Three Reasons Free Speech Is Endangered: We talk about free speech a lot on this program as it pertains to cases dealing with Christian bakers, photographers, etc, but there”€™s another side of free speech that we don”€™t think of as often. What about the attacks on free speech that occur on online outlets? Do companies have the right to choose who to censor? Tune in now!

Air Date: 02/04/2019

Guest: Joseph Farah

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

You”€™ve found your way to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! Where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, the culture, all these different areas. But we always look at them from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re doing that with David Barton today, he”€™s America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Tim Barton is with us, he”€™s a national speaker and pastor, and the president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator.

You can find out more about all of us at WallBuildersLive.com and also WallBuilders.com. That”€™s two different sites. The WallBuilders Live site is the radio site. So, that’s where you can go to get a list of our stations across the country, you can go get archives of the program, which means you can look back over the last few months and listen to some of the Good News Friday programs, the Foundations of Freedom Thursday programs, the interviews, it’s all available right there at WallBuildersLive.com.

And then at WallBuilders.com, our main website, that’s where you get a wealth of information and tools to equip and inspire your family to be better citizens and to help save our constitutional republic. It’s also a place for you to come alongside us here at WallBuilders Live and be a part of contributing to the cause. When you make a donation at WallBuilders Live, it helps us spread the good news, helps us equip legislators, and pastors, and young people, through the training that we do. But also just to do this daily radio program to bring you these inspiring stories and equip you as well.

The Other Side of Free Speech Attacks

Rick:

Well, guys later in the program, Joseph Farah will be with us. He’s the guy that founded World Net Daily, written dozens of books, and has a great article out right now on free speech being endangered in America. Of course, we talk about this a lot on the program in terms of cases out there – Christian bakers, or photographers, or whatever, being forced to say things and express things that they don’t want to.

But then we also the other side of the free speech attacks that are out there and that is being shut up and not being allowed to express yourself. Whether it’s Facebook, or Google, or whoever. And we’ve all been, at some point, blocked or throttled on those outlets because we simply profess biblical viewpoints and these leftist groups don’t like it.

Tim:

Yeah that’s one of the reasons that Mark Zuckerberg had to go before Congress at one point, right, to kind of answer, “€œAre you censoring conservatives?”€ And he really didn’t give a great response in some regards. He was kind of like, “€œWell, no, I don’t think we really do that.”€ Although he couldn’t really speak as much to the algorithm change and what was maybe some people had chosen, but “€œI don’t really know”€.

And this is not just a hypothetical idea, concept, question, we’re talking about with, “€œWell, would they really ban conservatives? Does that really happen happen?”€ I think, for the most part, people can acknowledge, no, that has actually happened. We can acknowledge that.

And, in fact, one of the things that I saw recently was Twitter had banned an account that was a parody account on Beto O’Rourke who is a Texas representative. He’s the one that ran against Ted Cruz for the Texas Senate. So, they banned this Twitter account that’s just a parody account kind of poking fun at Beto. And yet they allow parody accounts for President Trump.

We See the Bias Happening

Tim:

So, you see they’re banning something that would be relatively conservative, making fun, or poking fun, at someone on the other side of the aisle who would be liberal Democrat. However, they allow the Liberals and Democrats to poke fun, make fun of, the conservatives. So, you really do see this kind of bias happening. And, again, this is not just a hypothetical, “€œWell, what if this happened.”€ No, this is actually happening, so what do you do with it?

David:

Yeah. We saw an article that Joseph had done on this and he was talking about the practices of Facebook, and Amazon, and Apple, and Netflix, and Google – all these mega giants that have become a platform for speech, but they’re kind of picking winners, and picking losers, and deciding what kind of speech they will and won”€™t have. So, he’s got this article out that really called attention to it. And I actually proposed some solutions.

So, we thought that”€™d be good, let’s get into that. What can you do? What should be done? When should the government get involved in — isn”€™t this free speech? Don’t we allow free speech? Can”€™t we choose who we want to censor and not censor? Can’t we do that as companies? When’s the right time to do that and when’s an appropriate time to do that? This is a good discussion to have.

Rick:

Joseph Farah, our special guest. Stay with us. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Muslim Terrorists Attacking American Ships Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton with another moment from American History. The year after the American War for Independence ended we begin addressing the issue of Muslim terrorists in North Africa, who were attacking American ships, killing, and enslaving American seamen.

Congress dispatched John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to negotiate peace. When they asked the Muslim ambassador the reason for the unprovoked attacks he told them that it was written in their Qur’an, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them whenever they could be found.

