Sheeran’s ‘political neutrality’ is a cover story. He’s allowed to grow rich, on condition he denies a platform to anyone holding the billionaire class accountable, says Jonathan Cook.
Billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft spiked Macklemore tour. Here, Kraft at the launch of “Face Jewish Hate” campaign in Boston on May 15, 2023. (Office of Governor Maura Healey, Flickr, Joshua Qualls, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
By Jonathan Cook
Jonathan-Cook.net
Lots of journalists do disinformation. After all, it’s often their job: to get you looking in the wrong place or viewing events through the wrong lens.
A good illustration is Tom Slater, editor of Spiked magazine. Tom isn’t dumb. But in his latest article, titled “The monstering of Ed Sheeran proves ‘Free Palestine’ has become a cult,” he does a very good job of pretending to be. Why? Because that’s the best way for him to keep his readership dumb.
He’s far from alone. Right now, there’s a whole industry of media professionals responding to the Sheeran furore by pointing in the very opposite direction to the one the public ought to be looking in.
Like Slater, these journalists and pundits understand that Sheeran isn’t in trouble because of some supposedly out-of-control “Free Palestine” cult. Like Slater, they know that the issue was never about Sheeran’s failure to speak out about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Had it been, this so-called cult – or what Slater preposterously calls the “keffiyeh classes” – would be “monstering” all of the other prominent artists who have been keeping their heads down and refusing to speak up about the genocide.
Spiked magazine’s editor Tom Slater’s post on X of his latest article. (Screen shot via Jonathan Cook Blog)
No, people are angry with Sheeran for a quite different – and very obvious – reason.
He invited fellow musician and long-standing friend Macklemore to open his tour, knowing that Macklemore would perform a song about the Gaza genocide called Hind’s Hall.
Sheeran then immediately reversed his tiny, proxy act of courage by capitulating to a threat from Robert Kraft, a billionaire stadium owner who is also a pal of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and generous donor to the genocidal Israeli military.
After conspiring with other billionaire stadium owners, Kraft gave Sheeran an ultimatum: drop Macklemore or we pull the plug on your tour.
The pushback seems to have caught Sheeran by surprise. His support acts and backing band withdrew from the tour.
“Kraft gave Sheeran an ultimatum: drop Macklemore or we pull the plug on your tour.”
That’s not, as Slater and the rest of the establishment media would have you believe, because they suddenly fell under the spell of some powerful cult.
The backlash is far more easily explained:
Because Sheeran has proved himself a spineless and disloyal friend.
Because he has taken a highly political stance, and an ugly one at that, in supporting the genocide apologists who dominate the billionaire class and expect obedience from their political and media flunkeys.
Because he has given his implicit consent for a billionaire with a nefarious political agenda to dictate what can be said in our cultural spaces.
Because through his cowardly capitulation, Sheeran has given his permission for the billionaire class to continue controlling those cultural spaces.