Crooked Media, the umbrella company of popular podcasts like “Pod Save America,” is cutting ties with its only Republican commentator due to his involvement in Facebook’s crusade to discredit its critics.
According to a statement from the company’s founders, former Jeb Bush spokesperson Tim Miller is being booted as a contributor for his work on Facebook’s behalf to dig up dirt on groups critical of its practices.
— Crooked Media (@crookedmedia) November 21, 2018
Miller wrote a blog post to explain his point of view.
I wanted to take some time to go more in depth on what I did for Facebook and the values that I try to bring to my work here -> https://t.co/Xh9rgYKPD7
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) November 16, 2018
All three owners jointly announced that the company would no longer have Miller as a freelance contributor or pod guest. That doesn’t sound like much of a “rift” in the company.
Oh my his response was painful.
Effectively: I know that George Soros is viewed as a Jewish Boogeyman by the right, and we were concerned about attacks from the right at the time, so we innocently pushed this information into background reporting. Not with the intent that any of it would stick or that reporters would chase George Soros to deflect right-wing criticism of Facebook that we weren’t prepared to argue on it’s merits. It isn’t my personal fault that work like mine contributed to attempted terrorism.
Not exactly the kind of guy I’d hire to do Crisis Public Relations.
More like taking out the trash.
Other than Jennifer Rubin, I cannot think of another republican (maybe Tom Nichols) who has been more clear about not only their continuous nevertrump position but recognizing the Republican Party is trumpism.
That said, I don’t see why the left’s answer to right wing media ever needed this token republican to begin with.
It was a good call and bodes well for the future of the company. It’d be nice to see them bring in voices further to the left and cover the full left of center spectrum.
What’s striking about this is that he expected, as a conservative, not to be held to this sort of standard, or more importantly, to be called out about work for his other clients. His response (in effect, “I was doing what I was hired to do and I’m damn good at my job – and, oh yes, Soros is more secretive than Adelson or the Kochs)”) isn’t the right one if you want to keep a job with a left-of-center media company. It’s not like he doesn’t have plenty of other clients who would gladly use up the time he’s freed up.
I have no sympathy. I don’t give a crap about what he thinks of Facebook, George Soros, or anything else, but he sounds awful naïve, not to mention a rather obnoxious strain of David Brooks style conservatism.