Ian Freeman Returns to the Stage at Porcfest 2022 to Discuss the FBI

by | Jun 26, 2022 | Publicity, Video

I had the pleasure of speaking from the main stage at Porcfest 2022, the biggest, sold-out Porcfest ever. My speech was about the history of Free Talk Live and the FBI’s obsession with the Free State Project, specifically agent Phil Christiana. Thank you to Dennis Pratt and the rest of the Porcfest crew for having me back!

Here’s the full speech and Q&A:

Thank you to Jim Babb for speaking out years ago and Rodger Paxton for laying the groundwork for having me back to Porcfest.

TALKERS’ Publisher on FTL’s Ian: “The greatest champion of free speech that we have.”

by | Jun 13, 2022 | Publicity, Video

This year, I was tremendously honored to receive the talk radio industry’s most prestigious award, TALKERS Magazine’s Freedom of Speech Award. Sadly, due to the insane bail restrictions on me in the Crypto Six case, I was unable to attend TALKERS’ NYC convention to receive the award. Thankfully, Free Talk Live’s co-hosts Mark Edge and Captain Kickass were in attendance and Mark accepted the award while Captain recorded video.

Here’s the full presentation including the very kind introduction by TALKERS’ publisher, Michael Harrison, who called me, “the greatest champion of free speech that we have”. That’s probably too kind, but I sure do appreciate his sentiment. Mark then read aloud the short speech I wrote for the occasion, which you can read in full here.

Thank you to the audience for listening, TALKERS’ staff for choosing me for this awesome award, and Mark for receiving it on-stage. If you missed Michael Harrison’s interview of me, you can listen to it here.

“Freedom of Speech” Award from TALKERS Magazine for 2022 Goes to FTL’s Ian Freeman

by | May 22, 2022 | Announcement, Publicity

Ian with MegaphoneIndustry honors don’t get bigger than this.  Every year at their convention in New York City, talk radio’s premiere industry publication, TALKERS Magazine awards the “Gene Burns Memorial Award for Freedom of Speech”, which prior to Burns’ death in 2013 was called the “Freedom of Speech Award”. Burns was the award’s first recipient in 1988 and I’m extremely honored to be its recipient this year of 2022.

TALKERS has stated their prestigious award is given to broadcasters who “have demonstrated through their words, deeds and courage the First Amendment in action, its purpose and how it operates.” Past recipients include Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, Sean Hannity, Thom Hartmann, G. Gordon Liddy, Al Franken, Glenn Beck, Matt Drudge, and more. There’s no doubt that the hosts of Free Talk Live, the country’s only syndicated libertarian radio show, are dedicated to freedom, especially the freedom of speech. While I am the founder of the show, all of our co-hosts share the same philosophy. I’m super grateful to the people at TALKERS for this award.

In any normal year, I’d be attending the TALKERS convention in NYC to accept the award in person. This year however, I’m currently on highly restrictive bail conditions as I await trial in the Crypto Six case. Unless I can get the prosecution to agree to let me attend, I’m stuck at home. Thankfully, Mark Edge will be there to accept the award in my stead. Would I have been able to speak, I’d have said something like this:

I’m grateful to Michael, Kevin, and the rest of TALKERS Magazine’s staff for presenting me with the Freedom of Speech Award. Every year we gather here in New York City and gratitude is often expressed that as an industry, we are free to share our opinions on the radio. However, is it really true that we have free speech? Or, is it simply that most talk radio hosts have opinions that are within an acceptable range? (more…)