Culture fighter on the right and YouTuber Steven Crowder has sparked a nasty civil war inside the conservative entertainment complex by rejecting a hefty contract offer from Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire.
During an episode of his show, Louder With Crowder, Crowder rants about the contract offer, using strong language to push back against the arrangement but not naming the outlet that offered him the contract.
“Big Tech is in bed with Big Con. The people you thought, the people I thought, were fighting for you, a lot of it has been a big con.”
Crowder went on to say that he would be penalized financially if YouTube demonetized his channel, with payments being withheld until the channel was once again monetized. Crowder, a notoriously controversial “edgelord,” is understandably worried about this possibility given that YouTube frequently demonetizes his content for crossing the line into homophobia, antisemitism, racism and misogyny.
“If any of the major platforms issues a content strike such that Crowder cannot be monetized on such a platform, the fee will be reduced by 25 percent,” Crowder read aloud from the contract.
Crowder’s point was that conservative media was bowing to the “censorship” demands of “Big Tech,” a frequently discussed topic within the right-wing media sphere. Crowder went on to dismiss the deal as a “slave contract.”
Jeremy Boreing, CEO of The Daily Wire, responded to Crowder’s tirade the next day with his own hour-long video (in the style of all snarky YouTube feuds), discussing the specifics of the contract offer.
Boring said that Crowder had exaggerated the terms of the transaction and verified that Crowder had been referring to The Daily Wire. Boring elaborated on how The Daily Wire would shoulder most of the financial fallout if advertisers were to pull their support because of Crowder’s controversial segments.
Boring further claimed that the Daily Wire was a victim of Big Tech censorship rather than an advocate for it (for context, The Daily Wire is one of the most popular outlets on Facebook, by a significant margin, and appears on the top ten Apple Podcast Charts of 2022).
When Boreing pointed out that Crowder had been promised $50 million over the course of four years, but would only be required to provide 192 episodes each year (equivalent to four 90-minute broadcasts per week), Crowder’s jaw dropped (minus a minimum four-week vacation).
Really not terrible considering the alleged “slave contract.”
Boreing stated: “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. He’s looking for a benefactor.”
A short time later, Ben Shapiro joined the drama, tweeting a link to Boreing’s response video and wishing Crowder “nothing but the best.” At Thursday’s episode of The Daily Wire, Shapiro addressed the matter, saying, “nothing but the best.” After that, Shapiro said:
“There is something rather nasty about attacking people who have been friends for over a decade – colleagues, defenders, for over a decade, on the basis of your own misinterpretation of a document that offers you $50 million over the course of four years.”
In a further escalation of their disagreement, Crowder published a video of a phone discussion between himself and Boreing on Thursday night, in which Boreing is overheard saying that right-wing media celebrities “get to be wage slaves for a little time” while growing their brand with The Daily Wire.
It’s nasty to attack my company and DW+ hosts as “Big Con” by lying about the meaning of a non-binding term sheet. It’s despicable to plan weeks in advance to attack my best friend (and your friend!) by setting up and secretly taping a phone call, all to grow your email list.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 20, 2023
This Twitter dispute was heating up faster than a spat between two catty YouTube beauty influencers, and it only got hotter when Shapiro went back to Twitter to say that Crowder was being “mean” again.
At the end of his Twitter rant, Shapiro called Crowder “a shill for YouTube,” adding, “You know who knows this? Crowder, Steven. That’s why he has a segment called “Piss Off YouTube,” in which he steers viewers toward his paywall by avoiding saying anything that would get him banned from YouTube. He must work for YouTube as a paid promoter.
Progressive influencers took notice of the feud after realizing how much money could be gained by addressing conservatives’ complaints. It turns out that pretending to be offended by things like “woke M&Ms” and “horny music videos” is a fantastic way to make money.
it’s nuts how so many of these rightwingers messaging is how they are against the woke elite that run the country yet they are just openly talking about billionaires owning them with million dollar contracts being on the table like it’s nothing https://t.co/RaAKAUecSa
— pudding person (@JUNlPER) January 20, 2023
Steven Crowder – a right-wing YouTube star – rejected a 4 year, $12.5 million/year as well below his worth.
That kind of annual budget would be enormous for a progressive media operation. It’s hard to overstate how much more money is sloshing around on the right. https://t.co/H5e9CvsTX5
— Max Berger (@maxberger) January 20, 2023
The Daily Wire (right wing online media outlet) offered Steven Crowder (right wing podcaster) a $50 MILLION dollar contract and he was so offended he turned it down.
If you’re wondering why influencers embrace right-wing extremism…
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) January 20, 2023
if a dull clown like crowder can pull $50 million imagine what some of these other, slightly more savvy dudes are making. it’s all a bigger grift than you can imagine. https://t.co/Bee9TbcX3D
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) January 19, 2023
The millions of cash flowing through the conservative media sector paint a fundamentally different tale than the furious complaints that Crowder, Shapiro, Owens, and Peterson make about the odds being stacked against them.