Right-wing media outlets
are claiming that a giant
percentage of viewers tuned out
of a Disney+ series The Falcon and
the Winter Soldier due to a scene
depicting a cop harassing
the Falcon because he's black.
So there's no evidence to this.
But this is the kind of stuff that
conservative media latches on to,
because they have nothing else
to offer up to their viewers,
to their readers, or to anyone who
made the mistake of consuming any
of their garbage content.
So Newsbusters, run by the
conservative Media Research Center,
claims in its headline that,
Turned-Off Viewers Turn Off The
Falcon and The Winter Soldier
After BLM Propaganda.
And then they go on to just
pull a number out of their ass.
No evidence for it whatsoever, and
they claim that 83.49%,
very specific.
It must have been
a scientific rating there,
of viewers tuned out the same
exact point in each episode.
And then I want to read
you what the Media Research Center
published, so you get a sense of
the kinds of, I mean,
it's not just that they're lying.
It's that they're not even able to
present evidence to make their
case, and they even admit that this
is a rumor.
According to a new rumor put out by
YouTuber Overlord DVD, okay,
let's stop.
[LAUGH] >> I get that we do content
on YouTube, so
this might seem like a self-own.
But my hope is that people can see
the actual evidence that's
presented when we're making our
arguments.
As opposed to us saying like,
this rando YouTuber said this, and
now we're just going to repeat it
and then report it as fact.
It's just a rando YouTuber who
claims that this happened.
But that's it,
that's their evidence.
Let's continue.
So according to a new rumor put out
by YouTuber Overlord DVD,
not only did a massive number stop
watching the episode at the same
point across the board, there was
a large scale movement of viewers
who unsubscribed from the streaming
service shortly thereafter.
What caused this mass exodus?
It was the off-putting inclusion of
BLM propaganda in a scene involving
the two main characters and
the police.
>> All right, there's one serious
side of this, which I'm reluctant
to even go into, but let's talk
about the goofy stuff first.
83.49, [LAUGH] okay.
The only way that you would have
a fact like that is if you had
access to Disney+'s data, right?
I don't know how powerful Overlord
DVD is, but that would seem to
be hard-to-come-by information.
But more importantly, the idea,
if you know anything about digital
media, including these
digital streaming services.
The idea that 80 somewhat percent
would all stop watching at that
exact moment is preposterous.
It's not even
within the realm of imaginable.
The only way that it could be
imagined is if it's in the first
five seconds.
If you told me a video sucked and
83% of people checked out in
the first five seconds,
I would believe that.
But if you told me, and
I watched that episode,
it's in the middle of the episode,
it's really deep into the episode,
in rando minute number 27,
83% of the audience dropped off,
all at the same time?
I would tell you you're a moron.
There's a 0% chance that happened.
You don't know anything about
digital media.
It is not anywhere near
technically possible.
But these folks,
they're Newsbusters, I don't know,
maybe that means they're busting
the news,
then that would make sense.
Come in and go, yeah, well,
there was a rumor on YouTube by
the Overlord.
And so we're going to report it as
a 83.49 dropped off a cliff when
they saw a black person pointing
out injustice.
They hate that, which then leads to
the second part.
They think that 83% of viewers,
the minute that they saw a black
person point out an injustice
against them hated it so much,
because the whole country is
racist just like them, right?
because they're projecting their
perspective onto everyone else.
And they think, my god,
if I saw a cop discriminate against
a black person, I would know that
that was a lie because every black
person in the country is a liar
when they say it.
And I would immediately turn
off, right?
And I guess the whole country is
with me, and 83% of the country is
deeply racist that,
if you show them an injustice about
black people, they go, no way, man.
Black people are liars,
that never happens to them, man.
I'm turning off.
That's who, what are they,
the Media Research Center,
that's the parent company.
Media Research Center researched
the Overlord DVD YouTube video, and
decided to go with it.
And look, Ana,
one more fun part to it.
My son watches a lot of these on
YouTube, right?
And so there's all these theories,
there's film theory, etc.
And some are really good.