Sixteen years of negotiations failed and in 1801 America send its military to crush the terrorists. When that war ended in 1805 the first American edition of the Qur’an was published, urging Americans to read the Qur’an to see for themselves that it”€™s teachings were incompatible with the safety and peace of non-Muslims. To see the first American Qur’an and to get more information about America’s first war on Islamic terror, go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Good to have the founder, editor, and chief executive officer of World Net Daily, Joseph Farah, with us. Always a pleasure to have you, sir.

Joseph Farah:

Thank you. Always a pleasure.

It”€™s Happening Here

Rick:

Hey, great article on the dangers of free speech being lost in America. Man, you hit it head on. You’ve been very vocal on this issue in the past and come under great attack for it. Thank you for your willingness and boldness to speak clearly on it. Some people don’t realize, man, this is– we’re kind of seeing some of the things we’ve seen around the world and said, “€œIt’ll never happen here”€ – it’s happening here.

Joseph Farah:

Well, a lot of people don’t realize that, a lot of Americans don’t. And very few people in Washington either know about it or care about it unfortunately. But this is something that is having a tremendous impact on our country – negative impact. Not only in the story I describe what happened to another Christian group that has been, basically, taken off Apple. There’s a lot of this censorship going on – boycotts, censorship, blacklisting, by these big tech companies.

Now, it’s very painful to two groups that are targeted like this. And in our case, we’re targeted. We’ve been targeted since January 2017. I can almost name the date on the calendar because what happened with Google, and Facebook, and others, started doing at that time to us was either totally ignoring us changing their algorithms so that they were useless for WND to even work with a group like Facebook and we’re not alone.

Rick:

Yes.

Joseph Farah:

At the same time we talk in this industry, the independent media folks, and the same thing is happening to Breitbart, and Daily Caller, and the rest of the independent media. So, that’s tragic because part of the reason we had a successful 2016 presidential election was because of sites like ours.

Will We Have a Free Election?

Rick:

That’s right.

Joseph Farah:

There was nowhere else you could really go to get the information that we were putting out. And that’s why, especially Google, I can tell you because we’ve heard the recordings of them plotting in January 2017 to take us out and that’s really bad.

But there’s something, Rick, even worse coming. The power of this cabal, this cartel, is way beyond what it might do to WND, and Breitbart, and Daily Caller. Remember what this cartel has. They’ve got more data on American citizens than the NSA does. And I believe that they can use that data to impact free elections.

There”€™s been a very good study on that by a Harvard psychologist. You may know about that. And people have to be aware of this because I think we’re at the stage where 2020 we might not have a free election in this country. We might not have any choice. So, we really need action in Washington. Washington is the only player big enough that could take big tech on. And Donald Trump, of course, is the biggest of all and he’s made some statements, and made some gestures, in the right direction as to going after Amazon–

Rick:

Yeah.

Joseph Farah:

–and some other players. But so far nothing to really speak of.

Rick:

Help me maneuver that because you’re a constitutionalist just like I am.

Joseph Farah:

Right.

What Do We Want the Government to Do?

Rick:

Where do you see that– because I agree – these guys are so big and they can wipe out an independent media outlet. Or at least wipe out your audience, or your effectiveness, very quickly because of– a lot of our folks in our circles rely on that Facebook audience, or that YouTube audience, or whatever it might be. Now, we see what they’re doing to PragerU on YouTube, all these things you’re talking about – absolutely true. So, what should the government do? What do we as constitutionalists want the government to do?

Joseph Farah:

Well, enforce the law. Google, and Facebook, and Twitter, and several other these major tech companies, they all are operating under a law where they don’t– they can’t get sued by anybody, okay, because–

Rick:

–they have these protections–

Joseph Farah:

–they say, “€œYou’re not producing content.”€

Rick:

Yeah.

Joseph Farah:

Right. So, if a defamatory article is posted on Google they can’t get sued for it. Nice thing they”€™ve got going for them. Oh, the publishers, of course, can get sued, but they can’t. They’re not a publisher – they’re a carrier., okay, which gives them tremendous advantage–

Rick:

Yeah.

Joseph Farah:

–over the rest of us.

Rick:

Right. And that’s a protection that the government gave them. That’s a definition that was created by government, so they created this protection. What you’re saying is since government gave that protection–

Joseph Farah:

It’s time to take it away. Open up competition.

Take a Look at This Duopoly!

Rick:

Yeah.

Joseph Farah:

These guys– I just saw today– Facebook and Google – this duopoly has cornered 80 percent of the digital advertising marketplace.

Rick:

Wow.

