Disagree or Be Fired?

I will never fire someone for voicing an opinion — especially if we disagree.

The senseless killings over the past week have been horrifying. Many of our “political leaders,” and many others in the media, seem all too willing to use these tragic events as an opportunity to hammer home political talking points, dividing us as a nation even deeper. I’m tired of talking points. It’s like we’re being forced into viewing the world through one of two lenses. The assumption is that we’re incapable of using our brains to form our own opinions. It reduces us to members of a group, pawns in someone else’s game. As members of a group, we’re supposed to have one view on the world, one collective voice. More and more, it’s starting to feel as though there’s an effort, consciously or otherwise, to silence the voices that don’t fit neatly within the views of the group.

I started TheBlaze for a number of reasons, but for this post, I will focus on three:

1. As “talent,” I never wanted to be told what I could or could not say. I wanted to be able to speak my conscience without anyone above me attempting to “influence” my voice.
2. I wanted to build a company with a business model that would not require me to kowtow to outside voices.
3. I wanted to grant those who would come to work for me the same control over their voices that I demand for mine.

As talent, I have learned a lot over the past 30+ years of broadcasting. I am not the same person I was when I started this journey. I have aged and become wiser, I hope. I have become a husband, a father, and a grandfather. As I’ve said many times, I have also said some things that I wish I could take back. I wish that each time I open my mouth, God would give me the ability to say the right thing. I wish that each time I hear someone speak I could hear the intent behind the words being expressed. I wish I could see through to people’s hearts and understand what they are feeling so that I could better empathize, one human to another. If I could do that, I don’t know if I would be more successful in business as red meat seems to win the ratings war, but I’d certainly be a better man.

We built TheBlaze on a subscription model and an advertising model across video, audio and text. We did this so we would not have a single point of failure. We needed to be strong enough and diversified enough to weather the storms that would inevitably come. Today, the storm is much stronger than I ever imagined. The right (and the left) is a house divided. Standing up when most are sitting down is not easy. But because of our model, we will continue to survive — and if we stick to our principles, we will ultimately thrive.

As majority owner of TheBlaze, I do not control the editorial voice, as much as people seem to believe otherwise. I won’t pretend — I could. I have the ownership to hire and fire at my whim. I could make TheBlaze into a propaganda machine to advance anything I want or believe in. I could control the talent on our network, and if they were to resist, I could replace them. But I wouldn’t dream of exercising that control. I never have and I never will.

Over the weekend, a petition on Change.org was created to have Tomi Lahren removed from TheBlaze. The petition currently has over 50,000 “supporters.” I respect the person who started the petition, as well as those who support it, but I respectfully disagree.

At TheBlaze, I hire many people with whom I disagree on many levels. While I am deeply religious and a conservative libertarian, I hire and work side-by-side with atheists, liberals, Obama supporters and Trump supporters. (I am not sure how many Hillary supporters we have on staff, probably not many.) People would be shocked (sadly) at how many women hold senior positions, that we have several gay employees, that the two presidents of my companies (MRA and TheBlaze) are Jewish. But the fact that we may disagree on certain positions or policies does not matter inside our company, because we focus on our principles. So, though I disagree with many of the people who work for me, I will never cave to a boycott or a protest or fire someone for their voicing their opinion, EVEN if (and perhaps especially if) I disagree with their position.

I view the freedom of speech not only as fundamental to our way of life as Americans, but also as a natural right, a God-given right. It is a right I would defend with my life. And if someone has the courage and moral fortitude to express their feelings publicly, all the more reason for me to defend their right to speak. Very few of us have the conviction required to speak boldly and fearlessly in the face of opposition. Very few of us would speak out at the risk of being alienated, shunned, or — as history has shown and the present seems to be foreshadowing — of being killed.

Malcolm X. Gandhi. Churchill. Margret Sanger. MLK Jr. All of these leaders were outspoken. They each made the independent, courageous decision to make their voices and opinions known. Even in the face of opposition and obstacles, they stood proudly and loudly for the thing they believed in. I would have proudly stood or marched with some of them. I wish I could have. Some of these leaders espoused views that I find personally abhorrent, but I would proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any of these leaders to defend their God-given right to speak their conscience. This is why I like Bernie Sanders. He has the courage to say what he believes. At least I know who he is. At least I know where we disagree. A broad diversity of thoughts and opinions in the marketplace of ideas does not make us weak, but rather, it is the impassioned exchange of these ideas that makes us strong. Indeed, it’s the uninhibited, free exchange of ideas that has always set America apart.

