I hope that today's events regarding John Banks and Magic Talk start a wider discussion on the role talk back radio stations play in mainstreaming bigotry and misinformation

The campaign against the UN Migration Compact was is a recent example (1/n)

The campaign was started by far-right activists in Europe, including the group the Christchurch shooter donated to, Generation Identity. This is relevant because the shooter had "here's your migration compact!" written on one of his guns (2/n) http://tinyurl.com/gcsbmigrationcompact

The campaign spread globally largely via social media especially YouTube. An investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found 75 of the 100 most popular videos on the topic were by anti-immigration far-right or conspiracy theorist creators (3/n) https://www.politico.eu/article/united-nations-migration-pact-how-got-trolled/

In New Zealand those videos were influential, as were videos made by local content creator Carol Sakey, and the petition she started to parliament against signing the compact. The campaign really only went mainstream though when all the campaigners called talk back (4/n)

Those callers were able to shift the public conversation on the topic to the narrative being pushed by the far-right. This is now Newstalk ZB covered the issue in a still-online article https://bit.ly/2rIoTV7  note one of the callers cites a Stefan Molyneux video (5/n)

this led to the National Party making their own version of Carol Sakey's petition- it was deleted from their website immediately after the terror attack in Christchurch, remember the "emotional junior staffer" scandal? (6/n) https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/an-emotional-junior-staffer-is-responsible-for-deleting-nationals-un-migration-petition/

I did a whole video essay on how this far-right conspiracy theory made it's way from the fringe into mainstream NZ politics. Magic Talk didn't exist then, but Newstalk ZB and (now defunct) Radio Live were a significant part of that (7/n)

Magic Talk has also given a platform to Mike Allen, a man who in 2019 threatened to "destroy mosque after mosque until they take me out" notice how Sean Plunket helps him backtrack when he admits to being on the far-right (8/n) https://www.magic.co.nz/home/news/2019/07/trade-me-seller-calls-sean-to-discuss-his-listing-being-removed.html

Sean Plunket also gave a platform to Sarah Smith (likely unaware who she was) to talk about transgender issues (content warning for the clip) Smith is a leading member of the Qanon adjacent conspiracy theorist group Mothers who Stand for Freedom (9/n)

We have -rightly- taken a critical look at the use of social media to spread misinformation, but at the same time talk back radio has been giving far-right conspiracy theorists a platform to reach a much wider audience (10/11)

Fact checking callers claims would be the least these stations could do. Talk back is much cheaper content than investigative journalism, but that's allowing fake news to spread, and is harming out democracy and putting marginalised groups at risk (11/11)