WEST TEXAS — “Dear friends, What’s happened? Cancel Culture, is all [my wife] Isabel and I can surmise.”
Texas conservative talk show host Robert Pratt released a statement Sunday announcing that after nearly 15 years of hosting his profitable West Texas radio program, his overseeing media company abruptly cancelled his show—with no explanation.
“Immediately after Friday’s show (1/15/2021), my studio phone rang with the first call I have had from Townsquare Media [TM] market management in more than a year, likely much longer. The message delivered: ‘We’ve decided to go in a different direction,’” wrote Pratt.
“There has been no communication from any agent of TM about the content, execution, or business side of Pratt on Texas that in anyway expressed even the slightest concern about the program, its content, or statements made in the program. None,” he continued.
Pratt then said TM, which is headquartered in New York, simply released a short, “curt and cold” three-sentence statement saying he will no longer be on the air.
“As of January 18, 2021 the show ‘Pratt on Texas’ will no longer be heard on Townsquare Media radio stations in Lubbock, Abilene, and Wichita Falls, Texas,” the company said in their brief statement “Townsquare Media thanks Mr. Pratt for his years of service hosting ‘Pratt on Texas’, and wish Mr. Pratt the best in his future endeavors.
Pratt says there was no scandal, financial issues or losses, sagging ratings, or any other business disputes that would have justified cancelling his show, and that he’d always had a “warm, friendly, and profitable relationship” with the local TM employees.
“Such an immediate turnabout, with no explanation and such coldness, is shocking and undeserved. This is how Cancel Culture works, it is rooted in hate,” Pratt said.
Pratt’s now-deleted show, which was previously syndicated on radio stations in Lubbock, Abilene, and Wichita Falls, comes amid a recent onslaught of censorship around the nation. Big Tech companies such as Twitter, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon Web Services have been deleting accounts of those they disagree with politically—most notably removing President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
“Cancel Culture is about advancing a political agenda and operates outside of the idea of making money and being successful financially. The goal is to marginalize, at minimum, and to de-platform and destroy the ability of opposing viewpoints from reaching an audience,” Pratt said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week issued civil investigative demands to those tech companies wanting answers about their censorship policies and their recent termination and blocking of the social media application Parler.
Pratt said these companies will only continue—and broaden—their crackdown on free speech.
“Post election certification, Cancel Culture has rapidly grown beyond its roots in social media to include all forms of media and political thought sharing,” Pratt concluded. “It will flourish without mass opposition.”
