The organizers of the Podcast Movement conference, which is billed as the “world’s largest podcast conference,” are apologizing after “harm” was allegedly done by the mere “presence” of one podcast host.
On Wednesday, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro showed up at the conference and was seen near a booth that was sold to the conservative outlet. And apparently, it did not go over well with some attendees.
In a tweet on Thursday, the Podcast Movement’s Twitter account wrote, “Hi folks, we owe you an apology before sessions kick off for the day. Yesterday afternoon, Ben Shapiro briefly visited the PM22 expo area near The Daily Wire booth.”
“Though he was not registered or expected, we take full responsibility for the harm done by his presence,” it continued.
The organization explained that it “agreed to sell The Daily Wire a first-time booth based on the company’s large presence in podcasting.” However, it added, “The weight of that decision is now painfully clear. Shapiro is a co-founder. A drop-in, however unlikely, should have been considered a possibility.”
https://twitter.com/PodcastMovement/status/1562765176239099905
As if a podcast conference apologizing for the mere presence of a popular podcast host couldn’t get weird enough, it went on, “Those of you who called this ‘unacceptable’ are right. In 9 wonderful years growing and celebrating this medium, PM has made mistakes. The pain caused by this one will always stick with us. We promise that sponsors will be more carefully considered moving forward.”
“Just to clarify, no TDW representatives were scheduled to appear on panels, and Shapiro remained in the common space and did not have a badge. If you have questions, we’re here to talk. Thank you for reading, and we hope you’ll continue to join us from here on out,” it added.
https://twitter.com/PodcastMovement/status/1562765184841977856
Some attendees were apparently quite upset by the conservative commentator’s presence.
One Twitter user wrote, “Ben Shapiro holding court next to a popcorn machine. Unpleasant things I did not expect to see at Podcast Movement 2022.”
Meanwhile, a podcast producer shared a picture of Shapiro — taken from afar — and wrote, “Hey what the f****”
“As a trans person, as a queer person, as someone with a uterus, this does not make me feel welcome. This does not make me feel safe,” they added.
https://twitter.com/starplanes/status/1562537175643672576
Others ridiculed the apology on Twitter.
Check out some of the reactions below:
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1562876221544837120
After being thoroughly roasted, Podcast Movement decided to make its account private so that only users who follow it can see its tweets.
We’ve apparently gone from words being harmful to now someone being present at an event and not actively menacing people, being harmful.
Rather than risk hearing a different idea that they might even find has some good points, some attendees of this conference decided to retreat to Twitter to whine about not feeling safe.
The fact that attendees of a podcast conference felt they were harmed or unsafe because a wildly popular podcast host showed up — not even to speak at the event — is almost laughable but is also distressing for what it signals about free speech culture.