Macklemore Wasn’t Deplatformed for Saying “Free Palestine”

The controversy over Macklemore’s removal from the Ed Sheeran concert at Gillette Stadium was quickly framed as a fight over two words: “Free Palestine.” But was that really the whole story? Jeremy Burton looks at what much of the public conversation left out, including the lyrics and context of Hind’s Hall and Macklemore’s broader track record. He also takes on the larger free speech question: What does freedom of speech actually protect? Is a private venue declining to provide someone a stage the same thing as censorship? And how should we think about those questions at a moment when the government itself is facing a far more consequential First Amendment challenge over access to the White House press corps? It’s a conversation about what gets lost when complicated stories become simple headlines, and why precision matters when we talk about speech, antisemitism, Israel, and Palestine.