Robin Andersen – The Power of the Backlash Against the Billionaire Zionist and the Pop Singer who Silenced Macklemore

The Ed Sheeran-Macklemore episode has exposed who has the real power in the music industry and why so many musicians are silent on the Gaza genocide.

Robin Andersen is professor emerita of media studies at Fordham University. She is an award-winning author of a dozen single- and co-authored books. Her most recent book is The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza . Andersen’s work examines film, television, and media coverage of war, the environment, politics, and elections. She edits the Routledge Focus Book Series on Media and Humanitarian Action, serves as a Project Censored Judge, and contributes to the annual State of the Free Press. Andersen is on the Board of Directors of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), where she also writes regularly, and is an Izzy Award Judge for the Park Center for Independent Media. Her writing has appeared in CounterPunch, LA Progressive, The Progressive, Salon, Common Dreams, and ScheerPost, among others.

Cross-posted from Counterpunch

Picture by Macklemore

In the days that followed the announcement of Macklemore’s firing, the backlash was stunning. Journalist jumped on the story with reporting that brought to light the details of a rigged system where billionaire owners and managers wield great influence over what performers can say, and what they can’t say on stages around the country.

Ed Sheeran told Macklemore that Zionist Billionaire Robert Kraft had dropped him from the lineup. Macklemore posted this on Facebook ;

Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

The move came after two concerts at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September 4 and 5, where Macklemore called for a “Free Palestine ” and preformed his song, Hind’s Hall , about the five-year-old girl killed by the IDF in Gaza. During the second show, he directly addressed his “Jewish brothers and sisters,” saying “Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you . My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.”

Sheeran capitulated to Kraft’s demands, telling Macklemore that the words “’Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with.” Macklemore commented on the fundamental disconnect that those words could be more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel.” Sheeran said , “I don’t take sides.”

The Guardian reported that the Israeli American Council also called for Macklemore to be removed from the tour, arguing that the rapper shouldn’t be given a platform for promoting “a one-sided political agenda,” as if there could be two-sides to an undeniable genocide.

Sheeran did himself no favors by defending himself with an easily detectable lie that backfired. The self-identified neutral observer of history that didn’t take sides played at a charity concert for Ukraine in 2022. The late-night variety show Saturday Night Live SNL UK , mocked Ed Sheeran saying, the pop-singer “has been a long-standing supporter of Ukraine…he’s always been a passionate advocate of causes that are allowed.”

Ed Sheeran Openers Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe also quit the Loop Tour in solidarity with Macklemore. Finneas said I stand with Palestine and its people and argued that “artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed.” Aaron Rowe said that as an Irish person he knew all too well “about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation.” Even though he is a friend of Sheeran, he could not stand by and “allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder of children.”

Journalist Prem Thakker reported that Robert Kraft has given millions to pro-Israel organizations like AIPAC, and as the owner of the New England Patriots, has sponsored “ Touchdown in Israel ” trips, where he takes NFL players on a “tour of the Holy Land.” Because Kraft played such an important role as an Israeli propagandist Netanyahu himself awarded Kraft with a one-million-dollar prize for helping Israel block the BDS boycott of Israel products. “Israel does not have a more loyal friend than Robert Kraft,” said Netanyahu. Thakker added, “Now Kraft helps kick Macklemore off Ed Sheeran’s tour.”

Max Bloomenthal posted on X that Kraft runs a “massive Zionist surveillance and propaganda center” inside Gillette Stadium,” above a CBS News Broadcast that celebrated the operation characterizing it as a “commend center for stats,” that tracks “hate speech.” Kraft called Macklemore’s words “Free Palestine,” hate speech as well.

Macklemore called Sheeran his friend and said he didn’t blame him for agreeing to drop Macklemore, but lawyer and president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Jenin Younis, called it “depraved .” Sheeran’s action was seen as a moral failing and led to the public shaming of the celebrity pop star. As British journalist Jonathan Cook wrote, “Ed Sheeran just learnt: Being pimped by the billionaires for genocide is a bad look.”

When the singer Pink weighed in on social media by resharing an Instagram post by @StopAntisemitism condemning Macklemore’s speech, arguing that concert goers deserved an apology and a refund, she too met with outrage and a backlash . In her defense she said her intention was not to censor Macklemore, “ I have never asked for another artist to be silenced.” She argued that a repost was not the same as one’s own words. Pink admonished Macklemore for speaking for all Jews, then followed by speaking for all Jews saying, “You don’t have to agree with one thing Israel’s government does to not want the Jewish family two rows down from you to be scared or targeted at a concert.” But being more concerned about images of genocide than genocide itself sounded like the hollow concern that it was. Ironically, Pink is the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, and a petition quickly circulated calling for her removal .

As with many billionaires willing to exert power over people and their freedoms, Robert Kraft is also featured in the Epstein files , for using the same lawyer as the deceased pedophile. In 2019, Kraft was caught in a sex sting at a massage parlor in Florida and charged with soliciting prostitution, but with the help of Epstein lawyer, got the charges dropped .

But Macklemore did not allow the controversy to revolve only around the celebrity industry and be drawn away from the fundamental reasons for it—silencing opposition to the genocide in Gaza.

“I want to say something that should be obvious…I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.”

He continued,

“The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence…I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that.”

From this one act of despicable cowardice, a larger picture has emerged of the deep infrastructural power that the music industry wields to silence performers, in this case, a beloved Pro-Palestinian performer who in 2024 commemorated the calculated cold-blooded murder of a little girl named Hind Rajab by Israeli forces in Gaza. As the genocide in Gaza is now undeniable, cultural power is challenging the military power and economic systems that perpetrate such violence. The words that so many around the world have shouted, and Macklemore repeated, “None of us will be free until we are all free,” have become the only power that can stop it.

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