LA SOLIDARIDAD: Isa kang bayaran! Ezra Levant crucifies Maria Ressa in a London media forum

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Isa kang bayaran! Ezra Levant crucifies Maria Ressa in a London media forum

Rebel Media Commander Ezra Levant and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa

Rappler's Maria Ressa just found her match. Real hardcore tough match.

This seemed to be the case when the Rappler CEO attended a London conference in pursuit of her supposed fight for 'media freedom'.

Ezra Levant, a full-blooded Canadian political activist and journalist, is not your conventional type of media personality due to his advocacy of telling the other side of the story; something that go against the mainstream media.

In his stint in the event called Defend Media Freedom Conference, Levant's question was actually aimed at Nishant Lalwani, Director of Investments of the Omidyar Group, when Maria Ressa butted in.

“How do you square being the frontman for a left-wing Rupert Murdoch and frankly, how did you manage to direct a non-partisan government conference with the UK and Canada? I mean, really, you’re just a mirror image of Rupert Murdoch. You seem like a nice guy but I wouldn’t trust a conference of Rupert Murdoch (architected?),” Levant asked Lalwani.

The activist pointed out the irony of Lalwani directing a government conference while being under an Omidyar-led group.

Pierre Omidyar is the infamous and controversial eBay founder who is allegedly linked in funding media outfits in lieu of destabilizing government leaders who they cannot pull the strings.

“Why should we trust anything run by your billionaire tycoon paymaster— who I’m sure is a nice guy? But no one here is not on your payroll and I think you’ve shaped a lot of this commentary to support your bosses’ desires. It’s weird to me,” the fearless journalist said.

To which Lalwani answered: "Okay, so why don’t we deal with the facts? First of all, no one here is on his payroll."

"We just heard that you were. We just heard that you were." Levant argued.

Retaliating to the journalist, Lalwani said: "No, right, no. So we gave some money to Rappler in 2015” when suddenly, the news site's CEO interrupted and stepped in to answer the question in Lalwani's behalf.

Asking Lalwani to give her the spotlight, she said: "Nish, let me respond to this. I’ll take that one up because I’m gonna use you as a proxy for President Duterte. So number 1…" in which Levant refused to be treated as Duterte's proxy.

"No, don’t do that. Don’t do that. I’m not a proxy for Duterte." the Rebel Media Commander exclaimed.

As their exchange heated up, Ressa insisted that her news site is not foreign-owned. This, albeit the multimillion-dollar she received from Omidyar.

“I’m just telling you, these kinds of simplification is dangerous. It makes all of us are. Number one, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission): we’re not foreign owned. I started as a startup. I took in investors. They can have 10 million views and they can come from rainbow colors. I don’t much care. I have parameters for these investors. Those parameters gave the shareholders agreement that makes us— actually me— the one in control. They invest knowing that,” she explained to where Levant quickly told her "The SEC disagreed with you!"

"Actually, it does 'cause we’re still, we’re actually winning the court of appeals, is moving forward…" Ressa claimed.

"Omidyar gave up his stock." Levant answered.

This was the part where Ressa seemed to have lost her cool due to Levant's continuous interruption.

"Now, we… let me, let me finish! Because I certainly let you have the time, right? So let me…" she told him.

Levant made himself clear by emphasizing that it was not Ressa he was asking thus, did not need any explanation from her.

"I actually… My question was actually for Mr. Lalwani though." he said.

Maria Ressa: "After… Let’s take a look at how much… let’s take a full range of investments. There’s maybe about 4 ½ million dollars that went into Rappler. Only 4 ½… "

"Only eh? Only." Levant said, implying sarcasm which Ressa missed, saying "Only. And we’ve been able… That’s 7 years of, of actually being able to do hard-hitting investigative reporting."

Ezra Levant went on and said: "You’re defending your boss but can I hear from him instead?"

"He’s not my boss. I’ll give you to him." Ressa said, adding "You challenge something that is important to us."

Ezra Levant: "I didn’t ask you a question, with all due respect…"

At this point, Nishant Lalwani came to Ressa's defense.

"Could you let please Maria respond?" he told Levant, where the latter answered: "Will you respond too?" and made Lalwani say "I will respond."

Ezra Levant: "Okay, I look forward to that."

Further defending herself and the startup she claimed was an independent media group, Ressa elaborated the foreign investments in her company.

“Let’s take a look at the full range of investments. There’s a [inaudible] of about four and a half million dollars that went into Rappler. Only four and a half million dollars. Only. And we’ve been able, that seven years of doing hard hitting investigative reporting … Of that, probably less than five percent came from Omidyar,” explained Ressa.

The confronted Rappler CEO was then compelled to discuss how her news site is fully Filipino-owned.

“We’re an independent media group. Omidyar Network had less than five percent of the shares of Rappler, which was fully Filipino owned. Every investment that was made ran through the big four… our auditors came in, we had the law firm that actually created that Philippine Depositary Receipts. You have to give me that because we can’t let a statement like that lie. Because that could be picked up and send me to jail. That’s the difference between your world and mine. I’m very careful about my words and factual,” she said.

Lalwani, on the other hand, stressed that the eBay founder only owned “five percent of the capital.”

“We don’t own the majority stake in any single media company. Pierre has no say in the investments we make in the media companies. We do that as a team in an independent level. We don’t have any editorial influence whatsoever in any companies, but we fund and if you don’t believe me, just ask— and Maria just verified that. I think we’re able to support this conference because we’re a credible investment media… Our independence is proven,” he said.

On Twitter, Levant continued to roast Ressa by saying she is a paid personality "rented by a US billionaire".

Here's his tweet where Ressa's reply can be seen: