South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg canceled an interview Friday with Dave Rubin after facing backlash from members of the establishment media.
The host of “The Rubin Report” tweeted screenshots of tweets from Media Matters, Vox.com and Huffington Post employees explaining why Buttigieg shouldn’t appear on the podcast.
Congrats to Media Matters, Vox and HuffPo! @PeteButtigieg is passing on our interview. A shame, because I think he’s a decent man, we have some agreement, some disagreement, and we could’ve opened up a whole new audience to him. Have followed up, hopefully they’ll reconsider. https://t.co/bdP7IMaG26
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) May 17, 2019
“Congrats to Media Matters, Vox and HuffPo! @PeteButtigieg is passing on our interview,” Rubin tweeted Friday. “A shame, because I think he’s a decent man, we have some agreement, some disagreement, and we could’ve opened up a whole new audience to him. Have followed up, hopefully they’ll reconsider.”
Prior to the cancellation, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone tweeted to Chris Meagher, a Buttigieg staffer, “Hi Chris. If you don’t know who Cernovich is and why this is probably not a good look for the mayor, feel free to visit mediamatters.org or just DM me and I’d be happy to share.”
I’m not one for lists, but that would explain Vox’s activism guided as journalism.
My invite for @PeteButtigieg remains. If he caves to Media Matters, Vox and HuffPo that isn’t a good sign for a presidential candidate. Doing what’s right often means standing up to the mob. https://t.co/gVh9zzqntK
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) May 17, 2019
“This podcast is starting to look like a bad idea for Buttigieg…,” Andy Campbell a senior reporter for the Huffington Post tweeted in response to the initial agreement.
A number of other media members criticized Buttigieg for agreeing to the interview.