I watched some of them after some
of the Marvel comic universe stuff.
After WandaVision,
I was like, okay, then there's tons
of Easter eggs in there, and
they're fun to watch, right?
And even my ten-year-old son,
I say even, but he's infinitely
smarter than an adult right-winger,
can tell what's credible and
what's not credible.
If you told him that he'd be like,
that has no chance of being true.
[LAUGH] You can tell what's real
and what's not real,
we discuss after the videos.
Hey, what theory is outlandish,
what theory is possible?
The idea that everyone would stop
watching at one particular time,
no matter what happened,
even a ten-year-old wouldn't be
stupid enough to believe that.
Or wouldn't be ignorant enough,
not know enough facts to not
know that, right?
>> Yeah, look, the reason why they
do it, Cenk, they do it for
a very specific reason.
And they do it to spread this
perception that talking about this
country's very real Issue with
racism is unpopular.
That most Americans do not agree
that we have a problem
with racism in America.
And you see this play out
in different contexts involving
different political issues.
There's a very real reason why you
see Twitter bots,
and Twitter trolls, sock puppet
accounts, pushing a narrative that
usually very powerful people want
to push, right?
And they want to persuade people
that their values, or
their beliefs, or their
realizations about what's wrong in
the country are not warranted, and
their thoughts are unpopular.
It's a way of propagandizing and
pressuring people to disregard
realities that we're experiencing
in this country.
That's the reason why they do it.
And to be quite honest with you,
as laughable as this attempt is,
I would argue that, in regard to
the messaging wars, conservatives
are pretty successful.
And it's because they're
representing moneyed
interests, right?
They're usually representing
powerful people.
Billionaires are currently funding
efforts to intimidate progressive
professors, or not even progressive
professors, professors who don't go
along with conservative messaging.
They'll go ahead and fund these
efforts to shame them and
list them in websites.
I mean, they have this multipronged
approach to their messaging,
to their propaganda, and
it's effective.
And part of the reason why it's
effective is because it's
well-resourced.
Yeah, it's a great point, Ana.
And the point of it is propaganda.
Because none of these conservative
outlets can last on their own in
a capitalist free market,
they don't make enough revenue.
They would all be out of business
within the year.
They're almost all financed by
right-wing billionaires.
And right-wing billionaires have
a vested interest in protecting
the existing order, including cops.
because what do cops mainly do?
They protect the powerful.
Just like one of our viewers said
earlier, they protect the powerful
and they protect property.
And wealthy people love that.
And so I don't know if they enjoy
the racism, the wealthy people who
fund these sites, probably.
Very, very, very likely.
Or if it's just the collateral
damage in their drive to maintain
the existing order.
And so, I mean,
look at what Ana is saying.
Think about it, guys.
So we just covered two stories in
back-to-back weeks in LA.
Cops pull up,
they never got the description that
the suspect was black.
In fact, it turns out the suspect
was white.
And they pull over literally
the first black guy they see.
And they go,
it's probably him, okay?
And then this week,
you had the army lieutenant pulled
over.
Perfectly good tags, they
theoretically pulled him over for
his tags.
And they throw him to the ground,
they pepper spray him,
they assault him, when he had
done absolutely nothing wrong.
Because he was a black guy in
a nice car.
So it happens all the time.
It is the lived experience of
millions of African Americans.
And the right wing says they're all
liars.
Those millions of African Americans
that complain about police
brutality and
how they're targeted unfairly,
every one of them is lying.
That's a startling thing to say.
That's an unbelievable
thing to say.
But yet, in our media,
because of this propaganda,
it's given equal weight.
And a lot of people are like,
well, I don't know.
I don't know who's telling
the truth, millions of
African Americans or the cops who
abuse them, who would have a vested
interest in not going to jail.
Hm, I can't tell.
And in fact, until recently,
the overwhelming majority
of Americans were brainwashed
by the media to think the cops
are always telling the truth and
black people are always lying.
Isn't that amazing?
And this is how they do that
propaganda to get that toxic
stuff into people's brains.
And yes, that's the definition
of racism.