Right-Wing Pundits Ben Shapiro And Steven Crowder Clash Over $50 Million Media Deal

Topline

Far-right YouTuber Steven Crowder has accused conservative media outlets like The Daily Wire of conspiring with tech companies to censor conservative views after the company offered Crowder a $50 million deal that would cut his compensation if his social media channels were demonetized or boycotted, which Crowder called a “slave contract.”

Key Facts

In a video posted online this week, Crowder said that some outlets were “in bed with” tech companies and were colluding to ultimately demonetize and censor right-wing views on social media platforms, though he didn’t name any outlets specifically.

Crowder also showed excerpts of a contract from one company—later confirmed to be The Daily Wire—with the compensation penalizations if his programming faced loss of advertising revenue—including from advertiser boycotts or if Crowder’s channels were demonetized by social media platforms.

While Crowder never named the media company or specified their proposed salary, he said the contract’s “immoral terms” are effectively punishing conservative content creators “on behalf of Big Tech.”

The Daily Wire’s CEO Jeremy Boreing confirmed in a YouTube video Thursday details of Crowder’s job offer, claiming the YouTuber misrepresented the contract that would have awarded Crowder $50 million over four years.

Boreing chalked up the contract stipulations to running a profitable media business, and said Crowder seems to think he deserves to be paid “millions and millions and millions of dollars,” whether his show drives revenue to The Daily Wire or not.

Far-right media personalities criticized Crowder, including The Daily Wire cofounder Ben Shapiro, who said it was “rather nasty” to attack friends over his “misinterpretation of a document that offers you $50 million.”

Matt Walsh, who hosts a show on The Daily Wire, said the suggestion that the company’s pundits are “somehow muzzled or controlled is blatantly absurd,” while Candace Owens said, “It was a total bitch move.”

Crowder defended himself in a YouTube video Thursday, saying his comments were “not about the money” and that he encouraged The Daily Wire to change their business model to not rely so much on advertiser revenue.

Contra

“If there’s a penalty for being demonetized on YouTube because your business model requires that a huge component of it, you need to change your business model or this movement cannot work,” Crowder told Boreing during a call that was played in Crowder’s Thursday video.

Key Background

Crowder previously had an online show on TheBlaze, Glenn Beck’s media company, but announced last month he was leaving. Crowder has long been a controversial personality on social media, particularly YouTube, which in March 2021 demonetized his main channel, making it impossible for him to run ads and earn a profit. YouTube did not reveal if a specific event triggered Crowder’s demonetization, but did remove one of Crowder’s videos for violating YouTube’s “presidential election integrity policy,” the platform said, and suspended him for a week. Later, in October 2021, Crowder was suspended again after he uploaded a video discussing a story of a transgender woman serving time in a California women’s prison who allegedly raped and impregnated a fellow inmate, a claim that has been debunked. Crowder was suspended after the video was found to violate YouTube’s hate speech policy through repeated targeting of the LGBTQ+ community, YouTube said.

Tangent

Last year, Boreing said The Daily Wire was a $100 million business. The website’s 12-month revenue hit $100 million in January 2022, up from about $65 million for the full year in 2020. The Daily Wire is among the top publishers on Facebook, and the company’s right-wing pundits are some of the most popular conservative creators. Besides news coverage and social media, The Daily Wire produces original movies, has their own book imprint and other products. The company started selling their own line of men’s shaving kits last year after popular grooming brand Harry’s Razors pulled their advertising from the site over complaints that podcast hosts had made homophobic comments.

Further Reading

Far-Right Blowhard Calls $50 Million Daily Wire Offer a ‘Slave Contract’ (Rolling Stone)

This Right-Wing Media Feud Just Took an Ugly Turn (The Daily Beast)