On Monday, RedState’s Kira Davis shared that a new lawsuit has been filed against Big Tech behemoth Facebook, hinting that it might be the first of many from conservatives. As she wrote:

We should expect to see a myriad of lawsuits from individual internet creators and at the forefront is conservative comedian and BlazeTV host Steven Crowder. Crowder’s lawyer announced Monday that they intended to sue Facebook over unfair competition,  and antitrust, among other things.

Then Mike Rowe appeared as a guest on the newest episode of “Louder With Crowder” that dropped on Tuesday. As these things tend to go, the primary reason for Mike’s appearance was to plug his new TV show, but he and Steven found a whole bevy of subjects to chew on — including the reason Mike’s popular streaming show just got canceled by Facebook, and Mike’s opinion on that Big Tech suit.

First things first: Mike Rowe’s new show, “Six Degrees With Mike Rowe,” debuted in January on streaming service Discovery+, which he described to the NY Post as a “love letter to [his] dad,” who was a history teacher.

He explained to Steven what he’s trying to do with the show: to bring “various events to life, vis-a-vis a surprising use of animation, puppets, archival footage, suspicious reenactments, costumes that rarely fit….”

And as he admitted, with a chuckle, “it’s kind of a hot mess.”

Eventually, the BlazeTV host broached the subject of Mike Rowe’s hit show, “Returning the Favor,” which ran for 100 episodes over four seasons, getting the ax from Facebook execs. While asking Mike about “the story behind that,” Steven pointed out that “a lot of things are being removed from the history books or social media platforms these days.”

And Mike gave a surprising – and gracious – answer on why he thinks it happened.

“On my [Facebook] page right now, there are about 30,000 people who are fairly upset.

And on the ‘Returning the Favor’ page, there are about two-and-a-half million people who just learned that one of the most popular shows on Facebook was canceled last week, at the height…seemingly, at the height of its popularity. An Emmy-award winning show.

[….]

The show was canceled after four seasons and 100 episodes, and a lot of people think it’s because I may have said or done something to run afoul of the powers that be. So, I’ve been making the rounds, telling my story of this thing.

Cautioning viewers that it’s not “a very exciting story,” he continued:

“The show got canceled. I don’t think I did. But the show definitely did.

When Steven pressed him for the reason Facebook gave for dropping the show, he said:

“In this stupid business we’re in, big companies make big decisions for all sorts of incomprehensible reasons. ‘Dirty Jobs’ was canceled at the height of its popularity, and I moped around for a couple of months — not understanding how the network could make a call like that.”

Now, if you’re familiar with Mike, you know he’s never been one to keep his opinions on conservative/libertarian issues to himself. When RedState last covered him, he was busy schooling fans on his Facebook wall about why student loan forgiveness is a bad idea, as Sister Toldjah wrote about last December. (see: “Mike Rowe Pens Must-Read on Folly of Student Loan Forgiveness, Ted Cruz Swoops in With the Alley Oop”)

And he didn’t hold back Tuesday, when addressing Steven’s lawsuit:

“I know what’s going on with you and Facebook. And on a personal level, I’ve been very vocal on the things that worry me. I’m worried about censorship. I’m worried about safe spaces. I don’t think any of that is good for the country.

But he returned to the topic of his show:

“The truth of it is, as best as I can tell, I didn’t get ‘canceled,’ I got fired. I’ve been fired before.

[….]

Facebook has allowed me to build a foundation from really the ground up. I started Mike Rowe Works thirteen years ago….But in 2012, we started raising money and awarding work ethic scholarships — about five, five-and-a-half million dollars so far — and I couldn’t have done it without Facebook.

Summing things up, he said, “I’ve been able to do a pretty good thing,” adding that:

“Two things can be true at the same time. They have to be. That I share your concern for all things libertarian and all things First Amendment. I really do. It’s also true that I’ve built a foundation and a business around six million people on a Facebook page that, coincidentally, greenlit a show four years ago that a bunch of people also like.”

There’s much more crammed into the fifteen minutes the two men spent chatting; the whole interview’s worth a watch — like the part where Mike shows off a new Wuhan coronavirus mask he says his Mike Rowe Works organization has “sold a ton of,” with a truly hilarious message printed on the front of it.

You can watch Mike’s full interview with Steven Crowder below, via the “Louder With Crowder” YT channel: