Mike Boudet, the creator and host of the award-winning true-crime podcast Sword and Scale, is being targeted by an online outrage mob again. The new Sword and Scale Daily podcast, which doesn’t even launch until Monday, has already been hit with one-star reviews which Boudet believes are being orchestrated by a Facebook group that’s calling for him to be taken down.
Boudet announced the new podcast in episode 150 of Sword and Scale and said that the trailer and details for this new podcast will be released to Sword and Scale listeners this week.
Since making the announcement, a new website has been set up for Sword and Scale Daily and it has been listed in Apple’s podcast directory. However, no episodes have been released and the podcast feed currently contains just a short trailer for the upcoming show.
The trailer describes Sword and Scale Daily as “daily true crime news, high profile cases, and ongoing investigations from around the country and around the globe, five days a week.” Boudet is the executive producer for the podcast and Ryan Williams will be hosting.
Despite there currently being no available episodes, the podcast has been hit with numerous one-star ratings. Some of these ratings criticize Boudet and the Sword and Scale podcast while others appear to be pretending that they’ve actually listened to and reviewed an episode of the unreleased Sword and Scale Daily show.
Boudet found evidence that the one-star ratings were being orchestrated by some members of The Society for the re-education of Sword and Scale fans Facebook group – a group where users plot against Boudet.
https://twitter.com/mboudet/status/1194641950776922112
https://twitter.com/mboudet/status/1195124189541421057
Beyond organizing this review bombing campaign against Sword and Scale Daily, other posts from this group appear to show members targeting Boudet’s advertisers and pressuring them to cut ties with him.
https://twitter.com/mboudet/status/1194616180071436298
Other posts show members of the group organizing boycotts against Boudet.
https://twitter.com/mboudet/status/1194640896983212040
Another pinned post in the group shows one member saying: “Somehow we all need to come together about how to take this pig-f*er down. Once and for all. It HAS to be done.”
https://twitter.com/mboudet/status/1189711607242334216
The false one-star reviews for this new podcast could turn off new listeners who find the podcast organically and potentially prevent them from tuning in. Boudet has previously shared how the cancel culture phenomenon, where people coordinate online and try to get a creator canceled, has deterred listeners from checking out his existing podcasts.
https://twitter.com/mboudet/status/1191913574572199937
The impact of cancel culture also goes far beyond losing potential listeners. Other fans of Boudet’s podcasts have shared how the online mobs that target his work make them fearful of sharing their thoughts and indirectly shut down positive conversations around his work.
https://twitter.com/mboudet/status/1191913195428036608
This isn’t the first time Boudet has had to deal with online cancel culture. In March, he was targeted by an online outrage mob after some people took offense to a joke that he’d posted online. This led to Sword and Scale being dropped by the podcast network Wondery and left the future of the show uncertain. After the show was targeted, Boudet temporarily stepped away from hosting.
However, Boudet was able to successfully push back against this cancel culture. Not only did he keep Sword and Scale going but he also returned to hosting it in July.
While these one-star reviews appear to be yet another attempt to get Boudet canceled, his fans are vowing not to let it happen and are vowing to leave positive reviews for Sword and Scale Daily.
