The editor in chief of a prominent open access journal known as eLife says that he is now losing his job for publicly endorsing satire. Now, the satirical article criticized people [00:00:15] dying in Gaza while not condemning Hamas. Now, the name of this individual who has lost his job is Michael Eisen. In addition to running Elife, he's also a geneticist assist at the University of California, Berkeley. And we should note that he also happens to be Jewish. [00:00:30] Now, with that said, the public anger began on October 13 when Eisen reposted a satirical article from the Onion, which is well known to be a satirical publication with the headline titled Dying Gazans Criticized For Not Using Last Words To Condemn Hamas. [00:00:50] And when he quote, tweeted that, he said, the Onion speaks with more courage, insight, and moral clarity than the leaders of every academic institution put together. I wish there were an Onion University or the Onion University. Now, he didn't get fired from Berkeley, right? [00:01:07] Like, I could see how Berkeley might not appreciate how critical he is toward academics, but no, he got fired from a publication, an open source publication called Elife. And the satirical Onion piece, again, it is satire said the following [00:01:23] instead of issuing a full throated denunciation of the violent attacks by Hamas that have left over 1300 Israelis dead, it's now 1400. Dying woman holding her six year old son, who had just been killed in a bombing, is said to have doubled down by telling her child she loved him. [00:01:42] Look, it's definitely dark humor considering the context, but it continues to say, according to reports, such barbarism on the part of Palestinians was on full display across the Gaza Strip, where many men of fighting age could not muster a single word of reproof for [00:02:00] Hamas's actions while they coughed up blood. Now, after that immediate backlash for reposting the piece, Eisen clarified what his position is, tweeting, every sane person on earth is horrified and traumatized by what Hamas did and wants it to never happen again. [00:02:18] All the more so as a Jew with Israeli family. But I'm also horrified by the collective punishment already being meted out on Gazans and the worst that is about to come. The Onion is not making light of the situation and nor am I. [00:02:35] These articles are using satire to make a deadly serious point about this horrific tragedy. I mean, he is so on. Like, he's so correct. >> Speaker 2: How do you get fired for that? I mean, that's the most correct analysis I've seen anywhere in media. [00:02:51] And so, hey, right wing, where are you at cancel culture and the guy's getting canceled for his opinion, an opinion that is shared by the overwhelming majority of the country. And he's absolutely right that Onion makes a brilliant point through that satire, which they often do, where they're saying, like, [00:03:07] how are they supposed to condemn Hamas? It's the same point I made on Piers Morgan and I made earlier today on this show. They don't get to vote. Hamas ended elections. How are those Palestinians on the verge of death supposed to communicate that they're not with Hamas anymore? [00:03:24] They can't. And so it's an unmeetable standard. And that is why the right wing barbaric government of Netanyahu is now saying, yeah, it's an impossible standard, so we're going to keep on killing them so [00:03:40] that they can't ever meet that standard. And here's a guy who has put aside his own personal identity and the fact that he is personally torn by the trauma of what Hamas did, and is looking beyond that and is being a wonderful human being and [00:03:59] saying, yes, but we shouldn't kill them either. They're also not about Hamas, but about the Palestinians. They're innocent civilians. Michael Eisen is an American hero. I love this guy, right? And it is indisputably. Cancel culture. [00:04:14] Indisputably. So, right wing, did you ever care about cancel culture? Or is this not a convenient talking point for you and you never meant it? You just wanted to be a hypocrite and shut down all voices opposed to you and promote all voices on your side no matter how hateful they were. [00:04:32] This guy's not hateful. This guy's not anything. This guy is having the most standard opinion of all time, and yet he gets canceled. So, Ben Shapiro, where are you at? >> Speaker 1: Well, I mean, this is his Achilles heel for sure. And when it comes to this issue, all principles get thrown out the window. [00:04:50] >> Speaker 2: Of course, if he ever had any principles. >> Speaker 1: So with that said, he tried to explain where his views stand, why he decided to retweet that with comment, but some just weren't satisfied with that explanation. In fact, some Israeli academics and researchers demanded that Eisen resign and [00:05:09] that colleagues stop submitting papers to eLife as long as he remained in charge. And so then he decides to put out a statement on Twitter talking about what's happening and how he is losing his job. I have been informed that I'm being replaced as the editor in chief of eLife [00:05:25] for retweeting the Onion piece that calls out indifference to the lives of Palestinian civilians. And in a statement announcing Eisen's removal, the board of directors at eLife defended their decision, arguing that Mike has been given clear feedback from the board that his approach to leadership, [00:05:43] communication, and social media has at key times, been detrimental to the cohesion of the community we are trying to build, and hence to eLife's mission. It is against this background that a further incidence of this behavior has contributed to the board's decision. [00:06:02] >> Speaker 2: In other words, we fired him because he dared to disagree with our position. Okay, just call it what it is. That board is either obviously, like, in favor of atrocities, and they're saying, if you're not in favor of atrocities, we will fire you, [00:06:21] because tell me that murdering, killing, whatever you want to call it, 5000 civilians over 2000 children is not an atrocity. Say that and you're basically confessing. You're saying I'm a monster. [00:06:36] I don't care about killing children. So that's what the board of directors is saying, because they're saying, if you dare disagree with those atrocities, I don't care if you're Jewish, I don't care if you got family in Israel, I don't care about anything. We will cancel you. Be honest about it. [00:06:51] Be honest about it. >> Speaker 1: It is interesting to see this McCarthyism creep up again because it makes me so reminiscent of what happened in the lead up to the 2003 preemptive war in Iraq, right? [00:07:07] Anyone who spoke out against it, canceled, okay? Silenced censored. It happened in media, it happened in the music industry with, I think they call themselves the Chicks now, instead of the Dixie Chicks. Anyway, and now you see it happening with people like Michael Eisen. [00:07:24] You go on Twitter and you'll see all sorts of actors and actresses saying that they've been dropped by their management company. Their management company doesn't want to represent them anymore because they have put out statements publicly in support of Palestinian civilians. It's so egregious disgusting. [00:07:40] >> Speaker 2: It's not even protecting Jews in America. First of all, he's Jewish. But beyond that, when Kanye started saying the most horrific anti Semitic stuff in the world, there was like, equivocation for a little while, but Trump likes them, so, I don't know. Political correctness says that maybe a right wing was like, don't cancel Kanye. [00:07:58] Don't cancel him, okay? Now, there were others that were obviously consistent on that. In that case, Ben Shapiro was perfectly consistent that Kanye was terrible, monster, anti-Semitic, etc. Right? But a lot of people were like, questioning in the beginning, so this isn't about protecting Jews. [00:08:15] Kanye was the most prominent anti-Semite in my lifetime in America, right? But now when a Jewish guy says, can we not kill that many Palestinians, all of a sudden everybody roars and says, fire him, right? [00:08:30] Why, because he doesn't have as much power as Kanye. He didn't make as much money for other people as Kanye did, right. So keep it real on that as well. So, look, I think everyone in that board of directors is a coward or a terrible person and they should all be fired. How you, like cancel culture now? [00:08:45] >> Speaker 1: Well, what's actually happening is, and I want to end this story on a positive note, because there are wonderful people in the country, wonderful people who decided, no, I'm going to put my own livelihood at risk and resign in solidarity with Eisen. And that's what happened with Laura Urban, [00:09:03] a reviewing editor and career advisor for Elife. She announced that she is resigning, and here's what her statement said. Mike's dismissal for expressing his personal views sets a dangerous precedent for freedom of speech in our academic community. And it validates cyberbullying as a successful and [00:09:20] legitimate tool to get scientists with controversial opinions fired. And she wasn't the only one. Josh Dubnow, who is a Jewish neurobiologist at Stony Brook University, authored a petition urging eLife not to censure Eisen. [00:09:38] He said the following the whole academic enterprise we're engaged in rests on the ability to have open intellectual exchange about any topic and express our views honestly. Nothing he said was repugnant or hateful. There shouldn't be consequences for minority views in academia, and [00:09:57] as soon as we see that, the whole thing will come crashing down. I totally agree with him in that regard, absolutely. >> Speaker 2: They're all American heroes, and we appreciate them for sticking out for their colleague, for sticking out for academic freedom, sticking out for freedom of speech, and sticking out for decency in humanity. [00:10:13] And so, look, as I see, I mean, this idea that the Israeli researchers are demanding that he be fired is just beyond absurd. So just think about it. I always use my own ethnic background just for clarity. And so, you know, I'm not being biased. Imagine if Turkish researchers were like, [00:10:30] that Armenian said something bad about Turks. We demand that they be like, yeah, take a long walk off a short Turkish dock and see how that turns out for you. >> Speaker 1: Actually, I like that you use that example, Jenk, because I don't know if you remember this, but many years ago, [00:10:49] I had done some commentary about the genocide on the show. A Turkish gentleman did not like it. Someone who has some sort of organization or whatever he reaches out to you, includes me in the email, and essentially tries to get me fired for what I had to say. And remember how I responded? [00:11:04] >> Speaker 2: No, but I could imagine [LAUGH] >> Speaker 1: Yeah. I did not respond politely, and I laughed at the notion that Jenk would fire me over speaking my mind on the show. >> Speaker 2: Thank you, I appreciate that. And obviously, we don't do that, we don't do cancel culture. [00:11:22] I know the right wing accuses of it, but look at this. The right wing doing cancel culture, just like we told you. We've shown you now dozens of examples where the right wing loves canceled culture. But Israeli researchers wanted him fired. I didn't know you had that much legitimacy, so no, and [00:11:40] part of the reason why I would love Michael Eisen is because he's looking at it not as me, and how does it affect me? He's looking at it as how does it affect humanity? Right? And we're all human beings, whether you're Turkish, Armenian, Israeli or Palestinian, [00:11:56] we're all the same. We're all human. And the more that people think like Michael does, the better off we'll be. And the quicker we'll get to peace and the quicker we'll get to stopping this senseless death and destruction. So, thank Michael Eisen. [00:12:12] And look, I don't know if it can be repaired, but that board of directors, what they did was a travesty, and they should obviously reverse this.