Latest news with #antiwoke
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The anti-woke warriors used to defend free speech. Now they make McCarthyism look progressive
Thoughts and non-denominational prayers to all the anti-woke warriors out there. It may seem as though everything is going their way now Donald Trump is back with a vengeance, but the poor things have run into a bit of a branding problem. For years, the anti-woke crowd positioned themselves as fearless free thinkers taking on the intolerant left. The journalist Bari Weiss wrote a fawning New York Times piece in 2018 describing rightwing voices such as Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens as 'renegades of the intellectual dark web' (IDW). Now, however, the people who used to position themselves as oppressed truth-tellers operating in what Weiss's article called an 'era of That Which Cannot Be Said', have a state-sanctioned microphone. They've won. But in winning they've made it difficult to continue the charade that they give a damn about 'cancel culture'. Look around: some of these self-styled free speech warriors are doing everything they can to ruin the lives of everyone who doesn't 100% agree with them. Most conservatives don't seem to mind that their hypocrisy is now on full display. But, according to a recent piece on the news site Semafor, a handful of people within the anti-woke media ecosystem are starting to have something of an identity crisis. 'One didn't have to be especially prescient to spot those 'anti-woke' types who would just slowly become Maga flunkies,' said the libertarian journalist Michael Moynihan, who had a short stint at Weiss's publication the Free Press before becoming disillusioned. Remember when the right railed against people losing jobs for old comments they'd made? In 2018, for example, the Atlantic fired the conservative columnist Kevin Williamson after the backlash about a 2014 podcast appearance in which the 60-year-old had suggested women should face hanging for having an abortion. Cue a million furious tweets from the 'renegades of the IDW' about how, as Ben Shapiro put it on X, 'virtually everyone is vulnerable if they run afoul of the Left's interests'. Now, however, there's no denying that virtually everyone is vulnerable if they run afoul of the right's interests. Semafor's piece notes that 'One [Free Press] investigation that exposed two low-profile employees at PBS who had focused on diversity and got them fired rubbed even some of its allies the wrong way'. At least the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) employees at PBS 'only' got fired. Canary Mission and Betar US, two pro-Israel groups, have been compiling 'deportation' lists of pro-Palestinian activists on college campuses and sharing them with the Trump administration. Betar US has also warned that it is going to expand its focus beyond immigrants to naturalised US citizens. These organisations are just a couple of cogs in a massive dissent-crushing machine. The Christian nationalist Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded Project 2025, is behind a dystopian plan called Project Esther that cynically weaponises very real concerns about antisemitism to shut down criticism of Israel and quash pro-Palestinian activism. And you can bet these censorious projects won't end with Palestinians: at the rate we're going, pro-choice sentiment will soon be considered 'anti-Christian' and anyone espousing it will get deported. If that sounds far-fetched, let me remind you that last month the veterans affairs department ordered staff to report their colleagues for 'anti-Christian bias'. Drunk on their power to deport and defame, some on the right have officially lost the plot. For months a number of conservative voices have been engaged on a mission to cancel Ms Rachel, a children's entertainer whose real name is Rachel Accurso. If you have small children, Ms Rachel needs no introduction. For everyone else, she wears a pink headband and sings songs such as Icky Sticky Bubble Gum. Ms Rachel's videos have always been gently inclusive: she incorporates sign language and she has frequently had Jules Hoffman, a non-binary musician, on her show. On her personal social media she has also advocated for issues such as paid family leave. The right tried to cancel Ms Rachel over Hoffman's gender identity back in 2023. Now they're trying to cancel the beloved star again; this time for the 'crime' of speaking up about