Joseph Farah:

That’s too much. Listen – that’s a bigger monopoly than standard oil had for heaven’s sake. This is especially when this is where free speech takes place in America.

Rick:

Yeah.

Joseph Farah:

See, this is a very complicated thing for American people to get their arms around. A lot of us, well, we’re capitalists, we don’t want to break up monopolies here. For heaven’s sake, this monopoly is going to break up the United States of America. They’re destroying free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, because they’re a bunch of leftists who have taken control of the means of dissemination of information. Not only that, but they”€™re invading our privacy at the same.

Rick:

Yeah. And now I get what you’re saying about the protection that they’ve got. Now I get why Ted Cruz, senator from Texas and some others, when questioning Zuckerberg and some of these other executives, the line of questioning has been around that idea of their supposed to be–

Tell Me They”€™re Not Taking Positions

Joseph Farah:

There”€™s another aspect to it to, the same law that was passed in 1996 that Ted Cruz has talked about. They have to be neutral. They can’t take positions. Now, you go to Google, go to Google News, and tell me they’re not taking positions by the way they aggregate the news that is leftist and bury everything else.

Rick:

And the way that Facebook throttles, and limits, and bans, certain posts based on their interpretation of–

Joseph Farah:

It”€™s a joke.

Rick:

Yeah.

Joseph Farah:

And we”€™ve got to wake up some Republican members of Congress when they open up the government again and get this dealt with.

Rick:

Alright, before I let you go, you”€™ve got a new book out, The Gospel In Every Book of the Old Testament. Tell me about that one real quick.

Joseph Farah:

Yeah, it’s the most important work I’ve ever done in my life. I’ll tell you real quickly, it’s a great survey of the Old Testament for any Christians who want to get into the Old Testament and find out what’s in there. Maybe they haven’t had their church teaching from the Old Testament, but it’s full of the Gospel.

Rick:

Yeah.

The Gospel in the Old Testament

Joseph Farah:

And that’s the thing that makes it so relevant and so neat for every believer. There’s more Gospel in the Old Testament than there is in the Gospels and that’s what I try to show in that book.

Rick:

Franklin Graham said of your book, “€œDon’t miss the true adventure of seeing God’s perfect plan of redemption from beginning to end.”€ It”€™s called The Gospel In Every Book of the Old Testament. I’m going to guess WND.com is the best place to get that book?

Joseph Farah:

Oh, anywhere – amazon is everywhere. Well, I was trying to promote WND though.

Joseph Farah:

Yeah, well, that’s good. But fewer people will find it on WND than Amazon.

Rick:

Anywhere. Hey, really appreciate your time. Let’s do it again soon.

Joseph Farah:

Thank you, Rick. God bless.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We”€™ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

This Precarious Moment Book

David:

This is David Barton. I want to let about a brand new book we have called This Precarious Moment: Six Urgent Steps That Will Save You, Your family, and Our Country. Jim Garlow and I have co-authored this book and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now.

Issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, race relations, our relationship with Israel, the rising generation Millennials, and the absence of the church in the culture wars, and where American heritage is, our godly heritage. We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack and we give you both Biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference.

These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book This Precarious Moment and find out what you can do to make a difference. This Precarious Moment is available at WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks for Joseph Farah for joining us today on WallBuilders Live as well and for the article. We’ll have the article linked at our website so it’s easy for you to find it. It’s at WallBuildersLive.com

Back with David and Tim now. And, guys, definitely some interesting questions here because it’s– the free market side of me says I don’t want government coming in and telling a private company what to do, but yet here we’ve got a private company. So, but they’ve been given these special protections by government, so it does kind of change it. They are different from us.

Taking Away the Special Protection

Rick:

Like, I don’t want government coming in and messing with my small company, or our listeners have small companies out there, that’s a very different animal than someone that is dominating the very outlet of free speech that most people are using and has been given by government this protection to not even be able to be sued for the things that happen on their website. So, I’m kind of open to this idea of at least doing what Cruise is talking about and taking away the special protection.

David:

So, to kind of look that, Rick, let me ask you guys a question – Do you remember who Richard Jewel is?

Tim:

No.

Rick:

Sounds familiar, but I can’t remember why. Richard Jewell…He was–

David:

If I say Richard Jewell and add to it 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Richard Jewell

Rick:

Olympics.

David:

Does that–

Rick:

Yeah, the pipe bomb at the Olympics, that’s right.

David:

Right. So, what happened was the Atlanta newspaper reported that Richard Jewell was under suspicion as the guy who planted the pipe bomb. He was a security guard there at the Olympics and actually, he had nothing to do with it. So, he sued the newspaper and the Atlanta Journal had to pay a big sum because they reported news that was inaccurate. It was not true what they said about him.

