum of money?
No.
Yes.
This is where we disagree.
I always think money will drive, eventually will drive, then the creation of an alternative network.
Like Fox ought to have the Prager show running.
Six videos in a half hour every day.
Even if they only run it after primetime or before primetime, they ought to have the Prager video show.
Because that's an astonishing audience.
You know that.
And it happens every time, right?
That's right.
Every time.
Exactly.
And even my podcast, The Fireside Chat, is three quarters of a million minimum each week.
And they don't even know about your ornithology, Jones.
My ornithology?
What?
Well, I understand you just got back from chasing the Russian rare green shank.
Yes.
I didn't know you knew that.
That is correct.
Well, I know.
There was a new bird.
It's called the Prager hawk.
No, it's the Russian rare green shank.
I read all about it.
There's a Prager What's Dennis Up To website that I keep track of.
I would like to announce to the public, there is no colleague of mine that can stay serious with me for more than 10 minutes.
It is not possible.
I bring out the absurd in virtually everyone I talk to.
That will be how I am remembered.
Well, then people will remember you fondly.
Yes, I agree with you.
I have no problem with that.
Make people happy.
By the way, you don't know I actually did.
Either this week or last week, I actually broadcast a story about how the American Ornithological Association is dropping all of the names of birds because a lot of the names belong to white supremacists.
I did not hear that story.
You know, I'm not surprised.
I'll tell you why.
The battle commission, or the base renaming commission, of which I approve, by the way, I don't believe bases should be named for some of these Confederate generals like Fort Hood, etc.
But they are going to rename the destroyer the Antietam, or at least they're talking about it.
The Antietam was a Union victory.
I don't understand that.
That's right.
I don't understand it.
I don't either.
It doesn't make, it's sort of, it's beyond Orwellian.
It's gone into a sort of madness that cycles and spirals, which is why I think, isn't that part of the success of Prager?
Is that enough people, not Prager Dennis, but Prager you.
I know, we understood, yeah.
Yeah, that they just need to go somewhere to actually get a baseline of facts.
That's what I did the Watergate video for, just give people a baseline context for things.
Do you know, with all the attack pieces on us, When it's now approaching 500 videos, they cannot cite one line in one video to condemn PragerU.
That's how seriously we take the task of being truthful and being sober.
But when did you ever become a lightning round?
I mean, I've been on the road with you for 30 years, doing events, and we've done 100 shows, 200, 500 shows together.
You've never said anything remotely controversial other than you are a political conservative and a man of the right.
But so is Edmund Burke.
I mean, so is Clarence Thomas.
So is every great conservative.
Why do they not like Dennis Prager now?
Are you actually being canceled?
Yes.
There are even just PragerU, not just me.
But you don't know the great story of when I testified in the Senate?
Oh, I saw that.
I played that.
But I thought that was a one-off, a one video.
No, no, no.
There are at least 100 PragerU videos that are still on the restricted list.
If you filter out pornography and violence, you cannot see those particular videos.
And if you look at the list, not one belongs on it.
And we're shadow banned.
It's a very serious problem for us and for all conservative media.
Well, they were like Ron DeSantis.
I'm at the Republican Governors Association today and tomorrow broadcasting in Nashville.
And Governor DeSantis will be here.
And he signed a law prohibiting political points of view in common carrier platforms, which I will applaud.
It's probably not constitutional.
I will applaud if they expand it even more to provide that it doesn't just govern political speech, because that's where it's going to have a First Amendment failure.
But you began to ask me about Nixon, and I think maybe the animus against Dennis Prager is not unrelated to the animus against Richard Nixon in the media, which is if you take on sacred cows, the cows never forget.
And Nixon took on Hiss, exposed Hiss as a communist, and the eastern establishment never forgot and never forgave.
Elder Hiss was their fair-haired boy.
And the eastern establishment is, of course, Manhattan Beltway Media Elite, as fueled by Harvard, Yale, and the other Ivies into their little cloistered village of influence that is Manhattan and Beltway bound.
And now they've got annexes in Silicon Valley and Hollywood.
But I don't even think this is disputable anymore, Dennis.
That's right, it isn't.
Hey, listen, we'll do a part two.
You're terrific, and the video is terrific.
Great to talk to you.
Thank you, my friend.
Thank you.
We're going to use some of his comments for fundraising.
I didn't expect a word about it, my dear friends, to be honest.