Palestinian kids and featuring a three-year-old double amputee from Gaza in a video. The fact Accurso is humanising Palestinian children is driving some rightwing voices so berserk that they're smearing her as antisemitic, asking the US attorney general for an investigation, and spreading the ridiculous and completely baseless lie (which the New York Times bizarrely chose to amplify) that she is being funded by Hamas. Welcome to our 'new era of That Which Cannot Be Said': one that may make McCarthyism seem progressive. It would seem the new renegades of the intellectual dark web are those of us who think you shouldn't bomb starving babies in their sleep just because they are Palestinian. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
GB News is plunged into more chaos as it considers axing 'anti-woke' comedy show after raft of complaints
GB News is considering axing its 'anti-woke' comedy show following a raft of complaints over a remark made about the LGBTQ + community. One of the presenters of Headliners suggested on Saturday the panel show could be taken off air within two weeks. The programme, which is a comic spin on traditional newspaper review shows, is currently at the centre of GB News's latest dispute with regulator Ofcom. More than 1,200 viewers complained and 70,000 people signed a petition after comedian Josh Howie appeared to suggest the LGBTQ+ community included paedophiles. The remarks were made during a segment on a sermon by a US bishop, which urged President Donald Trump to 'have mercy' on gay, lesbian and transgender children. Mr Howie referenced a statement from the bishop's church calling for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people. The comedian, who has insisted he was making a joke, said: 'I just want to say, that includes paedos, if you're doing the full inclusion.' Now presenter Lewis Schaffer has suggested the future of Headliners, which has been running since 2021, has been thrown into doubt. He wrote on X on Saturday: 'I'm heading into the studio! I've been told by management that the show will be on air for another two weeks while they decide what to do!' Then at the start of the show, he added: 'We're not allowed to talk about it.' Leo Kearse, who was hosting Headliners, replied: 'Thank you for not talking about it.' Mr Howie has insisted the controversial remarks were just him making a joke. He said: 'It's a comedy show. Where three comedians make jokes as we review the next day's newspapers.' MailOnline has contacted GB News for comment. It is the latest blow for the right-wing broadcaster which has been involved in a number of disputes with Ofcom. GB News was last year handed a £100,000 fine for breaching impartiality rules in a programme featuring Rishi Sunak. It followed an appearance by Mr Sunak on a February 12 broadcast called People's Forum: The Prime Minister, where he was asked questions by a studio audience. An earlier investigation by Ofcom found that 'an appropriately wide range of significant viewpoints was not presented and given due weight'. GB News is currently challenging the regulator's ruling. Meanwhile in February, GB News won a High Court battle against Ofcom after it ruled the channel had breached impartiality rules in a programme presented by Jacob Rees-Mogg. The judge ruled that the initial decisions which were made in May and June 2023 were unlawful. Furthermore in 2023, GB News received 7,300 complaints and launched an internal investigation after former host Laurence Fox made a series of remarks about a female journalist. The actor-turned-activist apologised for a 'demeaning' sexist rant about political correspondent Ms Evans, which included him asking 'who would want to sh*g that?. Fox said he was angry with Ms Evans over comments she made on a BBC debate around male suicide and alleged she had a 'dislike of men in general', but apologised for 'demeaning her'. Addressing the situation in a video posted to X, he said: 'If I was going to be sensible and I could replay it, I would say: 'Any self-respecting man in 2023 would probably be well advised to avoid a woman who possessed that worldview because she would probably cause him nothing but harm'. 'But what I did say was, you know, 'I wouldn't shag that', and all that sort of stuff, which is not right. It's demeaning to her, to Ava, so I'm sorry for demeaning you in that way. 'However angry I am with you still for doing that, and it demeans me because it's not representative of who I am.'
Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
GB News's ‘anti-woke' comedy show faces axe after thousands of complaints
GB News is considering cancelling its 'anti-woke' comedy show Headliners amid a barrage of complaints. Presenters of the Right-wing, late night panel show appeared to suggest on Saturday that it could be taken off air within a fortnight. Lewis Schaffer, one of the show's panellists, posted on X: 'I'm heading into the studio! I've been told by management that the show will be on air for another two weeks while they decide what to do!' At the start of Saturday's show, Mr Schaffer said: 'We're not allowed to talk about it.' Leo Kearse, the Headliner's host, replied: 'Thank you for not talking about it.' GB News declined to comment on the show's future. I'm heading into the studio! I've been told by management that the show will be on air for another two weeks while they decide what to do! — Lewis Schaffer (@LewisSchaffer) May 24, 2025 The uncertainty comes after Headliners, a comic spin on traditional newspaper review shows, was hit with tens of thousands of complaints after one of its hosts appeared to suggest the LGBTQ+ community included paedophiles. The remarks, by the comedian Josh Howie, are now the subject of an Ofcom investigation. In a segment discussing a sermon by a US bishop, which urged Donald Trump to 'have mercy' on gay, lesbian and transgender children, Mr Howie quoted a statement from the bishop's church calling for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people. He said: 'I just want to say, that includes paedos, if you're doing the full inclusion.' The Headliners segment triggered more than 1,200 complaints by viewers, as well as a petition signed by more than 70,000 people from campaign group the Good Law Project that has been handed to the regulator. Angelos Frangopoulos, the chief executive of GB News, said the channel had been 'subjected to a coordinated political campaign by far-Left pressure groups '. Mr Howie has said his remarks were intended as a joke, adding: 'It's a comedy show. Where three comedians make jokes as we review the next day's newspapers.' GB News has said the comedian has been 'misrepresented'. Headliners has been on air since 2021 in the 11pm slot and is one of GB News's longest-running programmes. The show typically features mostly Right-leaning comedians. Mr Kearse's YouTube channel describes him as 'one of the UK's few openly Right-wing comedians' and one of his stand-up shows as 'about comedy triggering the wrath of woke mobs'. GB News has grappled with a series of disputes with Ofcom, the media regulator, over the content of its programming as it attempts to import Right-leaning, US-style panel shows and current affairs to Britain. In February, GB News won a crucial major High Court battle against the watchdog after a judge quashed the regulator's ruling that the channel breached impartiality rules by airing programmes presented by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a then-Tory MP. The channel is separately challenging a £100,000 penalty handed down by Ofcom over claims it broke impartiality rules with a 2024 programme featuring Rishi Sunak, then the prime minister, alleging he had been given an 'uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his government'.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
GB News's ‘anti-woke' comedy show faces axe after thousands of complaints
GB News is considering cancelling its 'anti-woke' comedy show Headliners amid a barrage of complaints. Presenters of the Right-wing, late night panel show appeared to suggest it could be taken off air within a fortnight ahead of this weekend's broadcast. Lewis Schaffer, one of the show's panellists, posted on X: 'I'm heading into the studio! I've been told by management that the show will be on air for another two weeks while they decide what to do!' At the start of Saturday's show, Mr Schaffer said: 'We're not allowed to talk about it.' Leo Kearse, the Headliner's host, replied: 'Thank you for not talking about it.' GB News declined to comment on the show's future. The uncertainty comes after Headliners, a comic spin on traditional newspaper review shows, was hit with tens of thousands of complaints after one of its hosts appeared to suggest the LGBTQ+ community included paedophiles. The remarks, by the comedian Josh Howie, are now the subject of an Ofcom investigation. In a segment discussing a sermon by a US bishop, which urged Donald Trump to 'have mercy' on gay, lesbian and transgender children, Mr Howie quoted a statement from the bishop's church calling for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people. He said: 'I just want to say, that includes paedos, if you're doing the full inclusion.' The Headliners segment triggered more than 1,200 complaints by viewers, as well as a petition signed by more than 70,000 people from campaign group the Good Law Project that has been handed to the regulator. Angelos Frangopoulos, the chief executive of GB News, said the channel had been 'subjected to a coordinated political campaign by far-Left pressure groups'. Mr Howie has said his remarks were intended as a joke, adding: 'It's a comedy show. Where three comedians make jokes as we review the next day's newspapers.' GB News has said the comedian has been 'misrepresented'. Headliners has been on air since 2021 in the 11pm slot and is one of GB News's longest-running programmes. The show typically features mostly Right-leaning comedians. Mr Kearse's YouTube channel describes him as 'one of the UK's few openly Right-wing comedians' and one of his stand-up shows as 'about comedy triggering the wrath of woke mobs'. GB News has grappled with a series of disputes with Ofcom, the media regulator, over the content of its programming as it attempts to import Right-leaning, US-style panel shows and current affairs to Britain. In February, GB News won a crucial major High Court battle against the watchdog after a judge quashed the regulator's ruling that the channel breached impartiality rules by airing programmes presented by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a then-Tory MP. The channel is separately challenging a £100,000 penalty handed down by Ofcom over claims it broke impartiality rules with a 2024 programme featuring Rishi Sunak, then the prime minister, alleging he had been given an 'uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his government'.
