Conservative commentator Steven Crowder has launched legal action against CNN, digital media outlet Jubilee, and Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico over what he alleges is a blatant appropriation of his long-running Change My Mind format.
According to The Post Millennial, the dispute centers on a town hall event hosted by CNN and Jubilee that featured Talarico in a segment explicitly titled Change My Mind, mirroring Crowders trademarked concept in which he debates passersby on contentious political and cultural issues. Crowder told his audience on Thursday, Well, I guess we should officially announce that we're suing, noting that Change My Mind is an active, registered trademark, per Louder with Crowder.
Crowder suggested the use of his format was not accidental, but a calculated move by left-leaning media to exploit a conservative brand they could not create themselves. Maybe Jubilee has generated all of their profit off of a completely unoriginal idea, disguised it, and then the mask came off. Or maybe CNN suggested, well, you know what? Change my mind has more brand familiarity because billions of people have seen the meme and the video, Crowder said.
He stressed that the lawsuit aims to uncover who benefited most from what he describes as ideological and commercial theft. We need to find out who flagrantly disregarded the trademark, who flagrantly plagiarized, who profited off of it most, and for what degree of time.
Crowder framed the dispute as a matter of principle as well as property, accusing his opponents of weaponizing his work for partisan messaging. Once you rip it off, and you profit, and you use it for propaganda, I now have a problem, Crowder said. Why did you not do that before? All this time, you never came up with this idea because these people were incapable of doing it." During Wednesdays town hall event, Talarico participated in a segment called Change My Mind in which he attempted to sway undecided voters in the race.
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