Swedish YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, commonly known as PewDiePie, has broken his video silence regarding the Wall Street Journal article that resulted in Disney cutting ties with the YouTube star this week, claiming the piece written on his anti-Semitic “jokes” was another attack on him by the media.
“It was an attack towards [sic] me. It was an attack by the media to try and discredit me. To try and decrease my influence and my economic worth, that’s what this was,” Kjellberg said.
In the video, Kjellberg alleged that of the nine videos that the Wall Street Journal alleged to contain anti-Semitic messages, one of the messages specifically came from a video in which Kjellberg addressed how the media would attack him by skewing his message.
He also said another message considered in the Journal‘s piece was from a video in which he told fans to stop drawing swaskitas.
“They took another video where I explain how the media is taking everything I say and do out of context and how damaging that is, and then they took the last part… which was a joke where I dressed up in a soldier outfit and again looking at Hitler’s speech… they took that part and put it out of context,” Kjellberg said.
He also said that while he’s even made a statement denouncing his supporters from the alt-right, a loosely organized group of white supremacists, the Journal “cherrypicked” around his stance in order to fit its “personal agenda.”
Despite Kjellberg’s punch back regarding the criticism, he also apologized to those he offended with his anti-Semitic jokes, particularly the video in which he hired two Indian men through Fiverr to hold up a sign with the phrase, “Death to All Jews,” which he’s since deleted.
“I’m sorry for the words that I used, as I know they offended people, and I admit that the joke itself went too far,” Kjellberg said. “I do strongly believer that you can joke about anything but I also believe that there’s a right way and not the best way to joke about things.”
Kjellberg ended his video by saying that people who are celebrating the cancellation of his projects with Disney and YouTube Red should instead direct their energy toward “actual hatred.”
“Personally, I think they are the ones normalizing hatred, because there’s… actual issues,” Kjellberg said. “Nice try, Wall Street Journal. Try again, motherfuckers.”
Watch the full video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwk1DogcPmU
