TheQuartering [1/20/2023]
As the latest development in the conservative-entertainment media complex fight we never knew we needed, Ben Shapiro on Friday accused “despicable” Steven Crowder of pre-planning to ambush The Daily Wire and its chief executive in a trollish effort to gain more notoriety.
Shapiro further revealed that after The Daily Wire sent Crowder an offer of $50 million over four years to work for his conservative media empire, Crowder actually demanded an annual salary of $30 million.
Earlier this week, Crowder—a former Fox News personality now known for his deeply bigoted podcast Louder With Crowder—attacked The Daily Wire for supposedly being in league with tech companies to censor conservative voices.
“Big Tech is in bed with Big Con,” Crowder exclaimed on Tuesday, telling his audience to “Stop Big Con” while revealing selected details of the contract offer he’d received from an unnamed conservative media company—which viewers quickly deduced was The Daily Wire.
Complaining about the offer’s provisions that included “penalties” if his show were either “demonetized” or suspended from various video and social media platforms, Crowder likened it to a “slave contract” while claiming The Daily Wire was doing “Big Tech’s” bidding.
“Those in charge—the big conservative, the Big Con, and it really is the biggest con going right now—they’re making it known in their contracts that they will enforce the guidelines of Big Tech and punish conservatives on their behalf,” the right-wing blowhard groused.
A day later, The Daily Wire’s chief executive Jeremy Boreing responded with an hour-long video methodically detailing every line of the term sheet initially sent to Crowder. Besides pointing out that Crowder was offered $50 million total—something Crowder happened to leave out when fuming about potential penalties for unaired episodes—Boreing explained how The Daily Wire would take on the bulk of the financial burden if the YouTube troll lost advertisers.
“Steven’s philosophy appears to be: ‘I deserve to be paid millions and millions and millions of dollars whether my show drives the revenue or not.’ That’s not a business relationship,” Boreing added in the video. “He’s looking for a benefactor.”
Boreing also took a swipe at Crowder for criticizing The Daily Wire’s reliance on corporate funding, noting that Crowder’s entire media career has featured him working for conservative media companies that were funded or subsidized by billionaires.