The Monthly interview.

• Author: Laufer, Peter
• Position: Interview

Jeff Lord

In February 2006, the right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin posted a video on the online video site YouTube. Titled "First, They Came," the video was Malkin's personal tribute to figures she identified as the victims of Islamic fascism. It circulated on YouTube until September, when the site's administrators told her that it had been "rejected due to its inappropriate nature." (The video contained footage of dead bodies, as well as classic Malkinesque hyperbole, but was far from the most offensive thing on the site.) After her readers protested, the video was reposted. But the incident struck a nerve with two longtime conservative activists and former Reagan aides, Charlie Gerow and Jeff Lord. This March, the pair launched QubeTV, which they bill as a conservative answer to YouTube. The Washington Monthly's Peter Laufer recently asked Lord what he hopes the site will achieve.

WM: Why do we need a conservative YouTube? I'm not a frequent user of YouTube, but I dabble, and there is stuff on there from all across the political spectrum.

JL: The short answer is that it came to our attention that Michelle Malkin had a video that was banned--which is now back up on YouTube, as I understand it.

WM: Yes, I went on YouTube to prepare for our discussion, and it was there.

JL: It is up there. It was taken off, and I spoke to Michelle about this, and I can only tell you that she was very angry.

WM: So doesn't that prove that YouTube is working?

JL: The problem is that they have a flagging system--and we are probably going to develop a flagging system as well. But at the end of the day, liberal flaggers were going after conservative material and the folks at YouTube were kind of acquiescing to them.

WM: But then couldn't conservatives run off liberal material?

JL: Yes, but the difference is that the YouTube folks, to the best of my knowledge, don't consider themselves to be political people. My point is that I am not going to let that kind of stuff happen here. We are not going to let conservative videos go down the tube.

WM: Are you opening your arms to liberals who want to post on your site?

JL: You bet we are. I am a big believer in the First Amendment, and I catch some flak for this.

WM: You catch flak from conservatives that don't believe in the First Amendment?

JL: From people who post on the site who are conservatives--some of them don't want to hassle with liberals.

WM: In terms of basic operations, are there any major differences between...