Vox is referenced in The Bob Zadek Show as a media outlet — a site that publishes interviews, columns and videos — rather than discussed as an organization in its own right. Across the excerpts it appears three times: as the venue for an interview with Bernie Sanders, as the outlet where Will Wilkinson writes a column, and as the producer of a video about Antifa violence that a guest criticizes. The excerpts supply no founding date, no founders, no ownership, and no description of the outlet’s editorial mission.
Immigration Nation: Nowrasteh on the candidates
In a December 2015 episode on immigration, Alex Nowrasteh surveyed the presidential candidates’ positions. Turning to the Democratic side, he said that Bernie Sanders had been an immigration restrictionist his entire career, and that Sanders had recently given an interview to Vox in which he said open borders would destroy wages for Americans and was basically a Koch brothers-funded conspiracy. Nowrasteh added that Sanders had since changed his position somewhat, becoming much more supportive of legalizing undocumented immigrants and not yet having said anything about stopping legal immigration Immigration Nation: Nowrasteh Sets it Straight Again (2015).
Bob Zadek then framed the point for listeners, saying that Sanders’ anti-immigration position was founded in his somewhat strange view of economics rather than national security. Nowrasteh agreed, describing it as a union-focused, old-school Democratic view about immigrants coming in and taking jobs and impoverishing the middle class, the same argument Sanders uses in his anti-China, anti-trade rhetoric. Zadek closed the exchange by saying Sanders’ position was purely economic, not founded in national security issues as were allegedly the positions of the other major candidates for the nomination Immigration Nation: Nowrasteh Sets it Straight Again (2015).
The Vox interview functions here as evidence of a candidate’s stated position. The excerpts do not quote the interview directly beyond Nowrasteh’s paraphrase, and they do not describe Vox’s own stance on immigration.
Will Wilkinson and the welfare state
In a July 2017 episode, Bob Zadek introduced Will Wilkinson as Vice President for Policy at the Niskanen Center, where he oversees research and publications, and as an active columnist for Vox’s “Big Ideas” section. Zadek also noted that Wilkinson had been a research fellow at Cato and was a founding editor of a blog called Cato Unbound Will Wilkinson: G.O.P. Should Embrace the Welfare State (2017).
The episode’s subject was Wilkinson’s argument, made in a New York Times article that Zadek read and quoted, that the Republican Party should more warmly embrace the welfare state. Zadek described the article’s title as “For Trump and GOP, the Welfare State Shouldn’t Be the Enemy” and said Wilkinson was scolding the GOP. Vox enters the episode only through Wilkinson’s affiliation: Zadek’s introduction of the guest, and his closing invitation to listeners to follow Wilkinson’s writing on Vox, “The Big Idea” Will Wilkinson: G.O.P. Should Embrace the Welfare State (2017).
The excerpts do not record Wilkinson discussing Vox, its editorial line, or his relationship with it beyond the title of his column. The substantive argument in the episode — about social insurance, regulation, and the GOP’s electoral future — is attributed to Wilkinson and to Zadek, not to Vox.
Anthony Fisher on Antifa coverage
In an October 2017 episode on Antifa violence and neo-reaction, Anthony L. Fisher discussed the evolution of street violence. He traced the particular iteration of Antifa to Black Bloc violence during the Occupy movement, noting Occupy Oakland in particular, and further back to the 1999 riot in Seattle when the World Trade Organization was meeting, commemorated in the film The Battle in Seattle. He characterized those earlier episodes as blips Anthony L. Fisher on Antifa Violence & Neo-Reaction (2017).
Fisher then contrasted current coverage: Fox News, he said, was heavy breathing on a daily basis that Antifa was about to bring about a Stalinist dictatorship, which he called absurd. On the other side, he said, more center-left sites like Vox were producing videos saying that to focus on Antifa violence is to miss the point — which he called just as absurd and such a cop-out. He argued that one would absolutely focus on the violence even if it was limited or rare, if it was on the right or with anyone Anthony L. Fisher on Antifa Violence & Neo-Reaction (2017).
Fisher’s criticism is of a Vox video’s argument about where attention should be directed, not of Vox as an institution. He went on to say that instead of blaming the media for covering violence, critics should say: protest vigorously, but as soon as you start sucker-punching people or lighting Roman candles on public property to stop people from speaking, you have demonstrated a failure of thought. He attributed that position not to a right-wing pundit but to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Noam Chomsky Anthony L. Fisher on Antifa Violence & Neo-Reaction (2017).
Across episodes
Three episodes touch on Vox — the December 2015 immigration episode, the July 2017 welfare-state episode, and the October 2017 Antifa episode — and the excerpts show no development: in each, Vox appears only as the venue for someone else’s interview, column or video, and is never itself the subject of argument or description.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when Vox was founded, who founded it, who owns it, or what its editorial principles are. They do not describe Vox’s position on immigration, the welfare state, or Antifa beyond the specific items guests mention. No guest or host is recorded discussing Vox as an organization, its business model, or its history. Everything the excerpts offer is incidental: a Sanders interview, a Wilkinson column, and a video Fisher criticizes.