We’ve documented how the Media Research Center has repeatedly promoted right-wing “free speech” website Parler without disclosing its main funder, Rebekah Mercer, is also a major funder of the MRC and sits on the MRC’s board. The Parler promotion had slowed down in recent weeks: A November post by P.J. Gladnick complained that one commentator “castigated the Twitter alternative, Parler, for their lack of censorship,” and it also touted right-wing radio host Mark Levin’s repeatedly self-proclaimed move to Parler (on Twitter, of course, while not actually making no effort to do so until the end of the year), both of which censored the Mercer link. Meanwhile, Parler was turning into more of a cesspool than it already was, as poronography became prominent on the site; the normally porn-hating MRC was silent about that too.
But the fallout of last week’s right-wing riots at the Capitol revealed that it was planned in part on Parler and that Parler users made explicit threats of violence beforehand. And when Parler was held accountable, the MRC rushed to defense mode once again. Alexander Hall huffed in a Jan. 8 post hyperbolically headlined “TRUMPED! Google PURGES Parler App; Apple Threatens to Remove It”:
Big Tech’s crusade against conservatives continued furiously Friday night. Google removed the Parler app from its store and Apple threatened to do the same.
Free market advocates repeatedly told conservatives the solution to Big Tech censorship was building their own platform. Now Google has removed a free speech platform from its store, blocking millions from accessing the app.
[…]Popular conservative podcast and YouTube host Dan Bongino partnered with Parler and took an ownership stake in Parler.
The next day, Hall whined that “The “Amazon Employees For Climate Justice” group published a shrill demand that the company’s leadership do whatever it can to get Parler wiped off the internet,” rehashing his earlier lament: “Free market advocates repeatedly told conservatives the solution to Big Tech censorship was building their own platform. Now Google has removed the free speech platform Parler from its store, blocking millions from accessing the app. Amazon appears to be taking it a step further by undermining the ability of the website to even operate online.”
Hall also touted how “Conservative stars Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Lou Dobbs left Twitter in disgust after it purged sitting President Donald Trump” and were moving to Parler. In all of these instances, Hall censored both the Mercer connection and the riot planning and incitement to violence that appeared on Parler.
Later that day, Hall ranted:
The tech tyrants came after Parler with a vengeance. Apple and Google have refused to carry the platform as a downloadable app, and Amazon has gone one step further by denying the fledgling platform access to its servers.
“Amazon on Saturday kicked Parler off its Web hosting services.” Buzzfeed reported Jan. 9.
“Amazon’s suspension of Parler’s account means that unless it can find another host, once the ban takes effect on Sunday Parler will go offline,” the article explained further.
Again. Hall censored the Mercer connection and the riot planning and incitement to violence.
Meanwhile, P.J. Gladnick huffed: “One thing that could be said for Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller. Although he was a monopolist, he never openly gloated nor mocked the competitors that he suppressed or destroyed. The same cannot be said of the twenty-first century blatant monopolist, Jack Dorsey of Twitter. Not content to act in tandem with other social media monopolists in order to attempt to destroy his competitor, Parler, he rubbed salt in the wound he helped create by gloating about it with a mocking tweet.” Of course, Rockefeller was much worse to his competitors than Twitter’s Dorsey ever has been.
On Jan. 11, Hall highlighted how “Free speech platform Gab said it archived a hoard of ‘disgusting’ tweets replying to President Donald Trump’s account before it was banned.” Hall would only admit that Gab was “controversial,” but was on censorship patrol here too: as we’ve documented, it’s an even worse cesspool of far-right hate and conspiracy theories than Parler is. In addition to the usual information he was hiding, Hall omitted a couple other things: Gab and Parler were feuding before Parler got pulled off Amazon’s web-hosting service, and Parler was so poorly built that people were able to download Parler messages that included geolocation data, meaning that it would be quite easy to identify Parler users who took place in the Capitol riot.
Kayla Sargent joined in with a post headlined “Fighting Back”:
The left is trying hard to shut down free speech-oriented social media platforms like Parler and Rumble. Now, these companies are fighting back.
Parler and Rumble have filed suit against Amazon and Google respectively, in an apparent effort to fight Big Tech censorship.
Apple and Google purged Parler from their app stores, then Amazon took things a step further. It totally removed the app from its servers. Parler decided to return fire against Amazon, and in a lawsuit filed on Jan. 11, accused Amazon Web Services Inc (AWS) of “violating Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act” and “breaching [its] contract with Parler.”
Like her MRC compatriots, Sargent censored both the riot incitement that occurred on Parler and the Mercer conflict of interest.
Again: For the MRC, the victimization narrative means everything. The truth means nothing.