Now, here’s the next stage. All of the other newspapers that reported what the Atlanta Journal had said also had to pay. It went to the next tier. Isn’t that the same as what Google and all these others do? They’re letting anybody post anything on it. But we held the other papers accountable for posting the wrong information. So, why would we give an immunity to a company to have no accountability when we’ve already set a precedent of accountability?

Tim:

Well, I do think it’s a little bit of a different situation from my perception because these newspapers are taking a story somebody else wrote, and they’re printing it, and they’re distributing it. As opposed to when, in this situation, for example, let’s say CNN had a bad story. Well, it’s available for search on Google, but unless Google is putting it at the very top then they’re not promoting it at the same level, they’re not taking this, and sharing it, and distributing it.

Now, it would be different if they were. And, by the way, it also made me think of kind of knowing the precedent of what happened. So, he sues not only the paper that wrote about him, but the other papers that are sharing this message. It makes me wonder what’s going to happen with, I guess, Sandman is his last name? The young man who Covington County High School–

David:

Right, Sandman .

A Brave New World

Tim:

Right, so he now has an attorney going after all these different outlets and hopefully some of these Hollywood individuals who have come against him. So, it will be very interesting to see if it’s a similar scenario, right, where he was obviously libeled. Obviously it has impacted his life, all the emotional, mental, the physical, aspects of this. So, it will be interesting to see if it follows that parallel.

That was a total side note, but it does make me think that Google is not the one promoting it. They are allowing you to find this information on their platform. However, once they– kind of like Facebook– once they start messing with the algorithms and say, “€œNo, no, but we want you to find this one first.”€ If they start picking favorites instead of letting it be more open, and genuine, and whatever is getting the most clicks, the most looks into, that’s what’s moving the top of the list. When they start messing with it, at that point, I think they’re more in the category of these other papers that are publicizing bad information. But if they’re not messing with the algorithm–

And, Rick, kind of like you, right, it makes me– as a free market kind of guy I’m thinking, well, you really shouldn’t get involved in these businesses. But on the flipside, dad, as you mentioned, when somebody is getting a special privilege and protection, when the government is giving you benefits, you are in a different category–

Rick:

Yeah.

Tim:

–than just a small individual mom and pop business.

Rick:

It’s kind of a brave new world. It’s a new area, honestly. I’m a little bit torn here.

A Sue-Happy Age

David:

Well, I think there’s a keyword that has to– whatever paradigm we use, somewhere there has to be accountability. And when you give immunity, and you cannot even be sued to find out if you”€™ve crossed a line, when you’ve given this blanket protection that you can do what you want and nobody”€™s going to sue you, now we”€™ve got some problems.

Tim:

Well, especially when you live in a world where you can sue anybody for anything. If you can sue President Trump for whatever you want, why can’t you sue Google? Why are they exempt? And that does raise a question – Why do you get special privileges and special protections when nobody else does? That’s where I think Joseph is right. There’s– take away some of those benefits, right, normalize them, make them a normal human being like the rest of us.

David:

Make them compete in the free market so if they”€™re doing something wrong and people want to walk away or hold them accountable they can. And right now this really isn’t the free market when you’ve got that kind of protection from any kind of repercussions in the free market. That’s where I think the free market side breaks down is we don’t have competition allowed here in the sense of holding them accountable for bad decisions.

Rick:

Hey, guys, I”€™m going to jump in here. Quick break. We’ll be right back. We’ll pick it up right where we”€™re leaving off right now. Stay with us. You”€™re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Front Sight Handgun Training Course

Hey friends! Rick Green here, from WallBuilders Live. What do Dennis Prager, Larry Elder, Ben Shapiro, Rick Green, Tim Barton, David Barton – what do all these folks have in common other than the fact that they’re conservative commentators that defend the Constitution and educate America on the Constitution?

They’re all raving about Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. In fact, if you go to my website right now today at RickGreen.com, you can watch the video of Dennis Prager training at Front Sight, or Larry Elder, or Tim Barton, or myself out there training at Front Sight. It’s an opportunity for you to learn how to defend yourself and your family to make sure that you are ready and able to do that. It is a fantastic place to train. They train 30 to 40,000 people a year, and they’re just wonderful to work with.