The only speech that needs defending is the speech we disagree with. The only speech that moves us forward as a people and culture is the speech that makes us stop and think — that challenges us. This type of speech makes us uncomfortable, it can be offensive. Often times “offensive” speech is stupid, but sometimes it can be critically important.

When the abolitionists in America asked the question with the woodcarvings of a man in chains, “Am I not your brother?” or simply stated, “I am a man,” it was designed to make society very uncomfortable. In hindsight, it is easy to say, “well that was truth,” so it was not hard to say or hear those words. But at the time, this was extremely unpopular and offensive. The same could be said of those who stood against eugenics and the sterilization of “mongrels and imbeciles” during the early twentieth century. Some of the greatest minds in academia ridiculed those who spoke out against eugenics, calling them outdated — “flat-Earthers.” Eugenics would later be extolled and improved upon half a world away, ultimately morphing into the Holocaust.

Our nation is split, and not just in half — we are shattered. Build a wall vs. don’t build a wall. Gay marriage vs. traditional marriage. The cops are all good vs. the cops are all bad. Black vs. white. Guns vs. no guns. Black lives matter vs. Blue lives matter. And of course, both sides feel they are 100% in the right. There is no grey. There are no shades. “You must be wrong. Why? Because I am right.”

I have been clear that I personally do not want to play a role in this death spiral any longer. We must come together. We must stop seeking to be right. We must stop seeking revenge. We must open our arms and our hearts to what MLK aspired for: Reconciliation. To get there, we must allow others to speak truth as they see it.

To heal, we must go a step further: When others speak, we must listen and try to hear and understand what they are saying. I personally feel we need to listen more and speak less as a people. (This is hard to do when your job is to talk for four hours a day, but you should see how little I speak during the other 20 hours in the day.) The problem is not people voicing their opinions, the problem we face in America is an unwillingness to listen and to reason with facts. We must stop talking and hearing in tweets. Enough with the “gotchas.” We must be willing to spend the time to understand those with whom we disagree.

Reconciliation was used by MLK for a specific reason. Everything else implies a winner and a loser. But this is not a game. If someone wins, everyone does not have to lose. And if someone loses, everyone else doesn’t win. Instead, we need to figure out how to come together and reconcile with one another.

I attempt to hold myself to a higher standard and promote the voices of peace, tolerance, wisdom and calm. But our society has done a poor job in raising up those who understand that tolerance does not mean acceptance or adoption of another man’s ideas. We must all be free to speak without fear. We all must have the right to be wrong without someone wanting to destroy or kill us.

It is why I have dedicated so many hours on my shows to people like Bonhoeffer, MLK and Gandhi. It is why we are about to do a full week on MLK’s understanding of reconciliation.

The internet is the only place where man is truly allowed to be himself, to create, transact and assemble with whomever he wishes. It is the one place on earth where any voice, from anywhere in the world, can be heard globally and instantaneously. We should do nothing to interfere with any voice unless those voices are calling for violence or interfering with the rights and liberties of others. We should not shut people up who espouse hate, but rather, we should celebrate a world that allows us to hear what people have to say. We need to trust each other to recognize good and bad ideas for what they are. We don’t need to beat the speaker into submission. We don’t need to force people into taking their views underground. Let us be willing to hear the hate and then voluntarily reject it.

We must be very careful when we try to limit speech. It must be rare. Speech should never be banned simply because it offends someone somewhere. You don’t have a right not to be offended by words and ideas. We all need to grow thicker skin and stop being so afraid of words that cannot hurt us.

I have been called many things in my years as a broadcaster and I have always tried to use the criticism as an opportunity for self-reflection. Am I that man? Is that really what I believe? Is that really what I said? Is it possible someone heard that? Could I have said that differently? Those vile, and often hateful things that have been said about me have actually made me into a better, more reflective and peaceful man. Life is about how we respond to the things we cannot control — it is about perspective. I am rich if I am happy, even if I have nothing. I am poor if I am unhappy, even if I have everything.

If we are to grow into a nation we can be proud of — a truly free society, more free than our founders could have ever imagined — we cannot allow any person, or any collection of persons, to put a muzzle on our freedom of speech. There are people all around the world who may have something to say about you or your ideas or opinions. Let’s all agree that sticks and stones (or guns and bombs) can break our bones but that words can never hurt us.

Be principled. Don’t waver, especially when doing so would be easier. Respect others. Listen. Hear. Question honestly — with boldness and curiosity. Listen again. Speak your conscience without fear.

I will stand by and defend your right to disagree with me and to walk a vastly different path. Will you stand by me and defend my right, and the rights of those who work with me, to do the same?