WIRED
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- WIRED
Hot Farmers, Trad Wives, and an Immigrant Reality Show: Welcome to TV's MAGA Era
May 26, 2025 7:00 AM Against the backdrop of Trump's anti-DEI agenda, Hollywood is seeing a resurgence in anti-woke conservative programming. Producers say reactionary politics will hurt an industry already in crisis. Photo-illustration: Jacqui VanLiew; Getty Images Julia is a 22-year-old model, student, and self-proclaimed 'princess' from Malibu, California, with one nonnegotiable: She refuses to shovel cow shit. But she's down to play the part, she tells Farmer Jay, handing him a framed black-and-white photo of her in a bikini and cowboy hat. Grace, 23, dreams of being a stay-at-home mom with four kids. Jordyn, a 29-year-old country singer who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, says she would relocate across the country for her partner. The three women are among 32 contestants on the most recent season of Farmer Wants a Wife , Fox's rustic spin on The Bachelor. They come from different backgrounds and have all sorts of interests, but their goals are ultimately the same: to settle down, get married, and have kids. While the women don't explicitly talk politics, their focus on traditional values fits into a genre of entertainment that is rapidly reshaping the industry: Welcome to Hollywood's MAGA reboot. Hollywood is in the midst of another evolution. Studios are releasing fewer movies every year. Broadcast and news ratings are in decline. Screenwriters are struggling to sell scripts as salaries for studio heads have skyrocketed. Television and feature film production in Los Angeles shrunk by 30 percent in the first quarter of 2025, compared with the previous year, according to a report by FilmLA. At the same time, Hollywood is also undergoing a resurgence in anti-woke conservative content thanks to the Trump administration's anti-DEI agenda. 'More conservative projects are getting greenlit,' says Colin Whelan, a former studio executive at TLC and founder of Conveyer Media, which has produced reality shows for Netflix, HGTV, and Investigation Discovery. 'People are pitching more shows like that because they realize that's what's selling.' Maybe you've also noticed the subtle changes on your TV screen—content that favors Christian values, heartland themes, or law-and-order style programming. Yellowstone , the Paramount drama about cattle ranchers in Montana, gained a massive audience during Trump's first presidency, routinely breaking ratings records, and has since spawned successful spinoffs. Tim Allen's Shifting Gears, about a grumpy widower with manosphere viewpoints, is a ratings hit for Disney's linear broadcast audience, with 'more live viewers on average than The Conners season 7 and Abbott Elementary season 4,' according to ScreenRant. It pulled in 3.7 million viewers for its season one finale. Farmer Wants a Wife has held steady ratings, averaging 1.5 million viewers weekly, and works as easy counterprogramming to more raunchy dating fodder like Temptation Island and Too Hot to Handle (both on Netflix). In 2024, Trump Media and Technology Group launched a streaming service called Truth+, and the company made clear that it would prioritize 'news, Christian content, and family-friendly programming that is uncancelable by Big Tech,' a mandate that now seems to be shaping the look of Hollywood more and more. (The streaming service also features at least one documentary—included among its most watched programs on the platform in May—peddling conspiracy theories about 'serpent or lizard-like aliens who are secretly wielding influence over the human race,' according to an investigation by Talking Points Memo.) In Trump's version of Hollywood, old-fashioned values are in vogue again. The Christian drama 7th Heaven , about a Protestant minister and his seven children that aired for 11 seasons on The WB (later The CW), is in early development at CBS Studios and will 'focus on a diverse family,' though it's not clear what that means. Jessica Biel, who was in the original cast, is executive producing the reboot alongside Devon Franklin, a producer of faith-based films. Roseanne Barr, whose namesake show was canceled in 2018 after she posted a racist tweet about former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, is shopping a series that 'saves America with guns, the Bible, petty crime, and alcoholism,' she told Variety. Duck Dynasty , a duck-hunting reality show that ended in 2017, is also returning to television screens this summer on A+E, which experienced its first big hit of the year with Ozark Law , a show that followed multiple police departments in the Missouri region. Duck Dynasty producer Rob Worsoff is in talks with the Department of Homeland Security about a reality show where 'immigrants compete to prove they are the most American,' according to The Wall Street Journal. Potential challenges include mining for gold or working on a Model T assembly line in Detroit. What's happening is a 'cultural recalibration,' says Carri Twigg, a founding partner and head of development at Culture House, the production company that created Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop and Hair Tales . The recalibration has led to a 'generalized chill' in the industry that has caused more diverse projects to suffer. 