And you can go with us! We’re headed back out. We’re going to have a great time out there as the WallBuilders family and if you’re a supporter of WallBuilders, we have an amazing deal for you. It”€™s actually going to cost you 1/10th the normal price to attend this two day handgun training because you”€™re going with us. And you”€™ll also get the Constitution crash course. I”€™ll be teaching on the Constitution, you”€™ll get the intellectual ammunition that you need to defend the Second Amendment and our Constitution. As well as getting the physical training on how to defend yourself and your family.  

And this is for everyone – guys, gals, everyone should take this class. No matter how much you”€™ve shot your whole life or if you”€™ve never touched a gun, learn how to defend your family. We”€™re going to be going several times throughout the year and we would love to have you be a part of that. Check it out at RickGreen.com today to find out the dates, get all the specifics, and get all of your questions answered. Check out RickGreen.com today to join us on this Front Sight trip for both your constitutional and handgun defense training.

Rick:

We’re back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. David and Tim, we’ve been talking about Joseph Farah”€™s interview and what’s happening with that. What was the acronym for the four big boys?

FAANG

David:

It was FAANG – FAANG. And you remember what that is?

Rick:

So that’s– let’s see, who all does that involve?

David:

That”€™s Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. F -Facebook, A, A – Amazon, Apple, N – Netflix, G -Google – FAANG.

Rick:

Alright. And all five obviously massive and all five massively liberal. So, I can understand why they’re all lumped in there. But they essentially control the narrative right now.

David:

They do and that’s something that really needs to be addressed because it’s not free speech if you can’t, again, hold people accountable. Even under the First Amendment, free speech, we still have lawsuits for libel, and slander, and defamation, other things as well. But these guys don’t get that. They get the free speech protection with no accountability. And that’s just not a good place to be.

And, by the way, just changing here – you asked Joseph about his new book. In it he’s talking, really, about how the Old Testament does apply to Christians. And I was really shocked here just a few weeks ago to see one of the really noted evangelical pastor of a mega church come out and say, “€œHey, Christians, the Ten Commandments doesn”€™t apply to you. You don’t live by that. You’re in the New Covenant not the–“€

Why Would the Ten Commandments Not Apply?

David:

So, I can murder, or steal, or purger? Why would the Ten Commandments not apply to me? And if I only lived by the New Testament, nothing in the New Testament condemns things like arson, or infanticide, or bestiality, or– So, if it’s not in the New Testament– that is crazy. The Old Testament is what sets the moral law of what is right and wrong. New Testament shows us how to live by grace and how that Christ brings that salvation to us through His grace. But we’re not free from the Old Testament.

And I even go back to where the Scriptures– a verse that so many evangelical pastors love to use is 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “€œAll Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”€ Guess what? When that first was written, all they were talking about was the Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet been canonized and many of the books had not even been written yet. So, when it says the Scripture is inspired, they”€™re talking the Old Testament.

On many levels Christians have got to get back to understanding the Bible. So, Joseph’s book on how the Old Testament does apply to Christians, that’s a good thing for people to learn.

Rick:

We will have a link today at WallBuildersLive.com so that you can get to that book. We sure appreciate Joseph Farah for joining us today here on WallBuilders Live. Most of all, we appreciate you joining us here on WallBuilders Live and listening.

And we also want to encourage you to do two things that you can do to help save our Constitutional Republic to help this program be more effective. One is simply go to your social media and share the program. If you enjoyed today’s interview, or maybe you listened to one last week that you really enjoyed, you can go to WallBuildersLive.com right now and you can grab those links and share them with your friends and family. If it was last week, or you heard it a couple of weeks ago, just click on that archive button and you can scan through those past programs for the last few weeks, and grab that one you really enjoyed, and share it with your friends and family.

Three Reasons Free Speech Is Endangered

Rick:

That helps to bring people to an awareness of the program, gives them a chance to realize, hey, you can learn a constitutional, biblical, historical, perspective on every issue of the day by listening to WallBuildersLive, so thank you for doing that. It helps to grow our audience which means we’ve got a better chance of saving the country and turning it back to that constitutional republic it was intended to be.

Second thing you can do is make a contribution to the program. It obviously takes dollars to make a program like this work. It takes dollars to get the program out there on stations across the nation and around the world. So, we appreciate you being a part of that as well. We are a listener supported reported program and all of you across the country that give on a regular basis, or you’ve given one time, thank you. Thank you for being a part of our team. We encourage people that have been listening and enjoying, if you like what you hear, that you would do the same thing.

Go to WallBuildersLive.com today, click on the donate button, and do the best you can with either a one time or maybe a monthly contribution. Come alongside us on a monthly basis. That really helps us plan out our year, plan adding new stations, all of those things.

We appreciate you listening, we appreciate you supporting and donating. We appreciate you sharing the program as well. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.