I only went to law school because my father would pay for it and I had the world’s worst case of mononucleosis and I had to get out of Utah. But despite not caring a whit about the law, not ever wanting to practice law, I did learn a few things there.

Then again, this was just after Watergate, which permanently damaged the image of attorneys. Then again, this was back when you wanted your kid to be either a doctor or a lawyer, a professional, to ensure they existed above the hoi polloi, that you didn’t have to worry about them, that they could survive.

Ain’t that a laugh.

I know this doctor my age who was making 250k back in the eighties, he was richer than anybody I knew. Today? HE MAKES THE SAME 250k!

I’m not saying doctors are poor, but the truth is the model has changed, very few practice independently, they’ve sold their souls to the hospital chains, and although a few, like surgeons, make beaucoup bucks, most don’t. As for lawyers… The biggest story in the business is how the schools have snookered the students into borrowing a ton of money to attend when in truth jobs paying enough to retire that debt are very few in number. Graduate in the top 10% of your class, maybe top 15%, and you’re covered. Less than that odds are you won’t be able to get a legal job whatsoever.

But if you go into banking… You’ll work around the clock but you’ll be handsomely compensated. And techies can win the financial lottery. As for attorneys? It’s illegal to sell your practice in California, your firm has no asset value, so your odds of getting rich? You’d better be a personal injury lawyer or make good investments or get really lucky.

Now it could be worse. You could have worked for a record label. Read about that Elektra A&R guy who just died, destitute? That’s not an uncommon story. The streets are littered with not only broke former A&R guys, but dead ones. I mean a promo guy is a salesman, he can sell anything, and many of them now do, real estate and… But it takes no qualifications to get an A&R job and having done it it delivers no skills someone outside the industry is going to pay you good dough for…

But you still think you want to be in the music industry.

Not that many know any of the above, they’re just riding on emotions, forget that they’ve got no power of analysis, they’re clueless when it comes to the law, although if you just read the business sections of either the WSJ or the NYT it’s amazing what you’ll learn. As a matter of fact, I’m all about self-education. As for law school…I think I learned more in the bar review course than I ever did in class. If you can read and analyze, you don’t need a teacher.

And all this is to say that if Spotify cancels Joe Rogan’s contract IT IS NOT CENSORSHIP!

Spotify is a private company, it can do what it wants. As can the newspaper and the social media outlets and…

Now it’s something different if the place, virtual or real, is the only game in town. There have been rulings saying that you must allow protests at shopping centers, back when they were the center of human discourse, but… Today shopping centers have died, they’re empty shells, or have been turned into apartments or offices, and we live in a virtual world, where there are a zillion locations just a click away.

Meaning if one company, i.e. Spotify, decides not to exhibit something, this does not deny the speaker the right to exhibit it elsewhere. It’s kind of like restaurants, no shirt, no shoes, no service. You don’t have an inherent right to eat at somebody’s restaurant, and you don’t have an inherent right to be on Spotify. Spotify gets to decide what it wants to feature. And if it says no, it is not censorship, it’s a BUSINESS DECISION! There’s not a single law on the books that prevents them from doing this. As a matter of fact, just the opposite is true, there’s a ton of examples stating just this point!

Not that the average person knows all this.

Hell, I thought my legal education was a waste until Napster came along. It was copyright infringement, any lawyer could see that. And then there was a legal case deciding that. But we’d hear wankers talk about the egregious behavior of labels, overcharging for one good track on a CD…THAT WAS THEIR RIGHT! The fact that practically, as the wheels of the future turned that was no longer a good business model…has nothing to do with the law.

Just like if you lose at trial you don’t get the right to appeal and get your case heard all over again. You can appeal ERRORS, but if there are none, the judgment stands.

I don’t care if you like Joe Rogan or not, if you want him on Spotify or not, the bottom line is that Spotify has the complete right to cancel him or not. And if they do… Rogan, contractual details aside, has the right to make a deal with any other outlet, of which there are many, or go into business himself. It’s not like Spotify is his only opportunity.

