Which is to say, Ron DeSantis was absolutely right about Apple being a vassal state of the Chinese.(h/t: The Story’s Story)

The reason for the shift? Stewart and Apple executives “had disagreements over some of the topics and guests,” the sources said. Specifically, they claimed Stewart told staffers that Apple execs took issue with planned programming related to both China and artificial intelligence, and noted that with the 2024 US election coming up, there might have been additional opportunities for disagreement then.

Apple does much of its business (both in production and sales) in China and has invested heavily in the country’s infrastructure. Regarding China, Apple execs may have been worried that Stewart’s planned commentary could alienate customers or partners in the country.

Ars Technica, “The Problem with Jon Stewart cancellation highlights a problem for Apple’s content“

Of course, no one will give DeSantis credit for this outside of the Fox News bubble, and they’ll likely mention it in passing. Because our media operates indirectly the same way Chinese media operates directly: unapproved information unexists.

On some level, this calls for schadenfreude, as Jon Stewart himself apotheosizes the hack propagandist who paints himself as a bold truth-teller. He’s a bog-standard Progressive who treats the existence of divergent opinion as an Offense Against Truth and Goodness. It’s delightful watching him be cancelled by Communists.

But everyone knows this won’t change him. If anything, it burnishes his image as Champion of the Downtrodden. So let’s skip the point scoring and focus: the deeper problem is Apple, and the deeper deeper problem is the way we fooled ourselves into thinking that we could Open Markets to China and suffer no consequence. When you depend upon the Chinese market, you depend upon the Communist Party. Apple is the most egregious example of this, but I doubt they’re alone. The Global Village belongs to its most insistent member.