SalemNOW Revives Clarence Thomas Doc After Amazon Cancellation

The Daily Wire came to actress Gina Carano’s aid after she was unfairly fired from Disney for her social media messages.

This week, SalemNOW offered a similar service after a right-leaning documentary got shelved without warning or reason.

“Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words” screened nationwide last year courtesy of PBS stations. Director Michael Pack’s film allows the Supreme Court Justice, famous for sharing few public words, to detail his upbringing and judicial philosophy. Viewers learned of the justice’s impoverished childhood, his flirtation with radicalism and how Democrats attempted what he called a “high-tech lynching” to keep him off the highest court in the land.

Pack is a veteran filmmaker with long ties to PBS, and the film earned a 99 percent “Fresh” score from RottenTomatoes.com readers.

“Created Equal” landed on Amazon’s on-demand platform after its traditional broadcast run without incident until a few weeks ago. Then, Amazon abruptly pulled the film focused on the only current black member of the Supreme Court during Black History Month.

The company offered no reason for the film’s removal from its platform nor any warning that such a step might occur. The title remains unavailable on Amazon, but the company allows the DVD version of the film to be purchased on its consumer product side.

This reporter contacted Amazon for a separate story about the film’s removal but didn’t receive a response.

Enter SalemNOW. The new video streaming service specializes in right-leaning, faith-friendly titles like “No Safe Spaces,” “Church People” and “What Killed Michael Brown?”

The video distribution arm of Salem Media Group just added “Created Equal” to its content lineup.

“We know the admiration our fans have for Justice Thomas. Now through experiencing ‘Created Equal,’ they will learn his incredible, courageous life story and how he became one of the greatest legal minds in the history of America,” Michael Reed of Salem Media Group said in a statement.

Amazon previously attempted to block the 2020 film “What Killed Michael Brown?” from its on-demand services. Amazon initially told the team behind the film, a contrarian take on the Ferguson man’s death in 2014, that the documentary didn’t meet the streaming service’s quality criteria and the decision was final.

That contrasted with the polished, mature storytelling featured in the movie, which stars celebrated pundit Shelby Steele.

Amazon quickly backtracked following media attention on the issue, allowing “What Killed Michael Brown?” to be streamed on its service after all.

Amazon’s penchant for removing content that defies progressive groupthink isn’t relegated to movies.

More recently, Amazon removed a well-researched book critical of the current trans movement. Ryan Anderson’s “How Harry Became Sally” is no longer available, according to Amazon, because it “frame[s] LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness,” a claim the author denies.

Four Republican senators have dubbed Amazon’s actions “political censorship” in a letter to former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Abigail Shrier, whose book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” was removed from Target’s digital shelves, offered a warning about the future given the current climate on her Substack page.

“As a direct result of Amazon’s action, many outstanding books will now go unwritten; they will not be commissioned whenever Amazon’s distribution is the slightest bit in doubt. As I write this, authors are being dropped by agents or politely refused representation, based on what the agents now know Amazon will not carry,” Shrier says.

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