As for canceling a conservative viewpoint… Why is it the right calls the left snowflakes, goes on about how wimpy they are, but continually cries that it is being unfairly silenced? Hell, Fox News eclipses the ratings of CNN and MSNBC. Morgan Wallen was canceled for using the n-word and he still ended up with the biggest selling album of the year, despite the fact that most radio stations refused to play it. Believe me, if Joe Rogan leaves Spotify he won’t go unheard, his fans will follow him somewhere new just like Howard Stern’s fans followed him to Sirius, AND THEY HAD TO PAY!

Having said that, distribution is king. It’s hard to reach people. Which is why no alternative to Twitter has emerged. Sure, start your own brief message social network, Trump says he’s launching one, but even before it has gone up there are questions about its financial legality.

So as a society, we are fully within our rights to try and diminish the reach of misinformation, messages contrary to the health of society. I mean isn’t that what is wrong, that there are no agreed upon facts anymore? Hell, we have an NBA player saying the earth is FLAT! I mean we’re not living in the 1400s, we’ve got photos from space, isn’t this settled science? I guess not.

But do we want this inane opinion on the front page, taken seriously, no, we don’t want it anywhere unless it’s for a laugh. That’s right, let’s give misinformation the same placement and amplification as correct information. Because otherwise those spewing inanities will be CENSORED! Well, no. That’s not what the law says.

Furthermore, that’s how we got into this mess. The false equivalencies in the news. Which prints the right and left opinions even when the right’s, and it’s always the right’s, is just made up malarkey!

And then there’s all this beating up of Biden, when the fact is the economy is RAGING! But in polls, people say the economy is the big problem. Huh? That’s just because the news has never gotten to them, the facts. As for inflation, it’s about supply and demand, and interest rates too, everybody’s shopping and because of supply chain issues there’s little product and prices have gone up. It’s bad that your salary is not keeping up, but every expert says they expect inflation to ease by the end of the year, when supply catches up with demand.

And the fact that Old Joe was snookered by the Republican Congress when everybody on the street knew they would never compromise, that they wanted to thwart anything Biden proposed, is completely confounding. I mean no one’s passionate about Joe, but is public passion the only metric?

I mean people are passionate about Joe Rogan, but that does not make him right. And this guy champions Ivermectin, which every test has said doesn’t work against Covid. Have you been reading the reports of relatives of the infected arguing for Ivermectin with doctors? That’s right, this guy has a decade of training but Joe Rogan knows more. I mean how can you run a society like this?

We’re not doing a good job of it.

I mean on many subjects there can be a difference of opinion, there can be debate, but that’s not what’s going on now. One side is basing its decisions on science, and the other is just making it up as they go!

As for experts… Let’s go back to that guy who said vaccines cause autism. HE FAKED THE DATA! The study has been completely discredited. But as a result there are kids without vaccinations today, measles is back.

I mean this is like someone saying swimming causes mental retardation, so then believers stop swimming.

Or that asparagus causes lung cancer.

Or that fresh air leads to agoraphobia in children.

I mean if we can’t agree on some basics, we’re completely screwed.

So, the government wants to stop distributing the Regeneron and Lilly antibodies because they don’t work on Omicron, but Ron DeSantis says NO! He wants them provided in Florida. What next, placebos as vaccines? It’s not like the antibodies are political, it’s a scientific issue, the companies themselves posted the numbers. And now 99% of the infections in America are Omicron.

Do new facts arise, do we learn, do we make mistakes along the way? OF COURSE WE DO! That’s the nature of the scientific method, that’s the nature of being human, but now we’ve got litmus tests, Trump is inviolate, you can never admit you’re wrong, you’ve got to pledge fealty to the team, even if it’s a death cult.