'I've heard from multiple executives that there's a noticeable hesitancy around content perceived as too progressive, especially if it centers non-white leads or tackles social issues explicitly. Even projects with mild inclusivity are getting flagged in internal discussions,' Twigg says. 'Colleagues have expressed frustration that kinds stories they were encouraged to pitch just a couple years ago are now getting passed on as like 'too niche' or 'not resonant right now' by the same execs who once called them 'visionary' and 'universal.'' Twigg says there are two key reasons for the hesitancy. 'The political climate has emboldened executives who were always uncomfortable with the industry's post-2020 shifts. The power that DEI-era storytelling offered to historically excluded creators was unfamiliar, and in some corners, unwelcome.' The second, she says, is fear of reprisals from the administration. In February, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, who previously said he would end the agency's DEI initiatives if appointed, opened a probe into NBC parent company Comcast, and later Disney, promising to take action if the investigation uncovered 'any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination.' Carr has since said that the FCC plans to look into broadcast network affiliation agreements to help 'constrain some of the power of national programmers.' According to Variety, Disney, Amazon, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery have all rolled back programs aimed at increasing diversity. Talk shows are also being encouraged to shift their programming. In a recent meeting with the cohosts of The View , the popular morning gabfest with Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic urged the women to soften their criticisms of Trump, saying 'the panel needed to broaden its conversations beyond its predominant focus on politics,' the Daily Beast reported. Disney CEO Bob Iger also suggested that the show 'tone down' its political rhetoric. One former executive at Amazon MGM Studios tells WIRED that Trump's anti-DEI agenda, whose impact on film and TV only seems to be growing more pronounced, is a part of the administration's Trojan-horse playbook to roll back civil rights. 'It's just the rhetoric they're using to articulate what they really believe and who they really are.' The White House did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. The anti-DEI backlash threatens to make Hollywood even more out of touch than it already is to younger audiences, who increasingly prefer TikTok and YouTube to traditional viewing formats. An estimated 50 percent of Gen Z identifies as non-white, and nearly 30 percent identify as LGBTQ+. 'These audiences aren't just asking for representation—they expect it,' Twigg says. 'If the industry starts backing away from inclusive storytelling, it won't just be regressive—it'll be a bad business decision.' Original, inclusive storytelling is trending right now, as Sinners , Ryan Coogler's vampire drama, proved by becoming the biggest box office success story of the year so far, earning $316 million globally. Hulu's Paradise , about residents of a postapocalyptic town, and HBO Max's The Pitt , a medical drama that follows an emergency-room crew over a 15-hour shift, have also felt like watercooler moments at a time when the industry is starved for them. Beyond the cultural and commercial risks of a less diverse Hollywood, Twigg says there is a strategic one: Film and TV take years to develop and produce. 'Hitching your content strategy to a political moment that may not last through the next election—or the next news cycle—is short-sighted,' she says. 'The stories being greenlit today will premiere in a future that may have swung back toward the very audiences currently being sidelined. If anything, the smartest strategy right now would be to build with resilience and relevance in mind—not reactionary politics.' Whelan says that in over 20 years as a television producer, he has taken the same approach, regardless of the political and social climates of the time: to create shows that 'entertain and inspire and maybe teach.' In 2014, following stints at Syfy and TLC as a network executive, he applied that mindset to New Girls on the Block . It was the first follow-doc reality show with an all-trans cast. The series focused on a group of women in Kansas City, Missouri, who faced changing relationship dynamics in a society struggling to make space for trans women. The reality project he just wrapped probably sounds like a complete 180. It focuses on a Christian family who runs a ranch and takes in at-risk youth. But there's more to it, he says. 'What's interesting to me, having done it for so long, is I don't see a huge difference between a show about a group of all transgender women and a group of ranchers trying to help at-risk youth,' he says. 'It's two groups of really amazing people trying to change their lives for the better, and change the world around them for the better as well.' Tonality aside, fewer projects overall are moving forward this year, Whelan says, but that hasn't stopped genuinely good ideas from finding an audience—no matter who sits in the Oval Office. ' Ozark Law would have sold regardless of the administration. The Netflix scripted series is all about breaking the law, so you know someone's gonna come up with the idea of enforcing it. That's how we pitch reality shows,' he says, before admitting, 'I wish I had thought of that.'