Yes, more unvaxxed are dying than vaxxed. The odds are double digit times higher that the unvaxxed will be hospitalized. But my inbox fills up with just the opposite. Yes, I’ve got tons of e-mails saying you don’t want to get the vaccine because it causes you to die if you get infected with Covid, just the opposite of the truth.

And where are these people getting their information?

From Joe Rogan and people like him.

Do we want Joe’s voice to be amplified?

OF COURSE NOT!

Of course Joe could stop spreading falsehoods, stop featuring the discredited on his podcast, but he refuses to do this. And when confronted with this issue he just claims he’s an idiot. Yeah, right. This guy is so self-satisfied he doesn’t believe that whatsoever. So you’ve got a podcaster with no training acting as the Covid minister of choice. That’s right, famous people get sick and call Joe and do what he tells them.

I just want these same people to refuse medical help when they’re really sick.

And then Howard Stern says he wants the unvaxxed to be refused treatment and…this is a big story on the right. Yes, Howard was being histrionic, BUT YOU TELL ME TUCKER CARLSON IS NOT?

And the truth is in France you can’t go anywhere unless you’re vaxxed, and you’ve got to show a passport to get into buildings. France has got issues, but it’s far from an authoritarian dictatorship. Hell, what would be happening in Ukraine now if Trump was still president. Oh, I know, he’d say he spoke with Putin and trusted him… When everybody knows the guy is completely untrustworthy!

I’m not saying the left is perfect, but the bottom line is they’ve got their feet planted on the ground much more than the right. As for creeping socialism… Unions, higher minimum wage, guaranteed pay…isn’t this exactly what the underclass who used to be Democrats and are now Republicans want?

No, they want their freedom.

Well, the truth is Joe Rogan has plenty of freedom. And Spotify has the freedom to say it doesn’t want Joe on its platform. Will they do this? I have no idea, but they’ve got the right, AND IT’S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH CENSORSHIP!

“Neil Young Wants His Music Off Spotify Over Joe Rogan Vaccine Misinformation – ‘They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.'”: https://bit.ly/3Ar5j2p

What I hate about anti-vaxxers is they don’t know how to use Google.

Today two guys sent me e-mail about Alex Berenson, how he’s providing excellent data, he’s the authority.

If you Google Mr. Berenson, you’ll find out that he’s been banned from Twitter for Covid misinformation and is constantly on Fox spewing falsehoods.

Check it out:

“Twitter Bans Conservative author Alex Berenson”: https://bit.ly/3FXE9Bl

And:

“The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man – In a crowded field of wrongness, one person stands out: Alex Berenson.”: https://bit.ly/3u0Grx8

Read the “Atlantic” article, the second one above. This isn’t opinion, this is FACT!

If you’re doing your own research you’ve got to use Google or Bing or even DuckDuckGo, your search engine of choice. And the very first article that comes up on Google, the very first hit, is the “Atlantic” article.

This happens each and every day. I’ve got some ignorant doofus who e-mails me this garbage each and every day. All you have to do is Google and you’ll find out the site is notoriously biased and untrustworthy. You don’t have to dig deep, you barely have to dig at all.

But these anti-vaxxers don’t. So the truth is they really aren’t doing any research whatsoever, they just don’t want to get the shot and they’re looking for articles that support their position.

Now the fact is Joe Rogan reaches more people than any cable news outlet, even Fox. Funny that it takes a rock star to shine a light on this.

As for music, read this article from the BBC:

“More and more musicians are releasing their own music: Here’s why”: https://bbc.in/3nUS9FA

 

Bottom line? Today songs break on TikTok, and the truth is the major labels have almost no power on the platform. It’s owned by its users and the creators who provide the content. And I hate to tell you, these TikTokkers are not listening to terrestrial radio, and they’re not watching late night TV, the major labels’ power has been diminished by change in the marketplace. But they don’t want you to know this.

It’s all about ignorance and obfuscation if oldsters are in charge and there’s money involved. If you think the head of any record label knows how to make and post a TikTok video you’re just plain wrong, there’s a very good chance they’ve never even visited the platform. Youngsters have all the time in the world, and they’re willing to work ’round the clock in the pursuit of their goal. Suits are into lifestyle, acquisition, clothing, when in truth all you need to post content on TikTok is a smartphone.

I’m not saying that Rogan’s reach is a good thing, it’s just THE THING!

The labels couldn’t truly make the switch to the modern era and nor could traditional media. And I’m betting against Meta/Facebook in the metaverse, because once everybody knows about the new paradigm the established players usually don’t win in the transition.

So Joe Rogan gets his popularity from being the voice of the UFC. Hell, boomers refuse to watch it, to them boxing is still king, they remember Muhammad Ali. But today boxing means nothing, except if the match features social media star Jake Paul.

You see the social media stars know how to tell a story, it’s all about presentation, whereas journalists employ some of the most boring writing ever. It’s all formula. Young people don’t even bother to read the paper, and they never will. They’re going to be reached another way.

And we live in the era of the cult of personality. Newspapers are faceless. They should build up their stars and promote them to compete with the online kings and queens. But the papers are so busy being egalitarian, keeping everybody equal, that they take themselves out of the equation. Cable news figured this out, it’s all about stars, whether it be Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow.

I’m not saying the papers are not the source of facts. It’s just that most people don’t get the news from said papers. That’s right, when it comes to news print is king. Supersedes everything else. TV has got very few reporters, what you see on screen is just about all they’ve got, they take their lead from the Big Three: “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post” and “The Wall Street Journal.” It’s all top-down in an era where it’s all bottom up.

Yes, you start at the bottom these days, you build your own audience. Don’t think about world domination, don’t even try to get a deal, just do the work yourself, you have to gather your tribe, and it’s the hardest thing to do.

And the people spewing these falsehoods online have been building their audiences for eons, and now they’re dominant.

So Neil Young takes a stand. After a slew of doctors took a stand last week. Will Rogan go?

Well, the doctors’ blowback was circulated only amongst those with the same take, that Rogan is a fount of misinformation and must go.

But now we’ve got rock god Neil Young!

Neil Young’s new album was featured in every dead tree outlet known to man, and a ton of online ones too. He’s back with Crazy Horse, the reviews say it’s a return to form.

But it’s already gone, nobody cares, there’s no action whatsoever.

At this point only ONE song on the album has over a million streams on Spotify. Seven of the remaining nine don’t even break four hundred thousand! I don’t think Neil can even treat his team to lunch on this payout.

You see Neil Young no longer counts. He’s old. He’s history.

But it’s not only him, it’s all the old acts. Not only classic rockers but MTV stars too. Do you know how many years, DECADES!, it’s been since their heyday? Young’s comeback, playing on stage at the VMAs with Pearl Jam, was in 1993…TWENTY NINE YEARS AGO!

Neil’s got four tracks with triple-digit million streams on Spotify, but Fleetwood Mac has many more. Yes, even in the classic rock world Neil Young is not burning up Spotify.

This is no judgment of Mr. Young’s music, not whatsoever, but the truth is Spotify could can all of his music, take it down like he wants, and the streaming platform wouldn’t be hurt economically at all.

No, the only way you hurt Spotify is to get all the rest of the acts on board. But this is where they make their money, so they’re loath to unite in the cause, and some of them are right wing anti-vaxxers anyway.

Which brings us to the strange case of Interscope Records. Burning up the charts with Dr. Dre and his proteges, the blowback was so bad that Warner Brothers decided the label had to go. So, it gave Interscope its freedom and then it was subsumed into the Universal group, the worst of the major labels, and now Universal has 40% market share, dominates.

So, could the same thing happen to Spotify?

Now I don’t expect Amazon or Apple will pick up Rogan exclusively for a big check, then again, Apple hosted Rogan’s podcast before Joe made an exclusive deal with Spotify.

Can Joe Rogan be killed? Metaphorically, I mean.

Well, in truth you can do it alone, unfettered, and make MORE money. Yes, most analysts felt that Rogan left money on the table when he made his exclusive deal with Spotify. So Rogan wins no matter what.

Then again, if Rogan isn’t on all the readily available platforms, then what?

Well, OAN is being killed by the cable companies, it’s being squeezed off their systems, which say it’s a cost-cutting measure. Who knows the real motivation, but this right wing bloviating nonsense provider has been hindered in its reach.

Just like Trump being off Twitter.

Then there’s the story of David Geffen and Geto Boys. He didn’t want them on the label, he let them go and they had no success. Then again, Geto Boys wasn’t a household name when the act was signed to Geffen. But David said my label, my choice, and acted. But not only is Spotify not independent like Geffen at the time, but it’s publicly traded… What’s best for its bottom line?

Then again, corporations can be swayed by public blowback, which is what happened with Warner and Interscope.

Then it comes down to the old issue facing Facebook and other legacy companies, are they tech platforms or publishers/media companies? In other words, are they responsible for the content on their sites? They don’t want to be, which is why they keep saying they’re just tech platforms.

And we can try and thread the needle, but what are we going to do about all this misinformation and the death of democracy, just stay silent as the edifice crumbles? Mitch McConnell changes tack on a whim, no new Supreme Court Justice in the last year of Obama’s term, wait for the election, but he lets Trump install a new Justice just days before the 2020 election. Sure, there are rules, but they appear to be malleable.

Spotify already tried to crack down on hip-hop lyrics and then pulled back. But this is just one guy.

Then again, there are other people on the platform spewing misinformation, albeit with fewer fans, but do they have to go too?

And then you’ve got Aaron Rodgers, who lied about being vaccinated, said he was “immunized,” whatever that means, got Covid, missed play, and now says he doesn’t believe Biden is the legitimate president. This is the guy who says he was cured by Joe Rogan. Yup, if you’ve got medical issues don’t call your doctor, but JOE ROGAN!

So it’s Spotify’s choice. Neil Young means nothing to them. The only way to get to Spotify to take action is to make more noise.

But Spotify does have power. Look, Alex Jones’s reach has been neutered to a great degree. Distribution is king and if you don’t have it you’re in trouble.

Used to be the sweet science known as boxing was the realm of gangsters, not to be trusted, fights were fixed, it was a lowest common denominator enterprise. The UFC is barely better than the WWE. Well, it’s not that bad, but it’s based on physicality, not intellect, and the bozo embedded in this sport of mutilation is who the youngsters listen to, where they get their information.

This is a problem. Neil Young is right. If you want change, you’ve got to join him. If every classic rock act threatened to pull their music from Spotify, believe me they’d can Rogan. Because if every classic rock act goes, the audience will be pissed, and will go to Apple or Amazon and subscriber acquisition is the biggest hurdle in building your business.

Maybe it’s not about Joe Rogan, maybe it’s just about misinformation. Twitter has got its three strikes rule, why can’t Spotify have the same thing?

Neil Young lit a match, will it turn into a fire?

It depends on you.

Tune in tomorrow, January 25th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

Trailer: https://bit.ly/3qWix49

We had to finish this before we dug into “Ozark.”

I almost wrote about “Ozark” last night, we’re not quite two episodes in, so please don’t e-mail me about stuff and ruin it, but what got me so excited, what made me want to communicate with you, was how they got the family stuff exactly right. The only show to do this on an equal level, at least that I’ve seen, is “The Sopranos.” You remember when Tony asked Meadow what her punishment should be and she suggested taking away her gas credit card? Tony and Carmela agreed and then Meadow went into her bedroom, called a friend and said how she’d completely snowed her parents, that they were clueless, that this wasn’t much of a sacrifice at all.

Well in “Ozark” you see two styles of parenting, the good cop and the bad cop. Justin Bateman and Laura Linney. That’s how it is in most families, and even though the father might mete out punishment he’s usually clueless, or he’s like my dad, who went from zero to a hundred instantly and took off his belt and whipped me. But in this case, it’s the mother, Ms. Linney, who keeps pushing, Mr. Bateman is the softy, trying to see down the line, envision the consequences.

And then there are the children. Who are never completely aligned, They share their status as underlings, and sometimes they’re united and sometimes they’re not, sometimes they positively hate each other.

Have you been in the midst of a family argument where your two parents are on different sides of the issue, at least re punishment? I certainly have, and they nail this in “Ozark.”

But “Spotless” is completely different.

I’d never heard of it. Then Karen Bliss e-mailed me about it, and I watch nothing on sheer recommendation, I went to the data, and on RottenTomatoes “Spotless” got a critics score of 100% and an audience score of 94%. This we had to watch, and we did.

It’s a crime story. And by the end of the first episode you think you know where it is going. But ultimately you don’t, which is what keeps you hanging on.

AND THE TENSION!!

You know it’s not real, but you can’t help but get wound up.

But really I’m writing about the performances, most especially Denis Ménochet as the ne’er-do-well brother. He’s the glue that holds the show together. At first he appears to be a bumbling, uneducated nincompoop, but as the show progresses you realize he’s incredibly wise, incredibly street smart.

And at times charming.

The rules don’t apply to him.

So you want to be him.

Not that he’s a beautiful specimen, like in an American series, hell, he’s got a big belly, but because he is never afraid of speaking his truth, he doesn’t play by society’s rules, he’s willing to go all in on his position.

Not that he’s stupid. He knows when it’s a losing proposition. But if there’s any chance of things going his way, he’ll play the odds.

His brother Jean wants to go to the cops, but Ménochet, as Martin, says that in his experience nothing good ever comes from going to the cops. I have to say I agree with this. The cops are not on your team. They are not looking out for you. They’ll be charming, play like they’re on your side, when that’s completely untrue. Not that I won’t dial 911 in an emergency, but shy of that…one thing I know for sure, THE POLICE WON’T COME! Ever since 9/11 police have been portrayed as gods, I don’t think so.

And Martin can appear a buffoon, a bull in a china shop, and then he can smile ever so slightly, stare at you with those eyes and you’re on his side.

And you can count on him. Not when you want to, but when it looks like you’re screwed, he reads the situation and shows up, when it truly matters.

And he can relate to the children in a way their parents cannot. Maybe because he’s an overgrown child himself, but also because he’s got better insight into life than their parents.

Now you know how it is with guests, with family, they can come and stay, but only for a few days. But Martin keeps hanging on and on…

And he gets Jean into trouble. With the bad guys. The equivalent of the Mafia. And you know how that plays out. Certainly Martin does, he says they kill you in the end, and you’ve got to be prepared for it.

That does not mean Martin doesn’t screw up. He’s constantly trying to fix the situation by doing the dirty work behind the unknowing Jean’s back, but it always blows up in his face.

As for the rest of the characters…

Brendan Coyle as the underworld Nelson Clay is utterly fantastic. Because he’s subtle, he doesn’t overplay his hand, or the role.

You know, bad guys are always hotheads, or pure evil, or if they’re calm it just takes one thing to set them off, but Nelson… He’s almost always soft-spoken and dignified, he dresses just like a businessman. There’s power in his quietude.

And the kids! Jemma Donovan as the daughter Maddy is rebelling against her parents who are too rarely available, never mind understanding, while testing the limits of society all the while.

Meanwhile, her brother Oliver becomes fatalistic and is into blood and gore and…

You know that Martin and Jean are going to be brought in deeper, but how it plays out…the twists and turns, like I said, are not always foreseeable.

Now the only problem with the series is the ending. It’s obviously a set-up for a second season which never happened, you see the original outlet, Esquire, went out of business – at least the one and only season can now be seen on Netflix.

But this is show is an unknown winner, check it out.

And despite being a Canal+ production, it’s in English, although you might want to turn on the subtitles!